glitch is beginning to really bore me.
.. and yet at the same time ..
glitch is becoming more and more interesting to me.
when it comes to projects and skill building and item acquiring and leveling .. i'm done. i'm bored as piggy plop with all these things, and the weather is just too good to even try to like them.
projects suck. there's just not enough player input versus player effort. too much work, next to no creativity or even choice. there's too much competition, and while collaboration is still extremely strong on certain projects... meh.
the quests suck. well, most. the racing ones are really good, and some of the timer based quests are alright .. but in general they are all too similar to one another. same thing, different animations, over and over... yawn.
skill accumulation is actually pretty decent, and i love the timer based component and even the progressively longer learn times .. but with projects and quests being so unappetizing that acquiring skills seem rather useless.
subscriptions .. were a let down to say the least. the introduction of teleportation tokens last test session merely cemented my perception of subscription price not matching player value unless you like clothes. i wouldn't pay the money glitch is asking for their top tier subscription even for 10k teleport tokens.
i've lost pretty much all interest in these core aspects of the game.
.. and yet ..
great balls of jellisac has the game UI improved, and it wasn't even that bad to begin with. from recipes to maps to chat, every UI element demonstrates careful refinement. the way recipes and chat have improved demonstrates extreme cleverness and responsiveness on the part of the devs.
recently added collaborative elements to have been a bright light to me. it was fun just to follow other miners around and, well, help them! everything transcendental radiation promised to be, cooperative mining actually is. also, the random kindness item is even closer to what transcendental radiation promised to be, but wasn't. some small but very good and very recent collaborative developments.
player creativity and social scene has improved. the synchronized diving. the dev jumping. the people dressing up like trees. the quality personalities making status updates between tests. i've done some portraits of people's avatars and had a random person ask me to draw theirs. all of this is fun, engaging, social, creative stuff that holds the attention for a long time.
the art keeps getting better. okay, Bortola is rather boring, but it comes after the amazing work on Alakol, Tower, Mirch and Heights. the clothes keep getting better, and the hat + hair combinations are a great improvement. i'm not partial to the *look* of the frog but overall the game has never looked better.
.. anyway ..
despite great potential that engendered great enthusiasm from me, the projects and quest have been so boring for so long with so few exceptions that i've largely given up hope on them ever appealing to me. i see them as grind fests for those who enjoy grinding, and that's about it. sure projects could be improved but their foundation doesn't inspire much hope.
it feels like the game holds interest for me *despite* the major gameplay elements. the ad hoc, game unsupported creativity. the little collaborative mechanisms they struggle to take root in the seams of the game - like teleport buddies, barnacle parties, cooperative mining. i'm hoping, desperately, the group housing enhances both collaborative gameplay and .. well .. just hanging out being creative and social.
it is almost like everything about the game is awesome, except for the game itself. which is increasingly awful.
ok, shouldn't end on a negative. everything else *is* awesome, after all.