No Man's Sky subreddit buys thank you billboard

With E3 sun setting for this year it can be pretty easy to find, or slip into, cynical thinking about who won or lost the event. Who will win or lose this holiday season. Or who will come out on top during the next console cycle.

It's easy to lose perspective as games excite or disappoint us. Avengers looks lackluster. Bayonetta and Metroid are no shows. Sony just isn't here at all.

But games don't need to be a constant slog of controversies every day.

our community has bought the billboard outside our office to say Thank You

Oh. My. God.https://t.co/oGTjFI4WWG

— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) June 13, 2019

The No Man's Sky subreddit banded together and bought a thank you billboard near the Hello Games' office.

No Man's Sky obviously had a famous launch due to differences between what the game promised and some of the realities it delivered, or failed to delivery. And Reddit is often viewed (often rightly so) as a toxic environment for any community, not just games.

But here's a nice little community, thankful for the years of hard work from a dedicated developer, banding together to say thank you.

Very heartwarming. And now it looks like some of the money will be donated to sick kids!

That's actually really awesome. Man, people were so pissed about that game at launch with all the no man's lie shit, but it was pretty apparent at the time that Sony forced the game out the door before it was what they wanted it to be. However, Hello Games totally could have just left it at launch state or half-assed their updates, but instead clearly worked pretty tirelessly to make sure it became the game it was supposed to be. I'm really glad people are recognizing that and making the effort to show their appreciation publicly. I'm still deep in HITMAN 2, but I'm buying NMS soon to show my support as well. Good on Hello Games and the reddit community for being cool duders.

This was really awesome for me. E3 actually gets me down because it brings out the worst kind of gamer crowd on the internet (console fanboys or people dismissing things like "Indie Trash") so seeing this on this particular week was awesome. And they really deserve it, they've been doing so much work on that game.

Funny enough, the emoji image on the proposed billboard is a summoning one. People want their "Beyond" third pillar. Just thinking out loud in written form.

Gamers can be very forgiving when a publisher or developer makes good. People DO notice effort and they do reward it more often than not The nature of business is like teh nature of many human endeavors, some thing just have to come out or be presented at a certain date.

I'm gland the company could turned around and rewarded by fans for that work and effort.

Aw, that's super cool. Good on them.

I just think it's a horrendous waste of money.

I REALLY like the sentiment. I do. Saying thank you is always nice. But that billboard costs $1500, will be there for two weeks, and will probably be covered over in graffiti within a couple of days, especially given that two-thirds of it is just a blank canvas.

It's nice that they're using any excess raised cash to "give games to sick kids" but doing that whilst throwing away $1500 on essentially nothing seems strange.

It feels like Reddit karma-whoring of the highest order. Buy them a thank you card from the community for $10 and give the other $1490 to charity, I say.

@superkmx: Totally agree - lots of ways to be positive for much less cost (and much less social media attention, which is what this was clearly designed to do - social media attention does not make something better or more genuine than any other form of thanks). Also at the risk of being labelled negative by others for tarnishing their feel good moment with another perspective: Hello Games made some significant $ from this game and much of the work they did after was to overcome the initial public backlash (while some was inappropriate the game was a huge disappointment to most) so they could sell future games without complete ridicule (and not out of selfless love of their game's community).

Absolutely agree. Again, I'm happy that people are (seemingly) happy with NMS now, but the folks acting as if the company are "doing it for the community" or correcting the initial problems out of the goodness of their hearts are incredibly blinkered. The NMS 1.0 release was an "Early Access" program in all but name, and now the company are being celebrated for - in my eyes - deliberately misleading consumers.

1. To address a previous post, the subreddit raised more money than they expected and will be donating the extra funds to a charity.

2. This is a super cynical way of viewing game development. As if the developers only wanted to save face and make money as if there couldn't be a desire to make it up to those fans who did enjoy the game but weren't happy with what was missing.

Game development isn't easy and to spend years of your life focused on something only to have it misfire but be devastating. To stick around not for 6 months or a year, but for years afterwards in an effort to update and upgrade what you initially offered is very revealing. It shows Hello Games did care about those who spent $60 on the game. They cared that people were disappointed.

Yes they want to make money. Yes they are updating it and marketing the updates to bring you and I back and maybe to get us to buy DLC. Yes it's a business. But the world isn't black and white and maybe they also wanted to do the right thing.

