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The Truth about neverwinter from my experiences
apathy408
Member Posts: 81 Arc User
Neverwinter has potential to be an incredible game. Too bad its managed by developers who have consistently proven that profits far outweigh any type of morality towards their fanbase. Lets start with the changes to leadership. They claimed that these changes were to prevent botting. while scripting may be common on pc its not on xbox yet we suffer these changes as well. These botters don't even represent 1% of the xbox community yet the 99% must pay for these crimes too. By this analogy since Enron ciphened their employee pensions we must not only punish them, but cryptic as well.
For the same reasoning as the leadership changes our dragon hoard enchantments were also nerfed. We were told that this new change would in no way affect a normal days play time. In over 3 weeks I have just barely manages to accumulate 1 stack of peridots and I play 8-10 hours per day on my available days which ends up being half of the week or so. Before I was able to accumulate about 5 stacks per week. Care to tell me again how it wont affect my normal gameplay cryptic? Every change that has been made has been to drive profit margins.... not to enhance the gaming experience whatsoever.
So why increase health to 8-9x what it was with the update yet keep health potions only effective for about 10k? To sell health stones that why! They weren't necessary before and now they've engineered a scenario in which they are much more valuable. Isn't it just wonderful how every update has introduced engineered problems by cryptic that can be solved by throwing money at the game. I suppose all of these changes wouldn't be so bad if I could actually make ad like I did in mod 5 but clearly that's not the case. Why else would all gear now be bind on pickup. Wouldn't want anyone selling that elemental armor now would we cryptic?
Look I'm a rational person. I understand businesses need to make profit but where's the artistic integrity? gaming used to be a passion only the nerdiest of nerds got into. Now its worse than the Hollywood industry. Ruled over by big business tycoons who care about nothing besides the bottom line.
The thing that upsets me the most is the dishonesty about their product. It borders on false advertisement. If Cryptic wants my money then work for it. Don't force me to anything because that's when my wallet closes tight. I will not be squeezed by anyone for what I do not owe. create a product that costs money that's actually desirable and people will buy it. Its as simple as that. There's no need to create artificial bottle neck mechanics in lieu of actual tangible and desirable products. Now back to the false advertisement thing. Apparently there was a pc event where the screen said that a certain companion was able to be claimed by all characters upon getting it. Countless players spent their real hard earned dollars to get this companion only to find that it was an error on cryptic's part. Upon hearing about this cryptic said that it was a mistake on their part for the phrasing of the ad detailing the event and companion. they have now agreed to let player claim the companion 3x. Pretty sure there's a law (at least in California) that states that you have to honor what you advertise or you can be sued for false advertisement. But hey..... when all you care about is the bottom line whats a little false advertisement?
Alienating your audience cryptic.... that's what you're doing. Its a common theme in gaming today and especially in mmos. Has anyone ever wondered why mmos make so many cookie cutter copies of the same game with a different theme? Let me explain. Each game starts amazing. The dealer always gives you his best stuff to begin with. you get the stepped on dope later after hes got you hooked. Their hope is to get you involved enough into the game early on so that it becomes a habit to play. get you invested early with addicting mechanics and such. Not to mention get you invested financially. At a certain point how do you even convince yourself to just walk away rom something you have so much money into? It happens right there.... They've got you. Now they gradually tighten the reins to drive away the free players from the game. After that is done we can downsize servers to cut expenditures and all that's left is pay players. Anyone care to speculate how much a pay to win ...... I mean free to play mmo makes when even 80% of its audience is spending even just a meager $5 per week? But what about all the people that walked away? lost profits? Not even close. Make another game using the same format to streamline production costs and lets try another theme to grasp the audience that eluded the last game. Maybe we'll get them this time. Don't forget the new game is always a nice enjoyable game with minimal bottle necks. As we've already learned the dealer doesn't switch you to the stepped on stuff till he's got you hooked.
For the same reasoning as the leadership changes our dragon hoard enchantments were also nerfed. We were told that this new change would in no way affect a normal days play time. In over 3 weeks I have just barely manages to accumulate 1 stack of peridots and I play 8-10 hours per day on my available days which ends up being half of the week or so. Before I was able to accumulate about 5 stacks per week. Care to tell me again how it wont affect my normal gameplay cryptic? Every change that has been made has been to drive profit margins.... not to enhance the gaming experience whatsoever.
