Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2014 23:37:10 GMT -5
SoI is absolutely dead off-peak right now. That said, I'm not convinced the game as a whole is done for quite yet. It's struggling, definitely, but I think it could go either way: spiral down past the point of no return, or turn the corner and come back. The quality of its average U.S. evening player is decent. Not spectacular, but decent. Next year's spectacular players might be in there, if we're lucky. There are a handful of above-average people left, too - the problem, basically, is that the pro-active, plot-stirring pcs, the pcs with steady, consistent playtimes, the inclusive pcs, and the pcs with intricately fashioned backstories and personalities (that they manage to hint at ig!) ... aren't the same pcs. Nonetheless, if you seeded the game with just a handful of players who could manage all four (and not burn out or quit in disgust at some inevitable ic or ooc idiocy), there's enough of a solid middle to be carried along - again, during the U.S. evening to late night range. There's a reason those players left. Some might return, but if SoI's staff really want to help themselves, they should start by showing that they know what went wrong and what not to do ever again (in a believable manner, not that vague "mistakes were made" concession they briefly waved at people). I'm still not sure they understand exactly why things got so bad. I never got the impression that they actually knew what mistakes they had made. They always seemed to respond as if they believed the reason people were upset was because the game was in a very rough, unfinished state, hence the "it's only alpha, shut up" mentality. They also need to start playing their own game. It was abdundantly obvious that they didn't (it was a policy; fuck knows why) and you really can't run a game with a crew of people who literally have never tried to play it. Most of their initial staff hadn't even played Atonement, and some hadn't been mortal players anywhere for many years. |
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Post by BitterFlashback on Nov 20, 2014 23:51:31 GMT -5
As an actual programmer, i really feel the need to weigh in on all this Alpha bullsht. "It's an Alpha" means, "We put this thing out thats broken and incomplete in order to have customers product test it for us instead of paying people to do it. As such, you get to play the game free/ultracheap and will (most likely) either get a discount on the full game or get it for free. Your save games may get wiped because this is early as fuck development. please tell us whenever you find a bug, let us know what the problems are, and tell us things youd like to see in the finished product. As an early adopter, youll have more of a chance of gettng things you want in the product because we won't have as much to rework if we want to incorporate somthing you said."
It does not mean, "This game may be brokeded, but it's a privilege youre paying the full finished-game-price to play it early for, so don't complain about problems because why would we want communty testers doing such a thing?" no matter what some of the shitheads who never finish their Early Access games on Steam think.
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Post by anoobarak on Nov 21, 2014 0:21:11 GMT -5
The word RPI is meaningless.. Role-play Intensive?
I mean how is it intensive when some characters get to play karma houdini for virtually forever, with free uncraftable gear, rez on demand (as long as you're friends with teh admin), the ability to reroll into whatever Loki, Hulk, Tony Stark you want.
Literally no better than roleplaying on dragon court chat where every other emote was 'steps aside'.
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Post by BitterFlashback on Nov 21, 2014 0:47:02 GMT -5
Requires Pandering Incessantly
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elali
staff puppet account
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Post by elali on Nov 21, 2014 1:45:48 GMT -5
There's a reason those players left. Some might return, but if SoI's staff really want to help themselves, they should start by showing that they know what went wrong and what not to do ever again (in a believable manner, not that vague "mistakes were made" concession they briefly waved at people). Or they could start by not acting as if the game were better off without any player with his or her own opinion about how an RPI ought to be run. There's a reason why the forums are even more dead than the game; it's precisely those players who know what a great RPI can be - and care enough to speak up when SoI, alpha or not, falls short of that mark - who've been and are being driven away. Who have been told, in no uncertain terms, that their attempts to help - via feedback, suggestion, and community discussion - are, in fact, actively bad for the game. Bad for first impressions on new players, bad for admin motivation, you name it. What to do? |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2014 2:04:24 GMT -5
Yeah, I found that really weird. Some people started discussing the problems and the response was not understanding, nor even very much disagreement or defensiveness that one might expect, but simply "Negativity is unwanted, stop complaining. You're making the game bad by being unhappy." You wouldn't think that even amateur game developers could be that ignorant.
After so many years of RPI communities having open dialogues, it was suddenly decided that the best way to alpha test a game was to aggressively rebuke anyone who voiced criticism, no matter how civil and comprehensive. I think ultimately it was because the main subject of the complaints conflicted with the interests of certain admins and their player friends.
They now have a forum that gets one new thread per week, if that. I mean, it's not as though there's anything positive to say, and while I no longer log into my character, it takes just one look at those forums to see how unlikely it is for their new admins to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors when any talk thereof is fiercely discouraged.
What to do? Nothing, for my part. I don't have enough of a vested interest to worry that much about it, but it's still interesting to me, from the perspective of an RPI aficionado who cares about the genre, how things were allowed to go so wrong on one of the community's flagship games. SoI used to be second only to Arm, and then only just. Now it's an example of what not to do.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2014 10:08:05 GMT -5
If there's a lack of people saying your game sucks, it must be great.
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daevic
staff puppet account
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Post by daevic on Dec 2, 2014 17:20:35 GMT -5
Don't worry my friends Black Sands will return, maybe not for a bit, but it will. Also, we never had a lot of players because we purposely tried not too. We wanted to test things, improve things, and get the game to a point where we can invite people in without them getting a bad impression of the place. When it launches again, it will be a place where players rule in so many ways. You can form clans, hire guards, rent guildhalls, change locks, all without any imm support at all. There are some other aspects that will give us some real exciting flavor too, like groups of animals changing migration patterns, or acting differently at different times of the month/moon, leaving the outdoors a different challenge all the time. Also, most old magicks will be difficult to find/learn and will likely be nearly gone from the IC world, but ritual, runic, and potion and curse magicks will be much more prevalent in the tribalistic and superstitious refugee camps. I won't give away any other fun surprises for now, but they will come  P.S - If anyone knows a coder, you can contact me. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2014 0:51:17 GMT -5
I hope I will get to continue to play the character I had. I don't mind the slow progression as she doesn't do much anyhow. But I like the stuff you're talking about, daevic. It's good to hear you want to come back, and would be glad to come back to write up items again anytime. |
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Jeshin
GDB Superstar
Posts: 1,516
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Post by Jeshin on Jan 5, 2015 19:01:44 GMT -5
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dcdc
Shartist
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Post by dcdc on Jan 5, 2015 19:12:05 GMT -5
Why are Admins in RPI's such jerk wads? They act like 12 years old with new mine craft server.
Sad.
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Kronibas 2.0
Displaced Tuluki
this account will go inactive once I hit 420 posts
Posts: 389
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Post by Kronibas 2.0 on Jan 5, 2015 20:01:14 GMT -5
LOL I gotta read this shit
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Post by BitterFlashback on Jan 6, 2015 5:52:47 GMT -5
Wow. just wow. Hey jcarter, i think this forum may outlive arm as we pick up more and more disgruntled playrs from other rpis. look at ths shit (which i resizd the font for emphasis in)... |
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Kronibas 2.0
Displaced Tuluki
this account will go inactive once I hit 420 posts
Posts: 389
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Post by Kronibas 2.0 on Jan 6, 2015 22:57:47 GMT -5
you sure told me fella
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Post by demonspongecake on Jan 7, 2015 8:43:33 GMT -5
I think some people's psyche cannot comprehend the concept of volunteering. And by some people I mean entitled nerds.
You ASKED for it, bitch.
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