I haven't the foggiest of what you just said.

Good story though.

Behold the power of the double post!

-pain, too?

...If you maybe feel that this post is offensive, uh... please just disregard this or I will say... "No offense."

Hi old friend. You are worth 10 new friends. And i understood exactly what you are saying.

But sadly, I have reached the point that i'm indifferent and apathetic to this game. I check in every few months to see if actual new content has been added. No Core, no care. And back to ignoring this game with unlimited potential that sadly settles for mediocrity.

This SKnights we have now isn't at all the difficult, arcade centered, non paywall content included with simple gameplay experience, without modified art and weaponry for the sake of it, and with intriguing lore like original Almire - Margel's recent story seemed implemented so fast and with so much lost potential...

I still remember when Nick went to pick up that prize in that conference and he was joyous and full of illusion, he looked like he wanted SK to be so big... at that time not even Shadow Lairs had come out.

This game isn't "bad", just... miscarried?

I know what you mean.

This game had so much potential. The core mechanics are solid, the art style manages to be both cute and awesome, and the fanbase has been truly amazing (remember sending the cake to OOO?).

Just seeing the game as it is makes me sad, in a way. I started playing this game around one and a half years ago. I still remember the first time I fought snarbolax, the first time I reached moorcroft (through the help of a friend throwing vials at me), my first visit to the auction house. So many little details came together to create this amazing atmosphere, a feeling as if I was actually exploring the world. It was immersive, engaging, and really just beautiful.

I've had 710 hours playtime for the last 4 months. Around the last 100, I began to wonder- where did that feeling go? Where was the joy of testing a new weapon for the first time, the wonder of playing through a new set of levels, the awe of witnessing a new boss' entrance for the first time? No, instead there's promotion after promotion offering recolored variants of the same character equipment in a seemingly desperate attempt at selling more ce. Even the "new" enemies since I've started playing have been basically combinations of older ones that don't make any particular effort to be unique.

This game started as something wonderful. I love the basic gameplay- a combination of hack and slash and bullet hell. However, as I played more, it became harder to forgive it for everything else. There's only one regularly accessible t3 boss, making shadow damage weapons a pitfall for new players who want to stick to a weapon until endgame. Other t3 bosses are locked behind DLC (seriously? DLC in a free to play game?) or large paywallls in the form of shadow keys. Equipment balancing is terrible (did iron slug EVER get an improvement?)- spur? troika? cautery sword? Non-damage bonus armors? On top of all that, the developers seemed completely out of touch with how the game was played-a team guardian that uses heavy armor in a game where glass cannon armor is only 10-20% less effective defensively? Really?

I've come to regret everything I spent on this game (comes out to around $100 I believe). Not because I don't feel like I got my money's worth, but because I feel like it sent the developers the message that they were making the right decisions with this game. It's probably too late for spiral knights by now. rip

Histrionic mewling.

Privet Ewbte, I am Russian too <3. And I totally can understand you. Same feelings here.

I have found so many new friends that I just can't make up my mind on this sentence

One old friend is better than two new

I have found better friend in the past weeks than I ever had, care to explain why? Old friends are grumpy and old and want it the way they see fit because they are vets that got ego-boosted through LD...

I have found strong and powerful player to play with that I would never want to part way with. They are so good and it goes beyond Spiral Knights, I can play Dead Island: Riptide with them.

And that is something my old friends can't do since they are butthurt about some life-drama girlfriend thingy thing, like it always happen with old buddies...

TL;DR new friends can be better than two old friends, depending on who you original friends are, and it's a dumb argument

That is a profound letter, Ewbte. Well done.

It really hammers home the point about what has happened to Spiral Knights. The Black Kat event and the combat update are perfect examples of "cool, awesome, WOW things" being added instead of genuine improvements. Updates like these trick people into thinking improvements are happening, usually because of a lot of added flair and fanfare.

The Black Kat event in particular was designed to make a quick buck by introducing exclusive items that required massive amounts of grinding in a short time to get, greatly incentivizing the purchase of an elevator pass. However, while a ton of players purchased an elevator pass for this event, a huge number of them felt cheated and disappointed with how little fun they had with the grinding. I was in that boat myself. It made me not want to buy elevator passes anymore. OOO and SEGA made their money from the event, but at the expense of driving away more of their customers.

The new Storm costume pieces are very significant examples of "cool, awesome, WOW things" as well, in my opinion. Many of them are far more gaudy and detailed than most 5* armors! Yet they are not rewards for any sort of actual accomplishment in the game, and currently only serve to glorify giving money to OOO.

You also present some much-needed good news, though: Everything can still be made right if the decision makers wise up.

I have a few more thoughts to share that specifically have to do with Nick Popovich.

