Greetings, whoever may be reading this topic.
My name is matey1235, although some of you may know me as simply just Matey or matey. I have been playing this game on and off for circa 3 years now, and I have decided to make a rant/review of sorts, about this game, 8BitMMO. I am also now an ex-moderator for the no-longer used unofficial 8BitMMO discord, and the owner/creator of the new unofficial 8BitMMO discord. Warning: this topic may and will get spicy, and contains some language.
What is 8BitMMO?
First off, how in the name of crap do you not know what 8BitMMO is browsing the forums of said game?
Second off, 8BitMMO is a retro-style indie sandbox-rpg-weird-combination MMO, where you are free to build, fight, and chat as you like, all while the game has a nice sense of humour. Right?
Wrong.
8BitMMO is not even close to that. The game indeed WANTS to be a retro-style indie sandbox-rpg-weird-combination MMO, but it's far from that. The game is a never-updated boring cash-grab with a dry sense of humour and zero players. That's not a MMO. That's not even close. The game is definitely a good concept, but it's so poorly executed, especially on the developer's part.
What happened to the game?
RobbyZ/Sim9.
Basically, after Robby released the game on Steam, he completely stopped updating the game. Any updates so far lately have been to the extra big cash-grab 9BitMMO (which I will get into later), or stuff related to password security. That's basically it. Due to this, people lost interest and stopped playing. Especially the only ones who actually provided support for Robby; namely kjh. Basically everyone quit the game, and now the game is deserted and only filled by about 10 new players each day. This is not a MMO. He ruined it in may other ways too, which I will get in to now.
RobbyZ/Sim9
Robby ruined the game. During the time he did update it, he did so many bad things the list just goes on and on. And here are those bad things that he did.
1. Bad game design
I actually do think 8BitMMO as a game is quite a good concept. But as I mentioned, it's poorly executed. One of the worst parts about the game's design is the paywalls. Almost everything is behind a paywall where you have to spend the premium currency. MOST NOTABLY TOWNSTONES. THEY SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN PUT BEHIND A PLAT PAYWALL, EVER. Excuse me right there. As I was saying, almost everything is behind a paywall. Literally everything. Without using cheap gold farms such as /tele megazoo which are hindered by the gold limit anyway, all of the non-premium items end up being expensive as hell, because gold from PvP and dungeons and quests is so scarce that you can barely buy anything, except maybe 200 concrete blocks. The in-game economy was so badly executed, it was genuinely disgusting. Not only this, but the rest of the game was incredibly clunky, especially building, that it was simply frustrating to play. PvP was badly designed, also, with few weapons and strategies it was simply a button mash + run around fest. While this isn't necessarily bad (see RoTMG), it IS bad in 8bitMMO. There were also many missing features, such as block decay (where blocks outside of towns would decay and disappear over time, preventing the hell that is =65), which would have actually freed up so much server space and would have allowed Robby to remove the paywalls for server costs it is physically insane.
2. What in the name of f**k is 9BitMMO
9BitMMO was Robby's attempt at making the game even more like Minecraft. It was essentially a 3D viewer for 8BitMMO, where you could see blocks and creations in full 3D. It was pretty neat, but it was so buggy it was insane, and Robby didn't even bat an eye at these major bugs (NOCLIP BUG) which existed in 9BitMMO. The other thing about 9BitMMO is it cost $30 for what was essentially five minutes of enjoyment. You would go to one building, look at it for a few minutes, say "that's pretty cool" and then you're essentially done with the experience. $30, by the way.
3. Infrequent/lack of updates
As I mentioned earlier, Robby completely stopped making any content updates for the game after he released it on Steam. Before he did, he had an optimistic outlook and was releasing a lot of content updates, giving the game a steady flow and allowing player interest to soar to an all time high. But this stopped, player count dropped, and Robby quit developing the game. This completely ruined the game, since all players, even veterans who loved the game, stopped playing and never thought to bat an eye back at the game. This is not how you develop a game. If you're going to stop updating a game like this, atleast make it so the game isn't dog sh*t before you leave, and atleast allow modding support. Thanks.
4. Robby is an a**hole
Robby has done many bad things. Here are some of them:
- A good friend of mine, going by the name Chris_Ramos back when he did this, translated the entire game into Spanish. And Robby basically gave him nothing except his thanks and left it there.
