Gaia's Decision on zOMG!

[Mortok]

Jayce Reinhardt

Mortok

Pilfer von Durem

We need some character assassination up in hur.
Madkool is a shill.
Due to the outrageous fortune slapped on Madkool's head, she (he?) is very much against Gaia taking its lumps. It's exactly like the rich passing (with money) laws to keep their banks from going bankrupt. Wheeeee.

Got some class warfare.

The zOMG! community has been an angry one since inception. We didn't need to be riled up, only validation.

They shouldn't even be able to run formulas for projected revenue until they learn how to run games.

Validating the zOmg! community by incorporating its "feedback" early on is a large part of the reason why the game is floundering now.

What specific feedback do you think they incorporate?

And @Pilfer, Really? WTF are you on about man?

Null crystals, for one. Players didn't want to pay cash for them, so they dropped them. Players didn't really want to pay cash for anything. Rya Dracosin says rings would've been well-received, but I don't recall anything but anger when the... sweetheart ring, I think it was, came out. Of course, the sweetheart ring also wasn't very good, but I think the vehement reaction is why Gaia was put off from releasing anymore rings for a long time. Of course, it's their own fault for letting customers cow them into submission.

Significantly decreasing the difficulty is another, and one that was especially poor, given that the game had so little content. As it stood, and still stands, zOmg! has little to no replay value, they should've done what they could to delay players from reaching the finish line, if only to give themselves a bit more time to work on new content.

I don't know if soulbinding the rings was specifically the result of user feedback, but I know that it was a popular decision with the hardcore zOmg! userbase, even though it hurt the game's popularity. Personally, I think if some people want to "buy their way" through, they should be allowed to.

But as I've said before, userbase demands are jsut one contributing factor. There are a lot of design problems with the core game. It's not very marketable or very fun. I didn't enjoy it when I played it. I don't know anyone who did. There's very little incentive to keep playing.

I won't argue that zOmg! has been neglected for a long time now, but it was receiving pretty frequent updates in the early months and events had continued support, and apparently none of that did much good, since the game continued to operate at a loss for years. Even if it's beginning to bring in profit now, I think sinking more money into it at this point would just be a mistake.

People make the point that most MMOs update weekly or bi-weekly, but the vast majority of those updates are small amounts of premium content, that users have to pay for. I am absolutely certain that if Gaia had released a few new rings into the cash shop every fortnight or so, the user response would be "OMG STOP SHOVING CASH s**t DOWN OUR THROATS".

[Valheita]

Mortok

Significantly decreasing the difficulty is another, and one that was especially poor, given that the game had so little content. As it stood, and still stands, zOmg! has little to no replay value, they should've done what they could to delay players from reaching the finish line, if only to give themselves a bit more time to work on new content.

I don't know if soulbinding the rings was specifically the result of user feedback, but I know that it was a popular decision with the hardcore zOmg! userbase, even though it hurt the game's popularity. Personally, I think if some people want to "buy their way" through, they should be allowed to.

The bolded strikes me as a bit contradictory.

Addtionally, I disagree. Decreasing the difficulty is one of the few good things they did. Qixter's changes regarding instanced bosses and level caps were very unpopular outside of the hardcore userbase and caused many people to leave (read: ragequit).

Quite indeed, alongside "it was boring", "it was too hard" is one of the most common reasons I've seen in the GCD and SF that people didn't like the game.

[l Chihiro-chan l]

Pilfer von Durem

We need some character assassination up in hur.
Madkool is a shill.
Due to the outrageous fortune slapped on Madkool's head, she (he?) is very much against Gaia taking its lumps. It's exactly like the rich passing (with money) laws to keep their banks from going bankrupt. Wheeeee.

Got some class warfare.

The zOMG! community has been an angry one since inception. We didn't need to be riled up, only validation.

They shouldn't even be able to run formulas for projected revenue until they learn how to run games.

I also don't understand why you are bringing wealth into the equation. By judging the validity of her message based simply on her account worth and what you perceive wealthy users as you're only making yourself look petty. I'm not saying that to be insulting, I'm saying it because it seems as if you're desperately grasping at any point you can to lessen her credibility; which in turn, only damages yours. So what if she has expensive pixels? That has absolutely nothing to do with the actions of Gaia, Gaia's users, or the Zomg team. By the same logic, you could argue that I'm also biased in my opinions; that I'm only posting things because they are in my best interest, and that's simply not the case.

You can't exactly imply that all zOMG users are always angry, either. Like any community, Gaia has a diverse user base. A certain percentage of users will generally always be upset one way or another. Making generalized assumptions like that is simply unfounded. I think regardless of what history you feel they have, they are completely entitled to be upset by this issue. I absolutely agree that as a whole, the community didn't need to be riled up. I sincerely wish that things would have worked out better for zOMG, and that this miscommunication between staff members could have been avoided in general. However, it did indeed happen; so I guess only time can tell how well received Gaia's explanations will be.

