Warning: Conspiracieis AHEAD ooo spooky
TL;DR: PLEASE Skip to paragraph 10 (or the paragraph starting after the “Equal Signs” divider) if you don’t want to read 9 paragraphs of buildup.
Although I believe that Realm’s forward momentum in future end-game content has or has had good intentions on the player base, whether it’s making the game “funner”, more exciting, or challenging with the release of new items and harder dungeons, I think it has unintentionally hindered the games enjoyability counterintuitively with the newer releases of “future content” such as O3.
Personally, I think O3 on its own is great. It really encapsulates that “Bullet-Hell” label and trade mark without making it a nearly impossible and frustrating experience. What’s so great about O3 is that each boss actually warrants a digestible, learnable fighting rhythm (even the chaotic ones like Dammah and Beisa), due to each of their unique difficulties, whilst creating a coordinating theme (Leucoryx is the psycho priest idolizer, Beisa is the loyal strategist and “hand of the king”, etc.) to really seal that end-game experience. It’s exciting because you’re risking your character as a vessel just to simply put your dodging skills and game senses to the test.
However, what makes O3 himself different from the rest of the mini bosses is that he has an array of options to choose from to make the fight that much spicier and engaging. But, interestingly enough, the actual goal and seeked “experience” of O3 among most players isn’t the journey and atmosphere itself (as much as it may draw in a player); it’s the loot… and that’s where my problem lies.
Yes, O3 items are awesome cuz they absolutely fucking bonk, but they might b o n k too much. I remember when O3 officially dropped and I wikied each of the new items and tried to formulate the “next” best/ideal sets in the game. It really shifted my perspective on the future state of the game because of how much more fun the game could be with this newly released content (if I could just get my hands on some of em whites lol). But, as time passed, although I realized the strength of the items are justified due to the sheer difficulty of O3, everything else that was semi-relevant or a “convenience” at the time was either slightly or completely overshadowed in comparison after the release of O3, even really strong items like Bracer (when compared to Coronation), and that shouldn’t be the case. That should only be the case for TIERED items and not UTs.
Sure, I absolutely get that O3 UTs should be bonked tf out cuz it’s O3 for Oryx’s sake… but let me ask you this: What is there left to do after you’ve gotten your “newly” desired items and ideal/perfected sets? Hmm, maybe get more for your back-up Knight or Wizard? Yeah okay, you’ll go ahead and do that; few more days/weeks/months of grinding and you’ll get there, surely. Then what? Uuuh, oh yeah that’s right: exaltations. You’ll focu- aw shit, you’re exalted on your favorite class or classes. Guys, a year fuckin later after the release of O3 and 5 legit players have already exalted all 17 of Realm’s playable characters. That means they’ve ran at least 10,200 exaltation dungeons each. If you’re asking yourself now “What is there left to do?”, imagine how those 5 people who’ve ran 10200+ dungeons, obtaining a surplus amount of exaltation-dungeon whites, are feeling right now. (Also, account resets and PPEs or the entire LGTBQ spectrum of variations of PPEs shouldn’t have to be your only or last resort when trying to have fun with the game.) At the very least, you gotta respect their hustle and grinding etiquette: their goals were the most ambitious ones to be recorded in Rotmg history.
That’s what their goals were. Yet, when they first booted Rotmg on a browser through Wildshadows or Kongregate and started playing Rotmg 8-10 years ago, their goals were more wholesome and less dreadful/straining. Their goal hopefully reminisced of a blameless part of everyone’s childhood when growing up. Their goals were just like ours when starting out, and maybe, they still are even now: to have fun.
That’s what everyone’s goal is and still should be when playing a game like Rotmg, that isn’t hindered by an “ending” or a story, regardless if you’re first starting out or are a well-seasoned veteran. Your goal of having fun shouldn’t have to go away once there’s a set, tangible ceiling or limit to experiencing something, like how they did when adding O3, Exaltations, Void, Lost halls, Shatters, or even Tomb when it was the “top dog” end-game dungeon at the time. Your goal of fun shouldn’t cease when you have maxed exaltations, maxed enchantments on equipment, the best items in the game, a maxed pet, or all the unlockable skins. Your goal of fun should be limitless and uncaged through the copious amounts of choices in imaginative playstyles you can think of and play, but that’s a little hard when you have little-to-no room in creative playing due to the negligent 5ft-ceiling cap that Deca’s instilled.
