An Epic Tale of Pixels, Pity, and a $3000 Plot Twist: My Five-Year Gaming Odyssey

[Blackbird]

@Alex @ss23,

I've invested five years and $3000 into your game, a commitment I'm beginning to question.

Despite numerous attempts to provide constructive feedback, it seems the game is stuck in a state of stagnation. What's more disheartening is your apparent reluctance to consider potential improvements, choosing instead to remain within a comfort zone shaped by unsuccessful entrepreneurs.

It appears that your primary strategy has been to outsource the game's development for a minimal fee, then attribute any shortcomings to your own inexperience. This approach, however, does not absolve you of the responsibility to address the game's issues.

In hindsight, I regret the significant amount of time and resources I and many others among us have dedicated to this endeavor. I sincerely hope you reconsider your approach and take the necessary steps to improve the game.

Good luck with your sh*t plans and strategy.

Farewell,
Blackbird

[MasterChief]

I sent your nation peace so you can regrow though 😭

[KindaEpicMoah]

PnW is truly the biggest example of the sunk cost fallacy 

 

Adios

[Avatar Patrick]

Wow has it been 5 years already? Seems like only yesterday we were both derping around in Avalon Academy. While it's a shame to see you go, I respect your decision. Best of luck in whatever the future brings you 🙂

[Raphael]

I definitely feel this same frustration, as do many PnW players I think. As the game encroaches on a full decade old and many older players are well past a city count that will ever ROI the cost, I think many of us expected to see more content continue to flow.

However, I think there are a few problems at the organizational level within PnW that are causing a chain-reaction of frustration down the line.

1. Over-reliance on a handful of volunteers who are, at-best, received as controversial by the wider community. Specifically: DrRush, Prefontaine, and their teams. As someone who has been extremely involved in said volunteering, I feel uniquely qualified to say that the systems aren't working, and turnover or outright dissolution (in the case of the dev/design team) is sorely needed. I highly appreciate the effort put in by everyone who has been involved, but somewhere along the way it stopped working.

2. A disjointed approach to how things are presented and disconnection from the playerbase - I want to be very clear when I say this: All the teams are putting in work. Moderation teams in-game, on discord, on the forums, and even on reddit, the dev/design team, and the actual people coding like Alex/Village are all pulling some kind of weight. This is not a dead game by any means. The problem comes in with how information is presented to the playerbase. Oftentimes posted into a discord server that most of the active playerbase avoids, put on forums that again many active players no longer check, or lost in some random chat somewhere on RON. If a player isn't actively looking for news and updates, it's way too easy to miss.

 

There is a lot more depth to go into with the problems surrounding the development cycle of PnW, but I think these two problems are the roots of the rotten tree and no tweaks to the branches will fix the issue unless you first fix the foundation.

My suggestion, as always, is to revamp the PnW discord into a community hub instead of an afterthought. Get the playerbase all in one place, go look into other big game's community discords if you want inspiration and, as always, I'm here to help if asked. Once a community hub is in place, then we can start making progress on development that doesn't constantly generate controversy and community outrage.

 

Shout out to @Village for his hard work coding and re-coding the game and really pushing forward things this past year or so.

[Pascal]

rip 160m

[Eragon]

Also fairly obvious that there is minimal effort made to implement new changes. Reminds me of admin from CN and being content making a couple thousand from the whales that donate even though no real changes have been made (not that there is anything wrong with that, but to call it anything else is questionable). At least in that timeline donations were reasonably priced. 

Maybe we'll get a minor change when there's 10 bill food in the game. 

Edited June 5, 2023 by Eragon

[DADDY COMBATIVE]

should i cry or laugh?

[Mituss]

Goodbye