- Banned people for terrible reasons
- Left the game for dead, not even updating it anymore
- Was a money-loving wh**e, put everything behind paywalls for most likely his own profit (and also to pay for the servers)
- Executed and designed the game incredibly badly
- Questionable engine choices (Java is becoming quickly outdated and afaik loves to eat all your memory)
- Committed many other a**hole moves and ethical crimes
Made this game in the first place
In general, Robby is not really a great guy, as you can tell. Feel free to ban me for this part, by the way, Robby, if you really want.
What he could have done better
Everything. Literally everything. I will now go through a few things that could have been designed much better, and give some ideas.
Towns/Townstones
Towns could have been vastly improved and added upon, first of all by not having Townstones behind a goddamn paywall, and maybe expansions too. Many other things could have been added, including things like districts (where you can name the district and allow certain people to build in said district), more advanced ranking systems, etc. There was so much more Robby could have fleshed this out.
Combat/PvP
Combat as I mentioned earlier is just literally a huge button mash + run around fest. Nothing else. There are so few weapons with such little variety it's insane. More weapons and expanded mechanics would have been nice, such as throwable weapons such as grenades, a grenade launcher, traps such as bear traps/mines, as well as equippable items such as armor, as well as anti-armor weapons. Again, so many missed opportunities.
Improving the Shop
The shop could have been sooo much better. Stuff like Townstones and the like could have been behind an optional paywall, where you can pay an expensive sum of gold or some amount of plat to buy the item. Plat should have just been completely optional for most items (except ones which SHOULD be plat-specific) and should have been a way to support the developer. A good example is Unturned's Gold Upgrade, where you simply get some cosmetics, more character slots, and access to Gold-only servers for $5, and it's completely optional. That's how you do microtransactions. Another thing is, you have to balance paywalls; with too many paywalls, you start to lose players because people start giving negative reviews due to the amount of forced microtransactions. However, if you balance it well, or make them completely optional, you get many less negative reviews on that subject.
Building
Building is buggy and clunky, and simply frustrating to do. Robby could have expanded it so, SO goddamn much, as well as fixed many of the bugs related to building. He could have also implemented glitchblocking as a legitimate mechanic in building, instead of a bug/unintended feature.
Suggestion box
Almost none of the suggestions from the suggestion box were actually added. It's there for a goddamn reason, you know, Robby.
Official discord + more community connection/interaction
Robby interacted with the community a surprisingly low amount of times. Seriously, an official discord or something would have been better than the IRC which is literally an application from the 90s. The twentieth century. God damnit. Plus, as a developer, interacting with the community is always a good idea, because it engages your players.
There is so much more he could have done better, but I'm not going to elaborate. Also, remove the f**king gold limit and increase the max level. Thanks. And don't make it $1,000 for a custom item.
What I do like about the game / Conclusion
There are actually some things I do like in this game, such as the fact you can build a lot of stuff, like minigames, etc. Towns are also a really neat idea, as well as many other items (buyboxes, safes, etc.). The customization of characters is great also, with multiple skin tones and all of those cosmetics available. There is a lot of freedom in the game as well, with a lot of smaller mechanics being there just adding a lot to the game. The community is also great at some times, and with that line, I shall pitch my thanks to some of my friends for discussing many of the things/ideas I included in this post, and Chris_Ramos and TheGreatOnion for their Steam reviews:
http://steamcommunit...mmended/250420/
http://steamcommunit...mmended/250420/
I shall leave you with this paragraph from TheGreatOnion's review:
"The reason he does not improve the game is not because of a lack of time or budget, it is due to his obstinate and outright refusal to do so. What the developer has committed, and is continuing to commit, is no longer within the moral realm of right or wrong. There are players who have donated thousands of dollars to this game and are taken completely for granted, their doubts met with only trivial responses as they ponder the future of the game. It is no longer a morally questionable demeanor, it an ethical crime. Because nothing categorically imperative in his actions can be considered correct; his actions indicate only a betrayal of the players' loyalty and zeal in favor of a personal agenda. In the past I would ask players to play the game before forming a judgment, and to approach it with an open mind. But with the way the game currently is now, it has no future. Not for as long as the players' loyalties are met with an utter betrayal of expectations."
-Matey
Edit: before you come b*tching at me, i know 8bitmmo is dead and isn't coming back. i just made this post to hopefully enlighten some people, and really just share my thoughts about 8bit