Let's talk about my lack of vision regarding Intrepid's lack of vision.

As an alpha tester, I've discovered that I'm no longer the target audience for the game as I thought I would be.

So far, I've spent around 72 hours playing during the first 3 weekends of the alpha test. I tried to keep up with the people in my guild, and those 72 hours were comprised of endless grinding to reach level 15. It got to the point where the conversations on Discord became more interesting than the game itself.

Okay, making friends is cool, and getting together with people with common goals is too, but honestly, it doesn't replace real-life friends or quality time spent with my wife.

At this stage in my life, I have to balance my time between work, my wife, daily tasks, and eventually, in the future: fatherhood. I already knew it would be difficult to manage my time with Ashes of Creation, but I really discovered that it's impossible.

I feel comfortable playing 2 hours on weekdays and 4 hours on weekends. But it's simply impossible to be competitive with such a small amount of time. I'd even love it if I had won the lottery and didn't have to work and could consume Ashes of Creation like an addict consumes cocaine. But that's not reality.

Honestly, I don't think Intrepid would want me to consume the game in that self-destructive way. In fact, I think Intrepid doesn't even know that they don't want that. Lack of vision.

The game is being developed for addicted people, period. It’s some piece of fun that’s extremely unhealthy. Maybe not intentionally but it’s what we’ve learned. In some aspects is what we know about life. Steve himself must be so thirsty for a good MMORPG that he decided to invest all his money in his favorite pastime. MMORPGs have always been a very addictive game modality, maybe even more addictive than online casinos.

What are my pains as a player?
Lack of time to play the game competitively. Solo leveling is very hard. That's right, I want to play just a little and at the same time play competitively. I want to be able to have a chance to be the "Bronze King", for example.

What's the problem with demanding less grind from players?
Lack of proper leveling between players? Content exhaustion maybe?

What is the problem that Intrepid fails to solve?
Lack of vision to create an integrated system for players of different categories.

What should Intrepid include in its mission?
Click here to receive the best insights (just kidding).

In my view, the solution lies in creating different categories within the game's systems and integrating everything. I know it's not easy, but I wouldn't be talking about it if I didn't believe in the game’s potential.

I believe we would probably have to think of a way to categorize players. However, it wouldn't make sense to have a server with 50% hardcore players and 50% players who play 2 hours a month. It would break the server or bring immersion problems like "the world is too empty" and "lack of PvP challenge."

I Wonder if it’s so difficult to use an AI to reallocate players between servers and maintain different and categorized worlds, such as bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond?

In my view, a player should be automatically migrated from one server to another based on hours played, and even better: based on their ranking, which would take into account not only hours played but also the number of battles fought against monsters and players, in a transparent way so that a player can choose to stay in that category, thus generating competitiveness between players to stay in the top 1% of that category without being auto-migrated. And if it is the player's wish to be auto-migrated, they can simply improve their rank by killing a lot of mobs or players or by playing much longer to be promoted all at once.

I believe that a person's life journey is more about virtues than vices; about finding a balance between entertainment and duties. If most of us seek to live in peace and harmony, we must live healthy lives, not just physically but mentally, socially, and spiritually.

I believe that video games has something special that has yet to be revealed to the world. Perhaps the virtual world is what will save man from self-destruction or exhausting our planet. However, the gaming industry is increasingly distorted in a way that makes it addictive, incessant, seeking a single goal of generating profit.

Making money is not wrong nor ugly, we know that this isn’t Intrepid’s main focus and it’s relieving but it can’t be ignored either. I believe the game has the potential to reach an exceptionally larger number of players which would generate more profit and more fuel to generate greater positive impact.

Steve, Intrepid, what should we include in the company's mission? Opposition to the current model of the gaming industry and, more than that, serving others, contributing to a greater good.

The game also has potential, at least, to be designed in a way that it can accommodate extension of its current capabilities.

I admire the fact that Steve strives to listen to players' opinions, and I also admire the fact that he is decisive, especially when he says "this is not going to be a game for everyone”. However, I add here that the game should not and need not have so much coupling with his ideals. The world of Verra will be a fantastic 3D world whose structure opens space for so many different visions, as long as they can integrate with the economic aspect of the game at least. It needs to be a little more sandbox.

For example, I bet you my wife would play this game just to play farm and get rich while I spend the money buying swords to play PvP. The game should have less barriers towards leveling and be viable for solo players, let the caravans and world bosses group people together.

Steve, are you using your money to create more of the same we had in the past or something unforgettable and revolutionary?

Having said all that, I leave one last message: "I expect nothing more, nothing less than everything”, and I also don't want to offend or diminish anyone's work or discourage them, and if I did, i'm sorry i wasn't more delicate. It may have been a little harsh, but that's what happens when you compare utopia with reality, am I right? It's just that this game made me dream.

