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« on: October 04, 2011, 03:42:42 PM »
Yes this is ranting. Doesn't mean it's uninformed and just flaming. I'm not usually one to do this kind of stuff but someone needs to say it.
Fact: This game is barely active holding on to the unfortunate few pub newbies who have been playing for a while.
There's rarely more than 20 people online at once, all of which are in 'syncmaster's' cable.
IRC channels have RARELY 10 people idling them, matches flat out no longer occur and the entire 'serious' community has disappeared.
So what's the problem exactly? It's not as simple as Jitspoe not supporting the game. If it was I'm sure he would have changed that; to say he doesn't care about this game is ignorant. It's not that new players feel overwhelmed by veterans. Go into any pub and you'll be surprised to find a single veteran excrement-talking and dominating the scoreboard. At this point the game is incredibly approachable to new players. The problem is a mix of a few things which I will address now in the main body of this post.
DPLogin: I've said I don't support this system before but let me articulate my opinion more fully so my point gets across. It is impossible to create an account in game. That ALONE is enough inaccessibility to warrant uninstalling the game. Any game should be as simple as installing and clicking play to begin playing. Back in the b14 days that's all it was and I strongly believe that's what it should be. Multi-clanning is seriously not a problem. If a clan doesn't want multiclanners in them then don't let them in. If a player wants to multi-clan then all that means is the possibility for twice as much activity. I'm not completely sure why dplogin was enforced other than to better enforce banning (I'll address this in point 2) and limit a players fluidity through clanning. The easy solution is just to get rid of it, the more satisfying one would probably be to adjust it in-game and allow for more accessibility.
Banning: For starters unban everyone. I'm not being extravagant, I simply see the current ban system as inefficient and detrimental to the game. Instead of having an entire committee as well as Jitspoe banning people for having more than one account (...) place the burden of banning to the server. Before dplogin was in place I believe this is how it was done. If someone is hacking in a match environment it is pretty guaranteed the perpetrator would be server banned. The community is enough anti-hacking to enforce this. The fact that 90% of the once-active matching community is presently banned is a glaringly obvious reason for the lack of a matching scene. The matching scene (I'm sure the matching community would agree to me here) is infinitely more fun than pubbing and without which leaves this game unappealing for veterans.
Clean up the game: I don't just mean to say Jitspoe should get work done and fix it up. I strongly believe the game should have a group of people working on it, or at least helping out along the way. Things like a global hr4 pack and more attractive UI (which BoNo has already done the grace of creating, I might add) would make this game much more approachable for newcomers as well as reward those who have stayed around for a long time. This isn't even that much of a 'thing that needs to be changed' as it is something that fundamentally exists in any successful lasting game.
I love this game. Honestly. I've played for 7 years now and it's great fun. What I'd love to see even more is for it to be restored to it's former glory. Sure the game is dated more so than it was 7 years ago but anyone here can tell you it doesn't even remotely change the experience digital paintball gives for some strange reason.
Here's hoping
-Stronger