Sigh.
Yes, yes, Atruejed is back to whine again in public. It's cathartic. I've stuck with this game for years, loss after loss, frustration after frustration, humiliation after humiliation. It's my lot in life. It's my cross to bear. Bitching is the only thing that prevents me from forsaking this game for eternity. Tonight, I'd like to explore the Catch 22 of Guns of Icarus Online player retention.
Tonight, in a lobby which was stacked (purposely at times...) over and over again, I realized this stacking issue wouldn't be a problem if the community were bigger. I could just leave and find another match. But there were a mere 120 or so players online. I expressed my frustration with the situation. Another player said Muse cares more about Alliance because it will serve as a tutorial and will grow skirmish mode. I completely disagree with that notion. I think that's backwards. Alliance shouldn't grow skirmish. Skirmish should grow Alliance!
This game is wonderful (if not perfect, but that's okay!), but no one plays it, or keeps playing it. I have a Steam friends list of 218 people. Most of them are from Team Fortress 2. Yet 85 of them own Guns of Icarus Online. I've only added a HANDFUL of GOI players to my Steam friends list because of the awesome integrated GOI friends list. Maybe 15, tops. And YET!... a shit-ton of players own the game. Why don't they play it? Why do they try it once and quit, never to return? As I've already expressed, they quit because they have a bad time on their initial day and give up after getting stomped repeatedly. Their game losses are our community losses.
I've already expressed how I believe this situation should be addressed and fixed. Many of you weighted in... but Muse has said nothing, except more/better tutorials are coming. Shouldn't new/better tutorials be their TOP PRIORITY? Shouldn't growing their skirmish mode player base be paramount to the success of Alliance!? Am I crazy!? I know, I know, I've contemplated leaving the community before (and did for seven months in 2015)... but, again, I'm about to reach my tipping point. I sacrifice my own personal enjoyment/win-loss-ratio so new players can get a decent experience, but I'm (sadly) one of the few. I contributed to the GOI Steam Workshop, yet never gotten any feedback from the developers after four months. I'm so near giving up on this game. If Muse doesn't care, why should I? That's how it seems. But I don't want to give up. I'm inherently hopeful. And I remember "the good ol' days."
At this point, I just want Muse to... say something. To say anything. To reassure me they care about skirmish. To understand their priorities. Please tell me I'm not the only old-timey player who is EXTREMELY frustrated at this point... can we form a support group?