From Matt Peddlesden, Senior Producer: Trains All, you may have seen some news regarding the status of one of our other sims, Flight Sim World. I want to take the time to firmly assure you that Train Sim World and Train Simulator are entirely unaffected by the difficult decision to begin the closure of Flight Sim World, and have the same passionate and dedicated Trains Development Teams working on new releases, new updates and more. On Train Sim World, we just updated NEC (and that has more to come) and seeing the work daily on our next route in progress, I’m confident that our quality level and what we’re bringing for your consideration and collections just keeps getting better. We’re strongly committed to Trains – and you.
Jay, you close FSW because there are not enough players. The competition with Xplane has been ruthless. And if TSW does not get enough players, you'll probably do the same.
I hope you learn from that and invest more time in bugfixing and QA in TSW or the same will happen here. If your quality level don't get better you will loose the few players you have right now in TSW too. I am still waiting for bugfixes of TSW:HH, GWE, RT and the GP40 DLC. Still all full of bugs. I hope to see the quality getting better, but honestly i doubt this will happen. What we really need is the (scenario) editor and workshop support, or most old TS players will stay away from the TSW. You really need to fix the core game (throttle problem, PZB, sound etc) and add features like the PIS, ATP instead of rushing out one buggy DLC after another. I hope you will set the right priorities and listen to the community. Would be really sad if the TSW dies too.
Be more open with us in active discussions. A post here and there isn't going to cut it. Bring back Dev diaries, it showed us what was being worked on. Trust me, we'll be less upset over an update of dev troubles than short hidden replies with no real information.
I hope that this means now we will see more consistent updates on the progress of TSW, and I also would like to see the dev diaries to come back.
I must admit, seeing this is just showing the continued disconnect between DTG that publishes games and DTG that devlops games. I get that the devloers are most definitely committed to their game and the fans [if you think the devs don’t care you are sorely mistaken!] but that committment that didn’t stop FSW’s devs from being stopped. It is clear that the publishers and management were not committed to planes, despite the devlopers continued work and dedication. And since it’s the publisher’s opinions that count, not the devs, FSW was closed regardless. I think it’s just important to remember that we always hear from the dev side of DTG, they are the ones who talk to us and say how committed they are, but the real people in charge are not the ones talking to us, and are the ones not committed to us fans. I don’t think TSW will go away, but I also don’t think problems will end anytime soon, so long as that disconnect continues to exist.
If it was disabled in only one place, it could be thought an error. But since it's been removed everywhere, it's clear that Jay is no longer with DTG. It seems a number of people have been let go from the company, and not just the FSW team.... Ominous if you ask me.
His name is DTG_James https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198288727511 EDIT: Wrong account. See below for correct one.
I think this says it all: "DTG_JAMES Currently Offline Last Online 642 days ago" His account may be there, but he NEVER was.
Hmm, he certainly posted a post yesterday. I'll assume that this means that he just hasn't logged in via steam client. EDIT: Apparently this is a different account. This one is the one he used to post stuff on the board: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198061866877
His name and posts used to be green on the steam forums and DTG removed the [Developer] mark next to Jays name. In comparison to Steves post: https://steamcommunity.com/app/530070/discussions/0/3223871682611315358/
Fair. Well, maybe that just means that Jay got fed up being a community manager. Given the steam discussion toxicity won't blame him for that.
Simmers can be very passionate about the subject of their interest and aren't easily convinced. Having to balance a community's interests with corporate interests can be very tricky and I wouldn't blame Jay for no longer wanting to shoulder that responsibility. Nevertheless, it would be nice if DTG would show some professional courtesy by properly announcing Jay's departure.
Steam community is basically "This sucks, let's all go play Run8, let's boycott everything" and stuff like that (guess what happens when you boycott projects - they get cancelled a-la FSW). There's not much communication you could do at that part. It's one thing to be passionate about things, and completely different thing to be a toxic ass. In any case, now I'm very concerned about TSW and its future.
Seems like the last thing that would be on anyone's mind at a time like this. I'm just hoping there will be a DTG in the future. I couldn't care less what the next route is.
https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/ts18-the-biggest-u-boat.4526/ TrainSim-James made a post this morning. I'm going to work on the less fantastic assumption that Jay has more than one account and one of them has been retired for whatever reason.
