One problem I have seen on this thread is that 99.99% of posters have already purchased the game and played it though multiple alphas, with 16 and 17 bringing about huge game changes. Players who have played a certain alpha for hundreds of hours will obviously feel attached to certain mechanics present in that alpha, such as learn by doing. Well, LBD stinks, and I am glad it's gone. For instance, in A16, I set up a rotation of forges with large excesses of clay in each, along with just enough iron to craft anvils. I would rotate between each forge just as the anvil finished crafting so that I could get the exp while simultaneously smelting the anvils back into the forges. I used this trick to gain huge amounts of total levels and skill points that I spent on perks, or whatever. My character was getting stronger in a very unrealistic and stupid way. In short, I am glad that this exploitable feature has been banished forever, and that madmole/TFP realize that the game should not cater to older players just because they liked certain old features. (Plus they already have your money?)
Speaking of which, I have always enjoyed playing the new updates just to see what was new. I paid for the game once, but I feel as though I have gotten multiple different games worth of playtime. Every single new alpha, I play to the endgame and test out all of the new features. On occasion, I do 2-3 playthroughs a few weeks/months apart. Part of the reason why I only did a few playthroughs per alpha is because back in those older alphas, there really was no diversity in the progression, besides A17 which allowed you to choose a different subset of guns to spend your points on. I have always been a min-maxer, so I can't stomach playing in a totally inefficient way just to play. With talk of A18 having multiple balanced paths to progress your character, I am excited to see what kind of mileage I can get out of it.
Finally, with all of the dissenting opinions I have seen on this thread, I feel like I should send out my vote of confidence for the vision and direction of the game. Specifically, killing zombies for experience and progression. 7DTD is a world filled with zombies, and they control most of the map and loot. As a survivor, you can either crawl around and shamefully pick up the little scraps of loot when no zombies are looking (lame), or you can go in there and beat the hell out of every zombie you see and TAKE everything you want from the apocalypse, getting revenge on the zeds that ruined your peaceful life. As long as I can support the core mechanics and vision of the game, every other minor little problem I have can be ignored. For example, crafting recipes that might not be 100% realistic, or unpolished areas of the game which will almost definitely be polished at some point. And the game has been improving by more and more with each passing alpha. From everything I have seen so far, Alpha 18 is the greatest version of the game. Now the only question is, 10/4 or 10/7?
