I can't speak for the others here in any official sense, but I REALLY hope that Vogel, or any of his forum base, that visits this thread pays attention to these comments, because Codex members have bought and praised plenty of your games in the past.
Vogel, you need to get one thing straight - for the most part (i.e. if you exclude the trolls who are really only interested in shiny AAA games anyway) we aren't complaining because your new games are shittier than the current crop of AAA games. Yes, we really like it that a developer is making turn-based tactical combat games.
And here's the important part: many of us aren't criticising you for your games being 'crap', we're criticising you because you've proved to us that you are capable of so much better. At their height, your games absolutely shat on anything that the mainstream developers produced, and I'm including companies like Obsidian and CD-Project, not just the usual suspects.
Now, I'm speaking from the Geneforge fan-base side of things. Avernum fans may differ. But for me, Avadon seemed like an attempt to recreate Baldur's Gate 2 / KoToR with an improved turn-based combat system. By itself, that's a really worthy goal, and if taken in isolation, I can understand why you'd say 'how come these guys are complaining?'. But here's the thing: the Geneforge series, and especially G4 and G5, shat all over Baldur's Gate and KoTOR. They say that niche or indie companies should find one thing that they do better than anyone else, and focus on making sure that they're the absolute best at it. With the latter Geneforge games you found that. You did what Bethesda has been trying (unsuccessfully) to do for its entire existence: create a genuinely free-form game, with massive factional and sub-factional choices, meaningful mechanics-based choices (some areas accessible to some builds easily, others would find it more difficult, others would need to find a new way around with allies or a different zone altogether) AND combine it with a cool story and story-based C+C. Mechanics-based C+C, story-based C+C, open world where one player's quest hub is another's enemy base, AND tactical combat to boot (not to mention stealth, avoidance strategies, hidden tech solutions...) - in one game? Nobody else has come close to that.
See, as a solo developer, you need to know where your strengths are. And they've NEVER been in writing - sorry, but that's not an insult, that's a byproduct of the inability to hire professional writers to back you up. You're strengths were that you could create these games with truly awesome degrees and types of choice, and in a really original setting (you make a setting where all 'magic' is actually tech-based, and all such tech is based on genetic engineering, which then seems to rely uncomfortably on exploitation of the engineered creatures....but when the rebellion comes, it isn't the cliched 'hooray, overhrow the evil empire - the shapers have really good reason to want to keep a tight control over things, and then slowly over the series it isn't the shapers, but the proliferation of shaping technology, as one faction gains it, then another, then another, until the world is a nightmare mess of rogue creations and living minefields...and you follow THAT up with a generic fantasy setting????).
Avadon might well have been one of the better games made that year. But why do you try to emulate your lessers? Bioware and Bethesda should be looking at the Geneforge series and taking lessons from YOU, not the other way around. If we're getting rowdy it's because you've already proven to us that you can do so much better - don't blame us for asking you to live up to your own talent.
