4Game

For a while now I've had a particular feeling about Frontier's approach to suggestions of pro-xeno content and the community's reception of such suggestions. I finally found a way to describe these feelings through a cake and fruit salad analogy.

You're sat down at the only acceptable restaurant in town, whose famous (and only) desert is chocolate cake. Almost everyone likes the chocolate cake, but some eventually realize that too much chocolate cake is bad. So they suggest to their friend to eat less chocolate cake.

Their "friend" responds aggressively, "How dare you suggest I eat less chocolate cake? How dare you tell me what to eat!" The individual, not wanting to feel alone, stands up and shouts "hey, this guy wants us to eat less chocolate cake!" and everyone joins in on heckling the person that made the suggestion.

One of the hecklers asks "And what do you suggest we should eat instead, if there's only chocolate cake?" Timidly, the suggester replies "well, our town is bountiful with the sweetest fruit, and our chef is a culinary genius and has created culinary marvels in their time, so I was thinking about.. a fruit salad?"

Everyone looks shocked. Most look disgusted, but others, after a moment of silence, agree with them. "I would also try a fruit salad made by this chef" "Me too. I've had fruit salads before, but none made by this particular chef and with these particular fruit." The cake enjoyers snap back, "Ew, who eats fruits, what are you, rabbits?" And thus, a long argument ensues, that turns louder and louder and then simmers down to a bitter tension between the two sides.

After a few hours, the chef pokes his head out of the kitchen and asks what the noise is all about. The people who supported the possibility of a fruit salad conveyed their idea to the chef, using the same reasoning as before. The chef, uncomfortable, replies "Oh, you wouldn't want to try a fruit salad". "Why not? You're a genius cook and all you would need to do is cut up some of these fruits that are readily available and mix them together and people would enjoy your restaurant all the more." "But a year ago, everyone only wanted chocolate cake and vehemently denied anything else." "But today, we realize that too much chocolate cake is bad for people, so we thought–" "You wouldn't want to try a fruit salad. It would be horrible." Said the chef, his expression having regressed into a disquieting deadpan one. Then he suddenly smiles. "You seem upset. Why not try some of our chocolate cake?" "Your chocolate cake is indeed a work of art, but we've made up our minds: we want to see a fruit salad made by you."

The cake enjoyers started fuming and shouting obscenities at both the salad supporters and the chef, as the latter begrudgingly agreed to make a small sample fruit salad. He disappeared in the kitchen for a few minutes. When he came out, he presented the small bowl of fruit salad with a fanfare. The fruits glinted as if they were jewels. The chef then slammed the bowl onto the ground, which shattered loudly. The salad had been ruined. The salad enjoyers look horrified, and the cake enjoyers let out barbaric triumphant roars. "Looks like the salad wasn't good after all. And look what the salad did: the floor is a mess and shards of glass are now everywhere. This is your fault. You wanted me to make you this salad! You don't know what you're asking for. Now sit down and eat the chocolate cake!"

All Frontier (the genius chef) would have to do is mix together some of the wonderful elements of worldbuilding they've set up (the fruits) and nobody would complain anymore. But instead they tease us, make us invest time and emotions into a narrative that's meant to convince us to spend time and money into the game, only to then slam that teaser in our face at superluminal speed and say "no, you don't know what you want. Thargoids are bad, period. We've given you your taste of pro-xeno content, now shut up and sit down".

Except I personally will never sit down and accept this corporate cold silence, these subtle insults and this pettily time-wasting behavior that is on par with gaslighting. The above tale paints the chef in a good light, I dare say. It doesn't even mention the fact that Frontier's implementation of most events is so error-prone that sometimes we don't know what's a clue and what's a mistake. It also doesn't mention that the player choice aspect is just an illusion since we're never told how the alternative route would have gone. I may be wrong, and maybe pro-thargoid content is yet to come, in which case, I will retract my accusations of malice, but as it stands, Frontier blatantly wasted 4 CG's worth of players time and hopes on the Kingfisher event.