Feedback - Grindy Gameplay

[_Valcour_]

I'm not sure who to talk to about this , since mentioning it in chat in game resulted in unhelpful suggestions from prefects. I'm level 20, almost 21, and I need to gain about 90k experience (given that when I level up to 21 I only need to gain another 85k) and it seems like the server has been designed to only be fun for people who either: A- Live on the server 24/7 and grind non-stop, or B- Play all day and attend every single class that is held. Well, I'm an adult who works a 9-7 work shift (CST). The only options I have right now to level up are to attend classes, do quests, or fight mobs. Well, two of those options aren't logical and ones not possible. I cant quest because all my year 2 quests are done and I can't access year 3 until I get to level 22. I would love to attend classes, If there were more than maybe one or two in a day during the times I'm even able to be online, and I don't know how much exp you get from classes, but I'm certain it's going to take weeks worth of classes to level up. And the third option is to grind. And I have done the math and to level up to level 22, I would either have to kill 500 Thestrys (or equivalent) or spend weeks trying to grind monsters that one shot me, causing me to have to spend about 20-30 minutes walking back and forth every time I die. And I'm not really interested in spending about 9 hours straight killing the same mob over and over and over again just to get access to questing. It's almost like you guys cant decide between being an RPG server and an MMO. I don't mind grinding if it offers a better payoff besides levelling up and gaining another spell I will never use. And I would love to roleplay, if it didn't require a certain level to do quests, or if classes were more available. I really hope there is a solution to this, and if not, I guess I will just have to find another game. (Not that one player leaving the server probably matters to anyone). I dont mean to sound rude, but its wildly unhelpful when prefects just say "Do quests" "Attend classes" and dont offer any other suggestions or ideas such as maybe "We understand that it can be quite the grind to level up, but if this is a problem, or you are unable to for IRL reasons, you should make a post on the forum (Like im doing now) and raise your concern with the other staff." But instead, all I get is basically "Suck it up". Anyways, I guess I will go and find another game that allows me to have fun with my relatively restricted availability.

 

[Philip]

Heyo @_Valcour_,

I understand your problem, I'm working 8-9h everyday and I agree that can be hard to lvl up as you can't spend whole day on the server or don't want to, because you have something better to do also there are few things what you can do to lvl up beside killing mobs, you can see all ways in lvling section of /help, for example I mean daily riddles (just talk with Tom Riddle outside the great hall) or daily activities what can be found in /me. We always happy for every suggestions/feedback what is made, so you are free to make one, how to improve our server or what to add to improve gameplay. I know you may find this gameplay grindy but lot of RPG having the same issue (not in lvling part but if you want better gear you must grind), making new quests is time consuming and lot of staff members have to go to work too and I think all staff members doing amazing job to improve gameplay. For me, this server is not grindy because I'm playing there for fun and to relax from work as my job is very difficult and stressful. I'm also glad that you made time and wrote this suggestion as every feedback is good, what to improve to make server better for everyone. We are working on improving it, so if you have more idea what to add, feel free to make another suggestion. But I agree it would be good to add more ways to lvl up (but still they can be grindy), like something what is not just killing certain mobs or what can make lvling less grindy, but I must say lot of game are grindy, if you need something you still need to grind and you are not just getting XP from killing mobs but you are getting materials and gear/broom recipes what you can sell to vendor/players. And additionally classes don't give XP, after you finish class or you work is graded you get AC (academic credits) and you can exchange them in trophy room, through door behind the professor's table at the back of great hall for XP or gold.

Best regards
cyym

 

[Pennox__]

I'm not sure who to talk to about this , since mentioning it in chat in game resulted in unhelpful suggestions from prefects. I'm level 20, almost 21, and I need to gain about 90k experience (given that when I level up to 21 I only need to gain another 85k) and it seems like the server has been designed to only be fun for people who either: A- Live on the server 24/7 and grind non-stop, or B- Play all day and attend every single class that is held. Well, I'm an adult who works a 9-7 work shift (CST). The only options I have right now to level up are to attend classes, do quests, or fight mobs. Well, two of those options aren't logical and ones not possible. I cant quest because all my year 2 quests are done and I can't access year 3 until I get to level 22. I would love to attend classes, If there were more than maybe one or two in a day during the times I'm even able to be online, and I don't know how much exp you get from classes, but I'm certain it's going to take weeks worth of classes to level up. And the third option is to grind. And I have done the math and to level up to level 22, I would either have to kill 500 Thestrys (or equivalent) or spend weeks trying to grind monsters that one shot me, causing me to have to spend about 20-30 minutes walking back and forth every time I die. And I'm not really interested in spending about 9 hours straight killing the same mob over and over and over again just to get access to questing. It's almost like you guys cant decide between being an RPG server and an MMO. I don't mind grinding if it offers a better payoff besides levelling up and gaining another spell I will never use. And I would love to roleplay, if it didn't require a certain level to do quests, or if classes were more available. I really hope there is a solution to this, and if not, I guess I will just have to find another game. (Not that one player leaving the server probably matters to anyone). I dont mean to sound rude, but its wildly unhelpful when prefects just say "Do quests" "Attend classes" and dont offer any other suggestions or ideas such as maybe "We understand that it can be quite the grind to level up, but if this is a problem, or you are unable to for IRL reasons, you should make a post on the forum (Like im doing now) and raise your concern with the other staff." But instead, all I get is basically "Suck it up". Anyways, I guess I will go and find another game that allows me to have fun with my relatively restricted availability.

