Spiral Knights - The musings of A Retired Knight

The musings of A Retired Knight

47 replies [Last post]

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 10:43

Shoebox

As I'm sure most of you know, I've been around for a pretty long time.
Longer than almost everyone.

And I'm frustrated about how mismanaged this game has become.

It's almost hard to imagine a time where this game was about freedom of choice, exploration and having fun with friends without having to pay for something first. People don't believe me when I tell them you could go from Depth 1 to 29 in Proto Gear and stand a chance, that FSC used to take hours instead of minutes. That Gremlin Menders were the most challenging enemy in the game. That Vanaduke was actually difficult. That Divine Avengers and Gran Fausts were 800 Crowns from Basil.

When I look back and I remember all of the great things that got removed that people never got to experience it disappoints me.
Shrine of Slumber, Tortodrone, Super Brawl, Gold Trojan...
That little danger room off the side of Jelly Farm II...
It's not even scratching the surface of what I miss.

Now Spiral Knights just offers you every opportunity to pay your way to the end of the game to experience, well... Nothing in particular.

All of the restrictions put in place, the Tiers, the Expansion Missions, the Shadow Lairs. It's all a subtle hint at a progression that doesn't really exist. An imaginary wall you can dissipate with the power of money. Expansion Missions putting a physical paywall between you and your friends if you do not purchase them for yourself.

Crystal Energy is only useful for crafting, for everything else you have to sell it for Crowns. This is an elaborate ruse to add to the illusion of there being a lot of paying customers when it's really just a select few players with open wallets shelling out cash for the never ending stream of Featured Auctions and UVs. You might think "Oh it's impossible for just a small percentage of players to fund an entire market", but look at the constant stream of items and their finishing bids then tell me it's even possible for a completely free player to acquire any of them. The CE walls in the Exchange are proof that there are players who mass sell their CE for Crowns to purchase these items.

OOO isn't even trying to hide the fact they're just glorified RMT middlemen at this point. They're just cashing in on it as hard as they can.

And it makes me mad.

It makes me mad to think that the only thing keeping me here is the sentiment for a game that hasn't existed for over a year.
It makes me mad to think that a game with such potential could up just being another bitter disappointment.
And it makes me mad to think people find this acceptable and are not only willing to pay money for it, but openly defend it.

If this were were any other game made by any other developer I would have quit already.
But sometimes hope nestles itself in the most foolish of places.

And that's it.
I've had my say.
I can't quit any more than I already have, I only use the game as a glorified chat client as it is.
But hopefully this is the first step to getting it out of my system.

If you have anything to add, go ahead.
I can't guarantee that you're right, or that I will respond to you.
But you're entitled to your own say just like me.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 10:53

Softhead

BYE!

Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

-_-

Wait, who are you again?

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 10:53

Paweu

welp

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 11:18

Brawl

Decepticons!!!

Shoebox were you here since Beta?

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 11:19

Mk-Vl

What

Brand shoes are in the shoebox?

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 11:21

Chyeahdude

@ Brawl He was. But yes

@ Brawl He was.

But yes Shoebox, this game isn't going anywhere. It's fairly evident from the first year. Many things that made this game fun were either changed or removed. It's strictly pay to win now.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 11:25

Brawl

Decepticons!!!

@ Chyeahdude Thank you :)

Wow Shoebox you been around for awhile I can see why you must be a little upset change can be a burden sometimes. No hard feelings here i can remember when crafting wasn't so high as it was now ah good times... :)

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 11:27

Iron-Volvametal

Oh well...

