(Original writeup: 17 April, 2020)

‘AdventureQuest 3D’ has been in beta since October 2016. The game's slow progress has led to most content being a grind fest, to artificially make the game seem bigger than it actually is. While we have seen 8 expansions to the map, and older content being wrapped up and fleshed out a bit more, it is hard to say that this content has been worth the nearly 4 year slog it has been to get here.

Each area released is easily beaten in 30 minutes to a couple of hours. The main chunk of the content afterwards is repeatable quest, and daily quest. You sit there slaving away, doing the same thing, just to get more of a newly introduced currency, that you will spend on crafting an item that you have to wait hours to be able to equip. Want to have your item delivered quicker? Pay real life money of course! Not to mention that each newly released area needs to be beaten within the first couple of days, or it will be a barren landscape with questing in it, where you will have to wait until the level cap gets expanded just so you can actually beat the content. Dungeons aren't solo-able on the first entry, so with the low player count, you will have areas that you are simply not able to finish; not because you are bad at the game, because besides pressing 4 buttons, there isn't really much else you can do.

You might be wondering how I have so many hours if each area is beaten so quickly? Well outside of the grind that comes later with each area, there is a major problem of events being prioritized over proper content. These events are usually a NPC with limited time items, and a grind that you will spend days doing just to get those items before the event closes. Of course the events get put back into the game all the time - so the items aren't that special anyways. These events are: defender token, Breaking Benjamin, other concert grinds that require you to spend real life money to be able to play, seasonal events, holiday events, Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Saints Patrick Day, Friday the 13th, Chinese New Year, New Year, Valentine's, May the 4th be with you, birthdays for every developer, Talk Like a Pirate Day, and the list goes on.

These events wouldn't be so bad if the developers were done with them in the first year they released, and just re-released them... But no, instead they expand each event, each year. This has made it so that you are playing through limited time events instead of content that will actually expand the game. These events wouldn't be so bad if a lot of them were like the Christmas and Halloween events, which have whole areas dedicated to them, but most of the events are as I described... NPCs that tell you to grind for items. If the developers are feeling generous they will just have a character that sells you items, and that will be the event.

The game has been in early access for quite some time, and you might be wondering with so little content over 4 years, where all this development time is going. Why yes, there has been new classes added, and improvements to AI/UI, pets added, PVP etc., but this isn't the majority of the content. There has been a noticeable overflow of items that cost real life money being added. While these are cosmetic items, so no harm done - you might have figured that these items take a lot to develop. Most of the game is paid for content. If you aren't a Guardian you will have a lot of unusable drops given to you. If you need an item crafted quicker, you pay money. If you need more bank space, you pay money. 90%+ of pets are paid for with real money. 90%+ of mounts are paid for with real money, or locked behind the Guardian membership. I'd go as far to say that 50% of the game's cosmetic wearables are locked behind a paywall. You want a class, and don't want to have to spend 7 days (used to be a whole month) doing dailies for it? Just buy with real money. It is quite sad to see that a lot of the game developed is straight up taken from the people playing it. While it isn't really that p2w, it is pay for convenience.

The worst part about the pay for convenience system they have in place, is the money sinkholes they convince people to buy into. You have chest, belt, boot, cape, glove, helmet, shoulders, weapons, as the equipable items for any given set. These take up a good amount of space in your inventory and bank. While they have expanded bank slots, and done it again for Guardians, same with inventory, and moved pets and mounts into an infinite space collection menu... Just like classes... It is still insane how little space we have. They have made a good effort to try to address this problem, but I think a large problem is having cosmetics take up slots.

In ‘World of Warcraft’ they addressed the huge amount of cosmetic/equipable items they have by introducing the transmog system. This system allows any item you have to be added to a collection menu of equipables once you have equipped it (some items aren't tradeable after you equip them). From this menu, even if the item isn't in the bank or inventory, you can equip it as a cosmetic to your character. This system should exist in ‘AQ3D’, and with how many cosmetics we have already... The buying of a 25 USD item chest isn't addressing the problem, and again is just feeding into the sinkhole.

