# No Man's Sky - First star to the right, and straight on till morning
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701
**Category:** The Game Room
**Tags:** video-games-e-games
**Created:** [July 12, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701 "2016-07-12T01:16:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 24
### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/461 "2016-09-19T21:55:03Z")
I was riffing on the old meme that such & such a game is doomed because … reasons. Plus all you’re doing here at this point is crying “doom”.
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### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/462 "2016-09-19T22:24:12Z")
You say “because reasons” like I haven’t detailed dozens or or linked to hundreds of reasons in this thread and I’m just sort of vaguely predicting doom. Game is out. Game lost over 99% of its players. Mass refunds. Suspiciously silent on community interactions. Huge disappointment. I’m not some dude predicting unspecified failure. The failure has already happened and been massive. “Doom” may have been what I was saying 2 months ago. Now it’s a smoking ruin.
Today I posted because I saw the twitter thing on reddit. Having a game like this go silent when they really need to be out there promising people improvements is pretty significant. It seems likely that they’re just taking the money and running.
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### Author:  [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/463 "2016-09-19T22:24:38Z")
I think there’s more substance to SenorBeef’s post than just crying “doom.” It is very odd for social media activity to have apparently halted so quickly after release. I’ve never seen that before.
NMS is more and more a cautionary tale.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/464 "2016-09-19T22:52:49Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#):
>
> Plus all you’re doing here at this point is crying “doom”.
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> “Doom” may have been what I was saying 2 months ago. Now it’s a smoking ruin.
Far enough on both counts. So it’s the town crier standing in the smoking ruin crying, “Told you so! Told you so!”
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### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/465 "2016-09-19T23:24:12Z")
I don’t think I’ve said anything like “told you so” at any point during this thread. I think what I’ve been saying is something more like “Okay, can we use this as a lesson to please stop preordering overhyped games without seeing if they’re any good or not so that publishers have an incentive to deliver a quality product again?”
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/466 "2016-09-19T23:34:55Z")
That’s not fair at all, **Senorbeef**!
[spoiler]_Doom_ was well-received and apparently a solid hit for the year.
:D[/spoiler]
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2016, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/467 "2016-09-20T01:30:47Z")
Doom? Never heard of it. Was that some sort of DOS port of Marathon, or something?
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### Author:  [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/468 "2016-09-20T02:26:29Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> I don’t think I’ve said anything like “told you so” at any point during this thread. I think what I’ve been saying is something more like “Okay, can we use this as a lesson to please stop preordering overhyped games without seeing if they’re any good or not so that publishers have an incentive to deliver a quality product again?”
Is it alright if we pre-order underhyped games? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2016, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/469 "2016-09-20T04:12:21Z")
I once spent nearly twice as much on a special edition of a very well reviewed naval combat sim. Damn thing wouldn’t even install.
NMS is really not that big of a deal.
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### Author:  [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2016, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/470 "2016-09-20T05:06:54Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> I “Okay, can we use this as a lesson to please stop preordering overhyped games without seeing if they’re any good or not so that publishers have an incentive to deliver a quality product again?”
I’m with you on this one. I have never pre-ordered a game in my life, even when I was a fanatical gamer in my 20’s. I’m fine with waiting a week or two after release (or even longer). And for any really big game there is pretty much always a retailer with physical copies on release day if you hunt around, so why pre-order?
And ok SenorBeef, I’m starting to believe you that they had dishonest intentions. I’ll probably still buy this when it drops in price because it seems like it’s at least good for 10-20 hours of chill out exploring and going “ohhhhhhhhh” at the pretty graphics.
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### Author:  [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2016, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/471 "2016-09-20T09:01:09Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> I don’t think I’ve said anything like “told you so” at any point during this thread. I think what I’ve been saying is something more like “Okay, can we use this as a lesson to please stop preordering overhyped games without seeing if they’re any good or not so that publishers have an incentive to deliver a quality product again?”
IMHO your continued participation in this thread to keep pointing out low player numbers is effectively “I told you so”.
I haven’t taken any of what you’re saing as “Okay, can we use this as a lesson to please stop preordering overhyped games without seeing if they’re any good or not so that publishers have an incentive to deliver a quality product again?,” BTW.