Time to go put you back into the Darkest corner of the Closet. See ya.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 12:24

Xairathan

Although I arrived too late to see your golden days, I certainly agree with your sentiment. OOO did state that sleep-based enemies are coming back at some point, and I have yet to see them ever since they took out the Sleep UV in (was it July?). Three-quarters of a year later, we have seen very little progress, that being:

-Reskinned Boss Levels (Shadow Lairs)
-Accessories/Knight Modifiers
-Drones/Shankles (relatively useless/annoying)
-Operation Crimson Hammer (P2P)
-Featured Auctions (Now they're just repetitive)

Touching on the release of GW2, Diablo 3, and (possibly?) Phantasy Star Online 2, the Spiral Knights playerbase is going to start draining at a faster rate than I think it can replenish itself. I agree that the only thing keeping me here is sentiment. I've played SK since summer 2011, and I don't really anywhere else to go to, nor anything else to look forward to, until the release of the big games during the summer. I do salute you, Shoebox, and thank you for your wonderful trolling and the contest that you held oh, so long ago. Happy trails, wherever you may go.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 12:51

Kitty-Softpaws

SHOEBOX NOOOOOYou're always

SHOEBOX NOOOOO

You're always welcome to come back. SWTOR, IF WE MEET THERE MAY YOU BE GLORIFIED OF LOVE. OR PREAPRE TO DIE IF YOU ARE SITH.

I left twice SK, have had 3 different toons since I first started in April or May. Be strong when you leave & come back more Shoeboxie in those months of vaca.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 13:13

#10

Pawn

+1
Take a break shoebox. Come back next year, there will be this exciting new endgame boss called vanaduke to do!!!! Over and over and over!!!! oh wait *facepalm*

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 13:34

#11

Tsubasa-No-Me

You know? That sounds like it was a good time... Like things could change at any time, New, Exciting thing cropping up all over... I'm quite jealous.

I also feel as though OOO is kinda restricting themselves... Perhaps if they focused on making amazing content, then people would support the game just for the quality that it has... instead of begrudgingly opening their wallets for P2P weapons that are fun, or getting over excited or frustrated with getting that next piece of gear.

OOO has said many things... Even within my short time, that I have yet to see...

There is no real point to finishing the game, really. At the end of the missions, you get claps and stuff... and then, there is no real reason to play, but to grind to get the next gear that you want. No exploration, no new stuff... I hope to Vog that this new update they're planning has some real content.

I do hope you come back soon-ish Shoe... though I hope they fix the game before you do... :D

New Italics Pending.
~Tsu

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 14:17

#12

Datareaper

I thought this game was going

I thought this game was going to be like a cross between monster hunter and the 2d zelda games.
Hunting for parts and putting them together for different weapons and armor, all in the form of an isometric hack and slash.
Kind of a bummer that its just a pay to win chore of a grind instead.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 14:28

#13

Rangerwillx

Can't really say more..beta was better, which is extremely sad.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 14:30

#14

Bluescreenofdeath

Wow a 100% sincere post by Shoebox. This is a sign of the end of days. I'm a bit concerned that the release of Diablo III will crush this game. I know everybody is not going to be able to afford D3 right when it releases, but the same few people that the Box described as funding the CE market are just the sort to leave for D3 (where you will also be able to open up your IRL wallets to buy gear). If there is a sudden drop in Pay to Play players CE prices will sky rocket an Free to Play players will start quitting, because they can't afford CE anymore.

I've been playing for just short of 1 year and I've almost quite a few times (ironically flowing updates). I really don't do much in SK anymore besides craft my mist & run the daily Prestige Missions. Probably a little rivalry with a friend is the only reason I continue to do the Prestige Missions as the Prestige reward has turned out to be every bit as disappointing as I feared (and believed in my heart) that it would be. Really the only thing that keeps me around is the vast amount of time and effort (along with a little bit of cash) that I have put into this game.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 15:28

#15

Aumir

My thoughts, almost 100%

Thanks for your contribution. It is also what I feel about this game, really. The sad part is I wasn't part of the beta, I wish I would have known those days... when I entered, it was when the Snarbolax patch came, and I saw the advent of the Steam era. Which started this decline, and I am 120% sure of it.

Uh, I am not against you, Steam players. o_O Just in case.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 16:06

#16

Thimol

-----

*facepalm*

Thread ruined.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 16:17

#17

Iron-Volvametal

...

"It's almost hard to imagine a time where this game was about freedom of choice, exploration and having fun with friends without having to pay for something first. People don't believe me when I tell them you could go from Depth 1 to 29 in Proto Gear and stand a chance, that FSC used to take hours instead of minutes. That Gremlin Menders were the most challenging enemy in the game. That Vanaduke was actually difficult. That Divine Avengers and Gran Fausts were 800 Crowns from Basil."

