A Look Back (I'm Bummed)

    • A Look Back (I'm Bummed)

      Over the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking if backing this project on Kickstarter was worth it for me. It was either my first or second KS and still remains as my largest (I backed at the DC level). The forums, the game, and the community all seem to be in shambles just a short 5 years after the fact. This really is sad. So, let's take a quick look at each of the KS Stretch Goals and see what happened:
      1. 330k - Add Authenticator - I believe this was done fairly quickly in the lifecycle of the game - possible within the first year even. Check.
      2. 360k - Add an additional city to each playable race complete with quests - what is this? We already start going of the rails here I think. Maybe a better "road map" would have been to keep all of the various stretch goals in front of everyone for good, transparent communication. Even if stuff changed, you could put a check mark on such items then! Anyway, this is not in the game.
      3. 390k - Add guild ranking and guild tournament support - no guilds. Sadness.
      4. 440k - Add crafting system at launch - no crafting. Blah.
      5. 490k - Add Primal Packs - completed at launch! Check.
      6. 540k - Add VIP Program at launch - well, it was there. Even at the beginning, I realized that I had misunderstood what this was (as I had to pay for the tournament!). After two or three years of support here, I withdrew my support. It simply wasn't worthwhile. More sadness.
      7. 600k - Three additional raids at PVE launch - No raids. No +3 raids. What happened here?
      8. 660k - 5 new game boards, etc - Hmm, there were game boards for sale in the last year or so. Is that what this means? I'm unsure. Is it just the special boards in the PVE? I'll say "check".
      9. 720k - 10 more dungeons with unique cards and equipment - I'm not even sure we ended up with 10 dungeons not to mention +10 dungeons! AFTER FIVE YEARS! SADNESS. This is a major reason why I backed - to play a card game in really cool PVE environments.
      10. 790k - Increased sound and particle effects to more cards - sure, check.
      11. 860k - AI deckbuilding tool - another point that really interested me as I was hoping it would help me build better decks. We've not seen (nor heard?) of this.
      12. 960k - Keep Defense - I think this is what was added recently, although I've never played as I didn't want to spend my little and precious gold on losing it. It's there, but I was bummed about it.
      13. 1.06m - Add playback support - Is this in the game? I've never used it if it is. Heh.
      14. 1.16m - Add motion comics intro - When the intro was upgraded, it was pretty SWEET!
      15. 1.5m - tablet support - glad I never bought a tablet, although I was sorely tempted as I kept thinking over the years that I would simply miss out. Not so much.
      16. 1.8m - Hex novel - got it. Read it. Enjoyed it. It was good. No sequels though. Oh well. I've determined over the years that lore is important for games, otherwise it's just 1's and 0's. So, nothing further here and in the lore realm was detrimental I think.
      17. 2.1m - more lore stuff - I didn't really see this with any consistency. I'll say that the website was pretty bad. Should have been able to parse through info you WANTED rather than click through page after page of updates that didn't mean anything.
      18. 2.5m HexCon - we didn't hit it, nor did this happen. I was scared that I would miss it the first two years. Seems more silly now than anything. Yeah, I'm bummed.


      So, was it worth it? Not for me is the answer.

      I know early on there was a lot of buzz over "even if the game keels over, everyone got their money's worth." Looking at this list - I'll soundly disagree. My backing at such a vast amount (for me) was because I believed in the VISION of the game. When that vision wasn't lived out, it just drained what made this a great game. Shoot, let's throw FRA in the mix as to me, it was a really cool addition early on. What happened to it? THEY TOOK IT AWAY! I was left with what I viewed as "mean design". I mean, who designs to FRUSTRATE players? My sandbox, which is what drove me to continue to buy packs, was gone. For me, that was beginning of the end. It was with great sadness (but savings to my pocketbook) that FRA2 was released.

      Quite a list. I feel like this was promises that were simply unfulfilled. Even as a DC backer - feel pretty ripped off. Looking at the list, the BASE GAME simply never materialized.