Absolutely all of this. Like yes people capitalism exists and companies do things to make money. But Hello Games was clearly developers first, and I think arguing that they ONLY fixed the game/stuck with it due to financial concerns and public backlash is more than just cynical as described in the post above. It's in bad faith. It presumes that people can't put love and time and faith into things just because there is money involved, or a narrative. For me it doesn't come to do a maybe, based on what Sean Murray came out and said about that game before release, there were two obvious things. 1. It was a very ambitious project and them meeting all the expectations they set on launch was giong to be hard. 2. That dude CARES about this game a lot.

If some people couldn't gather that from most of the pre-game coverage, and then the radio silence that lead into repeatedly solid updates after update, then yeah I don't know. Maybe humanize developers more people? Like maybe it's something in your head that is preventing you from separating the money from the person? Because seriously, NMS has "passion project" in it's DNA. Yes it has a narrative that it had a rough launch, a launch I remind everyone was like pre early access and Fortnite blowing up doesn't exactly shift that from being a passion project.

1. Yes, I addressed it myself in my initial post. In fact, the entire crux of my point was "why make the gesture of giving the extra money to charity when you're only doing that after wasting $1500 on a billboard that will be covered in graffiti in a day and then be removed entirely two weeks later?"

I hope the originator of the plan is reaping as many Reddit points as he was hoping for.

2. You're right. It *is* a super cynical way of viewing game development. It's not the way I usually view things, for sure.

But with this company, it's only as cynical as making multiple hype-building on-stage appearances where you promise things that you know you can't deliver, putting out screenshots and feature lists that you know won't be representative come launch day, then disappearing off the face of the planet for a month as soon as the game drops and people excitedly put down their hard-earned money.

Many of the people who dropped their cash on launch day to get a game that was maybe 35% of what was promised were probably thinking somewhat cynically about the game development process as well, in all fairness.

With one launch, Hello Games made it tougher for every other game maker with a project in development to be taken seriously.

@superkmx: Hard disagree. Actually I'd argue that the stumbling launch of No Mans Sky taught a lot of developers the cost of over promising. I also think it made developers who have very ambitious projects take a harder look at Early Access, something that was not even remotely an industry standard that Hello Games could of explored at launch.

Like we get it duder, the hard earned money you put down on NMS was really disappointing for you, but acting like they are the first and only studio to ever promise something at E3 and not deliver. Also the last statement in your post is such hyperbole. You literally believe anyone else making games has a hard time being taken seriously because of the incident?

@devise22 said:

I'm not questioning that the lead guy cares about the game a lot, but the key word in your first point is "they." I would also like to take the time to say that the abuse he received at launch is absolutely unforgivable and should never have happened.

THEY set the expectations. THEY told everybody that this feature and that feature would be in place. All the while, THEY were looking at their close-to-gold dev builds that didn't contain half of the things they were promising and THEY still carried on with the same narrative.

You say "maybe humanize developers more people?" but you aren't looking at the reverse. Maybe they should have humanized their potential audience and told them the truth about the state of the game (or even released the game as an "Early Access" project) rather than thinking of their fanbase as faceless money-carrying units that were bringing them $60 each, while saying whatever they could to ensure that preorders didn't get cancelled.

I think it's FANTASTIC that they've worked to try to make good on the game. I just think that nearly every move they made up until about a month after launch was poorly-judged at best, and to waste $1500 on a billboard to say "thank you" to them while some people in the town where the billboard is placed are so close to the poverty line that they're using volunteer-provided food banks to get through the week is absolute insanity. Sure, you can't go through life looking at everything in that way. If we did, nobody would buy anything!

But throwing away $1500 to rent a billboard for two weeks to say thank you for fixing a mess that they created themselves? Come on.

I think it was Austin that said this recently: it’s time we start celebrating the good in games instead of always looking for something to criticize.

@superkmx: This is still such a cynical viewpoint about game development. I think you should read Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. It's about a handful of games and the troubles they faced during development. Covering everything from Dragon Age: Inquisition to Stardew Valley, it shows how games aren't this linear process of creation. How even developers aren't sure about what they have until the final months, and even then it can't always be clear.

