Here is something for all players to think about

Comments

• speedokillz Member Posts: 105 Arc User

  November 2016

  I feel this a lot. Some days when I encounter the simplest inconvenience, like going around a group of players just to get stuck on a fence I couldn't see... drives me bat-HAMSTER crazy! Or a mob of monster pushes me into an area that 100% restricts my view of combat because of a tree or overhang... bat-HAMSTER crazy. Like in WoD when I get the mimic quest and the tent makes it almost impossible to get out without getting stuck on something... bat-HAMSTER crazy.
  
  Then other times I look in amazement how complex this game really is... how massive the maps are, or the fact that I can play this huge game full googles and googles of complex math and interaction in a group of 4 other players from UK, Dubai, CA, and FL... While not really unique in general, it really impresses me somehow.
  
  Again, I agree that they need to step it up, agree they pay attention to the whining PvP players even though the game type is basically broke while they nerf PVE. I often wonder if anyone there actually plays the game, but then realize there are probably a few dozen of them playing the game the way it was designed and there are thousands of us trying to break it.
  
  I do not agree that they have to do do everything we want though, even if I wish I could pull at least 1 Legendary item out of a lockbox after over a year of VIP. While I'd definitely frustrated with the hundreds of real$$ I spent to get make my Paladin pop bubbles for days... was it really as rewarding as I thought it would be?

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• dupeks Member Posts: 1,789 Arc User

  November 2016 edited November 2016

  I strongly believe that this isn't the fault of the devs per se, but the organization (or lack thereof) managing them.
  
  I encourage you to go read glassdoor for the company that publishes this game, it may give you some perspective on the challenges devs face. I would note that this is a problem pervasive throughout the game development industry as a whole, but exemplified very strongly here.
  
  That said, we have a unique opportunity because the man in charge has changed recently. Thomas Foss, @mimicking#6533 is probably in as good a position as we could hope for to change the culture around what is prioritized and how the game is managed.
  
  He has been occasionally responding to community feedback, especially when the discourse is civil and articulate. I encourage you to continue writing to him directly, as I think he's our only realistic avenue for enacting the type of culture change required to support the objectives you state above.
  
  That said, he's not a miracle worker and I'm sure there are competing objectives / bosses breathing down his neck too. We need to give him the well-reasoned evidence that he can point to in order to get buy-in from his stakeholders in order to start making real changes.

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• spoomeister

  spoomeister#9137

  Member Posts: 105 Arc User

  November 2016

  The people who maintain Neverwinter need to make money to keep doing so. Therefore, whatever they are told by their data (or their own impressions, or both) is what they'll do. With that in mind, you can right off the bat dismiss any feedback from the truly free-to-play people who have not spent a penny on anything in the game and just grind through to get the AD to convert into anything else. As long as those players don't represent enough of a vocal in-game majority (complaining here or on reddit doesn't count ) then they won't be a distraction that would bring down the brand.
  
  Which then leaves us to the pool of people who have spent real-world money or who are likely to. If the people bringing in the most money are new players, then the content and mechanics will orient to that; if it's for the people who sped through to 60 and are now invested enough (in time) to try to get to 70, they'll cater to that; if it's for people who've been at 70 for a while and grind for hours and hours to slowly bring everything up to BiS, same.
  
  I infer that a lot of their money-making focus is on the second group. People who've gotten up to L60, maybe have one or two extra characters for carrying equipment / farming AD / whatever side things. That's where a lot of people would probably be invested enough time-wise to want to advance faster but don't necessarily have the resources built up to just pay for high powered items in in-game currency straight up.
  
  Also: bear in mind a lot of the game is calibrated to appeal to compulsive gamblers.
  
  Take a look at how many game mechanics rely on visiting regularly several times a day or several times a week... how many grinds there are... the RNG on drops from boxes and levels... the dozens of little reminders and timers and events and rewards... just like a lot of casual games, NW relies on poking the same little dopamine-generating parts of the brain that respond to "like" on a facebook post, or new tweets, or new mail, or the hundreds of little tasks and micro-economies in a Farmville sort of game.
  
  So, a lot of the work in the game is not necessarily going to work from what makes players happy, or what answers their long-standing requests. A lot of the work put into the game is just going to be an objective "what can we do today to make them come back again in an hour, an afternoon, a day, a week". The longer you play - just as in a casino - the more you've sunk so much time into it or are otherwise "worn down" that you can talk yourself into paying for things with actual money.
  
  Ultimately, returning to OP's subject line of "something for all players to think about": whenever you're muttering about the quality of the game or responsiveness to the players, you may want to consider what you enjoy about the game and why. If that doesn't lead anywhere, do some simple math.
  
  - How much do you make for $ an hour ($)
  - How many hours do you put into the game a week (H)
  - If there's things in-game that you want, is it simpler and more enjoyable to spend those hours grinding for it, or to spend ($ times H) dollars to simply get it; if neither of those things sound appealing, abandon the in-game thing or abandon the game
  - If there's things about the gameplay that bug you, is it possible to do other things in the game and still enjoy it, or does it fundamentally waste your time (which, again, is also money, at $ times H).
  
  Example: A 110% mount on XBox is like $35 in real-world money as translated through Zen. If you make $12 an hour, that's almost 3 hours of your work week that go to that. Or, for another example, say you've gotten as much fun as you think you can from the main storyline in, I dunno, Rise of Tiamat. Do you grind Tiamat for who-knows-how-many-hours getting the Linu's Favor for the remaining boons? Do you pay $40 for the zen marketplace item that gives you 100% completion on everything in the campaign? Or do you abandon that line and find something else to play in the game? (I opted for the 3rd of those, on Tiamat; about 40% through Icewind Dale now.)
  
  So, yeah. Figure out what you like about the game, whether that's more fun than what you don't like, and then ultimately how much your time is worth and whether to spend that time here.

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