7DaysToBreakTheGame
Refugee
Let’s jump into it. This is not some angry rant, nor am I some troll who jumped into the game within the last year, heard about prior features that used to be in the game, and got upset because they feel like they missed out on the game in its prime. (Despite that being a pretty valid complaint)
I am a simple man, 24, who started playing your game about a decade ago. Who’s been following the game since it still had mostly cubic objects. Your game was quite literally part of my childhood, my teen years were partially spent playing this game and dodging landmines in the wasteland with friends.
I had to stop playing for years because of the fiasco with Telltale Games, because you were still so small you had to outsource to another publisher to get your game on consoles. I did not complain despite being screwed over and forced to buy the game a second time, I waited and bid my time for 1.0 to release just hoping you guys would decide to release the game again. I didn’t care if I had to pay for it.
I bought this game again, and I’ve now sunk a few hundred hours into it, and everyone is right. You guys POORLY switched genres. I’m genuinely sad, I remember back in my childhood you guys were just excited about getting new features into the game and watching it grow.
You didn’t have some wild concept for the ideal “identity” of the game besides it being a sandbox zombie survival/base defense game, and you didn’t really care what other said.
Now, the developers are toxic, they treat the community as though they’re lucky the game even exists, they frequently ban and silence people who do not like the direction the game goes in, people that are like ME, genuine fans of many years. The moderators of their platforms and diehard fans of the game series unite to create an air of toxic positivity surrounding the game, where any “negative” discourse surrounding it is immediately silenced or dogpiled by fans. (Much of this negative discourse ends up being genuine criticisms of the game, FYI, thought that was worth noting. There are a fair share of haters but the majority of comments I see are dissapointed nostalgic people)
This is where I will be a little… personal. But it’s still true.
You guys are NOT Minecraft. This is NOT the kind of game with the identity that Mojang has fostered, where you can hide behind your concept of what you believe the “identity” of the game is, such as how Minecraft refuses to add certain features such as vertical redstone or slabs.
Minecraft is a very lucky case of success, and when you guys look at fans asking for simple concepts being added to the game like animal farms for example, and tell them outright that you will not be doing it just simply because you don’t want to, that makes fans resent you.
We want a game we want to play, we respect your vision for the game, but game development has ALWAYS been about compromise. Games that have a rigid concept of their identity and refuse to compromise beyond that do not succeed nearly as much, so why do you all mistakenly believe that yours will? Especially when you’ve actually already diverted from your original identity, simplifying game features that the original fans flocked to the game for and complexifying others that nobody asked for. (I.E. taking away smell mechanics, dumbing down noise mechanics, removing the ability to find specific gun parts, and continually improving the zombie AI to unnecessary and unrealistic degrees that make the game more tedious than fun)
The player base is now understandably peeved about 2.0, and it’s part of the reason I am making this right now. But I can always expect TFP to deflect and blame other people, rather than addressing what the community actually wants.
I guess when you develop a game for over a decade, it leads you to develop an ego and belief that you know exactly what’s right for it.
Anyways, here’s hoping this doesn’t get taken down by mods or something, because I feel like it’s a reasonable assessment of the situation, and this isn’t just a big feels reaction post for the sake of being a big feels reaction post.
I and many others have a lot of genuine criticisms about the way this game is going, and if they continue to go the way they are, they will alienate their prior fanbase and end up with a mixed bag of a game that doesn’t complete half of its roadmap. (Keep in mind that they were already multiple months late with 2.0 which in turn is going to affect all the other updates, so now the roadmap is out of date and up in the air)
Anyways, it’s been a good one, hope a dev sees this and it really makes them actually think, because even if this isn’t indicative of how you guys genuinely feel about the game, this is how a lot of your community feels right now.
Just thought I should throw in at least something positive. I feel like the games perk system has done nothing but improve for the most part, keep doing what you’re doing there.
