2018-09-24 20:50:12

Hi all,

If you're not a Sryth player, past or present, you probably won't get much out of this. Apologies in advance.

But I was playing the other day, fiddling with a quest, looking at things I hadn't explored in awhile, and it came to me. My love for this game is virtually dead.

What follows is some of my musing as to why that happened.

1. Competition
I didn't start playing Sryth in order to compete against people with bigger wallets, more time to click buttons or both. I started playing because I loved the idea of being the hero in a story, and because the writing is good. I still get to be the hero, and the writing is still decent - albeit it's getting stale nowadays - but it seems like the fair majority of things being done now are archery competitions, duels or other multiplayer scenarios. And that's cool, but it's not what I wanted.
2. Pay to win
I haven't dropped thousands upon thousands on Sryth and I've finished almost all of the in-game content. I've got a character with something like 330 melee and stamina as well as 92 nevernel reserve. She can take pretty much anything the game throws at her. But I keep seeing money grabs (new packages, new sales, repetitive prods to donate money, capped off by the Titans of Tysa thing from a couple of months back), and it makes me sad. I understand that the developer wants to make his game profitable, but combined with point #1, this is very disheartening.
3. Heart
I feel like the heart has gone out of this game. Once upon a time, delving deep into a dungeon or forest meant something. You'd find all sorts of weird stuff, get lost, die horribly if you found the goblin warband at the wrong time or fought the Vorin Thul before you were ready, or half a hundred other things. I loved the idea of that nearby realm we could teleport to, the demonic symbols we could insert into weapons, familiars, the Adventurer Collective, all the weird stuff in the Proving Grounds...and then suddenly that all faded away. Now, we get sporadic adventures which, to my eye at least, all look basically the same. It culminated in an adventure the other day called Untold Heaps of Bone. Small spoilers here. You eventually unlock a ten-floor dungeon with some nice rewards and half-decent story. Sounds cool, right? Wrong. You have to do a puzzle on floor 1, and then the same one on every. single. floor thereafter. The location of each of the puzzle elements changes, but the mechanics are identical. It felt like busywork because it -was busywork. I got similar feelings when I had to fight massive armies of Oakaruk one at a time, as well as other similar things.
4. Loose ends
There are hundreds of them, literally, and some of them are pretty damn big. I'd really love to see some of them resolved or expanded upon, but I feel like the GM has this bad habit of becoming enchanted by a new idea, going to town on it, getting roadblocked, then skating off in a whole new direction when something else comes to mind. I've been waiting for the Tome of Attainment for about nine years now. I've been waiting to find the other pieces of Doomwall for about twelve. There are a couple of adventures that have been listed in the adventure finder for well over a year now as "not yet available", and I'm so, so tired of those three words.

All of this paints a pretty grim picture. For me, at least, Sryth isn't fun anymore. Instead of delivering on weird bits of lore, fleshing out back stories, giving good puzzles and maintaining a decent pace, development has slowed to a crawl while archery tournament after archery tournament awards special bows to people. We wait for the finishing of long-dangling plot lines, but instead we are told about all the new and wonderful packages we can spend RL money on. And I'm...just not feeling the magic anymore.

This has been a long time coming. I'm not quitting outright, but I think I'm going to be playing it a lot less from here on out.

Wondering what everyone's thoughts are. Do you feel I'm being too harsh? Do you agree with me? Let me know.

Check out my Manamon text walkthrough at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ls3rc3f4mkb … n.txt?dl=1

2018-09-25 02:48:44

Completely agreed. I played untold heaps of bone the other day, and groaned repetedly when discovering a new floor. At first I was like, well, I can handle 5 floors of this, I'm sure the reward is worth it. Oh my god! There are more? Why oh god why! You know it's bad when there is a literal page on the wiki listing every single loose end. It's absolutely ridiculous. Last year I started a brand new character and went through the old adventurers. The spark was rekindled briefly, but burned out quickly. This game is nothing but a shallow shell of its former self, and it's incredibly sad. I've been playing since 2004. I was around when the secret of stoneback hill came out as the first paid adventure. I remember when the armor of the animals was some of the most powerful equipment in the whole game. I remember when the hail blade was the best sword you could get. Then the trading post went in, and everything slowly began to spiral.

It's a shame, but I think the spark is gone and the gm just doesn't want to admit it to himself. This used to be my favorite game of all time. Now it's just something to come back to once every year or two.

Take care, it's a desert out there.

2018-09-25 12:55:01

I'm a player who remembers those days as well. I wasn't around quite as early as you, but close enough. The animals armour wasn't quite the best in all slots when I played, but some pieces were...and the Hale Blade was definitely up there. And then adventurer tokens went in, special packages/Tallys's Trading Post went in, and everything went to hell.

I nearly quit on Untold Heaps of Bone several times, had the same "you have got to be kidding me" reaction on every floor past 3 or so. I mean, okay, a ten-floor dungeon sounds rreat in theory. Give me different puzzles, or lots of tough enemies...fine, I'll struggle for a good reward. Just...not the same puzzle over and over again.
And I'm getting really, really, really sick of all the secrecy. Every other NPC is saying stuff like "you cannot yet know, but your actions will impact not only your realm, but untold others as well", and other such cryptic nonsense. In some places it's useful, s bit scary even. In Sryth's environment, the GM has begun using cryptic warnings in place of plot depth, and it's sad.

