All Networks 🏗️ Moving Pillars of Fortune out of Beta

[Hoshi]

Heya peoples!

This type of suggestion is a bit unusual in between my other ones, but I just had to post this. I’ll keep it as short as I can.

In short, I’m suggesting to move Pillars of Fortune out of beta. It’s at a point where barely any changes have been made, yet everyone is enjoying the game and it’s incredibly popular. I mean, it’s literally the most played game on Java currently. I think moving it out of beta would do it well, and allow for more space for innovation in the beta games lobby on Bedrock.

Now, the question is, where do we put it? I think the best option would be the MinerWare lobby.

“But it’s the MinerWare lobby! Not the MinerWare and POF lobby!!”. I get that. That is why I’m also proposing a rather large change: turn the MinerWare lobby into a new Arcade lobby - and perhaps the MinerWare rank into the Arcade rank (or make it separate). MinerWare is a short form, fast paced game. It would fit perfectly in an arcade like environment, same for Pillars of Fortune. I think this solution can be the start of a new part of the community that consists of players who aren’t the biggest fan of PvP focused games. (Also including the new Buy N Build, but I feel that would do better in a whole separate lobby with different modes if it fares well).

EDIT: An alternative solution would be to keep MinerWare in its own lobby as there could be complications with the rank, and have Pillars of Fortune be the first game in a wholely new Arcade lobby that could feature a bunch of other short form games in the future.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

- A wild Hoshi

 

[TheMrSpacee]

I think Cube should make points shop and achievements before taking this game out of beta

 

[Eli]

I interpret your suggestion as a request for PoF to receive a final touch-up and an official release because of its popularity and relative player stability, which I can totally agree with. I just want to point out it feels a bit weird to ask the developers to consider a game they consciously continue to label as "beta" as complete, I assume there are things that need to be finalized before the game is in a satisfactory state and can become its own thing.

I also feel like there is no rush to clear up the Beta Games lobby because it's not like there's limited real estate in the lobby, one could always just add an extra NPC or portal, moving one game from one lobby to the other will not have any meaningful impacts (actually it might actually affect the marketability of the Beta Games subscription, which is... bad). I do think that PoF works nicely with Minerware however, and I could see Buy N Build being part of the "arcade"-ish neighborhood as well if things go well for it.

So yes to your thread as in PoF getting more love and recognition, but no as in, I don't find it consequential whether that's in the form of an official release or not.

 

[Hoshi]

I interpret your suggestion as a request for PoF to receive a final touch-up and an official release because of its popularity and relative player stability, which I can totally agree with. I just want to point out it feels a bit weird to ask the developers to consider a game they consciously continue to label as "beta" as complete, I assume there are things that need to be finalized before the game is in a satisfactory state and can become its own thing.

I also feel like there is no rush to clear up the Beta Games lobby because it's not like there's limited real estate in the lobby, one could always just add an extra NPC or portal, moving one game from one lobby to the other will not have any meaningful impacts (actually it might actually affect the marketability of the Beta Games subscription, which is... bad). I do think that PoF works nicely with Minerware however, and I could see Buy N Build being part of the "arcade"-ish neighborhood as well if things go well for it.

So yes to your thread as in PoF getting more love and recognition, but no as in, I don't find it consequential whether that's in the form of an official release or not.

Thank you for your reply.

I can completely see where you are coming from and honestly, I hadn't really thought about the consequences of it much. That being said, I do think it is one of those games that simply doesn't need many changes anymore for it to be considered "finished". Going by that logic, we might as well consider every other game that still gets regular updates and changes and thus isn't wholely finalized as a beta game and put it in the beta lobby. I get that the game is in beta to allow for further testing, but it doesn't need to be in beta for changes to be made to it in the future. I hope I'm making sense.

Either way, the argument about the marketability of the Beta Games subscription is a good point against moving it out of beta too soon. I do agree that that would cause problems.

The way I see it, I could see Pillars of Fortune being the first of many short form games to be part of a new Arcade lobby. This would also allow for the chance of many more short form games to be in beta with the intent of eventually moving them to the Arcade lobby once they are also finalized. It doesn't need to be soon, but I think Pillars of Fortune and future similar games deserve that kind of love at least.

I personally don't see Build N Buy being an "Arcade" game. It's relatively short form yeah, but I see it potentially getting several spin-offs and I think the best option for that game would be for it to get its own lobby once it goes out of beta.

All in all, I think moving them out of beta doesn't need to happen immediately, but I do think Pillars of Fortune is nearly at the point where it's practically finalized. The point of this suggestion is to consider the future of POF and similar games that will be developed eventually. They definitely deserve some attention, but it obviously shouldn't go at the cost of the marketability of Beta Games.