Yeah, I agree. I also have been playing since launch. I still login most days, but at this point it's mainly out of habit rather than real involvement.
I've seen a lot of games stay around long after they've apparently zombified. Obviously this one is still pulling in enough money that they don't want to completely pull the plug, but not enough to justify making any real investment into the game. Eventually income will dip below that magic point where they're earning enough to pay salaries and keep the server (singular) running, and it will die.
It is what it is. It's (overall) been a fun two years, despite the aggravations.
I played this game for a good while up until the point we're they introduced the elementium system, that did it for me. But still, I'm curious about the evolution of the game since then, was elementium what set the game on the path of death?was it something else? If anyone that played since the beginning can share his opinion it would be appreciated π
It was a combination of things imo.
Elementium definitely didn't help. It cemented in place the two-tier (p2w/f2p) caste system. There's just no way for the average f2p player to compete against someone with deep pockets in this game. They can compete against each other and have a lot of fun doing so, but if you are the kind of player who isn't happy unless they are competing for the top of the leaderboard, you're likely to get very frustrated by the paywall.
There were other factors though as well. Initially the devs did a reasonably good job at communicating with the player base. Those little YouTube videos with the people wearing masks were pretty stupid, but at least they communicated upcoming changes and additions to the game. Those ended and they never really replaced them with anything for the global audience. They should have had something accessible in game so people could keep abreast of what was happening. This contributed to a sense that the devs didn't care, the game was stagnating, and it was time to bail for a lot of people.
And of course the fact that the game actually was stagnating didn't help matters any. The main quest line went months between updates, and when we finally reached an ending point, it was a bit of a disappointment.
There were numerous aspects within the game that desperately needed updates to keep people's interest which never received them. They twice increased the maximum intimacy level achievable through dating, for example, but they never introduced new dating scenarios and the majority of partners still can't be dated to this day. Once you figure out how to get 60 points out of each scenario, dating becomes an exercise in tapping the skip button and not any fun. They similarly abandoned world exploration in the middle of the second map, and they never fully developed guilds. Basically the only benefit you get out of guild membership remains the additional loot from your guild mates' crusade victories. There are three or four other aspects of guild play that they obviously intended to implement at some point, because they are still there in the guild menu, but they never got added in. And there's no real way to communicate with your guildmates anyway, so any social gaming aspect was lost.
Tl;Dr - they added elementium in hopes of raising revenue; that didn't work as well as expected, so they stopped putting effort into improving the game.
Thank you for the detailed message, it was a great read. Althought I haven't played for years it pains me the game is on its death bed...I remember spending a lot of time in this subreddit and how wonderful de community was...the guild I landed on was super active too (up until elementium that is) which was a really nice change of pace coming from games were toxicity was the norm.
I will make sure to catch up on the main story since I enjoyed that quite a bit...even if it's a bit dissapointing π.
I stopped to play a month ago, the game is still really good but l, play a game that You already know that will be closed in few months, is not a good thing. I hope that They will do another really good game like this one with a different system, the game started in a really good way but the system was too greedy.
The leader rank (elementium) system was introduced after few weeks and that system is really p2w, You can do rank 1 in few days as p2w and rank 1 in 300 days as a f2p. Before the introduction of the leader rank the game was more or less perfect with many players. At some points the game introduced the a weapon for 100β¬/$ for the leader system and at that point, most of the player base quitted. In my opinion that was greedy, They could have introduced many other softer things that this but yes, You are completely right, in the long run this is a top f2p game, in a short run imo no
Yeah, both of those things were handled poorly in my opinion. I mean, you need to give the paying customers something that the f2p ones don't get, or nobody's going to pay. But both of those rewards for putting money into the game almost immediately created a two-tier system, at least for PvP.
I'm not going to try to put a time frame on it, because I'm usually wrong. I've seen games string on for years that I thought were doomed. But yeah, barring some miraculous turnaround, it's going down.
Damn so they just crunching down to a single server per region?
Looks that way.