Check out my Manamon text walkthrough at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ls3rc3f4mkb … n.txt?dl=1

2018-10-09 22:31:56

where can you get this game.

2018-10-10 08:01:54

Hi.
@fireflamedragon: www.sryth.com
@Jayde: I completely agree. I stopped playing the game back in 2010 I think, mainly because of the loose ends, and all the new things you mentioned, which already started back in 2008 I think. It seemed like, already at that time, that the GM wanted to stay away from the stories and all the cool quests, and focus more on the tournaments and the donation geer.
An other reason for I stopped playing was because the website is, for some reason, extremely difficult to navigate on a Mac. I could just use Windows, I know.
One thing which motivates me is the lifetime purchase of the subscription. But I don't find it worth supporting the game, because I don't like the direction it is going. I haven't contacted the GM regarding this, so I shouldn't complain. But I could imagine others have contacted him about this.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2018-10-10 10:52:51

I have to agree. I have two terrific characters over there that I hate to just give up on, but the magic is mostly gone for me too. Not to mention the cash I've donated for my steller eq. lol
sad

2018-10-11 10:33:15

I've never played Sryth, so I have one question: If I create an account now, is this good stuff still there and you all just played through it and only now the game is expanded with not so good content, or is the old content not even availlable now.

We are pleased, that you made it through the final challenge, where we pretended we were going to murder you. We are throwing a party in honor of your tremendous success. Place the device on the ground, then lay on your stomach with your arms at your sides. A party associate will arrive shortly to collect you for your party. Assume the party submission position or you will miss the party.

2018-10-11 11:08:32

The old content is definitely still there, and there is a lot of it. Just be aware that once you get through it, there won't really be any new quality content coming. It will take a long, long time to get through it all. Keep in mind that jade and myself have been playing since the early 2000s, so we're talking about as long as some of the members here have been alive. lol. I would say definitely give it a shot, the old content is worth playing, I'd even say sign up for adventurer's guild, it's a one time $20 fee. It actually used to be a yearly $20 fee, but that changed recently, I would guess because the content stream got too low to justify a yearly cost.

TLDR, yes, the old stuff is still there, and totally worth playing. It's incredibly fun.

Take care, it's a desert out there.

2018-10-11 13:05:24

Okay thanks. Will try it.

We are pleased, that you made it through the final challenge, where we pretended we were going to murder you. We are throwing a party in honor of your tremendous success. Place the device on the ground, then lay on your stomach with your arms at your sides. A party associate will arrive shortly to collect you for your party. Assume the party submission position or you will miss the party.

2018-12-27 02:09:27

Going to use my skill of necromancy on this topic. Or maybe restoration?

So I think after the conclusion of this current event, I'm done with this game. Let me explain why.

So, the GM awarded people a present to be opened on or after December 25. This was awesome. it has a ton of gear pieces in it, and I bet they're super-useful if you haven't dropped a ton of money on the game. Good for him.
Then he makes a special Oakenstone Mask event called the Festive Fray.  This was cute the first time I played through it, sort of. And you do get a nice weapon the first time you go through one specific scenario. So okay, fine.
For anyone not certain, Oakenstone Mask puts you in random scenarios while you are forced to wear a specific piece of headgear. it's a weird gimmick. Now every single thing you do within these scenarios is based on luck. You get points for good combat rolls, or dodges, or whatever. Your NV is set to 0 - as it so often is now, I think the GM is starting to realize just how broken his magic system is - and you can't use items, so there's virtually no way to help yourself out. This means that when you are awarded point totals, it feels very random and out of your control. That's because it is. So it's a raw, straight-up contest of luck.
Now here's what's  not so cute about the whole prospect.
There's a secondary thing going on where you have to collect snowflakes. If you get them all, you get a nice bonus, plus the choice of an amulet or a ring. Cool, right?
Well instead of collecting five snowflakes, or ten, or twenty-five, you have to collect seventy-eight. Not a typo. And snowflakes drop at an approximate rate of 30% any time you finish one of the Festive Fray scenarios. Each scenario takes a minute or two to finish, and unlocks every fifteen minutes. Mathematically, then, you have to go through about 250 scenarios to get all these snowflakes. Assuming you play them all equally, that means you're going to see each of the seven scenarios about thirty-six times. For a luck-based thing like this, where you've seen it all once you've done the scenario once or twice, this is major, major overkill, and stinks of laziness besides.
I'm okay with rare things, hard-to-find things, even a little grinding, but this is nuts. Where tid the number seventy-eight come from, and what would possess a game creator to make that much grinding? I'm going to finish it, because I'm well and started now, but quite frankly I think this is the end of the road for me. If this gear/reward/whatever isn't utterly mind-blowing, I'm probably going to write off an email to the GM detailing my feelings and thoughts. I'll be courteous, I have no interest in flaming anyone, but this game's heart and soul are virtually dead.

Oh, and I think the top donator in the game has something like 1700 melee, 2200 stamina and like 500NV. God knows how he got that much, or how many years worth of salary he's given the GM, but wow. Needless to say that in any contest of arms, no one's going to have a chance in hell against him. And there are probably others nearly as strong.

There is a ton of old content that's great fun the first or second go-round, but unfortunately it doesn't measure up against the growing mountain of dross.

Check out my Manamon text walkthrough at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ls3rc3f4mkb … n.txt?dl=1