#sky cotl criticism

[spamlets-blog]

sure gacha is predatory and targets those vulnerable to gambling addictions, but can we also please talk about how business models focused on FOMO are genuinely evil and prey on your anxiety and fear responses to make you impulsively spend money in order to not lose out on something you feel like you need

[skykid-nadir]

TGC: Why are players so frustrated with us?

Fans: The prices.

TGC: It's a shame we can't figure it out.

Fans: It's the prices.

TGC: They must need more events!

Fans: *scream*

[rachel-ofthelight]

PERSONAL opinion on Shattering

This is a post I made in September 2022 and never posted.

I spent time drawing it but I didn't want to throw fuel on the fire that was already burning with this season, but given how things didn't really get much better and the ""spirits"" are returning (in a way that I personally find extremely unfair) here's it. I'm still playing Sky almost everyday but I'm very unhappy with how the game is being handled.

Season of Shattering is over and I definitely have lots of thoughts about it, some of which I have already expressed here. It is mostly criticism, because while I understand they warned us this would've been a different season I struggle to find positive points in those differences. This season has been extremely lacking, in my opinion. (More below.)

Yes, the absence of spirits is what bothered me the most during this season and I'll never stress this enough. Spirits are a core element in Sky and what drive mostly the narrative of each Season, interacting with players and involving them in missions and quest. Shattering's concept is strongly tied to Sky's lore and story and yet we're given none, there is no one here, it feels desolate, which can be good in theory, but not for a months long event.

Here are some ideas and concepts I made for dark spirits a while ago.

These crabs are worse than Krills, I dare you to try and change my mind.

Final review:

[cmyksky]

Aside from whatever legal complications might arise, my immediate thought when seeing the sky beta NDA stuff was... what's the point? I can't help but feel like it's (at least partially) motivated by player outrage over pricing/IAPs; if the beta test group is small and under NDA, they can't inform the live community about any controversial choices tgc might make in beta. And if that happens + there isn't enough pushback within the testing group itself, then the change makes it to live and upsets even more people. (Some controversies I have in mind are Days of Mischief being bloated with IAPs, Days of Color pride cosmetics, and general complaints about cultural representation being locked behind a season pass. As always though, the Sky discord has a feedback channel, so we can only use it and hope they listen.)

[dumblr-account]

chat i can’t take it no more

[quartzdecay]

Fucked up that if you get Journey at the right time it is $5 for the whole game. But if you want ONE of the two Journey inspired outfits in Sky.... that will be fucking $25.

[pebblemae]

there is something to be said for candle run burnout for sure, like it now takes so many candles to get things that you want, as well as the pricing for paid items of course. The entire thing just makes me wonder if sky: cotl should follow in the footsteps of animal crossing: pocket camp and just make a paid game with no in-app purchases. I think the team are trying to tackle the CR burnout tho with different mechanics such as revamping daily quests (personally i don't like the revamp as it is now, but it's clearly in its early stages!). There's just...a lot going on and it would be better in my opinion if there was no IAP at all, especially because I've seen players be weird in the past about it, like trying to justify paid items by talking about veteran status (idk how veteran status correlates with being able to pay for IAP). Overall I think there needs to be a revamp of sky as a whole.

Again, this got long. I have thoughts.

Yeah, IAP is a really tricky topic. On one hand, it's kinda how free games make money, so I personally get not cutting it out completely. On the other, it really seems like ALL the good cosmetics are IAP.

I mean, in Days of Sunlight, there are 7 IGC items (50 Tickets, 384C, and 30 H). and 11 IAP items ($200+ USD). What's worse is most people can't even afford all the IGC items so you end up getting 3-5 items out of the total 18. For a game that's a lot about cosmetic collection, that sucks for the average player!

I'm not personally bothered but the 20+ ticket values. If you're more or less collecting, you can get them fairly easily. You can miss almost half the days and still get the two items. (84 tickets over 14 days. 50 tickets for the two cosmetics. you can miss 5, almost 6 days and still have enough) I have more to say on Ticket Cosmetics, but I'll save that for later.

