A farewell to Ready or Not

An open letter and farewell to the community

Vision. Potential. Result.

Three important pillars. All three influence the development of the studio, the customer's buying decision, and the longevity of a title.

A clear vision will exploit the potential of the team to achieve an outstanding result.

Ideally, that is understood.

So does the vision of Ready or Not align with the potential of the team? And how does this affect the result, version 1.0?

To answer this, let's first look back a few years. To the year 2017, when the title was presented to the broad masses of the internet.

Classical music. A rough tone. Gloomy atmosphere. No visually stunning explosions, as "the others" do.

Here we want to emphasize: It's serious. We want to make it clear to you that terrible things are happening out there.

In the following weeks and months, attention grows. The fanbase grows. The expectations grow.

With every additional video, with every additional screenshot, and with every additional piece of information, it is emphasized once again:

Ready or Not, this is not just another new shooter with police skins.

Those at Void Interactive mean it seriously. This title wants to find... and set limits.

Ghost Recon.. SWAT 4.. Rainbow Six.. oh boy, those are big shoes to fill.

There are many, many out there who eagerly await this type of tactical game.

Because the other series have unfortunately died out, taken a different path, or completely lost their identity.

That's where Ready or Not comes at the best possible time.

-- Several more years should pass. But you stell keep taking a look at the process every now and then. Want to stay up to date. --

Suddenly it's the end of 2021. It's December. The title will go into Early Access.

So many cool trailers. So many exciting impressions. The developers always so open to their community.

For me, all signals are set to success. Finally, I get the serious tactical shooter I've been following for years.

And without hesitation, the Steam download is started. Then the game.

And it's great. It's fun. It looks very good. The scope is fantastic. It's exactly what I wanted.

Sure, there are still a few quirks here and there. But hey, it's in Early Access. That'll do.

This doesn't detract from my euphoria to love the title. Currently, there is nothing comparable.

There are 1-2 competitors, but none of them can hold a candle to Ready or Not.

Also, the game is based on the Unreal Engine. So many possibilities for mods! Additional content. What more could you want.

So I also join the Modding Discord Server. But.. what's going on here?

There's a hail of racist remarks.. sexist remarks.. homophobia.. people boasting about already being banned on the official channels.

Modding somehow only very rarely revolves around actual modding. And if it does, it's about how cumbersome the title is. How limited the possibilities are.

A small first damper. But again, I make it clear to myself: We're still at the beginning, that's okay. Who am I to already have high expectations?

But gradually, the first cool mods are coming in. In the background, the Modding Server continues to tear itself apart.

However, more and more people are starting to cry out that this cannot go on. Why isn't there a proper intervention?

And then.. boom. The Modding Server is suddenly gone. What happened?

The "why and how" have been discussed enough, so I'd rather focus on the "what then?"

The messages on the official Ready or Not server are flying. No one really knows anything.

But one thing is clear to everyone: Somehow, a new point of contact must be found. So a new Modding Server is promptly born.

Ready or Mod, the phoenix from the ashes so to speak. After some stumbling blocks, it's clear: Whatever happened on the other server, history will not repeat itself here.

And so I got to know "widowz." The server owner of Ready or Mod. Somewhere between "I'm watching closely that no nonsense happens here" and "but I also like a bit of trolling." And that's a good thing. Not taking everything too seriously, but still steering a clear course. I still like him a lot today.

But in one aspect, there was still a slight lack: Moderation and management of a large Discord community server.

So, I occasionally threw in improvement suggestions here and there. We also exchanged ideas via DM.

I was very familiar with this from other servers, in both smaller and larger communities.

And eventually, he asked me quite casually, "Do you want to become an admin?" to which I replied that I was very honored by the question and of course, I'd love to help wherever I can. So I agreed.

We continued to spruce up the server, making it visually more appealing, and maintaining clear guidelines.

After the debacle of the first server, Void had obviously become very cautious in dealing with and promoting the Modding Community.

We wanted to minimize damage as much as possible and polish up the image. Looking back, I think we handled that very well.

Over time, we continued to try out new things, fine-tune the server, and optimize things behind the scenes to provide everyone with the best possible point of contact.

Also, widowz gradually stepped back and more or less handed me the reins.

I think he trusted me in this regard and just let me do my thing. And I'm very grateful for that.

Especially with the announcement and introduction of Mod.io, many stressful days ensued, with many people involved behind the scenes.

But we managed it very well in hindsight.

However, the introduction of Mod.io was a kind of wake-up call for me personally.

On paper, the decision seemed... understandable at first?

But it also suddenly highlighted a trend that I couldn't ignore:

The significant difference between vision, potential, and result.

And at this point, I want to make it explicitly clear:

This reflects solely my personal opinion and perception.

Everything that follows can be evaluated by each individual, agreed with, or disagreed with entirely.

And no one will be personally attacked in any way.

Unfortunately, I have to say that Ready or Not has lost me. And not because it's a bad product.

It's far from it. The game is solid, offers plenty of content, and evidently makes a very large community very happy.

However, it's not the title I've been following for years.

The sheer volume of altered, cut, invented, and withheld content is enormous.

The illusion of fostering a community that has almost no relevance in feedback, desires, or decision-making is sad.

The ignorance of carrying problems for months without addressing them and offloading them onto the customer's shoulders is negligent.

Disguising ignorance and slow progress as caution, resulting in a still unfinished product, is very questionable.

I don't want to accuse the studio of not knowing what they're doing. Absolutely not.

However, it's apparent that they've bitten off more than they can chew in terms of how said vision should be implemented.

Which resulted in the potential not being realized.

Which, in turn, resulted in the result not reflecting what it originally was supposed to be or could have been.

At Void Interactive, some of the most talented, ambitious, and creative minds worked on making Ready or Not a hit.

But for reasons that aren't clear to me, they stubbornly stick to their guns and don't consider very valid, very profound, and fundamental feedback.

It's absolutely understandable that Void develops the game and they're still the ones ultimately selling their product.

Maybe it's naivety... maybe it's regret... maybe I'm just seeing it wrong.

At the end of the day, everyone has to decide for themselves how they classify Ready or Not as we have it today, considering what has been communicated, announced, hinted at, promised, discarded, canceled, reinvented, lied about, obscured, or changed over the years.

A Story Mode, for me personally, is not a Practice Mode where I have to click two more times because a banner tells me that a randomly generated AI colleague might not participate in the next round.

And this is just one specific point that I want to list here, while dozens could follow. However, this letter is already significantly too long, and the other points can be found in abundance on other channels, in comment sections, in videos, and in little-noticed feedback sections.

Not from me. But from a great community that has a lot to say. That has a lot of love to give, many creative suggestions ready, and just wants to be heard.

Therefore, I sincerely wish Void Interactive only the best. That Ready or Not becomes "THE" product that combines vision and potential.

I have received nothing but love, respect, and an open heart from many people on this team.

So it was all the more painful for me to write these words, draw a line for myself personally, and simply say goodbye.

It was a wild ride, and I'm grateful to have met many great, creative, crazy people in this community.

Wherever the journey may take us, as a Ready or Not fan, I will continue to watch with interest and am curious about what the future holds.

See You Space Cowboy...

Crussong, out.