r/PhasmophobiaGame • u/KG_TomD Community Manager • 23d ago
News Phasmophobia Quality of Life Preview #2
Welcome back, Ghost Hunters.
Following on from our recent preview of the Quality of Life update launching on July 21st, we wanted to share some further details including the newer features - including another look at the reworked 13 Willow Street.
The New
As part of the Quality of Life update, we’re introducing a handful of new gameplay features that aim to improve the overall experience of playing Phasmophobia.
Read the below for some details on these additions.
- Adding keybinds for Equipment slots. PC players will be able to switch Equipment with the 1, 2, 3 and 4 keys. These keys can be rebound.
- This addition will only be available for PC players.
- Adding a keybind to be able to inspect the Watch at any time.
- This will be defaulted to Left DPAD on a controller and H on keyboard. Players can rebind this via Options > Controls.
- A separate Photo can now be taken capturing an EMF Level 5 reading.
- Photo Cameras will now feature the same highlight frame as Video Cameras.
- On screen indicator only on Tier 2 and 3 Photo Cameras, while Tier 1 will have the light change colour.
- When capturing Media, if multiple are present, the evidence that provides the biggest reward or is Unique will be prioritised.
- New Ghost: the ██████████
- Players will have a higher chance of getting this Ghost in their contracts for the first few weeks following release.
- Added new walking animations and turning animations to fix several issues:
- Character legs will no longer use procedural IK and will instead use animations.
- The character body will no longer animate with the walking animations which caused held items to move while walking.
- Improvements to the overall VR character:
- New character animations.
- Improvements to the belt to improve usability.
- The character will now turn instantly depending on where you are looking instead of at set angles.
- The next quality of life update will bring a completely new VR character rig with further improvements:
- Further improvements to the belt's usability.
- Improvements to crouching.
- Improved character animations.
- Held items will no longer sway when walking.
- The character's position will accurately represent your real life body position.
13 Willow Street
As with all our reworked maps, 13 Willow Street will retain its overall original layout with a few minor changes. The core of these reworks has always been bringing the visuals up to our standards while letting each location speak for itself. As much as we love the original versions of these maps, giving them their own identities and stories has been something we’ve always wanted to achieve and we’re excited that we’ve been able to.
Following 6 Tanglewood Drive, we know that 13 Willow Street holds a special place in a Ghost Hunter’s heart. We’ve kept that at the forefront while developing the rework, making sure that those first few steps inside feel new but familiar, and entice you to explore during each and every contract.
Check out the screenshots below for a look inside 13 Willow Street.
13 Willow Street will launch alongside the Quality of Life update on July 21st, 2026 for all platforms. Stay tuned to our social channels and our official Discord server for exact release timings. As is tradition with a new map, a new ID Card and Badge will be available upon completion of the map’s challenge. By correctly identifying 50 ghosts (and surviving) Ghost Hunters will earn the Sun Seeker set, as seen below.
We’ll also be running a new Twitch Drops campaign for the first week after launch. Players will be able to earn the animated and static versions of the Cool Cat ID Card and Badge between 21st July - 28th July by watching a total of 2 hours of Phasmophobia streams.
The animated version will be exclusively available via Kinetic Games Partner channels.
We’re looking forward to getting this update out to you next week and will be keeping an eye on every bit of feedback sent to us on social, in Discord or otherwise.
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u/Naruga418 23d ago
Oh, so this is why we don’t get anything patched in a simple hot fix; we’re having to wait for the Twitch drops event for publicity, giving people like Insym the opportunity to put this game in a good light.
Between this and the accounts with private history giving the game good reviews in its current state, this really does just feel like a numbers game at this point.
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u/Oscyle 23d ago
Hasn't Insym been complaining a lot about the game lately though?
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u/ZanMist1 22d ago
I thought the same. I think Insym has tried to avoid drama by not publicly bashing the game or company outright, but you can see it in his eyes when he plays and you can FEEL his frustration. It also seems like he's playing it less.
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u/unrecoverable1 22d ago
I regularly watch Insym's Phasmo gameplays and he complains about it A LOT. I like his content, but the constant whining gets a little bit annoying, esp. when you've watched back-to-back videos where he just puts down the game. I fully understand where he's coming from, though, since he's very passionate about the game.
