Come on, this isn't complicated. It's very simple:
When you speak publicly about your game, speak openly and honestly.
Speaking openly is what got this mess started in the first place. That's the crux of the matter.
Allow me to quote from the article, and bold the important part:
“I think the idea that people have been lied to implies a level of cynical intent that I would have a hard time imagining any developer who’s passionate about their work engaging in,” Dowling told me. “I’m sure there are people in the world who will overtly lie about what they’re selling to make a fast buck, but I think those people are rarely found among people who’ve poured themselves into something for years. I do think it’s advisable for a developer to clarify cut features if those features have been presented publicly or advertised, which is a good reason to be careful about what you share.”
Now consider what this means in practice. When you have to be mindful of everything you both say, and have said over literally years of development time, is a lot to ask of someone. It's certainly not "open-ness", its the exact opposite.
Can you imagine if, for example, every post you ever made on GAF was trawled through in order to find a discontinuity or change of opinion on the topic? Asking someone to compete with the perfect recall offered by the internet is impossible, unless simply talking becomes a full-time job.
So again, we're back to a situation where communication needs to be handled by professional, media-trained, intermediaries. Which is the exact opposite of "open-ness"!
Regarding Jason's summary, allow me once again to quote:
It’s that silence that has angered fans more than anything else. I certainly hope the lesson for game developers here isn’t to stay quiet or lean on strict PR-controlled messages for their games. If anything, they should have the opposite takeaway. Have to cut cool features you’ve talked about in the press? Fine! Video games change. We get it. The solution isn’t to stay silent about it, but to explain to fans why they can’t, say, see one another when they’re on the same planet. Or why the No Man’s Sky described in 2014 looks so much different than the one we’re playing in 2016.
So the solution is for devs to talk more? In fact to talk constantly... like politicians who's every word is treated like public property?
Doesn't this sound like a fucking big ask for people who have to concurrently handle the stress and workload of making their games? Not to mention that its potentially a skill-set that isn't their specialty or that they aren't even temperamentally suited to.
Bottom line is that dealing with "fans" in that regard rapidly becomes a giant risk-management chore. Soon as you say something, be it before or after you release, the fan's OWN it. They OWN you.
My question is: Why would anyone want to expose themselves to that sort of pressure by choice? Personally I wouldn't want to touch it with a barge-pole!
