Fantasy For This World We Love - Defending a VR MMO!

[spacepirate]

Okay so to further kinda understand-- the main conflict is players wanting to go back to an ad-less, free to play game again??

Yes, that’s essentially correct! I suppose when you say it like that, it seems relatively low-stakes. I suppose if you want to think of things from the perspective of the angry players, there’s a Mark Twain quote that can be paraphrased as: the loss of a child‘s toy is like a king and his crown. Meaning, that when Andaros ‘sold out’, it was more than the game itself that was being transformed, it was the primary place so many of these people came to hang out, have fun, or just to escape the troubles of their everyday lives. Whether its justified or not, a lot of them blame the corporations for changing a world they already liked, or turning Andaros a bit too similar to Earth.

Of course, not all players would feel the same way— that’s why most players either stopped playing Andaros Online or just get with the new program and accepted that the new monetization models and branding was a part of the game. Every player and person is different, but the player characters in this one specific guild formed their alliance to prove a point.

Whoops. I guess that slipped past me when I was reading. I've got some character ideas swirling upstairs, and I'd definitely be more compelled if there were other writers willing to hash out intertwined stories; especially as it helps make the current conflict feel a lot more personally-motivated and less... Futile? Not sure if that's the right word.

Either way I'm content-enough with what I see, though I would agree with some previous posters that how the game came to be this way stretches my suspension of disbelief a little. Games really don't need to be billboards to bring in plenty of revenue, and frankly this definitely looks like a case of new management burning a perfectly good franchise to the ground for no apparent reason. Still, I'm willing to overlook a bit since the premise is just so much fun.

I do appreciate that some of you are pointing out a piece of the plot that doesn’t seem to make sense— the treatment of Andaros Online by its new shareholders. I will say that this disconnect between the new company owners and long time players of the game is one of the cruxes of conflict, though. It is likely that there are many in the guild who would not have minded some form of monetization, but the decisions by the company just continue to make less and less sense as time goes on.

I will admit that I’ve been one of those players IRL before, just sort of sitting there baffled and wondering why companies are intent on destroying their franchises, haha.

Also to add a little on your comment on how this one guild is being singled out: it’s more that they’re being targeted by sponsored accounts and content rather than the company trying to go after them. It’s true that the devs have been nerfing the guild’s skills, but those updates need to still be patched for the entire server. Their motivations are just to keep their clients happy, since the new owners and all these brand affiliates have a lot more influence than ordinary players, especially when said players have made it their mission to prove you don’t need to spend money to still dominate the game.

I reacted to the post, but also redundantly responding to ask for an invite nonetheless

I’m happy to send you a discord invite! Can you shoot me a convo message? It looks like I am not able to start conversations with you.