Discussion: April Producer's Letter and Anniversary Address

I think they're going to be seeing a decent sized drop off in subscriptions, and it will be because they didn't listen to the argument that the way they implemented the new stuff was going to piss off their less extreme customers. First of all, making the new powers only attainable (in any semblance of a reasonable way) via the 2 incarnate trials was a horrible idea. By doing this, you burn people out on the new content way too fast, and those that don't like the new content get discouraged because its the only way to get the new 'levels' of power. Secondly, by making it so time consuming to get the new stuff, you discourage against one of the strengths of this game, altitis.

And I'm not leaving, so I'm not posting this because of how this directly affects me, I'm posting this because I've never seen an issue lead to so many players deciding to let their accounts expire. I hope the devs will not try to delude themselves with an excuse like 'well the game is old it's going to bleed players regardless', when in fact its bad moves on their part that are bleeding players from this game.

On the bright side, there was a post by Pos earlier today about the lag related to being a league. Hopefully the fix that is on the way (whenever that is), helps.

Hi Second Measure,

I didn't realize the Producer's letter was up and only just saw it today so I'm a bit late on reading this one.

It's ironic for me because yesterday I was having a conversation with my best friend about all of the above mentioned story lines (Ouro, Arachnos, Well of Furies, Letter Writer, Coming Storm) plus a few others (Hamidon, Malta, 5th Column) as being unfinished, not fleshed out fully, or simply abandoned. To be frank, I felt they were half-***** as a result of being left unfinished or ignored for so long.

I was sorely disappointed that these story lines appeared to basically exist as vehicles to introduce new game mechanics and nothing more. They offered great teasers of what was to come in the story but I had come to the conclusion that there would be no pay off from a story or lore standpoint as time passed. In some cases, it's been many, many years for some of these story lines with no closure or even simple progression.

I don't want to compare this game to WoW as it's not a fair or equal comparison but I'll give WoW some small credit here in that they drive their story forward with each expansion and attempt to wrap up the previous major storyline villains/arcs before moving onto the next major villain. I'm not saying that's what I want here in CoX nor do I think it is what CoX needs but I do feel at times that the story is going nowhere or that major, cool arcs are abandoned for the sake of focusing on the new hotness/features with each new issue that is released. I understand that new features are what a lot of folks want (I'm in that group too) but I don't want to see the lore neglected either. Part of what draws me to MMO's is their ongoing development, not only at a game play level but at a story and lore level as well. At best, it seems right now that the CoX lore just exists to add flavor when adding new features, mechanics, enemy groups and then forgotten.

The ultimate conclusion I came to with my friend yesterday was that for my sanity and to maintain interest in the game still, I probably should just treat these stories as one off stories that occurred at certain times in the CoX multiverse's history rather than as a single time line and that I should stop looking for a conclusion to these arcs.

The passage I quoted above excites and interests me because I thought there were some great stories that held my interest and I very much want to see how they play out. I wish it hadn't taken this long to see that those arcs are going to get attention in the future but I'm glad it's finally going to happen. It also proved my theories wrong about the story being ignored or just being one-offs to add flavor to new mechanics and systems.

I think you and the team are doing a good job so far, and I hope to see these story line items delivered upon. I've already seen a Malta AV and the Durays added so I'm glad to see those long standing enemy groups getting a little more fleshed out. I'm willing to stick it out for one more year in hopes of these and other major stories finally paying out and also to see what comes next.

Thanks.

You want every storyline completed with no loose threads? What comicbooks have you bin reading. There are always things left open. Some are picked up months, even years later. Long after the average reader has completely forgotten about them.