Vainglory doesn't feel like it's retained it's quality; it's no longer as thrilling, or fun

Vainglory Discussion UI & Overall Environment
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Coming from a long period without playing, spending this time away thinking about what would make me genuinely return to Vainglory, and then returning, I think I’ve finally realized why I personally feel less invested in the game.

I’m not a UI designer, I’m not a game designer, I’m not someone who has eyes or knowledge to pick apart the nitty-gritty of the way this feels without it potentially sounding superficial, but the whole ‘soul’ of Vainglory that used to drive me to play for almost an hour a day has seemingly dissipated. It was like, my break from studying was studying Vainglory, I would even play for two or three hours sometimes, I loved it. I no longer feel that burning, innate desire to play, grow or improve.

There’s a few things that I suppose are causing this, all of which we’ve all spoken of before, from the broken matchmaking to the UI feeling lifeless and sterile, or maybe it’s the characters becoming stale, or maybe it’s something else additionally. After playing a multitude of rounds tonight, dealing with both wins, losses, wonderful teammates and frustrating ones, I’ve come to the conclusion that Vainglory is no longer fun - at least for me.

I love MOBAs. I love video games. I love social gaming (forgetting VG’s lacking communication, but playing with other people). Vainglory used to be so sweet, rewarding, and wholesome and it satisfied all of my gaming desires and even during losses I felt as if I made some sort of progress.

Not anymore, unfortunately. Rewards are bugged. Matchmaking times are awful. Pre-game draft and chat is a toxic mess. Too much griefing in-game. Finishing matches is a chore. All my motivation is gone.

The game no longer feels reflective of the standard that SEMC claim to hold themselves to. I’ll be completely honest - I will continue to play. Albeit maybe not as passionately, or as much, but I will. I love this game enough to not let it go, to not let it fall apart without at least witnessing that first-hand. If this game is going to go down the drain, I want to be there until it truly does. This all being said, I sincerely hope that this game picks back up again, that something changes and it once again feels like the quality, polished product SEMC look to ship.

Get well, Vainglory.

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What do you mean rewards are bugged?

Also I’ve yet to experience much toxicity in pre game draft chat. Actually the first time ever truly toxic was yesterday morning when some guy cried to hell about a celeste in bottom lane. Usually it’s mild suggestions or the occasional crying about bans but it has only once ever been toxic for me. I guess I’m just having a much different experience than you. Where that’s concerned.

UI being lifeless and sterile, I agree with. It’s also still convoluted and no longer has that smooth…craftmanship it had before. Character staleness is a thing. Lack of lore being expressed in game in any significant way bugs me as well, as I’m not one for reading it. I will say the reward & progression system has no real excitement or incentive to it. No horrible match times for me as well. Though I’ve noticed sometimes the wait seems bugged to go on indefinitely and I have to reset the queue to get it back to normal 3 min at most time.

The griefing thing is definitely a problem though, for enjoying the match. And finishing matches, I can agree, definitely feels like a chore more than an accomplishment most of the time.

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Just that. Chests seem to function oddly for me, at times. Not all the time but I’ve noticed it. Though it’s a point I made, it’s not really that bad compared to the actual ebb and flow of the game itself.

I really appreciate your reply, as well, and I thank you for nailing my individual points and sharing your own experiences in comparison. Maybe I’m having a very dragged-out Vainglory crisis that will mend in time.

I think the biggest thing, despite all that is said, is that the games aren’t as riveting. It’s a shame. Maybe it’s just a phase.

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You’re welcome!

I’ve noticed some weird chest bugs too but not to the point where I had a hassle getting what was inside. Mostly odd visual glitches. As for the riveting part…I kinda agree. There’s not much that pops out in any match except sweet play moments. That’s it. And too much back & forth jockeying between actually capturing objectives or leveling uo is also my personal gripe.

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My main gripe is that what used to be the main pull of the game for me, new characters, have gone down the drain these past few months. Tony is basic and boring, and 5v5 hasn’t really done anything for me at all. Plus, they make their previous characters less fun by either partially reworking them (WP BF lol) or taking strength away from one part of their kit and moving it to others, making them less of a sharp edge (:b: arya I cri).

Honestly, I’d rather just play other games. Battlerite is much more fun with similar gameplay, Granblue can eat my time away like it’s nothing and if I wanted to play a MOBA, LOL is much more rewarding than VG.

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That happens with cases of trying to balance too much and not generating inventive kits

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I think my experience has been more like @TheInterpreter, but I feel you on the loss that overall satisfying feeling. Once I made it through the learning curve a bit, VG has been the only game I have wanted to play… period. Here lately, I have been open to trying other games with my kids, like PUBG mobile. I have been so impressed with the feeling of interacting with a masterpiece. But now… Not as much. Hoping that with a bit of time, SEMC can work out the bugs and gain that edge back!

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FWIW, I feel largely the same. VG just isn’t that fun any more. I used to play for hours every day, usually solo. I’m a guild leader and team captain, so I still feel obligated to play every day to set an example, but now that feels like a chore. And I’m only willing to play BR solo because of all the toxicity I see in standard matches now.

I think SEMC’s oft-expressed tolerance for less-than-perfect is coming back to haunt them, now that basically the whole game is filled with “it works well enough” instead of “this is our very best” …

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I’m truly baffled by the complaints about toxicity. I’m curious, what server are you on @hazeleyes?

I don’t know, I agree about the part of matches feeling like a chore, but I’m on NA server and almost all my matches are pretty friendly. People genuinely discuss strats in the chat and picks before 5v5, for the most part, and I’ve gotten to know players better without having to add them. And the good thing I’ve noticed is that you can usually figure out who is a troll in the pregame matchup, and they usually dodge the draft anyway.