I think Rotmg’s community has been forced to adopt an “elitist” point of view towards the game and it’s current state of items due to power creep. It seems like the only way to have fun is dominated by the idea of having the best items in the game rather than making your own enjoyable playstyle (regardless if it’s “viable” or not because YOU’RE ENJOYING IT and having fun), and that absolutely shouldn’t be the case. Additionally, I’m quite certain that we’re all hesitant and unsure of what the devs of Rotmg are actually capable of when it comes to creating new properties, animations, and graphics. I believe we think this way because of how Deca slowly and steadily inches towards a more fulfilling game design. Remember when they added beams to Realm for the first time? How pathetically mind blowing was that? Like I’m genuinely asking, when I saw beams in O3 for the first time, I lost my shit because I didn’t think Realm was “qualified” enough to make that happen. It really makes you think think what they’re actually capable of producing and how much they’re holding back.
Ever since they introduced beams since O3, they’ve been slowly progressing to a more satisfying pixel-graphic game. Have you seen their latest work? With the new Trickster ST set and how the bullets/projectiles from the dagger actually have their own pixel-changing graphics? It’s fucking dope asf and I hope that they realize they’re capable of making the rest of the game like this “new dagger”, metaphorically ofc.
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Anyways, what I’m trying to convey is that Realm is absolutely capable of offering a significantly more enjoyable experience that’s orientated through one’s imaginative playstyle rather than a linear, forced, and eventually limited “elitest” route of play with the best items in the game. This is why I believe all soon-to-come or all current early, mid, and end-game UT items (which’ve or which’ll innocently suffer from “past” or “future” power-creep inducing items) should shed their one-dimensionally situational uses and be given life through the use of newly implemented thematic reactive, stackable, inflicting, or passive procs/abilities (with newly added pixel animations if need be, like the new Trickster Dagger) to allow more room for synergies and to satiate one’s desired imaginative playstyle and hunger for fun. (I definitely believe that enchantments and dungeon modifiers are a step in the right direction for keeping the game more fruitful, engaging, and fun, but those should only be assistors to the truly fun part of the game, which is your desired playstyle, and not the messiah to Realm’s only form/expressionism of additional fun.)
However, if this concept were to be successfully implemented, then that would theoretically mean that all items which were left unchanged were part of that power-creep pool, which would also mean that at least some of those items would soon become semi-obsolete because they’re less enjoyable or fun (some items, such as the ones with sufficient, non-stimulating, and boring stat bonuses, like Divine Coronation) when compared to their competing same-tiered dungeon items which were giving new properties; thus, we need to compensate. To keep balance/consistency of these left over items, you could either go two ways: buff the according stats on the item if you want to go down that “former elitist/maximum efficiency build” playstyle or give it its own reactive/stackable/inflicting/passive proc(s)/ability(ies). I honestly shouldn’t even be calling it an “elitist” playstyle because now you’re choosing that specific route of play out of the several imaginative options you could’ve chosen from (instead of forcibly only playing that playstyle because that’s the only way to have the most fun: with the best items in the game). Now, the group of players who seek the maximum-efficiency actually have the freedom to chose that type of playstyle and could value fun from sheer strength found in the overwhelming amount of stat bonuses and n u m b e r s in their equipment.
Regardless though, regardless of all the power creep and O3 items and Deca’s forcibly dominating playstyle among Realm’s player base, I believe that in order to make this game more fun, there should be generally more UTs with thematically implemented passive, activated, inflicting, or stackable procs/abilities to allow players to create their own synergized playstyles. If this concept hypothetically works and Deca gets worried about not making as much money because these new UT items will compete with ST mystery boxes, JUST REWORK or BUFF the inconvenient and self-harming/useless ST sets to compete with their respectful mid-game UTs that received new game mechanics and properties.
Anyways, if you guys found this post interesting, you should really consider checking out this guy’s recent content because he actually takes time in providing clean and respectable reworks to some unloved items. He was the one who actually gave me the final nudge in writing this rant simply because he showed me that there are people like him in this community who are willingly open to new ideas and are inspired enough in making the game more stimulating and fun through reactive properties. So, again, thank you Dark Sou- I mean @Pomfers.
If you actually made it through, congrats here’s a vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4w48Zw8Zy8&ab_channel=Harveygotbored
Anyways, let me know whether you guys think we should have more UTs with reactive, stackable, inflicting, or passive procs in order to offer much more fun and variety to your Realm experience or if the devs should just focus on buffing/reworking ST sets? Let me know what you think down below. Thanks for reading!
Edit*: I FIGURED OUT HOW TO CHANGE THE TITLE @Krayen @Yem woooooo
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