https://steamcommunity.com/games/681660/announcements/detail/1653264683467164625
Sungjin Ko offered an apology which covered a range of information ranging from the connectivity issues and server crashes (which is pretty much the expected norm now) to the performance and missing end game content.
In this area, I give Neowiz Korea props for quickly putting out this type of communication to the player base quickly. This is in contrast to PUBG Corp which offered a developer letter noting how they had not been doing a good job communicating what changes were being made to the game (on top of the complaints about performance which the company had not yet responded to or dealt with before this letter).
With regards to the missing end game content, I think a portion of the Bless player base were mistaking the two day head start as the early access (it was only advanced access). The game will remain in early access and based on what I had read before the advanced access (to early access), they would be adding (back) content and action combat for all classes by the time they were ready to launch (meaning coming out of early access). That actual launch (out of early access) is a long way off.
Thus some folks were up in arms about there not being a lot to do once they hit the initial level cap of 45. Now even though I have been critical about how Neowiz has been handling this game, it was clear to me that they would be re-adding in the content they removed; I presume it was done so they could localize it (given the really bad state of the localization in the initial early access client, it’s highly plausible).
They also offered their founders a generous compensation (I believe just under 3000 Lumena which is the games virtual currency for use in the cash shop) and seemed to have worked with Valve to allow refunds (I think the only exception was for those who purchased the Collector’s Edition where they had gifted the second copy to someone else) beyond the normal policy (usually 2 hours of play or 2 weeks whichever comes first).
Allowing refunds past Steam’s normal policy does help remove some of the stigma by those who bought into the game as looking like a blatant cash grab (though as far as I am concerned and what is known, that was still an the ulterior motive in bringing this to the west). At least for those still on the fence, this will look like a goodwill gesture where they can re-purchase in the future if the development does actually pan out.
Myself, this doesn’t change anything as it is pretty much like how I felt about Black Desert Online (a pass).