Gave development isn't as easy as you make it out to be. I do understand that developers and publishers need to be more careful with their marketing (I think you saw that this year as E3 had a LOT fewer gameplay trailers). There is a lesson for devs to learn, but I don't think it's as angry and bitter as you make it out to be. Players have paid attention to updates, to the Hello Games' dedication, and felt a need to just say thank you. I'd rather see a warm message of thanks than just another advertisement, even just for two weeks.

But hey, maybe that's just me.

Well, that's quite the assumption. I didn't buy NMS as I had no interest in it anyway. Still haven't bought it. I've just listened to friends and people who bought it and felt like they'd been duped.

And while it may be a little hyperbolic, I do think that, to an extent. I can tell you that the friends I just mentioned who preordered NMS now use the phrase "Yeah, not after that No Man's Sky nonsense..." when you ask them if they're preordering an upcoming game, or even if you ask if they're buying on day one. I can't believe that they aren't the only ones who don't preorder or purchase on day one after getting burned by No Man's Sky, so the job has become tougher for developers to be taken seriously in the pre-launch phase. As you've pointed out, there are benefits to that.

I've got a copy of Blood, Sweat, and Pixels sitting on my coffee table after reading it a couple weeks ago, as it happens :) Great book.

In my defence, I'm not making out that game development is easy. It isn't. It obviously isn't. Game development is not where the errors were made with NMS, though. They put out a functional game that was - in many ways - pretty decent. PR is where the errors were made.

As a software developer, I know how features can get canned or introduced at the last minute, but I just can't believe that the owner of the company and lead developer on the project had any hope of backing up some of the things he was saying just weeks before launch. Especially when some of the missing things were MASSIVE and have taken three years to be put into the game. Some of the features are still AWOL, by all accounts.

And I LIKE that the community wants to say thank you to the team. Really, I do. More power to them for that. I'm not even that bothered about NMS (rather, the conversation turned to the development/launch struggles - maybe that was my fault, and I apologise if it was.) It's just that this billboard idea feels like a PR stunt by the originator rather than a genuine and heartfelt thank you. It also feels like a massive, MASSIVE waste of money.

They could have sent a thank you card, then bought six PS4s (each with a copy of No Man's Sky) and given them to a children's ward. But instead, for the same money, here's a billboard and can we all give the original poster some Reddit points, please?

@superkmx: I was only being presumptuous because of the nature of your posts, and the amount of hyperbole being used. Not intending to offend.

In regards to the friends you mentioned, honestly that feels like a pretty specific anecdote to signal out against specifically No Mans Sky. Is No Mans Sky the only game that offered pre-orders and sucked? Hardly. If anything it sounds like your friends finally learned the hard lesson about preordering and day one releases? Sucks, happens to the best of us.

Like there is an aspect to your argument that is not only not in good faith, but screams a sense of gamer entitlement that I just can't get behind. Which is frustrating because there are things that on the surface I think I agree with. Like consider the point you are attempting to make above here.

You say "maybe humanize developers more people?" but you aren't looking at the reverse. Maybe they should have humanized their potential audience and told them the truth about the state of the game (or even released the game as an "Early Access" project) rather than thinking of their fanbase as faceless money-carrying units that were bringing them $60 each, while saying whatever they could to ensure that preorders didn't get cancelled

While I can totally sympathize with consumers who in this instance felt like Sean Murray and Sony both via on stage at E3 and marketing not only misrepresented aspects of the game they were releasing, but also the state that it would be in at launch. To argue that those consumers should be "humanized" more, is...mind boggling? And I don't understand how they aren't being humanized enough? Nobody forced them to put their money down. Tons of people at the time, even regular enthusiasts not industry professionals were widely given takes about NMS that it seemed like it was over promising. At the end of the day, from a consumer standpoint, all someone burned by the game did was purchase and play it.

Just because there is money and corporations involved doesn't mean that everyone associated with a project falls under the harsh perspective you lead that they treat the entirety of their fanbase as faceless money carrying units. Do you do this with every product that has burned you? Tons of off-brand and less than advertised products exists. Because a corporation over promotes them knowing how bad they are does that mean everyone involved in the making and processing of the product is evil and shouldn't ever be humanized or celebrated?