Times are a Changing.

DealWithIt.png
(Lots a Hate Coming. Good thing I had my Orange Juice.)

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 16:24

#18

Fehzor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8p_Ewi7ddQ

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 16:31

#19

Gigglebytes

Great Post

I am a more recent player, a couple month into it. I love this game and see a lot more that I can do with it. Though i do not agree with everything said in this post, this rings true in many ways. Personally I feel that playing F2P is more fun than paying because it is not pay to win (not that I have money to be P2P :P). But this game still has potential, others have seen and it has been seen before but the sight is lost. I think that there is still hope. I think that this game can become all that you saw in it. Sometimes we need to have trust. I know this trust has been betrayed many times but patience is a virtue. Take a break for a while. Bring a friend in to play with. Never give up.

There is always hope,
~Gigglebytes

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 17:30

#20

Gell

I started at launch, right

I started at launch, right after preview event. I agree with a lot of stuff, Shoebox, but I don't think every assessment is fair.

I may not have been in beta, but I have been in plenty of MMO betas, and it's almost always true that betas are more fun than the released game. This isn't a bad thing though, nor is it right to just release what was in every beta. Betas/previews tend to be unbalanced free-for-alls because it's all going to be wiped in a day or two anyway. People get free gold/currency, everyone is having a blast, devs spawn enemies randomly with funny hats, there may even be faster leveling and other things to make a beta, that lasts only a short amount of time, feel like it's much longer. It's fun, but not really sustainable. At least, I only assume from the many stories I've heard, and I don't think any argument could really change that because other MMOs have proven it to be the case. The same tends to be true when an MMO has a chance to go out with a big party, like Star Wars Galaxies. It's just lots of crazy fun, but it's not doable for an actual game.

As for specifics, while I've read quite a few people miss tortodrones, I've also read some people really hated them, and how unbalanced they were. I can't say, but from vids I've seen, they weren't the greatest. I'd love to see a tortodrone revisit because I like the idea, but the execution wasn't great, like the first pass at something good.

DAs and GFs shouldn't cost 800 cr, or everyone would have them Day 1 and the game that is already easy to get through gets easier. I know it's based on how things are now, and how things were 6 months, 12 months ago even, but you shouldn't have top gear be usable by all right away in any game. Gotta have progress. Now how you do that progress is a different matter....

I can't reduce OOO to just middlemen. As much as I've disagreed with their update focus, I know at least some of them must have passion for making a fun game still. While playable content updates have been snail-slow, each boss and most enemy types seem thought out and designed to change up your strategies. They may not ultimately be too hard, but there's another balance to strike with fairness and not driving away a large portion of the player base. Also: ROCKET HAMMER. That's the best weapon, the most fun weapon, and (yes IMO) someone with some passion designed it, whether Nick or someone else. It's fun to use and fun to abuse. All weapons should be designed with that much fun in mind.

OOO was probably kept alive by SEGA. I don't know what their financial situation was, but you only agree to be owned by someone else when the option is way better than your current one, or you feel you can't handle the management as well. I don't like most of SEGA of America's dealings in the past decade, and that may be the real issue. To save themselves, did OOO sign a deal with the devil? A devil that demands more direct profits at face value than long term investment?

So while I wasn't in the preview event, I don't think the game was only fun a year ago. OOO did add some good stuff, and while I'd love something like the guild halls to have at least the preview event functionality, I do think some of that must be technical, while most if it probably just bad production schedules, perhaps due to spending more time on MONEY NOW features. I came to SK and found a game that had a lot of fun potential, and I had fun. I took a long break and came back to find a lot of accessories and other cosmetics being sold, no nice moves by OOO to give current players a freebie height/eye change, and little playable content added. OOO has a poor focus. Did Candlestick really add anything to the game? The game is no better with it, or without it. Add something interesting, same scope, same amount of work, but actually designed to be fun.

