Had just been seeing so much negativity and SMITE / HR bashing...in Reddit, but we're seeing it here too, with comments and blogs and whatnot. So I thought I'd write something. I get more views on Reddit, but Boog asked for it here.
Hi everyone,
If you know me at all, it's likely for my Overarching Conquest Guide. I'm mostly a lurker on r/SMITE.
There just seems to be a lot of negative talk and generalized bashing of Hi-Rez and SMITE lately, and thought I'd put in my thoughts. Although these things have been said before, a reminder of maintaining perspective can be helpful. TL;DR for some (most maybe), but for others, I appreciate your attention and time.
SMITE Dying
Online games go through fluctuations, right? There are old games that retain a solid player base, but new games always threaten to pull people away. Movement and change is expected.
Steam Charts tells a reasonable story. Definitely on a slight downtrend as of the last couple of months, but with the continued rise of games like Fortnite (and how many other Battle Royale type games being announced at E3 this week?!?), I'm not surprised. Keep in mind, SMITE as a community also includes console players, which are not expressed here. Neither are those that use the HR Launcher instead of loading through Steam.
Players come and go. Sometimes they also come back, and we see this on r/SMITE with daily posts. Saying the game is dying is old and tired, and does nothing constructive in and of itself. C'mon people, let's spend our energy on talking about something more effective.
Exclusive / Limited Skins
Keep in mind that in its base form, SMITE is 100% Free-To-Play. For $30 (or less during sales), you can buy the God Pack to unlock all existing and upcoming gods.
I personally unlocked 80+ gods just through playtime and favor before buying the God Pack.
Do I like the various skins? Absolutely. Can they, in some ways, make the game more fun? Sure. But the great thing is, the skins don't change gameplay at all. You are not forced to buy ANYTHING that makes you a more effective player. No dollar-bought weapons to make you OP or anything close to that.
I understand wanting the option to give HR your money for a skin, rather than roll on a loot box. You have legitimate gripes there. But don't lose sight that the skin is not needed in the first place. Complaining about skins is seriously a first world problem.
HR doesn't listen to the player base (or HR doesn't know WTF they're doing)
The first, to me, is utter BS. Just because they make a change and you don't like it/agree with it...well...no matter how much you may think the world revolves around you...lol.
In most of the recent patches, we've been seeing some lower-tier gods buffed, higher tier gods nerfed, items buffed when they're used very little, etc. We've asked for better balance, and this is ALWAYS going to be a work-in-progress. I say they're doing okay. Could they do better? Sure. But so could you.
What else? How about the new Conquest map? Jungle fog? Improved graphic textures, DX11 support, and more? What about the fact that we generally love how St3alth has become one of the voices of HR, and directly responds to us? (And others like Ajax and Tina and PonPon and all the others throughout the years)
Now the second part...as has been discussed, sure, some of the HR staff's skill levels aren't near that of the competitive scene. And sure, that can also lead to wonky decisions on balance (or new god creation, or whatever).
But to generalize that it's what leads to a bad product? From my perspective, they're taking plenty of feedback from everyone, pros and casuals alike. You can't expect that every decision made is going to be something you agree with.
You don't like it, fine. But you can always adapt. Change your playstyle, practice to get better with different gods, learn how to counter the current meta (as well as possible) with your preferred B-Tier god. There CAN be plenty of fun in viewing that as a challenge. It's all about attitude.
Or you can just follow the cut-and-paste reactions of the Millennials or Gen Z, and complain about everything that doesn't go your way. (No offense to those in these generations that aren't part of this.)
Just like we complain about trolls, and toxicity, and whatever else, the best way to offer improvement of the game and community is to remain positive, be a good example, and make the best of whatever situations we experience.
In the meantime, I'm still going to be enjoying SMITE. Thank you, HR, for letting me play this game essentially for free for 4 years. $30 bucks for over 1k playtime isn't bad, when in perspective, I sometimes go to the movies, pay $15 for 2 hours and think the movie was "okay."
And thank you to the positive members of the community who remain helpful and earnest. You are all appreciated.
Skins are a essential part to keep smite alive, but you can't deny HR is focusing too much and they cost too much, don't worth the price (This event, I spent 450 in two skins and one I was forced to pick because I didn't want it, but it's a loot box).
While I can't win a single match in Ranked because my team is always stupid due the bad matchmaking, and my game keep crashing without any reason, they are releasing
the krakenskins. They are correcting the bugs, yes they are, but they are too slow.And for last but not least, HR does not listen the community. Yes and no. They should listen the community but not at all. DICE listened to community on Battlefield 4 and simply destroyed the game. It was much better than today. There are good things on the community such as direct buy skins but there are also bad things. They should listen something but not everything.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198118531941/recommended/386360/
Are they making good decisions on HOW to make that money? No, I wholeheartedly agree on that. Are they making good decisions on how to provide a better product overall? Also, no.
I've talked in the past about what I feel they really should do. Most of it is slowing down the patches, to more specifically concentrate on cleaning up all the bugs. I'm glad they finally fixed mouse wheel scrolling. But the crashes, the random issues with not being able to buy, or choose a god which gives you a 30 min deserter, etc....those need to go.
They definitely need to revise their approach to selling skins. Loot boxes should be the first to go. If we're spending our money, it shouldn't be rolling the dice. Let us buy what we want, without the chance of getting a random ward skin.
They're still working on matchmaking. I have hopes there, but we'll see how it goes once it's implemented.
Also, drop some of the limited and exclusive skins to regular purchase. There are too many of those. Appease the people that purchased thinking they needed to purchase because they never would have the chance to again by giving them a 20-25% gem refund on those specific skins. HR doesn't technically lose money by giving back some gems...they just don't gain any more...but boy would that really garner some goodwill toward the player base.
Hmmm...maybe I should make another Reddit post. XD
"Are they making good decisions on HOW to make that money? No, I wholeheartedly agree on that. Are they making good decisions on how to provide a better product overall? Also, no." This was a much better way of phrasing it xD