Firstly, I’d like to say that I’m making this thread not as an attack on OOO or the player base. I’ve written this in compliance with forum rules - but I understand if OOO and staff decide to censor/graveyard my post to block negative PR. I hope that, if this thread sticks around, other people will follow suit, because it’s easy to hate on a development studio when we don’t know the people who work day in and out to make a living, pay rent, and avoid Sallie Mae collections.
Spiral Knights was a great game both during its initial release and now. The game offers such great playability that is reminiscent of the Four Swords Zelda games and is something unparalleled by competing games. I think we can all appreciate that OOO has taken strides in the past to correct systems that caused disgruntlement issues in the player base: things like elevator fees, replacing crafting fees with orbs that drop, re-balancing gunner builds, etc.
I also remember the beta (yes, back when you could actually enter the core!), where OOO staff would hang out and foster our community and have an open dialogue with players. I think that’s what’s so different about Spiral Knights this year, because it’s as if the staff has sort of… disappeared.
Now, I understand if the staff is busy working on new content, but I do wonder – how much work would it take for OOO staff to get in touch with the community? And what concerns me, is that it seems like this may not be something OOO is interested in at all. Originally I had hoped to ask staff members about things like game mechanics (e.g. I rolled 625 UV’s and found bugs in how the game handles probability that will negatively affect players) or when the new event is (yes, the one we’ve been waiting for for a month), yet there’s something I found on the support page.
There is no e-mail form for game feedback. Only for the problems.
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Support_Portal
So I’d like to tell a story about my best friend at my university – she worked at a Wet Seal store in a mall for 6 years and was taking courses with me in order to become eligible for district management. Then there was one week we hung out together, and she complained about how aloof her manager was being, having not spoken to her for two weeks straight. The next day, Wet Seal closed 2/3rds of their stores without notice, and she’s sleeping on my couch because she defaulted on rent. Here’s a picture of the aftermath at other stores: http://www.thestranger.com/binary/ad99/1420486471-aj1l9at.jpg
And I can’t help but think, that OOO staff may be staying silent for similar reasons. We don’t see or hear from the staff any more, and we don’t know what the future of this game may hold. Every day, dozens of Vanguards leave Spiral Knights, and every day, it just seems ever so like someone might pull the plug.
For me, I don’t see Spiral Knights getting any better. Perhaps I’d be enticed to stay if OOO would just tell us about the future of this game, but I think I understand.
So anyways, I hope this clears up some people who were asking about why I was leaving this game.
Another one of these threads...?
Well here comes another wave I guess.
In all honesty, Spiral Knights has been "dying" since release. All MMOs are if you listen to every person who posts a complaint. We all have a problem that the game revolves around ourselves, and that if we aren't having constant fun then the "game is dying". That's just human nature however, since we only posses what we experience.
Three Rings are, last I checked, still sorta small but I recall them working on a mobile app/game. They do more than just work on Spiral Knights, so it's not surprising that they aren't super keen on making new stuff for it every other week (not including promos, which are literally just that).
Quiet staff is in part because half the community treats the devs like god, and the other half treat them life trash. It seems the rare times they do speak out the unhappy players gnit-pick what the developers have said, unless it is on the testing forum in which case gnit-picking the new testing stuff is pretty helpful feedback. I'm pretty sure we'd all love to have more interactions with the developers, but it's not always the best.
From the tone of your post, you seem like you're burn-out from the game but still want to play it. I'd recommend whenever you feel as if a game has lost its touch to turn your eyes to something new instead of digressing over the old. Three Rings has problems, and has had this communication problem for a long time, however it's just how the lifespan of a game works - game developers are super into developing a game at the start, interest falls shorter the more projects that are done away from the one in question.
Go ahead and try out a new game that's fresh in development if you really want the passion of the devs to be alongside you. Killing Floor 2 just released on early access and is very promising! If that's not your cup of tea, I'm sure there's plenty of games out there to follow.