So, we are free to play now

You might want to start a thread in the new player section. Alternatively, you can seek advice here from some of the mac users.

In either case, if you tell your system specs to the jury, they should be able to give you advice to get up and running.

Your specs should include:

• Your processor
• Graphics card
• RAM
• Type of hard drive

SotA is much better optimized than in the past. My wife is playing on the bottom-shelf AMD laptop (with discrete graphics). It doesn't run great, mind you, but she's having a blast

 

I had similiar issues when I started with my PC. I took a gander at the system requirements at the suggestion of other players in the game, and lo and behold, I needed a faster Graphics Card..Upgraded that and I've been flying ever since!

 

Now for the main topic, I have seen amazing improvements in the new areas, quite a few new players learning their way around the game. I head into the new areas 2 to 3 times a week and offer my help, I've recruited a few new members to EVL as well, while giving 4 new players Inn rooms in the past 3 days alone. As for Steam, I've been battling these negative nellies for a while now and will not stop until people take a real look at the game as it is now, not as it was then.

 

You put me to shame @Sharok Alurien . I'm a Steam user, I have put up a positive review but could do more to defend the game against innacurate and systematic destructive posters.

It's commendable that you visit the outskirts regularly. Yes you get a few recruits, but its far better you are on the spot assisting new players in the very challenging early steps of the game rather than moaning about it here and casting your predictions like a lotery on SOTAs ''inevitable doom'.

When I get back from my trip I'm gonna follow your lead and make a few conscious trips to the 'skirts and see if I can help and maybe take a few of my not quite so amazing crafed weapons with me and dish a few out.

 

Did you ever take the time to read through some of the negative reviews in Steam?
Ignoring negative criticism does not make the game any better, the devs slowly start to realize that (quality of life improvements).
To bad that most of the team is already gone.

 

A few posts on this thread claim that "complaints are what have made this game improve." I would contend that this game has improved, despite the complaints.

Complaining gets nothing accomplished. Constructive criticism will, but just complaining is destructive criticism. In any relationship, one has to take responsibility for ones self and be a servant to the other. Too often, in our PC society, we shun the very idea of service to others.

Improvement requires help from all.

 

One person's suggestions are another person's complaints.

New players complained that they saw no one on the map, so Port went back on their kickstarter promise to provide SPO, angering many long time players.
New players complained about the mild death decay, so Port dumbed the game down and got rid of it, angering long time players who felt this got rid of some of the basic ideas that this was not just another stupid MMO.

Plenty of other examples abound.

 

(1) Were these ALL complaints or suggestions
(2) Was all the talk ONLY among new players? Were there no "old" players that have been around a while that supported this move?

(1) Bold & Italic sounds like an opinion. Were are all allowed to have opinions, but they are not facts.
(2) Again you seem to be making the correlation that this change (like the last) is split one side and the other between new (recent signups) players and old (been around for a while) players. I just don't think it's that simple.

Of course we all know that this game cannot be all things to all people at the same time. I value your thoughts and time spent in SotA @Mishikal. I do think the community of people involved in SotA has to grow. Not exponentially... but it does have to grow to remain viable for those working to add to and improve on it. If those that are leaving over time are not replaced, there is no future. Obviously there is a balancing act that Port must navigate to both promote "new" and retain "old" at the best overall rate. It's not black and white.

I am a soccer referee. Retention of new, young referees is difficult. More than 45% (nationally) of 1 year referees do not become 2 year referees. So you can imagine there is both a push to bring in new referees and help them along so that they stay referees for longer, as well... it's important to retain veteran referees of various age brackets because they are an asset to referee development.

 

Sorry but to suggest that only new players didn't like the empty world feeling or death decay simply isn't true.

Plenty of "old" players left the game because of decay for example (amongst many other things) and never came back...

 

I'm not saying that every old player liked it. But these changes only came about after the "release", when they started focusing on "FTUE", and these specific items were targeted because so many new players complained about them. My point was that clearly complaining works, regardless of what promises or other things have been said by Port.

 

Some say "complaining" others might call it "valuable feedback"

 

Many fixes are (and always have been) knee jerk and never thought through properly; player numbers get fudged to cover up the cracks and statements get banded round by all parties.

