Is the Grey Haven being held hostage?
Thu, 03/07/2019 - 22:08
Scenario:
You're dev team crew of former OOO staff that survived the loss of your project leader, and your company's primary funder gives you chump change each month only with the promise that you continue maximize profits at whatever cost. The primary funder kills your project leader, main artist, musician and then abandons you, and suddenly the rest of the team doesn't know where their next paycheck is going to come from.
In a scramble, they pick up any graduate game dev they can find who graduated from college and was part of the social network group to have some semblance of what SK is. They aren't part of the core team, so there is no incentive to make great leaps and lasting changes to advance the game to a consumer friendly item (and doing that would require a lot of hard work!).
Spiral Knights and Grey Havens is being held hostage by the very thing that keeps it alive: PRIZE BOXES. It cannot escape this monetary model, and the writing is on the wall because even they know there is no reliable alternative to make money. They don't have to play their own game, so they don't suffer the way us players do. They can only hope that the money keeps rolling in so they won't become jobless devs and support staff in a gaming business environment that each day prefers less game and more $$$.
Cronus and the other staff of GH, if you can hear me, I know you read what I have to say sometimes, and my opinions come very harshly about the perception of the game as a whole because of it's anti consumer decisions. To me, perception is reality. And I know you have NDA and can't share your human opinions, but I'm sure somewhere on the other side of the internet is a human being who comes to work fearing the loss of something that has always been a part of your lives and careers, and why you have chosen to stay despite Nick leaving.
I'm glad you stuck around, despite the pressures and talk sometimes, even though you can't talk to me.
I want to say more, but you know how it is.
And if I'm completely wrong about all above, you better hide that bowl of candy on the back desk.
(I'm gonna write more positive things in the future)
Fri, 03/08/2019 - 12:22
#2
Yea. There's more than one way to fund the game. They just have to be willing to try to improve.
Sat, 03/09/2019 - 04:51
#3
http://prntscr.com/mvg4yd :(
Sat, 03/09/2019 - 16:38
#4
ehh
It's also worth noting that it's fairly likely that some team members are working part time because they love the game, while others may be working full time. This is still a paid job for them, but since certain GMs are located internationally the payments they receive may be worth more.
Next, we have 7 current GMs. I don't believe GMs work in this way, but for example: if every GM works every day, their shift would be at around 4 hours a day. That's a part-time shift, and since you can collaborate with your fellow GMs worldwide, it means you can likely get another part-time job in, or depending on work even another full time job.
As someone working in customer service currently (granted not in games), 24 hour coverage isn't mandatory, so this frees up even more time.
Purely speaking from a GM perspective since we don't have direct dev team numbers to work with (the credits list current and legacy members, whereas the game masters list mentions who is "retired"), this means that Grey Havens does have the necessary behind-the-scenes work figured out.
Speaking from a personal perspective, I believe Grey Havens is doing a wonderful job at keeping the game alive while also doing some minor experiments with the game (the lockdown changes have been fun to see, and bringing sleep back was great along with all the QoL updates), but it definitely feels like certain elements are lacking.
I know it's never been their MO to really talk to players about an update before it comes out, but the rare times they did (mostly when Nick was still around) it got the whole community buzzing and excited. I'm also fairly certain that the dedicated community manager(s) for Spiral Knights especially retired (RIP Eurydice), and so that combined with a lack of insight to game updates has led to the community feeling a bit rejected despite those still working on the game working really hard on what we do get.
As such, I don't believe money is the largest factor here. Prize boxes may not encourage "growth", however Three Rings (and I'd hope Grey Havens) had a philosophy to keep things calm and create an environment that everyone wants to come to work to be in, not be pushing deadlines or crunch time. Heck, Nick's even confirmed that crunch time was never mandatory for Three Rings staff, and he's brought that concept to Monomi Park as well.
So basically, what I'm getting at is that I don't agree that Grey Havens is being "held hostage" by their monetary model. The model allows them to continue working on the game where they see fit, even if it's not something we directly and immediately see as valuable.
What is lacking is an engaging community manager and from what I can tell, a project lead. A lack of those two makes the game's direction feel aimless for end-game players, and the community feel isolated from the developers/game that they care about.
If Grey Havens had more official and regular interactions with the community, especially where they say what they're up to, that would go miles to making everyone feel accounted for.
Fri, 03/15/2019 - 17:00
#5
"Erecting a Handgun Dispenser."
From the way Grey Havens considered itself as a company dedicated to keeping "legacy" games alive, I sincerely doubt prize boxes even remotely contribute to such a goal.
I mean, Puzzle Pirates is still being kept alive, and are there even enough players in there as is -- much less ones that buy prize boxes?
Sun, 03/17/2019 - 06:38
#6
Go Fund Me!
It’s no secret that GH isn’t updating the game. IMO it’s either bc they don’t have enough money or they don’t see it profitable. Maybe both? Either way, it’s irrefutable that the player base still loves this game and wants to see it succeed.
Soo... can GH please make a Go Fund Me? Also, I saw some comments saying GH can’t speak about such topics. As far as I know, it’s their game, so can’t they say whatever they want? Lol pls explain
Tue, 03/19/2019 - 13:01
#7
>It’s no secret that GH isn’t updating the game.
It depends on what you call an "update". For me, the last one was barely two months ago (the Costume Shield update). Others will say that wasn't an update because there's no new significant content. If that's the case, then yes, it's been a while.
Tue, 03/19/2019 - 13:15
#8
I mean they do updates it's just that they don't do bug fixes that really matter i.e. the game crashes a ton due to issues with java being outdated, certain graphics cards, etc. and they don't do CoNtEnT uPdAtEs as in make new levels etc.
But that's OK. We don't need or want those things. The only thing I can think of that would make the game better would be raider sets in more colours. My thirst for colorful raider items will only be satiated when I can acquire verdant, the peak spiral knights colour scheme.
This recent thread over here offers some alternative funding models. It brings new (as far as I know) information to these debates.