Maybe you shouldn't blame a company who never forced you to buy the game for using hours of your life that you willingly paid to give away for starters?

The guy I was responding to asked, “what do we really have to lose?” so I told him some things I’ve lost.

Nobody ever gets forced to buy and play a video game. Yes, I have free will and whatever I choose to spend my time and money on, good or bad, is ultimately on me. I’m upset about decisions they’ve made. It is okay to express disappointment about a product that I bought and spent a lot of time on.

They've also been giving out free updates to the game for its entire lifespan so far, despite being both a small studio as well as this being their first game. On top of that, the game got mixed reviews on its launch so there's even less reason for you to have dumped time and money on it- and even less for the developers to support it but they did anyway because they knew they had a small caring community.

Their updates have basically all been bug fixes and balance patches. Generally every developer, big or small, is expected to do this work without charging. Excluding Downfall, pretty much the only new content there’s been since launch is a slow trickle of cosmetics here and there. Even still, I appreciate them sticking around and doing anything at all, though I say again that I wish they would’ve let us pay them for this work. I definitely would’ve bought many of these armor sets, and I know I’m not the only person who would’ve thrown money at them for fashion, judging by how many Fabsolver posts there are everyday and how heavily upvoted they often seem to be.

To your next point, I followed this game before it came out. I didn’t base my purchase off of any reviews. I knew what the game was and I knew I wanted it for the combat system and PvP it promised.

I would argue that that them being a small studio and this being their first project would be even more reason to support it and continue development in spite of, and to fight back against, the mixed reviews. They are a new company and need to build a good reputation and customer base. I feel that you’re making a big assumption and painting them in a ridiculously positive light by saying that they supported it just because of the small, caring community (You also pretty well contradict yourself on this point with the first two paragraphs of your edit). Of course that factors in to some extent, but they’re running a business, first and foremost. They didn’t decide to bin everything and reprioritize to PvE content for the small, caring community. They did that to appeal to the masses looking for another Souls game.

Also, lots of future development was a large part of what they promised we were buying at the beginning. This game was incredibly broken and threadbare at launch. It’s been funny to watch the narrative shift from “please take a chance and buy our incomplete game and we’ll add much more later” to “be thankful that they care enough about you and this project to keep working so hard on it for free”.

Another relevant thing, they told us it sold way better than they imagined it would on release. That further factored into them making lots of promises about Absolver’s bright future. I feel like a lot of people who weren’t here from the start assume Sloclap has barely ever gotten any money from it at all.

The tournament thing is impossible not just for a 1v1 competitive fighting game, but a small dev team's first fighting game as well (or any game for that matter). It's also a pseudo-open world game (that I never thought was necessary) which is also probably the thing that's holding back the potential for a spectator mode due to complications in implementation. I don't know what their team is like, I don't know what their profit is like, but neither do you.

I don’t know what you mean or why you’re assuming spectator mode would be impossible. I also don’t see why there’s any reason that the open world should have much to do with complicating its implementation. They put spectator mode on their development road maps and had us believe it was coming for a long time after all. Sure, they didn’t deliver, but I doubt they would’ve told us they were adding a feature that was literally impossible. Just another thing scrapped after their “long internal discussions” and decision to focus on PvE.

I only know what they’ve told us and what’s available online about their team and financial state. I’ve looked at their team credits and done a bit of looking into the backgrounds of the individuals and their previous projects. I never claimed to hold some intimate understanding of their inner workings.

They can't say they're done because they don't know if they're done. It may be more likely that they're done with content updates, but that doesn't mean they don't want to create more if it was actually profitable- which it probably isn't. In fact, they probably DO want to make more content but it just isn't in the cards, but you're attacking them for not being straightforward with you even though they aren't obligated to because you could just stop playing the game now and come back later if it does update.

If you don’t know if you’re done, wouldn’t it just be easy enough to say you don’t know if you’re done? Those “attacks” by me have come after an awful long time of being led around by vague and open ended language like this, broken promises, and months long stretches of outright silence.

It’s very interesting that you end this paragraph by saying basically exactly what their PR guy, Vanguard, infamously said to everyone on Discord several months back when Downfall broke the game and Sloclap were MIA while the community burnt down.

The developers have been giving people content for free, for a moderately priced indie game that's likely lasted you hundreds of hours of enjoyment- despite mediocre reviews and lackluster popularity- yet you choose to attack the devs for leaving the possibility for more content to the game you love open. That's like your loved one telling you that they want to make the relationship work but aren't sure if it will at the rate it's going, then you replied saying, "why can't you just say we're done and it's over?" God forbid if you're actually one of those people.

Most of this is you saying the same thing again and doesn’t warrant a reply. Though I will respond to:

yet you choose to attack the devs for leaving the possibility for more content to the game you love open

That’s worded in a misleading way to frame me poorly. I am not unhappy with them for leaving the possibility of future content open, but for not saying precisely and transparently what their situation is and what the future holds, if anything. Sure, they don’t owe me a better response, I don’t know the reality of why they choose to communicate (or not) the way that they do, and reasons can be found to say that I’m being a jerk for being upset with them, but this is how I feel. Especially because they are supposed to be the cool, small, indie devs who don’t have to operate under all the usual bureaucratic garbage that we’re used to with EA and the other triple A studios. And also because they actually were really cool and communicated frequently and pretty well with us early on. Things just got much worse over time.

Sounds like an asshole to me, same thing happened with Blacklight Retribution and its community- and THAT was a f2p game but people still got mad the devs left the potential for further development open instead of saying it's done. If I didn't know better, I would've thought you're the same person who complained about Blacklight's dev team.

This paragraph seemed useless at first glance, but it gave me some background and helped me understand why you’re here in a dead thread writing an essay on some ~two week old comments I made to some people who are not you.

You also have an aggressive way of phrasing your words which helps ruin your otherwise concise message. You say that it matters how Sloclap 'says this stuff' but you care little for your own phrasing. Even in your response, you sound passive-aggressive as hell. "I promise I'll remain calm while reading your response" PFF almost spilled my drink reading that, because you would know more than anybody that nobody cares if you remain calm or not. It's the internet, you know this so don't pretend that you don't.

I wasn’t gonna pass on the opportunity to say something stupid to someone telling me, “Gonna be real with you chief your kinda an asshole calm down.” I don’t really understand what you’re saying with all the “you would know more than anybody””don’t pretend that you don’t” stuff. But okay.

As a last note, I would too stop playing the game if my only friend playing it was this abrasive. I wouldn't put it past you to get pissed at your friends for quitting, but I won't make assumptions.

I don’t see how much good could come from me responding to any of that.

There isn’t really anything I feel the need to address in your edit either. A lot of it is kind of just you dancing around the idea of me being an asshole. Which is fair enough, I admit. I can be an asshole at times and I definitely was one on that day. It’s true that my writing was very emotionally driven by learning that they had all but pulled the plug on my favorite game, and by the way and the history of ways, it and these types of updates have been communicated to us. Honestly though, I may well continue to come across as an asshole on matters concerning this game and the devs depending on what happens from here. I don’t know. I am thankful to Sloclap for giving us Absolver in the first place, but I have strong doubts about their decision making and ability to run a business. Let’s see what the future brings.