Soapbox #2: This Is Getting Ridiculous

This is getting ridiculous.
By Ima Drizzit

One of the biggest things that have been bothering me lately is the attitude of the AC2 community. When I say community I am referring to the people who play the game as well as those people that insist on sitting on the various game related message boards pointing out all the bad things about it and don't bother to play. At this time I want to shout out to my bro Bozo. ;-) (Editor's note: Bozo does make very good and valid points; I am just messing with him) Anyway, we who play this game get your point already. Hell we KNOW there are issues because we actually pay to play this game and deal with them directly on a daily basis. You do not have to reiterate them to us. And at this point if you actually think you will get us to quit them game.... Please don't tell me you actually think we will quit at this point. I mean how much worse can things get. Yeah some people will still quit before it is over, but most of us have endured utter hell and know how those people that stuck it out through Anarchy Online's first year feel. We can make it till the end of this.

Ok on to the real stuff. We know the issues. We know there are chat issues. OMFG I think everyone on the internet knows about the chat issues. I just hope that moving the directed chat channels (/tell and /retell) to the AC2 game servers in July will show you non-believers that Microsoft is responsible for the chat issues. I have a feeling that this may cause a bit of server side lag that we are not used too, but will make directed chat more stable overall since it will not be running through a separate system. Ok enough chat issue rehashes damnit. I here by call a halt to it all, pretty please with sugar on top.

The lack of content.... Um well not much to say here except it is a fact there is very little content. But if it wasn't so easy to level to 50 in the first few months of the game then maybe the amount of content would have been fine, we shall never know at this point. I think if this is your biggest issue, deal with it for now or stop playing till December and then come back and catch up on the content that should keep you busy for quite a while. Let it build up. And for those that expect the new level 50+ island to have a ton of content when it is released in September, don't count on it. I mean they only have a few months to get it ready and they have to spread their attention to other things at the same time. If there was a dedicated team to that like there was to the Dark Majesty expansion for AC1, then I would say sure expect to be busy for a while. But as much as I hate to say this, I wouldn't count on it.

Solo game is too much trouble. Wow you think? Um how many massive multiplayer online role-playing games out there actually have solo play that advances you in levels as fast as grouping does? Don't spend much time thinking about this, there aren't many. As in real life things are done more effectively in a group. You will gain much more experience per hour in a group than as a solo player. Now I know that solo people used to be able to take out the biggest creatures in the game and Turbine has stated that this was a mistake and should never have been possible. I tend to agree. This whole issue with the player base comes down to the players being used to the way things are and then change happens and they do not like the change because their characters are not total bad asses anymore. Ok I can understand not liking this, but do you really want to play a god character that can always do everything all the time. (no Mythica arguments, that is different) I don't know about ya'll but I would much rather prefer to go into a fight not knowing if I will survive. That makes it more exciting and fun. I don't want to get to high levels and then be able to go up to a tyrant with the feeling that it is like killing a drudge mystic that takes three minutes to kill instead of five seconds. This could all be based on personal play styles as well. You solo players out there need to remember they assured us of viable solo play and Turbine has proven to you in the past that they can deliver solo play, even if it will take longer to advance through that route.

Nerfs. Ok yes they suck so much, but you know it needs to be done. We all want to yell "Don't nerf us you bastiches!!" from the highest rooftops. But deep down we all know it is for the best. If you look at characters from a mathematical stand point it is possible to balance them on paper till you take the random number generator into account and then it becomes a stinking nightmare that can take quite a while to get semi perfect. I just hope to Asheron that none of you actually believe it is possible to perfectly balance all classes without making all the skills the same. Realistically it is not. I remember there being nearly a year and a half of AC1 where each month mages, melee, or archers got nerfed and once they went through all the different classes, one of them was out of balance again. Damn that was a vicious cycle. I am convinced that most people put that stuff out of their memory and forgot all about it. I for one am kind of glad of these changes in a way since my level fifty berserker is not the walking dead like he used to be.

There are a ton more issues that have come up over the past 6 months, but to me these seem to be the biggest concern. I sit on the message boards here and read all the posts and I am seeing so many people say stuff like "This game is dead". If it were dead, then the servers would not be active. I have seen suggestions that they should stop charging to play and let us test all the patch stuff and then re-release the game when it is back in good form. Now this is not a totally bad idea, but I am sure we all agree that will never happen. I have a challenge for all you nay sayers and armchair prophets of doom out there: If you think you can build a better game, get working on it and let me know when you're done. I will gladly play your game and let you know if it is better. (Not that my opinion means jack to any of you) If you think YOU can make AC2 better, then click here and apply for the Senior Game Systems Engineer position at Turbine and show them how to fix their creation. I think it has come to a point where you can only argue for or against the game so much before you need to actually put up or shut up. I fully admit I wouldn't know one bit about how to fix the game. I am a player, not a programmer. I offer an alternative to that suggestion if you are like me. Keep your thoughts to yourself and wait till most of the changes are in after the December prop and then see how it all turns out. If the game fails and closes by then, I will make sure a Warcry forum is still open for all of you to come by and leave messages saying you predicted the end. I will give everyone full range to give me as much crap as you can about it.

I know you all think AC2 is still in beta, but I am here to assure you that it is not. It is released and unfortunately it is going through some changes. I have faith in Turbine that once those changes are complete then we will see a better time for Dereth. (My only info is what you see on the accmty boards not "special" insider info) We will embark upon a time when everyone loves the game and only remembers these times in distant memories. We will view those times as the second Golden Age of Asheron's Call 2.