(Early) Fantasy Life Mabinogi vs. Anime Mabinogi 08 2014

• Hanna wrote on 2014-08-02 01:20
  >Decides to end hiatus and rejoin mabi
  >"mabinogi.nexon.net"
  >"Your anime life"
  >closes tab
• Hanna wrote on 2014-08-02 01:20
  >Decides to end hiatus and rejoin mabi
  >"mabinogi.nexon.net"
  >"Your anime life"
  >closes tab
• Aubog007 wrote on 2014-08-02 02:33

  Quote from Hanna;1236580:

  >Decides to end hiatus and rejoin mabi
  >"mabinogi.nexon.net"
  >"Your anime life"
  >closes tab

  
  
  Yeah. That bothered me too. Quite greatly might i add.
• Kelvas wrote on 2014-08-02 03:45
  [UB][UB]

  Quote from Hanna;1236580:

  >Decides to end hiatus and rejoin mabi
  >"mabinogi.nexon.net"
  >"Your anime life"
  >closes tab

  
  
  I noticed that as well. What happened to our fantasy life? This just leads to what ironwomen said.
  

  Quote from ironwoman;1236546:

  weirder people come to play.

  
  
  Although, I have to admit, anime is what got me into playing MMOs. I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for saying this, but I became interested in MMOs after watching SAO. Hehe. However, unlike some people who play Mabi because of anime, I don't really make a big deal of anime, nor do I even mention anything anime related often.
  
  I saw my friend play this game, it looked interesting, so I joined.
  
  
  
  Anyhow, back to the original topic..
  Just like some of the posters before me, I didn't know about Mabinogi prior to genesis, so I don't have a clue on what combat was like back then. I joined near the end of the nightmare event, and the beginning of the treasure box event. But yeah, a lot has changed, even from when I started till now. I was a mage back then, and still am now. The changes in magic was great, and I really loved it.
  
  The first AOE pet I got was from last year's attendance book event. I found the flamemare pet very useful, especially in dire situations and mimic rooms. Heck, even now, I only have 3 AOE pets, which include the flamemare and two peggies. I've never had anything as OP as dragons. Makes me kind of jealous seeing most people have them.
  
  And about reforges. If it never existed, my ig bank wouldn't always be emptied. I really wished they never existed, so I don't feel the urge to use them. I've only recently became interested in reforges, and spent roughly ~20M on them so far. QQ
  [/UB][/UB]
• RandomguyonMN wrote on 2014-08-02 05:04
  Ok, I'm going to do something that'll make you guys think I'm trolling, but I'm going to explain why I think reforges and AOE pets are good for the game. Let me preface this by saying the only reforges I use above lv 1 are commerce lv20 for transport speed and I would never use reforges to improve my damage.
  
  The 2 money making strategies for free to play games, at least from my view is to either release things that are so good that people would pay money for them such as reforges and AOE pets, the reaction they want people to have is: "OMG this item is so good I am willing to pay money to buy it".
  
  Or, the money making strategy before the advent of the "pay to win" items which was to basically either bore the players with monotonous tasks or just straight up pissing them off enough to force them pay for items to spare them all the pain. The reaction back in those days they wanted were: "OMFG *** this stupid crap they are making me do I'm going pay for this item to make this go faster".
  
  For all you guys yearning for the mabi of old, think back for a second. The moon gates used to only be active at night and teleports you to a random town to coerce you to buy a mount so you don't have to walk everywhere. Three week rbs were designed to bore you when you hit your peak level until you had enough and bought rb cards. Iria is absolutely huge and full of worthless empty space to force you to buy a flying mount. Herbs were only found in dungeons to make you buy an herb pig which was an absolute must for mages. Limited inventory or bank space for designed to make you buy inventory plus or pets. I can go on and on but you get the point. Back then it was impossible to play mabi without spending real money.
  
  Yes, I do realize there are still things in this game that still try to piss you of to make you buy stuff *cough engineering cough*. But Nexon seem to be mostly leaning toward the over powered item strategy than the boring us strategy. Now I do not have any inside info on how Nexon is run or by any means an expert in video game economics. But the fact that the problems I listed are all now fixed leads me to believe that Nexon is making so much money on reforges and AOE pets that they don't need to (mostly) rely on underhanded tactics anymore. It is now possible to play this game without spend a dime of nx now that the game is far more convenient.
  
