Out of STOCtown [UPDATED]

To put it bluntly, finally got down from the Ferris Wheel that was the Official STALKER Discord Server, often called by some "STOCtown", after I've spent 8 long ass years on there as a member.

Hence, quite long, exhaustive post follows below. Its impossible to pinpoint everything that happened across almost half a decade, in two paragraphs.

Huh?

It's the place started turning into explosive bubble, not only because the company is real keen on keeping any major points about the post-release development away from the customers "like its some top secret MI-6 intel", for as long as the game has been on the market (Nov 20, 2024), but selective moderatorship is also contributing big time to the chaos, driving people into starting "flame wars" between each other for the fact they have nothing new about the game to talk about in a server made specifically for that topic, for year and a half time. And that's the part where people resort to drama - nothing good comes out of it, ever. 

Not to forget there's also the users - including myself - who went ahead, ironizing the company's efforts to disappoint its fans, to make them lose their interest, through deadly silence and repeated sales, instead of doing both news and sales to maintain a steady level of marketing. 

Seriously, running this frequent sales is okay, as long you're keeping good balance between both discount campaigns and development news. Nobody will have nothing against doing both. Unfortunately, doing only one while neglecting the other naturally brings suspicion brings disappointment, and if done for prolonged period of time, you know what happens: the domino effect.

While the lack of communication is the biggest downfall of GSC Game World, the community has been put through hell. Next to the company also surviving the ongoing Ukraine v. Russia war and simultaneously developing a sequel of an acclaimed product, with entirely new CEO and team.

So much stuff has gone through the years, I doubt I remember everything, but off the top of my head, here are couple "bad impressions" the official server has left in my mind:

Moderator harassment

receiving random mutes for fun, without any rule violation -- from 5 minutes, to 60 minutes, 2, 12, 24 hours, even a week or longer: its all depending whoever the moderator is, however, as some are ego tripping, some don't do it at all and are all-around respectable individuals. Its a game of dice.

I've seen other users having been treated like it and its the usual "It was just for fun" response in the end, myself have been muted in such ways at least 5 times - most times it was the usual playing ball type trolling thing, but abuse of power is abuse of power, no matter the context.

Unequally treating users

a lot of guys getting banned for literally a word of politics, while other users, who repeatedly discuss geopolitics in whatever channels, IN PLAIN ENGLISH, during times when 2+ foreign moderators are online, not even get a warning, slipping under the radar multiple times in a row. And no, I'm not talking Russians spreading propaganda, that's deserved ban. I'm talking wholly. Instead of treating everyone equally for their actions, moderators, be it volunteers or official employees - most times volunteers I've seen, handle stuff per their mood/interest, wherever they see fit. Albeit with small exceptions to some individuals I have respect for even now I'm done with that specific gaming circle.

This is a situation any dead honest user that has been in the server since the start, can confirm. 

Internal conflicts

are also something that blew up having volunteer moderators, who's been with the studio helping on the Discord side of things, giving up on the server, leaving the team because they've been pushed against the wall to do stuff they don't feel like is right to do.

Having communicated with some of the good mods, who I prefer to keep anonymous, else there is a chance they'll get kicked out, this is how I know. Ain't gonna and don't wanna be the douche, going after good folks, ruining their day.

True lack of communication

since Day 1 has major impact on the scene. Ever since the launch, there is less and less information what is going on with the game. Past few months it's became more noticeable. While the foundation of the game is there, stuff is still severely lacking behind.

Non-fungible tokens scandal

oh also the NFT thingy GSC tried to make everyone believe will be... effin' good time. Until the whole community realized whats up, went berserk and the studio was pushed against the wall, posting and deleting couple announcements in the #announcement channel (too bad I dont remember where the screenshot of that is) - they literally were in panic mode at that moment - before publishing another one claiming they're cancelling this project.

Multitude of delays

the game has been delayed at least 5-6 times throughout 2018-2024. Yes, undoubtedly part of the reason is the damn war, but the rest always did smell of bad leadership.

Couple leaks 

earlier builds of the game were dumped on torrent trackers through a... loophole in whatever the system they were using to transfer the game data across the employees working stations. Shit happens.  Don't know much specifics other than leakers entered their servers and unloaded everything onto public torrent trackers which spread like heck after. Whether overlooked server side security measure or not, stuff of this kind can happen. Nobody is safe from anything.

Office fire

their office in Prague caught fire, it was only material damages, meaning the development wasn't affected. More stuff to worry about.

Issues of all kinds

already 9 patches in, the game still has obvious issues of different scale people constantly bring up to the studio through their support channels, without even knowing if they'll ever be resolved. Again, a matter of miscommunication on the studio.

Missing features

mechanics like the sleeping mechanic, binoculars, the alternative shooting mode introduced with the Night Vision update. All, besides the sleeping mechanic (don't remember Molit confirming its coming, maybe he did, can't be sure) all are meant to be coming, but.. in what period of time, nobody ever knows. And those things, among others, major or optional, I'm sure sure I'm forgetting, make for quite a change. It's the small details that do huge impact when it comes to the user experience. You don't build anything from the top to the bottom.