For people who haven't picked up yet, the sinkhole is: buy cosmetic items, run out of inventory/bank space, and then buy more bank space for the items you already spent real money on.

Of course addressing this would put a dent into the earnings of ‘Artix Entertainment’, but I think that this unfriendly business strategy is tainting the game, and as the game gets bigger, the problem will only expand.

What do I think the developers should do?


First off they should prioritize expanding the game. They should focus on adding guilds into the game quicker, as it has been years since they first planned it, and the social environment really needs this. Get the Book of Lore and a map into the game ASAP. These will help create a connection between all the areas, and make it a cooler user experience to be able to search for quest/content through both these mechanisms, rather than sifting through tabs. Add a transmog system. Remove the ability to pay for a crafted item to finish - this is just money grubbing, and doesn't do anything but delay satisfaction from someone's “hard earned” items. Make solo dungeons actually soloable at the recommended level, and make it so that multi-dungeons are prioritized over solo for more xp/gold/percentage chance on drops etc. Just so people actually play with each other, so people that couldn't get to the content on time still can do it by themselves. Stop adding so much paid for cosmetics, and instead add cool cosmetics for the people who actually put the time in, instead of putting their credit card information in. Finish the “Guardian Tower'' storyline already... It has been years, and it feels neglected - people paid for this. Remove daily quests for classes, and just replace it with a grind like it was in AQW - this way people who want their class right away can grind for it, and those who log in everyday for 10-30minutes can act as if it is a daily; it is better to condense the weeks worth of dailies into a grind that could be finished in just as much time. It sucks for people to be locked away from content for an arbitrary amount of time just because you want people to play over a longer period of time. Finally, give more mount and pet options for f2p...

I hope this covers most of the main issues. The game is really just a phone game at the end of the day, with no real skill involved. It is a simplified WoW that is F2P... So don't expect an amazing game, but if you do enjoy AQW for what it was, this isn't too far off from that experience. Been playing their games since 'DragonFable', so don't think ill of me for holding a strong opinion.

