Hey guys,
This isn't to be negative or flame Cryptic, I'm just wondering since I haven't seen any input in feedback or polls. I can completely understand thrm not answering to flaming topics but, there seems to be a good deal of feedback and poll data on here that would seem to be useful. Players gotta be the number one priority, who's gonna spend money if they're not happy?
The reality is that if changes keep being made that negatively impact or continue to limit players such as, taking away AD from leadership when people have spent real money and time in increasing levels and purchasing assets does anyone think those players will feel comfortable in the future spending real cash on the game? Of course not, people put a high value on their time and it was essentially all taken away without compensation. I realize giving away free stuff isn't something a company likes but, sometimes if your going to make a change that has such a huge impact then you just have to bite the bullet. Everyone loses in the end but, it's better than just giving loyal players and others the middle finger and turning your ear.
I have to say I love the game, get a little bored yes but, it's because I'm on the Xbox and haven't experienced some of the negative changes that PC had had to deal with. Guys if you don't do anything your gonna have players not only leave but, be so upset about how they're treated that your gonna have people that will never play a game made by you guys in the future because, of the poor experience they've had. Along with that your gonna have potentially thousands of people with negative opinions that often don't shy away from telling other people of how you treated them, this is how businesses work in the real world regardless of whether ita Internet based or not. Granted Internet based ones may be a little more forgiving just from the sheer amount of people you can reach.
In the end, I hope someone puts their foot down at Cryptic and says enough is enough we gotta change how we run or business or we're going to go from having a very successful product to a very poor one with a low user base. Just my opinion, hope you guys read it and act to help your loyal players.
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There were 5 players in my Dwarven Valley instance... FIVE. The Black Ice Beholder sat there until the end... untouched. I have never experienced any of those situations before.
There were a lot less instances being used in PE... at a time when I was used to seeing 10 to 12 of them with 40 players in it.
The energy inside of the game has changed dramatically. It now has the same energy that you feel in a store with no customers and very little stock for sale. For your own sake I hope that you seriously think about what is going on. Instead of tying the hands of everyone in the game... give everyone a lump sum of AD and balance <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> out... and then teach the man to fish.
As the saying goes... "give a man a fish and he will eat for a day... teach a man to fish he'll eat forever". Give us a "fish" to tide us over then give us the ability to fish on our own so we wont starve.
Right now... people are starving.
As I have said many times before... this is basic Econ 101. Give every person the ability to make a solid living... without having to lie, cheat or steal... and you will balance the economy anywhere. When a person has to resort to lying, cheating and stealing... that cripples the economy for years. The Liars, Cheaters and Thieves... will live large at the top... while the hard working people will embrace "teh suck" at the bottom.
To balance that out... there are 2 drastic things that need to be done. Increase the living wages... right now the living wage is barely able to keep one surviving. Then remove all farmed AD; remove ALL exploited AD.
When you do that... you tie the hands of all the people who actually do business with the botters. They would no longer have a need to buy AD from anyone... who is harvesting it illegally. Yes, it seems counter-intuitive to do that... but when people earn enough to buy things without botters(credit)... they have no need for them.
These are ALL Econ FACTS
someone posted a link to a steam chart showing decline in activity over the last year, but to be honest, you don't need to see it when you see zones across the game so empty.
Not that I find Steam charts accurate source of information, but going from "crowdy place" to "ghost town" should be visible even there.
Also, since I guess somebody with sceptical mind will say:"They are all bots farming GS/Dungeons now " - I dont believe that suddenly, in 1 day hundreds, or even thousands of players became bots.
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
I can see a possible future that involves a DL of DDO on the books... or wait for something new.
The interesting thing is this... a lot of the people who left after M6 was released... made a point of telling everyone they were leaving. With the advent of these changes... people just disappeared... overnight.
I take a look at the Steam Charts every now and then, "Last 30 Days" had -0,50% showing at the beginning of this month, and right now it's allready at
-5,36%-5,41%.So in a week or two, we will see how much the AD removal from LS has cost them in players. I doubt that we will see an increase in players from now on, even if they come up with those improvements for LS.
It will take some time, but you will see the impact of those changes on those charts...
The elephant in the room is X-Box version. I do not believe in the slightest that they are intentionally scaring players away. However, I also believe that they - Cryptic - are throwing their bets at the console version and simply experimenting with the PC version. That is all we are: an experiment. They wouldn't dare pull this kind of stunt on X-Box because MICROSOFT. MS would tear Cryptic a new one, big and wide. Because players of the X-Box version can complain direct to Microsoft and Microsoft can and will grab Cryptic's proverbial family jewels and squeeze. But on the PC side? Pffft.
Throw any and all ideas, no matter how extreme, against the PC wall and see what sticks. If we lose 75% of all the player there, no worries. We have the X-Box version to hold us over, and the newcomers on the PC side won;t know HAMSTER-from-shinola; ignorant newbies who won't have a clue of the pain and thumb-screws we've cast onto all the Founding players of this game.
So what the hell: let's just make it as painful as possible for the batters and exploiters. We throw the baby out with the bath water? So what? The newbies with fresh cash will come play and spend $100 before they reach level 30. Who cares what they think after that?
We got X-Box.
And here's something I've learned: the "producers" of Neverwinter? Are kids. Like 20-somethings. There you go, no wonder the amazingly immature decisions are being made: "Not enough Zen is being sold, RAISE PRICES AND RESTRICT FREE CURRENCIES".
Even a rat knows how to navigate a maze. But over the last year I'm struck that management is dumb as a dog to always tries the straight line, not realizing he has to go around the free-standing door with no walls attached, not barking through it.
I don't agree with the numbers in PE. the time I am referring to was in the early days of the game, no one had the time to build up an army of "leadership alts", protectors enclave and all the other zones were bustling, now, they are not. it doesn't matter how you try to butter this slice of bread, it does not look good.
Although who knows, maybe bots will boost their numbers enough that they don't drop that hard.