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unknownsystemerror

Just think, with the limited time you have as a casual, you could have re-read the statements of how the game is still in P1 of the alpha, which was focused on server stability and background systems, and not content. Or read the wiki again to find that grinding mobs to level is not the only way planned to level and there is way more content for the "casual breeders without addiction issues" to be onlined in the following months. But instead you gave us your rant, a screed of self-pity and woe about how "Game not done, me angry! Steven greedy cause I want more done!" The problem with "Goodbye cruel gaming world" and "one last message" posts, is that they are never the last one. You will be back.

nanfoodle

This is not the game. This is testing. Good feedback but all that stuff is coming. A1 there was a main story quest that took you everywhere and leveled you mostly. No time for big grinding teams. Go quest. Events will happen and people will naturally join up in these spots. Come and go as you like. Node wars will be a scheduled event. Come play for that hour or so and go be with your family. World bossed will spawn by the pushing of events. Small short content. And when you have longer, full raids or dungeon runs. These are all things coming.

Dezemi

Greetings! I am in a similar position in life (except that I am a parent already, with my second child on the way) - I can not play near as many hours a day as I could when I was a teenager / very young adult, yet - I respectfully disagree with many of the takes in your post.

"I want to be competitive"

Depending on where one sets the bar.... Competitive environment at the top level is simply not possible for me anymore, and I am fine with that. I have enough of those achievements. I think the healthiest thing you can do in your position is accept that as well.

Does that mean you have to be irrelevant? Of course not. I am one of the higher levels in my guild (23 - and I could not play at all last weekend); I have decent enough gear, including a legendary bow that I crafted myself. I also have all gatherings save for fishing at 10 or higher (almost 20 lumberjacking and mining), as well as carpentry at 10. I am very satisfied with what I achieved given my limited time, and especially how much time I spent solo. You just have to be slightly more efficient with your time, which shouldnt be a problem if you are indeed a competitive player.

"Server gate keeping based on time consumption/ingame score"

Terrible idea. First of all, imagine not being able to play with your friends simply due to not having enough time. Or worse yet, having to not play to stay in the same realm as your friends. I have loads of friends that play both above my level and way under, and with such a system we wouldnt even be able to play together at all. Most of us simply wouldnt play.

Games thrive when the hardcore and casual communities (and everything in between) interact and need each other, not when they are segregated. I think Intrepid has done an amazing system already with the bare-boned Alpha that we have. Our casual crafters have a place and our hardcore PvPers have a place - and they have a reason to interact with each other.

dmfdiogo

I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. I didn't mean to express negativity, despite perhaps choosing some poorly worded or impactful language. I'm sure the game will be amazing no matter what, even if I had never spoken up. I know the game isn't ready and it's essentially a test environment. It's just that I was caught by surprise when I finally played it and stopped to reflect on gaming, and specifically this genre. I've had problems with gaming addiction in the past because I simply love it, but that's irrelevant. The point is that I only just realized this now. Call me dumb or whatever, but I'm complaining about the future of the game at its core, not what it has been meant to be so far. If one were to think about this, better sooner than later. We're here because we have deep roots in MMORPGs, and they're building one that is going to be the best ever built. I'm arguing that it could be even better.

It's true that not being able to play with friends is awful, and I clearly didn't think that through. Maybe this thread could be about picking everyone's brains about how we could solve this collaboratively.

Jayma

The initial post is lot of you problem. The TLDR is you want to be competitive but don't have the time to be.
The game won't solve it for you.
Your proposition would simply broke the game for 99% of the players (it's kill the cohesion of servers and the social aspect of it).

For me, the game needs to propose enough variety and layers of content, to make people able to create their own goals and have some meanyfull play time. Some aspect of the game are a bit broken for now (not a lot of quests, broken quests, few public events, level up some craft seems impossible without 20 gathering people to feed it) or missing (housing), to get a real picture of it.

CROW3

Jayma wrote: »

For me, the game needs to propose enough variety and layers of content, to make people able to create their own goals and have some meanyfull play time.

This - well said. If other players choose to invest more time and effort into Ashes than you, they will have greater benefit. The game isn’t going to provide you that same benefit because you want it, but choose to invest less time (for whatever reason). Ashes lets you set the bar accordingly.

riecheck

We have only be testing about 10% of the game. There will be plenty of content. In their own words, "We want more content than any single player can consume"

You're a casual, that's okay but don't expect to "be competitive" when your time places you in the casual column.

