the ballingest sigil staff there ever was

[Neveragain]

No, of course.

First, new players aren't supporting much financially, if they are even paying (F2P or promotion). And I'm unclear what you mean by sandbox other than I assume high end items, but people play for various reasons and they are likely initially drawn to the community and story possibilities.

With these events, item creep has made that sandbox much larger and strong mechanical things are being made all the time. I think item upgrading is more a thing that comes later for most, as they become familiar with things and search for additional goals and things to "do'. Or perhaps a little Keeping up with the Jones syndrome.

Pretty harsh with the comment about staff and shame too. Don't you like roleplay and free stuff? Stuff like Carnival of Freaks and various town and free world storylines also happen and things like the sigil staff above are all optional. That stick's abilities after unlocking shouldn't be readily available without work and dedication anyway. It gives the same goal setting and achievement as level gains do at a more basic game level.

So you're not really being honest with them?

What I mean by sandbox is the game in it's entirety, I wouldn't be asking this if it were not for the base subscription rate that is equal to if not more than AAA games. People also play these games for different reasons, all of which come with that monthly subscription. You are also not being honest about the story possibilities that are always geared towards the same players nor the community which can be one of the most toxic communities during these stories. I won't begin to touch on what has been written as lore and what actually happened with these stories in the past.

These events offer nothing to the subscription player that is unwilling to open their pocket book (more like their retirement savings). Even the biggest of them all, Ebon Gate, has become a cash grab. Over the past few years the treasure system has become less and less useful as the game currency, silvers, no longer has value. The real currency must be purchased beyond that of the game subscription, making the leveling an even more tedious train to nowhere than it has ever been. The ding at 100 offers nothing.

My comment about staff isn't harsh, it's honest. I will give two examples of many that could be mentioned. The first I would mention is how the guru position has been handled in River's Rest, the position has been abandoned. There has not been an OOC meeting in years while towns like Cyciger (spelling) have them. There has been no interaction for years, which used to be a highlight of that town under multiple guru's over the decades. The last scheduled OOC meeting the GM backed out of because they knew there was going to be some difficult questions asked.

The second example is with the hidden changes and the outright lies over the confluence. I won't add much else to this subject other than the very rude responses given by staff to those customers voicing their concerns. So again I will say that the current GM staff should be ashamed of the direction they are taking this as well as their extremely poor customer relations.

Me personally, I'm done. Not because I'm bitter but rather because I would prefer remembering the game for what it was than remembering it for what it has become.

[Astray]

At any point, Simutronics could have ended the cash for items/silver market. It's not like it's hard to find who is doing and trading what.

Microtransactions are nothing new though, this is simply the route the gaming industry has taken. The problem stems from the introduction of new, pay only, currency and an abundance of the in-game currency. The silver market crashing is a result of the 'new' currencies being favored explicitly while silvers just stagnate and build in excess.

[Stunseed]

< My comment about staff isn't harsh, it's honest. I will give two examples of many that could be mentioned. The first I would mention is how the guru position has been handled in River's Rest, the position has been abandoned. There has not been an OOC meeting in years while towns like Cyciger (spelling) have them. There has been no interaction for years, which used to be a highlight of that town under multiple guru's over the decades. The last scheduled OOC meeting the GM backed out of because they knew there was going to be some difficult questions asked. >

Why would anyone of sane mind willingly volunteer their time to a town community like RR's? So some internet edgelord can get their erections by asking "some difficult questions"?

Yeah, good luck with trying to get support with that mentality.

[Wrathbringer]

The problem stems from the introduction of new, pay only, currency and an abundance of the in-game currency. The silver market crashing is a result of the 'new' currencies being favored explicitly while silvers just stagnate and build in excess.

Yep. Same thing is going to happen with bloodscrip. Once the game is flooded with it, they'll just introduce a new currency you have to pay RL $ to acquire...provided the game lasts that long. I mean, come on, how many 10x ecw flaring sticks/swords/armors of doom do you really need. There's only a couple hundred or so retards-I mean-people, if that, who are spending the money to get these things. Once they've got what they want, there's no one left to spend retarded amounts of real life money on acquiring the new currency to make uber items.

