First of all and before starting i want to clarify some points.
1 - I do this because I believe that all this has come to a point where the accumulated errors are so large that they have put the game in a position of no return and i want to help somehow.
2 - This thread is intended to be constructive
3 - I'm human just like all of you, complaints are welcome, but do not come here to talk nonsense.
4 - If you are a funny person with "intelligent answers" refrain from commenting here.
5 - I dont want to achieve anything, I'm just stating my opinion.
6 - All of the old school players of Lineage 2 will understand better this.
7 - If you're currently happy with how everything is going on here dont read this.
When one talks about the subject that I am about to speak, sensitivity explodes. I do not want that to happen here because what I'm about to write is not personal. I do not want anyone to see my speech disingenuous. I will not give names, I will not mention places and im not going to give indirect hints actually indirects for me are something of a very bad taste. What im about to write are facts that allude all of us, and are of the nature of NCWest players. So what you are about to read is something between you and your conscience.
Lineage 2 The game as it is being presented and treated here by NCWest has reached a breaking point. Let's face it, if you keep playing today here is whether because of friendship, desire to win, too lazy to change to another server / game, nostalgia or naive. The organization of Lineage 2 presented by NCWest to its players have failed harshly. Who does not remember the old days when Lineage 2 was none other MMO but the most dynamic, incredible, better suited to players of that time MMO? NCWest has not changed much the way they run the business, but only at the time it was submitted by Korea to the world was something in which anyone in the world could play and feel comfortable diving into the virtual world of Lineage 2. In other words the fact that NCWest succeed was because of a better DEV team yes of course, but also was luck. They had hit the target without realizing.
The game kept going and acquiring more and more details, details that Koreans seemed to them great or maybe not, but definitely not adapted to Western details. Do not misunderstand, some were good ideas but other, the majority no. Currently the problems have reached a point where we do not know what will happen in the next update, we do not know if the game will improve or it will be worse. And apart from that, there is NCWest here and its low degree of attention to their player base.
If today you stop for a while and think a little what are you capable of doing, would you be able to believe of we getting an agreement with PlayNC to adapt the game to the wishes of Western players? The true wishes of the players?
Would you be able to believe we might apply to play previous chronicles and we could?
Would you be able to believe we could request better defense systems against illegal players.
Would you be able to believe we could have active GMs ingame constantly monitoring the servers to check that all is well and serve players?
Would you be able to believe ?
One thing is certain, one lonely person cannot never achieve anything but together, together we can have it all as it's always have been in the history of mankind.
Finally a question, you play the game that the company wants you to play or you play the game you want?. Maybe we play the game that koreans want to play and its the end of discussion.
Same as it ever was... Same complaints... Same bots... Same players exploiting... Same great game despite all that disparage it... Same sorts of bad players… Same group of good friends… Same as it ever was.
Welcome to the reality of MMOs and for the past decade the best game in this genre remains Lineage][.
As a long time player I understand your feelings towards the game, but I also understand that Lineage 2 is more or less doomed. And NCSoft understands that too. The L2 engine is ancient and can't adapt to modern player needs. That's why NCSoft isn't betting anything on L2 anymore. They put their money in newer games, with more possibilities.
First time I really noticed that L2 was going to die out was when they transferred all their experienced staff to Aion when it was first released. Since then we got a ragtag of unexperienced Community Managers, but never again in game GM's
The problems were always there, but not as much as they are now and they will never get better, as it would simply be too big of an investment for NCSoft into a game that has no future. I know a lot of people don't want to see this, and some of them even believe that if NCSoft would actually have stepped it up a notch and eradicated the bot problem, and the ever present game glitches and bugs, that L2 would have lived forever.
But that's never how it goes in the game industry. Games never live forever. And especially for a big company like NCSoft, that's producing MMO games at an incredible rate, ever modernising their engines and gameplay, and thus making managing said games easier for themselves, they want as much players as possible in that new better system.
As for me, I quit 3 years ago (after playing for 3 years) because I felt that the game wasn't worth paying for anymore. Not even with all the friends I had in game. But now that it's free, I feel like it's worth some of my time again, just not my money :p
I have no dreams of it ever becoming better. One of the reasons being that NCSoft realises that they have a permanent downwards spiral going on here. And because the income from this game is too low (the signs are everywhere) they will never invest in this game.
So no....NCWest will never adapt the game to the western players' wishes, as they don't have the money of the personnel for it.
And to be honest...those 2 are the exact reasons why I'd have to answer all your questions with a very confident 'no'
Except for your last question. I actually do play the game that I want, not the game that NCWest wants me to play. I play at my own pace. I don't buy NCoin (mostly because I think the prices in the L2Store are rediculous and the items are useless, like the fancy hats that I like, but can't put pendants in. But also because, as I stated earlier, I don't think this game really deserves my money anymore) I don't care about competing in the top clans/pvp and thus I don't care about prices for ++gear or the rest of the screwed up economy. And as long as I can play this game at my own pace, do the stuff I enjoy, with the people I enjoy doing stuff with, I'm happy to spend a bit of my time on this game. And when the server finally gets shut down (in about 1-2 years I reckon) I won't feel sad. I will go on looking for another MMO to enjoy for another couple of years. No game lives forever, but I sure hope there will one day be another game like L2, with it's unique challenges.
I really think the only way to enjoy this game for the remainder of the time is to just stop caring about all that's wrong with this game and start seeing what's good. Lots of good people in this game, and lots of fun stuff to do. And if people don't like the way you play this game, they're not really worth your time, are they?
No, I wouldn't believe. NCwest has come under new management multiple times over the last decade, but the result is always the same. NCwest either has no real power to manage the servers, or they simply have no incentive to.
At this point we're all waiting for the next non-faction open-PvP MMO.
No we're all waiting for a new installment of Lineage that's all. Sadly all the time and money I've sunk into it will be gone,but I had a lot of great times too. I hope the next Lineage will bring that back.
One of the last things Sace said before leaving was that they will never bring back older chronicles.
Stop asking for official to be like some crap priv server, it wont ever be.
"Never" is a word we should use very carefully.
And NCsoft is managing L2 worst, or in the same way, than the owners of pirate servers:
- selling stuff for money ("donation").
- no more a true x1 rate.
- a very unprofissional aproach to the game and needs of most players.
And NCsoft is managing L2 worst, or in the same way, than the owners of pirate servers:
- selling stuff for money ("donation").
- no more a true x1 rate.
- a very unprofissional aproach to the game and needs of most players.
I will never use the word never inappropriately...