  TL; DR The OP nx items are making Nexon so much money, Nexon doesn't need to bore you into spending nx anymore.
• Aubog007 wrote on 2014-08-02 05:13
  It's called balance.
  
  Thank god the PvP is already broken.
• revdb wrote on 2014-08-02 06:06

  Quote from Kelvas;1236613:

  [UB][UB]
  
  
  And about reforges. If it never existed, my ig bank wouldn't always be emptied. I really wished they never existed, so I don't feel the urge to use them. I've only recently became interested in reforges, and spent roughly ~20M on them so far. QQ
  [/UB][/UB]

  
  
  Nation changed you, you aren't the same person you used to be
• Kelvas wrote on 2014-08-02 06:21
  [UB]

  Quote from revdb;1236646:

  Nation changed you, you aren't the same person you used to be

  
  
  It's true. Nation has changed me from a noob who wanted to have fun to a power hungry [S]monster[/S] player. I don't think anyone else in my guild spends as much as me on reforges.
  
  I need to cut down on my spending, especially on reforges, but that's a bit hard. xD
  Reforges are like addictive drugs. Once you start, you can't stop. But the funny thing is, I only have 1 decently reforged weapon, which is my hermit. Kind of sad really.
  
  [S]To reforge list:
  Shoes (currently r2) - for rain casting cooldown 8+ lvs
  Gloves - for MS efficiency, blaze dmg.
  Savage Wand - for blaze dmg[/S]
  
  We need more treasure box events.
  
  Ughh. I somehow need to stop myself from buying reforges. QQ Breaking my in-game bank. [/UB]
• Kelvas wrote on 2014-08-02 06:21
  [UB]

  Quote from revdb;1236646:

  Nation changed you, you aren't the same person you used to be

  
  
  It's true. Nation has changed me from a noob who wanted to have fun to a power hungry [S]monster[/S] player. I don't think anyone else in my guild spends as much as me on reforges.
  
  I need to cut down on my spending, especially on reforges, but that's a bit hard. xD
  Reforges are like addictive drugs. Once you start, you can't stop. But the funny thing is, I only have 1 decently reforged weapon, which is my hermit. Kind of sad really.
  
  [S]To reforge list:
  Shoes (currently r2) - for rain casting cooldown 8+ lvs
  Gloves - for MS efficiency, blaze dmg.
  Savage Wand - for blaze dmg[/S]
  
  We need more treasure box events.
  
  Ughh. I somehow need to stop myself from buying reforges. QQ Breaking my in-game bank. [/UB]
• Zekkii wrote on 2014-08-02 11:11

  Quote from RandomguyonMN;1236632:

  Ok, I'm going to do something that'll make you guys think I'm trolling, but I'm going to explain why I think reforges and AOE pets are good for the game. Let me preface this by saying the only reforges I use above lv 1 are commerce lv20 for transport speed and I would never use reforges to improve my damage.
  
  The 2 money making strategies for free to play games, at least from my view is to either release things that are so good that people would pay money for them such as reforges and AOE pets, the reaction they want people to have is: "OMG this item is so good I am willing to pay money to buy it".
  
  Or, the money making strategy before the advent of the "pay to win" items which was to basically either bore the players with monotonous tasks or just straight up pissing them off enough to force them pay for items to spare them all the pain. The reaction back in those days they wanted were: "OMFG *** this stupid crap they are making me do I'm going pay for this item to make this go faster".
  
  For all you guys yearning for the mabi of old, think back for a second. The moon gates used to only be active at night and teleports you to a random town to coerce you to buy a mount so you don't have to walk everywhere. Three week rbs were designed to bore you when you hit your peak level until you had enough and bought rb cards. Iria is absolutely huge and full of worthless empty space to force you to buy a flying mount. Herbs were only found in dungeons to make you buy an herb pig which was an absolute must for mages. Limited inventory or bank space for designed to make you buy inventory plus or pets. I can go on and on but you get the point. Back then it was impossible to play mabi without spending real money.
  
