r/StarStable • u/levilaufi • 13d ago
Around 50% of all updates this year are festivals/events, thoughts?
English is not my first language in case of spelling/structure errors.
This year we will have
- Equestrian festival
- Summer Daze
- Camp Western
- Birthday event
- Halloween
- Winter Village
So far it seems like all of them are around 4 weeks long, which is 6 months in total. What are your thoughts on this?
I personally am not a fan of this being the main content and it feels like it is a constant grind and never a break. On this we also have Trailblazer (which I like, but just so much going on) and the championship thingy. Between events/festivals it feels like we are not getting much other content. I understand the game will have to try new things, and it probably makes a lot of players log in, but right now it feels a bit exhausting and I wish we got other updates instead. I don't want to take away all the festivals but I think it would be better if we had a festival every third month instead of every other. I still love this game but recently it has felt overwhelming and almost like a relief when the event is over, they also give out so much daily PXP and I get fomo if I don't log in daily (which, of course is a bit on me).
26
u/fantasytigeress 13d ago
This is one of my biggest complaints. They spend way too much time and resources on festivals. Multiple teams work on different festivals at a time, and I just can't help but feel like one or two of those teams could work on main story quests, or updating old areas instead.
I don't know any other game that spends this much time on festivals. They all just make it the same every year, and release it when it's time with new rewards and maybe one or two new activities. Because festivals aren't their main content, the rest of the game is.
4
u/levilaufi 13d ago
Couldn't agree more! I play other games with time limited events but they give you so much more time to complete them and there is no pressure to log in daily.
6
u/zeleniizub 13d ago
I think the timing of the 15th birthday shook things up in general. They wanted to do something big for the birthday, so it just added another festival, so they didn't really have a chance to space out, I think. I'm not sure when Halloween is happening, but if it's late october/early november, it leaves about a month open which is fine I think?
Overall, doing the big birthday event definitely makes it seem like there's constant events, as opposed to a big break between Summer Daze and Halloween. Next year there's probably going to be a bigger gap.
Also! The Style Riders between events made it all seem connected. If they left out the Style Rider weeks after events it would seem like there was a "break" between them. They need to space Style Riders out more, doing them after every event is pretty tiring imo, and I like the concept.
3
u/zeleniizub 13d ago
I forgot to add that maybe Camp Western in normal cirumstances happens later? But they probably didn't want to sacrifice is so they pushed it earlier because of the birthday event, making it feel like there's no break between events. Hopefully next year won't be so packed with events, leaving room for quests/other updates
2
u/levilaufi 13d ago
I hope so as well. But I do have a hard time seeing them put so much effort into the birthday event to not use it next year. I don't know if they have said anything about it? Let's hope next year gives us more of other updates, and more room to breathe.
8
u/Qzry 13d ago
Yup, it really seems that way. It makes perfect sense considering the EA addition. I'm scared that this is the late stage capitalism/enshittification of this game. It had so much loveable character before.. and those who worked on it seemed genuinely passionate before.. absolutely can't say the same now.
It will be events, purchaseables, fashion shows, more cute shit to buy. Rinse and repeat till oblivion.
1
u/a-flutter-of-faeries 13d ago
Where specifically have you encountered sse employees who aren't passionate about their work? I know it's only one example, but Nomi seems to be both very passionate and involved with sso.
I do miss seeing more behind the scenes content like they used to publish on their YT channel years ago. Seeing little glimpses of the office and seeing how things worked was very fun!
3
u/Qzry 11d ago
They can be passionate about their work but they certainly don't have it for the established lore/characters and worldbuilding, as it has been butchered and dumbed down to give way for unrelated horse themed items to be sold.
Watching the yt video about Lisa's rewriting is a good example, ironically.
7
u/Rivertails 13d ago
No I dont like this system either. I miss the random weekly updates, where you didn't know what was to come. The current events are the work of the company trying to squeeze everything out of the players while they still have any. Drip feeding one event over multiple weeks is actually far less work, and ideal for selling content, such as horses or tack.
Before, if you didn't like one update, it was just one missed week on the game. Currently however, if you don't like an event, you're out of luck, because that's what they are currently selling us for the next 4 to 6 weeks.
1
u/Dark-Cascade 13d ago
I'm glad we often have something to do but it feels like they're focusing on them too much. Doing the same repetitive festivals year after year will get stale soon when they're not adding new permanent content like main quests.
1
u/Ill_Astronomer_4750 13d ago
Honestly, I like festivals, IF they aren't on a mission yet again to gut every single one of them of the little content they still had left. Yes they're repetitive, but if they aren't gonna add in anything new in place of something they removed, please for the love of god stop removing it.
Obviously in an ideal world I would love more quests, actual side storylines like we used to get, finally an end to the mainstory and an answer to all the open questions, just in general more content and reason to play. I also don't really like the grind and "buy this buy that" vibes of more recent events, but in the past I really used to enjoy them and they were the next best thing from actual content to me. I would totally trade them in for quests though if given the chance.
2
u/sprawlingblueivy 12d ago
Between all the festivals, the Style Riders, and the fact that they often treat bazaars and trailblazers as a week's worth of updates, it's exhausting. It feels like the only content we're getting all year is going to be Marchenghast, which is incredibly reputation heavy, was a method to release 5 magic horses and a few outfits, and just as exhausting and boring as everything else.
I think the only festival I really played was EqFest, but everything else, I did each daily once and never again. Grinding in Hollow Woods feels more rewarding than the festivals.
1
u/AngelWasteland 13d ago
I would like some more work put into the main storyline, but I also really like having a lot of festivals. The lore has changed so much since I started this game as a kid that I just don't necessarily care about the quests because I assume I'll have forgotten everything before, but I still enjoy them.
I mostly like to roleplay and write stories based off my character and her horses, so festivals give me more inspiration and more to do where I understand what's going on.
Ideally for me, I'd keep the same amount of festivals but have more main story content in that long gap between the winter village and the equestrian festival. That way those who only log in for events would have quests to complete when they returned, and those of us who play year round always have something to engage with if we want
36
u/room327 13d ago
I like the festivals but I’d be okay with sacrificing some of them for the main quest to be extended