Why do I have only 0.2 hours played? I did not buy the game through Steam and do not wish to play the game through Steam, so I have run the game for the minimum 10 minutes to be able to post a review.

Perhaps the simplest way to describe this game is with one image that describes the lack of development as well as intolerance of criticism by the developer regarding the game's development and outright punishment of his criticizers. In fact, the developer has pre-emptively banned me from Steam's forum for this game.

The developer's current response to this review is literally just a quick one-line dismissal as if playing the game for a long time precludes me from talking negatively about it and then he makes a sales pitch.

The developer has finally {LINK REMOVED}admitted that he has stopped all development on the game, as if it hadn't been already obvious considering the lack of updates in the past ten months (no longer true), the half-broken Steam version of the game (broken for a year already), and the extremely low quality and quantity of the updates before then. He has resorted to {LINK REMOVED}censoring and banning people who criticize the game's development, so this should be an obvious sign that the game is done for. When or if you buy this abandoned game, consider the fact that this disrespectful, uncaring and greedy "developer" will be getting your money.

========

Response to developer response (10 August 2014):


++++++++++
(original developer response)

"Hey everyone, right now Blockland is available in the Reboot 6.0 bundle from BundleStars: {LINK REMOVED}http://www.bundlestars.com/all-bundles/reboot-bundle-6/

6 great Steam games (including Blockland!) for only $2.99!

Why not pick it up, play Blockland for 5 years, then leave a negative Steam review?
See you back here in 2019!"
++++++++++

How nice of you to finally respond to one of the most thorough and drama-free reviews once it reached the front page! Oh wait, that's not really a response... it's a sales promotion. A sales promotion is definitely a valid response to everything I've already written here!

Believe it or not, it is quite possible to love the art but hate the artist. As a modder myself, I've dealt with years of your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ when it came to supporting modders and their needs. I had been running a hosting service for quite some time until the day I left, which is one of the biggest reasons I stayed so long. Unfortunately, you decided to take a "♥♥♥♥ it" approach when it came to supporting server hosting services (and modders), so now the game's largest two hosting services are gone and the community is left with almost nothing. You have banned users from your forum for criticizing the game, so once I finally had enough of your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, I left the game. Since you have no power here to permanently delete people's opinions, which you do at your own forum (evidence of this is in the very next segment of this review), this was the perfect chance to finally speak my mind without fearing all the possible consequences with which you could punish me. Considering that this review is now the top review, I think it's reasonable to say that people have had enough of your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, too.

It's not like I suddenly started hating the game. While I was still a part of the community, I felt as if I couldn't speak my mind since you punish everyone who criticizes it. I was able to realize my power to reach out to people once I was free from your reigns, so I exerted that power. This isn't some campaign of revenge: it's years of your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ finally brought to light.

========

Update (6 August 2014):

The owner of the game (Badspot) has silently banned "Heedicalking" from the game's official forum. Heedicalking is an important person in terms of the servers he hosted and his contributions to the community. Heedicalking often talks about the lack of game development on the forum in the most mature way possible. Development has in fact been lacking recently: in fact, there hasn't been a major update in the last 2 years. Many people were expecting him to be banned for simply criticizing the game's development, and voilà, he has finally been banned. The owner of the game is getting extremely defensive towards anyone who dares talk about the game's lack of development.


For reference, here are relevant links pertaining to the post removals:

{LINK REMOVED}http://blocklandcloud.com/heed/
{LINK REMOVED}https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/54466069/banned.png

========


Update (27 June 2014):

The owner of the game (Badspot) has banned LewnaJa and me from Blockland's Steam community. He also deleted the entire thread in which he had our responses. The thread (the poster was most likely not the victim) was pointing out how a ban was unfair. The same ban image also happened to be mentioned in an earlier review from February: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198044732390/recommended/250340/

Here is copy of thread: {LINK REMOVED}http://blocklandcloud.com/20140626-blockland-steam-removed-thread/

The ban reasons for us are the same and the posts cited for our bans were each of our first ones in that thread. This is LewnaJa's ban:
{LINK REMOVED}http://imgur.com/a/oX0ex

The owner has taken similar action towards LewnaJa when he initially posted his negative review and found himself banned from the game's official forum (not Steam's forum provided for the game).

