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The Major Flaw


enjeyy

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I don’t know, why I’m writing this. Maybe because there are still a lot of nice folks here on the forums who like to analyze things. Maybe because I’m just so sad that yet another game with great potential bites the dust, along with all the others like Worlds Adrift (will always be missed) and Last Oasis. Maybe I just hope this won’t happen again with the next magnificent virtual world (Lauri, please, read that paper!)

A lot has been written about what went wrong here. But the root cause? It wasn’t bugs, nor performance. Not even the totally unenjoyable ship to ship combat or the massive inequalities resulting from all those exploits. I’d argue that it was the “hearth of the vision” itself, as depicted in the “0.23 and What We Learned” devblog and the notion that one can force players to socialize in order for them to build a civilization. In this line of thought, 0.23 was just a symptom, not the cause. I believe that the explanation of the mindset behind 0.23 in this devblog caused more damage than the patch itself, since it clearly showed that this was not a single bad design choice but the foundation itself is flawed. And, I’d argue that some of the well-minded and more influential bakers, who created a filter bubble for NQ supporting this vision, played a role in the eventual downfall.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions".

Anyway, let’s cut to the chase. The reason, why forcing people to socialize doesn’t work, is trust, or rather the lack of it. Apart from already formed groups from previous games, people need time to build trust and they like to decide for themselves, when their trust level is high enough for certain interactions and more socialization. It’s very important for players to have this time for building trust. This also includes time for development, since strong relationships require equal footing, as opposed to master-slave relationships. The need for this time is also the major benfit of safe zones and why “gankboxes” fail.

Prior to 0.23 it was somewhat working in DU – players were slowly developing and starting to build trusted relationships. This came to an end with 0.23 and players were no longer able to develop on their own. They didn’t have the time to build that trust anymore. And since most people don’t enjoy applying for jobs in their free time and working for someone they don’t trust, they left.

For those of you interested in the theory behind this, here is the research paper explaining the major reasons for the failure of DU: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaphKoster/20180316/315615/The_Trust_Spectrum.php

Just one citation:

“And above all, it makes very little sense to try to forcibly push a relationship up into the affective range of the [trust] spectrum; odds are excellent that the game is too narrow in breadth, and if the game is broad, that the players in question already have some deep relationships. You can’t ask them to drop a best friend to make room! In many cases, it might be better to instead design a game to work with the trust level that is already there. Or to effectively work on maintaining it. At the very least, the game should only invite intimacy rather than force it.”

See you in Starbase and let’s hope for the best.

Peace, out.

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I agree with you. As I wrote in the other post, I think that 0.23 was not there for socialisation but to create dependencies.

 

The player should have been shown his personal limits on a natural basis instead of imposing them on him. Here, for example, energy limits on tiles would have been possible, how many machines can actively run. Instead, there are no consequences or limitations, only obstacles to be overcome with Quanta.

 

 

 

 

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Yet another good explanation for why JC needed the boot.

 

People told him they wouldn't like it before the patch. People complained in droves after.

 

Their reply? "You're all wrong and we're doing it anyway because balancing the game in a beta is so important"

 

Very little doubt this "design choice" was driven by JC's inexperience and impatience -- i expect plenty of his own employees saw the backlash coming but he didn't want to hear it. 

 

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1 hour ago, ShippyLongstalking said:

Very little doubt this "design choice" was driven by JC's inexperience and impatience -- i expect plenty of his own employees saw the backlash coming but he didn't want to hear it. 

To be fair, it was not like JC was stubbornly and totaly "alone" in ideas, that manifested in 0.23 disaster. Not just thing from his head.

 

He was a bit helped to slide into it too. Often forgetten thing, that there were small, but very vocal (but well connected in terms of access to right ears) group of simps, who chanted to no end, that "people not need to do everything", hystericly dreaming, that if NQ make life of average more causual player hell, they will be golden. With their already huge industry or other "services" they ready to provide to ruined players. But once 0.23 backfired catasprophicly, they all kinda go silent, quit themeselves or even U-turned in their "ideas".

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4 hours ago, enjeyy said:

I’d argue that it was the “hearth of the vision” itself... ...And, I’d argue that some of the well-minded and more influential bakers...

Those bloody, well-intended bakers and their goddamned hearths....
Too bad as I like a decent loaf of rich, salty bread.

 

 

3 hours ago, ShippyLongstalking said:

Their reply? "You're all wrong and we're doing it anyway because balancing the game in a beta is so important"

 

i expect plenty of his own employees saw the backlash coming but he didn't want to hear it. 

 

Yeah, this game is so not a beta that it's not even funny. I made a new word just to describe DU... it's a Balpha.

 

"didn't want to hear it..." or also likely didn't want to bear it.... I think there has been some major staffing haemorrhaging recently.

 

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4 hours ago, enjeyy said:

I’d argue that it was the “hearth of the vision” itself, as depicted in the “0.23 and What We Learned” devblog and the notion that one can force players to socialize in order for them to build a civilization. In this line of thought, 0.23 was just a symptom, not the cause. I believe that the explanation of the mindset behind 0.23 in this devblog caused more damage than the patch itself, since it clearly showed that this was not a single bad design choice but the foundation itself is flawed.

And what makes it extra sad is that 0.23 even went against the core ideas of the game that we where promised in the beginning. Which paraphrased said something like "find your own way and play style in a fully open MMO, where NQ make the tools so that the players can build communities and content".

 

But failing to make the tools needed in a sensible time frame, they started twisting existing game mechanics instead. Trying to make the game appear more then it actually is in a short time frame (relative to NQ time).

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The major flaw reather seems to be the lack of game-play loops. The only working part of DU was building pretty constructs and complex industries, but even that has been ruined with 0.23. Now there is nothing left but mining.

 

For the matter of civilization building - how was that supposed to work without corresponding game mechanics? There is nothing in DU that encourages this kind of cooperation. It is just about big fishes growing at the expense of the small ones. That works in the real world (as long as the small fishes don't get too angry) but not in a game.

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6 hours ago, ShippyLongstalking said:

Yet another good explanation for why JC needed the boot.

 

People told him they wouldn't like it before the patch. People complained in droves after.

 

Their reply? "You're all wrong and we're doing it anyway because balancing the game in a beta is so important"

 

Very little doubt this "design choice" was driven by JC's inexperience and impatience -- i expect plenty of his own employees saw the backlash coming but he didn't want to hear it. 

 

I think 'needed the boot' is a bit strong!  The problem seems to be that he didn't listen to anyone else.  Sounds like he just needed a good editor/producer figure to challenge his decisions and make him more collaborative which didn't happen because he was in charge of everything.  Could it be that he just needed a boss?

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3 hours ago, Zeddrick said:

I think 'needed the boot' is a bit strong!  The problem seems to be that he didn't listen to anyone else.  Sounds like he just needed a good editor/producer figure to challenge his decisions and make him more collaborative which didn't happen because he was in charge of everything.  Could it be that he just needed a boss?

 

Could it be that he has just gotten a boss? 

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