But why? I know it's not uncommon for people on forums to have multiple accounts (trolls, alter ego's, et cetera) but why would someone in an official position do that?
Dear Railfans, We've been watching the forums closely and I'd like to respond to some of the questions being raised in this thread. Yes, TrainSim-Jay left Dovetail Games earlier this week - in a move completely unrelated to the news about FSW. We've loved working with Jay for the last 5 years and will be doing our best to make sure his departure causes as little disturbance as possible to you. However we're still here! We’re always reading these forums with myself (TrainSim-Martin), James (TrainSim-James), Steve (TrainSim-Steve) and Chris (DTG-Chris) feeding your comments back to the development team and we will be replying and getting more involved. Regular content such as the Community Choice vote will keep coming and we’re also looking at some new ways of getting you more news with things like regularly scheduled livestreams and more frequent updates on development behind the scenes. We'll be doing our best to keep this forum is nice and active! Best wishes, Martin & the rest of the Dovetail team
TrainSim-Martin Could you please get someone to look at updating the dev tracker to include the names you mentioned? When Jay left all his posts disappeared from the tracker. https://forums.dovetailgames.com/dev-tracker/
I am happy to see that you were watching the forums and the posts in them, but it would also have been nice if you guys had replied to them. Keeping us reassured and up to date that things are fine and you are still moving forward. Sad to see TrainSim-Jay go even though his departure had nothing to do with FSW closing, it still would have nice to have been told from the beginning. As this left us wondering what was going on making us thinking the worst was happening. I am hoping that you will keep us more informed going forward.
Hi Martin, good to hear from you. The timing of his departure, however, was very unfortunate. Jay has been the person we, as a community, have dealt with most as he was the community manager. That it took a DTG official more than 24 hours to acknowledge his departure, without making any firm commitments about what community interaction will look like from now on, makes for a pretty poor show in my book. Good to hear that DTG aren't planning to neglect these forums. Please forgive my cynicism when I say that I have heard such promises before, and DTG have yet to live up to them. Best wishes, A rail enthusiast.
I'm not criticizing, but it's funny when people use implied variability modifiers when describing two people. You said they're entirely different people, as if it's possible to have slightly different people. Or the same people who are slightly different. LOL
I suppose that would depend on which characteristics you're differentiating on. Identical twins look and may even act so similar that you could say they're slightly different people. You could also say that a person with multiple personality disorder is the same person who is slightly different depending on the personality in control at the time. English is funny that way though; it's a very fluid and contextual language that must be a pain for non-native speakers to learn.
Well said! Agreed. Edit: For all we know...Jay and James are identical twins. So in that case, maybe they are slightly different people. Oh boy...I can only imagine the rumors I'm starting...
I mean an entire division of Dovetail just got laid off. Not really a surprise to see them save more money by getting rid of community managers.
Haha these posts are funny just because one part of the companies franchise has closed and one person have left you all think theyre dying or going bump? No. TSW has just had a huge investment but into it (not that you would know) and flight sim world was not hitting anywhere near the sales they needed and development takes longer (believe it or not) so theyre saving time and money by focusing primarily on the 'next' mainstream money maker. Theyre still creating content for TSW and TS2018 so you can all relax and personally if people leave within the company its not their duty to share that information. They are a successful company and remail proffesional and confidential on alot of things, but they wouldnt not be taking more staff on to focus on QA/development and testing if there was an issue so chill ya beans and keep behind em!
No, not just because of that. Also because the community reception of the other franchise is pretty bad. Steam community is pretty much lost by developers at this point, as there are far more people who bash the game for everything, than those who are at least somewhat happy with it. Also, because the game has several serious issues that hasn't been addressed since forever. And the scary thing is that it seems like they simply cannot address them and fix the issues faster than the new ones arise. Because the quality of new content slowly declining (compare GWE content, which included three new trains and lots of different services with RT with a single train and mostly copy-paste services and with NEC that has been released with all services being copy-paste and freight services missing completely)
DTG-Chris isn't that Cryss who was the community manager over on FSW? If it is the same person, I am glad to see him join the train side of things. Can't wait to see his train driving skills!