Red Kutai
WideEyed
I honestly think the whole "difficulty and duration" issue may be far more complex than many of us consider it to be.
Even before DMS was released, zOMG! had been suffering from an appaling lack of dedicated resources from a Dev time standpoint.
I find myself wondering if the ridiculously high numbers of Shorbs and Ingredients required to basically "finish" DMS, might not have been a kind of "after-thought"...a modification of the original setup that may have been made once the people working on it realised that there would be nothing new coming for zOMG! for an excruciatingly long time, if ever.
Had the Shorb requirements followed the established pattern of incrementing by one with each new level, and the Ingredients required for the Epic Recipes been "reasonable", an awful lot of people would have finished DMS by now, and would once more be howling for new content.
I wonder if there might have been a discussion before launching DMS as to the benefits of making it "easier" to finish, thereby keeping people satisfied and engaged, vs making it ridiculously hard to complete and distracting the majority from the fact that there wasn't anything new being added to the game.
I think you're quite right that they considered the importance of stretching their content, so much so that I don't think it was even an afterthought - I believe one of the main goals in creating DMS was creating an area that would 'last'. My issue with DMS has never been that I don't feel they completed their goals, but that I don't think their goals were altogether worthwhile, to begin with. sweatdrop
The issue I have is not that they stretched content, either; I accept that as a necessary evil - though it should be avoided where unnecessary - especially in the game's presently resource-strapped position. My issue, rather; is what they stretched. DMS is, at its heart, precisely the same as every other zOMG! area, except harder (stretching) and more time-consuming (more stretching). If they had chosen quality over quantity, and stretched out something that was genuinely interesting, I'd be fine with it. As-is, they simply took precisely what zOMG! already offers, slapped a higher 'price tag' on it, and assumed that made it somehow more valuable. I'm fine with stretching where it needs to occur, but you should be sure you have something worth stretching before you do it...
It would be foolish of me to argue any of your points, although I do kind of like DMS.
While it may or may not be "canon", depending upon one's perception, it does fit with the rest of the game IMO, and it's an enjoyable, if tangental, addition.
The difficulty is, again IMO, manageable, and welcome after countless runs through the rest of zOMG!.
The fact that virtually every existing area of the game had been "neutered" to the point of being little more than Farming Speed-Runs for Gold, seemed to me to cry out for something that made zOMG! challenging again, and for the vast majority of us, DMS is exactly that.
I still find DMS to be engaging and enjoyable, provided I'm lucky enough to find a solid Crew, but as I've said before, the amount of time it takes for an average Crew to do a complete run through, makes it extremely difficult, not only to find a Crew that is competent and will stay the entire time, but for myself as well.
I generally don't have hours and hours to spend working my way through.
I know it's been said before, but it would have been nice if there could have been a second Portal added that allowed you to go straight to Kamila.
I've played an awful lot of DMS since it opened, but I've only faced Kamila's first form once, and Blood Lust twice, and short of getting an Invite to a Crew that's there already, and the timing being sufficiently fortuitous that I can play for three or four hours straight, I can't see it happening again any time soon.
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