Multiplayer and the preorder skins for it 

preorder campaign that ran in September-October or so, pointed to multiplayer and specific weapon skins, exclusive for the MP component, to come after the game is out. Multiplayer was meant to arrive in "[free] post-release update". Skins, on the other hand, nobody said a thing about wherever they'll make it in. While the skins can be said were planned and one may come with an excuse they'll be scraped (since no release window was given), MP was promised and a word or two bout what'll happen with it will definitely be welcome even to those who dont ever care about it. Its the statement the key part, not if its coming or not. 

Suirrels

sorry, but... This is hard to take serious. Its even hard to look at it any way. I'll lie if I say which patch added it but it was somewhere in the middle. To think someone spent time to build a 3D model of an animal and include it in a patch over something of better significance... Nothing more to say.

Engine migration

core game being built on a custom fork of Unreal 5.1, one could say is a major technological feat, especially for a title of this caliber. An update to 5.5.4 is in the work, claimed to be introduced "this summer" along the first DLC1 - Cost of Hope. All okay, until we reach the part where there has been minimal information, besides the usual "its coming, it'll be major, yadda-yadda" and bits and pieces of "it'll improve performance a lot and increase rendering distance". No further information has been disclosed - information which if marketed right could help reduce the already accumulated excessive heat in the community set to believe, jokingly, that nothing ever happens.

Obnoxious amount of sale notifications

more about discounts been spoken than anything else regarding the game's post-launch development cycle. It's downright... funky. Yeah the global economy isn't in good shape, yeah, prices going up and so, but one has to balance the scales not to lose on everything. Usual customer who already owns every game of the series, will be aggravated to have sale notifications pop up X amount of times a week on his feed, simple as that. This often mentions of discounts does nothing but infuriates even more fans who have been keeping up with the company for ages - the hardcore fanbase definitely feels fed up with it, even newcomers are finding it way too much at least from what I've been seeing lately until I was in the server. To top it off? They post those articles in the Discord server where majority of its members already own all the games since long time ago. 

It's not as if 1000 new members join a week to justify the notifications. One thing is for sure, the post frequency does more damage than it helps, customer-wise and I reckon business-wise, for the same reason above.

Nothingburgers

Then there come other type of posts revealing absolutely nothing contrary to what the overall fanbase wants to know - ranging from posts celebrating "fruit" days (Watermelon Day, really? REALLY?) which feel more like mocking than real informative pieces, various stuff like company awards which have nothing to do with the game per se, to whatnot. Anything beside actual game announcements - the server, of course, is called "Official STALKER Server". Easily could pull another channel for company-related only press materials. It takes less than a minute to do... but, hey. Nope. 

That's all I can think of at the moment in terms of the "company mismanagement" topic, having forgot half of what I wanted to say throughout typing this monster "recap".

Key words: communication, honesty, transparency. Three words that build careers. In this case it looks like apparently those three words are GSC Game World's biggest foe to date. Ever.

Unrelated but still a memory in my head

- Tapik - poor Tapik tho - one of the company employees, got hacked, leading to the server going kaputt for a while

- Server was entirely frozen at one point before the game came out due to the insane interest rate at the game, people were going bonkers about everything being under NDA, then it was decided its better to have it locked so for the storm to pass - but that's a given as the game was still in production.

- Ask_GSC channel then further down the line was locked, nobody couldn't ask anything. Those who had luck before it was taken down, got to be pissed they are only answered vaguely with a NDA emoji or the usual "I can't say" reply. Thing is back then when the game was still in the making, it is some way acceptable to do that. Nowadays, when the games been out for quite time, unfortunately... its still the same behavior. Everyone is in his/her own right to criticize a studio at this point. Respect is earned, its not given.

Um, what happened really?

Without making the whole even longer, plain and simple, first I was muted for SIX WEEKS in a row for calling someone a non-vulgar, non-threatening word, who in turn decided to use that in his own favor to make a scandal out of it, intentionally involving his personal life (in the game discussion channel - huh, right), making a big problem out of nothing, because the person I directed that to wasn't on good terms with me, for whatever the reason - "I hate cause I can" type of stuff, I guess? His intention was clear - I was to be banned at all cost. 

I then logged in with an alternative account, complying with the rules, not causing any fuss or anything - no malicious behavior at all, whose nickname an user from another server (server I've left months ago) I spoke with privately, decided to hop on the drama bandwagon as well and leaked a private conversation to the moderator team, which then leaked the message containing the given account name in public. At least 3 different parties of different roles are now living a better life for they have successfully took part in escalating yet another made up "Oh, look, he called me a bird but I'm an elephant. Mods, do your thing."-like type nonsense.

