What REALLY drove players away?

[HratLi]

1st guild, What drove my real life friends away:

1. Lag and bugs.
2. Awe inspiring slowness of fixing those bugs.
3. Incomplete implementation of tiers 2 and 3.
4. Inconsistant implementation of bug fixes and new 'events'.

Hit one month, miss one or two... hit another, kinda.... outstanding bugs that were SUPPOSED to be fixed... etc...

Many of us were developers and it bugged the heck out of us ( and STILL bugs the heck out of me ) when there would be a patch, and notes would be incomplete, missing, incorrect, and there would appear to be NO QA or version control. Same bugs kept appearing and dissapearing.

----

2nd guild, others left because there were many months in a row of no event... they hit as high a level as they wanted, and had nothing else to work on. No new exploration, nothing to hunt for, and nothing to work on, they slowly left quietly.

---

Things that will drive ME away. Keep in mind I've been through this game since the end of beta and been here through thick and thin.

- If winter hits and they havn't fixed the current blight patch and pushed it to live. Shows they don't have the resources or the ability to keep development on the game and without that hope, I will go.

- In the SHORTER term, if they don't addresss the questions about the billing to my satisfaction, then I will NOT give them my billing info. I DID try on the 1st. After noticing it was a standard HTTP form, and that the datafile was not properly CHMODed I didn't fill it out. I sent a note. FWIW, I DIDN'T see CC info, just contact info. This was a MISTAKE, I am not reading anything more or less from that. But what I have concerns about is that they have not (even 3 days later) come forward with an OFFICIAL statement one way or another about the mistake, or to do damage control. IRC does NOT count, nor does popping into MP for a few words. I'm talking Login Page or Forums.

- If the forums go away and are not replaced, that will be a big strike against them. I don't think they consider communications en masse an important thing. I have no doubt about their enthusiasm, as they have more than exposed themselves to IMs, In game chats, PHONE CALLS, and emails. But they are not handling the 'public' in general very well.

*I* suspect that come the end of whatever billing period for the server hostings comes and goes, and becomes deliquent, that the boards will go POOF. The old owners didn't pull the plug, but I don't think they will keep footing the bills either.

My 2c.

I don't want to go, but if they don't iron things out, there really isn't much choice.

-HratLi

[Tigris]

/agree HratLi

I sure as hell don't want to leave, but I won't compromise my personal security in RL for the sake of a game, no matter how much I enjoy that game.

[Snowdonia Honeythorn]

Menkure,

Her name was Cosi. And man was I glad when she left even if I didn't spend most of my time on Order.

[Menkure]

Menkure,

Her name was Cosi. And man was I glad when she left even if I didn't spend most of my time on Order.

Snowdonia fer teh win!!!

Congrats!

-Menkure

[Theolaerynn]

More thoughts.

My memory of the "miracle build" is the same as Goriax's.

It did not cause players to leave specifically, but I think Hz was the target/victim of a negative viral marketing campaign; and Hz' failure to respond strongly may well have prevented potential players from trying it, and pre-conditioned those who did to be more negative.

It's worth remembering too that the first few months had events that had been pre-developed; the satyr tunnels, the freeing of Feladan, and the cleansing of the satyr islands. They were great, and offset the lag problems. Perhaps that's why it was the craft issues that pushed so many out relative to advs. In any event, the great events that characterized early Horizons ended.

I remember something a little more in the middle. David certainly did not use the Miracle Build term anywhere I saw, nor did he ever say all our woe's would go away. At least not that I recall.

He very much did tout the build that would hit right as we went live as going to fix so many things, including many aspects of performance, that he might as well have coined the term himself though. It wasn't a fix-all build by any means, but it was very clear that it would not do all the things he said it would either.

Also, the first few months of lag drove away almost everyone I know that played. The game events only offset the lag for the few of us die-hards that remained, some of whom remain still. It is definitely a perspective thing. Most of my friends still joke about the 'dance' that preceded the instant flury of combat. Hell, /GU has a comic about it somewhere.

And as your post points out, much of the rest of it was a comedy of errors that none of us were laughing about.

Can you imagine how things might have turned out if there was coherant development, and the money to drive it? It really is a decent start on a great game, and has the potential to be long term. It just needs someone with the money and savy to show it some TLC.

