Rate of Content Questions I Have for the Community

General Discussion General Discussion
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Recently I’ve seen a lot of debate on the rate of content coming out in the game. I lean more towards the side of people wanting content sooner but I would genuinely like to understand the view points of the “catching up” stance and maybe change my current perspective on the situation. I’m not great at writing so in order to keep things clear and concise I’ll just list points of confusion I have and if anyone has perspectives on any of them preferably that differ from my own please share your thoughts with me to help me understand. Thanks

-I dont understand what people mean by pressured to “keep up” or “fall behind” and specifically why it matters. The scenario I’ve been seeing lately is “if they release valtan right after argos I won’t be ready.” But it confuses me what people mean by “be ready” or why its not just something else to do when they are ready. Is it different from if valtan and argos were already in the game on release and if so please help me to understand how so. More confusing to that though, is in the same complaint I see people saying “they made it so hard to access its only for the extreme whales” but then wouldn’t that mean theyre in the same boat as 97% of the player base in which case they would be “caught up” with a majority of people? Or am i misunderstanding something?

-Second point of confusion is more related to ethics and just trying to understand view points people have in this debate through everyday situations. Idk how to really summarize this thought so I’ll just list a few examples to start. If a lot of people can’t afford a car that doesn’t ever stop the car from being designed or manufactured. If people are allergic to or cant afford a certain food that doesn’t really ever affect a restaraunt from developing, creating, and serving their menu. If some people are busy at work and don’t have time to catch up with a tv series or something similar that doesn’t stop the series from being released. So my confusion in terms of societal ethics is why or what makes lost ark different. What mechanism excludes it from the societal norms of morality and ethics that are generally accepted. (also I’m sure there might be an example of instances where this is not the case but I personally after thinking for a very long time could not think of one so if you do have one please share).

-Third thing that confuses me is a whale/tryhard accessing content atleast as far as my basic understand goes does not really affect the person that isn’t there yet. So to me if we look at both complaints on one end the people wanting content to be slower on the other end people wanting more content now it seems to me that the side wanting content to slow doesn’t really gain anything by slowing content aside from taking away something from the people that are there whereas the people at the top are not bothering the people at the bottom. Its a confusing thing for me to hold more weight to the complaint that takes from someone else while in turn not actually gaining anything. To me it just seems petty but I might very well be missing perspective on this hence me writing this post in hopes of better understanding.

Any thoughts to help my brain untangle all of these confusing things I’ve been seeing recently are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time and perspectives if you do decide to respond.

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Guide to any internet debate. There’s nothing to understand, people ahead want to gatekeep those behind and those behind want a free ride ahead.

opinion
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lmao good meme

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Hey, I’ve thought about the things you’ve said a lot too, let me offer my view.

First I would like to note: No one really cares what whales do. Let’s be real. If we definitively knew that there were zero completely f2p players able to reach 1445 on release (or whatever arbitrary standard tbh), then there would be no competition and no desire to get there, since it’s “impossible” (at least that’s how I think people think).

I think whales should definitely have content to do, what that content is is determined by different players. Of course, there are some people who are hardcore in favour of no pay to progression allowed only pay for cosmetics, but I don’t think that will work in lost ark.

Now with that out of the way, I want to address the “keep up” mentality. This only really applies to people who wanted to be semi-hardcore like myself, who I think the mentality applies to. Semi-hardcore players are a majority of the playerbase I’d say, although I’m not saying they all think this way (myself included).

I can only truly speak for myself, but from what I see of others, some may be seeing/hearing about streamers who come from Korea, having 2000000 gold 10 alts t3 or whatever, it’s disheartening to know that, simply by the nature of moneymaking, someone who did not intensely research the game beforehand is now significantly behind these KR veterans and their loyal twitch viewers, simply because having money allows you to make more money. Personally, I didn’t even know this game was out in Korea for years until I started interacting with the community more.

Now, the reason I say it is disheartening, is that Lost Ark takes a large portion of one’s day. Especially if you put a reasonable amount of research and time in, it can feel like the more you search, the more you have to do, and hence the further behind you feel you already are.

