I still think it's funny they even bothered to announce the removal of Suwari because they wouldn't be done in time for the game to come out, when it's already so delayed I'm really not sure why they even bothered. Surely all this 'extra time' they're taking could be made to include Suwari at this point, I mean, we've already waited a ridiculous amount since their initial hype push. All that announcement did was upset people, and make folks think a release date must have been coming up (or else why cut stuff because it wouldn't be ready in time?) and that didn't help morale any.
That, folks, is why you don't hype your game then abruptly fall off the face of the earth. It's bad form. I don't care if it's 'the way Simu always does things'. If you're gonna be secretive, be secretive -- but there's a difference between keeping a tight lid on a project and dangling it in front of people's noses then whisking it away (which was what the whole gameshow demo and flurry of official site updates was).
They should know, if they've ever looked at other MMO fanbases, that pulling that kind of thing creates bitter fans and results in bad word of mouth from those fans. Spellborn had the same problem -- they announced like, 5 different release dates, and then at the last minute for each of those dates, they pulled out and said 'Sorry, its not ready yet!'. Once I can understand, but FIVE? Also, zero communication to beta testers about patches or anything else. When I was on the beta boards, I saw lots of testy, bitter fans and decreasing morale. All because of a bad hype schedule and lack of communication. And so far HJ has done the exact same thing -- poor choice of hype cycle, abrupt end of that hype cycle, and then complete silence. It's very discouraging.
Even WoW, which I believe was in development for 5-6 years, didn't stop communicating with fans and releasing tidbits of info. That kept the fans excited and interested, even though it was a long time of waiting, because they could 'feel' the progression of the game and talk about it with other fans (thus sustaining and building their community). Refusing to do that just makes fans think there ISN'T any progress being made, and eventually they'll just give up caring.