Hey.


Every suggestion taken on board by staff shapes the server to be updated and be better but, although I understand that it can feel quite restrictive to level up, essentially the server doesn’t have an end game. There isn’t a limited time to get to a certain level and there isn’t a rush to Graduate and find all the locations. It’s taken me 5 years to get to level 76, working 48+ hours a month.

Personally, I would’ve added suggestions on how it can be improved to your initial post as I get the impression that it’s either Potterworld changes it’s system to how you expect or they will lose you as a player which is something they obviously wouldn’t want?

 

[Pankakes]

I understand you completely. What I recommend is taking a long break from Potterworld until the majority of the issues are fixed and actual real content is added.

By a long break I mean at least 1 year. The current meta is basically just grinding and nothing else and it's been like that since the Ravioli update (july? 2020), not much has changed at least not any significant updates.

The staff reads suggestions here, however it can take weeks to monthts to even half a year until a suggestion gets an answer from the staff saying they'll discuss it with the team, which most of the time sounds like a bot is writing that because it's always the same answer every. single. time. making you doubt if they'll even bother reading it and even IF they say the idea will be added there's a high chance it'll be put on hold. Delaying it even further.

There's 0 branstorming with the community - once you make a suggestion and staff responds that they'll discuss it, you don't know what pros and cons they mention or who has a say in that particular instance. Sometimes it even fills like they spent the time trying to make excuses (most of the time "it'd require a lot of effort/work/too hard to do while in reality it's just a few simple steps), rather than actually discussing it (with the players as well.)

Another fact is that many things are unfinished. Take the travel system or grind for example. It's as if the Potterworld is living in the future already, but turns a blind eye to the present.
"We removed previous travel options so players are now (forced) to explore"
- But there's nothing to explore, the forests are empty, it takes a long time to get anywhere, the cooldown is useless
"Well, but we WILL add things to explore, there WILL be more options for travel, we WILL consider changes to cooldown"

God I hate the words "eNcOuRaGe eXpLoRaTiOn" so much.....IT'S FORCING """"EXPLORATION"""" - HAVING NO REAL OPTIONS TO TRAVEL AS A NEWBIE WON'T GET ME TO EXPLORE ANYTHING WHEN I HAVE TO WALK. AND WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT ME TO EXPLORE, THE FOREST ??? THERE'S NOTHING IN IT, NOT EVEN GRASS AND SHRUBS, IT'S LITERALLY JUST 3 VARIANTS OF A TREE.

*ehm*

- The grind is too tedious and boring, the quests are basically Talk to A, go to B, bring C
"Don't worry we WILL add dungeons you can grind, we WILL add more quests to do"

It's always WILL, Will, will meanwhile players are stuck in the actual present. not even knowing IF those promised things will be good once they are implemented.

Combine it with the fact that the current development process is hidden, because "it'd require a lot of work to make the Trello board public" and "it'd ruin the surprise".......
Example: "Surprise update ! Your broom is now not working !"
.....and you're stuck with the current situation where there's two teams, staff and players and each one of them has a different idea on how Potterworld is supposed to look. *cough* Most of the times staff wins *cough* Gear *cough*

[deleted]

 

[Deniz]

Hey.

Thank you for the suggestion. This was actually something we were talking about making a lot easier a while ago, but we got distracted by other projects that required some more attention (and there were some technical restraints that were not easy to solve).

Nonetheless, it's definitely an issue and I've personally brought it up to the owner and systems team. We're currently finalizing our gear-rework (it's actually being tested right now). Once we get that out, we'll look at the leveling. We will be making it easier.

Waiting sucks, I completely agree, but our resources are limited and we can only be doing so many things at once. We'll prioritize this once we get the gear rework out. I hope that clears up everything in terms of the suggestion itself.