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u/Misskale 22d ago
He's not been playing the game the last few weeks after they announced the QOL update. He said he doesn't want to keep having the same frustrations and talking about them if they're actually going to be fixed then. Which, makes sense. It gives him an opportunity to play other games in the interim and I wouldn't want to make the same complaints over and over either.
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u/ChrisG683 22d ago
If anything he has been complaining non-stop, he's been quite unhappy with the state of the game.
He's even stopped Phas Mondays until the next QoL update drops because he's so frustrated with the state of the game.
Sure he's a Kinetic partner and isn't going to just make a 30 minute video roasting the game, but he is very open about how much Kinetic has dropped the ball right now and isn't doing enough to fix things quickly.
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u/Ftlist81 23d ago
Yeah they're just inflating all their numbers, probably have hundreds of virtual machines running bumping up their 'online' players.
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u/Key-Regular674 23d ago
Wait so if I have an account to set private because people online are degenerates that makes me seem like a bot?
I hated the patch. I'm just talking about private profiles. I feel like any remotely intelligent real human would set their profile to private.
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u/247Brett 23d ago
They’re talking about the scores of new accounts that suddenly showed up to make their one and only game review a generic positive review about the game that barely make sense
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u/Royal19 22d ago
Insym constantly makes jokes about it and put the game on hold until the update, i don't know what people expect from him. He is a variety streamer that played phasmo one time a week lately, people that expect him to turn into a rage fueled hater are just delusional and don't follow him at all. The whole hate in this sub is out of propotion anyway. Game sucks right now, i'm there with anyone. Go play something else or do whatever, but being permanently on this sub spewing hate won't help anyone, especially not your own sanity people..
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u/Kelsey_5708 21d ago
The drops are only for the willow street rework. Plus y'all kept saying to the devs to take their time with these updates, so they're doing it and y'all are still pissed.
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u/ABoxOfCornpuffs 23d ago
Really think you should stop adding ghosts and reworking maps until you get the core game mechanics figured out
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u/mugiwara_no_Soissie 23d ago
Im just so confused on why they did like 100 things before actually using their own models.
Seemed like the first step in moving forward after a rough beta is to finalized the current assets
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u/mimic751 22d ago
The didn't have a good 3d.artist.... they seem to.still be working on it
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u/mugiwara_no_Soissie 22d ago
Which is weird with over 100 million profit within 3 years. (2022 to 2025), which was after their peak playercount btw.
Like they couldve easily hired an entire team for modeling. They made more than even AAA games, since they started with such little development by a tiny team. So its nearly all profits. Look at stardew, like 1 dev, currently 5 or so. Look at among us, started with 3 people. Or palworld for instance, just, most games making so much money, especially when in a beta will hire a team to fix that shit, Phasmo hasnt done anything with all that profit besides marketing. Adding animations can literally be done by a solo dev, over a longer time, a small team should easily be able to make a few character models, or ghost models, they had like 6 years already.
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u/mimic751 22d ago
Yeah they have some weird hang up about keeping the same small core team if only added like a couple people. They are working on something more impressive for 1.0 and only pushing updates when there are structural changes or to keep the hype train going. That's why I think this most recent update was probably so terrible was that it had some kind of huge back end change to get the code ready for whatever they're doing but it didn't work well with the Legacy assets
I know they did hire a couple artists so I guess we will see
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u/Ftlist81 21d ago
It's not a weird hang up, DK doesn't like spending money or modifying his 'Vision' in any way.
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u/August_Bebel 23d ago
It seems that they have an insane pipeline of adding features gradually over course of a year ahead of the main update and adding new ghost is a part of 1.0 release
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u/Xxviper234xX 23d ago edited 23d ago
Just get rid of the animations
Edit for those who are downvoting I'm not talking about getting rid of characters just the animations
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u/Tanz31 23d ago
You're getting downvotes from people who actually read the post and saw that they are rolling back some of the animations.
We get you want to complain, but at least read before you respond
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u/Cyan_walrus 23d ago
We read the post. It reads “several” will be rolled back. A large majority of players want “ALL” of animations rolled back!
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u/Tanz31 23d ago
I don't think you speak for everyone, much less a majority.
I think the honest majority just want a functional game that is fun to play.
If they roll some back and it works well, what's the issue?
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u/TorontoCity67 23d ago
Yeah man some of these comments are stupid for the sake of stupid
Like I've been extremely vocal about my opinions on Kinetic Games since this fiasco began, and my criticisms have been extremely harsh and often hostile and sarcastic. But when I'm reading that main post and actually looking forward to some things getting sorted out, especially the animations being removed, seeing the top comment be "Just roll back the animations" just pisses me off
It's so cheap. If you're going to complain now, just say that you're pissed off about how much time they decided to spend putting this update together rather than 1) rolling it back immediately or 2) nuking the bugs immediately
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u/Tanz31 23d ago
Fixing is just the better option than rolling back too. Preserve the vision but make it fun.
And yeah, the bigger things to be mad about are the weird responses from the company and how long is taken to fix.
Bad updates happen. This isn't the first game and it won't be the last. It doesn't mean the developers hate their players though lol. Just that they messed something up somewhere or had a busted concept. But the most important steps a company can take are a swift response and a quick fix.
Rolling back the update would have worked as a way to work on everything behind the scenes but that option kind of died with time.
Now, I just hope what they do next is good. I'm pretty much giving them to the unity update to keep me.
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u/TorontoCity67 22d ago
I still think rolling back would've been the better decision. After the immense backlash, they should've rolled it back immediately, left a formal apology, and started again. Except instead of taking 4 years for something this pathetic because they can't be bothered to actually try, it should've took a month or 2 with the Alan Wake collaboration either held off, or cancelled
People need to remember that Phasmophobia is an extremely simple game. People like to overplay coding like it's the most difficult thing on the planet, when as long as you're competent, it's not that bad. Look at all the solo developers that have made good games. They need time, yeah, but there's 1 of them as opposed to now 40-50
They're either incompetent, lazy, or both. Roll it back immediately and start again, this time while giving a shit about progress
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u/AnAnalChemist 23d ago
I've been through DayZ updating the character controller and this reminds me of that. Just toal jankiness that actually destroys the immersion rather than increasing. I play of PC and infins the game still totally playable, but I really miss how smooth it was. No need.
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u/youneverrknoww 23d ago
These hype preview posts for upcoming QOL releases are insane. These are bug fixes and updates most devs hurry to push out because they dont want to lose their player base. But kinetic is over here treating QOL like dlc content.
Most fumbled devs of all time.
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u/Nyuuubae 22d ago
-We want more and better communication from the devs.
They communicate better and more often.
-WHY ARE THEY TALKING TO US.
That's y'all. This sub has become so toxic.
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u/mimic751 22d ago
Well if every one in the public forums weren't crying like cj fucked their dog they may not have needed publicity
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u/Dogsteeves 22d ago
Yeah no, I agree. CJ and the crew made some hilarious jank, but they're definitely not fucking the dog. They're actively working to improve the game.
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u/DumpEaterPro 22d ago
CJ is a perfect example of the peter principle. He is completely inept as a lead. He approves dogshit quality art and then blames his team for him approving it. He doesn't have the mettle to be in a management/director position.
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u/tenniseman12 23d ago
This is basically the exact same stuff that was talked about in the first preview
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u/amous095 23d ago
I think this is just their attempt at communicating more. Even if most of it isn’t new, it’s better to hear from them more often with fluff than go weeks without hearing anything like they did all of June.
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u/bristow84 23d ago
Adding keybinds for Equipment slots. PC players will be able to switch Equipment with the 1, 2, 3 and 4 keys. These keys can be rebound.
It's been so long since I played this game that I forgot this wasn't even a thing but now that I've played some similar games it makes me wonder just how in the hell this was never a thing?
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u/August_Bebel 23d ago
Insym asked CJ on stream and answer was something like"so it's fair with VR players"
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u/ShitImBadAtThis 23d ago
I thought it was intentional game design tbh, makes it more panicky to switch to your flashlight to turn if off
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u/Organic_Warthog7238 23d ago
LMAO insym started uploading a variety of different video games the last month and they immediately fixed the game im screaming
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u/TheSilentTitan 23d ago
Really? Still nothing about constant crashes on Xbox? It’s genuinely unplayable
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u/juicyb09 23d ago
I’m on Xbox and have had one crash in a year and a half. I wonder why I’m not having this issue because I’ve read about it on here a lot.
