Maugre wrote:
My only complaint (Though I really hate how lame Saga's story is, at least they... "tried", or did something, I guess.) about Mabi is that it's getting a bit stale. New skills and things are cool, but we need more places to go and things to do.
Well, you seem nice, and I'll trust you are nice, since you are from Mari. However, I think you missed the post's point... and so I'll be... gentle <_<...
Maugre wrote:
To be fair, you still don't ever have to pay to play. This is one reason I still like Mabi much more than any other free to play; it's pay for convenience, not pay to win. We get free pets anyway, and most cash shop things can be traded between players, so nobody HAS to pay.
The common misconceptions of when people talk about "pay" is people will think is Pay to Win, but really... win what? powerful dmg? internets? finishing game content? Does that mean soloing everything? I dunno... and I don't think anyone knows because is different for everyone. However, what you said fair enough, but the idea of the post is this can be read 2 ways... just like 2 sides of every coin and "pay" doesn't equate to $, just because you don't have to pay $ doesn't mean it is free (And I hope everyone will realize that).
Maugre wrote:
As for classes, they don't lock you into anything, and it's still incredible how free we are to set up our characters how we want (though it's difficult to combine skillsets with those that rely on summons or single-skillset weapons... *looks at puppeteer and gunner* [Note: I like puppeteer and gunner, I just wish I could mix in other skillsets easier]).
Right, they don't lock you into classes but the point is there are classes... and plenty now as oppose the often marketed no classes (Which was originally how the game really was... just simple combat magic and life and the so called lie of rock, paper and scissors). And if we were to going a step further then you would see the game actually suffers from the same "class" problem as other game because there are "Races". Just look at all the ridiculous "stats" and "unfair" talk pop up every time a new "classes" ensues. The idea giving up human because it isn't as good as giants in melee is no different idea than class switching in other games where you have to start a character from scratch. However, I will give you that it does offer you a lot "freedom" for class choices, but so do many other games...
Maugre wrote:
On the topic of beginners and catching up to the veterans, I dunno what kind of backwards server you're on, but here on Mari, us veterans welcome newbies with open arms, make sure they're all set up and good, and raise them as our own.
<_< I dunno I think you can see my server on my info... but errr I think any server would welcome any beginners (And probably even more so for my server)... but that's not the point. The idea here is not veteran not welcoming new players, but new players cannot enjoy the same things as older players. Yea sure, I can take new player being level 100 to Peaca Advanced and finish it [s](no, I really can't, don't hold me to it)[/s], but it is not going to be anymore enjoyable to me than it for them. You'd think the changes would help this situation but the amounts of contents and experience is every different if you were to play this than you were playing from the old times.
Maugre wrote:
Hacks and exploits, they've actually managed to get rid of a good bunch of them, and I rarely see any nowadays, with the exception of people using mods (like seeing dungeon maps, exploration things, etc... kinda kills the point of it.) and the whole "stuck enemies in SMs" thing. Right now, my biggest exploitation concern is the bots exploiting the fact that they can get to Dunby on new characters so easily to spam my chatbox.
Right... no exploits... that's why a whole bunch people were banned because there was no such thing as the diamond exploits... and a whole other bunch that were not banned because they used alts and picks up diamonds. Look, the game had exploits and bugs since the beginning... talk to any "old" player they will tell you about the enjoyable moment as a PALADIN SERVING JUSTICE killing players that were lazy afking in the market area (O man... if this still exist, I swear it would be death to all Fashionogi on all servers). The point is exploit will exist, I'll tell you why: Programmers are Human, and Human will make Mistakes, it is what we do.
The idea is call prevent and damage control, if I were to say... Mabi does real poor job on this. If there was no test server, then I could give it a pass, but we know for fact they do have it. I can accept that maybe they didn't think about this (even though is the same idea of spamming theater mission of the legendary cloakers in Hamlet), I can even accept they aren't able to fix it in time because coding is not what they do, but I can't accept them not telling the player don't do it. Sure, if they tell everyone this people will all know about it, but if you also tell them it is bannable offense I'd trust there would be a lot less player would do it. And I really can't accept them not knowing about it, because that means as a whole the team monitoring game activity failed and the morality of the community failed (Which I don't find surprising in today's society).
But really, the post is to poke fun and hopefully expand some people's tunnel vision and the 2 ways still remain true, certain aspect more so than ever.
You said it yourself, the game is becoming stale... and I hope you feel that stale part, because it has been for quite a while. I will tell you I think the free weekly rebirth if probably the best thing ever... but it won't do much for the game. That's not going make me play the game... because there's nothing to be played.
The new ninja talent is real joke... You have a talent with about half of the skill set that is support (where other classes does it a whole lot better). An huge AOE that does huge damage that is not even more efficient than R upgraded dual gun's normal shooting, over half the skill having more than 20sec cooldown (No wonder is not based on dex, there's nothing fast about the class... though dex and agi are completely different things), a skill that drains stamina with 50 sec cooldown (good luck training that to rank 1 without abusing cooldown bug with like 6500 usage requirement), a weapon that is 2 hand but gets no shield, no 2 hand bonus, when S/R upgraded it get 1 hand S/R rates (because it is a one hand looking like 2 hand), and having one of the worst STAT to efficiency rate... That's just probably from the reality view...speaking, not very enticing... And I can go in the other direction and make the talent look totally awesome... but I am not going to because I am work OAO...
Back in the old days people need subscription or they had limited game play time, then they had weekly rebirth, now it is free weekly rebirth and the game's population has only been going down or maybe roughly maintaining.
People wouldn't mind PAYING if the game is enjoyable,
instead making enjoyable games people want to pay, they are making the game people have to pay to enjoy.
Regardless, the real point remains that everyone think the game is not what it used to be anymore. Is it doomed? O god no... but that doesn't mean it has become "better".