So why increase health to 8-9x what it was with the update yet keep health potions only effective for about 10k? To sell health stones that why! They weren't necessary before and now they've engineered a scenario in which they are much more valuable. Isn't it just wonderful how every update has introduced engineered problems by cryptic that can be solved by throwing money at the game. I suppose all of these changes wouldn't be so bad if I could actually make ad like I did in mod 5 but clearly that's not the case. Why else would all gear now be bind on pickup. Wouldn't want anyone selling that elemental armor now would we cryptic?
Look I'm a rational person. I understand businesses need to make profit but where's the artistic integrity? gaming used to be a passion only the nerdiest of nerds got into. Now its worse than the Hollywood industry. Ruled over by big business tycoons who care about nothing besides the bottom line.
The thing that upsets me the most is the dishonesty about their product. It borders on false advertisement. If Cryptic wants my money then work for it. Don't force me to anything because that's when my wallet closes tight. I will not be squeezed by anyone for what I do not owe. create a product that costs money that's actually desirable and people will buy it. Its as simple as that. There's no need to create artificial bottle neck mechanics in lieu of actual tangible and desirable products. Now back to the false advertisement thing. Apparently there was a pc event where the screen said that a certain companion was able to be claimed by all characters upon getting it. Countless players spent their real hard earned dollars to get this companion only to find that it was an error on cryptic's part. Upon hearing about this cryptic said that it was a mistake on their part for the phrasing of the ad detailing the event and companion. they have now agreed to let player claim the companion 3x. Pretty sure there's a law (at least in California) that states that you have to honor what you advertise or you can be sued for false advertisement. But hey..... when all you care about is the bottom line whats a little false advertisement?
Alienating your audience cryptic.... that's what you're doing. Its a common theme in gaming today and especially in mmos. Has anyone ever wondered why mmos make so many cookie cutter copies of the same game with a different theme? Let me explain. Each game starts amazing. The dealer always gives you his best stuff to begin with. you get the stepped on dope later after hes got you hooked. Their hope is to get you involved enough into the game early on so that it becomes a habit to play. get you invested early with addicting mechanics and such. Not to mention get you invested financially. At a certain point how do you even convince yourself to just walk away rom something you have so much money into? It happens right there.... They've got you. Now they gradually tighten the reins to drive away the free players from the game. After that is done we can downsize servers to cut expenditures and all that's left is pay players. Anyone care to speculate how much a pay to win ...... I mean free to play mmo makes when even 80% of its audience is spending even just a meager $5 per week? But what about all the people that walked away? lost profits? Not even close. Make another game using the same format to streamline production costs and lets try another theme to grasp the audience that eluded the last game. Maybe we'll get them this time. Don't forget the new game is always a nice enjoyable game with minimal bottle necks. As we've already learned the dealer doesn't switch you to the stepped on stuff till he's got you hooked.
Post edited by zebular on
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Comments
The biggest current annoyance for me is the DHE nerf. Everybody got all new artifacts but the ability to upgrade them has been seriously curtailed. I absolutely do not accept the point this is due to bots - it's due to blood diamonds.
I've seen other games successfully deal with farming bots (Cryptic, go talk to Arenanet!) They did this through a combination of automated gameplay analysis that spots bot behaviour patterns plus a 'report bots' option for players. They pretty much drove them out of GW2. They also monitored currency exchanges between players to spot gold sellers. They could trace these movements to find every account involved from farmer to buyer - then banned them all (yes players who bought from currency sellers were banned).
What they did not do was nerf the gameplay because they respected the community too much. It's such a shame that the business decisions here are made with what strikes me as a form of naive profiteering. I have seen much the same with some companies I've worked for in the past.
Decisions based on increasing quarterly profits at the expense of customer satisfaction inevitably have an adverse affect on year on year earnings.
It is actually quite easy to get players to pay with real money - you offer a quality upgrade in an environment where it doesn't feel like exploitation (i.e. player has no choice). It has to be a WANT not a NEED. People rarely regret spending cash on a want but if they feel forced then the resentment sets in and it's downhill from there.
I.e. this thread.
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
DHE "nerf" does not affect a majority of the playerbase, only the ones who have no life and play 12hrs a day. From what I have read, most people notice a drop in stones dropped after about 2-3hrs of gameplay. In that time there is more than enough time to grind for stones. So I don't see the issue there either.
