Personally, I think some of the confusion from not understanding the plugin, feature requests, false bug reports came from the demo being behind a paywall which limited how many people bought it versus downloading just the plugin when it was free. Demos for plugins are great, look at galv and moghunter. A user will ask how do I do this, the author just replies: it's in the demo. I mean look at almost all of galv's responses both here and his website, it's in the documentation or play the demo, or sorry this plugin doesn't do that, etc. But because olivia's was locked behind a paywall, many if not most of these "attackers" didn't pay for the demo or they wouldn't ask the same inane questions.
I will be the first to go ahead and say that even if there is a demo project out there in the public, it will not get rid of the bug reports. I've done this during the VX era, and in fact, all the demo did was cause more problems. Furthermore, if the said demo project is to deter problems, then Galv and Moghunter (the examples you've used) would not have the problems with user abuse that they did and would still be in the community. The same applies for SRDude and Victor Sant, two of which, have also left the community under similar user abuse.
For the way people treat each other online: that isn't just restricted to people online, go work in retail or the service industry. People suck, it's a fact and the only way to avoid their wrath is to just not deal with people. You want to release something to the public, better grow some thick skin. For every 10 people that like something one person hates it and guess what, he/she is the loudest. You could paint a masterpiece that the whole world adores, but there would still be seemingly more people that hate it just because they are very vocal and very loud. It's just the nature of the beast.
I agree it would better if people grow thicker skin, but I think it best if people behaved properly instead. It's a fact that content creators in this community are still being abused and leaving because of said abuse. This is not limited to just Olivia, but many other content creators as I've listed above. Many artists are under the same vein and are abused the same to the point where they all leave the same.
I've been hanging around this forum and a couple of discord chats for a little while now, not near as long as others, never heard of Olivia until all of a sudden everyone wanted an Octopath clone.
That's because she's a new member to the community, appeared a few months ago, and already made an immensely big impact on the community itself. Seeing as how she also hangs out in a couple of Discord chats herself, I'm more surprised you haven't heard of her unless you've been lurking in them and never really interacting.
I think I'm right since you've never posted in them. I don't quite think that qualifies as "hanging around" so much as it does "lurking".
So a couple of bad eggs made your feelings get hurt and you (her/both) decide to wall off your creation to protect your feelings, I say if this product is so amazing, why let these dumbasses get under your skin. Customer satisfaction is not about people praising you, it's about the willingness for someone to keep shopping with you and if they recommend you to their friends. This applies to all avenues of business. Most people just don't have the need to log on to the internet and sing praises of your genius but if they have a problem they go searching for answers get frustrated and throw tantrums. Once again, nature of the beast.
I will go ahead and say that feelings being hurt has nothing to do with Olivia's decision to require payments for her plugins. The decision came about the entitlement of abusive users from the community and if she's to continue supporting them, then she may as well get paid for it. It is a filter, to weed out the users who wouldn't be able to make a game with her plugins in the first place. Ask anyone who's been in the Discord chats, and you would get similar answers, not to mention seeing the support of her going towards paid plugins.
The locking of the thread here just proves how inexperienced one of you is, and Archeia you've been around forever so I just don't get it, and it screams you sunk to their level. You let trolls get under your skin. It doesn't speak professionally and the decision to move the plugins also reflects this. Its like children playing in the park, little Billy called little Suzie a name and now little Suzie's mom took away the park and put it in her backyard and charges kids to play on it. To hell with the poor kids who used to play there. It's all childish.
Looking at scenarios like this as a who wins against who situation is shallow thinking, which is akin to your comparison to the playground bullying session. Making personal attacks on Archeia also speaks volumes of this level of shallow thinking, too. You really ought to reconsider your personal attacks if you want your words to hold water.
I for one will not be using her plugins anytime soon. I was going to check it out when I had time between games but I am not going to pay for something I am not sure I need and until I try it out, how do I know it's a good fit for my game? I'm not going to waste money on something I can't try out. You drive a car before you buy it, try on clothes before you buy it, etc.
Then it seems like her reasoning behind limiting it worked: to filter out the people who wouldn't be making good use of it.
Test driving plugins is simply something that just doesn't work. The same with art assets. Let's take this to the next level, do you see this new
Humble Bundle with a test-drive option anywhere? I'd certainly love to test-drive some of these assets to see if they match my games and see if the music fits my cutscenes, but there's no such option. Looks like it's a no buy then (except I bought it). The reason there is no test-drive option is because there's no way to guarantee that a person won't run away with the creator's plugin or art assets as a form of theft. There's no people there to supervise you, unlike with test-driving a car or trying on clothes. That's just how retail works and anyone who is familiar with retail should know that.
I am a manager at a big box retailer
Well then.