You ask him a very piercing question: "If you from the past could see how this game looks now, what would you think?"

At this point in time, I've been getting the feeling that Nick isn't the person responsible for all the detrimental changes we've been seeing to the game. I'm now betting that, for whatever reason, out-of-touch executives at SEGA are the ones pulling the strings.

The combat update doesn't seem like something Nick would design. Nor have I seen much genuine excitement from him regarding it. He used to be so excited when he talked about upcoming additions to the game early on.

My guess as to what happened is that Nick didn't know what he had with Spiral Knights. He didn't know that the little game he started making with two friends had the potential to be the next Legend of Zelda, and an even better Zelda than Zelda ever was. When he got a new boss and they thought they knew better about what's best for the game, he wasn't able to defend himself. At the extreme case of this scenario, he may be devastated by what his game has become, and yet feels powerless to do anything about it.

If SEGA execs are indeed behind Spiral Knights' transformation into something not itself, Nick could probably be fired if he acts against the will of those execs. He may be not responding to our posts out of fear that it could make his boss(es) question his loyalty and put him on thin ice. He could even be under direct contract to not interact with us beyond answering small questions about recent updates. We don't have enough information about what's going on here.

Let's band together to get the information we need! I see that a quite a few very intelligent players have posted in this thread, and I'd very much like to connect with all of you. I need help pursuing the noble cause of returning Spiral Knights to its former glory!

For anyone wondering who I am, I'm the guy who started these three threads. I have a tremendous amount of expertise and analysis to share, and I'm doing everything I can to get through to the decision makers behind the game that I once loved and know I can love again. This is not a hopeless battle! The facts are on our side; we just need to find a way to convincingly present them to the people in charge.

In closing this post, I want to deeply thank you, Ewbte, for writing and posting your letter. It is an extremely intelligent and insightful piece about a very destructive paradigm that has been affecting not just Spiral Knights, not just the whole of the video game industry, not just businesses in general, but the entire world in many ways. You get straight to the core of the problem and expose how dark it truly is. Yet you also show that the situation is not irreversible, and that help will come if it is asked for.

Nick, we're here for you. If you're afraid to reach out, that's understandable. I just want to let you know that we still care deeply about Spiral Knights, and that we will be up in arms by your side if we get word that you're with us.

I need help pursuing the noble cause of returning Spiral Knights to its former glory!

This made me realize the reason SK is like this is because the community asked OOO to do so.

Personally I think it's time for the community to shut up, stop making big fuzzy letter warning OOO the game is dying and let them either kill the game or bring back it's glory.

It's only when you are pushed against the wall that you really start to fight.

We all love Spiral Knights. That's why we discuss about it and try to find way to improve it but after a while it's getting kinda... well IDK what's the term but I'm gonna use redundant. The game is stalling even with new contents/feature.

Let the game make-or-break on his own, if we are always there to support it will never take a creative path but only regurgitate what the forumers ask for. And if by some turn of event, new players test something while the vets are away on vacation and OOO implement it. The game dies instantly.

SK need to recapture his glory on his own and show his community (us) that they can take care of their baby w/o us.

That was my profound 2 cents

yeah man

stuff gets old fast and you lose excitement. Currently, I equate the games enjoyment to be like trying to fap to a forest of trees or free form jazz. Absolutely ridicurus and highly abstract but once you get the hang of it you will appreciate it.

Currently, I equate the games enjoyment to be like trying to fap to a forest of trees or free form jazz. Absolutely ridicurus and highly abstract but once you get the hang of it you will appreciate it.

That's really an awkward and quite disturbing statement....

I don't... even... hum...

What?

I just want to mention a piece of data that's very vital to the discussion here: According to Steam statistics, Spiral Knights' average player activity has dropped 95% since its peak last year.

Ninety-five percent.

This unequivocally means that the game has changed dramatically for the worse since that time. Games like this don't just lose their player base like that for no reason.

We who remember how awesome Spiral Knights used to be are now speaking up in increasing numbers. It's not time for the community to shut up; it's time for us to put our all into making our voices heard!

It's also time for the developers to finally respond to the passionate message we've been sending them.

Spiral Knights was never a niche title. At its peak, its numbers used to rival Team Fortress 2 just counting Steam logins. Combined with players who logged on via Kongregate or the loader from the official website, Spiral Knights used to be even bigger!

The problem is not money. The problem isn't the community either. The problem is mismanagement. If the decision makers knew how to maintain Spiral Knights' once significant profits and popularity, they wouldn't have made the highly detrimental decisions they've been making.

Since they don't know how to make Spiral Knights successful, and haven't been listening to the players in this community that do, they are now in very dire straits.