Whenever I finish editing a video, I go back and watch it in Premiere to make sure I didn't
make any editing mistakes and that the video is of a high enough quality for me to want
to upload it to the channel.
I just got done rewatching this video, and it caused me to want to appear beforehand
and say a few words.
The tone of this video is very bleak and despairing.
In the video I address a number of problems I think are plaguing the game now and have
plagued the game for quite a while.
The player-base of Goodgame Empire has been shrinking for years, and this most recent
update has encouraged a lot of players to say they are going to quit.
You could argue they're bluffing, but remember that the first step toward actually quitting
is telling yourself you're going to quit.
However, I'd like for all of us to keep in mind that Goodgame Empire is still surrounded
by a strong community, and the core of the game – which is responsible for its success
– continues to exist.
I've already begun putting together a list of suggestions I'll pitch to the developer
in the next video.
These suggestions include ideas for new features and events in the game, and they also include
tweaks to make the user-interface more efficient.
The reason I'm mentioning this to you is because I'd like to ask for your input.
Please do me a favor and comment on this video this ideas YOU have that you would like to
see brought to Goodgame Empire.
I'll read the comments and include your best suggestions in the video that will be
released sometime next week.
And yes, I'll give you credit.
Finally, if you'd like to help raise awareness about the following issues, I ask that you
share this video with your alliance-mates and friends in the game.
With all of that being said, I hope you enjoy the video.
Hello everyone, I'm Breor, and welcome back to Goodgame Empire.
I would imagine that, unless you're new to the game, you've already heard about
the gems update issue, probably from players who were pretty passionate about their opinions.
Please allow me to recap, though, just so we're all on the same page.
Goodgame Studios introduced powerful unique gems to the game last summer, and didn't
totally foresee that they would be combined with five-piece sets that already existed
in the game.
Because the five-piece sets were already completely viable commanders and castellans, the addition
of the unique gems meant that players were now able to make very overpowered equipment
sets that have caused a lot of imbalance in the game.
Custom unique commanders exist that move incredibly quickly and are very difficult to detect.
Custom unique castellans exist that can fit eight-hundred troops on the walls with up
to +150% melee soldiers combat strength.
Goodgame Studios created a closed beta group of players, which I was a part of, to test
an array of solutions to this problem.
The first solution was to increase some of the attribute caps and boost the attributes
of current equipment.
For example, the Foreign Invader, set that's already in the game, would have gone from
a 90/90 to a 150/150, meaning it would have had +150% melee and +150% ranged combat strength,
respectively.
Attributes such as travel speed and late detection, which were proving troublesome with the custom
sets players were creating, would not receive such generous boosts.
The closed beta testers, including myself, pointed out a lot of issues with this proposal.
For example, it wouldn't have been possible to increase the attributes provided by already
existing legendary equipment without massive downtime to the game, so any sets you've
built with one or more pieces of such equipment would be broken.
You'd need to attack more NPCs to get this new upgraded legendary equipment.
This would create problems in the game especially for lower-level players who haven't yet
earned unique equipment.
Boosting the attribute caps would have also necessitated the complete reworking of NPC
castellans.
Foreign Invader castellans in particular are important because they are different every
time, and the event would have become far too easy had player commanders been given
a boost without foreigner castellans receiving approximately the same boost.
Again, making changes like this would have required a very long downtime to the game.
It didn't appear like Goodgame Studios was going to use this change as an opportunity
to introduce more powerful purchasable equipment sets (a second season of equipment, if you
will) but I considered that as an unwelcome possibility.
The biggest problem, in our eyes, though, was that this update was purposefully diminishing
existing equipment combinations in the game.
Sure, it was doing so in an indirect manner – by boosting all of the other combinations
and placing a greater importance on 9-piece set bonuses – but it was doing so nevertheless.
In order to get a 9-piece set bonus, the player needs to equip the unique gems with the equipment
set they were intended to go with.
Thus, the proposal demanded conformity.
Ultimately, though, the proposal was just a way of undoing the progress some players
had made, and some of these players had paid real money to make that progress.
Most of the unique gems that were causing problems were available as part of ruby offers.
That brings us to the second solution, which was to enforce all of the attribute caps as
they were supposed to be enforced in the first place.
That meant without the use of heroes or research, no player would be able to surpass 50% damage
reduction in defense, there would be no commanders that were incredibly fast-moving and hard-to-detect,
and there would be no castellans with more than 90% troop combat strength.
This proposed solution, which did make it onto the forums in the form of an update announcement,
was a lot more straight-forward in what it aimed to accomplish.
It aimed to make completely useless a number of custom sets players had made in the game,
thereby destroying players' progress.
Some players had purchased unique gems with real money specifically for the purpose of
using them in a custom combination not intended by Goodgame Studios.
I think it's important we realize that combining unique pieces in a way that wasn't intended
by the developer is completely ethical.
Searching for the best combinations to make the best commander or castellan possible is
something we would all want to do if we had those unique pieces.
It can be exciting to make a very powerful sneaky commander or a castellan that can hold
two sections of wall against the average 6th-wave attack.
