What is keeping you from playing?

[Wesker]

It's been a while since I've posted a thread in this subforum, its been a looooong time.

But now I feel the need to, after all this time. I have played the game for a while now, I'm not old enough here to be considered an old timer, but I'm also not young enough to be ignorant of the drama this community has gone through.

I'm closing in on 8 years in this community, I still love to play this game in all its aspects. But the thing that keeps me coming back to this game is the amount of people playing it. We're coming to a close in the summer, I'm confident maybe some people will return to play the game once again, but I think now is the best time to ask this question so we can see the issues before discovery's peak timeline hits.

What is keeping you from playing the game?


I have seen lots of people leave over grudges, I have completely stepped away from anything involving Rheinland again. I'm still the 1ic of my faction but I hardly do anything. A while ago, I figured maybe the region needed me to step back. I was being vilified over a lot of stuff in the region, but now that I've stepped back I've still seen nothing change in the area at all. Interest there is pretty much kaputt. But there is still hope for other regions.

People leaving over development-related issues is probably the thing that makes the least sense to me at all. It takes nothing to step back and be an average player, I'd argue it's more fun to be an average player. There are so many people that have complained about development in the game and then have rooted themselves in it fighting over change like it's the end of the world rather than just playing the game. I can appreciate Freelancer no matter what state it's in, I played when heavy decision hit, I played when Justin was the lead developer, I played when the Admins and devs were at their most polar, and I'm playing now. I think if you really appreciate Freelancer, you can enjoy it regardless of where it is. You just need to play the game.

The lack of people online is starting to get to me too, this weekend in particular I was so bored. It kinda made me sad.

I have tried new things in this game, I made two new characters, let go of old ones. I've shifted the RP avenue of my experience here completely.


The drama is past us, if everyone really left over Justin, then why aren't people coming back? The Balance end of this game has improved a lot since I first came here, I don't agree with everything - but it's still fun. The game isn't on a 100% level playing field, there are guns that are (in my opinion) significantly better than others, there are ships that (also in my opinion) are significantly better than others.


So what is it? Why aren't people coming back?

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