Thoughts on changes
Posted: 29 Aug 2019 04:13
In 2017 I left Genesis for the n’th time. Without going into the reasons as to why, I declared my n’th return here, on this very forum, a couple months ago. Some things were the same, others had changed. I had to re-learn a lot of mundane details, but certain things had changed drastically. I want to discuss these changes, their de facto impact and how to move on.
First, Genesis has, and always will be a difficult game. A steep learning curve in addition to the lack of graphics is enough to turn away even the most hardcore of gamers. If reaching mortal level myth is a measurement of successful mastery, we’re looking at a year, maybe two, of hard work and dedication. We who master it tend to under communicate this fact. We banter and say things as “nubs will be nubs” and sponsor them with a platinum coin while we forget that we were once nubs too.
There are two main changes that I have specific issues with, let’s take the least complicated one first
Guild experience and how it is gained.
When I returned I quickly learned that guild experience, or guild stat, is now gained independently from your brute variable. In other words, it doesn’t matter if your brute is pacifistic or violent, the pace of advancement, in a guild which relies on said parameter, stays the same.
I’m quite sure this change was introduced due to a number of players' anger towards more experienced players being able to simply die over and over and quickly regain lost experience while quickly gaining max guild power. I can relate to those that voiced their anger.
However. Shouldn’t said “mastery” have its benefits? Shouldn’t knowledge of mechanics pay off? Does the administration view it as their duty to make sure experienced players can’t use, in all fairness, their well-earned short cuts? Pick up a controller and play any game of quality and you’ll see that short cuts are part of the experience. Nobody likes repetition. Why is this not true for Genesis?
Now say my character, Nils, suddenly wants to leave his guild and join a guild that offers sword skill. Naturally, Blademasters would be a pretty viable option. And until this change, it was, but right now – it’s not. If you “died down” it was possible to gain max guild power by dying down to veteran, and even upon reaching myth you’d still be miles away from the coveted 10 links. This even made some players die down a second time. Imagine that! Hours, days, even months!
Now I haven’t tried this myself since the change, but having already done the deed I feel it’s doubly punitive to force me to gain guild stat at a snail’s pace just because of some odd sense of fairness.
Having said that, I do understand why the change was made and in a way, I support it. The problem is, and will be with the next issue as well, how the change was implemented. Hindsight may be 20/20, but the “proper” way would be to set the path to max guild power lower in all the guilds affected prior to enforcing the change. Right now, Blademasters and a couple other options are no longer viable due to the truly unbearable work necessary to reach full power. The path is simply too long to repeat at an even slower pace.
Now over to the biggest shot from the hip ever in Genesis history
Foreversaving items
Since returning I’ve learned that this change was implemented some time ago. Promises were made on the forum that items that did not dull were to be changed swiftly, ensuring that –nothing- could be kept indefinitely.
Anyone who’s attended school and paid attention to their teacher’s feedback on handed in works knows that after the positive comes the criticism, so here goes.
I love the change. I am able to log in, wield my weapon, wear my armours, buy food, a lamp, a couple flasks of oil and a bottle of my booze of choice and be ready to grind within 2 minutes. Hell, I can even quit on the battlefield and when I log back in, my items are ready for action. Is it convenient? Definitely. Does it make casual play easier? Undisputable.
However - Was it wise? Was there a debate? Was there even a meeting? If Genesis was a business the administration would do both their own internal and hire external people to do a “risk and vulnerability analysis” prior to implementing such a monumental change. The goal of these analysis is to try and foresee all outcomes, and then decide whether it’s a go-ahead or a flat out no.
It’s said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right?
I log on after about two years of absence and I see players with every available slot occupied by an imbued item. Obviously their weapon is of the undulling kind and probably has an intense damage or stat-modifying stone on it. They now wield doubly the power than before the change, and they don’t even have to store it in a rack.
Genesis combat mechanics is pretty limited. One person takes the hits and for everyone else, all imbued items can be worn without risk of wear, and since the weapon is also indestructible it’s rock and roll without pause, cost or need for relief. The reality is that the gap has increased. Those “within the know” have accumulated equipment basically unobtainable by the ones said change was supposed to benefit – the new players.
These new players voiced the cognitive dissonance they had with the 20+ year old formula that was Genesis – the need for racks, a guild, friends and teamwork. It was all dropped at the whim of a millennial child threatening to leave if his or her will wasn’t surrendered to. With their limited experience and knowledge of the very difficult game they just sat foot in, and harboring an inherent need for instant gratification; whining was heard by the immortals – changes needed to happen, fast. These are our future players damnit!
