Martok wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 6:01 pm
A reasoned response to this post would seem to provide the perfect opportunity for one of our benevolent Realm Champions to come in and attempt to sow some harmony and goodwill, to attempt to reassure the population at large that new players are welcome here and their retention is important to the overall health and welfare of the server, that the efforts of those who form and run PUG warbands is both beneficial and appreciated. But I won't hold my breath.
Realm Champions discuss balance changes and proposals in their internal forums. The community doesn't need anyone to reassure its value, for that without the community there is no game, no matter what the game is or what's its genre.
staliniumman wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 6:50 pm
as someone who literally just joined and was taking a brief peek at recent discussions in case there were any devastating issues, this sort of attitude and language absolutely keeps away new players. before I saw some more recent responses, i was considering just throwing the whole thing away if it was that much of a toxic time commitment.
The forum isn't first impression friendly and it'll always envelop personal opinions, from players to staff members. You can read one's post and be completely devastated while another post of the same person could give you hope in what's coming next for Return of Reckoning. Play the game, enjoy it with your friends/guild mates so you could judge the community fairly.
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I believe this thread is getting a lot of diversions and misinformation but I wanted to wait and read all feedback before sharing the huge wall of text below:
PUGs are by far the majority of any online game's community and they're always welcomed
(read that again and again). I personally consider that the whole community is in a 'lobby' where every other player is present; Some players will leave that lobby and head towards a hardcore experience of the game, while others will decide to head towards PvE, others would Role Play, etc. My point is, at the end of the day, the elitist hardcore players and the PUGs are all valued, they're all players, they're all community members. Every player has their own way of enjoying the game, within their available 'gaming' time or commitment and it's not for us to strip that enjoyment from them.
Now where's the issue? The issue is when you force every single opinion/request you have, on the team and on the rest of the community. Remember, we're not stripping the enjoyment from you: You are actually asking for more, and that's fine as long as we all know where we stand.
You see, it's a fact that Return of Reckoning devs have already implemented a lot of mechanics that reward casual players and even solo players. You can spot these changes if you've been around for enough time and if you've monitored the requests that have been implemented already. But, there will always be newer players, asking for more and faster rewards, no matter what we do and how we improve. That's what players want; I'm a player and I would like to get rewarded more while doing less, if I actually have that option.
However, getting everything we want as players is devastating for the game on the long run. If right now, devs implement a system that rewards tanks with 5 Royal Crests whenever they login, in 5 months some tank player will write that 5 Royal Crests are too few compared to the amount of protection and contribution tanks offer to other classes. That's an exaggeration of how every few months, a fresh player asks for something recently implemented to hand out more/faster rewards.
Keep defense bags and contribution have been added to satisfy casual players/PUGs. Once their request has been implemented, part of that community shifted its opinion towards "
people just afk at keeps waiting to be sieged", "
the game is getting boring, no action" or "
nice PvE siege".
Pre-fort zone rewards have also been added to reward casual players. Then, part of that community have also shifted its opinion towards "
people are throwing middle zones to farm pre-fort zones" or "
nice farming for alts and x-realming". There are more examples about how the team implemented various PUG-friendly mechanics and rewards.
Twitch Drops have been implemented and we were proud of this milestone. We've gathered more than 200 feedback over the course of 3 months, with hundreds of golds as free rewards and a lot of unique/valuable items and mounts. In every event, some players would even ask for more or easier rewards because their own, personal, time to watch Twitch streamers wasn't enough. Some have even brought up the "
cost of bandwidth usage". Some people wanted more rewards every single month, for 3 consecutive months, from an event that wasn't even existing and that isn't even a game.
You have to stay honest to yourselves and admit that whatever is implemented, a few months later something else will be requested. You just know that you will never have enough. I know that because I play every single night and I play with PUGs, guilds, new leaders, old leaders and people who genuinely dislike staff members. I constantly listen to suggestions and feedback which I then push to the team or discuss them with the leads.
Will we read all suggestions? Surely. Will we implement all suggestions? Never.
Share with me one developer/publisher that blindly follows community suggestions without putting first and foremost the community/game's greater good. You won't find any.
We're always looking for suggestions to make your experience better on Return of Reckoning, within our capabilities and vision of the game. We were honest and very clear with you when you joined this
private project, and asked you to understand that we are happy to receive suggestions but when it comes to implementations, we will apply our vision of the game while we could also consider your ideas to enhance that vision. But we will not enforce your own, personal, vision of the game. We might meet half-way there though.
Upon registering, we've asked you in the ToS to understand and respect the fact that we will maintain and develop the game as we see fit. This isn't to devalue your opinions and feedback (
which many have been implemented and thanked), but to rather allow you to take the perfect decision from the start: Keep WAR as a memory, or relive the golden era in a newer version, called Return of Reckoning.
I hope everyone who participated in this thread is now aligned with all of the rest, we're a strong community and no one will be left behind as long as they cooperate and understand that their opinion isn't correct by default.