# As Requested by a Dev: A Thread about Devs' Actions/Inactions

**URL:** https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/as-requested-by-a-dev-a-thread-about-devs-actions-inactions/61445
**Category:** Feature Requests and Game feedback
**Created:** [February 17, 2020, 7:26am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/as-requested-by-a-dev-a-thread-about-devs-actions-inactions/61445 "2020-02-17T07:26:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 333

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### Author: ![AMT](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/amt/32/56829_2.png) [@AMT](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/AMT)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2020, 6:18am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/as-requested-by-a-dev-a-thread-about-devs-actions-inactions/61445/333 "2020-10-16T06:18:10Z")

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**A week later: Arena ‘Revamp’ takeaways.**  
Without revisiting the multiple points of view, the customer reviews are (once again) overwhelmingly negative…

> [@Do you like the Arena Revamp?](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/do-you-like-the-arena-revamp/66412):
>
> [poll](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/do-you-like-the-arena-revamp/66412/1) Maybe some quantifiable feedback may help, since they claim to listen to it. relaxed vulcan_salute

…even if such feedback is of little relevance for the company, based on documented precedent: the ~15% supporting views -coupled with the increased activity resulting from the offers attached to the completion of Arena Runs- are likely sufficient to enable the ‘customers are happy with this change, we can’t please everyone anyway’ stance that we have become accustomed to.

The addition of RNG (i.e. gambling) ‘chance’ **to spend gems** on kingdom progression resources is one of the most noteworthy elements of this arena ‘revamp’ package, as eloquently illustrated by @PGSundling :

> [@Arena Worst Event Ever?](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/arena-worst-event-ever/66549/35):
>
> Depressed. That’s exactly how I feel.
> 
> The rewards are too good to pass up. I suffered through 3 arenas. Now I just feel hopeless. **I know that my life is now worst because of this arena event and I don’t know how to get out of this funk.** I feel forced to play this mode for the writs.
> 
> Life feels so hopeless. I’m struggling to gather enough motivation to get out of my chair to refill my drink. This arena event is like a negative energy vortex that has me sucked in. It really has me thinking about how pointless life is.
> 
> You feel like you’re making progress in the game and then it’s taken from you. All of it. All your traits. All your levels. All your weapons. All your classes. Even your ability to select the team or know what all your options are is taken from you. You are helpless, weakened, and with no control.
> 
> I got to get my head right.
> 
> I guess War Games was right. The only way to win is not to play. I suppose it’s an apt metaphor considering my next book about a renewed cold war.

> [@Arena Worst Event Ever?](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/arena-worst-event-ever/66549/42):
>
> I’ve been dealing with intermittent depression for decades. As a writer, I’m very self-aware and know my triggers. I have a lifeline who I can call.
> 
> I did find myself so devoid of energy from the helplessness that game mode gives me that I went many hours without eating. So I’m already planning around it and have some snacks within reach of my desk if that happens again.
> 
> I’m going to cheer myself up tomorrow by cheating on my vegetarian diet with some Malibu Chicken at Sizzler. I’ll be fine. **Arena is just one more weekly hurdle added to my life**.

The ‘increase grind if you don’t want to feel left behind’ practice by this company (and so many other f2p companies) continues to affect many of its customers, as demonstrated by how many across these forums are bearing with the ‘revamp’ in order to have access to a chance to spend gems on certain resources. As a result we have:

- players spending more gems
- players spending more time on the game, or less time playing modes with a better loot/hour ratio
- more players playing the mode that was ‘revamped’, thus ‘proving’ to the upstream that players like the ‘revamp’

The House wins on all fronts, when even those of us who are not chasing max kingdoms are now left with an even draggier Arena mode when Campaign thrusts it at us (‘Campaign is Optional’ claim as per [Campaign Tasks Week 7: How to grind your players into spending gems - #18 by AMT](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/campaign-tasks-week-7-how-to-grind-your-players-into-spending-gems/65772/18)).

Upon seeing the **Depression caused by this company’s practices on some players** (Anxiety, in less extreme cases) despite recurrent feedback from its customers, no segment of this company can be exempted of the corresponding responsibility: whether a staff decides the design direction, or merely defends it, we are once again faced with the evidence of where their Ethics/Morality stands.

‘Just don’t play the game’ is not a feasible solution for certain people severely affected by these practices: on the other hand, ‘just don’t enable these practices’ and/or ‘just don’t work for a company with such a predatory philosophy’ may be an option for certain players/staff who do not want to be part of affecting people’s lives the way this does.

Is there really no win-win alternative approach?  
🤔 🤞 🖖

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_[View the full topic](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/as-requested-by-a-dev-a-thread-about-devs-actions-inactions/61445)._