DeletedUser22685
The year is 2009. A guy is bored, and whilst wasting hours on the web browsing random gaming websites he comes across an advertising banner for a game titled "The West". He's never played Tribalwars so he's never heard of this company known as Innogames, but he decides to give the game a crack anyway. Fast forward a couple of weeks and he's fallen in love. I don't know whether it was the telegrams he shared with a few random players or the fact that he'd placed his skill points in strange places and promised he'd do better next time. But whatever it was, something made this guy decide that this game was worth dedicating thousands of hours and over 8 years of his life to.
That game from 2009 is unrecognisable compared to what we're faced with whenever we can muster the energy to bother logging in here today. Instead of logging in to an inbox full of duel reports and the subsequent trash talking telegrams that enticed you to duel them back, you can pick any day of the year and you've got a roughly 1/3 chance of there being a tombola active. More, if you include the random nugget sales for soccer gear, venomous snakes, summer hats or whatever other clothing theme that you can think of.
I'm well aware that games have to evolve to stay relevant. I'm probably more aware of the processes behind that than most people, having been a staff member here since midway through 2010. But that's one of the reasons I'm so disillusioned right now. Of the thousands of hours I mentioned above, for me more of those have involved helping to run the game than actually playing for my own benefit. And perhaps that's the main reason why I've been more frustrated than most to witness what's clearly been an attempt to milk as much cash as possible from the remaining players while this game continues to limp on rather than trying to improve it, advertise it or do literally anything else to even try to make it an enjoyable experience once again.
But I digress. For once the target of my rant isn't actually the modern game or its tombola dependency. Because for the last 20 days, I've been reminded of exactly why I fell in love with this game. Sure, the classic server is missing some convenient features that we've grown accustomed to - the market, for example, or being able to reskill for a reasonable price - yet it's managed to amass over 6000 players regardless. That's far more than any .net world in the last two or three years, and perhaps more than our entire server at present. I played the classic version for four months with no more than 15 other players while it was being tested for bugs, and I had an absolute blast. I'm playing it now with 6000 people, and I completely understand why myself and countless others thought this game was worth slaving over for 8 years.
However, the fact that we've been playing for 20 days means that a sad reality is drawing near. This server is scheduled to close at the end of this month, and from what I've seen in chat, telegrams and forums, nobody is anywhere near ready for that to happen. After testing we realised that a month would be far too short for anyone to reach more than level 40, which is roughly when the game really starts to become interesting. Yet despite our recommendations, a month was chosen anyway.
I know this was mentioned to senior management within days of the classic world opening, but after two weeks we still don't appear to be anywhere closer to receiving a response. So I figured it was time to post something here, where it might receive more support and possibly come to the attention of the powers that be.
This is my request - no, my plea - to anyone at Inno who can possibly influence this. I've spent years locking threads like this, deleting petitions and more, but I've reached the point of desperation here. PLEASE allow the classic server to remain open. Permanently would be ideal, but even an extra month or until the end of the year would be better than the current situation. We're aware of the limitations with regards to premium features being incompatible with the modern payment system, and we're aware of the current culture of "nuggets or nothing", but we're having fun. For the first time in years, we're having fun playing The West. I never thought I'd say that again, but here I am. Sort out a premium system if you must. If it's not possible, I'm sure thousands of players would be willing to pay a subscription.
Or, better yet, keep running this server for free. I know it doesn't turn a profit, but surely allowing players to have fun must still be a secondary goal at least. Give out the nugget prize at the end of the month, most of us don't care about that. We're having fun. But please, PLEASE, don't end this fantastic world after the event is over. Because if you do, I can't see myself continuing to log into the modern game version that's now a shell of what was once a masterpiece. I can't even see myself having the motivation to log in and click that delete button, but after a few weeks it'll happen by itself and I'll just be another non-existent member of that 17 million players you lie about on the homepage, and hundreds more will follow.
That game from 2009 is unrecognisable compared to what we're faced with whenever we can muster the energy to bother logging in here today. Instead of logging in to an inbox full of duel reports and the subsequent trash talking telegrams that enticed you to duel them back, you can pick any day of the year and you've got a roughly 1/3 chance of there being a tombola active. More, if you include the random nugget sales for soccer gear, venomous snakes, summer hats or whatever other clothing theme that you can think of.
I'm well aware that games have to evolve to stay relevant. I'm probably more aware of the processes behind that than most people, having been a staff member here since midway through 2010. But that's one of the reasons I'm so disillusioned right now. Of the thousands of hours I mentioned above, for me more of those have involved helping to run the game than actually playing for my own benefit. And perhaps that's the main reason why I've been more frustrated than most to witness what's clearly been an attempt to milk as much cash as possible from the remaining players while this game continues to limp on rather than trying to improve it, advertise it or do literally anything else to even try to make it an enjoyable experience once again.
But I digress. For once the target of my rant isn't actually the modern game or its tombola dependency. Because for the last 20 days, I've been reminded of exactly why I fell in love with this game. Sure, the classic server is missing some convenient features that we've grown accustomed to - the market, for example, or being able to reskill for a reasonable price - yet it's managed to amass over 6000 players regardless. That's far more than any .net world in the last two or three years, and perhaps more than our entire server at present. I played the classic version for four months with no more than 15 other players while it was being tested for bugs, and I had an absolute blast. I'm playing it now with 6000 people, and I completely understand why myself and countless others thought this game was worth slaving over for 8 years.
However, the fact that we've been playing for 20 days means that a sad reality is drawing near. This server is scheduled to close at the end of this month, and from what I've seen in chat, telegrams and forums, nobody is anywhere near ready for that to happen. After testing we realised that a month would be far too short for anyone to reach more than level 40, which is roughly when the game really starts to become interesting. Yet despite our recommendations, a month was chosen anyway.
I know this was mentioned to senior management within days of the classic world opening, but after two weeks we still don't appear to be anywhere closer to receiving a response. So I figured it was time to post something here, where it might receive more support and possibly come to the attention of the powers that be.
This is my request - no, my plea - to anyone at Inno who can possibly influence this. I've spent years locking threads like this, deleting petitions and more, but I've reached the point of desperation here. PLEASE allow the classic server to remain open. Permanently would be ideal, but even an extra month or until the end of the year would be better than the current situation. We're aware of the limitations with regards to premium features being incompatible with the modern payment system, and we're aware of the current culture of "nuggets or nothing", but we're having fun. For the first time in years, we're having fun playing The West. I never thought I'd say that again, but here I am. Sort out a premium system if you must. If it's not possible, I'm sure thousands of players would be willing to pay a subscription.
Or, better yet, keep running this server for free. I know it doesn't turn a profit, but surely allowing players to have fun must still be a secondary goal at least. Give out the nugget prize at the end of the month, most of us don't care about that. We're having fun. But please, PLEASE, don't end this fantastic world after the event is over. Because if you do, I can't see myself continuing to log into the modern game version that's now a shell of what was once a masterpiece. I can't even see myself having the motivation to log in and click that delete button, but after a few weeks it'll happen by itself and I'll just be another non-existent member of that 17 million players you lie about on the homepage, and hundreds more will follow.
Last edited by a moderator: