Well, since my Tibia career has officially come to a complete close about two months ago, I decided to leave CIPsoft with perhaps a bit of insight on how they can fix their big mistake.
I don't really expect anybody here to read it all, but if you could post in the thread, your opinions, only if you've read parts of it, please do so.
Tibia - The Rant [Tibia's Progression]
This being in the Tibia section, do you guys feel the same? Would you participate if they followed through with my proposal? [Obviously they will never, but for fun, I suppose]
Red
I don't really expect anybody here to read it all, but if you could post in the thread, your opinions, only if you've read parts of it, please do so.
Tibia - The Rant [Tibia's Progression]
I feel as if nobody has adequately stepped up to the plate and posted a composition to CIPsoft about what Tibia's real problem is. You posted in a Featured Article about the feedback you receive, and I agree, it is either mostly, "Good work!" or "CIP sux!" which, like you said, is pretty useless in your perspective. As an independent business owner in the field of entertainment, I hope you take the time to associate some of the game's current flaws and perhaps this will be the start of some sort of enlightenment over at headquarters.
I. Dumbing Down A Fun Game
Primarily, each update that made the game more "user-friendly"
You attract a larger audience of players, sure.
This appeals mostly to younger audiences (in which can't buy premium), and it also attracts players with less game drive, less intelligence, and by making it easier, they're making people who enjoy the game, enjoy it much less. Currently you have...
A. Problematic change in gameplay style goes back to 7.6 - After you made the game easier (Wands, primarily) mages didn't have to make runes to level anymore. They could shoot their wand and kill monsters much more effectively (rotworms became a breeze, anybody out of the temple could kill multiple rotworms easily). This proceeded to larvae, and eventually with "lock-on" spells, made dragons a joke as well, for mages. You made it a priority for mages to power-game, and get levels quickly. Back when mages used war hammers, or the more prestigious fire sword to hunt and make runes, it was not about getting levels, but experience (Not multiple advances, but getting close to advancing).
Do not get me wrong 7.6 was very popular, and by far, players were happy with making the game a bit easier. But what you failed to do was keep knights & paladins up to pace...
B. Making up for Knights & Paladins - Tibia's Peak
The constant desire to power game (being a mage) changed the game entirely. Mages were quickly outleveling knights and paladins, and a rush to change vocations ensued from 7.6 -> 7.9
This all changed with Tibia 8.0 - The Knight & Paladin boost had came! Many (previous) mages became knights & paladins due to new spells such as exori gran & exori con. Because Tibia had evolved successfully, CIP still listening to their players, many people were fond of the 8.0 update of Summer '07. Tibia still had a base of players that were very well game-driven, they were skilled, intelligent, cunning, and made a great, personable community. The ONLY thing that Tibia had way over any MMORPG of its time. I would log on for hours just to chat with some of my buddies, it didn't matter whether I got 5 experience or 50,000 experience.
Bottom line, the game had become easy enough, this is when you ideally should have stopped making the game yet easier.
Some interesting statistics...
Maximum Players Online
2004 - 3 (*Premia)
2005 - 9
2006 - 6
2007 - 30 **
2008 - 1
2009 - 25
2010 - 3 (Fidera/Magera/Olympa)***
* = All premium account players. Is it safe to assume that the peak of premium players (players with high game drive, and pure intensity for the game as the highest in 2004? I'm not to say).
** = Tibia's peak record for every game world. Dates in 2007.
NOTICE: Most between June & November.
Please read the next part for my next important point.
*** = There are ZERO game worlds that hit their peak players this year, the three listed were created in 2010, so that hardly counts, if at all.
C. Game Drive - A thing of the past - Player intelligence declines.
As proven above, Tibia had its peak players around the Summer Update of 2007. (Tibia 8.0). Tibia hit its all-time peak of all worlds, and it also hit its peak in over 30 individual game worlds. For the end percentile of years (counting the upcoming 2011 year), 30 is nearly half of the servers within itself! 2007 had 30 servers peak, and 2008-2010 had 29 (26 excluding the 3 new worlds) whereas 2009 is the undisputed "runner-up" of most players online.
