1. I do think a few forum users, or a lot of forum users, can cause enough of a bad image push back to impact the overall sales of the 7D2D products. The Emoji is only one reason that some people have a fair gripe with TFP. The Emoji bit is just another example of people refusing to learn that their actions have consequences and those consequences might be a few bad reviews.... or... they might culminate into a 5% dip in sales. Or... they may culminate into a much weaker Gold release. Why people are so hell bent on "I do what I want" while rolling the dice on how that plays out over something you love, is beyond me...
2. Game or not Game, business is business. And I did provide a business that tanked because of not giving appropriate consideration to their customer base.
3. If you think TFP is comparable to EA and can get away with anywhere near the level of crap EA get's away with, you're frankly high. Take a dip into the Steam universe and note all the games that went belly up. 7D2D isn't so big yet that it's not prone to the same possible fate.
4. How do you think No Man's Sky did on it's initial sales? They BARELY stayed alive. And how are they doing now? Much much better. Why are they doing better? Largely, because their actually paying attention to their player base now.
5. Two types of steam reviewers don't mean crap. And yeah, developers are always going to be at odds with pleasing everyone. It's not possible. Which is WHY you don't throw out stupid hoax drama. You've got enough problems to deal with. And it really only takes a small nudge to push any product into the Has Been Bin...
6. When the game goes to 1.0, who's going to be the first people to review the game? All those people you pissed off using their last and most ideal moment to stick it in the eye of a source that offended them.
I think overall we have two different views on what humans are and what makes products succeed and fail. *shrug* time will tell.
For what it's worth, I hope you guys are far more accurate than I...