Hi all,
I wanted to provide some feedback on my experiences so far and ask some questions to see if I should keep playing. While I've been loving quite a bit of my experience (story quests, friendly community, crafting depth, idea of a job system), there's a lot of simplification to systems and 'rushing' that is driving me away. From my perspective, it feels like attempts to make the game easier or faster are actually making things more confusing and less fun for me as a new player. Basically, I want an immersive experience not a blind rush with simple combat and only a handful of abilities, while I feel a lot of the game is delivering on that the other half feels to be in conflict with it.
As an example, and what compelled me to post, was my disappointment upon reaching level 30 and unlocking Scholar; I've been excited about Scholar since I picked up the game because I heard it was a complex healing class with a lot of support options after reading some guides, though after I unlocked it I lost more abilities and complexity than I gained. Similarly, the pets seem redundant which was both very confusing and disappointing as a new player; I was looking forward to the support pet as I want to play a support class but I've learned since that the two pets are the same now I think? While I'm sure the healing functionality is useful in groups, it not useful or fun for me while leveling with my girlfriend as the game is too easy to require heals (another issue which has made things less engaging). Gameplay-wise it doesn't feel like the class that is depicted in the story or that I'd heard about. Basically, it sounds like much of what I read that had made me interested in the class (and game as a whole) has since changed in the recent expansion.
Similarly, the dungeon experience is not very new player friendly. My girlfriend and I planned a whole day around running a dungeon and were super excited to jump in but instead of an interesting experience with social elements and teamwork, we were thrown into an AoE rush and honestly felt overwhelmed, confused, and bored all at once. We had no time to learn anything, meet players, or actually play the dungeon. We felt like dead weight and we weren't having a good time because it was mindless.
Maybe I'm just too focused on these things, but I let myself get really drawn in to the game before it felt like I was hit with a bunch of aspects of gameplay that punished me as a new player. As such, I wanted to just let the developers know that some of these design decisions leading to churn among newer players (I work in game development so this is relevant to my interests and to me professionally).
TL;DR - I love a lot about this game (community, job concept, crafting, MSQ) but some things I have encountered have given me pause (rushed dungeon experience, simplified class designs/Scholar changes, lack of purpose for sidequests). Should I stick it out or is this not the game I'm looking for?
Continue reading...
I wanted to provide some feedback on my experiences so far and ask some questions to see if I should keep playing. While I've been loving quite a bit of my experience (story quests, friendly community, crafting depth, idea of a job system), there's a lot of simplification to systems and 'rushing' that is driving me away. From my perspective, it feels like attempts to make the game easier or faster are actually making things more confusing and less fun for me as a new player. Basically, I want an immersive experience not a blind rush with simple combat and only a handful of abilities, while I feel a lot of the game is delivering on that the other half feels to be in conflict with it.
As an example, and what compelled me to post, was my disappointment upon reaching level 30 and unlocking Scholar; I've been excited about Scholar since I picked up the game because I heard it was a complex healing class with a lot of support options after reading some guides, though after I unlocked it I lost more abilities and complexity than I gained. Similarly, the pets seem redundant which was both very confusing and disappointing as a new player; I was looking forward to the support pet as I want to play a support class but I've learned since that the two pets are the same now I think? While I'm sure the healing functionality is useful in groups, it not useful or fun for me while leveling with my girlfriend as the game is too easy to require heals (another issue which has made things less engaging). Gameplay-wise it doesn't feel like the class that is depicted in the story or that I'd heard about. Basically, it sounds like much of what I read that had made me interested in the class (and game as a whole) has since changed in the recent expansion.
Similarly, the dungeon experience is not very new player friendly. My girlfriend and I planned a whole day around running a dungeon and were super excited to jump in but instead of an interesting experience with social elements and teamwork, we were thrown into an AoE rush and honestly felt overwhelmed, confused, and bored all at once. We had no time to learn anything, meet players, or actually play the dungeon. We felt like dead weight and we weren't having a good time because it was mindless.
Maybe I'm just too focused on these things, but I let myself get really drawn in to the game before it felt like I was hit with a bunch of aspects of gameplay that punished me as a new player. As such, I wanted to just let the developers know that some of these design decisions leading to churn among newer players (I work in game development so this is relevant to my interests and to me professionally).
TL;DR - I love a lot about this game (community, job concept, crafting, MSQ) but some things I have encountered have given me pause (rushed dungeon experience, simplified class designs/Scholar changes, lack of purpose for sidequests). Should I stick it out or is this not the game I'm looking for?
Continue reading...