I actually wish there was a mass-delete option on the friendslist because I have hundreds of friends that I will never want to talk to or match with solely because I had one good match with them and found out it was a one-time thing and they aren’t consistent.

Maybe it’s going on in different tiers or on different servers more, or I’m just getting lucky with who I’m matched with.

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We play very similar games. We should play together. I don’t play GB anymore though because they’re shutting off the client, aren’t they? If you have some sort of solution for me message me.

Not going to lie, the two weeks we had of ‘early access’ in 5v5 was enough of 5v5 for me to go from excited to nonchalant very quickly.

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This is the perfect representation of the feelings in my head I couldn’t properly express. This is the issue. It sucks, I dislike it. I’ve actually been pining to return to games like FFXIV recently because of it. And I don’t want to talk about my past with FFXIV.

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NA

Omg … YES. In 3 years of playing, I have 500+ friends, many of whom never play. The list is unmanageable. I’ve tried deleting some, but the process is so slow and painful that I’ve given up each time.

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I simply use the browser. It works fine for me.

My issue with 5v5 is that it feels like you’re tied to your teammates. Top lane went from my favourite to least favourite position in the game within a week because Junglers camp bot for half the game, and I can’t play aggressive unless my own jungler is there to gank. Mid is also vulnerable to ganks and roams from both sides, meaning that unless you have a teammate there, it’s best to just poke and not be aggressive. Bot is flat out boring since you get babied for a solid half of the game and you’re mostly tied to the broken ass red buff to do any damage till 1~2 items. And at that point, they’re sending 3 people to push your lane. I get that aggressive plays CAN happen, and they can be good. But for a majority of the game, the risk vs reward is skewed hard towards sitting back in lane and chilling. Which means laners are encouraged to be ranged, which again, I despise. Melee laners are more interesting to me for a multitude of reasons, and it makes me sad that the only laners that are deemed strong by the Broken Myth Tier List :tm: are those which can either abuse WP buff in botlane or those who have absurdly broken levels of damage with cheap items in top.

I wrote that mostly to justify me being on topic.

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I find the bottom and top lane roles you are supposed to play very limited in the fact that if you stick to one mentality for it the games blend in. Though some of the best surprises come from a top laner not caring about the assumed roles

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I personally still have fun with the game Given it’s not 5v5 soloq…god it’s so bad rn and I 100% agree that the UI feels unimaginative and that it lost the flair that the old UI’s once had. I would keep the layout, but change it to something which really brings back the old style which is what gave VG it’s appeal

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lol man, you’re getting some salty matchups in NA then.

And yeah they need that. Aftor forcing friendship to be the only way you could communicate besides 3rd party apps for so long, I bet many people have whole lists they wished they could whittle down to people they actually consistently want to play with.

@Satanicsoldier

I love playing bot lane Baron. Is that bad? :slight_smile:

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As @TheInterpreter has mentioned, I’ve only really seen two instance of actual pre-game toxicity of probably over 80 drafts, including those that were dodged. The first was a little bit more tame, and it was about someone picking a hero they had a really low winrate on after another player looked them up on vgpro. The second was, uh, pretty bad, with a VG Silver player calling out another person on taking his position and calling him a f***ing random repeatedly and telling them to GTFO, to which they responded in kind. Kind of a mess, but once in 80 drafts being really bad? Hell, I’ll take it. Honestly, I really haven’t seen much griefing (assuming you don’t just mean super blatant trolling, like selling items and sitting in base), either, although it’s more common than pre-game toxicity in the chat. About once in three or four games, someone gets a bit salty and starts to ping, but it isn’t typically that bad and tends to die off after they have their little outburst. If it does get really bad, I tend to mute them.

A lot of people complain about matchmaking quality, but I don’t feel it pretty much ever. Seems pretty good to me. As for times, well, they tend to go about 2:00-3:00 during peak hours in NA at a reasonably high tier (hovering between VG Bronze and PoA Gold currently) and then 5:00-7:00 at or past midnight, which I think can be excused a bit considering how late that is.

I’m surprised you think finishing matches is a chore, unless you’re playing 3v3, perhaps? I’ve been having so much fun in 5v5 with plenty of nailbiters! Had a base race the other day using TP boots, which was really cool! Didn’t win in the end, but it was pretty 50/50, so what can you do?

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My experience pretty much maps to this - although match making is a bit more variable the amount of trolling in chat and in game seems to be to be reduced rather than increased - the main thing that does happen is that someone afk’s when they lose their lane hard, but if that happens I don’t lose ranky points so it feels like a bonus really.

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I feel the very same, except that I don’t fool myself anymore saying I’ll continue playing. The game is pretty much dead to me, whatever the deeper reasons are. I still stick around, though, because of the people I met during the good times I had.
Looks like the real treasure is really “the friends you make along the way”, after all…

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Regarding toxicity in draft, I’ve had it a couple times in SEA but it’s no worse than the regular ping fest I have to deal with on a daily basis so I don’t really mind. On my NA account I’ve had good draft chats, most people are willing to listen to suggestions and don’t instalock, and not many people I’ve seen enter chat ready to troll. I’ve had one exception -

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(Tfw someone uses in game pings in chat. OKx5)

But other than that it’s been pretty chill, and I love NA! Almost the entire time I’ve had my smurf it’s been at Great Karma, and I’m not the least salty person around (I am from SEA after all). My main however keeps Great Karma for about 2-3 matches until enemies get salty and downvote because I beat them too hard,