Many people stopped playing

pvperes are dropping like flies

 

Hear hear.

Since PvP isn't really developed yet, that would be understandable.

*chants pre-alpha, pre-alpha, pre-alpha, over and over again*

 

Lol @you , my friend . . .

You don't have to 'like' the truth, but Portalarium has made it clear many, many times, that they are not designing a game for 'everyone', nor are they even trying to. Some people have helped 'shape' the game, but the shaping they have done has been mostly on tweaking Portalarium's newly designed systems.

Let's look at it this way:


Let's say that you have 5 main gaming systems,

1) Combat
2) Skill Progression
3) Crafting
4) Travel
5) Questing

these are just examples, there could be more . . . . When you are trying to capture a portion of the gaming market, you have to understand that most all of your potential customers are already experienced players. They have pre-conceived ideas of how each of these systems should generally work, based upon their conglomeration of experience with these same 'basic' systems across many games.

When someone like Portalarium intends to be 'ground-breaking', every system that they tinker with or re-invent, has the potential to attract more players or to alienate more players depending on how that player likes or dislikes the proposed new system design.

Humans, by nature, resist change, even good change sometimes. If you tinker with crafting to the degree that it is almost completely different than what their previous experiences have been, just by the percentages, you are going to alienate a reasonable portion of the players who find crafting to be an integral part of why they like to play games. You may also attract some people who are 'intrigued' with a yet untested system, but by most measures of statistics, the end result is going to be a net loss, rather than a net gain.

Now multiply that across all 5 basic systems (or more than 5), with every 'unique' change that is counter to what is expected or wanted by the 'mass' audience, you are just further and further diluting the pool of people who will potentially find the 'change' as enjoyable. To some, crafting may be the deal breaker, for others, it could be the use based skill system, or the random card combat system. It doesn't really matter which one it is, as much as the point that with 'so many' potential deal breakers, all of the changes in totality serve to further and further divide the player base.

No game is perfect, but human nature has not changed. It's not about design, so much as it is simply about human nature and math.

Portalarium (and all of us) IMHO would have been much better served to retain a little more of the familiarity people already have with some of the core basic systems, by designing systems that centered more around standard expected game play with open end flexibility to morph over time into what their desired intentions were. Afterall, they are scheduled for a 'minimum' of 5 episodes, they don't have to shoot for the moon with the first one.

By trying to force so much change in the initial design, (keep in mind most of these are still 'untested' designs in terms of market reception), they have divided their customer base over and over. You don't have to look any further than these forums to see the slow dwindling numbers of active participants, and the multitude of threads of dismay at various design concepts and implementations so far.

Maybe, i'm the one that doesn't have a clue, but it just seems to me that the more people you alienate, the fewer participants you will have. People will accept change a whole lot easier (some will never even notice it) if it is done gradually. The efforts of Portalarium to 'break the mold' also runs the risk of Portalarium ending up with a very finite group of people who like the end product. I think the growing evidence of disgruntlement among their own investors speaks volumes to the struggle they face.

I mean, when even @majoria70 is complaining (while stating she's not trying to complain) shows how treacherous their chosen path is.

 

So, you want a game that doesn't change anything? Listen, almost anyone can make a cookie-cutter game. Take WoW for instance, it didn't drastically change what EQ and the other MMORPGs did, it just refined the systems and made it super fun to play. And they reaped GREAT rewards for it! And there are zillions of games that do very very well, by just copying what they did.

Yes, Portlarium is not going to have WoW-like success by breaking the mold (well, probably not). But I think it's very innovative and admirable to try to create something different AND make a successful game at the same time. I think they're well on their way...

As for alienating people, that's just not true. The proof is in the pudding, and a game that is totally new and inventive CAN (and sometimes will) spark the imaginations of millions of players. I could list many examples. Games never get better if nothing new is tried.

 

I took a break for most of the summer. Im actually playing now more than ever.

And yah, surprising amount of people that dont understand the concepts of pre-alpha, alpha, and beta, and final release candidate. I wouldnt be surprise if the skill system experiences many more drastic changes and overhauls. Even after the system itself is decided upon, players will need to spend time figuring out whats overpowered, whats gimped, whats exploitable, etc, and many more rounds of revisions will occur. Its a process, and its silly to bail on an idea you've backed because some systems changed in the pre-alpha phase.

 

That's a good question Rune, and here is a perfect example. Read back through the posts of this thread. Look at my posts, and consider the honest tone and context in which I have offered every statement I have posted. I have stated many times that these things are my opinion etc etc etc.

Now low at what just happened. In my first post in this thread, I gave my opinon. There were no attacks on anyone, no arguing with anyone, just stating my opinion.

