Woah, what is even happening? I’m clearly bot trying to diminish anything, which is why I’m happy for people to have this conversation. But I do think pointing out that comparing things to an abusive relationship is a bit of a reach, and potentially very upsetting and damaging.
We listened to our beta testers when they said that they were unhappy with the randomness of deeds, so we made sure that they would be equally available from adventure board tasks. We do act on feedback, and will continue to do so. I’m not dismissing anyone’s feedback, or valid concern, I just don’t think we should be equating a game design decision to an abusive relationship. I don’t believe my reaction was unfair or unreasonable.
If you feel strongly about the power structures (perceived or real) at play in F2P titles, that is something you are welcome to research and comment upon. I won’t stop you, and neither will our developers. We have always let conversations run their course until they have become abusive or inflammatory towards the developers or other players. (Though we often let a lot of the strongly worded and aggressive comments aimed towards us go.)
We are passionate at Gems of War about making sure that a player does not have to purchase to progress in game. Many other titles in the F2P landscape do not share this view. I understand that players wish we could do it in different ways, or that grinding for resources was easier, etc, but we aren’t always able to make those decisions. Morally, we are okay with how we have approached this genre of game, and do our best to uphold these morals when and where we can. We don’t want a stamina system that bars play, and forces players to spend money in order to start or continue playing PVP, or even participating in weekly guild events.
This responsibility to be Batman feels like too much. I’m happy being your liaison, curating your feedback and championing your quality of life requests/suggestions, but I’d ideally like to maintain a mutually respectful relationship with the people I am trying to help and represent. I’m not a martyr that will do whatever they can to help while being mistreated, so please do not treat me as such.
EDIT: And, as always, we are going to be watching everything carefully after 4.5 releases, and changes may be made to the way players can earn and access Deeds.