After an extended absence, I have (most likely temporarily) returned to the world of STS. This is a post specifically addressed at the "oldie" population.
I have noticed that among the oldie population, there is a significant amount of optimism around the launch of AL. Many are "leaving" PL for AL or at least reducing their time spent significantly on PL. The 2 largest reasons?
1. The itemization of PL is not what many players would have liked, for PvP, and in the case of PvE, the endless "zerging" through via the elixir
At the moment, it's impossible to comment on which classes will excel or under-perform, so no conclusions can yet be drawn.
Zerging through the dungeon zones though, will be an inevitable outcome. Elixirs represent a solution that is accessible and for many players, a viable alternative to learning to play a class properly. Even for those that do, the realities of real time, such as not having enough time in life or wanting to go PvP asap may cause otherwise good players to go through the dungeons. Unfortunately, this has consequences - the incentive to be good at a game has declined.
If you were to go back to around the age of the Sewers, say summer of 2011, what would have thought held in store? Back then, the dominant sets were Mega mage/enchanted, Fury/Fortified, and Raid Roach/Custom. Their statistics were consistent with the PL lore and at the same time represented arguably the peak of PL balance in both PvP and PvE. (Due to the sheer volume of elixirs being used, it's impossible to say whether PvE is balanced or not around the 3 classes, but PvP, certainly is not.). Would you have predicted the emergence of luck based PvP, where dodge percentage became the dominant arbiter of PvP? Or the re-usage of old content in Nuri? The same thing is the most probable outcome in AL.
2. The quality of player
When PL was young (in 2010), it was a much friendlier, much more mature place. Trolling was rarer, the majority of posts were useful, humorous, or contained an opinion that could at least be backed by some fact. In game, the average skill level too was much higher and in general, Pugs could be expected to play their classes with some degree of competency. Then the Mynas generation happened. IMO, PL arguably peaked around the time of Alien Oasis III and the Sewers. Today in the PL forums, in terms of percentage of useful posts to say, posts of neutral or negative value, I'd put the ratio at around 5% useful, 95% not so useful. Now before one accuses me of viewing the past through "rose colored glasses", I am fully aware that in that era, many of the features that players now take for granted, such as guilds were not present. But it was a different game, a different community, and one where, regrettably, many of the top players have moved on.
It's important to remember that the same demographic that plays PL inevitably will migrate to AL, assuming the game is a success. If not, they most probable outcome is that they will stay on PL. And once the migration occurs, the same thing will happen - AL will have it's Mynas/Power-leveled era. From there, things will turn out to be more or less the same as they were on PL.
As a game becomes more mainstream, it seems the quality of persona attracted declines. Back in the 1990s, internet trolling was a very rare phenomenon. It was dominated by what in today's world would be considered geeks. But as the the internet became more popular, it attracted ... everyone. And with the anonymity that it granted, well things changed. This had consequences, both good and bad. Good in that it allowed for greater communication, cooperation, exchange of ideas/knowledge, and challenged many authoritarian societies. But anonymity also brings out the worst in many people, giving people the ability to do whatever they pleased for relatively small consequences (at most a perma ban). You can see this on any forum or in any MMO today. One could say that the same thing happened with PL. It used to be that the idea of playing an MMO on a phone was considered odd; today it has widespread acceptance and with it ... the consequences, both good and bad.
In the case of an MMO, there are other consequences of an MMO being more mainstream. For example, many PC MMOs now struggle with people selling in game accounts for real money and in game gold for real money. (STS' games so far have not yet reached that level, but I'd imagine if mobile gaming truly took off, it would be a problem). It's complicated. On one hand, a game becoming more popular means the potential for more players, some of which will prove truly outstanding. But on the other ... a steadily declining quality of player.
The PL of 2010 is over ... AL is a different game and will be played by a different playerbase.
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