I ran the Arena weekend event analysis through my supercomputer and it gave me this.
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I don’t have the resolve to make it to the 2nd reward let alone the 2nd loop. It takes too long and my playtime is more productive elsewhere. Ie class boost and explore. Those who are hammering valour have those bases covered and so it’s time that arena merits. Even if you hate it.
Which means it’s much worse than three 1 day events in sequence, due to needing ever more valor for the next reward. It’s kind of fascinating, a special weekend event that is in all ways inferior to a regular weekday event, it’s definitely a novel idea I haven’t yet seen in any other games I’ve played. Makes me really miss the old days when @Sirrian still worked on this game, feels like most design work is now done by a bunch of monkeys doing facerolls on a keyboard.
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I’m going to enjoy the fact, that after years of playing, the only days and weekends that take more than a 10-15 minutes to finish are mondays and any faction related days.
It’s their choice, but I will never understand how anyone can continue to play this game for 50-100 hours a week
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I think it’s a bit more than 15 minutes but you have a point. AB plus dungeon, campaign and killing 100 troops etc, plus non invested class event for example and pet rescue probably require about an hour per day. If you skip all events, a bit less. But yes, many players are oblivious to their dependence on this game as a reason for existence. The company have exploited this and the pandemic with relish and many other games have done the same. The morality of game companies has reached a nadir and when you realise that, you grind less and enjoy more.
I have a morbid curiosity to hear how much time people spend on this game per week (because per day would vary a lot). Would make for an interesting, if not depressing, thread.
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I play between 20 and 40 hours a week. Arena won’t be in my schedule though today. Actually, Gems of War won’t be. I’m off to play Star Renegades right after my daily delves. But the Arena event this weekend? Lol… no thanks.
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I am not able to formulate an amount of hours spent on this game at this time. I can only say it is less than before. Perhaps the next time ToD returns I will play more, as I believe it will run the same week as GW.
When Fang Moor, Sunken Fleet, Werewoods and Lyrasza’s Lair return, I will play more, as I do have a slight desire to finish those factions, and the last time they were in the rotation, I had better things to do those days.
I will not do a single arena run this weekend. It is Halloween Weekend on WoT. I will spend more time in the forums, as there is some downtime in between battles. I don’t know if I will even hit 2000 guild seals this week, which hasn’t happened in a while.
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I think this is the biggest indication of lower play:
I’m a grinder, so my numbers are going to be skewed. I tend to grind gold for the guild either through explore or pvp. I know leaderboarders (especially PVP and factions) will have skewed numbers as well, but so far, looks like 3/3 in reduced playtime.
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My game time has always been less on gnome weekends because I see it as a pointless pursuit and a welcome respite from the game. Arena this weekend achieves the same absence of play. Bounty is my 3rd weekend off. Most other events are complete (or close to completion) by Friday so this also is time off. I have no compulsion to play way above the requirements of the guild any more because the fun element is practically zero. I’ve seen myself in the past do 30 hours a week but now its an hour before work and an hour every other day after work. Max 10 hours weekly. I can’t keep up with the train disappearing into an ever darkening tunnel and nor do I want to. I am removing myself from the game at a controlled rate and that is the true light at the end of the tunnel.
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I’m slowly realizing that the forums are a huge confirmation bias. Most of the casual players don’t come to forums. Most who are happy with the status quo don’t come to the forums. So usually what I end up seeing are posts criticizing/complaining about something. Yet from what my guild master said, no one brought up the 4 days of arena during the stream on Monday and how unhappy people apparently are about it. Guess the game will either die away because people leave based on what we see criticized in forums, or they will stay because the “silent majority” is satisfied.
I’m having some doubts any attempt to bring this up during a stream would be successful. I mean, so far the tons of Arena feedback provided here haven’t even been officially acknowledged, it feels unlikely that bringing up such an obviously unwelcome topic during an official stream wouldn’t be treated anything other than gatecrashing.
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And how many people have time to watch a stream? Anybody can come to the forums to comment.
Is the “silent majority” silent because the are fat, happy, and content with all the latest content, or because they feel their voice is no longer heard? The Devs have access to information that I do not.
All I can say is I’ve had five players leave my casual guild in the past two months seeking an even more casual guild. My guild does not require gold contributions, event participation, or even seals. In the previous year and a half, we did not have five players leave voluntarily. How more casual is casual?
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True on all counts. I don’t watch the stream, I just recently came to the forums (mostly for the event point information) but due to confirmation bias ended up staying to read other opinions. And yes, “silent majority” could just as easily be satisfied as pulling out their hair in frustration.
Good question. Assuming that your guild did legendary tasks and completed all event rewards, maybe they wanted a gem box every day? Or, they wanted you/someone to pay them to play, as it has become a job for many people 
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I can confirm that voicing any concerns or attempting to provide feedback during a livestream largely falls on deaf ears. It is no different than these forums. As soon as even minor criticism is brought up during stream we typically get a generic, “I’m sorry you feel that way, but that’s how it is.” response from Salty.
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Sure, that makes sense. Unless it’s an unplayable bug, I don’t think anything we complain about is resolved until the following patch. “Gatecrashing” a livestream to complain is also poor form. I guess I just assumed it would be brought up, receive a canned (as you mentioned) or real response and the rest of the stream would continue as planned. But all of you have lived with this game for a while, and are either used to or tired of the way things are.
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That, or it gets flat-out ignored.
This being the what, 3rd arena event since it’s been “reworked”? And everything that the players have expressed that they do not like hasn’t changed an iota.
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And wont change until next update, or even one after it…
Development of new version/patch requires planning and time…
And tbh, 2 weeks of forum complaints might be enough for Community Managers to write on DEV forums: newest Arena update is getting negative feedback, players are mostly unhappy with:
[list of things]
next thing that can be done would include a list of potential improvements, one or two of them will be chosen to implement and added to… next update where people dont have their workloads filled up… which might be 3-4 updates (depending how much development is being planned in advance)
And that’s only part of it. With new update developed, it needs to be added to all stores/platforms and reviewed by store owners (which also takes time, usually few days).
All above takes time. It’s nothing you can simply “just do” in 1 hour and let it go live in next 15 minutes… such changes can be done when you’re programming simple applications for yourself, where you’re the only reciver of the programme and you know how you’re going to use it…
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Please cancel this sorry event and either rework the Arena or just stop it.
Instead, have more Tower of Doom event, we need to upgrade our doomed weapons.
If you want to rework the Arena here are some ideas:
1 Draft your team based on a pool of cards (Legendary, Epic, Ultra Rare, Rare, Common)
2 Pick a class to enhance the team and earn class xp
3 Have a better rewards
There are many ways to make it better, the players know what makes it fun and enjoyable instead of making it painful and waste of time/effort.
Please listen to these ideas from all of the players.
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You just forgot to menton the users who will come in defense of the developers and the design direction they took and insult people who DARED to offer they feedback.
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