It was Goodgame Studios' responsibility to foresee what, at least in retrospect, seems
obvious: players are going to try out combinations not specifically told to them in the game.
Originally, before equipment sets were introduced to Goodgame Empire, the whole purpose of equipment
was to mix and match until you found the best combination.
As you could expect, players on the forums were passionate and vocal about their opposition
to the update.
The closed beta testers had not been given any opportunity to offer their opinions about
the second proposed solution in advance.
Had we, I believe we would have pointed out that it accomplished the same thing as the
previous solution, and thus had the same problems.
Goodgame Studios decided to increase some of the equipment attribute caps in response
to the sheer number of complaints, but this didn't do much to soothe the community.
Ultimately, though, the developers are determined to push this update through, and it's slated
to happen on the 30th of May.
Players will be allowed to un-imbed their gems for free for a short period of time,
which means that you won't have to pay millions of rubies to salvage gems from combinations
that will now be completely useless.
Refunds will be a possibility for players who made purchases to acquire some unique
gems.
I would bet that refunds will be given in the form of rubies because most real-money
transactions will have happened a prohibitively long time ago, but I'm not sure.
Regardless, I look forward to reading more complaints on the forum when players don't
get the refunds they deserve.
Ultimately, none of this addresses what is the most depressing part of the update for
me, though: the fact that it will remove equipment diversity from the game.
It should have been the case from the start that gems couldn't go beyond the normal
attribute caps.
It's always easier to prevent something from being introduced to the game in the first
place than it is to remove it once players have already experienced it.
And yet, having experienced it, I can say having these custom equipment sets was one
of the reasons Goodgame Empire remained interesting and fun.
I didn't have a super-sneaky commander or super-powerful castellan; I would be much
more irate sounding than I am now had something like that been taken away from me.
But, other players in my alliance did have sets like that.
When I made my "Castellan Equipment" video, the whole purpose of the video was to analyze
a defense that used this castellan.
As you can see, it's abnormal in that it has a lot of extra wall space and melee soldier
combat strength... much more than originally intended.
That castellan made that interesting defense, and my subsequent video, possible.
I never found out what pieces exactly had made their way into that set, but I'm confident
the defender was using unique castellan gems on a different unique castellan set.
Some audience members decided to speculate what the pieces might be in the comments section
of that video.
If Goodgame Studios is removing the ability to make castellans like that, the best castellan
in the game will be the Kala Mysteries castellan from the summer of 2016.
Everybody will use this castellan to defend against every attack, and every attack will
be made by the best commander set in the game most players are able to obtain.
In order words, we've all been forced to take one step closer to making identical cookie-cutter
attacks and erecting identical cookie-cutter defenses.
In a competitive strategy game like empire, you would think that the developers would
wish to encourage diversity.
I can give you another example of when Goodgame Studios removed something that I found complex
and interesting from the game.
Almost exactly one year ago, I made a video about build items, which had just been introduced
the game.
I spent several minutes during that video talking about the difference between food
production and base food production build items.
The difference was that base food production built items had their effect compounded by
the public order in the castle… thus making them a lot more powerful.
They also happened to be cheaper.
I thought not many players would make such a distinction so quickly, and so I was excited
to come across and share that information.
It was something I had learned only because I had been researching the new feature in
preparation to make that video.
It was intellectually stimulating, and I think most people enjoy being intellectually stimulated.
I remember that making the game more fun for me, and I looked forward to making a bunch
more base food production build items in the coming weeks.
They were removed from the game three days later.
The developer had concluded they were too powerful.
They were later re-introduced in ruby offers, so now only ruby-buyers can purchase them,
and the game has become more imbalanced as a result.
Not only did my video now contain inaccurate and outdated information... something cool
and interesting had just been taken away.
Goodgame Empire should be easy to understand and learn for new players who wish to get
started in the game, but it should offer complexity and diversity for high-level players who are
already proficient with the base mechanics.
Goodgame Studios has shown a remarkable and persistent tendency to force its vision of
the game upon the players, and Goodgame Studios envisions a simple loophole-free game that
prioritizes paying players above free ones.
A few weeks ago they announced their intentions to get rid of the practice of farming in the
game, which is pretty much the only way players can collect enough legendary resources to
upgrade their buildings after reaching level 70.
They have also removed the alliance tournament from the game because players were arranging
attacks upon their friends and allies that gave a ton of glory.
As a result, we've regressed to having two basic event archetypes again, and the game
is getting boring.
I can't force them to listen to me... but you can bet I'll keep telling them how to
improve their game.
Thanks for watching.
Thanks for making it all the way to the end of this video.
If you enjoyed it, please be sure to hit the like button, and you might also consider checking
out some of the other videos that I've made.
They are a lot more cheery than this one.
Finally, if you really enjoyed it and aren't subscribed already, please consider subscribing.
I've been Breor, thank you again for watching, and have a good day.
For more infomation >> TINY Sugarcane Farm :: CookieNinja Attempts Redstone - Duration: 2:39. 
No comments:
Post a Comment