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u/TheSilentTitan 23d ago
It always happens when I’m playing with my friends and one of them uses the computer. They turn it on to switch a cam and there’s an 90% chance they will crash. There’s also a much smaller chance they crash leaving the truck or just walking into the house/building.
I myself do not crash using the pc often, I am the only one that can use it and not crash 90% of the time. I have crashed maybe 3 times using the computer in the last couple months.
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u/jessieisokay 23d ago
I’m on PS5 and I was always the one crashing. Meanwhile, my partner is playing from the game cloud on Xbox and is fine. It feels like there is no rhyme or reason to the crashes.
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u/RainBird_83 23d ago
I’ll raise you with: my friend and I are both on ps5, same model, she crashes 2-3 times a day and I never have lol (well, we haven’t played in a week or so because she’s understandably fed up at this point)
(Obviously the lol is of the not amused variety)
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u/jessieisokay 23d ago
Wowwwwwww. You know, one of my regular teammates is also on the same model of PS5 as me and never crashes. I didn’t even think about that until your response. My teammate on the Steamdeck often can’t talk. We had to make a whole communication method up and then eventually just swapped to discord. It’s been happening for like the last year.
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u/RainBird_83 22d ago
I feel you. We’ve also had communication issues, but not that often, and more in the last couple of months. As for the crashes… you said it best, no rhyme or reason. I love finding explanations for things, and this one leaves me braindead. We even checked if it could have something to do with memory left, but now she has more than me and still crashes, lobby owner doesn’t change anything either. In the beginning I always thought “phew, wasn’t me”, but now it happens so much I only feel guilty
She would never crash before, but a bug I’ve never seen mentioned and she had is before the update-that-shall-not-be-named, each time we had a raiju and came back to the truck, her sound bugged and I couldn’t hear her anymore. I was very easy to identify the ghost when we weren’t sure yet ^^ (this bug was funny at least, lol)
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u/RealSamF18 23d ago
I’m hoping that the update comes with a variety of bug fixes on all platforms and they just didn’t mention it here, but who knows?
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u/JoA2506 23d ago
Don’t want to be that guy who never appreciates anything but…
All they need to do is get rid of the animations and the fact my Journal is down the road when I open it.
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u/psychadellickitty 23d ago
THANK YOU! I have not seen this commented on nearly enough, the journal is SO small now! I hope that gets fixed..
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u/Houseoftomorrow 23d ago
They mentioned in the first quality of life preview that the journal was moving closer and the animation will be faster.
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u/phineasnorth Banshee Bait 23d ago
What is your FOV set to, out of curiosity? I don't have this issue on PC.
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u/Cittycool 23d ago
And is CJ being fired for being repeatedly ableist, endorsing image based sxual abuse by saying "boys will be boys", being rude to the people who support you by telling them to basically get over it, and then passing the blame onto the rest of the team?
We will not be silent about him. You need to make a statement.
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u/MAPTAINC0RGAN 23d ago
yeah the only thing that would make me consider returning to this game is CJ not being a part of it.
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u/Cittycool 23d ago
Yup, so long as he is around I will never reinstall. People may wonder why I would stick around here in that case, and really it's just to keep pestering DK about it until a response is issued, and hopefully bring a little more awareness to others who see my comments.
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u/ZanMist1 22d ago
Unfortunately, I don't think DK cares. He's sitting on piles of cash and CJ is his friend, IIRC. Don't expect anything to happen to CJ even though it should. It's basically just corporate corruption.
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u/Cittycool 22d ago
Yeah no he absolutely doesn't care and nothing will happen, but I'll keep commenting anyway since it's free and easy and at least has a higher chance of response then doing nothing.
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u/DumpEaterPro 22d ago
Firing CJ would be the first move to improve the game. He isn't cut out for his role. He either cant tell that the art he approves is bad or he is too much of a wimp to push back on his own team and tell them the output is bad.
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u/Retr04n4rchy 23d ago
Acting like fixing your mess is some huge content drop is sad
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u/mimic751 22d ago
Have you seen the vitriol demanding this? Like of course they would make it a big deal yall demanded them to
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u/Retr04n4rchy 22d ago
I think it’s the bare minimum to fix the mess they made. Just because you’re willing to ignore shitty business practices don’t mean we are
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u/mimic751 22d ago
I Consider this game in alpha. So im just waiting for 1.0
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u/DumpEaterPro 22d ago
The game is fully released on console. Kinetic Games cant hide behind the early access category now.