I’ve read it as “This game - which I haven’t even played - has failed to live up to the expectations I’ve decided it should and I want it to fail, and am pleased that by the metric I have set for failure, it appears to have indeed failed.”
IMHO you care far too much about a game you haven’t played and haven’t (at least that I’ve seen) indicated you are likely to play anytime in the near future. It’s time to stop carrying on about it and look towards something positive in gaming. There’s some awesome stuff coming out in the next month or so; why not start looking forward to some of that instead?
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/472 "2016-09-20T16:49:14Z")
^what **Martini** said.
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### Author:  [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/473 "2016-09-21T17:33:28Z")
To be fair, it’s not like **SenorBeef** has been a lone voice in the wilderness. I really wanted to like No Man’s Sky, I’ve been waiting for it for a while but, due to the £60 price tag, I held off until launch, and I’m really glad I did. And it’s not like Hello Games have been falling over themselves to explain since the launch, [Here’s a piece by PC Gamer](http://www.pcgamer.com/the-makers-of-no-mans-sky-need-to-start-talking-again/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0), which gives the game 64% in it’s review this issue, about what’s happened since launch.
Those saying that we should concentrate on positive things about gaming is all very well, but this is the No Man’s Sky thread, where else are we going to talk about it?
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### Author:  [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/474 "2016-09-21T17:57:04Z")
I agree. SenorBeef is right to call out NMS and its developers, not to mention Sony Entertainment. This has been a royal fiasco, exposing a very real problem.
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### Author:  [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/475 "2016-09-21T18:06:53Z")
And I don’t blame them for not hyping any new upgrades they may have planned. Hyping the game now is the last thing they should do. If they do manage to improve the game, release it quietly and let player word of mouth spread it around.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/476 "2016-09-21T18:36:59Z")
If you want a thread where nobody is complaining about the poor gameplay, you can always go [here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=772015&highlight=Star+Citizen)
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### Author:  [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/477 "2016-09-21T20:37:22Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> If you want a thread where nobody is complaining about the poor gameplay, you can always go [here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=772015&highlight=Star+Citizen)
Touché!
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### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2016, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/478 "2016-09-28T10:53:37Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#):
>
> I once spent nearly twice as much on a special edition of a very well reviewed naval combat sim. Damn thing wouldn’t even install.
>
> NMS is really not that big of a deal.
Is this supposed to be a defense of the game? “It’s not a bad as a game I paid twice for and didn’t work”?
Are you conceding it’s a failure now, just not the biggest failure you’ve personally ever experienced? If so, why do you feel compelled to defend it?
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#):
>
> I haven’t taken any of what you’re saing as “Okay, can we use this as a lesson to please stop preordering overhyped games without seeing if they’re any good or not so that publishers have an incentive to deliver a quality product again?,” BTW.
I mean… you haven’t taken anything I’ve been saying that way?
How about here, where I pretty much lay out exactly what my interest in this whole thing is?
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> Games are shittier than they could be because publishers are willing to put out an incomplete product hoping to be able to make enough sales through preorders and day one sales before people realize they’ve been duped.
>
> Imagine if every game didn’t preorder, didn’t buy a game day one, and only bought games after video/reviews/etc were out. Do you think that would change the game industry? Do you think they’d put more emphasis on having a quality game on release?
>
> It’s just like movies - when they know they’ve got a stinker on their hands, they don’t fix it, they just make a big marketing push for day one ticket sales, and throw on a review embargo, and hope they can cash in however much they can before people realize their product is shit and the sales dry up.
>
> I wanted NMS to be good, because hey, it’d be a cool game. But it’s bad. It’s really bad. It’s the worst case of hype to delivery ratio since Spore at the very least.
>
> So I want to it to serve as a lesson. I want it to make people remember the last time they got so hyped for a game they preordered it and it turned into a big pile of stinking shit, so that the next time this comes around, they might wait a day and actually find out if the game is good or not before commiting their money. After a few years of this, game publishers will actually become interested again in delivering a good product, and games will improve because of it.
>
> So if this thing is going to be a disappointment, which it is, I want it to be an epic scale crash and burn dumpster fire of a disappointment so maximize the chances that it changes the industry for the better.
I’ve made similar posts at least 5 or 6 times. But that one pretty much lays it out.