The above are all certain facts. Let me pose a question to you: You have a peak in 26 servers out of 74 (not including 3 newest), what percentage of growth does that give Tibia?
35% of the 74 servers grew within these 4 years. Respectively, saying 35% of servers grew, is that a good thing? Well, is a 35% on an exam a good score? If Tibia were an actively growing game (considering the players feel the game is expanding in a positive direction) would there be such little growth?
The answer to this sad reality is no. Only 35% of your servers have grown. This means that the other 65% has had less interest, more loss in players than gain, or ill results, which is a very poor score.
CIPSOFT!! Look at the facts, open your eyes!
I have laid the facts right here.
Continuing...
D. Attracting the wrong community
As mentioned, this goes hand-in-hand with game drive. A very good gamer, with high game drive, a great desire to be successful and show his skills, and a lot of intuition will look at Tibia, and see something for sure.
The wrong sorts of players are becoming successful at the game.
They are attracting younger players (that can't afford a premium account, more on that below), and players with less game drive. Notice: The peak of players in 2009 primarily consists of these "new generation" players, with no game drive (Most players still actively playing). Now - Here's a bit about myself:
I feel just as I stated play Tibia, I was in the "very young" age bracket. (Being 11 or 12 years old) - It was difficult! But I had a high game-drive and I pick up on things easily, it was difficult, but it was a very rewarding and fun experience. Now it takes very little of that game drive, and very little difficulty, doing anything feels useless since 7.4 or so. I even think introducing wands may have been taking it too far.
My premium account expired two months ago, I've had a premium account since 2005.
What kind of players are starting Tibia, you may ask?
Players that already have 10-20 friends from school playing Tibia. I can guarantee that 1% of the players that started from 2008 or later started playing by themselves and made it to where they are today without having a "team" or a "group of rls" to bring them where they're at. By dumbing down the game, you have completely taken the skill and intelligence out of it, you have also taken the community, strangled it by the throat, murdered it, and threw it to the public and told them that there is a new era about, an era of powergaming.
Not believing me? Drakens, (Razzachi is a great example), Frost Dragons (always been a huge one), Wyrms, Grim Reapers, all monsters that are used to power game effectively. If you want to make a monster with high attack power, low health, and great experience, STOP MAKING THEM NEUTRAL OR WEAK TO ENERGY DAMAGE OR PHYSICAL DAMAGE You're just ASKING these monsters to be UE'd or E-Granned. Thus, educing more, and more power gaming. Taking away from the community, the game-driven players, the roleplayers, and anybody independent. The players that succeed, are the ones that are protected in a guild, allowed to bot, yeah, I said it, their guild allows them to bot, and kills anybody that defies them, and players that have no skill, intelligence, cunning, or game drive.
On the same note, you'll say "report the player", that's easy to say, I've reported 3 players in my time. Yes, you may wonder why only three. I reported 3 players that were botting, not a single one of them got banned. Ever! I quit reporting them, because two of the three players killed me while I was filling out the report. Flawless system, CIPsoft!
II. Tibia - A Future with No Opportunities
The way the game stands now, there is no point in starting. Players that want a trial of the game, are kicked in the balls, players that want to have a voice, have to spend years finding their place, to mindless powergaming and risking getting carpel-tunnel.
A. Unofficial Software - This one is very elementary guys!
Why does a very good football athlete take sterioids? Because he has to, to keep up with all the other not-so-good athletes who are better than him because they take steroids...
A bit about myself, a confessing truth: I used to own a bot. I used to cavebot, runebot, the works. (I stopped after the automatic banishments) I never had a "farm" or a "magebomb" or anything crazy, just enough to get me by... Wait, what was that? To get me by? Why would I need to cheat just to get by?
I made my first account in 2003. I played it for about a year and a half, into 2006. I did my first sinful act, account sharing. I had died for the last time, I lost my fire sword (which was pretty valuable back then, probably only a handful or so on the server), and a friend promised to make it all better. My friend went on and hacked my character, and took my year's worth of work. My level 33 knight, never having premium account, and a lot of friends to support me, I lost it all. But I came back... Why? I felt the game still had opportunity to me. From that point on, bots started becoming popular, and I got my first premium account. I was officially with the "in" crowd, I had a bot, and botted a few levels, and was in the top 100 of the server. My friends were all doing it, too.
