Sean of the Thread
12-22-2006, 12:15 AM
VDK
Farewell to All · on 12/20/2006 3:23:06 PM
Well, after almost 7 months now of constant biweekly projects and assignments, I have returned to say goodbye, and likely permanently. Gemstone was the second Online RPG I ever played, and the one I had played by far the longest. I have seen heavy hide armor come and go, breakage come, go and then threaten to come back, and just about every kind of mechanical problem imaginable. In retrospect, its funny. There was a time when I felt as a warrior, we were always slighted as a class, from talking to Giacomo and listening to all the things he was not allowed to implement, to having some great discussions with Reife about fixing them, with a hotheaded but well intentioned Kuromaku to span the gap. In reality, it was the focus of the players such as myself on game mechanics that ultimately drove me away.
Ever since the change to GS4, I've actually felt less and less a desire to play the game. The system has and always will be broken in one way or another, the only difference a change can make is alter the degree of how broken it is. It is inevitable that perfection in a multi-class game can never be achieved when each class has a unique skill set that acts in a different mechanical sense than another. The issue for me, is not mechanics, and never was mechanics. The issue is the undying focus on mechanics by everyone to perfect the game and create the ultimate game balance. The focus went from hunting for fun to hunting for the perfect script. It went from a blissfully ignorant set of users, few of whom analyzed and number crunched, to a community hell bent on the numbers.
I leave with no regrets, and no ill will towards any, but the fact is, the game just isn't for me anymore. In addition to not having even been on in the last 6 months, save one or two times just to say hi to whomever I was lucky enough to catch at those times, I have just come to a step in life and my career where I know I will never catch up in levels, and that even when I left, half the people I even saw hunting were just using scripts. Unfortunately, my style of playing has become antiquated, and will no longer allow me to achieve any significant end results, especially when I am not competing with people who have 6 or 7 level 100 people basically script-farming.
I can't put my finger on it, but I shame myself for missing it, but somewhere along the line, I feel Warden (and after speaking to him for multiple years at the con, he is actually an extremely intelligent person, and a very nice guy) has changed the scope of the game to essentially cater to hardcore gamers. An incredible focus on balance and mechanics has ultimately changed the style of the average player to be far more mechanically savvy in an effort to keep up with the system. I definitely find some blame in myself for such a dogged request (which was eventually acquiesced, much to everyone's surprise), that everyone be given a chance to re-allocate, just 6 months prior to the release of GS4 (which we didn't know was coming, but regardless), because so many mechanical changes had already left many of us in the dust. In creating this mechanically far more stable system, somewhere along the line, the abilities for advancement for a casual player such as myself seemed to have vanished.
I may stop in once or twice just to wish my old friends well before the account goes inactive, but if I do not see you, farewell, and maybe we'll meet again someday. Myself and Jaelus are still in debate as to whether or not to attend the con next year (if they have one). I have no regrets of the time and people I have met playing, and I wish you all well.
On behalf of Jaelus (who has already left), and myself, Tamral, I wish you all well, and hope gemstone continues onward and refocuses itself as a true role playing game in the midst of all the dungeon crawls that also call themselves MMORPG's.
Sincerely,
The player of Tamral.
Farewell to All · on 12/20/2006 3:23:06 PM
Well, after almost 7 months now of constant biweekly projects and assignments, I have returned to say goodbye, and likely permanently. Gemstone was the second Online RPG I ever played, and the one I had played by far the longest. I have seen heavy hide armor come and go, breakage come, go and then threaten to come back, and just about every kind of mechanical problem imaginable. In retrospect, its funny. There was a time when I felt as a warrior, we were always slighted as a class, from talking to Giacomo and listening to all the things he was not allowed to implement, to having some great discussions with Reife about fixing them, with a hotheaded but well intentioned Kuromaku to span the gap. In reality, it was the focus of the players such as myself on game mechanics that ultimately drove me away.
Ever since the change to GS4, I've actually felt less and less a desire to play the game. The system has and always will be broken in one way or another, the only difference a change can make is alter the degree of how broken it is. It is inevitable that perfection in a multi-class game can never be achieved when each class has a unique skill set that acts in a different mechanical sense than another. The issue for me, is not mechanics, and never was mechanics. The issue is the undying focus on mechanics by everyone to perfect the game and create the ultimate game balance. The focus went from hunting for fun to hunting for the perfect script. It went from a blissfully ignorant set of users, few of whom analyzed and number crunched, to a community hell bent on the numbers.
I leave with no regrets, and no ill will towards any, but the fact is, the game just isn't for me anymore. In addition to not having even been on in the last 6 months, save one or two times just to say hi to whomever I was lucky enough to catch at those times, I have just come to a step in life and my career where I know I will never catch up in levels, and that even when I left, half the people I even saw hunting were just using scripts. Unfortunately, my style of playing has become antiquated, and will no longer allow me to achieve any significant end results, especially when I am not competing with people who have 6 or 7 level 100 people basically script-farming.
I can't put my finger on it, but I shame myself for missing it, but somewhere along the line, I feel Warden (and after speaking to him for multiple years at the con, he is actually an extremely intelligent person, and a very nice guy) has changed the scope of the game to essentially cater to hardcore gamers. An incredible focus on balance and mechanics has ultimately changed the style of the average player to be far more mechanically savvy in an effort to keep up with the system. I definitely find some blame in myself for such a dogged request (which was eventually acquiesced, much to everyone's surprise), that everyone be given a chance to re-allocate, just 6 months prior to the release of GS4 (which we didn't know was coming, but regardless), because so many mechanical changes had already left many of us in the dust. In creating this mechanically far more stable system, somewhere along the line, the abilities for advancement for a casual player such as myself seemed to have vanished.
I may stop in once or twice just to wish my old friends well before the account goes inactive, but if I do not see you, farewell, and maybe we'll meet again someday. Myself and Jaelus are still in debate as to whether or not to attend the con next year (if they have one). I have no regrets of the time and people I have met playing, and I wish you all well.
On behalf of Jaelus (who has already left), and myself, Tamral, I wish you all well, and hope gemstone continues onward and refocuses itself as a true role playing game in the midst of all the dungeon crawls that also call themselves MMORPG's.
Sincerely,
The player of Tamral.