      Anyway, I continue to lurk. My buy in is too much. I still hope ("hope") for something to make this all happen as the VISION is still sound - MMOTCG.

      Happy gaming (elsewhere I assume),
      Taleisin

    • I feel the same. And worse I got 1/2 a dozen friends who were all highly competitive paper TCG players to back at King Tier or above. None play now. Most have not played since the GameForge switch and account loss. I felt really bad. I still do. Hex the world of empty promises, broken dreams and “much bashing and clashing” weekend priemer event occurig between two contestants. Yep that is where Hex is at. hexpvptools.net/tournament/1126637167

    • Basically, what happened is simple:

      Hex's initially team didn't realize how hard it was to actually PROGRAM a video game. So they had all these ideas that they could conceptualize in the sense of 'this is how a card game can do this'... but completely mistook just how difficult it'd be to turn those into a videogame.
      Gamer. Streamer. Photographer. Writer. Anime Lover. Possessor of Stuffed Animals.

      Also... I'm terrible at this game.

    • Some interesting facts. Hasbro revenue = 5bn dollars. Earnings after interest and taxation is over a billion dollars.
      Wizards of the coast MTG profit about 350 million per annum.
      Hearthstone is at over 400 million per annum.

      The thing is successful gaming companies have good ways to monetize their games. Its not all about features and vision and concept. Its the same with movies like star wars. The key revenue didn't come from ticket sales but merchandising.

      I find it odd that one can't pay for art when the art itself is an asset that can be put on shirts and other such stuff. Although for many years gamers complained about Hasbro being run by marketers, the fact is that its probably better than a business run by developers and gamers.

    • It was my creative outlet, but I don’t discount the value it had to me, and it was worth the commitment for my own personal growth.

      The good that will come out of this is I lack a creative outlet now, and in searching for one, writing has stood out. Might use the time and energy to write a book.

    • theOvermind wrote:

      guys you talk like the servers closing anytime soon. is it really that far, or just rumors?
      Technically it's just rumours... but Hex has been essentially stripped of all people it ever had working on it... we get 1-2 bug fixes every 2-3 weeks at best... we haven't received any real word from them since 'things are bad and the set is being delayed'... the last news before that was them being forced to make a statement by artists coming forward and shaming them by saying they weren't getting paid...

      Unless Hex comes out in the next week or two and reveals something big... I expect we'll see the servers get shut down within a few months at the longest.

      The only real question at this point is whether we'll get any warning from Cory that it's happening.
      Gamer. Streamer. Photographer. Writer. Anime Lover. Possessor of Stuffed Animals.

      Also... I'm terrible at this game.

    • Eraia wrote:

      theOvermind wrote:

      guys you talk like the servers closing anytime soon. is it really that far, or just rumors?
      Technically it's just rumours... but Hex has been essentially stripped of all people it ever had working on it... we get 1-2 bug fixes every 2-3 weeks at best... we haven't received any real word from them since 'things are bad and the set is being delayed'... the last news before that was them being forced to make a statement by artists coming forward and shaming them by saying they weren't getting paid...
      Unless Hex comes out in the next week or two and reveals something big... I expect we'll see the servers get shut down within a few months at the longest.

      The only real question at this point is whether we'll get any warning from Cory that it's happening.
      I suppose the chance of them patching the game so we can at least play the campaign offline would non-existent?

    • Icefire wrote:

      Eraia wrote:

      theOvermind wrote:

      guys you talk like the servers closing anytime soon. is it really that far, or just rumors?
      Technically it's just rumours... but Hex has been essentially stripped of all people it ever had working on it... we get 1-2 bug fixes every 2-3 weeks at best... we haven't received any real word from them since 'things are bad and the set is being delayed'... the last news before that was them being forced to make a statement by artists coming forward and shaming them by saying they weren't getting paid...Unless Hex comes out in the next week or two and reveals something big... I expect we'll see the servers get shut down within a few months at the longest.