OCH is kind of fun, but mortar guys are tediously boring. Another potentially good idea gone bad. And that feels like a metaphor for all of the game. Lost potential, but not without its fun moments. having a F2P model, OOO does have to figure out ways to sustain themselves, and no one idea is perfect, nor will it please everyone. What makes Shoebox happy probably won't make Dirt happy. What makes Magnus happy probably won't make Njthug happy. It's all very subjective and I'm giving OOO half the benefit of the doubt. The other half has already been destroyed by SEGA i'm sure.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 17:50

#21

Digitalartificer

Shoebox basically hit the

Shoebox basically hit the nail right on the head. SK has been in decline for far too long now, and most of the recent updates are aesthetics and dissapointments.

The last 5 MAJOR updates have been as follows: introduction of eyes and height mods, the anniversary event, item rebalancing, valkyrie wings and Operation Crimson Hammer. 3 of the 5 major updates have had something to do with a CE promo along with OCH being P2P. 3 of the 5 updates also had to do with asthetics. The last time we have actually had a free CONTENT update was on Febuary 22nd, the mission update which gave us rehashed clockworks levels, battlepods, and two unique mission floors over 2 months ago. The release of mirrored lockboxes were dissapointing, though expected, along with the terrible anniversary event (honestly, the Halloween event was infinitely better). The armor and weapon rebalances were quite good, though it took almost a YEAR for them to modify equipment that was around since release >_>. I really do respect OOO, and I used to even look up to them back in the day, but now I really don't know what to think. With every new update it feels more and more like a cash grab, and the game starts to become more of a "fashion designing software" than the hack and slash "clockworks" crawler it is. (Edit: Silly me, I didn't think of Nonna and UV locking, but by now you probably get my point :P)

I have not been around since beta, but I have been around since the 1st day of release so I have seen this game get worse and worse over time. Nowadays I get on as often as I can, but the only thing keeping me around is the hope for new content along with my friends. As Shoebox has said, SK has basically become a glorified chat client for me. I really do want this game to succeed as I have had so much fun with the people on SK along with the unique concept and the amount of money I have invested into it. I'll probably be hanging around till late June and if nothing happens, well GL OOO. And to all the people who say there is still potential and hope, how long do you want to wait for that to actually happen? I know I've been waiting almost a year, and still nothing.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 17:48

#22

Kitty-Softpaws

All I'm seeing are a bunch of

All I'm seeing are a bunch of grumpy adults who just got back from their 12 hour jobs here spreading their lousy day with SK. If I had a nickle for every complaint post that I've seen & have read fully & thought about it a bit before posting a post totally irrelevant of the thread in this past current week I'd have 5 cents.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 17:53

#23

Gigglebytes

@Digital, You mean me?

Optimism, my friend. Its how to get through life. Like I said, patience. Good things come in time.
"No cause is lost if there is but one fool to fight for it."

~Gigglebytes :P

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 18:28

#24

Njthug

Shoebox you better still come

Shoebox you better still come on mumble and such =) you will not be forgotten in Eos, and your spot will be protected the mighty shoebox is a legend above all. I do hope you come back to sk time after time.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 18:43

#25

Tennis

Such moving and thoughtful words!

This makes my heart shed a million, blazing tears of unimaginable distress and unalterable emotion that I am left to utter sadness, dwelling in past memories of sweet and glorious playtime in constellations above, where only those who appear in a heavenly light appear and cast innumerable shadows of horrendous and undoubted nightmares, where mourns and scalping screams pierce drummed ears and covering hands which attempt to blindfold the inevitable truth of one's own ultimate demise; tapered souls block malminded thoughts of a never ending crush of hopes and dreams, but to no avail as devilish ghouls see all and end all in our own living hell.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 19:10

#26

Thimol

Huh?

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 19:30

#27

Autofire

/sigh This game is too young

/sigh

This game is too young to end. Even if it does end, I'm going to see to it that my fan game is finished and one of the funnest things anyone has ever seen! .....forget I said that. Don't tell anyone I said that. Don't comment, just remember I didn't say that.

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 19:33

#28

Fallconn

FALCON PUNCH!

*puts up shoes, takes out another box*

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 20:03

#29

Rommil

worst part is

there is no reason for it to die. lots of new content. lots of new bosses.

