After playing for a little more than a year, it's time for me to go. Not gonna say "forever," and I am not sacrificing my roster and selling off everything. Over the last couple of months, I have already whittled down my trooper list from a full 50 to only 20.
It's been coming for a while for me, and I am just stubborn enough (especially since I have spent real money on this game) to keep holding on in hopes of some kind of miraculous improvement or addition that would breathe new life into LotB.
I've come to a few conclusions about this game. No doubt NF inherited some shit code when they took over the game. It was a buggy mess before they got hold of it (who else remembers when the server wouldn't remember your talisman leveling up, but sure as shit would remember you spending the gold and runes on it?), and it continues to be buggy even after fixes are sent out (how many attack wins did you have last week?). To me, this means that either the code is so messed up that this is the way things will always be, or NF staff just isn't good enough to fix it.
It sucks if either of those is true.
I also just don't believe that NF knows how to really run a game like this. I say this because there have been plenty of misfires of events (a new store option that costs any kind of currency, real or in game, is not an event, its a sale) and some squandered opportunities.
The worst squandered opportunity to me is the entire Trooper system. A strong Trooper system could make this a far better game. The game became much more enjoyable to me AFTER I dropped my roster down. That seems totally counterproductive to a game that is supposed to be catering to a fan base of a band. No in game chat/messaging to fellow Troopers? How does that make sense? Opening up new areas with SoT costs that make it even harder to meet the Trooper commitments is also a bad design choice.
It should never be a chore to help out your friends, in real life or in a game, yet how many times have players described working through their Trooper list as exactly that?
I would have quit much earlier if it wasn't for my Troopers, and some of the other players in this game. When I saw Maiden this past year, I was reminded that Maiden fans are some of the coolest and nicest people around. And that includes many of the folks that play this game.
So to Nicko, Saulki (your alt was a Trooper for a while, and your dedication to this game can not be overstated), Tom, Tex, Educated Fool, AgeEquillian (always first with the new toons it seemed), Nifelheim (caught the Maiden tour opener with him), caretakerii, Heavy, James, R1ck, and of course yogsothoth (my handle is after Randolph Carter) and the others left on my list and who have been on it before: thanks guys. You made this game much better.
Peace out, and good luck to all ya'll!