Now for Pankakes message:

I understand you completely. What I recommend is taking a long break from Potterworld until the majority of the issues are fixed and actual real content is added.

Your message seems to come from an angry upset place. What I recommend is sitting down and simply breathing. Breatheeeeeeeeee

How you come across to others plays a huge role in how people will respond to you and your feedback. Your overall message is completely misguided, lacks so much information, and is overall from a heated place. Let me explain.

The staff reads suggestions here, however it can take weeks to monthts to even half a year until a suggestion gets an answer from the staff saying they'll discuss it with the team, which most of the time sounds like a bot is writing that because it's always the same answer every. single. time. making you doubt if they'll even bother reading it and even IF they say the idea will be added there's a high chance it'll be put on hold. Delaying it even further.

You have to realize that our resources are very limited. Until recently, we only had one developer, who had a personal life, a job outside of Potterworld, and other things to worry about. We only recently expanded our development team where yraaneq and myself joined, and the rate of development has significantly increased. I, personally, have a real life. I have school, I'm head of CM and I have friends and family -- and I'm not paid. I'm not going to be spending all my time on here.

Everyone on Potterworld is a volunteer and contributor. None of us are paid, and we are in the position we are in because we love the project and want to help see it grow. We're not in it for ourselves.

And because our resources are so limited, we have to focus and prioritize tasks. You have no idea how much work is actually being done behind the scenes, and how many things are actually being worked on, despite our limited resources - so when a player comes with a suggestion that is going to take some time, of course, we will be putting that on hold. We like the idea, and we will do it, but we don't want the idea to have to force us to reschedule and reprioritize everything.

Let me explain the process for suggestions though because, despite your many threads, I'm unsure if you know.

1. Player makes thread
2. This thread is most of the time left alone for a couple of days so we can see what other players think
3. A Poltergeist is assigned to the thread - they put this thread on Trello, and lets the community know that we're looking into it
4. The Poltergeists discuss internally what they think - at least 4 Poltergeists are required to comment on the card for it to be brought up to the relevant department
5. The idea is brought up to the department - along with the Poltergeists' verdict.
6. The department makes a decision on the idea - not the poltergeists - and notifies the poltergeists about their decision. This can sometimes take a few days - to a week because some departments are generally slower at coming up with a decision.
7. Now the Poltergeist passes the decision on the thread - and in a lot of cases, the department's reason is a bit vague, so the Poltergeist can't explain it in great detail.

It can be a quick process, but there are so many things that contribute to slowing this down.

There's 0 branstorming with the community - once you make a suggestion and staff responds that they'll discuss it, you don't know what pros and cons they mention or who has a say in that particular instance. Sometimes it even fills like they spent the time trying to make excuses (most of the time "it'd require a lot of effort/work/too hard to do while in reality it's just a few simple steps), rather than actually discussing it (with the players as well.)

I'm not using this as an excuse/reason, but I've, personally, not seen any game company really enter into discussions with the players and begin discussing with them - this is what the idea behind the Poltergeist role is. This is meant to be a group of people who represents the players and speaks for their interests. We are in the position we are in to make the decision on behalf of the players because we believe we know what is best to make the game. Will we always know what's best? Definitely not. That's why we do feedback forms, do polls, have this thread section, etc.

Another fact is that many things are unfinished. Take the travel system or grind for example. It's as if the Potterworld is living in the future already, but turns a blind eye to the present.
"We removed previous travel options so players are now (forced) to explore"
- But there's nothing to explore, the forests are empty, it takes a long time to get anywhere, the cooldown is useless
"Well, but we WILL add things to explore, there WILL be more options for travel, we WILL consider changes to cooldown"

God I hate the words "eNcOuRaGe eXpLoRaTiOn" so much.....IT'S FORCING """"EXPLORATION"""" - HAVING NO REAL OPTIONS TO TRAVEL AS A NEWBIE WON'T GET ME TO EXPLORE ANYTHING WHEN I HAVE TO WALK. AND WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT ME TO EXPLORE, THE FOREST ??? THERE'S NOTHING IN IT, NOT EVEN GRASS AND SHRUBS, IT'S LITERALLY JUST 3 VARIANTS OF A TREE.

We were going to make changes to travel yesterday (specifically the warp key bag), but that meant we had to update the warp key bag appearance for the marauder map too - which we're doing today. Expect to see a post from Paul later today or tomorrow or around then.

Is this the fix to traveling? No, definitely not - there are still many things that need fixing, but it's a step in the right direction.

