Great post! I agree about beacons and skills. I am neutral about private planets, and I don’t really think the game is any more grindy than many other MMOs. Talking about “loot boxes” is ridiculous, though. A loot box is something that is purchased and gives a random benefit - it’s a gamble, in other words. I like the little coffers you get every so often. They are not loot boxes. They are only a pretty animation instead of just bumping up your stats with a bland message that you now have +500 XP.
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This is the thing though, it’s not about how we view them. We know what they are. It’s about the many players who immediately thought they were and quit playing as a result. This is a huge critique by many who quit playing during the free weekend.
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I agree, but for whatever reason this keeps getting brought up in reviews as loot boxes. Is it worth the animation to give new players the wrong impression of the game? Do they know that what they get from these containers is not random? Where are they told it is not random, except for the forums?
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You would have to be pretty stupid, frankly. A loot box is something you BUY with REAL MONEY. If something pops up and says it is a periodic reward, it can’t be confused with a loot box by anyone with a modicum of intelligence.
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I agree with you again, but it still seems to happen. Now it could just be players trying to create issues for the game, but other potential players will read it and believe them.
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Right. We totally agree on this. Sadly hundreds of others do not, based off steam reviews.
As to the solo/MM aspect, I would say that I have been playing MMORPGs for the last 15 years, and threads like this one keep appearing in every forum. You get people who are seemingly indignant that anyone should want to play a MMO game in a “solo” fashion. “Play Skyrim,” they say, as if we hadn’t all completed it three times already.
I think there is a misunderstanding of what solo play actually entails in a MMO context. It is not the same as playing Skyrim. I will happily wander round Azeroth or Tamriel questing on my own, but also I may join a guild and participate in guild chat, or chat to people I meet. But I don’t join in group dungeons or raids. Why not? Because if I do, the rest of the group will likely be skilled players with the reactions of a teenager, who have done the content 50 times before and just want to rush through it as quickly as possible. Which means I will be left behind very rapidly.
So I don’t like it when quest rewards are gated behind group content. But I don’t like being told I mustn’t play the game just because, as a casual player with declining reaction speed, I can’t keep up with the fittest.
So equally, in Boundless, I like exploring and building, and I don’t like being told off for “soloing”. I like it that there are other players there, whether I choose to interact with them or not.
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it’s been years of record-high bear maulings in your area. there are bears everywhere. Belgium has banned bears in response. you’re on a camping trip. and then a bear appears!!
no, wait, just kidding. it’s just an exceptionally hairy man who snuck up on you to offer drinks. but now you’re on edge, and every little shadow seems suspect.
jokes aside, the screenshot I posted upthread was from the Twitch chat in the Yogscast livestream last year. 50 minutes of building up interest was all of a sudden jeopardized because the reward coffers prompted a kneejerk reaction from viewers, even though multiple people immediately explained “no, these are just earned in-game”. The emotional mistrust didn’t just go away- it had to be redirected somewhere- and that somewhere was toward the cash shop and toward future cash shop development.
It doesn’t matter that you, or me, or the Park Inspector knows what these are and that they are just a fancy quest reward graphic. What matters is that for whatever reason whether we think it’s valid or not, way too many potential customers are getting the wrong first-look idea.
You only get one first impression. Why blow it on this?
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Someone in Wonderstruck thought that adopting spiffy mobile game cash shop reward screens would translate well on a AA game in the middle of an industry fight over those exact items appearing in AAA games.
They should be removed and replaced with a mail system like other MMO’s have, where you get rewards from opening a letter or something.
It baffles me the coffers remain.
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This is exactly the kind of thing that concerns me about these devs. Preventable problems that are easily resolved that remain unresolved. Why was it not immediately corrected? Did they have analytics that showed significant data to keep it? Did they do any testing of various models? Did they listen to customer feedback and make adjustments? These are the behaviors I expect from a mature organization.
I wonder how many people still try to use a campfire to cook?
Beacons should be free, just like totems. Simplify the system.
Unfueled beacon lasts 2 hours, fueled beacon lasts 30 days+.
Allow campfire to cook food.
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Those are really good simplifications.
I think there’s middle grounds most of us can agree on. Some stuff just doesn’t make sense.
Like, I’m still surprised someone looked at the current character models and thought, “Yep, this looks good. Let’s make this our mascot.”
Giant clunky angry rock creatures are sure to entice the aesthetic among us.
There’s a reason Night Elves, Humans, and Blood Elves are extremely popular race choices in WoW…
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