As far as your final comment goes, I think that's a bit harsh. Gaia is still a relatively young company; it's still learning. They need to try different things to figure out what works and what doesn't, they didn't come into being with some inherent sense of what will make profit and what won't. Having said that, I personally feel that even though zOMG is on the shelf for now they are making decent progress. I expect them to learn from this endeavor and only become better as a result.

[Jayce Reinhardt]

Mortok

I was on the Beta team when we tested those, We told the Admins that while it was a nice ring that the price was way too high for a single ring that was just like an existing ring, Had it been cheaper it would have been well received.

But they never really made new content so even if they delayed things that wouldn't have made much of a difference and a user wouldn't have control over that.

Soulbinding everything was all Quixter, Beta hated it, Users hated it, I was royally pissed when they even soulbound cash card incentives that had been out for months.

There IS little incentive since playing the same game does get boring. Even steam gets DLC for it's existing games from time to time.

It actually wasn't as updated as you claim it was. They barely used us (Usually only for ZoMG) and eventually I left since there was no point in being SCAS with nothing to do.

Had Gaia made rings, summons, even clothing inspired for ZoMG it would have gotten sold but Gaia can only seem to be consistent with RIGs and MC's. While I know that those are eons easier than adding something to ZoMG, you don't build a house if you can't afford to complete it.

Gaia finished the basement, put tarp over it and called it a day.

[AKB0048]

Valheita

Mortok

Significantly decreasing the difficulty is another, and one that was especially poor, given that the game had so little content. As it stood, and still stands, zOmg! has little to no replay value, they should've done what they could to delay players from reaching the finish line, if only to give themselves a bit more time to work on new content.

I don't know if soulbinding the rings was specifically the result of user feedback, but I know that it was a popular decision with the hardcore zOmg! userbase, even though it hurt the game's popularity. Personally, I think if some people want to "buy their way" through, they should be allowed to.

The bolded strikes me as a bit contradictory.

Addtionally, I disagree. Decreasing the difficulty is one of the few good things they did. Qixter's changes regarding instanced bosses and level caps were very unpopular outside of the hardcore userbase and caused many people to leave (read: ragequit).

Quite indeed, alongside "it was boring", "it was too hard" is one of the most common reasons I've seen in the GCD and SF that people didn't like the game.

The thing is it was a misconception that you could buy your way through the game. You could only equip rings if you had earned enough orbs to wear them in the first place. The only thing soul binding limits is the individual's ability to customize their ring set... compensating for this by making ring drops random wasn't a very good solution either.

For example, when the game first came out... I decided I wanted the Angel set for the luck boost. So I bought all the rings from the MP because that was a lot less time consuming (and annoying) than farming for them.

It's actually very common element in MMORPGs to be able to customize your weapon set by buying them either from NPC shops or other players. zOMG offers neither except for limited-time rings. This is something that I consider to be a rather bad design flaw.

Buying rings wouldn't shorten the amount of time in the game, but it would instead make gameplay experience a lot less aggravating. For the time I did play recently, even though ring drops were kind of frequent, I still don't have all of the set I want.

Decreasing difficulty does make it easier to solo through the game, but it also limits the amount of playability. I only farmed Village Greens and I'm already... CL 7.something. Though even if you were to put effort into leveling up traditionally, there's virtually no reward for it (I don't consider gold a reward, there are much better places to get it). I don't understand how anyone can like a game like that...

[Valheita]

Mitsumi-chan

Valheita

Mortok

Significantly decreasing the difficulty is another, and one that was especially poor, given that the game had so little content. As it stood, and still stands, zOmg! has little to no replay value, they should've done what they could to delay players from reaching the finish line, if only to give themselves a bit more time to work on new content.

I don't know if soulbinding the rings was specifically the result of user feedback, but I know that it was a popular decision with the hardcore zOmg! userbase, even though it hurt the game's popularity. Personally, I think if some people want to "buy their way" through, they should be allowed to.

The bolded strikes me as a bit contradictory.

Addtionally, I disagree. Decreasing the difficulty is one of the few good things they did. Qixter's changes regarding instanced bosses and level caps were very unpopular outside of the hardcore userbase and caused many people to leave (read: ragequit).

Quite indeed, alongside "it was boring", "it was too hard" is one of the most common reasons I've seen in the GCD and SF that people didn't like the game.

The thing is it was a misconception that you could buy your way through the game. You could only equip rings if you had earned enough orbs to wear them in the first place. The only thing soul binding limits is the individual's ability to customize their ring set... compensating for this by making ring drops random wasn't a very good solution either.

For example, when the game first came out... I decided I wanted the Angel set for the luck boost. So I bought all the rings from the MP because that was a lot less time consuming (and annoying) than farming for them.

It's actually very common element in MMORPGs to be able to customize your weapon set by buying them either from NPC shops or other players. zOMG offers neither except for limited-time rings. This is something that I consider to be a rather bad design flaw.

Buying rings wouldn't shorten the amount of time in the game, but it would instead make gameplay experience a lot less aggravating. For the time I did play recently, even though ring drops were kind of frequent, I still don't have all of the set I want.

