Sryth: Kickstarting Cognitive Dissonance
Hi all,
So I want to start this off with a disclaimer. If you're a large fan of Sryth and/or don't like it when people say critical stuff, you might want to bow out now. I'm annoyed, and disheartened, and disillusioned, and I want to talk about it, but this is not going to be easy.
I found Sryth in 2004 or 2005, and had a ton of fun with the game at first. Updates were a little slow sometimes, but the game's quality was as much as I could expect. Writing was solid and atmospheric, content was rich and interesting.
Then, as time went by, I began to notice that there were a lot of loose ends. Like, hundreds of them, over the years. And with each passing year, there were more added. I still don't have my completed shield of Doomwall, just as one example.
Then came the multiplayer stuff. At first I was intrigued, but as time went by I started to notice similarities in style between the scenarios.
Then updates began to slow down. Stuff would be listed as "coming soon" for months. New packages came out regularly, and the game was trying harder and harder to advertise its pay-for-perks approach. More content, more loose ends.
Then came a flood of archery contests, yet more packages, a lot of promises not kept, and more typos. The quality of typing began to deteriorate, becoming more repetitive and grindy and less character-driven. Stuff was mysterious for the sake of being mysterious - something Sryth has done forever, but which it began to rely on a little bit too much here - and overall, I personally feel that content was starting to decline in quality.
Then came last year's kickstarter. "Great!", I thought. "Meeting this goal might give the GM time to speed up and really start fixing what's not there and adding what he promised". Well, he did do his backer bundles, but from what I can see, a lot of the content he promised is just now beginning to be fully teased (Zerathmor as one example). I don't know if I had false expectations or what, but I thought that giving someone over thirty thousand dollars within the space of a month or so would allow him to actually commit to this game full time, meaning between twenty and forty hours on Sryth a week. What I've seen over the last ten months does not, as far as I can see, reflect that. Typos are even more numerous now than ever, adventures are slow, special packages and aggressive pleas to donate to Sryth still proliferate.
But the real nail in the coffin for me is this year's kickstarter.
I recognize that Sryth's not free, and it doesn't bother me that the GM wants to try and make this a full-time endeavour. But so far, it actually seems like he's only slowly delivering on the stuff he's promised. It doesn't feel like he's doing full-time work, or anything even close to full-time work, and I feel like all the stretch goals amount to basically the same thing. Also, that frozen wasteland feels pretty barren without the inclusion of those stretch goals, so it feels even more grabby; if this guy makes thirty grand, I'd kinda hope he would include all or at least most of those elements to a realm that's supposed to be vast, wild and mysterious.
I am not here to tell you not to support the GM, or to tell you that Sryth sucks. It doesn't suck, the GM isn't necessarily greedy, but what's happening may in fact be worse.
I think he's done and doesn't know it.
None of this feels inspired anymore. The game has been in something of a holding pattern for years, and I don't think the way to break it out is to give this guy upwards of thirty grand a year for the same work he's been doing for years before now. I think that the GM loves this game, and I think the community has a soft spot for Sryth. I understand both sentiments. But I also think that the game is essentially on life support, limping along and trying to use the same formula that worked twelve years ago for someone who's written himself into corner after corner. A project starts, gets a shiny advertisement, generates hype, then fizzles. Then it happens seventeen times more, and I can't help but notice the pattern. We have tons of archery tournaments, tons of other events that basically come down to "insert intense/ambiguous description, click "pick now" to see if you die or not, repeat several times, use mechanics to determine semi-random score, encourage you to do it again and again and again in the hope that you win". We have the whole Choices adventure set with the weird cube or whatever, that's just glorified "roll over and over for optimal result with no real character building". We have a similar lack of speed from prior years.
I dunno. I just have begun to think that there is a time that every game has to die, and I think this kickstarter and the support it's generating isn't done in the game's best interest. I think it's well past its prime and just needs to fade away, or that fresh eyes need to give it a really, really good boost. I'm not sure if the GM is the guy to do it anymore, and I doubt he'll just hand the reins to someone else at this point, not when the project can maybe make him 30k per year. I also can't see how these areas and mechanics and adventures take months (that's thousands of hours) to process when sometimes he'd come out with Proving Grounds stuff far, far faster. It's just...sad, that's all.
Like I say, I'm not trying to stop you from donating if that's what you want to do. I won't be, and I can't comment on the kickstarter for that very reason. I'm just disappointed and disillusioned and wanted to share, I guess. It's sad to see a good game turn out this way.
If you got this far, thanks for reading. I welcome your own thoughts and criticisms and whatnot below if you're interested in sharing.
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