Re: (Nutaku) Milenium War Aigis (English Version)
The answer tothe last question is of course, no
I and likely others do not subscribe to the view that:
- The developer does not owe the players anything and so the players should adapt or leave.
The missing and critical part in our view, is this:
- While the developer does not owe the players anything, neither do the players owe the developer anything.
The latter part is critical. They want our money. Make us unhappy and they are not going to get them. This is the basis for any transaction in the world where someone tries to sell something and someone tries to buy it. The players do not have to prove anything, they are not the ones selling.
What makes it severe in Aigis is, that the players are in fact
not getting the product they think. It is called Millenium War Aigis, and what it is and should be is ample demonstrated by the original called the same, but that is
not what is on Nutaku.
The Nutaku version is a
strange second-hand content-warped hand-me-down lite version of what should be Aigis.
Players are asked to invest in a game, at a cost that is based on the full-scale Aigis, but it is not what they get. But having already invested time and money in it, they do the obvious, they seek redress and compensation for not getting the product expected and listed. And as this is being ignored, the confrontation ensues.
This in turn kills part of the games foundation as people fight, bleed out and leave or jump games or versions. Each rotation of the wheel making things just a bit worse, until even delivering the full product will no longer work, as there is no viable player base left to which to deliver it and have pay for it (death spiral)
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And this is a simple but fundamental point, even if one disagrees: if part of the player base goes out, especially the heavy-user paying one, then there will be no game left to disagree about. Either Nutaku Aigis starts selling what it says in the title, which is Millenium War Aigis and walk the path that made the orignal a success or it flares out, milking the market while dying a slow death.
The anniversary is important for the same reason, because in JP it is usually a big thing, and if they dont go big there, they probably never will. It is one of many breaking points where a part of the player base gives up getting the full product, ands stops or leaves. And as this has been the case for ages, the Anniversary is not just about itself, it is also about what comes after.
The anniversary itself not only needs to succeed, they need to stick to it afterwards, none of the "event -> break", no "funny jumps or missing content", they need to keep it up, because at this stage, the distrust is so ingrained that it will flare up in seconds, if they revert to old bad habits there is likely nothing they can say or do that will save the situation (only thing more effective than disappointment to break things, is to give people hope and then really let them down)
Or put simple, The anniversary is a test and a gateway, either it leads to an improved and
contineous improving future towards the
full aigis or continues in the old routine, bleeding players ... (this last scenario need not make it a failure, but it certainly makes it an underperformer to what it could be, and probably a biiiig underperformer compared to its potential).
