Spiral Knights - is it me, or is the game down :( PART II

is it me, or is the game down :( PART II

20 replies [Last post]

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 18:31

Rommil

inspired by Giannii's thread

http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/35944

I thot he meant waning popularity and a dying economy, and i thot "yeah, i have sorta noticed that!?!"
What do you guys think? It almost seems like, due to lack of content, that the game has reached its "mature" portion of its product lifecycle. We may have reached that apex where the number of players leaving the game are greater than the number of those starting it anew. And where the bulk of the population has reached an "end-game" level, meaning everyone has reached 5* done all the content, collected UVs, etc..

Also, having been an active participator in the bazaar forums, the fact that gear doesn't really sell any more except for teh occassional peice, kinda supports this. was a time, after steam, where you had 100 people wanting to buy for every one person trying to sell. Now there are 100 people trying to sell gear for every one person trying to sell.

And to top it off, more and more top end players are quitting everyday for lack of content. Am i just being doomsday gloomy today? looking at things with non-rose-colored glasses? or have you guys noticed this happening too?

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 19:03

Oceanprince

I don't know if the game is

I don't know if the game is going downhill or not. I can point at WoW and say, "They are HUGE and they are also losing people." So it's not just here. I will still be playing if I can. I have 5* sets to build.

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 19:09

Xylka-Mkii

I will continue to play....

I will continue to play.... Once Steam works for a change... >.>

OOO give us a conversion option out of Steam please!

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 19:10

Jygantic

Agreed. I get the feeling OOO

Agreed. I get the feeling OOO are waiting for the new year AKA Q1 in business terms to release new content in order to have a turnover next year .. there will be a christmas pack of course to boost revenue for the end of Q4, but the influx of new players and returning old ones won't be at least until january imo.. even then some of it will be staggered of course because the Q2 and half year forecasts are much more important than Q1.

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 19:13

Equillora

Endgame (literally)

I wouldn't go so far to say as the game is dying. But yes, the game has reached a peak and if things stay as they are without some new endgame content our intended y = x^3 will turn into a y = -x^2.

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 19:15

Trying

Our noob supply is drying up

Our noob supply is drying up so less things are getting sold

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 19:25

Thetric

paranoia

I think you're just being paranoid.
i think it comes from having played so long you've stopped noticing certain details because they don't really mater to ya.
a great example is the number of guileless running around. If anything I think SK has hit its teens and its got at least another year if not two before it goes out of date.

Yes It could certainly benifit from a new product release given that it has been around for almost a year now. thats how wow's survived ^_^ when people get tired release a new expansion which is effectively a new game in and of itself.

another way of putting it

OPEN THE FREAKING CORE!

And then, after they've opened the core, make new planets with their own cores, and just keep that rolling! yes it will only get so far, but you;ve still gotta try.

what I would really like to see is the core opened giving access to another 28 floors or so.
at the bottom the knight gets a huge massive amount of crystal

after that something cool would be after 3-6 months of this the ship is refuled and the knights can continue on their way. but they where on a mission of discovery right? so make the home planet the new SK n00bie spawn. keep the old gates, but on the new planets have Core Gates that affect the planet as a whole. These planets would also be slightly smaller with their own cores, each of which house a new race for players to discover. ( and new weapons I might add)

There are alot of element/weakness combinations for monsters still. so there's no end to those, which mean more element combinations for stratums. and more stratums and more tiers.

Returning to the idea of planets they could be the expansions. A new planet every 6 months or so? with the whiteboard style SK has created it shouldn't be to difficult with the proper development direction.

wow....sorry 'bout that ramble ^_^ but still Xp

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 19:50

Heatsurge

Yes, the game has reached

Yes, the game has reached maturity at this point. There is little to nothing that they can do that will deliver a dramatic influx of new players anymore - to the extent that making the game, and then delivering it to steam did.

That being said, it's hardly a dying game at this point. It seems to me overall the game population is fairly stable.

It would be interesting to see some numbers though. I'm sure there are spikes around patches, but other than that my guess would be that it's at least a horizontal trend...

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 19:53

Llamaboizii

Diablo III soon

Were all just waiting for D3 anyways~

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 20:03

Zenpai

@ Thetric Expanding on that,

@ Thetric

Expanding on that, what if when going to other planets, the Spiral Knights' ship accidentally had some unwanted passengers in the form of swarm? Either that or the swarm could have already spread to neighboring planets and as more are opened up that could become the new premise of the game... for the Spiral Knights to save planets and other celestial bodies from the swarm. While Shadow Lairs are rehashed essentially, why not make it so that new shadow lairs on other planets are unique bosses or longer than 3 depths and unknown passage? Maybe start the difficulty as a hard level and ramp it up throughout the lair, keeping knights on their toes...

Of course, this is an idea, but Spiral Knights already has enough content to expand upon to make huge, novel content updates.

