This Forum Isn't Fun Anymore

Unknown

Bowgentle wrote:

Which is exactly why I fully expect season 2 to launch without any break, to keep people invested.
I'd love to be proven wrong, but the last weeks haven't exactly been promising.

Certainly that fits the excel-based driving style way more, any kind of 'stop-and-fix' workshop would look out of line and a refreshing surprise.

The eggheads usually discover the effect of strip-mining only after it collapsed and ignore any engineer talking about what they have coming.

Unknown

I went away a couple of weeks back to get a long overdue holiday. Although i played while away, i avoided the forum as i thought my family was owed some of my time and attention. Having come back the forum has taken a very negative turn and it saddens me to see it as so.

My question is does this have anything to do with the fact that we are just now for the first time since this game came into our lives, starting to see good weather and therefore want to experience life more than match 3? Are we resenting the game for its inability to allow us to live a life with more than one love?

I for one am opting for an open relationship with MPQ on a trial basis to see where it leads and if we can both be happy in such an existence. I know a seperation isnt a good option as no prenup was signed and i wont see any of my life or invested cash (very little) back, and to be honest, still enjoy many things about the game and the forum although dont feel the need to spend so much time on here after a weeks break (only lurking since returning from hols).

Any others thoughts on this would be welcome as the devs may decide to nerf summer in order to retain their user base?

daveomite

Riggy wrote:

HailMary wrote:

The alliance system is the direct cause of this.

soenottelling wrote:

I blame alliances

I blame seasons more so than alliances. Even when alliances were competing for the third cover, there was still a sense of camaraderie and the debate focused on the design principles of shifting rewards from single players to alliances. I'm sure that alliances stepped up some competition and started the shift towards cliques/isolationism. However, it wasn't until the advent of season 1 with the first new 4* (with solid skills and a fan favorite) where the competition became protracted and unrelenting, and the cliques became entrenched. All my opinion, of course.

Entrenched does not mean intractable though. I think a few cooperative release events (a la Hulk style) and a short break before season 2 (perhaps with some revamps to the scoring systems) would go a long way to restoring community here on the forum.

As a mod, I do feel a bit like a "guardian" or "caretaker" of the forum (despite it being purely a voluntary position and that we were all plucked from the ranks of the masses). Perhaps it falls on the mods to be more active in consolidating "hate threads" so that we don't see 80 negative threads and only a handful of positive. As an aside, consolidating threads is about as far as I would say the mods could go - any further would be stomping on free speech and imposing our subjective will on the forumites (which I 100% do not support). So I guess maybe I'll think on this and start a poll later - can the mods do more to help "police"/"foster" the community?

I tend to agree. I think it's a combination of a lot of things.

When they changed the scaling situation, and introduced the new 395 levels for "those who are breezing through fights" - no one really knew what to expect. Many of us found out in a really bad way in the Hunt, then Sim, and so on.

Then with the inclusion of Seasons into it, it just all started compounding onto the overall frustration that was already on the rise. We wound up with numerous situations of subs for a PvE ending the exact same time as a PvP. Or times where a brutal PvP was in process, along with 2-3 subs to keep track of, scaling to try to keep in check, constantly having to go back and forth to Prologue to heal... it just got to be too much for some people. Then pile on the changes, like you mentioned, to the rewards system and now even to the PvP brackets.

It basically became a full time job to keep up with all of the changes and to stay, even relatively close, to placing well in multiple things at the same time, all while stuck with limited rosters - restrictions and penalties when using certain characters, etc. To some players, those can be game breaking changes and/or things that would make them just stop even trying.

A lot of that, that's what has changed so much in the last month to me. And I think that has lead to an inordinate amount of frustrated people, but new members and old ones, and people have wound up venting here on the board. It's a shame that some have had to stoop to insults and badgering other players. Even ones that I have seen being complete jerks to a Mod, no less.

But to stay on point/topic - WYP - great post. I've always enjoyed your posts and comments on the board. I know I'd miss those if you left. Hopefully, a little breather from the forum/game may do some good.