Just thought I’d share something as on the same day the 10th anniversary update dropped, I had an update for another game I play that I am also in endgame in. Might be interesting to compare the 2. Granted one is from a larger game company, but to be fair that company is Bethesda, perhaps even more famous for its bugs than Gems is. And the game is Fallout 76 which has had its own …interesting times let’s say.
So this update isn’t a major one, it’s the kind that there’s been several of this year. I’ll try to put into gems terms for those who don’t play Fallout.
First off, this update happens to coincide with a new thing equivalent to a campaign, where you do tasks over a few months to gain rewards. That is free to do but some rewards (all of which are purely cosmetic) are locked behind a subscription (called fallout first, pretty much the only paid thing in the game) so the new scoreboard has a bunch of stuff on it. Anything that can directly aid actual game play can be unlocked in due course similar to the top track of the Gems campaign.
Then there were sone fairly major changes. First was a fairly in-depth change up of their skill system , think traits on classes. This involved extensive rebalancing what they did as well as making a lot of them cheaper. Nothing made harder to get at all, in fact nearly everyone will have benefitted from things being made cheaper and been able to use extra perks in addition to what they already had. All this for free I might add
Next there is an entirely new area/questline designed exclusively for ultra end gamers.entirely new gameplay type. I would compare it to delves being introduced in how different it was.again entirely free and nothing stopping anyone from doing it, although it’s apparantly deadly for anyone but top players. Of course, there are some gameplay items you can get as rewards, which might mean they are locked behind that and inaccessible to anyone not elite. Except that the rewards can be traded with whomever you like, either for caps (the non premium in game currency, like gold in gems of war) or heck if you’re generous just given away (which happens lots)
Then there was, for purely cosmetic reasons, the brand new addition of pets in the game. They do. Nothing except look cool and apparantly drop a random thing now and again, i am talking like you might get a treasure map a day kind of trivial). Entirely new system built from the ground up. Pets can be bought for the equivalent of Gems, or can be gotten as in game rewards. Not at random, there’s 2 on that scoreboard I spoke of earlier.
Then also, again entirely cosmetic, the addition of titles for your character. Similar to the titles you get in gems that show up in chat.
Entirely new system. Entirely free. A few on sale for gems.
On top of all that, a literal crapton of bug fixes and design changes. Nothing needed. Mostly changes to (gasp) benefit the players or make things easier to play the game. Fixing menus. Adding information that was lacking or unclear. You know…in the game…not buried in a forum post somewhere.
There’s literally not a single change where something was changed to make life more difficult for the player base. And the only money grabbing thing is making stuff available for purchase for the equivalent of gems (which can be gained in game, though not in the amount needed for everything of course)
I realise that they are a bigger studio than Gems is, but this is an example of how an update should be in my mind. The game base is excited for it. There’s lots of new stuff to do and explore and engage with. There’s no immediate call for me to spend my money. I happily already buy the monthly subscription because what I get is worth it. Indeed when they do add some stuff that’s paywalled I already have access to it, I don’t have to pay more on top of it. Plus everything paywalled is entirely cosmetic.
They have even gone so far as to make stuff that once was paywalled available in game for in game currency (think like dragonite)
This in my head is what an update should be. And how a game should treat its player base. And again I stress, this is Bethesda here, it’s hardly the pinnacle of gaming perfection.