Sounds an awful lot like a middle schooler trying cigarettes for the first time. Scary, isn't it?
Players botted not only to defy CIPsoft, but it was a common thing. Players started needing it to get by.
Why did players start needing bots?
The game was dumbed down. (Ref. Part I) It had went from a social, intense, skillful game, to a game of who can bot the longest, not get caught, and get as high of a level as they can. This was still scarcely a problem. CIPsoft soon introduced "CIPbot" or "Hotkeys" which made AIMbots virtually useless. (Congratulations, you got rid of them... Perhaps there should have been a better way, though?)
CIP's counter-improvements to get rid of bots only made this game more user-friendly, and more dumbed down, furthering the initial problem. There needs to be regression.
B. Premium Accounts - Free Accounts... A trial of the game? Or a crippled introduction?
I've done little research on this one, because it should seem quite evident to most players.
Quickly, name the last update that gave something to free account players!
Too difficult? That's because it's been nearly five years since free accounts have received anything. In fact, compared to a premium account player, what do they really have? Here is a small composed list of free account spells, some players may not even realize how little it actually is:
exana pox
exevo con
exevo con flam
exevo con pox
utevo res ina
exevo vis lux
exevo vis hur
exiva
exevo flam hur
exevo pan
exevo gran
vis lux
utevo gran lux
exevo frigo hur
exura gran
utana vid
utevo lux
exura
utamo vita
utevo res exevo
tera hur
exura vita
Arguably, the best attack spell for a free account, exevo vis hur. Best Support Spell, Utamo Vita - Two great spells, right? Just consider the spells you use the most, though.
Exori [Vis/Mort/Frigo/Tera/Flam], Exori [Gran], Exevo Gran Mas Vis, Exani Tera, Utani [Gran] Hur, and numerous others.
If you had a poll Would you play as a Free Account? I would put my money on 90%+ would say Absolutely not!
My basic point, how are you to attract new players, if playing as a free account is so inhibiting? How can you expect them to keep up with the new "powergaming" pace of Tibia? You have two choices.
1. Change the pace of Tibia from "powergaming" back to the old community
2. Give Free Accounts more opportunity. (Ideally meaning less reason to buy a premium account)
In all, playing as a free account. Simply a waste of time! Why waste a lot of time playing a free account, if it doesn't even feel rewarding like it used to?
C. Taking away the things players like - Why doesn't this sound like a good idea?
Probably because it isn't. To make your game evolve, you must change it. You must update it. But a simple question, "Why change what the players enjoy?" It is incomprehensible nor does it make any sense to me.
Take PvP-Enforced worlds for example. Oh, sorry, you guys like the new name, "Hardcore" PvP. Which, in my honest opinion, is the weakest term of the word "Hardcore" I have ever heard in my entire life.
Reasons to play a PvP-Enforced World:
Experience from killing players
Looting items upon killing someone
Difficult, higher game driven players
Unique
Limitless assertion of power
Self-governing body
Here's a list of things that PvP-Enforced Worlds still have:
Self-governing body
And I guess, realistically, most of PvP worlds have that, too. Honestly? Nobody asked for blessings, nobody asked for AOLs, nobody asked for PvP-Enforced servers to become easier. It was all a decision by CIPsoft. I quit "Hardcore PvP" worlds once these updates came out. I saw no difference between Hardcore PvP and Open PvP. I proceeded to move my sorcerer from Dolera to Rubera.
Watching a few of Dolera's cams, I was still amazed at the amount of war that still ensued. I had a strange hunch about something, but it became a reality when I took note of a peculiar message in default in the middle of a cam:
"Hold on, Cabezon debugged"
I knew that my original hunch had been correct. The top guild of players (80% of the original guild, and 5% of the current guild, are players with a high game drive), that they were warring.. FOR FUN. Hardcore PvP? Really? They war daily, because they all have an abundance of time, levels, and money. They don't fight for real anymore, they fight on agreeable terms, and are warring for sport. That would be the equivalent of people murdering each other in real life for practice. Which also, doesn't seem right.