A compromise would be to reduce or remove the XP debt. Currently, dying has far too many draw backs. It begins to scare off too many people and we should want more casual players like you to continue playing. By removing the xp debt, it respects your time more. If you're only playing for 1-4 hours, you spend some of that gathering, some more of that looking for a group, more to travel, then are left with only an hour or less to grind but then the Tank doesn't know how to Tank, the group gets trained, healers go afk and people die, you can end up with far more negative xp than positive.

I think Intrepid has a very strong vision of grandeur and has moved steadily towards that vision. However, I do hope there will be SOME changes to accommodate the casuals but we do not want another WoW or FF clone.

dmfdiogo

I agree with everyone. It's a habit of mine to play devil's advocate.

The source of my pain comes from the fact that I love PvP but I don't think I'll be able to enjoy the game to its full potential. I might not even be able to play a castle siege for example because the guilds (at least mine) will cut off the more casual players and admit the more hardcore players in order to maintain a strong army. I'm also afraid that within a 1 year period playing 2 hours a day it will be practically impossible to do anything PvP related against any player who plays 8 hours a day plus the benefits of hardcore guild on crafting.

Penumbrae

MMOs without pay to win elements have always catered (intentionally or not) to three types of people:

- Streamers & Content Creators who make a living playing video games
- Those living off the system in some way so that they don't have to work
- Singles with no responsibility

This game will definitely be no different. Even those who can play full time will find it neigh impossible to compete with the streamer community (Pirates anyone?). Just impossible to be competitive in an MMO without having a huge amount of time.

It's a tradeoff - you have a beautiful family and a life that competes with the game. That is a great thing! If you want PvP though, you'd be better off playing MoBAs where you can jump in and out without a huge grind, and be competitive and never left behind.

~ in the same boat but I tinker casually then quit when too far behind

Gizban

Penumbrae wrote: »

MMOs without pay to win elements have always catered (intentionally or not) to three types of people:

- Streamers & Content Creators who make a living playing video games
- Those living off the system in some way so that they don't have to work
- Singles with no responsibility

This game will definitely be no different. Even those who can play full time will find it neigh impossible to compete with the streamer community (Pirates anyone?). Just impossible to be competitive in an MMO without having a huge amount of time.

It's a tradeoff - you have a beautiful family and a life that competes with the game. That is a great thing! If you want PvP though, you'd be better off playing MoBAs where you can jump in and out without a huge grind, and be competitive and never left behind.

~ in the same boat but I tinker casually then quit when too far behind

I agree with you except for your statement that MMOs have always been made for streamers. When I played my first MMO, Asheron's Call, there was no such thing as a streamer.

My worry is that I'll make friends early on but get left in the dust and not be able play with them because of the lvl gap, but that is my problem.

LordManmode

Sorry buddy. IT sounds like real life has hit you in the face with the timesinks that they offer. I know as a fellow father. Just accept it, you will never be top100. If you can enjoy the game with a few hours a week as I plan to do, go ahead. Otherwise, if that is not enough for you, maybe take up a different game or hobby?

SmileGurney

dmfdiogo wrote: »

As an alpha tester, I've discovered that I'm no longer the target audience for the game as I thought I would be.

I wonder what could have given you that impression? Maybe this:
https://www.youtube.com/clip/Ugkxy1o6r5ZVskH1YD_DdITPjlL6y37eqKYj

SmileGurney

nanfoodle wrote: »

This is not the game. This is testing. Good feedback but all that stuff is coming. A1 there was a main story quest that took you everywhere and leveled you mostly. No time for big grinding teams. Go quest. Events will happen and people will naturally join up in these spots. Come and go as you like. Node wars will be a scheduled event. Come play for that hour or so and go be with your family. World bossed will spawn by the pushing of events. Small short content. And when you have longer, full raids or dungeon runs. These are all things coming.

That all sounds interesting...only it doesn't work well. The game is designed to be competitive and is heavily group oriented. Unless you are in a focused static groups which always play together, people level difference WILL grow, you will be left behind and unable to easily to rejoin them. I'm a fan of MMORPGs, especially those which can deliver interesting competitive environments, immersive worlds and sandbox systems. Yet I cannot wait for someone to be brave and smart enough to step away from the restrictive and self-defeating nature of vertical MMO progression. It only feeds this idiotic levelling race every MMOs tends to turn into and counter-productive for the game content replayability and social/multiplayer aspects of that experience. I want an immersive living world around me I can enjoy instead of a rat race everyone blitzes through, and then ends up often complaining there is no content left.

brita

Like most the others have said, this is a Alpha. It's purely for testing, it's not even meant to be fun yet. My brother is the one who bought me the key for the game, and he only did that because he didn't have any friends who wanted to play and needed another person to test dupe glitches and trade glitches.

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