Long and short is daft stuff got put ahead of important stuff (and seems to be still, fishing anyone?), many in community banged their head on desk for a long period, didn't get listened to and now don't play but others who see only rainbows, pretty stuff and we love LB culture still malign those who's opinions differ. Over the years same rhetoric has been continually been bashed out by all and sundry via different rainbows & pretty stuff folks who've come and gone themselves over time. in short as said above one persons feedback is anothers vision of a complaint or slight to rally against and act self righteous over then purport not to be with 'it won't affect my gaming experience', it's all terribly dull. Dev's implement stuff cried out for years before, then wonder why no one plays in said area / with whatever stuff got knee jerk developed, oblivious to fact said folks left game, i.e. PvP'rs for one.

My own accounts are linked to Steam; never left a negative review and wouldn't do so, Chris is a decent bloke, it's just not really delivered as a game to how it was sold at kick start which is depressing and seems to be more a make it up as you go affair.

The plus side though to all these new folks joining is more random adds on 'friends' list

Fungus

PS Runebooks for the win! *runs*

 

Right, that was exactly my point? As I said:

 

I think we are making the same point from the opposite ends of the spectrum.

 

There's a piece of wisdom I read that states that players willing to buy the game are half-way there. They're already invested (or are inclined at any rate), they're considering or have accepted the 'contract' so you have a better chance to win them over. The problem with F2P is that any man and his dog can swing by and leave a one star review before instantly forgetting about you and your game you poured blood and sweat into making, then simply moving onto the next thing. Your 'contract' ain't worth a thing. So if your game isn't stellar (yet)... Well... I'm really not so sure F2P at this point in time was a wise move, but then again it's hard to know what the impact will be. The review hit on Steam is not good. Thankfully there's a long tail so technically you can turn things around, assuming you're still in business. FF XIV, TOR and ESO are good examples.

The problem with bad reviews too is that they can influence one's perception of the product. If one were on the fence but saw the negative reviews, the likelihood then is to also leave a negative review. I think they have a name for this in psychology.

Free-to-Play was fine when that chick from The Lord of the Rings Online invented it because she didn't have to worry about Steam reviews. Review bombing wasn't a thing, we still relied on proper journalism back then. (RIP PC Zone) - It actually was a stroke of genius in the context of that time.

We live in an age right now where, unfortunately, it's popular to sh*t on everything too, and Social Media warfare seems to be a thing, oh hi Raleigh! Really wish you'd just go back to watching Rivervale or Pretty Little Liars or whatever down-undah and leave us alone now, k thx.

I feel like all this is exacerbated by the F2P mobile game race to the bottom and a huge oversupply of videogames. We're in this pressure cooker where thousands of devs are releasing thousands of games, competing for visibility, on the world's most popular digital distribution platform that's no longer curated properly by its creator, it's a veritable flood; but the demand has not changed. Valve must be making serious bank though... Just like Google and Apple and... Oh Christ... ... Lootboxes. Don't do it SotA.

For what it's worth the reviews did seem to be trending up slowly over time before F2Pgate.

 

I subscribed to that for years till it shut down. Based 90% of my purchases on it and was rarely disappointed. It dropping through my letter box in its plastic bag was a big highlight every month, especially if it had a decent demo disk. Sad its gone

 

Awesome! I never met a fellow PC Zone fan before! Same here, used to love seeing it in the mail pile! It was such a great read. Savagely funny and referenced things from everywhere. Some of the funniest writing I have ever had the pleasure to read, trying out the Fallout 1 demo was one of the best surprises for me in my gaming career. I was kinda devastated when they killed it.

I found out all about UO before it was even in beta from that magazine.

I ended up reading Jon Blyth's section in PC Gamer for a few years till he stopped writing it, that man was a master. I couldn't handle the rest of that magazine though, unlike the Zone crew I found these guys too serious, dry, maybe a bit elitist? Certainly very boastful. Well... Tom Francis' stuff wasn't too bad, he wrote good features.

 

Yea PC Gamer was a wee bit smarmy for my liking, plus a bit too techy & hardware.