Lately it seems (and I could be misinterpreting or imagining things) they've been addressing the communication issues by sending Aphrodite to stand in Haven occasionally and chat, which is a fairly elegant solution considering that it prevents people from quoting them and saying things about them that are absolutely true. The only real issue with this is that it doesn't do more than establish a very small staff presence; people are still asking about the update, and are still wondering how big it will be, and are generally more sad than totally stoked.

The general attitude among people seems to be "Wow. The big delay on the small update." rather than "WOW! THE BIG UPDATE!", and that is really the issue. Assuming of course that the gunner update isn't just guns, as was evidenced by the summer's Herex teasers.

@arcknight
no point in waiting for a GM, save the trouble and just lose it now
(watch as a GM shows up and proves me wrong)

Arguments? there is nothing to argue about here.

I'm not going to try and be an angel of salvation for anything or anyone, especially if it is through spreading lies and instilling wrong ideas into the community, we had enough of that bull~@$&.
If anything, I'm going to take grip of the knife, bury it deeper into your chest, pierce your heart and then twist it, TWIST IT TWIST IIIIIT!

its probably been almost 2 years since i last touched this game. the thing that finally turned me off was after countless vanaduke runs, they suddenly changed the CE system. i dont even remember how it was anymore but that was what made me and my friends quit playing. and it seems the server are getting lags more frequently but maybe its just my connection back then.
now as i started to remember the game i feel like checking out whats been updated ever since i left. which is probably nothing. as the wiki doesnt mention anything new, no new bosses, biomes, only probably seasonal events that they have been doing over and over or more cosmetic promos.

i invested quite the time for this game so itd be unfortunate if this game gets shut down. but its just like the other MMO i played on steam which is called rusty hearts. it started with almost no actual new content getting added, then slowly people stopped playing after getting capped , then the market started to crash after that the game is barren and even worse in the forums.

as much as i hate to realize this while almost picking this game up again, i think theres a high chance that they might give this game a rest. when a lot of people stop playing, then a lot of people stop paying for things, which is probably the reason for the ungodly amount of cosmetics they are pushing through, if sega feels the game isnt bringing in as much money anymore, i dont think they will bother updating the game again.

perhaps they might try giving it one big update and see if it brings in any new/old players back, if not then it might only be a matter of time before they stop their services.

probably being too pessimistic as of now since when i check this game out after all this time theres almost no new major updates. but the signs are showing up exactly like how my old mmo died. lets hope this game can prevail lol. and sorry for the wall of text

We actually need more people speaking the truth from the heart rather than people defending what OOO have been doing recently. We don't hate OOO it's actually the love we have for them that concerns us when important game changing updates are announced (being careful with my words) and we hear nothing for over a year.

So again good on Thunder-The-Bright for taking the time to write this up.

This dance has been done so many times. Before I say my part, let me clarify a few things.

I'm not a defender of OOO.
I am strongly against the actions of the company since our promos came with unique weapons. Ex. Mixmaster

One of the very huge problems that's glaring to all of us is what the company itself wants to do. Sure we can say suggestions to pass on but if the developers don't like it they'll simply shrug it off. Quietly, mind you since there will probably never be a moment where one just shows up and says "No." Tbh, i'd like for one to show up every now and then so we can bounce off constructive criticism for an idea.

I know some of you don't like to talk about a game you love dying, but it's slowly becoming hard to oversee a stale game go no where in permanent content. Ignoring problems do not make them go away. People voicing some issues come from opinions, which can in turn make something better. While this is fine for some games to stop satisfying players, mmo's can aim to avoid falling under this category most of the time due to the possibilty for content to be added. Much like 90% of this thread I, too, wonder if OOO even wants to continue doing it.

Well i'm sure I've said nothing worthwhile to most of you, so I'll just sit this one out to see what's going to happen for the future of this game. Hopefully the next few updates will explode like battle sprites did and have all the havens crowded.

Three Rings having a small team isn't exactly my end-all argument, but rather the fact that their small team makes the way they like to create updates (that is make them big) take a very long time. The small team is what makes their process leave a lot to be desired. With a team the size of their current one, having small but consistent updates would easily please their playerbase. Instead they are still trying to go the big update route.

Essentially, they aren't making the wisest business choices when it comes to their players, but the game itself isn't lacking anything too much.

And things that are the players' fault should not be an issue we really need to discuss, as it's not something Three Rings can directly help with. Players who don't read tutorials are going to speed through the starter missions and not realize that the arcade is a wonderful thing, and might not know how to make accessories work. When the player's own ignorance is what is causing the issue, that is not something Three Rings needs to get involved with. The things Three Rings needs to work on for sure is update management and communication. Just about all the big issues arise from those areas.
Communication is key to keeping us players in the loop and satisfied, whereas update management is needed to push out a more consistent stream of updates to keep players occupied. What is unfortunate is that all the "playable updates" we've had recently have been limited time only, so players have had to rush it to get the full effect, which is no fun for anyone who just wants to enjoy the game.

I think they should release the statistics from the Census - That'd probably reveal a bit of information.