  Yes, I do realize there are still things in this game that still try to piss you of to make you buy stuff *cough engineering cough*. But Nexon seem to be mostly leaning toward the over powered item strategy than the boring us strategy. Now I do not have any inside info on how Nexon is run or by any means an expert in video game economics. But the fact that the problems I listed are all now fixed leads me to believe that Nexon is making so much money on reforges and AOE pets that they don't need to (mostly) rely on underhanded tactics anymore. It is now possible to play this game without spend a dime of nx now that the game is far more convenient.
  
  TL; DR The OP nx items are making Nexon so much money, Nexon doesn't need to bore you into spending nx anymore.

  
  
  I would say that is a somewhat fair look at the cash shop, but at the same time I would rather spend a little bit of money on quality game than save my money on a game I enjoy. It's clear that free rebirths and inventory are a huge advantage, but with the plague of reforges, enchant protection, gachas, summon pets, and so forth, the cash shop is taking its toll as well. It's pretty bad for the not-rich people who do get sucked into these schemes, praying on video game compulsion is pretty low. I would say this generally favours the casual gamer, but it really did work better for everyone sometime after freebirths were available when all you needed was a one-time payment for a mount to thereafter truly play the game for free. Some superficial changes such as sellable/tradable mounts and characters cards would have gone a long way to help everyone, but Nexon proved incompetent at managing these so in the end the players suffered because of it. Now that a bigger portion of items people would buy are tradable (since inv+ and character rebirths weren't tradable and are now free), the cash shop seems more forgiving.
  
  However most of what I talk about isn't about the cash shop. I've noticed a lot of people talking about casual players, and I've probably brought them up more than just a few times myself. I'm not saying that Mabinogi shouldn't be accommodating to casual players, but improperly balancing the game and alienating non-casual gamers or serious gameplay in general, isn't going to help anyone. If you want a truly successful game then it has to accommodate both types of players. I'd also like to say that casual players aren't mindless children who want to press a button and see credits roll, they're most often just players who want to have fun without spending too much time or money on character growth. Quite frankly I don't see Mabinogi as a game that's become casual-friendly, it's just become easy. If the game is supposed to be casual-friendly and the money is supposed to come from the serious players, then it makes no sense to alienate them by making everything mind-numbingly easy.
  
  There is a lot to consider here, for both us and Nexon. It isn't a player's job to worry about Nexon's profit margins though, so I'm not going to support a game more profitable game I can't enjoy. Of course I can only speak for myself and perhaps a few others I closely know, to say that the game is indefinitely less enjoyable now is a very personal analysis. Finally I'll thank anyone who reads this to remain subjective as well; it's pretty ridiculous to try and convince people they are or aren't having fun. I've enjoyed reading a lot of the responses in this thread, quite interesting indeed.
• RegisAreus wrote on 2014-08-02 14:25
  I ENJOY ALL THE NEW CHANGES!
• Username wrote on 2014-08-02 14:30
  I acctually do not enjoy the new changes. Starting from when Reforges came out.
  I had this magical feeling about the game. However that is not the case anymore. It feels more money grabbing and feeding the wants and needs of weebo's.
  
  I had fun till end of G12 tbh. Saga was nice too but thats it.
• RandomguyonMN wrote on 2014-08-02 15:55

  Quote from Zekkii;1236690I would rather spend a little bit of money on quality game than save my money on a game I enjoy. It's clear that free rebirths and inventory are a huge advantage, but with the plague of reforges, enchant protection, gachas, summon pets, and so forth, the cash shop is taking its toll as well.[/QUOTE:

  
  I get what you're saying, but think about it for a second: it's a business strategy that is designed to piss you off and force you to pay money. That is exactly the kind of business practice that needs to die as fast as possible, it's exactly the kind of negative connotation that people associate with f2p games and turns them off it.
  
  [QUOTE=Zekkii;1236690]It's pretty bad for the not-rich people who do get sucked into these schemes, praying on video game compulsion is pretty low. I would say this generally favours the casual gamer, but it really did work better for everyone sometime after freebirths were available when all you needed was a one-time payment for a mount to thereafter truly play the game for free.

