Hello,
I figured it would be nice to let people know that I am indeed finally out of here and the reasons why. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on this mod, so I guess it is only fair.
The main issue is that I just don't have the time or energy to put into it. I have just finished my degree and am moving across the country to continue my education. I have also gotten into several new hobbies over the last year that have been eating up more and more of my time. I have yet to meet anyone here that shares these hobbies, and honestly I'd like to spend my time with people that have similar interests to me outside of grinding for the next legendary, something I stopped caring about long ago.
To be honest, I could have made room for NI. I can't lie and say that it is just because I have no time anymore - I just don't want sacrifice the free time I do have for this game. Playing NI stopped being fun a bit before I even became a developer. I just played it because my friends played it and there wasn't much else I'd prefer to do. After becoming a developer, I mostly just played the game to socialize and so I could meet people and get their opinions on what directions they wanted the game to take. One of my favorite things to do was jump into an event, join TS, and see what people felt about things and plan out a new patch to address concerns and hopefully bring people the things they wanted. New mechanics weren't something I really knew how to do, but I forwarded on the requests that those that did.
This brings me to my next point - in NI, there are many different people that all want different things from the game. While some may praise a change, others may cite it as their reason to stop playing. I tried my best to coordinate compromises based on what I felt was best, but this has become increasingly difficult. This is the sort of game that has a clear end. We can't just keep adding harder enemies and creating new tiers of weapons. This means adding new items or rebalancing things becomes a lot of work and includes adjusting many of the surrounding items. However, no one really takes kindly to having their things nerfed. This is completely understandable, and I really tried to keep the transition as smooth as possible - within reason. At some point you do have to draw the line and say no. Still, I know there are ways I could have done better, and I know that I made mistakes when deciding how to compromise opposing views and whose opinions to listen to. I am very sorry to everyone that I failed.
Finally, in recent times something seems to have brought out the worst in people. I'm not sure if it is stress due to an uncertain future and mounting tensions in the world, simply happenstance, or just something wrong with me, but I am feeling more and more like I want to be away from people and have some peace. This is an entirely selfish reason - I'm honestly just tired of people and I want to do other things. This game is stagnating and there are things I would like to do that I am just not allowed to. I have more than a few disagreements with the direction of the mod, but in the end it isn't my decision to make and I don't want to keep arguing about it. I also cannot quite understand certain hostilities being displayed - people have different opinions and I wish you'd all just get along instead of taking every opportunity to take another jab at people you disagree with. I appreciate those that take the time to logically display their arguments, but too often people are just throwing insults at each other, using their opinions as fact, bringing out the "everyone agrees with me" (even when demonstrably false), or blatantly making things up. I'm just tired and, like I said, I would like some peace.
Best of luck to you all,
Winter
I figured it would be nice to let people know that I am indeed finally out of here and the reasons why. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on this mod, so I guess it is only fair.
The main issue is that I just don't have the time or energy to put into it. I have just finished my degree and am moving across the country to continue my education. I have also gotten into several new hobbies over the last year that have been eating up more and more of my time. I have yet to meet anyone here that shares these hobbies, and honestly I'd like to spend my time with people that have similar interests to me outside of grinding for the next legendary, something I stopped caring about long ago.
To be honest, I could have made room for NI. I can't lie and say that it is just because I have no time anymore - I just don't want sacrifice the free time I do have for this game. Playing NI stopped being fun a bit before I even became a developer. I just played it because my friends played it and there wasn't much else I'd prefer to do. After becoming a developer, I mostly just played the game to socialize and so I could meet people and get their opinions on what directions they wanted the game to take. One of my favorite things to do was jump into an event, join TS, and see what people felt about things and plan out a new patch to address concerns and hopefully bring people the things they wanted. New mechanics weren't something I really knew how to do, but I forwarded on the requests that those that did.
This brings me to my next point - in NI, there are many different people that all want different things from the game. While some may praise a change, others may cite it as their reason to stop playing. I tried my best to coordinate compromises based on what I felt was best, but this has become increasingly difficult. This is the sort of game that has a clear end. We can't just keep adding harder enemies and creating new tiers of weapons. This means adding new items or rebalancing things becomes a lot of work and includes adjusting many of the surrounding items. However, no one really takes kindly to having their things nerfed. This is completely understandable, and I really tried to keep the transition as smooth as possible - within reason. At some point you do have to draw the line and say no. Still, I know there are ways I could have done better, and I know that I made mistakes when deciding how to compromise opposing views and whose opinions to listen to. I am very sorry to everyone that I failed.
Finally, in recent times something seems to have brought out the worst in people. I'm not sure if it is stress due to an uncertain future and mounting tensions in the world, simply happenstance, or just something wrong with me, but I am feeling more and more like I want to be away from people and have some peace. This is an entirely selfish reason - I'm honestly just tired of people and I want to do other things. This game is stagnating and there are things I would like to do that I am just not allowed to. I have more than a few disagreements with the direction of the mod, but in the end it isn't my decision to make and I don't want to keep arguing about it. I also cannot quite understand certain hostilities being displayed - people have different opinions and I wish you'd all just get along instead of taking every opportunity to take another jab at people you disagree with. I appreciate those that take the time to logically display their arguments, but too often people are just throwing insults at each other, using their opinions as fact, bringing out the "everyone agrees with me" (even when demonstrably false), or blatantly making things up. I'm just tired and, like I said, I would like some peace.
Best of luck to you all,
Winter