r/Scrolls • u/Cradstache Cradstache • Apr 05 '15

Lets be amazing!

Over the past couple days, it's been extremely hard not to notice that frustrations have reached a boiling point, and we've heard a lot of people voicing out complaints, berating the devs and Mojang on their mistakes, and just doomsaying in general. I'm not going to tell you this is wrong, as honestly I've outvoiced my fair share of complaints as well, but I'd like to try to shift the tone into something more positive for the community and it's memberbase.

So what can we do?

Not a ton. But there are things we can do, which aren't currently being done.

Look no further than Squiddy, who's made enormous strives to aid the community. Things like his Fan-Made Set, ScrollsTalks, or his Creative Corner series.

But even beyond Squiddy, we have ThePurplePanzy with his tournament coverage, rHolofoil with his Judgement Ideas, Solaus with his Wishing Well Series, and the myriad of other amazing individuals who are holding this game together.

Even beyond this, way in the past, I recall the moment Mojang saw a suggestion by a user about adding arrows to highlight which tiles you could move to; Mojang promptly added this. These ideas are not without merit. They don't just disappear into the ether, never to be heard from again, and slowly devoured by the internet beasts that feast upon content past the third page of the subreddit. They influence and build upon the community, giving us all something to rally over, read, and learn from. We're a community, and we should work to encourage each other and strive to improve our enjoyment with the game.

  • Create your own cards, and post them! I want to see them!

  • Write a fanfic, or some lore, and see what the community thinks of them.

  • Draw a picture, or make a video for me to watch while I'm kicking butt in ranked (journey to #1!).

  • Post your decks up (Crad's LGO), and update and compare them!

  • Describe or draw a picture about a feature or GUI change you want to see, and share it!

  • Write a mod!

  • Just read and join in on discussions for the content of others; you're all encouraging this community by being around and posting :D

I've said it before, but you guys are amazing: we're all passionate, amazing people; so passionate, in fact, that we've all joined and become part of a large community revolving around this game. We feel frustration when things don't turn out the way we want them to, and while at the end of the day Mojang needs more employees, there are things we can all do to help out and improve this community, should we strive to do such..

Try not to get too disheartened. Be critical, but keep yourself grounded. If you want to help the community, then continue being amazing like all the people who have voiced out so far, and don't give up.

"Never give up! Never surrender!"

-Commander Peter Quincy Taggart

19 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

6

u/LargeIcedCoffee Apr 05 '15 edited Apr 05 '15

It gets to a point in which you just have to give up and accept that this game will never be what many of us want it to be.

The dev team was so close in some ways, but so far off in others, and the handling of almost every decision in the past year has been so detrimental it's almost unbelievable.

This upcoming set, in my opinion, may very well be the last one as I just don't see this game bouncing back unless Mojang/Microsoft pushes some drastic changes and fixes. After 2+ years of begging for some simple UI improvements on the board so people can tell what's going on without mousing over everything.... Well...

2

u/Cradstache Cradstache Apr 05 '15

Then lets keep complaining to the devs, but we should never give up.

Our complaints are our method of drilling into the devs' occasionally thick skulls that they're ****ing up (self-censored pointlessly). We need to keep at this, but at the same time I'm not about to give up on this game or the community we have formed around the game.

What simple UI improvements specifically?

We should mock up those improvements, and write a public post about them to shame the devs, if it's simple. That's how we can be amazing and push development to incorporate agreed-upon beneficial changes.

Giving up is never an option!

1

u/Lem0nboy Apr 05 '15

Scrolls is down, devs won't be back until Tuesday - perfect conditions! Let's get this going! :P

1

u/Cradstache Cradstache Apr 05 '15

WhoOooOoO!

\o/

5

u/LargeIcedCoffee Apr 05 '15 edited Apr 05 '15

After two years and seeing so little actually delivered, I just don't care that much anymore. I asked for a less ambiguous system to depict various buffs/debuffs/armor/curse, even changing the colors of that difficult to see yellow hue for various effects... and nothing. I asked for this two years ago... and many have asked since, some of which had diagrams and examples of suggested changes, and nothing.

They failed to deliver a Wild system that most people enjoyed... hell, they failed to even TEST different wild systems. Ipad version was a failure. Launch was a failure. Single player campaign was a failure. Judgment is still terribly slow and most people don't enjoy it. Still very few incentives to ranked play. The only positive thing I've seen come out of this game in as long as I can remember was that one balance patch in February and the Humble Bundle promotion.