Hi there, I used to play this game back when it just came out on Steam and am just starting to come back now, on a new account. A lot of stuff has changed since I started playing, the mist energy system was actually something I really liked since it was basically telling you to take a break from playing video games and go outside etc, and made the grind non-existent.

But, I've played Warframe for about 3 months, and I must say that it was almost like the game did everything it could to make me quit, which I have. Every update felt rushed, and unfocused. Every update brought cool, but non-substantial new stuff to play with (that people would inevitably get bored with before the next update), but the bug fixes would be things that were reported almost half a year ago. It felt like with every single update the game was taking one step forward and two steps back. Now, some of this is most definitely the fault of the developers of Warframe, as they seem to be confused on where they actually want to take the game, instead trying to cram every single cool thing they can think of into it (mecha space battles! yay?). But something has to be said about the update structure as well.

Like Digital Extremes, Three Rings is a relatively small company, with very limited resources. And I honestly think that organized, large updates are much better for small development teams to do, as the team can search for bugs, and adjust things (such as balance, which requires a lot of testing and consideration) for as long as they want, as opposed to frantically working overtime to sloppily get the new patch in every week. This is clearly shown by Warframe's absolutely terrible sense of balance with what little progression system they have sorting the most powerful weapon in the game into Rank 2, and much weaker weapons into Rank 5 and above. In short, quality over quantity. People can wait, patience is a virtue, after all.

Secondly, releasing large updates means the the dev team will be relatively free after the update, as they finished everything for the time being and aren't frantically working to get the next update out in a short period of time. This means that they actually have time to evaluate feedback on the update, and make an informed adjustment if needed. Warframe's developers do not have the opportunity to do this at all, resulting in half-assed balance changes that do nothing more than inflame the community. This brings up another point, which is that large updates have a sense of solidity, or permanence in them, leading to less knee-jerk reactions when people feel that they should accept things as they are. On the other hand, with small, frequent updates, things often come as a shock to the community (especially if they are part of a series of larger changes that don't make sense independently), and give the impression that things are easily reversed/changed, making for a very whiny community.

Basically, I think having the developers combine everything they want to add into one package, with time to polish their work is better than being pressured to meet deadlines, even if it takes Valve-Months.

The forums aren't as active as they used to be but I don't recall new recruits or the arsenal ever being popular sections.

I can't believe I've read all of the word in this topic. It is amazing.

It is much simpler to pick out missions that fit your armor, but running arcade shouldn't be a hassle for a player with a varied arsenal. I can see how a player who has only one 5 star set would like to focus on certain missions that don't go against his set, but I am beyond that point so both arcade and missions are equally viable for me.

Actually you can see what each gate holds before you go but you aren't guaranteed the exact lineup of floors though generally you end up against whatever the stratum theme is.

The next floor could be one of 4 choices but each of these choices have practically the same threats regardless.

What's really concerning about what OOO is doing is that if they spend too long making the update and lose too many players in the mean time, they may just end up cutting their losses because of the overwhelming lack of audience, stopping its development and SK becomes end of line.

Now the longer time goes on, I become more hopeful that this next update will be mind blowing, and completely rejuvinate SK as a whole. I mean they manage to code new gun mechanics for promotions quite easily, so imagine what the fruits of 13+ months of labour will be like.

However, if it isn't, you can guarantee I won't be playing SK again, as will be the thinking of others who've become disinterested, because a couple of new guns alone wouldn't have been worth the wait.

So again I think about paragraph two, and try to convince myself thatll happen, and I so desperately hope it will. Why you play our heart strings OOO ;(

MMOs come and go for as long as there are people playing it. Thankfully, SK fills a lot of niches to keep a steady stream of players playing. As a new player, I love this game. I hear all these complaints about how veterans prefer the old system, and speaking as someone who started playing AFTER the ce system shift, the old system sounds like hell to me.

I don't think SK is dying at all. I'm still meeting with a lot of new players, some paying some not, still running to veterans (some even claiming to be happy with the disappearance of mist energy), and am still finding myself desiring to play this game for hours.

One day I'll cap out I'm sure. But so does everyone at some point. But by then, some new starry-eyed recruit would have taken my place and the cycle continues. The only way SK would really die for good is if either the market finally crashes (a lot of people say the market is ABOUT to crash, but it hasn't happened so who cares?), the servers stop running, or nobody is playing anymore.

Even should the devs stop making new content, as long as there are still people playing, the game is not dead yet.

Is this game fun? Yes.
Would I recommend it to people who havent played it before? Yes.
Am I eagerly awaiting new exciting content? Yes.

I'm patient.
I stopped commenting on the forums because I realized I didnt enjoy fighting angry players. Maybe a lot of the other forumers came to a similar conclusion.

I dont think the devs would enjoy me pointing out every little thing that I would change about their game because its not my game.
I dont think the other players particularly enjoy me telling them why I think their suggestions are bad because its not my idea.
I dont think making disappointing long forum rants has any influence on the direction of the game because it is only on voice in the community.

I do think that OOO staff try and analyze what brings players, what keeps players longer, and what makes players happy.
I do think that OOO staff try and act upon the details in the previous sentence in their best interest.

I do hope that OOO staff's best interests line up with my interests in this game.