Quite frankly, if they could come up with a dungeon editor function, that would give the game 5 yrs+ more life.
I don't know how bad (or good, but i doubt it) there programming code is, and how impossible random dungeons are.....but if you look at what fans have been able to do with free run of the SC II game engine......

..
.
.

If they cannot generate enough new content to keep us sated, would be nice if they could somehow open it up for us to create and save dungeons to challenge each other. (or at the very least sum sort of random dungeon function, with randomized mini bosses, and even randomized main bosses to an extent.)

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 04:10

#30

Burq

I think this games has only

I think this games has only one truly free content update before the devs let it die/continue to milk it with accessories like it's TF2 with no end in sight. The opening of the core is the only thing that's missing to finish the story, after that they can probably dangle some new weapons or DLC missions along with a flood of new accessories to keep anyone still willing to stay occupied. They really have no other -thing- to add to consider the game complete, in a disappointing kind of way.

That being said, I love this game since the first moment I laid my eyes on it, and will still keep playing it till I accomplish my 2 personal missions (Kill vana solo with no deaths and getting a set of Snarby armor), sinking a few hours a week on it is a nice enough distraction for me. I have no friends or personal attachments keeping me here, so I'll be leaving quickly after that.

tl;dr : Don't hold your breath for new content that will suddenly make the game good again for you, the only thing to look forward to is The Core. Also I'm lame :V

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 09:25

#31

Softhead

Eh,

I been playing since may, and still haven't done vana.

But I'm getting bored witht the grinding.

I have one simple thing for the people complaining about OOO,

PLAY ANOTHER GAME.

I won't miss you people.

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 09:41

#32

Thimol

-----

but I consider myself to be one.

lul

I'm probably getting banned now for speaking the honest yet ugly truth

wow I can see your messiah complex from here!

penny pinching, money grubbing, fat cat tightwad

"Fat cat"? I can't say I know more than anyone else on how OOO is doing financially right now, but OOO is no "fat cat" by any stretch of the imagination, otherwise, the game would have progressed to a much worse state.

my wall of truth

oh god

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 09:41

#33

Asukalan

"I also feel as though OOO is

"I also feel as though OOO is kinda restricting themselves... Perhaps if they focused on making amazing content....."

Or maybe they are focused on starting up new Doctor Who, worlds in time, and thats where are funds from SK are going?

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 09:49

#34

Softhead

No-Fun-Allowed,

You made my day.

Seriously, nice name calling!

You hate me for stating my oppinion here? Wow.

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 10:25

#35

Eltia

Burn accessories

Everything started to go downhill with the introduction of lockboxes, accessories and shadow keys. Culprit: accessories.

Seriously Nick, you are over-depending on Ian's artistic skill to bring in the money, and you fail to see the same mechanism that you depend on to make money will also bring the downfall to your revenue. As long as you (and your team) do not focus on gameplay and story development more, a good portion of the P2P players will leave. When May 15th comes, you will have an even harder time to replenish your P2P population.

Let's not be mistaken about this. You can still claim SK has over 1M subscription. I was making a conjecture on the composition of the population, that the P2P population will be in deep decline if you continue your current course.

You have been thoroughly warned by one of your paid and loyal customers. Please re-read the above before it is too late.

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 10:45

#36

Wodanct

I joined this game at the

I joined this game at the steam release of it (Not that anyone on the forums will know me since I hardly use them). Originally joining just for the TF2 helmet but instead I got interested with this game because of the clockworks content at that time. Though a few months in and the clockworks themselves start to get lacking because its was just the same 3 (later 4) bosses over and over. The only thing that made this game worth staying for was to play with friends. Last summer I quit playing SK for 2-3 months and during that time Shadow Lairs came out. I returned with some friends to do shadow lairs but even those get boring after awhile. So once again the only thing that made me stay playing was friends. Though once again I quit for 2 months (right before OCH "expansion" came out). Returned and I decided to waste some $$ and get OCH and play that with friends also.

