Originally Posted by
Ekoz
i still check into these forums every now and then, and usually i just silently observe these types of threads. but as of late, there's been a surge in the general dissatisfaction by traditionally nonvocal, or slow-to-anger members. so i thought i'd just weigh in. again.
@gondorian: i'm sure you get this often, i know i've held discussion with you about this before, but the response you gave in this thread is just not totally pertinent to the situation. it's a reverberation of the same old topic: "the cards are almost done, your kickstarter won't be in vain." but through all the discussions held on this topic; most have not started out just about the not-so-new cards. They're about the kickstarter in general. the lack of company contact. the snail's pace of updates. the new features promised and hinted at a year ago.
the only new features in the game that i am personally aware of is a new title screen with some animated snow, a daily log-in bonus, and some "watch video, receive crystals" advertising scheme that is iOS only. now, don't get me wrong, that is something, but we were promised auctioning. updated deck builders. profiles, visuals, groups, and a campaign mode. some of these things are DIFFICULT to program; i can attest to that. but they are all possible to program over the course of a year, with some hard work and attrition. if even just one of these big features was implemented within the year, then i think attitudes would be much brighter.
now, i want to draw your attention to something. at the very bottom of the kickstarter page is a section that outlines how Wulven, as a company, planned to tackle the design process. Quoted:
let's break this down.
So has this happened? at the moment, it seems the money has not been used at all to hire in-house artists, as art is STILL being licensed from third parties. and development of features has been so painfully slow, it is extremely unlikely programmers were hired either. so where has that money gone? i know this isn't a question you even have an answer to, but that's a huge part of the problem. even the man who has been relegated to be the community/company bridge doesn't even know what is going on half the time. we need more contact. All of us.
Then why is the go to excuse have to deal with the card set? in nearly every thread, your answer to the all the FUD is that "the card set is almost done, don't worry! when it's finished, we can branch our efforts!". but this was NEVER supposed to be the case. design was, at least as far as the community was aware, NOT supposed to be linear. i know that what this part of the text actually refers to is programming development, to make sure that all new features were programmed on their own infrastructure; but this still raises the question of why the development timeline is not independent itself. what about the cards specifically is stopping programmers for tackling new features? card design and engine improvements are not co-dependent; one should not effect the other.
Where are the previews? this year started genuine enough, with somewhat persistent updates showing tidbits of things to come. always promised to be coming "soon". but never has the community really gotten to sink its teeth into any of these features par the login screen, which is...well, just a login screen. the steak that was promised to be delivered was just a chunk of some fat. and nothing else was delivered to, as the kickstarter quote put it, "parse feedback". i will admit, the posts that were made were valuable, as it let us know the direction you were taking "3-D battlefield" in, and we were able to voice our opinion as a community. but after that it was almost as if you didn't WANT to hear our feedback anymore, because you simply stopped posting.
listen, i say all this with respect. i want nothing but the best for the game. but you don't improve through feeding programmed replies to a frustrated community, and the community can't HELP the game improve by not asking questions. i hope you take the time to understand this post, in its entirety, and really delve into these problems with the man you work for. take the time to iron things out; not just how you engage the community, but your business plan and the future of the game itself. like, if the near future of the game doesn't lie in releasing new cards AT ALL (and i'm starting to believe that it seriously does NOT), then that might end up being better for the game. if you can use that time to instead strengthen your engine and implement new features that draw more players and provide more to do, the the time spent is infinitely more valuable.
-Ekoz.
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