Before I get too into this, I will be sharing both facts and my opinion. I have some legit concerns about what's happening at HK and it's time I address them publicly. I said from the beginning (about blogging in general) that I would share my honest experiences. I will be sharing facts and my opinions here. Your opinion may be different and that's ok.This post is not meant to "bash" anyone. This is my truth and I need to speak it.
The HK launch has been a disaster and here are some things that really concern me about the game long term.
I'd also like to thank Liuke from AL gaming for taking the time to hear my concerns and agreeing to some change, mostly involving communication. Time will tell how that goes.
Here are some issues I see both currently and in the future.
- Lack of communication on Hive. This is an understatement. HK basically abandoned Hive users and stopped updates and even basic communication. They are more active on Discord but people shouldn't have to be glued to it 24/7 for a CHANCE at updates. Even Discord is like pulling teeth to get updates.
The explanation we were given is that there is not enough staff./ people are too busy to post updates..
Bullshit.
This game is now 2 months late form the original promise/ projected date and this issue has been going on for months. This means they have had months to fix the total lack of communication and in my opinion lack of respect to players especially those who forked over money for the pre-sale. They also have had time to hire more people. They chose not to.
Liuke has told me that he will posts updates a few times a week. He also apologized for ignoring Hive users.
Time will tell if communication improves. Trust has been broken and for me I need to see a lot of consistent action proving the desire to make things right for that trust to ever be restored. Time will tell.
Time brings us to the next issue
-Dan does not have the time required to launch this game. This may be more of an opinion, but I have observed on multiple occasions including last weekend where being too busy / not enough time has been the excuse for not finishing.
Last weekend was a huge disaster and Dan decided to have a little family vacation in the middle of a supposed game launch. We were not told of this beforehand, we were told after they missed yet another deadline. I know it was a holiday weekend, but come on. The game is 2 months late and being like "oopsie guess I don't have the time right now" is absolutely unacceptable.
Family is important and I am not saying taking a holiday weekend in itself is a bad thing, but doing so when you have a game that is supposed to launch is just poor planning at best. What did he expect to launch the game flawlessly then just take off for a few days?. That may have worked if they actually launched the game, but they didn't and still haven't. (side note no one in their right mind would launch a game then just take off. In fact the opposite should happen)
-Epic fail on the countdown. As if this past weekend wasn't bad enough HK had a countdown timer in Discord for the launch. Big surprise there was yet another issue and the launch had to be postponed again. This brings us to yesterday.
So Dan makes the delay announcement and couple of posts in Discord then disappears all day. Yes just disappears until well into the evening (his time zone). Then he uses the excuse of not having the time to retest what was broken. Yes that's right. he didn't make the time to test the broken code after he missed yet another deadline. Sounds like a prioritization issue to me.
Dan does not have time and is not willing/able to make time for this game. Dan made the choice to develop and launch (maybe eventually) the game. If he doesn't have the time required to do so, that's on him. Just like the communication issue there has been enough time that if HK really needs more staff they could have made those arrangements. Not having the time is not an excuse when you are TWO MONTHS LATE and people have already bought your product.
The community on Discord offered to help with testing etc (volunteers) months ago but we were told that wouldn't be necessary- they had it under control. If this is what under control means to them, I'd hate to see what chaos looks like.
In conclusion and my opinion is if they do not fix the staffing issues ASAP and do some major damage control, this game will fail.
I want this game to succeed. I spent my hard earned money on the pre sale. I was so excited about it for months and gave HK beyond the benefit of doubt but this is too far. They really need to get their shit together. They need to repair the broken trust between HK and the community as well.
So there you have it. My thoughts about the state of Hashkings. I hope this post was informative.
Thanks for reading.