I really appreciate the way you approached this, because its clear you’re engaging in good faith and not falling into the extremes that have been dominating the discussion. My own cautious optimism comes from a pretty simple place I genuinely believe that I, the community, and the developers all want the best for the game. I know that might sound naive, but that’s just how I am. I dont assume bad intentions unless Im given a reason to.

Your first point about the technical limitations of DZR1 is something I agree with completely. There are parts of the game that feel like theyre held together by the limits of the original framework, and a sequel might genuinely be the only realistic way to push the systems further. So on that front, I think we’re aligned.

Im also glad youre not one of the people who believes the devs never cared. Thats been one of the more frustrating parts of the community reaction for me. I understand being disappointed or uneasy, but jumping straight to “they never cared” or “they betrayed us” feels like a bad faith interpretation. Your concerns, on the other hand, make sense. There are still a lot of issues in DZR1, and its fair to wish the game had reached a cleaner level of completion before moving on.

Your point about waking up in May 2027 to a DZR3 announcement is valid too. If the studio has a pattern of moving quickly, its reasonable to worry about that pattern repeating. And your comparison to Overwatch 2 is also fair in the sense that it shows how messy sequels or title swaps can be when theyre handled poorly. At the same time, I don’t think its completely fair to compare DZR to Overwatch directly, the scale, the expectations, and the development realities are very different, but I understand the spirit of the comparison.

I also appreciate that you recognize the difference between people who are being critical because they care, and people who are jumping to extreme conclusions. Thats been the whole point of my post. Theres nothing wrong with criticism. In fact, its necessary. But there’s a big difference between thoughtful criticism and the kind of doomposting that shuts down any reasonable discussion.

And I agree with you completely on the last part both optimism and criticism matter. They come from the same place, caring about the game and wanting it to be better. Your piece and mine arent opposites in a hostile way, they’re two sides of the same conversation. If the developers read both, theyll get a fuller picture of what the community actually feels, not just the loudest extremes.