[Nosdracir]

I will probably leave due to boredom. I used to enjoy the Zen of Crafting, but lately it has become a dull clickfest. Hunting was never my forte, but I managed to multiclass up to the 100/80/80/+ range, yet it feels so purposeless now. A comp, a piece of hoard for my draggy, and the odd form for loot now and then. Meh. It's all turned into "Go to X, Kill Y, repeat until you level". I've explored all of Istaria that a biped can reach.

There are no big community building projects to hold my interest. There's not enough loot to make hunting interesting for me. There's no reason to gather money from hunting or crafting because there's nothing I need to buy. There isn't even any Withered Aegis to fight back from taking over our land.

I'm paid up until Jan 2007, so I'll stop by now and then, but unless there are some changes I'll end up leaving due to lack of interest.

(No, I'll just give random newbies my stuff.)

[Kerech]

Maybe DB never used the term "miracle build" but he sure as heck promised that a huge patch was coming at release time which would address a lot of players' concerns.

Those concerns were mainly: lag, client performance, lack of content. We players were promised that all those would be addressed at or shortly after release. They were not. Whether or not DB actually said "miracle build" is irrelevant. He was promising a miracle build

[Vandellia]

here is my list of what i know that made a lot of people leave

1. No middle game -very little content from 40 to 80 for the majority of players
2. Total lack-ie stasis- for 4+ months nothing at all happened no major patches/fixes
3. lack of understanding fo the old equation of cost/risk/time/effort versus percieved benefit
4. Intermittant plot permission slippage
5. lack of attention to minor details things like formulas having wrong skills to scribe/make huge gaps in formulas many are still missing
6. lack of active WM's in game on a regular basis

[Mirsathia]

Lag, Lag, Lag.


Lag with critters appearing, critters disappearing and reappearing randomly, lag with vaults and silos. Horrible FPS when comparable games run smoothly on my same system. It's all utterly mind-boggling because even games like Anarchy Online with MORE players, half of them playing for FREE, runs worlds better than the Hz server does with barely 100 players on.

I come back, after 6 months on hiatus, and find that the above is actually moderately worse now.

Comp hunting is even worse than it was previously, and someone tweaked up Nadia's prices again to utterly new levels of insanity. 221 silver for one icy dire wolf fang? Give me a break.

It's so frustrating - and a waste of money, since I've been paying to not play these past 6 months so I could keep my ******** lair - I'm on the edge of just finally giving up totally and just... going. I've been here also since release, but it's just.. ugh.


~Mirsathia

[Crazyfingers]

The WA drove'm away! The battle was just too intense for the average folk.

doh, nope that was the one thing that definitely didnt drive anyone away.

NimK

[babyfly]

why i made a break is, i saled my plot because after i finished mobs where add. between the even smale distance between my plot and the City ( aggresive mobs ) so the time walking with the disk became endless. However i bought me a new and even bigger one. Now where i close to finish the new building nobody knows what goes to happend to Unity.
Who wants to cont. building and pay for it without to know that point. You see not even adventsments during the put in of material ( a reason i thing why many plots are unfinished as well ).

like allready writen above bugs remain in comeing back its a shame and nerving.
sometimes entering citys enshures lags even if no one els is in ???
New comers are that weak vs quest, as i started 2y. ago there, was no LV 12 mage patrol at LV 3-5 Mobsearia, i would resignat there us well.
So no new player - no new buissnis.
As I started, i crafted for the consi as well, now Craftingleveling means only craft with deconstract .
Suportcases are open since Feb. last year or closed without one responding note.

Even the best idea is only half of it, if just half of it works out correctly.
Where are human and we unabel to doe all 100 %.

But its not that you can feel, see or hear that they try to learn from the past.

>> Biosfear is a game with realy less feates but 400 players ( at Germany server), what i thing it has to doe with suport in lower the 24h time. <<

>> A Tale at the desert, is only crafting ( so not a tast for everybody ) you have only one chart is more expensive reashutteling almost anual, more player as well, they have GM's at the game you can call, so if its youre turn they open a chanel and respont directly. <<
And by all those its never a cry in the dark, or promisses like a castel of smoke goen with the next blow of wind.