I wouldn't be as bothered by this insane IAP to IGC item split if they were affordable and if IGC items as a whole stood up to the design and demand of the IAP. Apparently, the earrings were GOING to be IGC but were last minute switched with the floaty. There are SO few earrings, so making them IAP really sucks. It feels like the umbrella problem now. (of the 7 umbrellas, only 2 are IGC as TS)

I would love to see the IAP disappear altogether too, but that's just not realistic. From a financial standpoint for the company, as well as just in general. People hate them, but people still buy them. If anything I could maybe see a price reduction in IAP but with that comes the fact that now those who paid the higher price were "scammed" and that could create legal problems.

I have no idea what TGC could do, but for starters, I'd ask to lower IGC item prices and make fewer IAP items. Whether that will happen or not, I'm not optimistic, unfortunately.

[the-tomcat-disposable]

Looking back at all the messages I sent to the skycord feedback channel since days of style

[themothinboots]

hey skyblr, instead of giving yet more money to tgc, you could help a palestinian family

[starry-heavens]

Sky is becoming a virtual Disneyland

Not everything needs to be expensive, but it is

Just because TGC can

[ladyofthebookcase]

it's actually insane to compare prices from older seasons like enchantment or sanctuary with the current season prices. like look at this shit.

here are two of the enchantment trees ^

here are two of the radiance trees ^

not only have they added more things in the line that you have to buy in order to get to things like capes and outfits, but the prices for those things have also gone up significantly. they've also added further roadblocks to the season hearts at the top, meaning this also affects players with the season pass. i joined this season about halfway through, and i won't even be able to get half of this stuff, whereas in an older season like enchantment, i probably could've gotten it all even if i missed half the time. and they know that, and they use that to incentivize buying the season pass. it's just so transparently greedy. makes me think of that fuckass diagram that they used to pitch sky, with the other video games being linked to sins like greed and sky being linked to virtues-- like come on dawg. this is satire of itself at this point.

[skykid-nadir]

...yeah

[pathological-runaway]

moth stuff + valley elders

i was trying to figure out some things and here are my takeaways:

1. colouring random sketches you made out of sheer boredom is a bad idea because there are 47829182 weird things that you don't notice when it's a messy sketch on paper, but once it's cleaned up a little all the nonsense stares right into your soul. to be honest this sometimes happens when i do pay attention when sketching as well, so it's probably a skill issue, but still. not what i was about to figure out but still a valid conclusion

2. why do i give hair so much volume. like actually what the heck. it must be heavy

3. the way i draw hair in general makes very little sense. i should work on that. with references that aren't moth screenshots, preferably

4. drawing two identical faces is p a i n. especially when they're mirrored

5. the valley elders are like. SUPER triangular. i did try to smooth their features but they're still basically just two hyperactive triangles

6. i call them hyperactive triangles now apparently

7. most of my moths have the same face. which makes sense since moths aren't supposed to have any unique features but i still have to practice drawing different faces. samekh and their sharp features might be a good start

8. i'm slowly getting better at understanding how lighting works. which is cool. yey

[tadpoledancer]

someone did the math and you'd need like 800+ candles to get all the feast cosmetics??????.??????

150 candles for HAIR???????????

[seraphsix6]

Ok so I’m curious cuz this made me genuinely upset yesterday because I love this place so much but… Is there a reason why tgc just snatched the water from this area (and at the shipwreck)????

I haven’t been here in like some months so I never noticed till yesterday.

Like are they going to put something here or are they just going to leave it as this ugly eyesore that ruins this whole area’s charm….?

I’m hoping it’s just a bug but idk….

[caerial-aerial]

Is it valid of me to keep drawing sky coyl but i dont actually play the game i just like to draw bc of the whole dress up thing

sky just is honestly unreasonable with its pricing nowadays which disappoints me bc its just no longer playable when ur struggling financially + irl bc of the whole grind we have to do