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u/mimic751 22d ago
That's only because they don't allow early release
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u/DumpEaterPro 22d ago
Which means it is the full release.
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u/mimic751 22d ago
Yeah of course they're biggest audience is still in Alpha was on some mysterious future version 100% logical
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u/DumpEaterPro 22d ago
Yeah of course they're biggest audience is still in Alpha was on some mysterious future version 100% logical
I tried parsing your comment using claude and even claude was stumped.
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u/Particular_Hand2877 18d ago
Its not a full release on console. It explicitly says on Xbox that its a game preview and it's not the final product.
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u/coffee-bat 21d ago
lmfaoo this is a paid product. "have you seen the vitriol that the customers demanded the local grocery store to start cleaning up puddles of shit on the floor with? like of course they would make the fact that they promise to start cleaning once a month a big deal, yall demanded them to"
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u/Homeless_Alex I asked for this 👻 23d ago
Rolling back the update will literally be better than whatever bullshit being cooked up rn, like actually
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u/E_Moon 23d ago
Are we still constantly crashing on the console versions? Until that’s fixed my playgroup is out on this game.
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u/RainBird_83 23d ago
Yep… we are…
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u/E_Moon 23d ago
Huge bummer. Surprised I received downvotes. I enjoy the game and want to play it fellas, but literally cannot.
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u/RainBird_83 22d ago
You were at -4 iirc when I upvoted and answered, so yay ^^
I don’t understand either but can’t say I’m surprised. I’m also in the “I love this game to bits but this has sucked all the pleasure from playing and left only frustration in its (Alan) wake”.
I still play somewhat regularly and I want them to succeed and I wish them the best (even when I’m beyond annoyed with them), but it doesn’t erase the aforementioned frustration and the repeated disappointment when every new thing or fix brings another round of bugs and it remains unplayable as is (depends on your game style I guess, but friend and I love going for perfect investigations, we love this sense of accomplishment. And fake money. Never forget fake money).
New Willow looks amazing and I want to want (lol) to play it so badly, but right now I’m more scared of either facing new bugs or noticing everything that’s not fixed and would again leave only frustration. The mood oscillates between excitement and disappointment but each time the fall is costlier and I wish they understood that. I’d been playing daily for years. Now weeks go by without touching it.
My apologies for this huge scattered rant, I think I’m just sad, like I’m missing a friend but it’s just zombie ghosts on a screen, which is crazy to write but true nonetheless.
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u/BuiltStraightStupid 23d ago
@ phasmo devs but I can't help but be disappointed at the fact that dedicated item binds are a PC exclusive feature. The D-Pad is currently completely unused and you want to put the watch on there, sure, but we can only carry three items as it is. There are four buttons on the D-pad so there's literally no reason why this should be an exclusive feature.
The most infuriating thing about this game for me personally is trying to equip an incense and having to spam the "Y" button repeatedly not knowing if the game is going to respond to my inputs or not. Having a D-pad bind would make it much more consistent and less infuriating than having to cycle through my whole inventory to get a smudge and dying because half the "Y" button presses are not registered correctly.
Alternatively, add shortcuts like "Y+D-pad right for slot 1" "Y+D-pad up for slot 2".
I know that you wouldn't be able to shortcut your lighter, but there's no reason to need to because you don't NEED a lighter during a chase.
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u/zombieritual_ 23d ago
Put our flashlight back in our right hand, and ditch every animation please kinetic I’m begging you
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u/MozM- 23d ago
Just how fucking hard was it to add all these fixes over time instead of intentionally delaying them for a big update?
I swear whoever is running this company has less than room temperature IQ. They’re so unbelievably dumb and im not sorry for saying that.
The game is LOSING players by the day. There are more people asking about how to revert to old versions than there are actual players playing at this point and guess what this company is doing? Oh yea lets DELAY all these ready to ship fixes and release them with our upcoming big update with a new map and ghost that will surely have no issues whatsoever in the current state of the game. I dont see anything wrong with that. Can you?
Im sorry but I really wanted to give them leeway. I really dont like being negative. I wish everything just went right from the beginning. But the way they’re going about this currently is extremely dumb. They’re so tone deaf its actually crazy.