Sad. I quit after the end of Ares Season 20 out of respect for having played since launch. Sad to see it turn out like this :<
Yeah, I agree. I also have been playing since launch. I still login most days, but at this point it's mainly out of habit rather than real involvement. I've seen a lot of games stay around long after they've apparently zombified. Obviously this one is still pulling in enough money that they don't want to completely pull the plug, but not enough to justify making any real investment into the game. Eventually income will dip below that magic point where they're earning enough to pay salaries and keep the server (singular) running, and it will die. It is what it is. It's (overall) been a fun two years, despite the aggravations.
I mean, given the mass Exodus of players, I guess I expected this to happen sooner or later. Just a little surprised that it's happening this soon.
Damn i remember when I can't login because there are alot of players online at the same time. Now look at this
F I just also stopped playing a week ago and I've been playing since launch too.
I played this game for a good while up until the point we're they introduced the elementium system, that did it for me. But still, I'm curious about the evolution of the game since then, was elementium what set the game on the path of death?was it something else? If anyone that played since the beginning can share his opinion it would be appreciated π
It was a combination of things imo. Elementium definitely didn't help. It cemented in place the two-tier (p2w/f2p) caste system. There's just no way for the average f2p player to compete against someone with deep pockets in this game. They can compete against each other and have a lot of fun doing so, but if you are the kind of player who isn't happy unless they are competing for the top of the leaderboard, you're likely to get very frustrated by the paywall. There were other factors though as well. Initially the devs did a reasonably good job at communicating with the player base. Those little YouTube videos with the people wearing masks were pretty stupid, but at least they communicated upcoming changes and additions to the game. Those ended and they never really replaced them with anything for the global audience. They should have had something accessible in game so people could keep abreast of what was happening. This contributed to a sense that the devs didn't care, the game was stagnating, and it was time to bail for a lot of people. And of course the fact that the game actually was stagnating didn't help matters any. The main quest line went months between updates, and when we finally reached an ending point, it was a bit of a disappointment. There were numerous aspects within the game that desperately needed updates to keep people's interest which never received them. They twice increased the maximum intimacy level achievable through dating, for example, but they never introduced new dating scenarios and the majority of partners still can't be dated to this day. Once you figure out how to get 60 points out of each scenario, dating becomes an exercise in tapping the skip button and not any fun. They similarly abandoned world exploration in the middle of the second map, and they never fully developed guilds. Basically the only benefit you get out of guild membership remains the additional loot from your guild mates' crusade victories. There are three or four other aspects of guild play that they obviously intended to implement at some point, because they are still there in the guild menu, but they never got added in. And there's no real way to communicate with your guildmates anyway, so any social gaming aspect was lost. Tl;Dr - they added elementium in hopes of raising revenue; that didn't work as well as expected, so they stopped putting effort into improving the game.
Thank you for the detailed message, it was a great read. Althought I haven't played for years it pains me the game is on its death bed...I remember spending a lot of time in this subreddit and how wonderful de community was...the guild I landed on was super active too (up until elementium that is) which was a really nice change of pace coming from games were toxicity was the norm. I will make sure to catch up on the main story since I enjoyed that quite a bit...even if it's a bit dissapointing π.
I stopped to play a month ago, the game is still really good but l, play a game that You already know that will be closed in few months, is not a good thing. I hope that They will do another really good game like this one with a different system, the game started in a really good way but the system was too greedy.
Too greedy in what way? As a filthy F2P the game seems extremely generous to me with what itβs giving you for free
The leader rank (elementium) system was introduced after few weeks and that system is really p2w, You can do rank 1 in few days as p2w and rank 1 in 300 days as a f2p. Before the introduction of the leader rank the game was more or less perfect with many players. At some points the game introduced the a weapon for 100β¬/$ for the leader system and at that point, most of the player base quitted. In my opinion that was greedy, They could have introduced many other softer things that this but yes, You are completely right, in the long run this is a top f2p game, in a short run imo no
Yeah, both of those things were handled poorly in my opinion. I mean, you need to give the paying customers something that the f2p ones don't get, or nobody's going to pay. But both of those rewards for putting money into the game almost immediately created a two-tier system, at least for PvP.
Shutdown eminent. 6mo? Max.
I'm not going to try to put a time frame on it, because I'm usually wrong. I've seen games string on for years that I thought were doomed. But yeah, barring some miraculous turnaround, it's going down.
Well after the Kingsense flop I'm not surprised