This hurts to see.

Chow

 

Even as a fairly new player, I am sympathetic with your overall sentiment -- and, of course, with the fact that you care enough about the server that you actually take your time for such a post.
However, the fact that you don't name any details makes it hard to agree or disagree with you. What exactly are you referring to when saying that you are "watching this drama unfold in such a disgusting way"? I am sure that many of the reasons you have in mind are things that other players would applaud rather than criticise. So what, specifically, are the causes for your concerns? The AP reset thing?

 

It does seem lately like the server shifted to pleasing the random majority than caring about the dedicated minority. It doesn't feel right that the loyal players who have played the server for 1-2 years are being considered less important to the server than the new ones joining when it is those players who conformed the essence of Legends and actually played it when it had its original goals. It feels like the mission and vision of Legends have completely changed when they are supposed to be the core of the server and remain throughout time.

 

It's been rough these past few months tbh.. but meh, we can push through, or atleast that's what I think.

 

I agree with that the AP reset situation should have been discussed with the community before, and I, too, think that lowering the price of AP resets might not be a good idea -- although for reasons other than that the elder player base will have had it harder than newer players. The problem is that whenever the developers remove something they deem not 'difficult' but simply 'tedious' (and while it's questionable what exactly is tedious and what isn't, removing tedious elements is probably a good idea in general), older players will have had a harder time than newcomers. Let's say, for example, the devs decided to get rid of mandatory boat rides: in this case, older players could say "Hey, I had to spend loads of time on boats which could have been spent on killing mobs! New players will have a much better ratio of time spent vs. exp (and mesos) gained! I should be refunded!" This is an issue in general: Whenever an issue of the game is removed, people can say "But *I* had to live with it!" Going down this route of thought, we should either refrain from game improvements in general (apart from maybe typos) or think of some kind of refund for all old players. But even then, you are confronted with questions like "Who deserves the name 'old player' and is thus eligible for a refund? And what kind of refund? ...".
This is why I generally agree with the position which I assume to be the developers': "Instead of retroactively compensating each player for having to deal with an issue that players won't have to deal with anymore every single time we make an improvement to the game, older players will sadly just have to deal with it in most cases." As hard as it sounds: As the server continues to be improved, older players will have been at a disadvantage.

However, I concede that it's obviously up for discussion what is actually an improvement and what isn't. This is why I wholeheartedly agree with you that the server should keep in mind what makes it great: for example, nostalgia and a good, transparent and fair communication with the player base. Reducing the price of AP resets should have been discussed publicly, and I'm not sure that reducing the effort of HP washing (and thus making it potentially (?) more prevalent and expected from others) won't have a negative effect on nostalgia and lighthearted (as in: not compulsively efficiency-driven) fun. (This is also why I personally hope that mandatory boat rides will never be removed -- not because of respect for older players, I'm afraid.)

Darn, this reply turned out way longer than expected. English is not my first language so it's not easy to put my thoughts into brief terms. So yeah, I generally agree with your motivation and am thankful for your reminder of this server's core values. Communities need 'pep talks' like that. And I'm glad that your post gives us an opportunity to sort out in what kind of direction we, as a community, would like to go with the server.

 

LOL WHAT KIND OF JOKE IS THIS. NICE THREAD UNLOCK