Introduction
If you know me, you know that I am an eternal optimist. I try to see the best out of a situation and while I don’t agree with all decisions Ludia has made, I try to find good in every update and try to stay positive about it on the various platforms I’m involved in (discord, forums, ect.). Unfortunately, right now I am finding it very, very difficult to see the good in the game. And trust me, I have tried. So this is an open letter to Ludia about the various issues that have made me feel this way and what I fear might happen if it doesn’t get fixed. Bear with me as this is long, but I feel the need to get it out there.
A Letter to Ludia
Dear Ludia,
I’m very frustrated right now. I have so many more words on how frustrated I really am, but we are a family-friendly website and I would like to keep it that way. The point is, just from my observations on the forums and various discords I am a part of, I am not the only player that feels this way and many of us already have one foot out the door.
The game that once brought me excitement and joy is now something I have to almost force myself to play. Right now, I stay for my alliance, the friends I have made, and the amazing community that we (GamePress) serve.
I miss the thrill of the hunt. I remember when I was trying to level up my Diloroacheirus and Ouranosaurus was in Local 2. I would go run an epic scent almost every day on my lunch break trying to grind for it. Now, local creatures are sparse, the global pool is bloated and it’s hard to even target what you need. Not to mention all of the exclusive creatures we have to wait for an event for. Giga scents are great and the local rotation is nice, but the spawn mechanics, in general, make it difficult to actually get out and find what you want.
It's also important to remember that we are still in the middle of a global pandemic that greatly affects how people are able to play this game. Many aren't able to get out and some of these newer features, like the short-spawn exclusive creatures, are a bit tone-deaf to the current situation. It seems that strike tower distribution doesn't take that into consideration either as I am constantly seeing people say they can't find an epic tower in range or that they don't have any green event stops. Raid creatures seem to be less and less frequent on the map as well so we are spending more time trying to find someone with one in range than actually raiding. I know this is a mobile, geo-location game, but when things happen (like COVID), you need to be able to adapt and I feel like that hasn't happened.
I miss battling. I remember battling used to be my favorite part of the game. Working to level my creatures to increase my stats and making my team better. Figuring out what team composition works best for me and running different creatures that I enjoyed (RIP OG Monostegotops and Tryostronix). I have no issues with boosts as I do think the arena would have been much too stale without them. I miss being able to outsmart my opponent in a battle to come out victorious or swap or play my way around a sticky situation.
Now, I absolutely dread clicking that battle button because it often feels like I’ve lost before my first move is even selected. Matches feel like they are won or lost solely on creature selection and RNG. The class system has made too many creatures a hard counter each other and if your opponent draws all of those true counters, it sucks to be you. The classes are power imbalanced with Resilient being incredibly too powerful with very few hard counters for them. Take away the slowing moves and replace them with vulnerability for the base Resilient moves so Fierce (the supposed counters) actually have a chance against them. The new matchmaking system makes it even worse. The other night, I went on a 250 trophy losing streak and to pour salt in the wound, all of those losses were mostly against top 10 players that were over 1000 trophies above me.
I miss new creatures. I know we get new creatures every update, but seriously how long has it been since we could actually use one of them in the arena? There is a serious lack of new viable creatures every update (the new uniques are utter crap). I have major issues with the unnecessary nerfs and/or buffs that are implemented without thought and then reversed a patch later. The arena is stale as a result and we have seen the same creatures over and over again for way too many patches now. Give us a true variety. Give us something we feel like we can work towards.
I want communication. This has been a major issue for a while now, and while I think it couldn’t get any worse, it has. These last patch notes were embarrassing. There is absolutely no excuse for the incorrect information (Pho stats) and lack of important information (short-range spawn limits) that the patch notes have. The weekly events images have at least one error in them a week and it’s gotten to the point where the players can’t even trust official announcements anymore. Even when these issues are questioned or pointed out by the community, it takes forever for an additional announcement to be made about it or for it to even be acknowledged. We want to know why certain decisions are made about creatures or game mechanics and the thoughts behind some of the changes. We don’t expect you to tell us everything as I understand there are probably plenty of things you can’t say, but give us something.
I am not a game designer so I honestly don’t know how to fix some of these issues. I do know there are some incredibly smart people that do play this game and have provided great feedback and ideas on changes. You say you listen to feedback from the community, but you have to see it from the perspective of players, we don’t see our feedback being listened to. And that goes back to communication. We see decisions being made that we don’t believe reflect what the player base wants or has asked for. I understand the forum is probably a very small percentage of the player base and can’t account for all the feedback you are given but at least attempt to tell us why some of these decisions are made.
I see so much potential with this game and I want to continue to play it. I want to see it succeed and thrive and get better. The current path it’s on right now, however, looks grim and it makes me really sad. When I started playing this game and started to become more competitive, I thought I would be in it until the bitter end. Right now, it’s looking like that bitter end might come sooner than expected. This isn’t a good-bye post yet but if things don’t get turned around soon my good-bye won’t be far behind.
I know I’m just one player in a sea of thousands, but think of all the players that don’t say anything and quietly just delete the game. Please keep this in mind as you continue to work on new content and plan the future of the game. There are people, like me, that are right on edge and are about to jump ship. I will do whatever I can to prevent a mass exodus of people but we as players can only do so much. The ball is in your court now, what are you going to do about it?