Most importantly - multitude of alternative accounts are still in the server, in a lot of servers, not this one explicitly. The Terms of Use of the platform allows for creating more than one account in general. Seems though there was an unwritten rule in the Official STALKER server that only select amount of people are forbidden to have more than one profile in possession - you get to be banned to know.

Much like anything in there. Custom rules apply for some - whether people like you or not, there are different consequences or none at all. That's the sole truth these days on the internet - you have to blend with everyone else in the room else you're persona non-grata.

There are two lessons here. Moral of the day #1 is - if they hate you, they'll ban you, not because you had two accounts, not because you used the second while been muted on the first, without infringing on any rules, but because they want you gone. And #2 - even those who you thought don't think bad for you, are gonna do you the dirtiest way possible, whenever they strike an opportunity. 

Some individuals have way more hatred contained in themselves than those ones who are deemed real haters. 

UPDATE:

If somebody thought I was simply talking bullshit, I got screencaps to further strengthen my point regarding the "moderation abuse" - there always is a starting point for something, things dont just occur out of nowhere.

Nicknames are blurred for my intention is not to create flak over someone in specific or unnecessary tension, but to highlight that part of the mods behavior, which is messing up with people, which speaks volumes about everything that happened through the years and is happening within the Discord server. With the knowledge of its owners.

A lot more can be said and shown as I always screenshoted such & similar ""ordinary"" (double quotation marks here!) crap when it happened. 

This is one of the reasons I was found "annoying" - besides the usual memes, which if not liked by a certain person, the very same person could simply have blocked me and moved on, if one's to think logically.

Yeap, I was "annoying" not for voicing my disappointment/criticizing the company - I have the right to, being an owner of its product, whether the company itself or anybody else likes it or not, it's consumer rights - but because I knew my stuff and knew how to stand my ground when someone was trying to drag me in a situation that would've easily justified a reason for permanent ban. 

Lost count how many times I was attempted to be involved into different crazy conversations - at times I was foolish to jump in such, and this contributed somewhat to people hating me, I admit - but the rest of it I knew what people are up to and it never worked.

Wouldn't have lasted  8 years in that community if I was so easy to manipulate.

P.S. Oh, damn... came across even older file, one from... wait for it... 4 July 2023

Timeouts flying like mosquitos! The more I dig, the more I find, lol.

P.S.2. And here comes an actual illustration of how an out of control server looks like, literally. More evidence of "we'll let this pass, its fine" type of "allowed rule violation"... so to speak. Yet another golden example of how when you're not playing by the book and you're pulling the victim card to turn everyone against someone in specific you dislike for no reason other than his/her opinion on whatever matter, will have you become a trusted, loved member among the staff.

Why I didn't hide his nickname? Well, the guy in question, "AMewTwo", has been stirring drama for weeks in connection to his personal life. The chat log in the screenshot I could gather after I was 6-weeks muted, shows he's been doing it repeatedly and for a prolonged period of time - makes you think the reason is to provoke people... And you're right. Let's face it. It's hard to believe a person claiming something of this kind, hundred times a day, spamming it specifically - it just doesn't give a feeling of truth/honesty/you name it. Yeah, it could very well be, but the way it was handled, following a pattern, to me it speaks of simply... ill intention. 

It's so wrong people resort to such "dunno what the right word to use here is.." to rank up themselves these days... its horrible, akin to the Tiktok shit with people literally putting their lives in danger for selfies and clout. Bar none these days to what people are ready to do to achieve their goal.

The fact he's been onto me like a hunter after its prey ever since I called him out at one point, without really having a clue what's up with him to act like that, because I found his behavior becoming far suspicious, further cements my thesis about the ill intention.

Why the hell, would someone expose a matter of his personal life to the internet, more so in a video game related discussion forum, out of nowhere, and attempt to have people discussing that topic by aggressively making remarks of it, non-stop, ultimately spamming, right... It doesn't make any logical sense - whatever brought him to such a state of mind, its only him who knows, yet his aim isn't how it tends to look on the surface, at least once you see the screenshot and spot the pattern. Moreover, half a week since I'm banned, he's still intentionally running the topic of me gone, over and over again, how, you see, as if "I was the biggest evil" to grace the world wide web, talking dirty of me all along while making himself sound like a down to earth, peaceful dude who has no hard feelings towards anyone. Once you put all the pieces together, things gets a far different outlook

On the bright side of things, I have to say I'm thankful for not being part of this community no more, seeing nowadays, unlike before, the majority of its regular members come by only for the slander, provocation and other malicious activities. If that's their understanding of good times, its okay, I respect their choice My idea of an online community doesn't involve malice being one of the driving factors to be part of a server, though.

P.S.3. STOCtown's self-destructing management proven in a quick-to-read, all-in-one type of a banger image. The proof of it all. The cream of the crop! 

TL:DR: I'm done with the official STALKER 2 Discord community, it was fun being part of it while it wasted. Still on the app and still in all those other Stalker-related servers I've been. Nothing has changed. Good hunting, stalkers!