This isn't all about Hardcore PvP worlds, though. I've noticed numerous things that players are very disdainful about: Such as swapping positions (which you've finally half-fixed), snap-backs, and a few others. (CIPsoft has fixed perhaps .05% of them)
D. Hacking - What is done about hacking?
The literal equivalent. Nothing.
I got hacked on New Years Day, 2009. I had an account recovery key from the website given to me, and I used it to quickly recover my account before I lost any possessions, and you won't believe what happened.
The key didn't even work! I sent a prompt E-mail to Customer Support enraged that I had lost everything I spent years obtaining, and the E-mail I received back said "We will quickly investigate the issue of your recovery key."
Needless to say, I never received an E-mail back.
What do other gaming companies do when a player is reported to be hacked?
They check their database for the player, and first check if a large change in items has occurred. If so, they proceed to check the IP logs of the account, if more than one IP has logged into the account, they proceed to check if the password has been changed more than once in the same 48 or so hours. Lastly, they check the last time the player has claimed their account to have been hacked, if it is under one time within a certain time frame, they proceed to back up the hacked character to the state previous to the hacking. They may even charge money for this service. But the player is indeed much happier, and they are served efficiently. They also track the items that were lost with the IP of the account they were given to, and punishment for hacking ensues.
CIPsoft offers yet no personal service to their players who are hacked. "It's your fault for downloading content not authorized by CIPsoft" is their excuse. But that being said, do they expect every Tibia player to have a computer that they use solely for Tibia? It seems like a far-fetched request if you ask me. Sure, I'm going to download torrents, I'm going to download videos, programs, whether related any to Tibia or not, I should not have to constantly worry about my account being hacked. Perhaps later I'll write a bit more about how insecure the Tibia client is.
THE PROPOSAL
How can we fix all of this mess?
Part I
Make a month long poll, asking players, "Would it be better if everything in Tibia reset after an update?"
I guarantee you will get at least 50% of your votes saying yes (I can imagine 95% of older players saying yes). Of course, your current level 400s will be upset, but there is absolutely no room for game development for new players. If this does not happen, Tibia will completely die. The remaining high levels will quit due to a lack of players. Tibia has 1/3 of its peak on - An MMORPG should be constantly expanding.
Lastly, about this notion, you may be saying, "Well, 50% is half. That's not even majority." I'm going to use the example of the exam again. If you get a 50% on your exam, is that passing? If half your players aren't happy with what you're doing, maybe you're doing something wrong!
If you want to be successful, you should follow more of your players' interest, and not your own.
Part II
Take away the updates that hindered bots! (Hotkeys primarily), and many others that are slipping my mind due to the late hour.
You now have the anti-bot protection
You can regress to the way the game is supposed to be! You don't have to have these handicaps any longer! I'm not saying make a retro server, I'm saying, perhaps you should do away with what you created to compensate for the botters, because they're being taken care of the way they should have been taken care of in the first place!
Finally
(I will include more later, it's getting late)
A reset of accounts would punish all the previous botters, and players who have received unfair advantages in the past. Please don't be one-track minded and think solely about what you will lose. Think about it in respect for the life of the game itself. I would lose years of work, but I feel it's better than not being able to play a game I enjoy at all. Who here honestly enjoys the game more now than they did when they started? I beg, think of it in a way that benefits everybody, and not just yourself, for once. Give everybody a fresh start, and give CIPsoft an opportunity to change the game from the current (constant powergaming) back into the former game with a great community. Your old players are your unthinking majority!
Because I believe Tibia's community is what made this game live in my heart. The difficulty was at times frustrating, but at the same time, the players with personality, game drive, and intelligence, made it a very pleasurable and rewarding experience, in such a way that made Tibia completely unique from any other game of its kind.
This is what we're missing. I may be wasting my breath, but I want to know I left this game forever with a bang, and my ideas and thoughts poured out to the entire community, instead of become a shadow, like every other player who got lost in the new era.
With much love and former respect,
Dark Luckey
The Unthinking Majority
This being in the Tibia section, do you guys feel the same? Would you participate if they followed through with my proposal? [Obviously they will never, but for fun, I suppose]
Red
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