As for leadership, it is much more simple for them to copy and paste from PC than it is to make up new coding and everything when moving stuff to Xbox. So with MOD 6, PC got this nerf and that nerf. So to save time, to get Xbox the MOD, they copy and paste exactly what PC got...which included a nerf to leadership (which imo was very much needed anyway).
The creation of Zen is a deliberate limiter, created so; the less people buy Zen with real cash the more costly it is to buy your items with AD.
I would be quite happy with a set AD price and a set $ price, completely bypassing the need for Zen - but that kind of straightforward approach doesn't appear to appeal for some reason.
Just because they supply an avenue via which 'hard core' players can bypass the necessity of buying Zen does not make this any easier for everyone else.
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the thought of the company making a profit. We (the players) NEED the company to make a profit for the game to continue. I also have no issue with players 'buying their gear score' because although they are taking a shortcut, they are contributing to the game's continued existence.
The problem is the limitations at key points in your progression make it very difficult to AVOID paying. That to me is a breach in the ethos of the game and I'm the sort of person that doesn't mind paying for shortcuts as long as they DON'T FEEL COERCED.
The recent changes have in essence seriously reduced the earning capacity for most players. Making dungeon drops impossible to sell on and giving poor salvage returns means that running dungeons for profit is no longer viable unless you get very lucky.
The removal of everyday earnings and essentially limiting players to the 3 AD tasks means players have less AD to buy Zen with - this is backed up by the current AD to Zen price. It's dropped dramatically due to less purchases via AD and more through cash. The necessity of this is the core complaint of this post.
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
It all comes down to knowing how to play, and knowing how to get the things you need/want. All without dropping a single penny.
DC - "The Unholy"
Guild: Ruthless
You make my point for me. Also when you have a "1000 threads" the majority by different players and only a handful of people happy with the current situation, it suggests that despite the fact you see nothing wrong you are (at least as the forum goes) in the minority.
Regardless of whether you appreciate it or not, every negative poster is reflecting the opinions of a number of silent players. The reason why we post our disagreements is because we like the game and we want it to get better but issues like this are what hold it back and potentially make its future uncertain. Many people are already saying how guilds are losing players as they leave - I ran a new character through levelling and was surprised by the reduced number of new players going through those areas.
I know you don't see it and believe (we) are wrong but try broadening your perspective so you can understand WHY people are saying these things - its not to make noise, it's a genuine concern.
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
How did I prove your point? You are saying people are spending money so that's why zen is down? Okay, but my point is still valid....you don't have to spend money unless you choose to do so. It just so happens that other impatient people are wasting their money, but that means Zen is cheap for me and you, so I don't see a problem there.
Edit after you changed your comment: I have stated I have spent $100 on this game since launch, and do no plan on spending anymore what-so-ever. So I am not one of the people dropping hundreds or thousands on this game. And I know this game is dying, as I have also stated...this game will be dead on Xbox by the end of the year. I do like playing it, but it is dying and will be dead.
If one chooses to spend real money on something now that they can get for free later, that is entirely on that person. Are the Zen/AD prices good at present? No. That still doesn't mean one has to spend money on them. I spend my real money on fluff instead (like packs, costumes, mounts, dyes), while spending what I earn in game on advancement (like respecs, upgrades, character slots, inventory, comp/mount upgrades). Well, I guess in part I did buy one appearance change, as I bought the Dragonborn Legend pack that came with one. Other appearance changes I have done have been with converted AD but if I really wanted to change a character and didn't have the AD, I'd drop a few bucks on it, sure.
I guess that's just how my mind works; If I "need something," I'll work for it. If I "desire something," I'll spend money for it. In an MMO, advancement to me equates a need while fluff things equate a desire.
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
Let me ask this to all of you. If I were the president and I changed minimum wage to half of what it is and then removed about 30% of the nations jobs all the while maintaining current economic costs for needed products would you be defending me? Remove ad from leadership, cut salvage in half, make everything bop so it can't be sold, break dragon hoards so that they're no longer a viable method for getting things to legendary and then maintain all the current costs that were based on a 500:1 ad to zen scale. You know who really profits from that? Cryptic. Cryptic clearly has a very smart team in their marketing department but if they actually believe that they're so smart that nobody sees the obvious attempts at coercion then it's just arrogance at that point. I want cryptic to make a profit. I enjoy the game. Here's the thing though.... From the articles I've read in pc gaming magazine cryptic was making money hand over fist during with neverwinter well before mod 6 so why crack the whip all of a sudden? The answer is greed. They're testing the waters and if people allow that to continue it will become the standard.
