wasn't going to respond at first, but, oh well.

@OP

This won't help the situation, having two factions like WoW will only split the player-base further, hence making the game seem "deader" or we risk having more players on one side than the other thus unbalancing the whole thing.

@Cyberswift

> You can see new players every day.

> You can see players new to T3 every day, so obviously people stay.

While this maybe true, the problem isn't with the fact that people stay, rather it lies in the following: How many people are staying?

Answer: Not many.

When a videogame/MMO can only secure 10 out of 100 new players, that means that there is a problem, not that it's something that should be celebrated.

> A game can reach a certain point, when it's "complete". For example, chess is kinda complete.

Yeah, except that SK isn't Chess, nor anywhere near it. Chess is balanced, SK is not. Chess has a strong following, SK does not. Chess does not need much improvements, SK does. Chess is about a thousand of years old, SK has been around since 2011. I think you get the idea, huh?

> So, if players keep bitching about the cool new things we got, after they asked for new things, what's the point.

> Maybe just keep selling people cosmetic stuff and reskins to keep the servers running and don't bother trying to please them with actual new features, because you can't just satisfy everyone. There will always be people complaining.

So, let's say you're a writer, and you just made a fantasy novel and published it. People buy your book, read it, like it, then ask you for a sequel. You make the sequel, people read it, but then people tell you it could be improved in terms of grammar and depth in character personality. Do you:

1- Stop making books because people told you your writing can be improved.

2- Fix what people are complaining about.

When people say they don't like compounds, it usually stems from the fact- and an objective fact, mind you- that compounds don't give out enough rewards to warrant its difficulty. The same thing includes Candle Stick keeps. These kind of levels, to me at least, are great fun, but in the end, they don't pay well enough to make me want to play them when there is an arena on the same depth. Buffing the loot output of those levels would be much appreciated instead of whining about the player base being ungrateful, which helps no one.

Similarly, when people urinate all over the forge system, it's not because they hate new content, it's usually because they are frustrated by the chance to fail and lose their crystals or maybe they don't like how the radiants drought puts a knife in their game process because they have way too many items that need forging. Yes, people asked for a replacement for the Mist energy system, however, they did not ask for you to overprice fire crystals and make the radiant drought.

As a content creator, you acknowledge that by publishing your work to the public that you will receive critique and varying opinions on your project, while it's up to you to decide what to do to improve your craft, it's silly- no, utterly freaking stupid to assume that everyone who takes time out their lives to review your work and give suggestions is trying to bring you down.

If we were to go by your mentality, we should stop making prize boxes too because people complained about those, so what the point. Taking another step forward, we should also just shut down Spiral Knights too because people complained about it, so what's the point.

tl;dr= Assuming that everyone has to enjoy what you make just because you made it is delusional. Just because you can't please everyone doesn't mean you can't please the majority.

> Of course, SK is different from chess, but that's not the point. The point are the parallels.

My point is that there are no parallels, so you're falling under the false equivalence fallacy. You have yet to explain what these parallels are.

> SK is also not a book, but I understand your metaphor, even though I don't fully agree.

Cool, except I wasn't comparing SK to books. I was pointing out that your views on critique are wrong.

Again:

Just because people complain about something, doesn't mean they hate it and will never like it. Hence, things like "Maybe just keep selling people cosmetic stuff and reskins to keep the servers running and don't bother trying to please them with actual new features, because you can't just satisfy everyone. There will always be people complaining." are invalid.

> About the player numbers: I don't use Steam. You're just looking at Steam numbers. It's the only numbers we have. Maybe the non-Steam numbers go the same way. Maybe not. Steam is an important platform, but I trust my daily experience in the game more than pure Steam statistics.

Yeah, and I trust my daily experience too. Speaking as a player from the middle east, SK's community isn't awake when I'm on. Therefore whenever I play, I have to solo everything. And remember, just because people are around for you, doesn't mean they are around for others.

> Ignore most of the stuff people say and keep on publishing, but stick to the principals that got you to sll books in the first place.

Yeah, cool thing, bro. What if your principals are out dated, tho.

You think the standards for entertainment today are the same as they were in 2011? You realize that new games come out and SK gets further pushed down the library, right? At the end of it, SK won't have a player base to sustain itself.

I'm saying this from experience, I have watched video-games go down in a similar fashion, a quite recent one being 4Story.

This is part of the reason I brought up the steam statistics. SK is losing players hence losing money, whether you like it or not. The less money made, the less likely SK will continue to get developed.

Therefore, the reason SK is not getting new content is because it is not as popular as you think it is.

You could argue "Oh, but Strayed, you should just enjoy the game for what it is, not what it could have been" to which I would reply, I actually do just that, but I don't go on and saying "the game is perfect ok" when we have reached a point where recycled content like Sleep fascinates us.

> Fun is also some kind of reward.

Fun is not a reward, it's the crux of why everyone is here. If people didn't have fun, they wouldn't be playing SK at all.

The reason we play through levels is to progress the game, hence the "reward" is progression. If playing through a compound does not help progression, then it's unrewarding.

> For example, Graveyards give more crowns on average than the items you get in Treasure Vaults are usually worth (due to lack of monsters in Treasure Vault), still most people prefer to play Treasure Vault.

....because Treasure Vault has more prize boxes in it. Prize boxes may contain radiants, which is the most sought after item today.

Believe it or not, people have more fun when they actually get a decent sized reward for their efforts. When they don't, they get upset. That's just how videogames work. You reward effort, man. Loot is also an important part of the game experience.

edit: fixed typos ;n;