> [@](#):
>
> I’ve read it as “This game - which I haven’t even played - has failed to live up to the expectations I’ve decided it should and I want it to fail, and am pleased that by the metric I have set for failure, it appears to have indeed failed.”
>
> IMHO you care far too much about a game you haven’t played and haven’t (at least that I’ve seen) indicated you are likely to play anytime in the near future. It’s time to stop carrying on about it and look towards something positive in gaming. There’s some awesome stuff coming out in the next month or so; why not start looking forward to some of that instead?
You sure are fixated on the idea that I haven’t played it. You called me an entitled whiner here:
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#):
>
> Wait, you’re carrying negatively on at length in a nearly 10-page long thread about _a game you haven’t even played_??? Come on man, that’s… one of the reasons people think gamers as a group are entitled whiners.
>
> I know you love gaming, but seriously, do you not see that being this opinionated on a game you haven’t played is pretty much the textbook example of an internet stereotype?
And I will say this: you have personally insulted me in this thread to a much greater degree than I’ve personally insulted anyone else. I have been talking about the game in terms of its specific failures, the marketing in terms of specific lies, and my hopes that this can be used as a lesson to better gaming in the future. I haven’t been using this as a platform to call other people losers. I’ve spoken in the general, rather than going personal. And yet you have personally attacked me with petty insults which you can’t even justify or back up, and you somehow think you’re the mature adult in this situation.
I challenged you to back up your words by addressing my actual arguments:
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> Why do you feel the need to make personal attacks? What does it matter if I’ve played it? Am I saying anything that’s incorrect? Can you contest my arguments?
>
> What is whining or entitled about anything I’m saying? Entitled to what? A world where publishers care about the quality of their product? A world where people actually see what they’re buying before they buy it?
…which you failed to do.
But now you’re barking up that “you’ve never played!” tree again. Who cares? What would I find out if I played the game that I don’t know now? I’ve watched the gameplay on a stream, I’ve read lots about the gameplay from people who’ve actually played it, I’ve read reviews. I’ve linked to detailed lists of lies and missing features from people who have played the game.
Also, the idea that I had to make up an arbitrary set of expectations to declare it a failure is laughable. The game lost players faster than any game I’ve ever seen, and I’m a guy who has seen a lot. At the time of this writing, it’s 159th on player count on steam after launching at like the #5 all time. I’ve never seen a game tank like this. Mass refunds, mass negative reviews, mass disappointment… the game lost 90% of its player base in a week. 99% in a month. That’s unprecedented for a huge new release. That may be unprecedented for broken, fraudulent games like The War Z even. On steam, the 13,000 reviews made in the last 30 days are 11% positive, 89% negative. That’s an extreme result. By anyone’s account the game has been a massive failure with massive backlash, so the idea that it’s only people who are hyper-critical who come up with arbitrary reasons to declare the game a failure who say it failed is pretty silly.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/479 "2016-09-28T14:28:54Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> Is this supposed to be a defense of the game? “It’s not a bad as a game I paid twice for and didn’t work”?
>
> Are you conceding it’s a failure now, just not the biggest failure you’ve personally ever experienced? If so, why do you feel compelled to defend it?
You got a retention problem?
Again: I spent 33 hours having fun in the game and am waiting to see what the developer does with it. If nothing happens, I still had fun for 33 hours. Some people in this very thread paid as much (or more) for other titles, didn’t play nearly as long, and are stuck with them. To us, the prospect of this game remaining in its current state is obviously not that big of a deal.
YMOV
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### Author:  [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2016, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-mans-sky-first-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/759701/480 "2016-09-28T15:00:27Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> If so, why do you feel compelled to defend it?
I think that’s the question people are asking of you. You haven’t played the game, have no intention of playing the game, and yet spend an inordinate amount of time “educating” yourself about it via various proxies, apparently just so you can come to this thread and tell anybody that liked it that they’re wrong, and that they shouldn’t have pre-ordered because you don’t like the practice of pre-ordering (which also doesn’t affect you at all, since you didn’t).
You’re posting more text and more frequently than anybody else in this thread. You’ve literally drowned out any discussion about the game itself for this crusade. What makes this such a compulsion?
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