These new players, post having their whims catered to, will never know the joy of obtaining an undull weapon, fully aware that it will be lost post-Armageddon. They will never know how adding an imbuement stone to it was viewed as very costly, and once you did pay the price you’d ignore your ever growing hemorrhoids and push on to the break of dawn in order to get the most bang for your buck – naturally.
These new players will never know the importance of keeping racks stocked, and subsequently the joy of finding his or her favorite death dealer lying in the racks for the taking. They may never know the joys of teaming up to get some legendary item on a regular basis. Once is enough – it’s kept forever, right?
The old ones knew how to manipulate the system. Before the change there were ironstones. Highly coveted because they could make an item of your choosing indestructible if the stone was of the glittering kind. People even paid upwards of 500 real life euros to buy said stone. Some had one or two, and right after the change they imbued the best body suit of armour in the game with it, and have, since the then, tanked the crap out of everything, every day, for almost two years now.
Would you believe that these suits of armour were even duplicated in certain racks that took years to get fixed? Different story, sorry. Had to be said.
Pointing at a problem and yelling at the ones responsible isn’t a productive way of moving forwards. But before I make suggestions I urge the administration to please, please admit to your higher power, yourself and us mortals that you too are human. Being human implies imperfection, mistaken at times, and that you are by no means perfect. Can we agree that the switch to foreversaving was a shot from the hip and not fully thought through?
If so, here are my suggestions, and remember – that’s precisely what they are, suggestions. Not a command, not a request. Up for debate, dissection etc.
1. Return guild stat gain to the old way. Let the experienced ones enjoy the fact that they’ve already done the work and relish in knowing that the next time around it’ll be much easier, not harder. Harder is contrary to good game design, hell - even life itself.
2. Make changes to all guilds that rely on guild stat for power, quickly. Shorten “the grind” to something that is obtainable within a month or two.
3. Purge - I’ve suggested this before as a one-time thing, just to make the items that wasn’t supposed to exist due to ironstones and duping, disappear. It basically meant that for one Armageddon, NO items glow. I now suggest purging as a regular event. Frequency of purges is up for debate. Personally I’d like to see bi-monthly.
4. Hard reset - No foreversaving items, back to basics. The guild must matter. The hunt for EQ must matter. The sense of teamwork, belonging and friendship must matter. The worth of racks as a concept must matter. Contribution, trust, worth. Important to the feeling of accomplishment. It must matter! Genesis is a hard game. This is why most try it and leave, while some stay – the equivalent of “for life”.
Jonas, The Nils’ drunken puppeteer.
TL;DR - New guildstat gain bad. Foreversaving items bad. Let’s fix it.
First, Genesis has, and always will be a difficult game. A steep learning curve in addition to the lack of graphics is enough to turn away even the most hardcore of gamers. If reaching mortal level myth is a measurement of successful mastery, we’re looking at a year, maybe two, of hard work and dedication. We who master it tend to under communicate this fact. We banter and say things as “nubs will be nubs” and sponsor them with a platinum coin while we forget that we were once nubs too.
There are two main changes that I have specific issues with, let’s take the least complicated one first
Guild experience and how it is gained.
When I returned I quickly learned that guild experience, or guild stat, is now gained independently from your brute variable. In other words, it doesn’t matter if your brute is pacifistic or violent, the pace of advancement, in a guild which relies on said parameter, stays the same.
I’m quite sure this change was introduced due to a number of players' anger towards more experienced players being able to simply die over and over and quickly regain lost experience while quickly gaining max guild power. I can relate to those that voiced their anger.
However. Shouldn’t said “mastery” have its benefits? Shouldn’t knowledge of mechanics pay off? Does the administration view it as their duty to make sure experienced players can’t use, in all fairness, their well-earned short cuts? Pick up a controller and play any game of quality and you’ll see that short cuts are part of the experience. Nobody likes repetition. Why is this not true for Genesis?
Now say my character, Nils, suddenly wants to leave his guild and join a guild that offers sword skill. Naturally, Blademasters would be a pretty viable option. And until this change, it was, but right now – it’s not. If you “died down” it was possible to gain max guild power by dying down to veteran, and even upon reaching myth you’d still be miles away from the coveted 10 links. This even made some players die down a second time. Imagine that! Hours, days, even months!
Now I haven’t tried this myself since the change, but having already done the deed I feel it’s doubly punitive to force me to gain guild stat at a snail’s pace just because of some odd sense of fairness.
Having said that, I do understand why the change was made and in a way, I support it. The problem is, and will be with the next issue as well, how the change was implemented. Hindsight may be 20/20, but the “proper” way would be to set the path to max guild power lower in all the guilds affected prior to enforcing the change. Right now, Blademasters and a couple other options are no longer viable due to the truly unbearable work necessary to reach full power. The path is simply too long to repeat at an even slower pace.
