2011-08-03, 07:49 AM
You know what, in my opinion, was Nexon America's biggest mistake? Mentioning so many future Masteria areas with their related storyline, how they would look like and their names in the Masteria quests was.
Now, I'm not saying that they shouldn't have planned in advance the areas' names, look and storyline, but.. maybe if they didn't mention them in the quests it'd have been better.
Why? It's simple: because by doing that, they indirectly hyped the mentioned areas, without even being sure of releasing them. Now, I do know that those elements made the quests and the whole thing much more interesting, but it's also true that, as you can see, as soon as they became unable to release the mentioned areas, many people were left with a deep disappointment feeling.
What I'm saying is: they should've predicted that stuff like this happens in companies (important members of the staff leaving for better job proposals, etc.), especially if the rumour of them underpaying their staff members is true (wouldn't be surprised if it was). Therefore, they should've refrained from unveiling so many "future Masteria areas" before they were even sure they could release them. If they really wanted to do that, they could've released new quests as soon as the development for the next area which was mentioned in them had already started. That way, at least players wouldn't have been left with such a disappointment, and the quests would've been as interesting.
What's the point of mentioning 10 (or however many they are) area names, storylines and whatnot if you're not even sure you'll be able to release them? Again, I'm aware that they are elements which make quests more interesting, but as you can see, it ends up disappointing many, many people when they end up not being possible to make for various reasons. Especially when there are quests such as "Cool As Ice" which tell you that "the adventure has just begun" and "who knows what could be next? maybe the answer lies in the Krakian Jungle?" and clearly want to hype future areas, which, like in this case, probably weren't even started.
There is a reason Nexon Korea almost never does that.
Now, I'm not saying it's impossible that more Masteria content would be released in the future. That would be stupid, as we haven't had any official answer from Nexon about it, yet. But how long has it been since a new Masteria area was released? Several years, that I'm sure, and seeing how this patch still isn't that, my hopes for that happening are now close to none. And really, seeing the kind of "exclusive content" they've released in the past few years, I'm pretty sure that, if they had to make something such as a new Masteria area without the help of the "great minds" (Prose, JoeW), it probably wouldn't come out as well. They seem to lack of creativity for a storyline and new maps. They only showed A LITTLE in last year's Visitor event, and, even then, it was just 1/10 of that which you can find in Masteria. Also, they've mainly been releasing new game systems lately (CvP, CvP 2, Capture the Flag, etc.), but no storylines of any kinds.
Therefore, I guess I'm going to quote Sarah on this.
At least until they hire better game developing staff.
Anyways, I wasn't really expecting much from this, and I guess I was right. The e-mail with the PvP background in the "exclusive content" section was hinting to the right thing. Afterall, if they were to release Masteria content, I'm pretty sure they'd have put a background of that, there.
I guess we can just hope it's not too laggy and it gives good EXP.
Also, I'm glad they've added the revamped version of the Monster Book (mainly hoping for the drops to be dynamic - that'd REALLY be great and make it worth it) and the instanced area bosses is a great idea I was hoping would've been added. That shoulderpad also looks great, but it makes all the work for the Strawberry one useless. Stupid me for spending my time to get a shoulderpad which is even worse than the crafted ones, I guess.
I also find it funny how they practically copy-pasta'd almost everything from JMS. They added cards of monsters which are NOT released (and probably never going to be), items left with japanese strings, outdated Monster Book droplists and whatnot. This just shows their incompetence in programming and how we likely shouldn't be expecting anything big from them. It's already much that they were able to make a new PvP mode.
Overall, the patch is not too bad. But it could've been better.
Now, I'm not saying that they shouldn't have planned in advance the areas' names, look and storyline, but.. maybe if they didn't mention them in the quests it'd have been better.
Why? It's simple: because by doing that, they indirectly hyped the mentioned areas, without even being sure of releasing them. Now, I do know that those elements made the quests and the whole thing much more interesting, but it's also true that, as you can see, as soon as they became unable to release the mentioned areas, many people were left with a deep disappointment feeling.
What I'm saying is: they should've predicted that stuff like this happens in companies (important members of the staff leaving for better job proposals, etc.), especially if the rumour of them underpaying their staff members is true (wouldn't be surprised if it was). Therefore, they should've refrained from unveiling so many "future Masteria areas" before they were even sure they could release them. If they really wanted to do that, they could've released new quests as soon as the development for the next area which was mentioned in them had already started. That way, at least players wouldn't have been left with such a disappointment, and the quests would've been as interesting.
What's the point of mentioning 10 (or however many they are) area names, storylines and whatnot if you're not even sure you'll be able to release them? Again, I'm aware that they are elements which make quests more interesting, but as you can see, it ends up disappointing many, many people when they end up not being possible to make for various reasons. Especially when there are quests such as "Cool As Ice" which tell you that "the adventure has just begun" and "who knows what could be next? maybe the answer lies in the Krakian Jungle?" and clearly want to hype future areas, which, like in this case, probably weren't even started.
There is a reason Nexon Korea almost never does that.
Now, I'm not saying it's impossible that more Masteria content would be released in the future. That would be stupid, as we haven't had any official answer from Nexon about it, yet. But how long has it been since a new Masteria area was released? Several years, that I'm sure, and seeing how this patch still isn't that, my hopes for that happening are now close to none. And really, seeing the kind of "exclusive content" they've released in the past few years, I'm pretty sure that, if they had to make something such as a new Masteria area without the help of the "great minds" (Prose, JoeW), it probably wouldn't come out as well. They seem to lack of creativity for a storyline and new maps. They only showed A LITTLE in last year's Visitor event, and, even then, it was just 1/10 of that which you can find in Masteria. Also, they've mainly been releasing new game systems lately (CvP, CvP 2, Capture the Flag, etc.), but no storylines of any kinds.
Therefore, I guess I'm going to quote Sarah on this.
Sarah Wrote:Glad it wasn't masteria though.
At least until they hire better game developing staff.
Anyways, I wasn't really expecting much from this, and I guess I was right. The e-mail with the PvP background in the "exclusive content" section was hinting to the right thing. Afterall, if they were to release Masteria content, I'm pretty sure they'd have put a background of that, there.
I guess we can just hope it's not too laggy and it gives good EXP.
Also, I'm glad they've added the revamped version of the Monster Book (mainly hoping for the drops to be dynamic - that'd REALLY be great and make it worth it) and the instanced area bosses is a great idea I was hoping would've been added. That shoulderpad also looks great, but it makes all the work for the Strawberry one useless. Stupid me for spending my time to get a shoulderpad which is even worse than the crafted ones, I guess.
I also find it funny how they practically copy-pasta'd almost everything from JMS. They added cards of monsters which are NOT released (and probably never going to be), items left with japanese strings, outdated Monster Book droplists and whatnot. This just shows their incompetence in programming and how we likely shouldn't be expecting anything big from them. It's already much that they were able to make a new PvP mode.
Overall, the patch is not too bad. But it could've been better.