"by the loality of the People left at this game, i would say, they would rater hear no promisses at all, then all those fals dreams. "

"Tell what goes to hapend with Unity, that i may come back not paying in the Aer. "

[MadDwarf]

I started playing horizons because

1) it promised to be the crafting game I was looking for
2) had a purpose behind its story line ( turned out not to have a story line or the never happened Dynamic war )

I left because

The people running the game proved to have less than adequate morals for my tastes. EI with their new billing system is proving only to be slightly improved upon Tulga.

The biggest factors was Client performance followed very closely by no content no story no nothing in game to keep me interested ( still the same to this day ). This then made the fact that the game was and still is one big massive grind.

What fun is there in hauling resources around to build a plot that really serves no purpose ? Does nothing to affect the game nor better the empire ? How does this cause a problem to an enemy that does not exist and probably never will ? Why would I grind adventurer levels to 100 and it is a grind indeed when it doesn't really matter ? What's in the game to make my character a part of the world ? What epic journey is there really ? There was NO point to the grind. That along with client performance issues which are still very present are why I have quit this game now 2 times probably never to return.

Why you say ? There are games now that offer a purpose and crafting systems that are just as good as Horizons. Dragons and building just aren't good enough to draw me back nor draw a lot of people back. EQ2 now offers an environment just as good as Horizons for crafting along with the content and journey feeling that any fan of an enjoyable MMO wants these days. Games coming up that will build upon this is warhammer and Vanguard. How is horizons going to compete enough with them to keep a viable playerbase intact ? WoW ? this game is no longer a factor and really was not the true reason why this game's playerbase left. People wanted something new and Horizons had nothing in it to keep them playing.

I feel that EI really hasen't committed to developing this game any further. They might be under the very misguided belief that what they did with Savage Eden is going to work with horizons. That just plastering the servers with live events is the key to turning the game around. What they do not seem to comprehende that the games underlying infrastructure is inherently broken and its something tulga was working on. Without those much needed fixes the servers probably will not be able to handle an events chain akin to what they did with Savage Eden. No definitely Horizons is a much different beast than that little game ever was. Fact is time is running out to draw people back and make this anything other than a game like SE. It has had no major upgrades to its clients and its just falling to far behind its competition. Its a sad chapter to the Horizons saga the game that could have been but fell very short.

Lets hope that the game continues on as a small niche game for those that still enjoy what it has to offer. But I fear its days of development are over. Of course EI can prove us all wrong ....

[HappyFunBall]

MadDwarf: Great post dude.

You raise a great point.

Currently, I'm bored as hell. I raise levels only for the sake of raising them. There's really no point to it. Absolutely none.

All my dragon quests are: Go kill X of Y and come back. Zzzz. There's no point in grouping, as there's no gain, need, or point to it. To me, soloing at least provides a partial challenge against mobs, but gets boring and lonely, fast. I can't even stand playing my ped as he's been about 10x the grind/work as my dragon, without any future of gaining some cool ability like "flying", etc.

Crafting is as boring as staring at the algae growth in my pool. No, correction, the algae growth is more exciting. Whomever came up with the cargo-disk travel speed penalties should be SHOT, then doused with gasoline and set aflame, and shot a few more times. How any of you can "travel" more then 20 seconds at speeds of 10-20 *astound* me.

My wife, who doesn't play games, saw me dragging a disk and said "what's wrong with your game, why is it so slow?". I said "nothing, that's the speed penalty for using a cargo disk". She shook her head and said "how can you even play like that?". I said "I've been asking myself the same question".

Anyway, I become stronger, and for what? I've killed hundreds of monsters by now, mainly for dragon quests. Most of the loot I get? Snowballs. Wow, that's brilliant. Now I have 40,000 snowballs. I win!

Also, the person who decided to raise the comp prices on Nadia (I so want to say "Narnia" - go look up "lazy sunday" on the net - too funny) should also be shot and set aflame.

So depressed. There really is a lot to Hz I love. But, with all the games technical problems, and now with EI (and their so far negative benefit to the game), the future of the game looks terribly bleak.

[BKBanzai]

Performance, nerfs, lack of good loot, grind.