Some thoughts. Applications System, Investment, and Time

[Nuance]

Quite a few people convinced me to throw my two cents in here.

Imma slap this here as good a time as any on behalf of a lot of things I've heard.

A lotta deep thought, besides that.

Even if it ain't likely gonna be listened to, I wanna see this game improve.

I like people having fun, and wanna provide hopefully productive thought based on what I've gathered.

I'll summarize with main bullets, then below all that elaborate a bit if people want expanded thoughts.

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Apps are not inherently a bad thing, and allow for a great many perks via character uniqueness and a feeling of payoff after a substantial arc, whatever that means to each individual character.

►Signatures give power markers and achievements for people to strive for.
►Weapons, armor, and items inspire people to take to the forge or alchemy with creative approach.
Etc. Etc.

►The issues come in with the 'extras' surrounding the system. See below:
►Denials without understandable reason, feelings of inequality, a sense of being unheard when speaking out, and never having enough time to foster more positive traits are damning, straining, and widely discouraging.


►These wait periods for any application submitted, regardless of intended emphasis within the game's experience or not, are inexcusable.

-These are people's narratives; a lot of investment and work goes into (most of) them. People enjoy when they are respected, leant credence and expediency.

-Needing to wait for several weeks in a game where 5 days is a year is damning. (Two weeks is almost three years. Apps can sometimes go silent for a month or more I hear?)
►If the system is clogged from not enough approval staff, hire more eyes.
►Be aware of negative biases, should they exist. If somebody put in the work and good development, it should not matter who they are.


►Increase the time people have to work with their narratives, be invested, create, explore, and be their character. However long or short they want that span to be.

-Most people rb once age nerfs hit anyway, so people always feel stressed, crunched, and prone to burnout. Breaks are healthy, but I'd rather people just not feel so stressed to need to take them stemming from the game itself.

-This would do nothing to impede the fact that children, elders, and everything in between will exist. Etc. This just gives people more time to enjoy them.

Practical amounts of breathing room.

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In my time playing this game, what I can assure is that a great many people seem to hold a deep investment in their characters and their tales, regardless of how shallow, deep, casual, or hardcore.


►As things are currently and have been for a very long time- and I see no issue in this on face-value-

For things which would be considered 'milestones' for any character, after a period of development, that require an outcome via item or substantial increase in skillset- An application is required.

This is not inherently a bad thing, and allows for a great many perks via character uniqueness and a feeling of payoff after a substantial arc, whatever that means to each individual character.
►Signatures give power markers and achievements for people to strive for.
►Weapons, armor, and items inspire people to take to the forge or alchemy with creative approach.
Etc. Etc.


I view this as a positive.

Developing a character- Incentives to better interweave your narrative alongside others in a collective sense, regardless of how grandiose or personal, is a massive draw.

Events, custom dev mats, inclusiveness? Appealing.
►The issues come in with the extras surrounding the system.

-Whispers of preferential treatments run far and wide, and there can at moments be clear and baffling discrepancies.

-Good dev, good stories, worthwhile narratives, impactful moments stringing together? The things that rope people in and keep them invested and happy? These all take time.


►These wait periods for any application submitted, regardless of intended emphasis within the game's experience or not, are inexcusable.

-These are people's narratives; a lot of work goes into them. People enjoy when they are respected and leant credence and expediency.

-Needing to wait for several weeks in a game where 5 days is a year is damning. (Two weeks is almost three years. Apps can sometimes go silent for a month or more I hear?)


►Denials without understandable reason, feelings of inequality, a sense of being unheard when speaking out, and never having enough time to foster these more positive traits are damning, and straining, and discouraging.

Ridding the system of applications, etc., without something equally as intricate and incentivizing for development as a whole can be... Detrimental.

My obvious solutions are just Occam's Razor.

►If the system is clogged from not enough approval staff, hire more eyes.
►Be aware of negative biases, should they exist. If somebody put in the work and good development, it should not matter who they are.
►Increase the time people have to work with their narratives, be invested, create, explore, and be their character. However long or short they want them to be.

-Most people rb once age nerfs hit anyway, so people always feel stressed, crunched, and prone to burnout. Breaks are healthy, but I'd rather people just not feel so stressed to need to take them stemming from the game itself.

-This would do nothing to impede the fact that children, elders, and everything in between will exist. This just gives people more time to enjoy them.



I go around a lot, the consensus overall appears clear and there's no harm in following it. Only benefits.

I cannot fathom this- Deciding to take the non-popular route despite the fact it has no real harm and wider appeal to a possible benefit.

[GSM]

“They bought into the ‘apps take too long, let’s complain about it’ stocks?

Dump it.”

(Serious thoughts in a follow up post when I get home, but I'm not very pleased.)

[Chance]

Applications aren't going anywhere, if that was the impression. I'm struggling a bit to parse through what points you're making, besides the obvious of faster response times being a good thing. Most applications are handled within a week.

If you want E3 style journals/apps where most characters have signatures and players are forced to use the forums to compete, that's never happening though.

[Enginseer-42]

Not to nitpick too much, because you're not wrong. But...

"Most people rb once age nerfs hit anyway"

This just feels silly to me. Rebirthing because you're not feeling the character anymore, sure. But because of age nerfs? That just feels ridiculous. It's not like your peers are any stronger. It's to give young guns a leg up on their older, more established opponents.

[Chance]

Not to nitpick too much, because you're not wrong. But...

"Most people rb once age nerfs hit anyway"

This just feels silly to me. Rebirthing because you're not feeling the character anymore, sure. But because of age nerfs? That just feels ridiculous. It's not like your peers are any stronger. It's to give young guns a leg up on their older, more established opponents.

It's also incorrect. The majority who play a character for that long (roughly half a year) tend to keep playing them regardless.

[DragonDarklyDreaming]

Most applications are handled within a week.

Are we sure about this? Nearly all of my applications have been over a week in length before I got a response, positive or negative. Maybe I'm the outlier ofc, but for example I'm still waiting on apps from several weeks ago. I know a few others who are likely waiting on apps from well over a week ago. Item apps I know are slow af atm as well.

[Detective100]

Not to nitpick too much, because you're not wrong. But...

"Most people rb once age nerfs hit anyway"

This just feels silly to me. Rebirthing because you're not feeling the character anymore, sure. But because of age nerfs? That just feels ridiculous. It's not like your peers are any stronger. It's to give young guns a leg up on their older, more established opponents.

A quick note to that, having the age dr start hitting now after 25 years instead of 30 stings. I generally play characters through all the way up to the bitter end, even after age nerfs hit (Last character had -3% dr from age nerfs, maybe 4% before dying off).

[Lammy]

its still 30 years, if you are getting it 25 years in unstead of 30, ahelp to get it changed, all tht

[Detective100]

its still 30 years, if you are getting it 25 years in unstead of 30, ahelp to get it changed, all tht

Did that. Was told it was 25...

[Quatral]

in my own experience the main discrepancy lies in peoples' understanding of the quality of their own application and work in relation to the request being made by it, i do my best to issue explanations on denials/unsatisfactory results in apps, but i don't always have the time to when processing 10+ applications at once.

being more critical and indicative of points to improve/work on in denials is something to work on in general.

i would be the first to say that the culture of app responses has changed a lot over the course of e4, particularly recently i think the team has been working on being more stringent with signatures as they are certainly not intended for everyone to have and run around with, but also the inflation of item stats which occurred for a while.

the austerity around sig approvals and item stat allocation is mainly coming from a place of trying to curtail run-away and ridiculous items/sigs which may not have have a beneficial impact on story-telling.

ofc not everyone on the app team may feel the same way but these are my thoughts