I'm not quitting but yeah, I'm frustrated... My view...

[aarrgggggg]

I am a 45 year old small business owner. I teach kids math, science, and engineering using LEGO. LEGO used to be my hobby but I needed a new outlet. I found AL two years ago just after Christmas when I got a Nexus 7. I have been a faithful player ever since. Before I had my own business I was a Software Engineer for several companies including IBM, I also volunteered from a fans perspective in the development of "LEGO Universe" a LEGO MMO that in the end didn't last a year for various reasons which I don't need to get into. So while I only know a little about game development I know a lot about software development.

As a child some of my favorite computer games were Bards Tale and some Dungeons and Dragons games. This was back in the day when you needed graph paper and meticulous notes to find your way around the cities and dungeons of the game. Younger AL players would probably laugh at those games if they played them now. Plus you just played them solo, there was no internet so MMO's hadn't even been thought of yet.

I loved AL because the subject matter was cool. I had no desire to get entangled in a game like WOW. The mobile aspect of AL and the neat graphics, dungeons, and player interaction were just what I was looking for. I do by plat, almost exclusively during plat sales but I am definitely NOT a plat whale.

My frustrations are many...

First, it seems with every major update and/or event either a major exploit or significant technical problem has been introduced to the game. If this were to occur rarely I could deal with it but it is every single update or event. To me, as a software developer this tells me that QA (Quality Assurance) at STS is not doing an adequate job. I have no idea if STS has a dedicated QA team or if developers double as QA when needed. Either way exploits and bugs should not be being introduced to the game at the rate they are.

Second, there is a definite impression that STS plays favorites at times and caters to the loudest voices instead of sticking to their guns, rationalizing there decisions, and standing fast. I have no idea if those voices are as loud as their plat sales but ins some cases I assume they are. This just looks like favoritism, intended or not.

Third, this might be related to my second point above but the constant buff/nerf cycle is driving me nuts! Please stop it, please. Take some time, so some research, poll fans but figure out what will work and be interesting in game before you release it. Then explain your rational for the item, pet, gem, etc and stick to your guns. Event gems changes... make me crazy. Planar Tombs changes... drive me nuts. Planar Pendant drop rates... are making me insane (are they dropping now or not?).

Fourth, this Winter event... Not good. Crate prices crashed already. There is nothing interesting in terms of pets or vanities available for tokens. Ice Scales and Energy are dropping at an obscene rate, why? I have no idea. The only thing worth farming are Tarlok Gems but they are a long term investment only. There seems to be no good way to make a little short term gold in this event and nothing worth my while to purchase. I have no idea how STS is gonna make this event profitable. I don't see any real excitement or buzz over it.

Now to STS's defense. There was a huge dc issue at/after halloween which would have been difficult to pick up in testing. I am sure this took away resources from the Winter event. My issue is this, STS knows that Halloween and Winter are their two biggest events and they occur about a month apart. Waiting to work on Winter until after Halloween just doesn't work. Winter should have been basically "in the can" before Halloween leaving minor tweaking for between the two events. If that had been the case the major dc issues should not have had a major effect on the winter event.

Finally, it seems that often when STS fixes one issue they introduce another. Things like the planar pendent recipe getting buffed from 0 then put back to 0 without anyone's knowledge at STS apparently. Now its supposedly buffed again but is it at the same rate as before or some new rate? It is impossible to know, I just know I still haven't heard of anyone looting one since the supposed second buff. This just leaves the trust level between STS and players at an extremely low level.


As stated at the beginning, I am not threatening to quit the game. I have two years invested in the game, I am not going to give that up. I obviously enjoy the game if I have played it that long. I do think STS is having a major rough patch with the game though. Also because of the lack of desirable items in this event I may not have any incentive to purchase plat during this event. I hope I am wrong because I have asked for some gift cards for the holidays. If not I will just hold the money till later. This isn't a threat it is just reality. My desire is that after the Winter event that STS dedicates a full Month to bug and exploit fixing only. Lets get this game back on stable footing before anything new is added. Lets check drop rates for everything and make sure they make sense. I think as players we would love to see some progress in this regard. And lets stop the Buff/Nerf Yo-Yo!

The other thing bringing me down lately is some of the players in game. I hate drama and I have been in the middle of some high drama lately. If that isn't resolved quickly something will have to change on my end but I will still be playing the game.


Thanks for reading, I just like the game a lot and want to see it on track for future success as well.


-Thrindal

I have been a "gamer" since the 80's along with the release of NES. The majority of my gaming has been on various consoles and so the majority of games that i play only last for a few months of entertainment (at best) and then i am bored and move on to another game. In the 25-30 years of gaming there have only been 2 games that kept my attention for a year or longer. The first was Call of Duty because of the competitive multiplayer and the fact that every 2-3months new maps would be released so it would keep it fresh. Eventually i even got bored of that.

The second game that was able to keep my attention for over a year was this one, Arcane Legends. When i first started playing there was so much to farm that i could actually make gold at it! and i did just that. I started to emerge myself in all aspects of the game, farming,merching, i hit level cap and started running elites for aps, I joined Chivalrous Union which was/is/always will be my home in Arlor.
I made many friends along the way and just about everything pve oriented.

All games have a shelf life for me, however AL is not the same game i fell in love with. In the last two years much has changed...many bugs have been introduced. I blame the events for that, there were never any latency or disconnection issues until the energy events started to arrive and with the introduction of every new energy event comes latency/disconnection along with a laundry list of other bugs.
Nerf this/ Buff that and then Nerf it again, impossible drop rates of 0, Double odds weekends with no double odds, etc etc etc.

I too have played AL approaching the 2 year mark, I remember what this game was like when i first started, I was enchanted and fell in love with AL.
But the fact the remains that AL is not the same AL that it used to be.

Coming from a life long gamer, STS had/has a winner here but they lost their way. Unfortunately i think AL is past the point of saving but perhaps there is a bitter sweet to all of this.
I have heard that STS is working on a new game, well if AL was a culmination of all of their past games and they made this amazing game well then the next one should make AL look amateurish in comparison if we follow the current trend STS has set.

I personally have invested no real life money into AL but i have invested years of my time. I can only begin to imagine how hard it must be for those people out there that have invested thousands of dollars along with the same or more time than myself to see their game dwindling or for them to even think that AL will eventually fizzle and fade. Now i'm not saying that AL has reach a point of extinction, Ultimately that is solely up to the players. I know this is very cliche but it is very true here in the real world " Nothing lasts forever".

Be glad with the memories and friends you have made for they are plentiful i am sure.

I know I am and will always be grateful.