In retrospect...

[George]

Before I begin this little tirade of mine, I'd first like to say that I am not exempt from trying many times to bring about discussions of change that might've ushered Blade Symphony into a more mainstream game, a game more salient in the eyes of the larger gaming community. When I was active in the game and in the community, I tried many times to include my voice in the growing pool of suggestions towards the growth of Blade Symphony from this niche, poorly-advertised game into a bustling hub for those who enjoyed fast-paced and dynamic sword-fighting experiences. I'm most well-known in this regard for starting a lively, yet ultimately futile, discussion on a free-to-play model for Blade Symphony that might've seen an increase in player-ship (among other things). Of course, my efforts, and the efforts of others (who, I will concede, have done a lot more than I have in implementing and discussing new ideas for "reviving" the game), would eventually fall short due to PHG dissolving and the overall interest in the game subsiding after the May 7th(?) release and subsequent free weekends.

However, the main point of this thread is discussing why Blade Symphony, in hindsight, was better off small and self-contained. Sure, during my tenure, I was strident among others in trying to grow the game into some e-sports behemoth, or at the very lest, into a decently sized sword-fighting game a-la Chivalry and Soul Caliber, but as the years have waned and I've had much time to stew and reflect on my experiences, I've come to learn that the sheer intimacy and internal sense of community that Blade Symphony was so proficient in stimulating could not exist with a community of, say, 30,000 people. Even when Blade Symphony boasted 3,000 players for a short-period of time, the game already felt muddled and diluted: the general discussion page was washed with incessant threads about bugs and issues, questions about inviting friends to servers, and many of the servers that I would usually frequent were flooded with new faces that drowned away the old. Under the exhilaration I felt when I saw those numbers sky-rocket during free weekends or sales was a profound sense of seclusion. This same feeling of seclusion was present when I played games like League of Legends or Counter-Strike. I certainly didn't have that feeling of community in those games; I felt more like a bee buzzing inside the interminable caverns of its hive, where millions of other bees tended to themselves. And usually, this feeling of seclusion would be mended by having a small group of friends with which I could share that experience with. In Blade Symphony, however, those same group of friends were entirely absent, but nevertheless, that tight-knight sense of community that was so unique to the game made up for that by providing meaningful experiences with others that couldn't be found in other games.

The experiences I've had in Blade Symphony, suffice it to say, wouldn't have been possible without its small nature and intimate community. The memories I cherish, such as long nights playing server-sponsored mini-games or participating in weekly tournaments and being apart of different clans and clan-based initiations, rituals, meet-ups, etc., couldn't exist in a larger game setting. I've made many friends (and enemies), and I've grown as a person because of the beauty and the inclusiveness of the community. The game felt, to me, almost like a life-cycle. When I first began, there was a plethora of veterans and pillars of the community who I've looked up to and, to this day, still believe are my superiors, and as the years progressed, those veterans sifted away and I suddenly found myself among the new wealth of "veterans" that mingled at the top of the leader boards and tournament brackets. But like the ones that came before me, I eventually moved on as well. This, of course, happens in larger games as well, but being aware of that process and pin-pointing the profound shifts in the "hierarchy" of the community is exclusive to these smaller games.

Please don't interpret this as me advocating the graveyard status this game has come to now. What I cherish and, looking back on it, would never have changed, are the prime years when there was about a hundred active players (probably more) that mingled and interacted. (I'd say between Oct. 2013 and somewhere in early 2015). Those years are the ones that brought about the most potent memories and truly riveting experiences.

Regardless, I have much to be thankful for when it comes to Blade Symphony. This game alone has ushered me through hardships and has helped me better understand the true beauty in video games, beyond just brash competition. This game enshrines the unparalleled capability of the internet to band people together who share similar interests and construct for them a breeding ground for creativity and socialization. It truly is heart-breaking for me to see some of the newer players witness the shell of what this game used to be: the comradery and kinship among those that enjoyed the company of one another and the intricate workings of their internal and external communities.

Despite the disarray the game is in now, I truly hope it can pull through and rekindle its old glory. I will always be on the side of those that want to continue this game's legacy and bring it back from the chasms of apathy it seems to be plunged within right now.

Do not go gentle into that good night, Blade Symphony.







tl;dr west korea is, indeed, the best korea

[Him Reev]

Messaggio originale di urinal-cake:

To those responding to my earlier post; I'm not really doing much. At this point, all I'm doing is offering lofty goals, and people like fug and Josh are carrying them out. I'm also the knowledge hole about all the systems that make the PHG servers and infrastructure work, since we have nobody left in that department.

We have a huge hurdle at the moment with F2P. Bringing over items is the easy part, we can store 'em and I'm waiting for fug to strike up a conversation with the community about getting their content in.