      The only real question at this point is whether we'll get any warning from Cory that it's happening.
      I suppose the chance of them patching the game so we can at least play the campaign offline would non-existent?
      You're assuming they would even be able to do that. And by that I mean the people who've been programming HEX specifically. I don't know what's been holding the game back on the coding side, time, money, talent, whatever, but though the game has ran progressively better, it's still not even halfway to looking like something that could run on a tablet. I'm actually amazed they got what they could to run on the PS4. I think being able to play the PVE offline is probably even more of a pipe dream.

    • Icefire wrote:

      Eraia wrote:

      theOvermind wrote:

      guys you talk like the servers closing anytime soon. is it really that far, or just rumors?
      Technically it's just rumours... but Hex has been essentially stripped of all people it ever had working on it... we get 1-2 bug fixes every 2-3 weeks at best... we haven't received any real word from them since 'things are bad and the set is being delayed'... the last news before that was them being forced to make a statement by artists coming forward and shaming them by saying they weren't getting paid...Unless Hex comes out in the next week or two and reveals something big... I expect we'll see the servers get shut down within a few months at the longest.

      The only real question at this point is whether we'll get any warning from Cory that it's happening.
      I suppose the chance of them patching the game so we can at least play the campaign offline would non-existent?
      This is not an offline game, to turn this into an offline game takes a lot of programming work to restructure the game's coding. For instance, if I want to play WoW private server "offline" by myself. No, I cannot just install a program and ta-da, I can play it now solo in my own world. I have to download a bunch of stuff, open my own server, host my own server and login into my own server just to play it "offline". You will need to do the same thing for Hex, it's not as easy as a patch and then I can play it offline all the way. You communicate with the server after every match(to get your gold rewards and for the server to update your gold amount on their side), that part needs to go to "offline-ify" this game, to give you one example of thing that has to change. Just a lot of work for minimal gain, they ain't doing that.

      Edit: And this is a team that can't get mail to work on the PS4 client. You really expect them to turn an online game into offline? Hah, no fucking way.

    • Goliathus wrote:

      Icefire wrote:

      Eraia wrote:

      theOvermind wrote:

      guys you talk like the servers closing anytime soon. is it really that far, or just rumors?
      Technically it's just rumours... but Hex has been essentially stripped of all people it ever had working on it... we get 1-2 bug fixes every 2-3 weeks at best... we haven't received any real word from them since 'things are bad and the set is being delayed'... the last news before that was them being forced to make a statement by artists coming forward and shaming them by saying they weren't getting paid...Unless Hex comes out in the next week or two and reveals something big... I expect we'll see the servers get shut down within a few months at the longest.
      The only real question at this point is whether we'll get any warning from Cory that it's happening.
      I suppose the chance of them patching the game so we can at least play the campaign offline would non-existent?
      This is not an offline game, to turn this into an offline game takes a lot of programming work to restructure the game's coding. For instance, if I want to play WoW private server "offline" by myself. No, I cannot just install a program and ta-da, I can play it now. I have to download a bunch of stuff, open my own server and login into my own server just to play it "offline". You will need to do the same thing for Hex, it's not as easy as a patch and then I can play it offline all the way. You communicate with the server after every match(to get your gold rewards and for the server to update your gold amount on their side), that part needs to go to "offline-ify" this game, for instance. Just a lot of work for minimal gain, they ain't doing that.
      I didn't mean they reprogram the whole game to work offline but they could release the server program so we could setup our own servers for the game to talk to.

      They have to have someway of running the game internally to test things which they could give us.

    • Icefire wrote:

      I didn't mean they reprogram the whole game to work offline but they could release the server program so we could setup our own servers for the game to talk to.
      That'd work, I just don't see a lot of games doing that. Probably has to do with not wanting to release their assets to the public, no matter how worthless that asset might be in the future. Cory looks like someone who would sink with his own vision of Hex instead of changing it based on feedback. His stone-head is one of the reasons this game is at its current state and also how I don't think he will release anything. And oh, he didn't give a fuck since June, so no is very likely.