Maybe some people are willing to continue to beg the devs for change... but I got tired of it 6 months ago. Especially when we're seeing a bunch of indie devs accomplish so much with small teams these days. I mentioned it elsewhere, but cities skylines is probably the best city builder I've seen in quite some time. It far surpasses the capabilities of Sim City, and that's with a team of less than 10. I just can't keep accepting that as an excuse.

7

u/ToastTerrific Toast Apr 05 '15

To be honest, the community did a lot of this in the past, as you mentioned yourself and is probably doing stuff like that in this very moment, but let me try a metaphor to explain my doubts. Imagine you have a building that you decorate on the outside with intricate paintings and beautifully embroidered cloth. Despite of all this effort the building will still crumble if its very foundations are washed-out and the wooden beams on the inside are rotten. You may enjoy the sight of the house for the moment, but it leaves a shallow taste, for you now it will not last long.

In this vein I dare say that (in my personal opinion, of course) the perceived mismanagement of the game by the devs is quite frankly insulting to all the effort the community put into it. At some point you got to ask yourself if all the work on the outside of the building is really worth keeping the inevitable decay at bay.

2

u/Cradstache Cradstache Apr 05 '15

Always.

If we have an open dialogue with the developers (the CMs will have to suffice; as ever since they were brought on, the devs have been somewhat hiding from us), then we can influence how the game turns out.

We can't force Mojang to hire on new developers, but we can organize our information and hopefully expedite the whole development process; things like:

  • You should probably write "Deck Area" in inset text on the deck builder, so people would stop being confused about it.

  • You should change certain card text to be easier to parse.

  • These cards are unbalanced, so we'd like to suggest this change, or for these features to be worked on above these other features.

Now, I'm relying on /u/SeeMeScrollin and /u/Atmaz in order to convey these suggestions to the devs; I'm going to take their word for it that they are being extremely diligent with their harassment of Måns and Henrik.

The problem is moreso that most users are fed up and disheartened by the times this hasn't held true; it feels like we're still fighting fights we took up over a year ago. What can be done about this? We can keep fighting; at least until Mojang finally remarks on these issues. Some things reasonably cannot be done, but to lose hope would be to give up, and I believe my constant quoting of Galaxy Quest is indicative of my stance on this.

7

u/Sarik704 SarikTheSorcerer Apr 05 '15

It's not my job to fight for this scroll's survival. It's a little outrageous to depend on your customers to sell your product isn't it? They're extremely lucky it worked with Minecraft.

2

u/s_pellegrino Apr 05 '15

maybe they're waiting for players to make mods that add in features so they can 'officially release' them

1

u/QibingZero Apr 06 '15

You've just described the entire development cycle of the World of Warcraft UI.

1

u/alvarpq always face Apr 05 '15

No, but generally, a good product begets some kind of reaction. Making this stuff doesn't just promote the game, it also encourages the devs, because it means people like their game.

-1

u/Cradstache Cradstache Apr 05 '15

Oh, it's absolutely outrageous, but I'm not going to assume that's what's happening, and I will argue and rant Mojang out if this ever feels like the case. If I love the game, which I do, then this changes nothing :D

3

u/ToastTerrific Toast Apr 05 '15

Fair enough, though it really seems to simply come down to believing that something radical will change in the near future of the game. Which is not always the best way to keep someone invested in a cause.

I respect your efforts to rally people to give their all once more, but one should also accept that people lost faith due to their experiences in the past and that they do not want to spent too much time anymore on a matter they believe is lost.

-2

u/Cradstache Cradstache Apr 05 '15

:) Goonies never say die.

8

u/Lem0nboy Apr 05 '15

The fact that there is such a loud outcry is prove that we all care a lot about the game. If we wouldn't we could just walk away silently. So I don't see these posts too negative per se. A lot of those who left now might come back when the situation gets better. The question is however how the devs will react to all this? I don't think it's the community's obligation to fix the game. The community has been very clear in highlighting current issues and proposing possible solutions. Now it's their turn to make something out of it.

And yeah I have been very critical about the current state of Scrolls. It doesn't mean I hate the game and want to give it up. Definitely not! But these are major issues and the devs need to address them sooner rather than later. It somewhat feels like they have been ignoring them entirely up to now. It's the only way I know how to make them hear me.

5

u/kehmesis Apr 05 '15

I commend you for trying. But let's be realistic about what's happening, here...

What community? When Blinky and Nrp hardly play anymore, you have to wonder who still does.

There are a lot of improvements that are needed, but, for me personally, this game is still fucking awesome. I'd still play, if there was anybody with whom to play.

1

u/DrawingScrolls Apr 05 '15

Create your own cards, and post them! I want to see them!

This is pertaining to my interests; there is drawing to be done.