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 20:09

#10

Heatsurge

I'm not. Honestly, I think

I'm not. Honestly, I think the direct competition to this game is somewhere in the twin-stick category. Overall, SK it's an interesting blend of RPG and twin-stick mechanics that I especially like.

As far as Diablo goes - I played halfway through it, got bored, uninstalled, never cared about Diablo II or III nowadays.

D3 is a very different game as far as gameplay goes from SK imo...

Just because you swing a sword and have a shield doesn't make it a substitute.

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 20:05

#11

Oceanprince

I already mentioned this game

I already mentioned this game is like Phantasy Star Online. Now these suggestions of other planets makes it Phantasy Star. Nice.

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 20:31

#12

Waldosan

why don't we try to generate support?

i don't know how you guys feel about it but I've always been a little more than loyal to the games I play, i think that SK has a chance to be something amazing but that's mostly because i haven't beaten it yet. but it kinda seems defeatist to just sit here and say it's over the bend when we are still playing it, it's a fantastic game imo and i'd like to see more people trying it, playing it, and winning it. besides if the customer base drops below a certain point Three rings won't even bother trying to update it with new content, and i think that we have a bit more control over that than we think.

i started playing because of three panel soul, it gives me something to do until i can afford a computer that can play eve online, and it'll give me something to do when i'm leveling up my knowledge in eve online.

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 21:27

#13

Xairathan

Open the Core

This should probably get its' own thread but I want to see your guys' opinions: What would you think of this plotline:

Swarm + Whatever's in the Core Arc, then we get off of Cradle

"Chapter 2" will take place in the Skylark (maybe for 1-2 months?) but we can visit Clockworks levels via "holograms" while also fighting to clear out sections of the Skylark from (insert new enemy here) which caused our crash.

"Chapter 3" will be a new planet... and there we go again!

Wed, 12/07/2011 - 00:40

#14

Rommil

yeah heatsurge

basically what i meant was, i wonder if we are at the apex (or past it) on Spiral Knights product lifecycle parabola. I feel like if we had had content updates twice per quarter (say one big one and one distraction--instead of all distractions) that we'd be at about 50% up the incline to the game's apex. But as it stands, i feel like we have crested the mountain top and are now on teh way down....but still in the fully mature and "thriving" state of the game. But its going downhill from here.

but hopefully not. I definitely realize that the game will never have another influx like steam, short of a sega xbox/ps3 release that links into our online world....and even then..... not sure thats even possible. And if it was, Sega is terrible at marketing (see there "efforts" for virtua fighter 3. best fighting game ever, soo little fanfare, and no effective marketing or support.)

Wed, 12/07/2011 - 01:18

#15

Sir-Cazm

Expanding on Xairathan idea.

Maybe when the new planet opens up it the skylark will be operational. Maybe (I'm not sure how many knights the skylark can hold) it can pick up advanced knights ready to go from cradle to the new planet for what ever reason.

Maybe cradle can become a base of operations for new knights to start. When they are ready to go I don't know maybe they can talk to NPC Spiral Pilot (new NPC :D) and he/she can say whether or not they can board the skylark and advance to the new planet sorta how the tiers work with spiral warden.

Wed, 12/07/2011 - 05:39

#16

Oceanprince

Empty Space

http://steamcommunity.com/id/AlexanderRosewater/screenshot/6329850352957...

What goes there?

Wed, 12/07/2011 - 09:16

#17

Tom-Awsm

I'd like to see a Dev comment

I'd like to see a Dev comment in this thread...

Wed, 12/07/2011 - 11:47

#18

Jygantic

@ Rommil - VF3 was also far

@ Rommil - VF3 was also far too technical for people to get a grips with. Would slightly argue that VF2 was the best fighter but Vf3 certainly was amazing.. even Vf5 has to be given credit - that and Soul calibur have almost never let the user down but Soul calibur won because of marketing.

Wed, 12/07/2011 - 13:18

#19

Rommil

@jygantic

ahahaha. i meant to say VF5, truth be told. don't know why i spaced and said vf3!!!

soul calibur was by far the inferior figting game, but its CHARACTER CREATION WAS AN AMAZING FEATURE!!!! years ahead of its time (and that was the ps2 version i played). and the sorta RPG mode was pretty nice too.

But yeah, i played the heck outta VF5. IGN: Wasted Wish. I was one bad mo-fo with lei-fei (and later used shun, pai, and akira all with varying success :)
god i loved that game.

Wed, 12/07/2011 - 16:26

#20

Jygantic

Lau was always the

Lau was always the killer-killer, I liked to get to grips with everyone up to Vf4... Kage maru being a firm favourite, but gotta say I love the leg fakes from Sarah, Jacky was always bread and butter and the ferocity of Wolf was always a good back up (half circle swing to ring out ftw?). Shun is pure comedy, and Akira is pro.

Search

is it me, or is the game down :( PART II