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Originally Posted by Nimmo55
Neal, don't you think you're being just a little hard on those who are expressing dissappointment with this game? (Granted...some are labouring the point for sure...but hey..that's ok, isn't it??) This "get over it and move on!" dictum; perhaps just a little severe? 
I for one have bought every SH game that has come out, but not this one...I accept that the publishers have made a business decision to target the mass audience...I get it and have "moved on"....doesn't mean I'm happy about that...or that I am not going to express my dissapointment a little in the process. That's the fantastic thing about your forum; it is the place where I can do that..and have intelligent posts on the subject. The best place in the world to discuss sub-sims! 
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Hi Nimmo,
I hope I am not being hard over anyone expressing disappointment in the game, I'm certainly one of those people!
You may find me unable to identify with people who just lose their minds over a game, though. Of course, people should be free to say, "I don't think I want to buy SH5" but after a few repeats of that message, there's not much else to say to them but "don't buy it, move on" because this is a discussion forum for SH5. I'm not sure how much someone can contribute to a discussion about a game they don't have or intend to get. They should feel 100% welcome to discuss SH3 or Dangerous Waters in those forums, and general topics, General Games, etc. Am I off the mark here?
We want to keep this forum
The best place in the world to discuss sub-sims! (I'm going to run that quote in my future PR), so I am open to level-headed opinions, thanks.
And yes, you have the right to pass on this title, Ubisoft did not achieve the level of quality necessary for me to disagree with you there. Strategically, we probably disagree about the whole "support the only game company that makes a decent subsim by purchasing them, great, good, and bad, US subs, German subs". I've had debates about this for a long time, whether buying no matter what empowers the game company to crank out whatever crappy game they want to screw the customers out of their (here it comes...) hard earned money. I cannot say that line of thinking is empirically wrong.... but I do feel confident that sales = more subs games, and SH2 (bad game, sold well) led to SH3 (great game, sold well) lends strength to that argument. But, I could be wrong.
With SH5, as with the occasional PC game, the development just did not keep pace with the schedule. It was harder than they thought, to add the full sub and interactive crew. Mookie would say resources were better spent just making an SH3 2.0 and a lot would agree with him. That has to be the basis for a subsim before any enhancements like full boat access. Then again, to be fair, after SH3, a lot of people were asking for full boat access....
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I'm curious though, Neal...there really DOES seem to be a genuine disconnect between expectations of the hard-core community and what Ubisoft have produced this time...probably more than when SH3/4 came out (questionable?) You interviewed the deveopers in the lead up to this game's release...was there any sign that they had seen or even registered the mounting concern that manifested itself on your very forum when you interviewed them? Or was it more about sticking to a line in order to build profile for the upcoming release? Did you feel yourself able to talk about these issues? I'd be curious from an interest point of view; I was a journalist here in Australia and I know what it's like to have a canned interview...and feel constrained in my questioning line...but I've never done an interview with a games studio. Grateful your point of view...
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I saw the demo in Denmark and spent 4 days with the dev team, but I did not hound them for details because I wanted those guys to relax and enjoy the meet and the activities. I had some concerns then, with the health bars and ship detection ranges in the demo, but as I was assured they are optional and don't really impact the simulation when turned off. As for the RPG elements and the state of completeness, that was in Sept, so as far as anyone knew, dev team included, the game could very well be finished in time for release. I guess that is like asking the football team in the 1st half if they will score 4 goals in a game. Well, maybe, that's the plan, we sure will try. With game development, sometimes it just doesn't work out according to the plan. I say to people, there's no reason to hate. Just don't buy.
As you know, many "interviews" are done via email. You send the questions, the game studio sends back answers. One reason it took so long for me to get an interview is I insisted on a phone interview--I wanted it to be spontaneous, not scripted in advance by email. You may have noticed I asked several times about the DRM but they were not able to divulge that info. I think we all knew that meant Uplay/OSP DRM (I did my homework).
As far as the design decisions, I wasn't clear that it was going in the direction it ended up until the phone interview, and they said Type VII only. Unlike previous Silent Hunter games, Ubisoft elected not to let me play test the game in the early beta. Well, it's their game.
I hope that answered your questions, very sorry it's so long.
best regards,
Neal