This ain't working. If this game is so wrong and unbalanced that literally every champ, ability, mechanic build, etc needs to be changed or altered, just make a new game. And make it a lot more like pre-Dow pox, than post Dow pox. In every sense. That is all.
I always found Maljara (after the first revamp) the most enjoyable and most balanced Pox has ever been. Everything could compete, nothing too broken, fun stuff all around. Then again, nostalgia is a fickle lover.
I do remember that time fondly. I think a lot of things factored into the feeling of "more balanced": 3 full-time in-house designers (Rev, Corpse and I) with differing styles of design and approaches A lot more players back then (Maljara came after the long dry spell following the whole Facebook failure when nothing was released, so there was a lot of hype there) Tho I think the net change was still negative (as far as I can tell, Pox lost more players around that time than any other time) But more players means more people around your rank and more things are competitive even if nothing else changes All of the new themes were generally competitive and complete with each other, so anyone who bought a bunch of runes could have a "complete" deck Many people eventually got tired of this approach tho, as they had to wait long time to get a rune for certain decks/themes/builds Of course, we are also forgetting all the nerf cries about Stitched being OP, Tortuns being OP, Aspects being OP, etc. But it's hard to objectively measure or think about something like that. Numbers-wise, I know that meta diversity didn't peak then in terms of number of runes people in the top 200 used, but it's hard to read too much into that as well.
Dear diary Today sok agreed with me to some extend without us first exchanging jabs and trolls. I must remember to always treasure this moment, for I feel truly alive. Much love BeePee
In all seriousness, it's hard to judge pox viability and player numbers relating to X or Y factor. There's so many reasons, for example league became really big around Maljara/just after it. I remember a fair bit of players getting hooked on that. Still, it was the first time when I really started grinding Pox out. It'd be my time machine setting.
Re: League, and other similar things like WOW. To some extent, it is amazing to see gaming becoming less of a "basement dweller" thing. On the other hand, huge successes like that I feel has a negative impact too on the landscape - where it becomes much harder to compete and all the money chases the outliers - usually to their own detriment. This then has the effect of publishers and investors being even more fearful and wanting sure things - leaving all the innovations to indies... who don't have the capital to pull thru (as we have seen even with "successful" kickstarters).
Sok pretty much just said that they didn't, at least not in the top 200. Which is about 50% of the pop at the best of times, I guess.
Well I usually did well an played more champs and was top 50 most of the time on my old account, but that could be me extrapolating my experience onto others I guess
Pox 2.o is actually not doing to hot last I checked *cough* conquest of champions *cough* The original pox is still pretty awesome...
Honestly doe I agree. As far as balancing goes there's straight up too many runes to balance. Design is headed in the wrong (boring) direction too, imo.
I have a great idea to improve pox. We could let people who haven't been involved with the game for an extremely long time revamp the entire game! That sure would blow a fresh breeze wouldn't it?