Free to play have had a bad rep since their creation..... Nothing in this world is ever truly free. At the end of the day most people are reasonable and understand business is business. Perhaps cryptic should try transparency with their marketing instead of creating artificial restraints in game and you'd be surprised how many will continue to spend because they have the disposable income to do so, myself included. However, until the current restraints are lifted I don't intend on spending another dime. I've been an mmo player a long time and regularly spend thousands across years gaming. I have the income so why not? But I'm one of those stubborn people also. When I feel pushed I push back. While I may or may not be the majority there are enough people like me to make a dent in cryptics profits. Perhaps cryptic should pay attention to how many topics about the same things are posted in a regular basis. Kind of seems like there's a theme to what people want. Paying attention to that would be advisable. Either way it my job as a consumer to watch after my own investments as well as its cryptics job to watch after theirs. There is a balance between the 2....... But mod 6 isn't even close.
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
As for the "look mod 6 was a screw up on cryptics part. Sorry guys w'ere trying to fix it"? - This is not for me to convey, but I do believe they have admitted such - just not in the tone you're suggesting. Regardless if you take some time to look at my post history, and other Mods, you'd see that we're all complaining about various aspects of the game too. Furthermore, if you look at all the changes they're doing, it should be clear that they realize things are not where they should be and are clearly working to resolve such.
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
These two changes in effect mean it takes a lot longer to level up any artifact and you cannot buy or sell T1/T2 gear which was a major source of income (& incentive) for dungeon runners.
Poor artifact levelling & poor AD returns result in (as apathy said) character stagnation. If you were lucky enough to get your character & income to a high level prior to the change then good for you - those that follow do not have that advantage.
The lifeblood for mmo's is player progression - without that feeling of moving forward people will become irritated & bored, feeling the game is pointless because input does not equal reward and simply move on. You've seen it on pc, we are seeing it now on xbox.
Cryptic need to not only treat this as urgent - they also need to be SEEN to treat it as urgent to convince current players that improvement is coming. I personally have seen nothing from them that suggests this.
(removed comments on a removed post ~Zeb)
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
I have been invoking for over a thousand hours of gameplay and NEVER had a coal ward drop from that not once.
I have a guy I play with who has 2,500 hours of gameplay I will check with him as to whether he has ever had this happen on XBONE.
Considering the amount you need to move forward pretty much everything that is refineable I would have thought I would have seen at least one in a thousand hours of playing right?
Also no invoking across multiple characters so will be interested to see whether the Alts drop them.
(wont hold my breath).
Seriously I have over 1500 hours in this game. Never had a coal ward drop from invoking nor heard of one dropping.
For Zeb's group to beat ECC legit-I'm thinking that he's the only one to have rank 5/6 enchaments in slot. While that works well for you, how many other ppl would be that lucky? Probably not too many to be honest.
Neverwinter has a distinct advantage, as it's the only mmo in town, on xbone.. This won't last forever. I sure I really dig the combat and a great many things about it, but with a playtime of 2-6hrs a day in broke as a joke. Sure I could do things like playing the market and trading like a broker//middle man, but I play games for fun..not work. Subsequently, I never expect to be, 'rich,' yet with the hours put in broke doesn't really seem right either.
Tick tock lad's...
While some of your points border on valid (wards), much of it reads as 'I don't feel like doing [insert effort] for [insert time]' to get [insert item \ stat]. Most of your points have a somewhat myopic view of a very broad game. For example (one of many I could make), you complain about the healing pots not doing much; level Alchemy and make better ones:
http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Distilled_Potion_of_Superior_Healing
If they drop better healing pots, I am going to be bent as a market opportunity is then lost for me and my minion of Alchemists.
I think most of the people that have such complaints are just ignorant (and I mean that in a benign way) about how to manage resources and time to get what they feel is being kept at bay by perceived deliberate 'bottlenecks'.
That said, Cryptic did not do themselves any favors (IMHO) with the mods being out of order. They invited all kinds of butthurt with inflated prices (GMO(X)) and unavailable content (could not complete sets for example). If it was not for support reasons, (PC \ Xbox tickets are about the same content), then I cant fathom why they released them out of order.