At last.. it is at that point again where the game is dulling out for a 3rd time. In the time I joined until now.. clockworks wise we got Roarmulus, Shadow Lairs, OCH.. some new dangerooms, and a couple other things. Mostly what I see this game doing is just making more and more fashion items, crown sinks, and very rarely some new clockworks content that actually adds something to the game. Probably about time to quit for another few months and hope some new levels or bosses come out.. and hopefully not behind a wall of screams "Give us money!". Or if not quit, at least just play long enough to spend my mist then log out >.>

The problem I see atm is not enough clockworks and too many worthless accessories.. thought they could argue that people want more accessories and it doesn't help that you have those select few people that blow 100s of $$ into this game just for accessories so they can look "better" then everyone else. But on the other hand an active player can easily make 2M crowns a month just playing and farming Vanaduke (lord knows missions made it even easier to farm him) if they just pay $6 for an elevator pass. That might be the problem.. maybe they are comparing the little money they get from passes to the money that those select few shell out for new "special" accessories and deciding that people want accessories more.

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 10:38

#37

Tsubasa-No-Me

Over here!

Atrum: So, I'm complaining Because I want the game to be better then it is... and for that... You want me to leave? And you won't miss me? You want people who care to just up and leave?

⌐.⌐

'Cause That's supporting the game all right!

/Facepalm =_=(\

New Italics Pending.
~Tsu

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 10:46

#38

Saberyoko

+1 Shoebox

For every update...more I dislike this game.

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 10:47

#39

Softhead

-_-

Oy.

Well, after being desentizied since OCH, I don't give two douces anymore. -_-

Personally, as seen with one guy(you know-_-), he simply started hating onanyone who disagreed with him and started saying OOO is corrupt and crap saying people who like OOO and defend them(a percentage of the supporters) are blind followers.

And I'm talking about the people who say they will leave and rant on how crappy/idiotic/greedy OOO is, then suddenly don't or return anyway.

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 11:14

#40

Tenkii

few things

@crown sinks
I do remember a time when people wanted more crown sinks because there was no reason for them to sell CE for CR after a certain point.

Crown sinks are a good thing, especially for F2P players.

--------------
Spiral Knights has really changed and sort of 'rebooted' during the Mission System debut. I've walked around Haven and seen new players saying things like "I'm a Defender Elite looking for guild!", etc. Prestige badges seem to be there to push people to do Prestige missions.

A new demographic is coming up that probably doesn't hold the same value for the Arcade gates as us older players. On one hand, "Arcade" is taking more of its meaning as a place you go to "for fun", but on the other hand, it's become sort of secondary. The chance of lockboxes by playing Arcade wasn't enough to convince a lot of people to play them, so the prize wheel was added to Missions.

I've played through the Arcade stages recently, and in the 5-6 month break I took (starting August of last year, and ending in January), there have been a few nice background-y things added. The first time I saw candlestick keep, I was scared. Some of the randomly-generated "pieces" in the clockworks were nice. But that aside (and it's very unfortunate!), it doesn't stop people (myself included) from getting to the point where we just run Lord of Ashes or lockdown all day, because playing Arcade just doesn't help pay for energy as well. There's still a huge disappointment opening energy gates (whether it's danger rooms pre-basil or treasure box rooms in general) and whenever we get Treasure Vault instead of Graveyard XD

There's a lot of content that's going to fade in the background due to lack of interest in Arcade.
I doubt there are still (m)any people still influencing the Gate builds other than autosell anymore :/

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 11:07

#41

Ufana

Not exactly my thoughts but

Not exactly my thoughts but close enough and with a lot less trolling than I would have managed - thx shoebox!

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 11:56

#42

Merethif

Wall of text ahead

Shoebox, even though you're not aware of it, you're one of my mentors. I have your reply to one of my threads still among my Firefox tabs in a folder with a collection of useful SK posts. It's actually a bit obsolete and now I probably don't agree with all you have said, but nevertheless it was inspiring and I keep it for a nostalgic reasons :-D

I'm not playing SK much nowadays too. Is this because of updates and the direction SK is heading to? I'm not sure. Maybe I just got bored. Sure I wasn't satisfied with streamlining and especially this constant monster nerfing. And I'm not really into "for Dummies" version of a game.

