First, congrats to @monty1 and the Monumental team for the buyout. I was heartened to read your story of how the acquisition came to be and how a busy CEO still has time to play video games amongst all the other things that CEOs do.
This post is created in the hopes that the new acquisition will focus on going back to the roots of what Boundless was - an exploratory sandbox MMO.
My personal experience of the game stopped 2-3 years ago when I saw that the game was heading in a different direction than some of us hoped for when we bought it in early access 5+ years ago. Iâve accumulated 1K hours which was mostly over a 2 year time horizon.
Itâs funny seeing the news today as I had an itch to login for a few hours last night.
With all the games out today, I still canât think of any other game that comes close to Boundless original vision of allowing player creativity and freedom to explore a sandbox MMO.
I wanted to share some quick highlights of my gaming experience to help give thought for you as move forward on how to prioritize.
- I fondly remember being one of maybe 3 players to build a full service food shop aka Deenâs Kitchen, that allowed players to buy any food or drink imaginable. This was during a time when every other player was trying to make money by grinding coils since that was the end game at the time. Anyone remember that time period?
As much fun as it was making 1 million coins from Deenâs Kitchen, it was just more fun serving the community with my food and drinks. Knowing that they had the goods needed to explore more dangerous worlds because of what I was serving. While everyone was zagging towards coils, I was zigging towards something as boring as food. That was the true definition of sandbox yummy goodness. - Spending endless nights discussing proper PVE builds and doing a deep dive on the value of a good Gold critical hit build Or maybe finding the best build to solo a meteor on a level 4 planet.
- Joining a guild like the Cuttlepunks where we could match our skills and share resources to build better and bigger
- Getting lost on higher tier worlds like Shedu Tier trying to figure out how Iâm gonna make it home alive
After awhile, I lost interest and hope in the game because the company wanted to pursue a different direction than what it painted back in its early EA days. Alot of us felt spurned
I personally didnât care for new world servers, lattice frames, window panes, poles, beams, etc⌠None of this wouldâve ever moved the needle and in keeping with the original vision of an open world sandbox MMO.
I did however care for stuff like guild features. AndâŚwell, not sure what else to be honest since there was little else that I found exciting.
You guys are smart folks and have a big team of resources. Far be it for me to insist on what features you develop but whatever you do, I hope your vision will align with what the original intent of the game; a more mature adult version of Minecraft with deep complex gameplay allowing you to go down a rabbit hole in any aspect of the game be that crafting, pve, or commerce.
And yes, I know people hate hearing the Minecraft comparison but thatâs what it gets until it truly develops its own true unique identity. Or until you bring in Titans
Good luck and I hope to run into you as we do a two-man meteor run on a level 6 planet. You havenât lived until youâve done so 
Deen
would look like âŚ.