(Original writeup: 17 April, 2020) ‘AdventureQuest 3D’ has been in beta since October 2016. The game's slow progress has led to most content being a grind fest, to artificially make the game seem bigger than it actually is. While we have seen 8 expansions to the map, and older content being wrapped up and fleshed out a bit more, it is hard to say that this content has been worth the nearly 4 year slog it has been to get here. Each area released is easily beaten in 30 minutes to a couple of hours. The main chunk of the content afterwards is repeatable quest, and daily quest. You sit there slaving away, doing the same thing, just to get more of a newly introduced currency, that you will spend on crafting an item that you have to wait hours to be able to equip. Want to have your item delivered quicker? Pay real life money of course! Not to mention that each newly released area needs to be beaten within the first couple of days, or it will be a barren landscape with questing in it, where you will have to wait until the level cap gets expanded just so you can actually beat the content. Dungeons aren't solo-able on the first entry, so with the low player count, you will have areas that you are simply not able to finish; not because you are bad at the game, because besides pressing 4 buttons, there isn't really much else you can do. You might be wondering how I have so many hours if each area is beaten so quickly? Well outside of the grind that comes later with each area, there is a major problem of events being prioritized over proper content. These events are usually a NPC with limited time items, and a grind that you will spend days doing just to get those items before the event closes. Of course the events get put back into the game all the time - so the items aren't that special anyways. These events are: defender token, Breaking Benjamin, other concert grinds that require you to spend real life money to be able to play, seasonal events, holiday events, Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Saints Patrick Day, Friday the 13th, Chinese New Year, New Year, Valentine's, May the 4th be with you, birthdays for every developer, Talk Like a Pirate Day, and the list goes on. These events wouldn't be so bad if the developers were done with them in the first year they released, and just re-released them... But no, instead they expand each event, each year. This has made it so that you are playing through limited time events instead of content that will actually expand the game. These events wouldn't be so bad if a lot of them were like the Christmas and Halloween events, which have whole areas dedicated to them, but most of the events are as I described... NPCs that tell you to grind for items. If the developers are feeling generous they will just have a character that sells you items, and that will be the event. The game has been in early access for quite some time, and you might be wondering with so little content over 4 years, where all this development time is going. Why yes, there has been new classes added, and improvements to AI/UI, pets added, PVP etc., but this isn't the majority of the content. There has been a noticeable overflow of items that cost real life money being added. While these are cosmetic items, so no harm done - you might have figured that these items take a lot to develop. Most of the game is paid for content. If you aren't a Guardian you will have a lot of unusable drops given to you. If you need an item crafted quicker, you pay money. If you need more bank space, you pay money. 90%+ of pets are paid for with real money. 90%+ of mounts are paid for with real money, or locked behind the Guardian membership. I'd go as far to say that 50% of the game's cosmetic wearables are locked behind a paywall. You want a class, and don't want to have to spend 7 days (used to be a whole month) doing dailies for it? Just buy with real money. It is quite sad to see that a lot of the game developed is straight up taken from the people playing it. While it isn't really that p2w, it is pay for convenience. The worst part about the pay for convenience system they have in place, is the money sinkholes they convince people to buy into. You have chest, belt, boot, cape, glove, helmet, shoulders, weapons, as the equipable items for any given set. These take up a good amount of space in your inventory and bank. While they have expanded bank slots, and done it again for Guardians, same with inventory, and moved pets and mounts into an infinite space collection menu... Just like classes... It is still insane how little space we have. They have made a good effort to try to address this problem, but I think a large problem is having cosmetics take up slots. In ‘World of Warcraft’ they addressed the huge amount of cosmetic/equipable items they have by introducing the transmog system. This system allows any item you have to be added to a collection menu of equipables once you have equipped it (some items aren't tradeable after you equip them). From this menu, even if the item isn't in the bank or inventory, you can equip it as a cosmetic to your character. This system should exist in ‘AQ3D’, and with how many cosmetics we have already... The buying of a 25 USD item chest isn't addressing the problem, and again is just feeding into the sinkhole. For people who haven't picked up yet, the sinkhole is: buy cosmetic items, run out of inventory/bank space, and then buy more bank space for the items you already spent real money on. Of course addressing this would put a dent into the earnings of ‘Artix Entertainment’, but I think that this unfriendly business strategy is tainting the game, and as the game gets bigger, the problem will only expand. What do I think the developers should do? [h1] Solution [/h1] First off they should prioritize expanding the game. They should focus on adding guilds into the game quicker, as it has been years since they first planned it, and the social environment really needs this. Get the Book of Lore and a map into the game ASAP. These will help create a connection between all the areas, and make it a cooler user experience to be able to search for quest/content through both these mechanisms, rather than sifting through tabs. Add a transmog system. Remove the ability to pay for a crafted item to finish - this is just money grubbing, and doesn't do anything but delay satisfaction from someone's “hard earned” items. Make solo dungeons actually soloable at the recommended level, and make it so that multi-dungeons are prioritized over solo for more xp/gold/percentage chance on drops etc. Just so people actually play with each other, so people that couldn't get to the content on time still can do it by themselves. Stop adding so much paid for cosmetics, and instead add cool cosmetics for the people who actually put the time in, instead of putting their credit card information in. Finish the “Guardian Tower'' storyline already... It has been years, and it feels neglected - people paid for this. Remove daily quests for classes, and just replace it with a grind like it was in AQW - this way people who want their class right away can grind for it, and those who log in everyday for 10-30minutes can act as if it is a daily; it is better to condense the weeks worth of dailies into a grind that could be finished in just as much time. It sucks for people to be locked away from content for an arbitrary amount of time just because you want people to play over a longer period of time. Finally, give more mount and pet options for f2p... I hope this covers most of the main issues. The game is really just a phone game at the end of the day, with no real skill involved. It is a simplified WoW that is F2P... So don't expect an amazing game, but if you do enjoy AQW for what it was, this isn't too far off from that experience. Been playing their games since 'DragonFable', so don't think ill of me for holding a strong opinion.