Spoiler
I dont get this early access shit. If you release a game to the general public I'm gonna judge that game like any other game, regardless of the "early access" stamp you've put on it. Bannerlord was a direct step down in many ways from Warband (I wrote a massive steam review about it, so don't tell me I am just hating without giving constructive criticism). This gave loads of people a shitty first impression, which resulted in many of them dropping the game within the first month. Getting those people back to your game when their first impression was extremely negative is very difficult. Which is why I fear that Bannerlord (or any mod for it) won't be able to attract the amount of players that we were hoping it would. The biggest deal for most people were the missing private servers, so maybe that would give Bannerlord a big impulse of players for a while. But if the rest of the game is still mediocre by that point, then Bannerlord won't be able to retain those players. Unless some youtuber or streamer comes around and makes it immensely popular, I fear that Bannerlord will never reach the consistent player base that Warband once had.
I understand your point of view about the game and I understand that you want a perfect game as soon as it comes out and honestly I do too.
I took the liberty of reading your review on Steam and it touches on points that I agree with and that are legitimate, such as private servers and the like. But fortunately most of the points you made in your review have been corrected with the various patches that have been released since your review. I would even say the totality except for the private servers and some specificities concerning the choice of equipment which is rather restricted in multi-player. but again, it's an Early Access and in in six months time all this will be included in the game
As far as the first impression is concerned, I'm not really worried. First, as well as for Warband, what has made the basis of the game is the single-player community which is very active on BannerLord at the moment and which doesn't seem to get tired of the game thanks to the very regular updates. (I remember a data which indicated 14,000 players playing the game at the same time just on the solo during a connection peak in one random day)
The two games are really different but in my opinion (and I'm likely to get the wrath and anger of many players) BannerLord, at the moment, is a very good game and a good experience. When players who have had a bad impression will try the game again, they will probably say "it's true that the game has improved a lot, let's test some multiplayer and matchmaking and clan wars". If the game is good, I'm not worried about how many players will play it. The same goes for youtubers or streamers. I'm not worried about BannerLord. On the other hand, Warband is doomed to disappear sooner or later.
But I'm going to stop there, I don't want to be a zealous defender of BannerLord either. I was writing these messages to really bring nuance. I have almost 500 hours of play at the moment (which will undoubtedly increase in the days/months/years to come) and I have really seen the positive evolution of the game. I still have a lot to learn from the game and I'm really happy to be able to talk directly with the developers who are passionate about their job and does not hesitate to come and test their game with us. we can talk on discord and indicate the points to be improved and they take this into account. Like for example this thread from a clan leader.
https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/s-rank-bannerlord-gamer-feedback-on-beta.434978/I'm not trying to convince, I think that a lot of opinions are very "clear-cut" on the game from the first impression. I just want to present my personnal opinions and arguments (shares by a lot of players) that don't fit with the sentence that is wrong "BANNERLORD IS SHIT". Honestly, I repeat myself, BannerLord will evolve while one day Taleword will shut down the Warband servers and then we will have to change the game or go to BannerLord. But again, it won't be for a long time and I think the most important thing is that everyone finds pleasure and fun in playing a good game whether it's Warband or BannerLord.