The biggest problem is our stats. We have a super robust stats system, much of it is built off of the dystopia-stats.com system. I know not many of you have used it, but it does quite a lot, and it was a bit ahead of its time. Steam Stats doesn't work that way. So, I just wanted to share my mindspace with you all.

i've always liked the blade symphony ladder/stats system and how many details it has (full player history, tracks sword\char, opponents, graphs). i had thought the database was managed using mysql but burning told me it was done in JSON so i found that interesting.

the only issue is that the connection to the system is lost sometimes, especially during sales and other times where that's unusually high amounts of traffic. at those times everyone shows as being oak league, having 0 notes, not being able to access items etc. sometimes it can just be a delay of a few minutes and other times it has been completely unresponsive for several days.

not a whole lot of players make use of this cool system through the website though, so i think it would be useful to be able to access the statistics through an ingame GUI, like if a person was in a server and accessed the menu using escape, having a "Stats" or "Ladder" button somewhere on that pause menu that would show a UI where the stats system could be accessed while playing ingame would be a great feature to have and i thought would convince more players to make use of the data.

[urinal-cake]

well, in addition to the issues you mentioned, there are a growing amount of bugs that we're noticing it has, the lack of any kind of control or maintenance we have (can't switch from ELO, can't reset stats, etc.,) and that it sits on it's own server that costs about a quarter of what the rest of our servers cost.

a big goal of going f2p means shedding the system entirely, for these reasons. it's going to break, that's a definite. maybe a week, 2 months, 6 months or a year, it's going to stop working completely. it's sad that it has to be a goal, but the only way we'd be able to keep it is if we had enough money to hire an experienced Symfony2 PHP developer. I've talked about this before on the forums.

so, that means, when it's shed, we'll be putting a lot of our faith into steam stats. steam stats has no method for number crunching, so that means all the features you talked about, won't be there.

[rat]

Whats the point of paying for a server that you can't control?

[jes]

Messaggio originale di Trash Goblin:

Whats the point of paying for a server that you can't control?

He said the stats system is rigid and inflexible, not that he can't control the server.

@urinal it'll be sad to see the stats go, could you do a final stat dump for us to oggle before you kill it entirely?

[Him Reev]

yo

♫
in retrospect
i kekked before i rekt
pwnin all those noobies
i stepped on they necks
♫

♬
them trolls take no naps
spewin all they crap
check these dubs mom
it's my blade symphony rap
♬

cheyeah

[Bucket Hat Billy]

Messaggio originale di SgtPepper:

yo

♫
in retrospect
i kekked before i rekt
pwnin all those noobies
i stepped on they necks
♫

♬
them trolls take no naps
spewin all they crap
check these dubs mom
it's my blade symphony rap
♬

cheyeah

lmao that was garbage and cringeworthy I hope ur proud if urself

[knight77]

Messaggio originale di SgtPepper:

yo

♫
in retrospect
i kekked before i rekt
pwnin all those noobies
i stepped on they necks
♫

♬
them trolls take no naps
spewin all they crap
check these dubs mom
it's my blade symphony rap
♬

cheyeah

EU rap

[Him Reev]

Messaggio originale di 20RC|0 Respect:

lmao that was garbage and cringeworthy I hope ur proud if urself

https://youtu.be/bHpw6CzprNY

[Nax_o]

Interesting read. Got the game early but was not sure if it was 'mature' enough so i shelved it.

Now when i am in the mood to start spending time with this you say it's already a goner. Oh shoot.

[jes]

Messaggio originale di Nax_o:

Interesting read. Got the game early but was not sure if it was 'mature' enough so i shelved it.

Now when i am in the mood to start spending time with this you say it's already a goner. Oh shoot.

Give it a shot, there's always people on.

[Nax_o]

Already did. It was really weird now that i found some players. Sat down mostly and watched people duke it out and give out advice.

[Elsk]

Would have been nice if this game went free to play long ago, but even with that I think many people will just move on because of the ridiculous skill ceiling this game has. There will always be people that attempt to drive new players away as a result of antics or banter, but from what I've seen, there have always been people around in this community who were willing to put countless hours to see this game flourish.

Games that revolve around 1v1 are ridiculously niche nowadays. The FFA community does somewhat break the monotony up, but the freedom you get with source engine is way more prevalent in games like CS:S or Garrys Mod.

[rat]

A god returns!

[Eon.eXe]

This was an interesting read, been a while since I've skulked in the Disscussions for this game. Good to see some of you again. /

[Him Reev]

Messaggio originale di Pedro.eXe:

This was an interesting read, been a while since I've skulked in the Disscussions for this game. Good to see some of you again. :DJSkully:/

vote for pedro