Such players may desire to be hardcore and may have been so in other games, but because they were at a major major disadvantage from the very start, it is now starting to hit them that they will never be special, they will never get the recognition of being the top whatever. This is where the fall behind mentality comes in and leads to a cycle of becoming more and more casual.

2nd part of your 1st point is correct if one is thinking logically but after grinding for a lot of hours, people may not be thinking in such a way, as they spent all that time wanting to be the 1%. But instead, the 1% is flexing on them as they pretty much did what the veterans said.

Looking at your second point, you bring up a great point on why video games are so enjoyable to so many people. Most likely, for example, you will not be born a great league of legends player, though some may be more predisposed to being good at it due to being naturally better at quick thinking etc. But overall, games are much more equalized than real life. In real life, most sane people are willing to accept a lack of control over the outcomes, but their ability to have a voice, for example on the forums, helps them to mentally distinguish the game from real life.

I’m not quite sure about how the allergic argument applies but in reference to the car argument, again, most people are more easily capable of dismissing others being more wealthy than them, as they can rationalise it with things like ‘rich parents’ ‘lucky’ etc. In a video game, there is less room for this kind of argument and a lot of the time the answer is just ‘get good’ which nobody wants to hear most of the time. Also, there is no skill involved in watching a tv series while someone who progresses faster might be presumed to be ‘more skilled.’’

Since I already addressed whale part:
For your third point, I think a lot of people who want time to catch up, want to feel equalized, so they can at least have another chance to get ahead, after seeing how far behind they were from the start. They don’t gain anything if we’re thinking logically, but in their mind they are gaining a chance to be special again.

Thanks for the great post, hope my response is somewhat adequate.

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90% of vertical content is irrelevant for a hardcore player or swiper. Why haven´t they released the Heroic content? That´s the major issue most players have.

If they release Valtan I have another 30min content and blast through everything else in the game, sounds so fun.

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Thanks so much! Something I hadn’t thought that I’ve understood through your post is that even though the game is not literally competitive the genre and the inherent mechanism of the game can create a competitive environment and I think to feel a certain way while being in that competetive environment is pretty valid. I think I can understand and empathize now with people that are semi-hardcore wanting to “keep up” with the top-ish percent of players in newer and harder content. Although still a bit confused by the more “casual” type players sitting in the 1340s with similar complaints while not actively trying to efficiently progress.

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A lot, and I mean A LOT, of it has to do with people parroting off whatever their favorite youtube / content creator posts for the day.

Unfortunately Assmangold is one of them. It’s the same with most every game he plays, it’s “HYPE IT UP!” and then immediately into doomsaying.

He openly admits he does it for content and you can plainly see that he has an online persona like a talk-show host or what not.

The problem is when people can’t see past that and choose to parrot the same things without forming their own opinion.

That’s why, when you present a logical argument or point out with facts, that someone is wrong, they start trying to play victim and go “YOU"RE BEING TOXIC, HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME” or on the flipside they start insulting you ala “AGS SHILL, STUPID KAREN, GO TOUCH GRASS”

Just ignore these folks, honestly and vibe with the game.

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While this is true, even if you are semi-hardcore, the current state of the game makes it quite obvious to anyone who has this mentality that Valtan hard mode “ready” is very doable between now and May.

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I don’t understand those people either :slight_smile:

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That is the problem.

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It is and so my solution is to try to understand through asking.

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Content has social value that drops over time. Taking a screenshot, making a video or even talking with friends about new content day 1 creates much more interest and engagement than doing the same thing one month later. Players who play games for social interactions may feel like there is no point bothering when they fall behind, because even when they eventually get there, the there is already desolated place which friends, streamers and hyped public left ages ago.

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Right but the reason for my confusion on this point specifically is that it is usually coupled with the “only extreme whales can access” complaint in which case if I assume that point to be true they wouldn’t be behind because they’d still be with their friends and the other 97% of players that aren’t insanel whales and will reach it around when they will.

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Another thing that may impact it is fake f2ps “oh look at me I’m f2p and I hit 1445 on release, get good lol” either they utterly no lifed this game (1300+h by the time valtan comes out) and had ample advice from veterans, or they are lying. Most of them fall into the lying camp.

But its these kinds of players that can potentially ruin the game for others. Not saying that one should let it get to them, just saying that that’s reality.