Now over to the biggest shot from the hip ever in Genesis history
Foreversaving items
Since returning I’ve learned that this change was implemented some time ago. Promises were made on the forum that items that did not dull were to be changed swiftly, ensuring that –nothing- could be kept indefinitely.
Anyone who’s attended school and paid attention to their teacher’s feedback on handed in works knows that after the positive comes the criticism, so here goes.
I love the change. I am able to log in, wield my weapon, wear my armours, buy food, a lamp, a couple flasks of oil and a bottle of my booze of choice and be ready to grind within 2 minutes. Hell, I can even quit on the battlefield and when I log back in, my items are ready for action. Is it convenient? Definitely. Does it make casual play easier? Undisputable.
However - Was it wise? Was there a debate? Was there even a meeting? If Genesis was a business the administration would do both their own internal and hire external people to do a “risk and vulnerability analysis” prior to implementing such a monumental change. The goal of these analysis is to try and foresee all outcomes, and then decide whether it’s a go-ahead or a flat out no.
It’s said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right?
I log on after about two years of absence and I see players with every available slot occupied by an imbued item. Obviously their weapon is of the undulling kind and probably has an intense damage or stat-modifying stone on it. They now wield doubly the power than before the change, and they don’t even have to store it in a rack.
Genesis combat mechanics is pretty limited. One person takes the hits and for everyone else, all imbued items can be worn without risk of wear, and since the weapon is also indestructible it’s rock and roll without pause, cost or need for relief. The reality is that the gap has increased. Those “within the know” have accumulated equipment basically unobtainable by the ones said change was supposed to benefit – the new players.
These new players voiced the cognitive dissonance they had with the 20+ year old formula that was Genesis – the need for racks, a guild, friends and teamwork. It was all dropped at the whim of a millennial child threatening to leave if his or her will wasn’t surrendered to. With their limited experience and knowledge of the very difficult game they just sat foot in, and harboring an inherent need for instant gratification; whining was heard by the immortals – changes needed to happen, fast. These are our future players damnit!
These new players, post having their whims catered to, will never know the joy of obtaining an undull weapon, fully aware that it will be lost post-Armageddon. They will never know how adding an imbuement stone to it was viewed as very costly, and once you did pay the price you’d ignore your ever growing hemorrhoids and push on to the break of dawn in order to get the most bang for your buck – naturally.
These new players will never know the importance of keeping racks stocked, and subsequently the joy of finding his or her favorite death dealer lying in the racks for the taking. They may never know the joys of teaming up to get some legendary item on a regular basis. Once is enough – it’s kept forever, right?
The old ones knew how to manipulate the system. Before the change there were ironstones. Highly coveted because they could make an item of your choosing indestructible if the stone was of the glittering kind. People even paid upwards of 500 real life euros to buy said stone. Some had one or two, and right after the change they imbued the best body suit of armour in the game with it, and have, since the then, tanked the crap out of everything, every day, for almost two years now.
Would you believe that these suits of armour were even duplicated in certain racks that took years to get fixed? Different story, sorry. Had to be said.
Pointing at a problem and yelling at the ones responsible isn’t a productive way of moving forwards. But before I make suggestions I urge the administration to please, please admit to your higher power, yourself and us mortals that you too are human. Being human implies imperfection, mistaken at times, and that you are by no means perfect. Can we agree that the switch to foreversaving was a shot from the hip and not fully thought through?
If so, here are my suggestions, and remember – that’s precisely what they are, suggestions. Not a command, not a request. Up for debate, dissection etc.
1. Return guild stat gain to the old way. Let the experienced ones enjoy the fact that they’ve already done the work and relish in knowing that the next time around it’ll be much easier, not harder. Harder is contrary to good game design, hell - even life itself.
2. Make changes to all guilds that rely on guild stat for power, quickly. Shorten “the grind” to something that is obtainable within a month or two.
3. Purge - I’ve suggested this before as a one-time thing, just to make the items that wasn’t supposed to exist due to ironstones and duping, disappear. It basically meant that for one Armageddon, NO items glow. I now suggest purging as a regular event. Frequency of purges is up for debate. Personally I’d like to see bi-monthly.
4. Hard reset - No foreversaving items, back to basics. The guild must matter. The hunt for EQ must matter. The sense of teamwork, belonging and friendship must matter. The worth of racks as a concept must matter. Contribution, trust, worth. Important to the feeling of accomplishment. It must matter! Genesis is a hard game. This is why most try it and leave, while some stay – the equivalent of “for life”.
Jonas, The Nils’ drunken puppeteer.
TL;DR - New guildstat gain bad. Foreversaving items bad. Let’s fix it.