  
  One time payment on a mount? I'd like to see you go just 1 week with just 1 mount on a high level character with no other nx items. That whole sucking you in argument can easily applied to the old mabi. I knew people that spent 200+ dollars on weekly rbs, more pets for more space, Inv plus, and new character cards just to get a limited edition piece of clothing every month. They were paying for things that should be the bare minimum requirement for a game.
  
  You are talking about reverting the game back to a time that suits you personally and in a non-mmo I'd say more power to you, but mmos don't work like that. You absolutely need more people in an mmo, and that barrier of entry of making people pay money just to make the game playable I'm sure turned a lot of people off.
  
  

  Quote from Zekkii;1236690:

  Quite frankly I don't see Mabinogi as a game that's become casual-friendly, it's just become easy. If the game is supposed to be casual-friendly and the money is supposed to come from the serious players, then it makes no sense to alienate them by making everything mind-numbingly easy.

  
  Ok I've been hearing this a lot I get very confused and for what I'm talking about I'm leaving AOE pets and reforges out of the equation since the average player doesn't spend massive money on those. Look, I don't know you and I don't know how you play, and I'm not going to deny that the game is easier than it was before. But I don't think its THAT much easier. Ok, tell me something, what kind of things in that game do you run exactly that is so mind numbingly easy? Because here's the thing, most people who complain about the difficulty are very high leveled veterans in a game with almost infinite scaling. Of course the game easy for those players, but that's a power creep issue not a difficulty issue, and there's a massive difference between the two.
  
  You are discussing difficulty in regards to new players and I think in relation to new players the difficulty is fine. I run sms with friends under lv1k and we were in a glitched shadow warrior sm where the monsters can't move from the spot where they spawned, and my low level friends still died multiple times just from fighting a glitched monster one on one. I've seen lv2ks fight vetern and master level bandits in commercing and still get their stuff stolen. Yes, I do wish dev cat would release more high level content for us veterans that is easily accessible such as maybe abyss level dungeons that can be ran without pass restriction or making elite level sms always available and can only be ran by lv2k+ but I don't think new players are really hurting for more difficulty, I mean just listen to this guy: http://my.mmosite.com/4069628/blog/item/nanbos_mabinogi_noob_review.html
  
  

  Quote from Zekkii;1236690:

  There is a lot to consider here, for both us and Nexon. It isn't a player's job to worry about Nexon's profit margins though, so I'm not going to support a game more profitable game I can't enjoy.

  
  If this were a game made by a big publisher with an advertisment budget or large fan base like WoW or maplestory I'd agree with you. But mabinogi doesn't have that luxury. For a small and niche game like this, money flow is everything, money is directly proportional to how much attention this game gets in terms of server management and updates which directly ties into player attraction which as I mentioned before, is priority #1 for an mmo. There were several times where I wonder if mabi was going to shut down due to low player base. I think the turning point for the game that made them reconsider the pissing us off strategy is Dragon Nest.
  
  Do you remember when Dragon Nest first came out? I play in Tarlach so my perspective maybe be biased but when that game came out my server became a ghost town because everyone, even the aforementioned 200+ dollar a month spenders left to play Dragon Nest. Again, I don't have inside info on Nexon but after DN came out and stole a chunk of mabi's players coupled with dungeon fighter online shutting down and 2 mabi servers were forced to merge, was right around the time Mabi started to became more convenient. I can't say for sure if mabi would have shut down by now if not for the shift in money making strategy, but I can say with certainty the player base would be much smaller and the updates and events would come slower and lesser quality.
• RandomguyonMN wrote on 2014-08-02 15:55
  Already posted the same post but came out twice for some reason.
• EndlessDreams wrote on 2014-08-02 18:03
  Some people are way too focus on Reforges being OP, when they really aren't for your every day leveling runs. Elemental reforges only work in HM/Elite/Martial Art, which is just turning that OHKO to OHKO by a lot of damage over.
  
  As for the other reforges, some of their uses are pretty good, but it isn't like it is super major advantage over the people who don't use reforges.
  
  Reforges don't really benefit all that much like some people claim them to be for the current easily accessible content.