Irreversible?

[dos]

I can see where you're coming from, but you have to understand that most of these updates take a long time to make. Like Bliss said, many games have a huge team of developers that dedicate their time to the game they were hired for and they have huge knowledge on what they are doing. Most of iEra's developers are people who are just passionate on the game or videogames and want to gain some experience. With this said, we are also not that many people, and for departments like the Graphics Team it is extremely hard to find suitable people or people who have enough base knowledge to get in the team. Believe me when I say that I have gotten many applications from people who want to be the team and I have only hired one person from the time I became GFXA (on submitted applications). It is very hard to find mature people and people with enough skill to be able to help. Also most of us are in school or work full time jobs, when finals come they will take that as a priority.

Just imagine, to release an AAA game it takes YEARS for that game to be released. We have to continuously make content (sometimes with the span of 2 weeks) and present it to you. Not only that but we definitely lack scripters, who are what bring life to the game. They fix bugs (the zoom in on iPhone bug was fixed not long ago) but with the lack of people on that department it is almost impossible for them to move on to another left off project when there is another 10 coming in.

Believe me when I say most of us work our *** off, for Christmas Day I worked 8 full hours non stop to get work done and that was not only me, it was most of us. We just don't have enough time and people to make the updates that people want, and on some things we are limited to touch (like guns, as Keir mentioned). I wish I could hire more people for graphics but it is very hard finding people who will be willing to give time to a project that will only give you experience. For some people like me that's amazing, but for others thats a waste of time.

Also too, most of the complaints people have are from things that were done a long time ago and that they cannot just be taken off. Remember that any little change will affect a lot of people and gameplay so these updates on jobs may be a little harder to come to a perfect buff. We are definitely working on things to make the game fun again for people but it just takes times to fix mistakes that some of our past members left for us to fix and finding time and the right people to help.

I know people think we don't listen to feedback or that we don't care, but believe me when I say that most of us do, and that we do share your concerns to see if we can find a solution. Just because we don't talk about it or we don't implement it immediately does not mean that we are not trying our hardest to make it better for everyone.

I can say it with little doubt, that players will not care about the amount of updates brought in throughout the year. Look at Classic. They get updates once every blue moon, and their playercount is around twice of Era's. It's no mystery that devs have things going for them, but you pointed out the issue of adding more over to patch up the hole. I said before, that doesn't help. Holiday items released every month or so because of "tradition" doesn't incline the playercount. I'm not too sure of who's giving feedback, but how applicable really is that feedback? Aesthetics and accessories are very, extremely short term entertainment. I'm sure that if you all broke your tendencies of these "cool new (useless) items" and focused more on the core concepts of the game(what really matters), there would be much more satisfaction and a huge incline of players. There is no difference in time from a few short-term updates than one critical long-term solution. Prove me wrong. I'm willing to bet that every team member will have more self-satisfaction from actual updates. Is someone commanding you all or does the entire team just have a static concept in their heads? I hear it everyday, that iEra is dying. Will you all just work harder at your production, or veer another direction for the good of it all? It's the little things behind all of the rubble that are most important; the core.

This entire time I haven't been pushing downwards on the team, but trying to realign the sight. Can't take things out under the instruction of Unixmad? That's sucks, but let's try to increase job outcome. Can't increase job outcome under the instruction of Unixmad? That's alright, we'll just do our same routine for another 5 years until we drown the whole game so that it's all gone in the end. Can there be a change? Once someone with authority steps up to the man and asks, we'll know. I don't imagine that anyone's tried as of yet.