AdventureQuest Worlds: “The game has been growing at an insane rate”
Posted by The Peanut Master on December 11, 2008
But is that a good thing?
Short answer: Not in the least.
Long answer: Coming right up, with explanations from myself (The Peanut Master), Chickencowlord, and Alabama Pitty. First, my explanation:
The quote, which was derived from this week’s newsletter, proves the now-undeniable point that AQWorlds is growing and expanding at a truly insane rate. Now, at first glance that sounds great, and especially considering that it’s true only makes it seem better.
And all would be good, except that it isn’t. While growth in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, exceeded growth, unprepared growth, hasty growth, and unneeded growth is. And those are all qualities of many of AQWorld’s “growth” releases. In fact, I would argue faithfully that AE started mowing ahead further than they should have back during the beginning of the Alpha releases. Yes, at the very beginning of AQWorld’s life AE was already pushing the game further than they should have.
Maybe AE realizes it, maybe they don’t, maybe they do but think moving ahead is the only way to maintain a respectable player base, maybe not. Honestly though, I don’t think AE realizes how different making an MMORPG is from making an RPG. There are so many more aspects of an MMORPG’s core features that need to be planned out very well from the start so that they do not become issues in the future. Some of these include core MMORPG features such as friends list, parties/guilds, instances, trading, and a main storyline (of which none of those AE has currently implemented, while going on a zone-releasing rampage). Also, many aspects of the armor/weapon balancing, leveling/ranking system, and enemy scaling/AI system need some key tweaking to avoid becoming huge problems.
Instead of releasing holiday events, new zones that have no relevance to anything except the zone itself, and tons and tons of weapons and armors that only serve to bloat up the list with no new features or relevance whatsoever, AE *should be focusing on the above-mentioned features, and for at least the first year, should be *constantly* going back and making sure everything is in tip-top shape. One of AE’s largest flaws is its inability to go back and fix things and its inability to not move forward at an egregious pace, and while the effects of this on AQWorlds may not become evident just yet, eventually it will and it will become a huge problem (so huge that I am unsure AE will be able to ever solve it, which is why I have not upgraded yet).
I will end my part with this analogy: What happens when you build a poor foundation for a building and then immediately start building up, up, and up some more. The building eventually comes crashing down. That may very well be what happens to AQWorlds unless AE somehow changes their set-in-stone ways, and as sad as it makes me to say it, I don’t see that happening. Ever.
Now, Chickencowlord’s take on the matter:
This would be really great were AQW AE’s only game, but it isn’t. I, for one, am very upset that AQW has all of the features and even a few extra ones that DF has after about a month of being live. Already we can preview helms and do many other things that DF has only recently gotten or has yet to get.
On top of all this, AE rushing to release these core features can only mean bugs. Already they had to fix item previews after some items were practically invisible.
Also, because of armor saving, this game has a very important feature that DF and MQ have only for paid players. this could mean that free players of MQ and DF will use this as a base of complaining. And with AQW’s high pricing for features, it can use all of the extra features it can get.
There is also the matter of weapons. Along with nearly every release, new weapons are tagged along with it. Why is this so bad? The library of weapons is now so large and it is ruined by the fact that every weapon has the same average damage! AE really should have made weapons have truly different damage before they added so many.
And finally, Alabama Pitty’s response:
You have my agreement guys. AQW, while not yet taking the place, or robbing the other games of added content, is certainly on the fast track to doing it. The one thing I can see helping in the future, is the ability to add in data from the other AE games. No longer will people only play AQW, but they will be more inclined to play, and maybe upgrade, in the other games. AQW is growing, and very fast, but maybe it won’t be in a negative direction. We can only hope.
This was a pretty deep post with deep thoughts from all of us, and we would love to hear your answer to this debatable question in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
Chickencowlord said
Wow, this is the first post we have all worked on.
alabamapitty said
Collaborating is a great thing. I actually found it as a draft and slapped my stuff in there. Thankfully, Peanut found it in time.
simidorl said
Yes, sadly i have to agree. why don’t they just lay off new releases for a month to add new features? they could even go offline for a while, if that would help them make the game better.
TW25 said
I agree with this post. The main problem this game has is the browser crashing. The game crashes for some players for seemingly no reason and they are having a very difficult time fixing it. Already people have paid for memberships to a game they can’t play or can only play for a certain amount of time.
This is a major issue and I know they are having a hard time fixing it, but it really should be their primary focus. Because what is the point of adding new content to a game you can’t play?
sinani201 said
Y’know what AE should do? THEY SHOULD FRIGGIN’ TAKE AQ OFFLINE!! No one gives a **** about the game. I don’t think that they should absolutely take it off, because of everyone who used the paid features, but taking it offline would be great, and it would also mean another server for AQWorlds, which could be used to maintain the insane amount of players, which is why the stuff I said above relates to the post you made.
Basically, I agree. AQW dooesn’t have a storyline, PvP, or different weapons.
However, Peanut said that they didn’t have key elements, such as friend lists, parties, etc., but that’s probably because it’s a new game. Only time will tell these things, but they’re so used to making non-mmos that they’re not sure how to implement these new features that they aren’t familiar with.
The Peanut Master said
I am confident that AE will add the features that I mentioned in my section of the post, and a Friends List is definitely on the way soon. However, I do have an issue with AE releasing all these new zones, holiday events, and tons of weapons before these key features. All these new things aren’t needed; those core features *are*.
Chickencowmancer said
Peanut, a holiday event is not needed, but it is certainly expected.
Players would surely complain. Those these other zones I would have sacrificed for some of those features you mentioned.
The Peanut Master said
That’s true, although consider that if AE did decide to do the right thing and halt future development to clear up loose ends and add in key features, people would be complaining regardless.
adam said
think of how many planets there would be on mq if it had the same amount of releases of aqw. without friends and guilds aqw isnt a proper mmo
ZamuelNow said
I think AE tends to mis-prioritize and can be mildly disorganized. Sometimes this results in a random release with a unique feature or a funny plot (like he Scooby Doo parody quest in DF) but it often stifles the games from their full potential and blocks the progression of more vital features.
StJason said
And it is this random (often quite obviously quickly put together) release schedule that really shows the lie about the ‘no suggestions, as we have a plan’ line they’ve been forcing on us for a long time. They quite often do apparently take ideas they picked up, work on it, and then throw it out there. While there might be a bigger framework that they are working on, it seems pretty obvious that they work on what seems amusing at the time.
To be fair, they have been much more open to suggestions and requests in AQW then they have been for other games in the past.
Death Dragonslayer said
there should be a trading system ASAP because i want the hardest thing to get that another player has
St. Jason said
Bah. The more I hear about a trading system, the more I dislike it. I’m hoping they spend the next couple of months just squashing bugs. And maybe a trade system in a couple of years.