[audioserf]

BS prices have already been getting crushed. They've nerfed the Arena to the point where it's exceedingly easy to pull 250/run out of there, at least for most pure builds, and a lot of people are farming it. Thing is, there's not a lot to spend it on. They didn't update the Bloodriven Village shops at all (they'll be updated for the next run, allegedly) and the HESS stuff went to the quickest scripters once it opened.

Seashells were worthless from their inception, which is pretty funny. They are GS Zimbabwe Dollars.

[Neveragain]

< My comment about staff isn't harsh, it's honest. I will give two examples of many that could be mentioned. The first I would mention is how the guru position has been handled in River's Rest, the position has been abandoned. There has not been an OOC meeting in years while towns like Cyciger (spelling) have them. There has been no interaction for years, which used to be a highlight of that town under multiple guru's over the decades. The last scheduled OOC meeting the GM backed out of because they knew there was going to be some difficult questions asked. >

Why would anyone of sane mind willingly volunteer their time to a town community like RR's? So some internet edgelord can get their erections by asking "some difficult questions"?

Yeah, good luck with trying to get support with that mentality.

Why would anyone take the RR guru position knowing what is expected out of that position and then do nothing for over 5 years?

I get it, you're the same kind of dick gobbler that will suck SIMU ass at any cost to salvage the retarded cash investments you have put into a dead 30 year old text game. It's actually funny to watch the whales stroke each others epeens as their needed serf class vanish from the game.

At this point it's like a game developer squatted to take a giant shit and named it Gemstone.

[Stunseed]

Why would anyone take the RR guru position knowing what is expected out of that position and then do nothing for over 5 years?

I get it, you're the same kind of dick gobbler that will suck SIMU ass at any cost to salvage the retarded cash investments you have put into a dead 30 year old text game. It's actually funny to watch the whales stroke each others epeens as their needed serf class vanish from the game.

At this point it's like a game developer squatted to take a giant shit and named it Gemstone.

Your homo-erotic attempts of jabs seem a bit Freudian. I'll forgive them because you're clearly either special in the head or passionate about the subject.

I've made my disdain of the Hot Pocket Brigade ( these are the people who farm GS to afford their basement studios from Mom and buy Hot Pockets...and because they are grafted to the couch, shat said Hot Pockets inside, forming an Inception-like Hot Pocket ) well known.

I play GS for the roleplay aspect, nothing more. It's been that way for a few years at the very least, I liquidated my Prime stuff years ago. I am sorry you had an inactive Guru for so long, I just don't understand the unhealthy spouse-beating levels of rage that you emit because of it.

[Maerit]

With the way spells works, it just feels like a waste since things don't live long enough against spells to really need all the bells and whistles. Sure, you could get a T5 double flaring sigil staff w/ flaring bane, but how often is that going to be needed? My sorcerer kills most things in a single shot with 719 or 717, and if they're immune to that strategy I have to plink them to death with 705 or 711 which is 10% of my targets. Empaths and Clerics are similar once they have sufficient training for 240. That leaves rapid fire bolting wizards, which this would be useful for, but if you spent money on boosting Spell Aim + Dex enhancives and trained the crap out of your lores, targets are going to die in 3s (3x cast of whatever bolt is most appropriate for the target) anyway...

You see, thinks like Blink flares, and powerful melee crit weighting are useful for combat style that rely on raw attacking power. Magical combat benefits more from skills and advanced training or enhancives than it does from gear.

That's why spending this much on a runestaff is sad - it would benefit a pre-cap character much more than a post-cap one.

[audioserf]

I don't even use 240 for regular hunting (just for grizzled and the Arena) on my empath and I could never justify an insanely expensive rune stick for that reason. It's just not needed. I have been using a 6x greater elemental void flare staff with T5 ensorcell on it for the last two years and I'll probably never bother getting anything else. With max CS + enhancives, plus Summon lore, 1115 is murdering everything in a cast or two. Spending several thousand dollars for an occasional re-cast is insane to me.

[Merzbow]

That's why spending this much on a runestaff is sad - it would benefit a pre-cap character much more than a post-cap one.

Faster arena runs and invasions, I guess, but that's not really enough. I think the only thing which can truly justify these uber items will be the rumored super-hard post-cap areas.