Aright, I seem to have missed a couple really exciting weeks on the forums, while getting into the groove of my new job. Bless you all, for keeping the place hopping in my absence
A huge shout-out to Jeff, too, for being bold & not afraid to shake things up! This is how True Dungeon came into being, and I’m excited to see how this new vision comes to life over the next few years.
I’m sad to see how heated the XP discussion got tho. It’s kinda moot now, since Jeff is bringing the Astral adventure to GenCon (brilliant move, IMHO) but it made me really think about XP and after reading through pages of debate, I wanted to share a couple thoughts:
First: This is about True Dungeon. Its not about any one of us, or our places on the Leaderboard. I’m thrilled to be in the highest echelons of XP, but that’s completely meaningless if TD falters or if Jeff throws in the towel. When it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter one blink what the lot of us think: This is Jeff’s game, and while it’s fantastic that he takes our input into consideration, if he thinks it’s best to offer XP for a non-GenCon event down the road, then so be it.
Second: I saw a lot of talk about “what the high XP players want.” What I didn’t see, though, was a lot of high XP players voicing their opinion. I suppose there may have been a letter-writing campaign which I wasn’t invited to, but among my TD friends there was far more discussion of “How can we make it down to Origins to see the cool new dungeon?” than “It’s unfair that we won’t get XP!” In other words, counter to the impression that Leaderboard is full of players jealously guarding their spots, my perspective is that it’s mostly people who care more about the game than their status. I could be wrong - others may voice different opinions - but that doesn’t mean they speak for me, or the rest of the Top 20 players, no matter how loudly they speak.
Since I don’t speak for the top XP players either, I’m going to share my personal opinion. Take it or leave it. Just don’t assume that it’s anything more than one person’s take:
- I like being at the top of the Leaderboard. It’s a cool perk for all those years I fought to get tickets, and played on the hardest difficulty possible. I hope to retain this status for as long as I can, but I’m aware that Real Life rears its ugly head from time to time, and we can’t always have what we want.
- Lots of other people have played True Dungeon repeatedly and are proud of their place on the Leaderboard. They deserve recognition for their loyalty and hard work, too. I don’t want to deny anyone XP if they’re putting in the time & effort to get tickets, and the investment to play on hard mode. Even if that means they pass me.
- It would bother me a lot if XP was handed out for things like token purchases, or exclusive runs. (For example: “Spend $10,0000 on tokens and get 1000 free XP!” or “Golden Ticket runs give 3000 XP instead of 2000 XP” or “Spend $6k and get a ticket to this Exclusive Patron Run worth 2000 XP”) In my mind, XP should be a badge showing “Look how much I’ve played!” and not “Look how much I spent!”
- It makes me happy to see True Dungeon expand to multiple Cons. If there’s new content coming out at those Cons, it deserves to have XP attached to it! (Especially if it draws more players to the event.) If I can’t make it to those Cons, I’ll just have to cross my fingers and hope that Jeff runs those dungeons later - maybe as a Retro Event - at a Con which I can make it to.
- If I’m hoping for XP from Retro runs (in case I can’t make a particular Con) then I’d better support other players getting XP for Retro runs, too. To that end, I support full XP for events like Viper’s Pit Retro.
- True Dungeon is awesome. That’s what makes the XP awesome; it’s an indicator of how much TD I have experienced. In the end, I value that experience more than any number on a Leaderboard. So let’s focus on the Experience, and not the XP.
Thanks, all!