Make your own conclusions about why the owner of the game felt so obliged to ban us. Today, the negative reviews have been piling up on the store page to the point where 3 of the 5 shown-to-everyone-by-default reviews were negative and it still remains that way. Fortunately he does not have the power to remove any reviews at all. It must be embarrassing for Badspot to have what is pretty much the front page for his game be covered in negativity.

========

Original review:

I have played this game for more than 5 years (not on Steam) and I am disappointed at how quickly it has declined. Don't be fooled into buying this game just because it looks great. The developers (developer) have abandoned the game. Check out my long elaboration on why I think the game is practically abandoned:
http://www.reddit.com/r/BlocklandIsHorrible/comments/267v7h/badspot_is_no_longer_doing_his_fair_share_of_work/

The game hasn't had a major update for 2 years and any update for 6 months. The game's most important people have been angry about the developer's ("Badspot") reluctance to maintain the game's development. Check out this satirical comic which illustrates the developer's greed: {LINK REMOVED}http://brockrandcomics.tumblr.com/post/92596058472/filipe-7-22-14

CLARIFICATION FOR BELOW PARAGRAPH: server hosting issues do not include those who have bought the game in the classical way and duplicated their purchases to their Steam accounts, because they can still run the game the classical way. The below paragraph applies to those who have exclusively bought the game from Steam and not on the Blockland website.

If you buy Blockland through Steam, you will have a lot of trouble hosting a server. Although there is technically a way to host a server by modifying the program's arguments, you can't play the game at the same time. Want someone else to circumvent these restrictions by hosting a server for you under your name? Too bad; hosting services cannot be used by people who bought the game through Steam. The developers have neglected Steam users and deprived them of server hosting for over 6 months. I think it's clear that they do not care anymore and are only trying to make a quick buck out of what the game has left.

(THIS HAS BEEN AN OUTSTANDING ISSUE FOR OVER A YEAR)




Some of you legacy players may find these statistics about the game's decline interesting: {LINK REMOVED}http://blocklandcloud.com/