Edward Newgate responded with telling me that I should 'go to my room and shame myself'

I responded with 'lol @ you MY FRIEND' and then proceeded to give a nice lengthy post reiterating and supporting what I again stated was MY OPINION (not shouting, just showing emphasis)

He responded just above, by accusing me of 'ragewriting'

I think the evidence speaks for itself.

I HOWEVER, did not automatically report his post, claiming that I was somehow offended or attacked, which is the go to response for anyone who is losing an argument, I DID STAY HERE, and continue to try to be a part of the conversation, representing my view and opinion, which has been echoed by many others not strong enough or willing to put up with the attacks, or able to escape the indescriminate 'ban hammer' that they use as their debate tactic when losing.

I think the evidence speaks for itself and further supports my premise that this game is losing support fast among a tremendous amount of people. All of you can keep averting your eyes to it, or lying to yourself, or 'hoping' Portalarium knows what they are doing, but i'll tell you, from someone who has dealt with the public consumer all of my career as a business owner, I don't like what I see.

 

I was just putting around at Solace bridge and must have seen a dozen or so players.

Hm.

 

... What?

To me , there are more people playing than ever, and the changes that has been made are only for the better

 

as i said peapel i play with and yes i enjoy the game there i things i dont like that much but hey you cant have every thing

 

I've played more this release than any other.

I hate the macroing too. But the use based system (with some of the combat improvements) have overall made this a better game. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they come up next release and beyond.

 

We don't call people names or insult people here, which you've been doing for the past four pages. Go read the rules.

 

Why don’t you come visit Vanguard in game? There will be a new video out soon but here is an older one.




in part, since there are more POTs now. People like myself as at home working away. This may make it seem like we are not playing. Maybe some of use are playing in a different way.

 

I am a blunt woman so here I go:

Skill decay is bogus, it is actually the worst idea I've heard for this game. Here is why:

1. It punishes people for having lives and not being able to play.

2. It does not take into consideration that since people actually have real lives - stuff happens. Examples:

Someone gets sick and ends up in the hospital for a month.
Someone is serving in the military and can't play for two weeks.
Someone gets married and goes on their honeymoon for three weeks.
Someone goes on vacation for a week and then has no time to play afterward due to work schedule.
Someone moves across the country they have no internet for a month.

---> I could go on, but the point is this - RL takes the priority and punishing players with skill decay because they can't be in the game everyday is nonsensical. For myself, I play to have fun and build my character up. I invested big bucks in the game because I love it and believe it will be around for years to come. However, skill decay in any form has no upside. I want to be rewarded for my investment. And the way I expect to be rewarded is to log into the game when my real life permits and play my character where I left her. I do NOT want to be punished if I have to take time off for whatever reason by seeing my time investment in the game be diminished by skill decay.

 

Decay is the reason why many of us are opting out for now.

 

Um....ok? I can see telling the devs in a forum post that you don't like that. But opting out, I don't see the logic in that.

I think there should be some skill decay if you don't use a skill for a long time, this way to make it so everyone doesn't just level up every skill to max and move on to the next.

If I understand it correctly there isn't going to be a huge amount of decay.

 

Is skill decay even noticeable? I played last weekend got some skills to the 50-60s. Busy at work this week so didn't really play again till this weekend. Died a few times and didn't even notice any decay. My skills aren't too high. So maybe its noticeable with several 100 level skills.

 

I can completely understand that and agree with it. Having decay, and using it as a means to enforce a kinda-sorta-cap, without the ability to lock skills progression as hold, increase, or decrease, and at the same time, not have the specific numerics to determine when you hit the cap, and when you have enough to even bother trying to progress?

That's a lot of conflicting mechanics. Decay should have been put in last, AFTER the ability to lock skill progression as hold, increase, or decrease. And hiding numbers is always a bad idea in a game based ENTIRELY on numbers. It just insults your current and potential customers. Optional hiding, sure, go for it. Optional showing, even better. But default hiding? People will find out eventually, so why not be transparent and honest up front? Obfuscation doesn't work for security, and it sure as heck doesn't work for entertainment.

 

Well, as far as I am aware, dying doesn't apply *more* decay, it simply kicks off the natural decrease that would have occurred if you had gained a level. So if you had recently gained skill prior to dying, you probably didn't have any decay to show on death.

However, I do agree... I stopped working on my Bludgeon skill earlier this week, in order to train up my Polearm skill. The skill has been sitting at "97" ever since.

Not even sure whether decay is even in the game at all honestly.

 

Skill decay = discouragement which = giving up.
I know I am one of the many discouraged right now .

 

Well, looking at others comments about the decay explain how it affected you....? Even as it is in the game now won't be in the final product and anything happening with characters in game now is really not important in the grand scheme of things.