Returning Gather Friends event in Once Human exposes big developer oversight

Modified Sep 03, 2024 22:05 IST

Gather Friends event in Once Human — The Gather Friends event is back (Image via Starry Studio)

The Once Human Gather Friends event has returned, but unfortunately, it has brought another wave of problems and subsequent criticism from players. Developer Starry Studio seems to be on a self-defeating streak, with their own systems clashing and creating an unfair, lag-ridden playing field.

The recent Glass House sharing fiasco has transformed the once-praised title for its fair monetary practices into a pay-to-win cesspool, while the alt account crisis is preventing players from enjoying the game with their friends. Adding to the woes, the oversight in the Once Human Gather Friends event has only contributed to the growing list of issues, with no end in sight.

Once Human's Gather Friends event directly conflicts the latest server-joining limitation

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The second season of Once Human began a few weeks ago, as most of the Season 1 servers entered their Settlement Phases. This prompted a significant portion of the active players to join the new Normal and Hard mode servers in Season 2.

However, the alt account problem has led to many popular servers reaching capacity. On top of this, the new change preventing players from joining servers older than ten days has left most players stuck in these locked servers, unable to invite newcomers.

This raises the question: why did the developer choose to bring the Gather Friends event in Once Human, which requires sending an invite code to players below Level 10, back now? Most players can't even participate in this event because their servers can't accommodate new players, and nearly everyone in those servers is already above Level 10.

Considering the new server-joining limitation was implemented just a few days before the return of the Once Human Gather Friends event, there must have been an oversight on part of the developers that goes beyond simply missing exploits; they are now creating game-breaking systems that directly conflict with their own events and updates.

By creating a new character to participate in this event, players will miss out on many character-specific rewards (Image via Starry Studio)

That said, new servers open regularly, allowing players to make an alt character to participate in the event. But this comes at the cost of missing out on certain character-specific rewards like Starchrom.

Additionally, if players create alt characters solely to join the event and then abandon them later to return to their main accounts, these new servers will become filled with inactive characters, further ruining the experience for new players.

It’s disheartening to see Once Human moving in a direction that is a far cry from the heights it reached at launch. With gacha-style loot crates in the cash shop, pay-to-win exploits, and now events that many players can’t even participate in, it’s difficult to remain optimistic about the game's ability to maintain its player base in the long term.

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Edited by Abhipsito Das