Notwithstanding my comments regarding the environment that has evolved or rather de-evolved in the digital app markets it is a well known fact that devs across the board begin with all the best intentions and the ideals of quality product at a good price with a mindfulness toward good customer service… Basic Golden rule m.o. just like pretty much all of modern humanity was raised with as children. But a lack of oversight quickly has diluted and eventually polluted those ideals and everytime it happens it follows the same roadmap. Agressive nerfing, sudden substantial reductions in rewards and ramped up intensity and requirements to achieve those rewards. All hallmarks of the devs descent into greed driven products that trade in on customers good faith expectations in return providing less and less both in terms of product as well as in terms of any communication. The iron curtain of silence descends and then it’s just an all out grab for cash while racing against the clock before all the players realize they are being taken for a ride and finally wise up and then it’s not long before that game sunsets…I have watched it happen over and over with every single mobile game ive played and I’ve been on the app market playing since 2008 with my giant brick att tilt phone. Now if you want to tell us that’s not Perblue’s position and future plans, I’m willing to extend the courtesy of belief despite it going against the grain of everysingle gaming experience on mobile apps I’ve ever had which are many. But when you rail against my speculation on the direction this is all heading(and it’s just my educated opinion here, I’m not organizing group caravans to protest outside Perblue’s offices so let’s keep some perspective please) but the actions PerBlue is taking i.e. very significant reductions in event prizes across the board(I mean the drop in the before and after is beyond ridiculous. From 10 diamond crates to 15 single badges of an item that requires 50 to craft?? Has no one at PerBlue heard of leveling down in steps to prevent shock or in this case outrage?), All of course after just recently increasing the efforts needed to achieve the awards which at the time was stated would go hand in hand with increased rewards. Seriously did PerBlue also create the framework for the Republican tax law revisions as well? Because it’s not matching what was described prior to. And then there’s the consistent nerfing of mercs that all of course mean a significant increase in res to do anything. I realize like most do that some tweaks and adjustments are neccessary and that as a business PerBlue relies on a consistent flow of revenue to keep up a consistent game experience. But when you start implementing massive changes that require significantly more money from the players side while simultaneously significantly reducing the returns of that money in rewards it feels like there’s little to no thought toward how this affects the players experience, when it’s obvious that the ambitious scale that these changes have been implemented would cause some dissatisfaction among the player base. The swing in rewards given is absolutely obnoxious and that alone is cause for concern that this is just going the way of every other dev in their descent into greed. I would not have brought those experiences up as a comparison of it weren’t for the fact that PerBlue has started exhibiting an embrace of that exact same roadmap. So with all due respect Polaris your claims to the contrary are standing in opposition with the very real and apparent actions PerBlue has been taking as of late. This isn’t conspiracy theory run amok and a disgruntled player looking to create bad press for something he feels slighted over. This is actual relevant things that PerBlue is clearly engaging in that follow a very specific playbook, and I’ve seen this show too many times not to at least stand up and voice some concern.
In regards to your comments about the stagnation not being as bad or as rampant as was started to be reported as early as LAST OCTOBER… While I appreciate your claims again to the contrary the truth is my day to day experience is quite different. And in speaking with other guild leaders as I wanted to make sure my suspicions weren’t just an anomaly on my part first before coming here to seek some answers, I found that their experiences have increasingly matched my own. I took a random sample of 50 players one choosen from each of the top 50 guilds in my server… The average number of days playing for them was 352… That’s not too far off the mark for how long the game has been live… And that was the average!! Thinking maybe the top 50 would be skewed to more veteran players I ran the same experiment again choosing 50 players from the guilds ranked 50-100 at random and the average days playing was 344… That tells me that our server has essentially been locked down since it filled up nearly a year ago… Now how long do you think Polaris that these original players are going to keep playing your game especially after the recent nerfing and res needs increased??? For most casual players I’d say a year is the high side of continued play and we are well past that. That leaves the remaining committed core to sit and dwindle as more and more drop off. Please don’t claim the vibrancy of a server thats been sealed off for nearly if not a year now as having little change. If your not willing or can’t share the statistics and data you claim to have on hand that refute my observations then they are quite worthless and don’t warrant mentioning. I’m not calling you a liar I’m simply saying that we live in a world where facts can be proven quite easily so if you offer them the expectations are that you can provide proof of them or they don’t really matter much to people.
More over to the point I’m lead a top 20 guild and yet I’ve had about 43 members and slowly dropping for weeks now. With some of my players not even active for weeks now. And I’m not alone. I think currently maybe 6 of the top clans are at full capacity. And that’s the new normal. You mean to tell me that a server with thousands of players has at least 14 of the very best and most sought after guilds with vacant spots most of which have several or more not just 1 or 2!!?! It’s only the past few months that this has begun happening and its directly attributable to player maturization and the resulting server extinction. It is real and it is happening now. So while I appreciate your assurances that plans are in place to address this issue that you also claim isn’t an issue which is rather ironic, then I would kindly request that PerBlue seriously ramps up it’s time frame for implementation. Because that issue that’s not really an issue is REALLY an issue.
In closing I’m not attacking you Polaris though I’m sure it may seem otherwise. I actually appreciate your response, it gave me hope actually that my fears may not yet come true with this game. However I’m very honest and forward in my conversations and people sometimes mistake that kind of direct and plain communication as intense and attacking when it’s just meant as a simple means to reach a solution to an issue. I will say however that much of what you say isn’t matching up with in game experiences at least on my server. And I’ve provided proof of that that supports my observations. If you want to make a compelling narrative that shows that’s not the case I would welcome some legitimate reciprocation in that regard. In any event I do at least appreciate your response if nothing else.