.....and you're stuck with the current situation where there's two teams, staff and players and each one of them has a different idea on how Potterworld is supposed to look. *cough* Most of the times staff wins *cough* Gear *cough*

Yes. We're the developers and game designers. If you want to change the game, apply for game design This doesn't mean that we don't take opinions from players into account though, because we really do.

TLDR: Stop making assumptions when you don't have all the facts because you really don't. There are so many things that are happening behind the scenes, and things often aren't as easy as they might seem. We understand the game isn't in an ideal place, and we're working on it. There's no telling how long it'll take for us to get it in a good place, but the fact that we're working on it should be enough because there's not much else we can do.

 

[MattyPoltergeist]

Hey.

Thank you for the suggestion. This was actually something we were talking about making a lot easier a while ago, but we got distracted by other projects that required some more attention (and there were some technical restraints that were not easy to solve).

Nonetheless, it's definitely an issue and I've personally brought it up to the owner and systems team. We're currently finalizing our gear-rework (it's actually being tested right now). Once we get that out, we'll look at the leveling. We will be making it easier.

Waiting sucks, I completely agree, but our resources are limited and we can only be doing so many things at once. We'll prioritize this once we get the gear rework out. I hope that clears up everything in terms of the suggestion itself.

Now for Pankakes message:

Your message seems to come from an angry upset place. What I recommend is sitting down and simply breathing. Breatheeeeeeeeee

How you come across to others plays a huge role in how people will respond to you and your feedback. Your overall message is completely misguided, lacks so much information, and is overall from a heated place. Let me explain.


You have to realize that our resources are very limited. Until recently, we only had one developer, who had a personal life, a job outside of Potterworld, and other things to worry about. We only recently expanded our development team where yraaneq and myself joined, and the rate of development has significantly increased. I, personally, have a real life. I have school, I'm head of CM and I have friends and family -- and I'm not paid. I'm not going to be spending all my time on here.

Everyone on Potterworld is a volunteer and contributor. None of us are paid, and we are in the position we are in because we love the project and want to help see it grow. We're not in it for ourselves.

And because our resources are so limited, we have to focus and prioritize tasks. You have no idea how much work is actually being done behind the scenes, and how many things are actually being worked on, despite our limited resources - so when a player comes with a suggestion that is going to take some time, of course, we will be putting that on hold. We like the idea, and we will do it, but we don't want the idea to have to force us to reschedule and reprioritize everything.

Let me explain the process for suggestions though because, despite your many threads, I'm unsure if you know.

1. Player makes thread
2. This thread is most of the time left alone for a couple of days so we can see what other players think
3. A Poltergeist is assigned to the thread - they put this thread on Trello, and lets the community know that we're looking into it
4. The Poltergeists discuss internally what they think - at least 4 Poltergeists are required to comment on the card for it to be brought up to the relevant department
5. The idea is brought up to the department - along with the Poltergeists' verdict.
6. The department makes a decision on the idea - not the poltergeists - and notifies the poltergeists about their decision. This can sometimes take a few days - to a week because some departments are generally slower at coming up with a decision.
7. Now the Poltergeist passes the decision on the thread - and in a lot of cases, the department's reason is a bit vague, so the Poltergeist can't explain it in great detail.

It can be a quick process, but there are so many things that contribute to slowing this down.


I'm not using this as an excuse/reason, but I've, personally, not seen any game company really enter into discussions with the players and begin discussing with them - this is what the idea behind the Poltergeist role is. This is meant to be a group of people who represents the players and speaks for their interests. We are in the position we are in to make the decision on behalf of the players because we believe we know what is best to make the game. Will we always know what's best? Definitely not. That's why we do feedback forms, do polls, have this thread section, etc.


We were going to make changes to travel yesterday (specifically the warp key bag), but that meant we had to update the warp key bag appearance for the marauder map too - which we're doing today. Expect to see a post from Paul later today or tomorrow or around then.

Is this the fix to traveling? No, definitely not - there are still many things that need fixing, but it's a step in the right direction.


Yes. We're the developers and game designers. If you want to change the game, apply for game design This doesn't mean that we don't take opinions from players into account though, because we really do.

TLDR: Stop making assumptions when you don't have all the facts because you really don't. There are so many things that are happening behind the scenes, and things often aren't as easy as they might seem. We understand the game isn't in an ideal place, and we're working on it. There's no telling how long it'll take for us to get it in a good place, but the fact that we're working on it should be enough because there's not much else we can do.

i didnt read this or the suggestion but im sure it was really good, thanks for the response deniz!

 

[Llama]

DenizTM this is actually so great DenizTM I am currently very exhausted and did not process half of the things you said but I saw the word update and gear rework, well that is two words, but this is so great DeniTM.