Sadly I think it's community to blame and, more generally, the expansion of MMO games. Time and money becomes the only necessary factors to succeed - skills are not required. With enough time and/or money you can do anything. And this is what costumers want, and thus it is provided by developers. I've lost my trust in new generation of gamers.

Now I'll elaborate a bit this issue I've mentioned above and why it's community to blame. I'm probably going a bit off-topic so feel free to stop reading here. Shoebox, I hope you don't mind me being a bit bloggish in your thread.

TL;DR version available above.

Recently I'm playing Legend of Grimrock, which is not MMO, but is greatest RPG I've seen since a decade or so. I really enjoyed those joyful moments of ultimate fright when I felt my body hair standing on end. And I though I've lost the ability to experience game this way since I left my mid-teens and proceed to adulthood. LoG is and old-school RPG dungeon crawler so if you've enjoyed Skyrim don't google it ;-)

Anyway there's also a forum made by LoG developers for players community. And of course there are suggestions like "spells hotkeys" or "potion belts". I can't believe people are so limited. Do they really think developers come from other universe and don't know about hotkeys or potion belts? Maybe those players should think before post and realise that developers put some limitation for a reason. Limitations may make game more challenging and enjoyable.

Let's look at football (soccer for those oversea). You can manoeuvre ball only with legs and head, no hands allowed. If soccer were MMO people would suggest hands on first day "because they've seen other games, like basketball or volleyball, have such possibility" and "because not using hands makes game difficult". On day two, they would suggest pets...

Not only I'm grumpy adult, but also I got back from my 12 hour job.
~Merethif

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 22:53

#43

Psychodestroyer

Hm...

To be honest, I think we're expecting too much too soon.

SK is a story based MMO, if they continued to update the story at LEAST once a year, I think they'd run out of ideas pretty quickly.

A story can only go so far before it reaches the end, or like in some war movies, where "the war is only beginning", where we all groan at the cliche-ness and at the realization that probably no more updates will follow; we continue to fight the 'war' we have been for ages already.

If I had to GUESS, I'd say the next story update would be in maybe 3-5 years (since SK started)? I can't really say, it's not even an educated guess. It's just a random one.

So I can understand endgamers getting bored, and I don't blame you. Not much else to do than what you've done already.

I'm still working my way to the end myself, but I'm still a way off.

In any case, I wanna see the stuff that got removed. Tortadrone, Green Jelly Giant (or whatever it's called) and all that jazz.

For me, it's not that things aren't hard anymore, I just can't seem to find a target to work to AFTER I finish.

I don't even know what to run anymore, I'm just doing what I've already done. I just run whatever comes to mind, or just eeny-meeny-miney-mo it.

Wed, 05/02/2012 - 02:25

#44

Ufana

Too soon? Doesn't look to me

Too soon? Doesn't look to me like we're going "too slow". Looks to me like we're going into the entirely wrong direction. Like: Make the game more addictive instead of more fun, adding more external / artificial rewards instead of real content, focusing on attracting new players and making them spend money fast instead of on keeping old players and letting them spend money regularly.

But that stuff has been said... so... well...

I'd love to play some more creative maps. And fight some new / hard stuff... but don't expect to see anything really good any time soon. Hanging in there... well, the game's still a neat chat client at times.

Wed, 05/02/2012 - 02:50

#45

Avixi

Can I sit down? The sky keeps swirling around.

The SK Team could really stand to benefit from hiring more people, 8 devs on an MMO might be a little low.

Wed, 05/02/2012 - 03:18

#46

Ufana

yes *sigh*... A really good

yes *sigh*... A really good map designer would be awesome for a start... after a year of playing this game it almost hurts to think of all the engine's possibilities that just aren't used to its full extent... T_T

Wed, 05/02/2012 - 05:29

#47

Myg-Mog

*falls on face*

Yeah, Clockworks JUST needs to be expanded. It's too small as it is. Seriously, not enough enemies, I can run FSC in my 3*, which is going to be boring by the end of it, and all of this ninny accessory nonsense that hardly anyone can afford. I don't want shiny baubles anymore, I want some more stuff to use!

Like a Thwonk Hammer :P

~Not Magmer

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The musings of A Retired Knight