Posted by shoe3 on 5/31/2016 9:39:00 PM (view original):
Yeah, the real problem is that negativity proliferates. Negative thoughts and feelings stick with you, and start to become perpetuating and self-justifying. Lots of people are open to, and even like these changes as presented in beta. The ones who hate it are going to be the loudest, and it's going to be an echo chamber. The game is going to be fine. Some will leave, but lots of people leave now.
This is exactly the perpetual argument that I responded to a few hours ago. I guess you either didn't read it or just don't care to respond.
The reality is, there is a critical mass for this game to be fun, at least for most of us. Some people like playing video games against the computer on easy, but most of the people playing HD do it for the competition. You've probably noticed some of the more veteran coaches complaining about the lack of users literally since you've been signed up on this site. Some remember how much more fun/competitive HD really was when worlds were full. Now they're what, about 1/3 full? At best?
That critical mass is still comfortably below where we are now, but it's not a
huge margin. The last major update cost well over 50% of the user base within the first 6 months. This is not as big of an update, but it represents a substantial change in the most important aspect of the game, so it's a big adjustment. A lot of people don't like it. A lot of people didn't like it before they ever saw it. I'm not saying that was the right way to look at it, I'm saying it was a relatively common perspective. A lot of veteran users are rather disenchanted with seble's handling of game changes, rightly or not. And a lot of these unhappy, disgruntled, disenchanted users are going to leave when the update rolls out. Others will cut back on their numbers of teams.
I'm not convinced the game can take another hit like that and stay above the aforementioned critical mass. Like I said earlier, even if this change works out great, better than hoped for by the optimists, the game can still crash and burn if we drop down to the point where every human coach can easily make the NT every year at every level. More coaches leave because the competition is gone, profits go away, maybe Fox pulls the plug. Ultimately, the point I can't get past is that anything in the same ballpark as the exodus we saw after the release of potential will virtually unavoidably end HD. Doesn't matter how good the update is. You can tell people to be optimistic or leave all you want, but if they actually all leave, this game goes in the tank. There just aren't enough users left to take the hit.
The point that the optimistic crowd seems to be missing is that it doesn't even matter if the update is great. No matter how many times you tell them to, some people aren't going to wait and see and try to get used to it. And that's all that matters here.
That and the fact that it really is looking true that most of the people who are positive about the update have joined the site in the last 3-4 years, after the engine rewrite and the introduction of potential.