Like in this instance, in the case of the billboard it comes down to a fanbase that recognized and wanted to reward not only Murray but the human beings at the studio for what they felt was a commitment and dedication to a product that they could of just left by the wayside. Something I remind you, a lot of corporations that treat fanbases as faceless money-carrying units would have done. I'm not saying I would of raised money for the banner or donated, in this instance. But the fact that someone chose to raise money for this doesn't remove it from being a human/touching thing. The billboard/banner wasn't bought by the fans for some corporate executive. It was bought outside the development studio so that Murray and every other developer that works there could see the appreciation and support of the fanbase they have continued to support. Arguing about what better use that money could go to, or how "you would've" used that money are both regardless to the fact that what the fans decided to do is still a very touching human moment, and one that should still be acknowledged and celebrated in my opinion.

I've got to be honest and say that I think we're going to have to just agree to disagree, here. I take no offence from anything that's said on a forum (we're all adults here) and I respect your standpoint.

Maybe I am too cynical about the billboard thing. I know I'm a cynical person most of the time! :D But I've stated how I feel about it (especially seeing how the originator is carrying on over on Reddit by making hundreds of posts and replies about it and trying to drive everyone to his latest new thread on the subject and essentially milking it for every karma point he can) and there's not much that will change that. I have no problem with people wanting to celebrate Hello Games or Sean himself or whoever. I've said in this thread, more power to them if they want to do that. It's just the NATURE of the celebration that isn't sitting well with me, I think.

Get them a nice plaque and a copy of the game cover in a lovely frame that says "Thank you from r/NoMansSky" that they can hang in their office for all time. Job done. $1,300 extra for the unspecified sick kids they're giving the excess to. Then again, it isn't my place to tell people how to celebrate stuff. I'll go with the old man "Doesn't stop me from stating my opinion on the matter!" follow-up, though. :D

I do take a point with the "sense of gamer entitlement" comment because you have honestly and clearly misunderstood what I was trying to say. That's probably my fault, to be fair. But I don't think arguing it is going to get anybody anywhere so I'll leave it at that. Have a good day!

@superkmx: Aye, it's all good. To be fair I also typed that last post up before I saw your most recent, and I totally did misunderstand your stance. To me it appeared like you were stating that because their was PR/Marketing deceptions with the games launch that the developers didn't deserve to be thanked or congratulated for their hard work since then. Obviously in that post you elaborate that your fine with the community thanking the developers, you just wish it was done in a more thoughtful, pragmatic manner and one that see's less valuable resources (money) wasted on what on the surface seems petty. Which is totally fair, as I stated I probably wouldn't of went that route either. Ultimately the human element of making the faces of that dev team smile, making them feel worthy/happy for their work, as you stated could of been accomplished with far less of a grand gesture.

@superkmx: You may be failing to consider that part of why they were able to raise that money is because they got people excited about the grandiosity of the billboard. And from the perspective of the organizers of this effort, what would be most important was to get as many people to participate as they could.

You're not wrong that money spent on essentially a PR stunt is "wasted", but you're somewhat missing the point of the stunt in the first place.

Indeed, I had considered that they wouldn't have raised as much without the billboard. It kinda sucks that "give money for billboard to say thanks to Hello Games" would be more appealing to most than "give money so we can get a plaque and print to say thanks to Hello Games and make a donation to sick kids in their honour."

I don't feel that I'm missing the point of the stunt. I'm sure the organizer will feel it was a job well done that one time that someone says to him "Oh, you were the guy that organized the billboard, right? Good job!" in a year or so.

I don't get it so there rewarding a company to fix there product into a buy able state. This might sound a bit brisk but the board should say "next time launch a finished product, thanks!". I know most of the fault is probably at Sony's side but still 2 years from launch or how long it has being nobody cares about what the game has become only their "hardcore" audience kinda sad cause it had some neat idea's, even putting a early access tag on it would have saved them so much trouble but then Sony doesn't have a early access program. Anyway i blame bad marketing and Sonys 1 year exclusivity for that state the game was in on day 1.

I don't know, people spend money on stupid stuff all the time. At least this probably brightened the day of the people at Hello Games. The fact that the money could have theoretically been spent on something more worthwhile is neither here nor there I think.

I don't think anyone is excusing the state NMS launched in either. It's more a recognition that there was nothing forcing Hello Games to put as much work into NMS as they have. You can argue their reputation was at stake, but they could have just as easily cut NMS loose and started work on a completely different project. The fact that that have poured so much into NMS the last couple years -- and released it all for free! -- is worthy of praise.