by monstarules » 5 September 2017, 08:06
Time for a long ranty post.
I am glad to see some older users around. I will say, a lot of fun happened between 2011-2014, but after 2014, there was a sharp decline of users. I will never forget the words "I want gun". You vets should aaaaalll know what I am talking about (gunshop maps, for you newer sorts). Gunshops were tons of fun, and raiding clan maps was also fun. However, as clans just stopped being popular and had many impersonators, they also became quite pointless (the lack of the clan system had something to do with that).
A big reason of decline was the lack of updates, but in addition to that, there were schisms in the staff, rude staff, staff that outright lied to EG, and more staff issues. Oh, and people making gunshop maps to have s*x by abusing the ragdolls, hacking, and glitching were probably a contributing factor. The petty hacking that occured on clan sites was also rather amusing, but it created so much animosity, and the fact that promised features never came out also added something into the mix. These forums took way too long to come up, and they were too late to do much.
Oh, and the non-interaction with the community and the staff had something to do with it. I remember trying to talk to Spaz and PixelVoxel when they were admins, and they acted like they were better than the community, and didn't care (well, they are certainly not staff anymore so they got what they deserved). Perhaps the lack of implementing community suggestions also had an impact; the widely suggested actual sniper rifle didn't come out until 2013.
Can't forget the stupid ban reasons and the censorship things too. That needs to be loosened up. We all used to be able to cuss, now we can't swear or even say certian players names in the chat. People used to get banned for it too. Maybe it's because I am an American, but censorship sucks. I'm sure PB 2.5 will be popular but it is what happens in the first months of the release that sets up this game for a true success. I'm liking what I am seeing. However, flash games like this are set to expire, if PB 2.5 doesn't get programmed with an actual language, like C++, Java, or C, we're probably going to end up witnessing a game with a short lifespan, as NPAPI plugins are being nuked off of pretty much every browser.
We are living in a time where technology outgrows itself. Just spanning in a time from 17-3 years ago, Internet flash games were what made this world go round. Now, even the most standard computers that are cheap can run at least Minecraft, older Battlefield games (a laptop with an i5 can run BF4 era games with a quite playable framerate), indie games that don't require much such as Project Reality, and much more. The interest level is declining in online flash games, and older OS'es are getting updates that make them stop working, so that people have to upgrade.
I'd like to see PB2.5 keep it's sidescrolling style, that is definitely a popular and unique thing. I do like the 2.5d graphics. I like the increase of things, and the customization of characters that is being promised. However, what causes games to fail is not following through. I know Eric does this mostly in his spare time by himself. Con Artist Games released a game called Warfare: Online, which had a tremendous start, but no updates due to lack of staff/funds. It was a game that had so much potential, but too little content, and it failed because the staff was unable to keep it up and running.
Eric probably should set up a donation page of sorts so that we can help him somehow. Some of us may have programming skills (I for one am actually an expert with programming logic, and I learn languages fast, and if you ask me for an example, I could provide), graphical art skills, and might be able to help him, and he probably could use better translators/voice actors for the audio, or text. Maybe he should take some applications for GAME DEVELOPMENT staff. Yes, people help by acting as forum moderators, and hacker catchers, and whatnot, but there needs to be more actual behind the scenes staff and contributors.
Any criticism or response is welcome!
Waiting for some good updates