A Fantasy 4X strategy game with civ building, tactical battles and the opportunities given by technology anno 2010. Simple! 

And yes, BTW, there are not many such games out there, old or new. 

Edit: typo.

I think you're wrong to assume that people have a lot of faith in the game due to some sort of denial or unwillingness to deal with the possibility that it won't be the sort of game we think it can be.

I think it will be improved upon because Stardock supports their games and has a track record of big improvements post-release.  It's not that worlds hang in the balance; it's just an expectation based on past performance.

The reason, I think, is because games like Elemental only come along once in a blue moon.  They are extremely rare, and the people interested in these kind of games wait years and years hopeful of the next one to come along.

First-person shooters, platformers, and even real-time strategy games are a dime a dozen.  Rarely does a week go by that you don't see another one of these kind of games.  If one doesn't live up to expections, we only need to await a short time until another one is released.

Everyone on these forums are fans of the genre and I think just about every one of us was really looking forward to Elemental.  When it was released, we fell into two camps: angry disappointment, and undying loyalty.  We're all dealing with it in a different way, and it is so extreme because of the high expectations we all have had.  

Many of us still do not want have to admit that we waited all those years for bitter disappointment, we are willing to lie a bit to ourselves to keep hope alive and to feel like we have not wasted our money and time.  Others have come to a reality that their dream was broken, and are bitter about it.

Let's clutter up the forums more with pointless debating so we can bury the pertinent threads with carefully crafted feedback.

A lot of us are hoping Elemental will be a triumphant return to a genre which has been all but abandoned. Happens to be my favorite genre.

I agree with this post.

Kuriostone summed it up  - MoM

I and a lot of other people by the looks of things have been waiting for over a decade for another game that good in this under served genre. This was supposed to be it.

It wasn't, hence the reactions.

I find myself forgiving a lot of the bugs and problems that Elemental has because, honestly, there's nothing else out there to play right now that even compares.  So if I start hating on Elemental, where do I turn to get some good Fantasy TBS without going back to the 90s?

I also forgive a lot of it because Elemental has quite a few novel features, namely the heavy Role-play aspects, the unique graphics, and the mod tools.  A pioneer in new territory is always going to be quite rough around the edges (if not REALLY rough).

Would I rather Elemental not have been made at all rather than be released chock full of bugs and issues: no way!  Stardock took a gamble with some new ideas - they didn't exactly turn out that well, but I'm glad they have tried very hard, and will continue to try.  That's a lot more than you can say about most developers who will play it safe year in and year out.

I agree with this, but I don't believe the gap is as great as it seems. A game like MoM (and, ultimately I think Elemental) combines aspects of city builder sims, fantasy RPGs, tactical combat, and exploration games. It holds great interest to the tabletop & board gaming crowd too. In addition, a turn-based game can be more approachable to casual gamers both because of pace and the lower hardware requirements compared to its faster-paced peers. All of this without sacrificing complexity, strategy, and limitless replayability for us gaming veterans.

It comes down to publicity. I'm sure I'm not the only one here that will start urging friends and family to buy Elemental once it has reached a "real" Gold version. I know three or four people outside my gaming friends who will really enjoy Elemental once it's ready. They aren't hardcore WoW raiders, they aren't Starcraft ladder players, they don't go to PAX. They are still gamers, even if they wouldn't identify with the label.

They're out there! Can't wait to share this gem with them once it's cut.

This is a false choice.  Brad / Frogboy (Stardock's CEO) has a very grown-up, honest, and impressive post on the subject in the second page of comments in the 'Why is everyone upset...' thread.  I think a lot of the problem is there wasn't a beta.  What was called a beta was really a combination focus group and alpha, which was fun and affected the direction of the game in mostly positive ways.  But the final 'game' was put together very quickly (was it a month?) without anyone ever playing the real version (that I recall, at least).  For a stark comparison, how many *years* does Blizzard tweak the final version?

Disclaimer: I already enjoy the game, and still expect great things.  I'm very sad it fell out this way because it will hurt Stardock, and fewer people will be willing to play the 'final' game (whenever that is) due to the bad word-of-mouth.  Here's hoping reviews of the expansions in a year or so will bend the curve back to positive!

Yeah, because I'm sure all the developers have no idea what the actual issues are... And this thread will now cover up all those issues, thus allowing the developers not to fix some important thing, and claim they didn't see it because of this specific thread... Please...

It's a symptom of how unhealthy the game market is.

People are tired of playing Warcraft 2/Doom/GTA over and over,  they want something else,  Elemental is something else,  so they're willing to be passionate for it.

I'll toss my hat in the "Because MoM, duh".  Which is also part of the vitrol being delivered on the game.  There's a lot of us who, as noted, have been waiting since 1994 for another Civ-like fantasy 4x game while all the industry has seemed to be interested in putting out is HOMM-style kingdom builders.. which while close, is not quite what we've been wanting.  When word started to get out that StarDock was trying to get the license to produce MoM2, it sent shockwaves through our small but ardent fandom.  We weren't fazed when we heard that the license fell through and it was going to be a 'spiritual successor'.  We all knew that just meant MoM with the serial numbers filed off.  There's honestly no way the game could have lived up to the hype MoM fans produced all on their own, so when it was released in a fairly broken state, that just made the backlash that much worse.

Same thing happened to Master of Orion III.. but thankfully EWOM isn't quite so fundamentally broken as that game was, and StarDock has a lot of love for the game and a reputation for great post-release care, so there's plenty of hope yet.