I think it rings more surprising simply because the game is for the most part, playable. I didnt mind putting my money towards the game because I saw a product that I thought could eventually exist in its own space.
I think this games fault was mostly scope creep and trying new things that havent been done before. Scott reminded me a lot of Todd Howard when he talks about Fall Out or Elder Scrolls etc. Every time I turned around over the last, what, 9 years, the ideas became more and more grandiose.
The backend architecture with that server to server thing that basically segmented the load into smaller and smaller units, was it really necessary? It still, to this day, doesnt work "well" - and theyve been working on that for years. Then, the storyboard mechanics where each and every province would have its own story and quests. A lot of work and spinning wheels just to get shit ready for zones that havent even been created. The city thing was unique and novel, too. Where the whole settlement would go through layers of transition, and it would basically just load different "chunks" depending on its level. But that didnt work well either, as even in the steam release - you're falling through into the "hole" that those chunks resided in. Never mind the whole idea behind the city, built on the backs of PVE, being destroyed by PVP as people have mentioned. (New World, Im looking at you too.) Then, as far as individual mechanics where your caravan would transition to a raft and back again.. How often that mechanic, and mechanics like that.. how often would they be used? But you put a lot of dev time into that to make it work? We can literally go back to most of the videos of touting a new feature of the game and see how they just were, for the most part, reinventing the wheel or worse, putting the cart before the horse in terms of what should be developed first.
Never mind that the entire noobie experience is just awful. Even after the bit of refinement they did after steam launch - it just sucked. There are so many Quality of Life additions that happened in the genre since its inception that going back just kind of fucking sucks. Even with the very, very limited hand holding they do - it abruptly ends at roughly level 5 and then they expect you to "find your way." The map is awful. No LFG tool. Dropping items on death in a PVE death, never mind the exp loss and repair. Gearing in general just being awful. Spreading people out HOURS apart with no quick travel? "Hey man. Want to come up to the most northern part of the world, that is literally an hour+ to get to and exp with us?" Expect the response "Hey man. We're going to call it. Sorry!"
I could go on and on about my dissatisfaction with the game, and I just dont think Im alone. For the amount of money they put into the game, I just dont think I would have made anywhere near the same choices that were made. Or in other words, if I was putting a huge portion of my net worth into making a game - I would have made a game a fraction of the size and perfected that core experience. I mean think about the sheer size of the team that Shariff had going for this game? Wasnt it HUNDREDS of people? Just pure disappointment that this game didnt deliver.