Decreasing difficulty does make it easier to solo through the game, but it also limits the amount of playability. I only farmed Village Greens and I'm already... CL 7.something. Though even if you were to put effort into leveling up traditionally, there's virtually no reward for it (I don't consider gold a reward, there are much better places to get it). I don't understand how anyone can like a game like that...

Utter nonsense. There was nothing stopping you purchasing and equipping rings that were a higher level. I did it, and I knew others who transferred rings to their mules to get multiple EB recipes.

As for soulbinding, I think you'll find I agree with your stance.

That's why you find the balance between difficulty and playability. Frankly, all they really needed to do was drop Shallow Sea and Village Greens a bit and their original difficulty would probably have been about right. IMO.

[Pilfer von Durem]

l Chihiro-chan l

Thanks for the lecture, mom.
Seems like you're awfully late to the party.

[AKB0048]

Valheita

Utter nonsense. There was nothing stopping you purchasing and equipping rings that were a higher level. I did it, and I knew others who transferred rings to their mules to get multiple EB recipes.

As for soulbinding, I think you'll find I agree with your stance.

That's why you find the balance between difficulty and playability. Frankly, all they really needed to do was drop Shallow Sea and Village Greens a bit and their original difficulty would probably have been about right. IMO.

Hmm... I remember reading that it was posted otherwise by the developers. Of course, if no such safety measure existed, then I can understand the gripe. But... wouldn't the correct decision have been to actually input that safety feature instead of resorting to soulbinding?

[gataka]

Mitsumi-chan

Valheita

Utter nonsense. There was nothing stopping you purchasing and equipping rings that were a higher level. I did it, and I knew others who transferred rings to their mules to get multiple EB recipes.

As for soulbinding, I think you'll find I agree with your stance.

That's why you find the balance between difficulty and playability. Frankly, all they really needed to do was drop Shallow Sea and Village Greens a bit and their original difficulty would probably have been about right. IMO.

Hmm... I remember reading that it was posted otherwise by the developers. Of course, if no such safety measure existed, then I can understand the gripe. But... wouldn't the correct decision have been to actually input that safety feature instead of resorting to soulbinding?

Like, say, having all rings become CL1 when sold? *cough*

No wait, this quote says it better:

Valheita

Oh bawww, unsoulbinding rings would let noobs buy their way through the game.

NOT if the devs implemented code to reduce all sold/traded/gifted rings to C.L. 1.0. No buying through the game, no trading rings to mules to do repeat SS runs to earn scarves fast. Problem solved?

AND, had they done this, less people would have quit, meaning that more people would currently play the game, and more people would be kept around to update the game.

Soulbinding did it's job - but it did it with major back-lash that could have been avoided. IMO, it should be reconsidered, SERIOUSLY reconsidered.

There is more. Just search "CL1" in Val's posts. Bwahahaha!!!

ninja

[Valheita]

Mitsumi-chan

Valheita

Utter nonsense. There was nothing stopping you purchasing and equipping rings that were a higher level. I did it, and I knew others who transferred rings to their mules to get multiple EB recipes.

As for soulbinding, I think you'll find I agree with your stance.

That's why you find the balance between difficulty and playability. Frankly, all they really needed to do was drop Shallow Sea and Village Greens a bit and their original difficulty would probably have been about right. IMO.

Hmm... I remember reading that it was posted otherwise by the developers. Of course, if no such safety measure existed, then I can understand the gripe. But... wouldn't the correct decision have been to actually input that safety feature instead of resorting to soulbinding?

I would have thought so.

But apparently the simple acquisition of all 40+ rings was also an issue. *shrug*

[Valheita]

gataka

Mitsumi-chan

Valheita

Utter nonsense. There was nothing stopping you purchasing and equipping rings that were a higher level. I did it, and I knew others who transferred rings to their mules to get multiple EB recipes.

As for soulbinding, I think you'll find I agree with your stance.

That's why you find the balance between difficulty and playability. Frankly, all they really needed to do was drop Shallow Sea and Village Greens a bit and their original difficulty would probably have been about right. IMO.

Hmm... I remember reading that it was posted otherwise by the developers. Of course, if no such safety measure existed, then I can understand the gripe. But... wouldn't the correct decision have been to actually input that safety feature instead of resorting to soulbinding?

Like, say, having all rings become CL1 when sold? *cough*

No wait, this quote says it better:

Valheita

Oh bawww, unsoulbinding rings would let noobs buy their way through the game.

NOT if the devs implemented code to reduce all sold/traded/gifted rings to C.L. 1.0. No buying through the game, no trading rings to mules to do repeat SS runs to earn scarves fast. Problem solved?

AND, had they done this, less people would have quit, meaning that more people would currently play the game, and more people would be kept around to update the game.

Soulbinding did it's job - but it did it with major back-lash that could have been avoided. IMO, it should be reconsidered, SERIOUSLY reconsidered.

There is more. Just search "CL1" in Val's posts. Bwahahaha!!!

ninja

... I actually said that? I mean, I agree with myself but that phrasing D: