Belle, It's bad if you are waking up discouraged in the morning. It is difficult to describe the feeling the lack of progress gives me but it is not really discouraging, then again I don't discourage easily. There are so many things they need to do to get this game right, yet I was not under any illusion from the beginning. Look how far they have come, they have made a lot of progress. Sitting, Stacking, Building - these are things that would be nice and should have been possible when they opened yet they supposedly are working on all these things.
Know body knows but them how they are working their priorities, regardless of their plan they continue to say things are coming which builds peoples expectations because people take these statements as promises, which then take forever to materialize.
Take a look where it started and where it is now and it is indisputable that progress has been made, and it is indisputable that there is a long way to go still. Over wealmingling is the question of how long can they survive in the current situation. Selling the memberships means they now have a responsibility to deliver or people will not be interested in signing up for any more time which would result in the cash flow to a crawl.
I believe they can deliver what they want to - but not in the time frame they offer and possibly not fast enough to continue momentum. There is a larger issue with their target group. Most of us have searched for three months for a replacement for VMK and still have not satisfied that desire. Nothing can really match it, but what will it take to come close. Sitting in chairs, standing on my head, flying in the air won't do it. Owning every virtual item I ever wanted won't do it. Having integrated the coolest stuff into a game won't do it. Bringing in familiar staff won't do it. All these things are nice but in the end they are only a small part of the picture. Each person liked VMK for different reasons so we all look for something different but friendships are the key to why we all were searching for a replacement. Sadly the ability to bring that back as part of the package diminishes with each day. Friends keep in touch though message boards and IM but I often go days without hearing form some of my closest friends from VMK - Because no game any of us play have a concrete schedule of events we just pop in - see what’s going on and then move on. With 50 staff or so, they have made little effort beyond Quests, which span several days. Used to be everyone would show up in VMK to try to get into an event and participate or see friends we knew would be there around that time. Also we had several games with High score lists that presented a challenge to some of us to keep up with. Even if they had a list - the quest score lists seem inaccurate based on my times. Who knows how they score, maybe based on who needs a boost in notoriety.
Currently they have a game and some players but do not appear to have a clear plan or any organization or priorities. I am sure this is not 100% accurate but it summarizes how I am feeling and why I just have not spent much time in any game at the moment. All I find is a portion of what I want and very little entertainment value, and an occasional friend I bump into.