(This post was reposted in entirety from Reddit with only minor changes, I am the original author of the Reddit post, it was rewritten rather than linked here because I am admittedly ignorant of the rules so I’m trying to avoid issues with mods censoring this.)
I am a simple man, 24, who started playing your game about a decade ago. Who’s been following the game since it still had mostly cubic objects. Your game was quite literally part of my childhood, my teen years were partially spent playing this game and dodging landmines in the wasteland with friends.
I had to stop playing for years because of the fiasco with Telltale Games, because you were still so small you had to outsource to another publisher to get your game on consoles. I did not complain despite being screwed over and forced to buy the game a second time, I waited and bid my time for 1.0 to release just hoping you guys would decide to release the game again. I didn’t care if I had to pay for it.
I bought this game again, and I’ve now sunk a few hundred hours into it, and everyone is right. You guys POORLY switched genres. I’m genuinely sad, I remember back in my childhood you guys were just excited about getting new features into the game and watching it grow.
You didn’t have some wild concept for the ideal “identity” of the game besides it being a sandbox zombie survival/base defense game, and you didn’t really care what other said.
Now, the developers are toxic, they treat the community as though they’re lucky the game even exists, they frequently ban and silence people who do not like the direction the game goes in, people that are like ME, genuine fans of many years. The moderators of their platforms and diehard fans of the game series unite to create an air of toxic positivity surrounding the game, where any “negative” discourse surrounding it is immediately silenced or dogpiled by fans. (Much of this negative discourse ends up being genuine criticisms of the game, FYI, thought that was worth noting. There are a fair share of haters but the majority of comments I see are dissapointed nostalgic people)
This is where I will be a little… personal. But it’s still true.
You guys are NOT Minecraft. This is NOT the kind of game with the identity that Mojang has fostered, where you can hide behind your concept of what you believe the “identity” of the game is, such as how Minecraft refuses to add certain features such as vertical redstone or slabs.
Minecraft is a very lucky case of success, and when you guys look at fans asking for simple concepts being added to the game like animal farms for example, and tell them outright that you will not be doing it just simply because you don’t want to, that makes fans resent you.
We want a game we want to play, we respect your vision for the game, but game development has ALWAYS been about compromise. Games that have a rigid concept of their identity and refuse to compromise beyond that do not succeed nearly as much, so why do you all mistakenly believe that yours will? Especially when you’ve actually already diverted from your original identity, simplifying game features that the original fans flocked to the game for and complexifying others that nobody asked for. (I.E. taking away smell mechanics, dumbing down noise mechanics, removing the ability to find specific gun parts, and continually improving the zombie AI to unnecessary and unrealistic degrees that make the game more tedious than fun)
The player base is now understandably peeved about 2.0, and it’s part of the reason I am making this right now. But I can always expect TFP to deflect and blame other people, rather than addressing what the community actually wants.
I guess when you develop a game for over a decade, it leads you to develop an ego and belief that you know exactly what’s right for it.
Anyways, here’s hoping this doesn’t get taken down by mods or something, because I feel like it’s a reasonable assessment of the situation, and this isn’t just a big feels reaction post for the sake of being a big feels reaction post.
I and many others have a lot of genuine criticisms about the way this game is going, and if they continue to go the way they are, they will alienate their prior fanbase and end up with a mixed bag of a game that doesn’t complete half of its roadmap. (Keep in mind that they were already multiple months late with 2.0 which in turn is going to affect all the other updates, so now the roadmap is out of date and up in the air)
Anyways, it’s been a good one, hope a dev sees this and it really makes them actually think, because even if this isn’t indicative of how you guys genuinely feel about the game, this is how a lot of your community feels right now.
Just thought I should throw in at least something positive. I feel like the games perk system has done nothing but improve for the most part, keep doing what you’re doing there.
(This post was reposted in entirety from Reddit with only minor changes, I am the original author of the Reddit post, it was rewritten rather than linked here because I am admittedly ignorant of the rules so I’m trying to avoid issues with mods censoring this.)