Is it just me, or has the OMG update made the game so much worse?

[nusensei]

Preface
I'm an actual YouTuber. Obviously I don't expect YTL to be an actual reflection of YouTube life. I do, however, have an uncommon dilemma of playing YTL or actually growing my channel and earning real life money, and since I started playing YTL, I feel like I'm wasting my life. At least it was low-expectation low-intensity time-wasting while waiting for videos to render. The OMG update, the "biggest" since the game's launch...seems to have ruined everything.

Cards
I must be missing something here. What happened to the cards in this update? Previously, the number of actions was diverse. There were many cards, and since you had a maximum number of cards you could select, YTL had a sort of deck-building element to it. You were required to balance the actions and effects, and there was a fair amount of fun in choosing which cards to use during recording. You either had to make use of the hand you got, or gamble with a reshuffle. The requirement to guess the correct action for each part of recording for the bonus points (or penalty) added a small dynamic to recording. It was a clear, extrinsic reward (along with the right audio cue).

Now the cards have been trimmed to a bare handful, with everything locked behind grindwalls. You spend hours starting a new game with cards that don't match anything you need, so you always fall short of your video thresholds. The game therefore does not give the player an idea of success, and does not give you the tools to reward correct decision making.

The recording is now even more dead. Instead of having to guess the correct action type for each card, the game now literally tells you which bonus you will get - and frustratingly, doesn't give you the cards to maximise those bonuses. The actions on each card no longer have a gameplay effect, since there are no card types; only values that add points. You no longer pick the "right" action for bonus points, but instead just pick whatever gives you the biggest raw amount. The new card art is pointless because it adds nothing to the game, and takes away the more complex choice of which card type to use (Angry? Confused? Happy?), and now it's just +4 FX or +1 Script, etc.

And because the number of cards is drastically reduced and you gain new cards at such a slow rate due to being locked behind a grind, you're just using the same 6 cards for hours to create unsatisfactory videos, which slows down progress even more. Your starting cards literally do not give you enough value to meet the starting criteria.

Social Needs
Why did this become a thing? Even real life isn't so demanding of micromanagement. You have a meter that literally forces you to use social media? You HAVE to go to movies and parties to improve happiness? The heart of the game is creating videos and growing a virtual channel. Now the gameplay has been gutted (see above), and you have to spend more time doing stuff that is boring (repeatedly click on "Talk about _____" to improve relationships 50 times, or turn up to a party and leave right away).

And why the hell does it take several hours to send a message on Pipper or moderate comments? Seriously? You introduce a whole level of "Make these colourful bars go up" daily grind and make menial tasks like reading comments and sending pips take up half the day? And there's incessant notifications that remind you to check Pipper when it has nothing to do with you? I turn off notifications in real life for that reason.

Bugs
Meh. Never had a problem with the previous version. Now the video editor freezes when you drag a clip, which glitches the game so you can't continue since you're stuck on the computer screen. Feels like I'm using a real video editor.

Evaluation
It feels like the game went backwards. If you reverse the changes, you actually see huge improvements to the game:

- Dozens of NEW cards! Build your deck and collect them all!
- NEW card types with UNIQUE bonuses when used correctly!
- Streamlined interface! See comments and feedback as soon as videos are published!
- Optional activities! Go beyond your YouTube life and go to parties and connect with creators on social media!

I must be missing something, because the game feels simplified and boring. Everything is automated, you have little choice over what to actually do with your avatar, and the gameplay loop doesn't provide satisfaction other than seeing bars go up.

[Agathorn (SH)]

I agree on all points, especially the new events crap and the micromanegement. At first it doesn't seem like a big deal but it becomes so annoying mid game.

[road to challenger]

I'm pretty sure the current devs did not understand how the game actually worked, because in the last version you got a "good" sound effect if you made a good emotional match, mediocre sound if unrelated, and a "bad" sound effect if it's the polar opposite, but in this version the only possible sound is "mediocre".

This is bad because before there were only 4 empotions, positive, negative, professional, and unprofessional. Now there is only 1.

Another issue is the editing engine process of matching video clips in the engine relies on the pieces fitting together. If you make a clip with a good combo of reaction and situation, it would fit together better. However, since all clips are now internally judged as "mediocre" ,the game treats them as such for fitting them together in the editor, making it impossible to do so.

I also literally run out of reactions due to the tiny pool of them in the midgame.