Why do I have only 0.2 hours played? I did not buy the game through Steam and do not wish to play the game through Steam, so I have run the game for the minimum 10 minutes to be able to post a review. Perhaps the simplest way to describe this game is with [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=304619908]one image[/url] that describes the lack of development as well as [b]intolerance of criticism[/b] by the developer regarding the game's development and outright [b]punishment of his criticizers[/b]. In fact, the developer has [b]pre-emptively banned[/b] me from Steam's forum for this game. [b]The developer's current response to this review is literally just a quick one-line dismissal as if playing the game for a long time precludes me from talking negatively about it and then he makes a sales pitch.[/b] The developer has finally [url=http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=264261.msg7762181#msg7762181][u]admitted that he has stopped all development[/u][/url] on the game, as if it hadn't been already obvious considering the lack of updates in the past [b]ten months[/b] (no longer true), the half-broken Steam version of the game (broken for [b]a year[/b] already), and the extremely low quality and quantity of the updates before then. He has resorted to [url=http://blocklandcloud.com/heed/][u]censoring and banning people who criticize the game's development[/u][/url], so this should be an obvious sign that the game is done for. When or if you buy this abandoned game, consider the fact that this disrespectful, uncaring and greedy "developer" will be getting your money. ======== Response to developer response (10 August 2014): ++++++++++ (original developer response) "Hey everyone, right now Blockland is available in the Reboot 6.0 bundle from BundleStars: http://www.bundlestars.com/all-bundles/reboot-bundle-6/ 6 great Steam games (including Blockland!) for only $2.99! Why not pick it up, play Blockland for 5 years, then leave a negative Steam review? See you back here in 2019!" ++++++++++ How nice of you to finally respond to one of the most thorough and drama-free reviews once it reached the front page! Oh wait, that's not really a response... it's a sales promotion. A sales promotion is definitely a valid response to everything I've already written here! Believe it or not, it is quite possible to love the art but hate the artist. As a modder myself, I've dealt with years of your bullshit when it came to supporting modders and their needs. I had been running a hosting service for quite some time until the day I left, which is one of the biggest reasons I stayed so long. Unfortunately, you decided to take a "fuck it" approach when it came to supporting server hosting services (and modders), so now the game's largest two hosting services are gone and the community is left with almost nothing. You have banned users from your forum for criticizing the game, so once I finally had enough of your bullshit, I left the game. Since you have no power here to permanently delete people's opinions, which you do at your own forum (evidence of this is in the very next segment of this review), this was the perfect chance to finally speak my mind without fearing all the possible consequences with which you could punish me. Considering that this review is now the top review, I think it's reasonable to say that people have had enough of your bullshit, too. It's not like I suddenly started hating the game. While I was still a part of the community, I felt as if I couldn't speak my mind since you punish everyone who criticizes it. I was able to realize my power to reach out to people once I was free from your reigns, so I exerted that power. This isn't some campaign of revenge: it's years of your bullshit finally brought to light. ======== Update (6 August 2014): The owner of the game (Badspot) has silently banned "Heedicalking" from the game's official forum. Heedicalking is an important person in terms of the servers he hosted and his contributions to the community. Heedicalking often talks about the lack of game development on the forum in the most mature way possible. Development has in fact been lacking recently: in fact, there hasn't been a major update in the last 2 years. Many people were expecting him to be banned for simply criticizing the game's development, and voilà, he has finally been banned. The owner of the game is getting extremely defensive towards anyone who dares talk about the game's lack of development. For reference, here are relevant links pertaining to the post removals: http://blocklandcloud.com/heed/ https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/54466069/banned.png ======== Update (27 June 2014): The owner of the game (Badspot) has banned LewnaJa and me from Blockland's Steam community. He also deleted the entire thread in which he had our responses. The thread (the poster was most likely not the victim) was pointing out how a ban was unfair. The same ban image also happened to be mentioned in an earlier review from February: http://steamcommunity.com//profiles/76561198044732390/recommended/250340/ Here is copy of thread: http://blocklandcloud.com/20140626-blockland-steam-removed-thread/ The ban reasons for us are the same and the posts cited for our bans were each of our first ones in that thread. This is LewnaJa's ban: http://imgur.com/a/oX0ex The owner has taken similar action towards LewnaJa when he initially posted his negative review and found himself banned from the game's official forum (not Steam's forum provided for the game). Make your own conclusions about why the owner of the game felt so obliged to ban us. Today, the negative reviews have been piling up on the store page to the point where 3 of the 5 shown-to-everyone-by-default reviews were negative and it still remains that way. Fortunately he does not have the power to remove any reviews at all. It must be embarrassing for Badspot to have what is pretty much the front page for his game be covered in negativity. ======== Original review: I have played this game for more than 5 years (not on Steam) and I am disappointed at how quickly it has declined. Don't be fooled into buying this game just because it looks great. The developers (developer) have abandoned the game. Check out my long elaboration on why I think the game is practically abandoned: http://www.reddit.com/r/BlocklandIsHorrible/comments/267v7h/badspot_is_no_longer_doing_his_fair_share_of_work/ The game hasn't had a major update for 2 years and any update for 6 months. The game's most important people have been angry about the developer's ("Badspot") reluctance to maintain the game's development. Check out this satirical comic which illustrates the developer's greed: http://brockrandcomics.tumblr.com/post/92596058472/filipe-7-22-14 CLARIFICATION FOR BELOW PARAGRAPH: server hosting issues do not include those who have bought the game in the classical way and duplicated their purchases to their Steam accounts, because they can still run the game the classical way. The below paragraph applies to those who have exclusively bought the game from Steam and not on the Blockland website. If you buy Blockland through Steam, you will have a lot of trouble hosting a server. Although there is technically a way to host a server by modifying the program's arguments, you can't play the game at the same time. Want someone else to circumvent these restrictions by hosting a server for you under your name? Too bad; hosting services cannot be used by people who bought the game through Steam. The developers have neglected Steam users and deprived them of server hosting for over 6 months. I think it's clear that they do not care anymore and are only trying to make a quick buck out of what the game has left. (THIS HAS BEEN AN OUTSTANDING ISSUE FOR OVER A YEAR) Some of you legacy players may find these statistics about the game's decline interesting: http://blocklandcloud.com/