My Thoughts On The Status of the Game

edited February 2020 in General Board
I'll toss in my 2 cents both as a guy who's played since Beta and a guy who's just returned recently.

The game was stale for a very long time until BS took over running it. I can recall going years without changes of any magnitude. My inf at one point wore through the same template 4 times over from the lack of change.

So, I do appreciate that BS has shaken things up, even if things haven't been balanced.

Having said that I also am sympathetic to the view they've ran the game for a long time now and their changes seem to be constantly massive and unbalanced. It was a breath of fresh air to make the changes they've done, but to continue to do them after several years is problematic. Many small changes, even if it's just some adjustments every few weeks, and then major changes every 6-12 months would be preferable longer term.

It's confusing to me to see them still make major changes after having ran the game so long. I think we can all agree that, in aggregate, the changes are a net good. The game's different than when BS got it. Classes that were ignored for a decade are relevant. But, you can't run a game long-term making big changes regularly.

Even the appearance of caring in the form of small patches every week or two is something that's extremely effective from a player's viewpoint. Even if the changes are in things like text changes, tweaks to item bugs, etc. The kind of changes that don't take much effort to make, don't make a huge impact on the game, but demonstrate something is happening.

Personally I'm having fun. The types of things that drove me away from the game, charge management, stacking ablatives, and the chore that RvR had become for me are much diminished, partly from me playing a Warrior rather than an Inf, and partly because those issues have been addressed.

I'd like to see changes made to capture more players.

1) The EC restrictions xp wise are no good. I find myself outpacing people so quickly it's difficult for me to hang out with someone who's just returned and level with them and talk about the game. You can keep RP restrictions in place, but don't make it so that a guy who's new to the game and is talking to someone who's been here awhile feels like they're holding things up with both their own newbness and not knowing what to do as well as gaining so much less xp.

2) BS has to be more involved. I consistently hear that from newbies and older players how withdrawn BS seems. As I said above, even if it's meaningless changes, just the appearance of changes is good.

3) Players have to be willing to build a better community. I don't understand Hero playing how he does. The one fight I saw him have went exactly how they have for years. Equal numbers or close to it and he runs away. That just drives people away. But it's not just Hero. The 8 man's have to be willing to break into small pieces and train new players. It might not be fun right now but it pays off. I know there has been effort towards that end, but I'd like to see less discouraging talk with people sucking. Solo's have to be less filled with lameness. Just fight bro. If kiting is how you win, great. But don't just bail on a fight. If someone's earned their RPs, let them earn it. It's little things that that keep people coming back. I'm not saying the community is toxic, it honestly looks better to me than it did two years ago. But just remember, we're all impacted when we're dicks to someone, not just to the person we're being dicks to.
Post edited by Amurdora on

Comments

  • edited February 2020 PM
    Sup Amurfora and nice post.

    I have been requesting for years that BS be more open and have more open talks with their clients in the form of a podcast but they are not interested.

    They are not into marketing or sales.. they are programmers who want to sit behind close doors and not be bothered. I deal with this at my company when i add a end user to an email only for them to take them the end user off and answer me.

    BS needs to get uncomfortable and do stuff differently. Hell i offered ( still open) to fund my own round table in the Herndon, VA area that we could live stream. It takes 30-60 minutes to have a monthly/quarterly podcast but no one wants to do it. Its a shame because i think they would be surprised at the number of old and current players who would log in
    Post edited by Sepphiroth75 on
  • I'm not into podcasts myself but I can see how that would be a nice idea. Advertise the game in addition to just show what's happening.
  • I agree with everything you've said. Another way to implement the big changes they want for major updates, is put them on the new server. Once they get people playing the huge changes for 6months, THEN roll it out (with tweaks) to ywain...
  • "3) Players have to be willing to build a better community."

    Bam. This is the most overlooked aspect of this game. Everyone gripes about BS and wants them to fix everything. Honestly, they do shoulder some of the blame for the current status...but I would argue that the toxic player base is far and away the biggest issue in game.

    A positive player base would drown out much of the inconveniences and bugs of the game IMO. People play MMORPGs for the community above all else... we control that..US... Lets get our own house in order before we blame BS for our own actions towards our fellow players.
  • That's good in theory, but expecting the playerbase to self - regulate hasnt been so productive in the past. Everyone expects "the other person" to start the process. When that happens, the process never starts. Most expect BS to step in because theyre the parent in this situation. If you have siblings who won't stop "touching me", then BS has to play mom and dad and beat someones ass. Or don't... wait for it to fix itself.
  • edited February 2020 PM
    Anyone who thinks Broadsword needs to step in to fix community driven issues (i.e. population imbalance, lack of leadership, lack of raids, etc.) is deluding them self. All they can do is provide incentives which is all I would ever expect them to do. My gripe with Broadsword is their ineffective approach to managing the game that costs a premium subscription to play. They continue to make big changes to the game and are horrendously slow to respond with fixes to any bugs that arise or to address poorly received implementations. Each patch feels aimless since there is no clear direction for the game. Ywain has an identity crisis that remains unresolved.

    Broadsword continues to demonstrate that they can't operate like a premium subscription MMO development team which is completely fine. All they had to do was focus on polishing an already established game. Throw in some interesting events to spice up the action. Make small tweaks to classes as opposed to complete revamps. Update old loot tables to match with current end-game items and add more skins for more customization. That was all very feasible back in 2014. Now, they have to spend their time cleaning up the mess they've made in hopes enough players will stay and potentially return so they can continue working. This is time that could have been better spent elsewhere to improve our DAoC experience.
    Post edited by Tyrantanic on
    "The grab bag isn't for explaining every single class change decision or reasoning or that's all we would ever do." - John_Broadsword
    "The type of of dev communication of 30 mins a day updates mentioned here just isn't feasible." - Carol_Broadsword
    "Our Studio. Our Rules." - http://www.mythicentertainment.com/
  • @Sepphiroth75 Hell, I'd be willing to help you out with that Round Table idea... I may not live in VA, but I do have Discord =P
    Listen to the people - they will guide you..
  • Good post. Only thing I would add to #3 is realm pride. People used to play one realm a lot because the realm timers were so long. Thus a lot of people knew each other and guilds /alliances formed and people took pride in defending their keeps (a guild would proclaim Glenlock was theirs and always claim it/defend). People would only play another realm on another server if there was nothing going on but it was rare that people switched realms on the same if not at all. I've been on midgard for years now. There are only a handful of people I recognize. A big problem is people realm hop because they are losing or a realm has all the relics or some classes are O.P and are EZ mode. Realm pride is dead and it's sad.
    Asatruar - Ronnie 10 "
    Corpseshovel - Oldstanky - Nogvi

    The reason people hate to PvP is they are afraid of failure
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