My own feelings are that a company which can do updates like this, which appear to massively upset, so many players, is showing a lack of experience and capability to create good games . I.e. There is a fundamental lack of understanding about what players really want, and/or lack of communication and feedback gathering. Unfortunately, these factors are likely to lead to them making updates/games which are not worth playing.
So I think it is a bad sign.
But this game has not been out that long, so there is still time for the company to change track, let's see.

"I don't see OOO ever taking back the soulbound part of the patch."

^ The game is done for if they don't change that back. The crafting costs aren't nearly as big of an issue as the binding change. There is no end game anymore.

http://www.threerings.net/about/contact.html

Say HI to Mr. James for me. He's so lovely. Aww...

Or really, just e-mail him and put this thread's link or

whomever's boycottting thread(s) in the mail. =O.

@raycap

It's got nothing to do with the company's capability to create good games - creating games is part of it, but running a business is the bigger part of it.

Giving the players what they want is a pretty sure path to ruin for a company, because at the heart of it players want to be able to have as much fun as possible for as little money as possible. So the company can't pay its bills or its staff, and it folds. To survive as a company, OOO have to maximise the money they get from their playerbase. Unfortunately for them, anything which involves trying to get more money out of players is going to be vocally resisted, and there's no real way to gauge how unpopular a measure is by reading the forums - those who disagree with it will be vocally outraged, those who support it or who aren't bothered about it will stay quiet and keep playing the game.

So what they'll probably do is look at how this measure impacts their revenues over a span of a month or two. If it's so unpopular that people are leaving the game or not spending money on CE any more, they'll tweak the numbers to make it more appealling. If, on the other hand, most people accept the change in CE costs and keep playing the game then that will be reflected in the bottom line and the patch will stick. They key is to find a point at which players are more-or-less happy to pay a certain amount of money to play the game, and that money is enough to fund the game's continued support and development.

So, crafting high level items for other players was the core of the game? Hardly. It had some benefits and was enjoyable for a good number of players, but you're overstating your case here.

the big name players are against it, it's bad. Get rid of it. The BNP's were the ones buying CE.

Spiral knights was and still is the first MMO I've properly put time and money into.
I'm just wondering now, go ahead and shout at me if this sounds absurd, but what would happen to Spiral knights if weapons were not bound... at all?

Seriously, I haven't played any MMO's apart from this one, is weapon "binding" found in these games? What would happen to spiral knights if NO weapons were bound to you even after you used them? Would the game economy collapse? Would people rely less on crystal energy and therefore less money be pumped into three rings? Would the game become instantly more easy and boring?

I'm asking you fellows this because you generally seem to know your stuff Novareid, Loneknight and everyone else. You guys grasp the MMO community and economy remarkably well!

thanks for your time.
Peace and love

Sparkster the rocket knight (I must remind everyone here to play rocket knight adventures for sega genisis)

no no no no the worst patch that evar happened was the nanovor evo patch/ replacement

I would prefer to see some sort of compromise, here is what I think it should entail:

1. A lot of people got screwed by the update because they were leveling items for other people, and with zero warning about the newest changes in the game, a lot of people are SOL. Why not give us a few days grace period to tie up loose ends before everything gets binded? Through the weekend would work, though with the silence from the powers that be thus far, I doubt they could work that fast.

2. Find a middle ground for the crafting costs in CE. I understand that OOO and Sega are businesses and thus have to look out for their own financial responsibilities, but I think this could have been done in a better and more creative way than just hiking costs. I would have rather paired a SLIGHT increase in CE craft costs with an increase in materials needed to craft.

The market value for CE was inflating rapidly before the update, and I believe that it will go down, but not because 'crowns are more rare now', but because of the obvious mass exodus of players. Simple supply and demand.

"Obviously the AH patch has made everyone pretty angry, myself included."

Not everyone is angry. This is a gross overstatement in which you presume to speak for all the players.
I think that there are some things that many players will not like... primarily players that made a business out of leveling up and crafting 4* and 5* equipment. I also understand that many people may be unhappy about increased CE crafting expenses. ( I myself am not a huge fan, but it doesn't ruin the game for me.)

Honestly though, what did you expect? People ranting angrily that 3 Rings needs a forum liaison (Eurydice) which is a full time, paid job. The devs gave what people wanted, and now they have to provide money for that salary, on top of existing salaries and expenses for the game. The way to do that is increase demand for CE, (increased crafting costs) which people are able (and willing) to buy with real cash.

I have been playing this game for about a month. I bought ten dollars worth of CE. that gave me 3500 CE, for those of you unfamiliar with CE to cash conversions. I still have 2400+. As you can guess, I didn't spend much of that CE on equipment costs. I am in all 4* gear, and had plenty of time and money to mess around with weapons and gear outside of my normal equipment set up, have more recipes than I need, and more weapons than I use. I was about to make the plunge for 5* gear. All of this, in less than a month. It was ridiculously easy to get 5* gear prior to the update solely with money from clockwork runs. It still is fairly easy to have endgame equipment in a 2 months or so.

the only major problem I see here is that people did not have warning of the upcoming changes, (especially binding) and were unable to plan accordingly. This I do have a problem with, because I do have a habit of handing friends in need gear that I no longer use. all I had to do was upgrade it, and everything was okay.

I hate to break it to some people, but in the real world, stuff costs money. Companies need to pay people, and produce goods and services that can be consumed. It takes money to do that. Not everyone in the world has access to their parents credit card. you can get mad about that, and boycott whatever you want... but in the end, 3 Rings is still going to be making money, and people are still going to be playing a great, fun game. You can either have fun and play the game, or be in a pissy mood that everything isn't exactly how you want it. I assure you, the world will go on.

I really do not mean to offend anyone personally, this just my take and opinion on the state of things. Either adapt to it, or quit it. If you do quit it, I'll take anything you don't want. IGN: Stray-Cat

OOO has proven time and time again that they know nothing about balancing and now will seek to neuter the game in order to make us burn through CE instead of adding new content worth spending CE on. I don't need to deal with yet another stupid MMO developer. Spiral Knights was promising but this update has shown to me the true OOO; clueless devs ruining their own game by taking the lazy way out.