Its not my intent to sit here and trash on Kano....but at the same time its hard not to speculate why they felt the need to do this. Considering they stated that they figured this wasnt going to be a welcomed update.....why wouldnt they offer a real explanation? They know how we are...supposedly they understand our passion for these games but then get upset with us for getting fired up due to a lack of an explanation.
Ive no doubt that they believe its for our own good but I cant help but wonder if it was really that big of a deal. Ive no doubt these games are in trouble. I think Kano is scrambling to plug all the holes before the dam actually breaks. But in doing so they are systematically destroying the games.
Some of the things they do just dont make sense to me. Remember when they decided to not let us sell off our property/empire? They told us that it was for "our own good", that players were selling everything off(because they were quitting the game) and throwing massive bounty parties that was causing to many players to be on the bounty page and it was straining the servers. Since then player count has decreased dramatically, not saying that caused it just saying theres not nearly the players there once was. Theyve gotten new and improved servers. They have introduced God bounties. Bounty prices are at an all time high ...way higher than the ones put up by those selling everything off. They have added a ton of mammoth updates such as the arena, guild wars etc etc ...But yet we are still limited in that we can only sell off a small fraction of our empire.
I remember the big debate over boss leveling vs battle leveling. That resulted in higher limit on the number of attacks per day and battle drops. Then they go and "tweak" the skull heal tab and slow down the battle leveling process.
Remember when we were able to do what ever we wanted with our own bosses? Then they made it so the owner had to get a minimum amount damage themselves. Bosses have never been the same.
How about the arena? That came about due to a shortage of rival pages for the higher levels and players that that enjoyed the PVP aspect. What they turned it into was an aspect of the game that promoted the exact opposite with inactive players just sitting in defensive stance. Then they decided that wasnt enough and made it worse by shortening the length of the arena while not scaling back the amount of defensive stance. I wonder how many battle arena participants reside in hidden guilds in the real game.
Then theres the "gamer season". An update that was to promote activity and competition between the guilds. What we ended up with something that took 5 minutes a day before we hit our daily limits which resulted in the grand finale of who can get all there members to get their daylies done first on the last day. Never mind that meant getting all your members up and active at 12 am pst.
Ah....good ole guild wars...an all out battle between the guilds. A seemingly unlimited battle extravaganza....unless you are an extremely high level of course.
Then of course we have achievements...they benchmarks of our individual successes...the things that are to motivate us to keep moving forward...you know the ones im talking about...the ones that are years behind in some categories. A personal favorite is the newest achievements for the arena, the ones that reward people for doing nothing and getting into the top 20, 10 and 5 percentile while the actual winners get the exact same thing...an achievement for hitting the top 5%...WOOOHOOO!
The casual players get inundated with new content on a fairly regular basis while the hard core players that paved the way and stuck with Kano through all their ups and downs are left waiting for new content....when they do fially get something its a watered down version of what Kano hyped would be something completely different.
How about them bounties? Arguably one the most popular aspects of the games. Nevermind that you built your account to be good at hunting or that u actually spend the time on the bounty page. If you happen to be a higher level player and your ggood at hunting...they game kicks in with ye olde delay in effort to spread the wealth. Mind you....the delay doest kick in when it comes to "god bounties" you can get all those ya want.....but if u do get to many you will find that the normal bounties are still delayed even if u got only 1 or 2.
A personal favorite is when they started dictating how we allocate our skill points before we get penalized. God forbid we should add to much or to little to any particular category. Never mind that your the one that did all the work and or spent the money. Dont you dare add to much to stamina or u will find that there is a cap as to how much it will refill even when your paying 10fp to refill it. Your expected to have just known this ya silly goose. Also be mindful of how little you add to defense. How many players strategically didnt add to that category in an effort to keep others from attacking them because of the absolute horrid XP? Well no worries ...Kano in their infinite wisdom decided to institute a minimum amount of XP one would receive(years after the fact) despite the fact you took years to build your account that way. Compensation? LOL...quit making me laugh. I walked away from a PC account that was one of the highest in the game at that time. It was simply way to late in the game to turn that account around.
Another oldy but a goodie is that no matter how much u level or how strong u build your account slap damage is dictated by the numbers of your opponent. forget the fact that you can do more damage to a higher level opponent then u can a lower level, forget the fact that despite the fact your increasing your level and getting stronger that your odds of a good slap actually go down regardless of your opponents level. Its for the good of the game....its "necessary"
How about the fact we dont get XP while riding the bounty. Supposedly its this way because it can be easily abused by bots. Never mind that they have "tweaked" the skull heal tab and implemented the whole "math equation defense system" in an effort to eliminate that from happening. Still no xp while riding the list but at least they succeeded in slowing down battle leveling.
The math equation defense system is an absolute gem. Intended to curb the use of bots yet they dont use it in the arena. Its also got the additional benefit/tendency to pop up while your healing on the bounty all but ensuring a a quick and painful death at the hands of your biggest rival.
We also have they new revitalized effort to rid the game of alts. All one has to do is read the TGIF and see that this is a huge success....accounts are dropping like flies! Yeah....I know they are only eliminating the baby accounts and leaving the vast majority of the mother accounts that created them....but thats good for the game too...its an absolute necessity.
I think its pretty obvious I could fill a few more pages with examples but like I said in my opening statement my intent is not to trash on Kano.....I think Ive shared enough examples to have made my point. "Necessity" is ruining the games. A lack of transparency breeds mistrust. Stifling our accomplishments and rewarding mediocrity over excellence is counter productive. Neglecting the segment of the player population that has been your most dedicated players through thick n thin inspires resentment. Yo wanna know why your games are going down the tubes Kano? Look no further than yourselves, your inconsistent ways, contradictory efforts, your lack of transparency and most importantly ......your lack of loyalty to those that have been the most loyal to you.
Last edited: Sep 26, 2013