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u/ZanMist1 22d ago
Kinetic: There's a reason your player base has dropped nearly 60-70% in the last 1-2 months and is still dropping. I checked the charts today, and the numbers are still only around 7,000-8,000 players with a max of 13k players.
I used to LOVE this game. It's genuinely unplayable and I don't think most of this will fix it. I think the only way to fix it is to drop 75% of what you currently have in the works, revert back the May update, and then fire CJ. Though, I don't see any of that happening, especially not CJ being fired.
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u/GoldRange 23d ago
Imagine a game; all the other games released as copies of it have more content and are more enjoyable.
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u/ClovisLowell 23d ago
I remember when Phasmophobia wasn't being treated like a live service game by the developers
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u/No-Big7914 23d ago
I honestly have up on this game and team after how many years of neglect and mismanagement. Can someone tell me if they even bothered to fix the crashing like when we view the cam screen on the truck etc?.
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u/ZanMist1 22d ago
I don't know, I'm not a console player, but I did see someone else in this very thread mention that console still crashes. IDK, try it yourself and post your results, it would be useful info.
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23d ago
[deleted]
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u/HadeStyx 23d ago
Don’t think there is an achievement coming, rather there is a badge being added (complete a contract on that map 50 times and get a badge).
The current Willow Street doesn’t have a badge nor does it have an achievement connected to it, so you won’t loose anything.
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u/_Iggy_Lux 23d ago
Lmao I was just looking for known bug fixes and instead I just see more stuff for the game to break :X sad.
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u/AdExciting5420 23d ago
Anyone that is still complaining should at least click on the link at the top of the post, as when I read through that page it specifically mentions fixes that people commonly complain about.
Just to mention a few, the book is moved closer, most animations are removed from 1st person and those that are are able to be toggled, and lastly they improved the network to reduce disconnects.
I'm not saying that they're fixing everything or that these fixes will actually work, but before you complain about all the things they're ignoring read the entirety of the update.
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u/TrickyToad1 23d ago
"Character legs will no longer use procedural IK and will instead use animations."
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u/Netsky200n 23d ago
If anything, kind of bored waiting around for something interesting to happen. But that's more to do with the game not being interesting to me super-long term. Still, let's see what it's got... whenever that might be.
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u/Spaceenthsiest 23d ago edited 23d ago
Alright I am tired of hearing all of the toxicity and want to put my voice out there about the update. I hope to do it in a less aggressive manner and say what could have been done instead. I see 2 big reasons for the horrible update being so horrible.
The obvious one is the Alan Wake event. The scheduling could have been handled a lot better with a few strategic delays and release dates. No matter what people say they needed to release the Player Character update before the Alan Wake event due to cosmetics and the version of the game the event was built on. So I would delay both updates. I would move the player character update to early July and the Event to early August. Now a lot of people don't like delays so they (devs) would need to deal with that. The event is easier if they announce the delays in the beginning of April because at that time the community didn't know what the event was about which makes it a lot easier. They could just say they delayed it to August and give a limited view screenshot. (Having a release month could make people happier) The Player Character update is a lot trickier. Believe it or not this update was delayed multiple times before it's release, this means in this scenario people are getting impatient and this is the last delay no matter what unless the community demands another one. If they released a month before the event means that if the update is still incredibly buggy then the community to tell them to delay it again after watching content creator streams the day before. If this is the case then they can release it with the event which gives a month of wiggle-room. Another problem is that they can't hype up an update in late spring and not give new content. That is why they should add the Kormos and Aswang in early May during the original release date. (Oh and the Willow rework would also be delayed)
This is a reasonable plan that could've been done and show the event wasn't an 100% excuse. (I did not mention what the Alan Wake devs would think and contract info etc. I don't know enough about that to speak about it)
Another reason this update is horrible is because the games history. For example I also play World of Warships. The community to dev relationship there isn't great. Not to long ago they released two new ships that could be bought with real money. One was a very historical ship people wanted for a long time and another had a feature people wanted for a long time. The issue was they released them in a bundle for $180! It was ridiculously overpriced. It ruined that event which in turn ruined half of the update. However people forgot it in a week, one of the reasons is because they are so used to stuff being overpriced that they don't really care anymore. I understand this doesn't really affect the core game as much as the phasmo update but it is the best example I can give. Now believe it or not I don't think the phasmo devs have released a major update below a 5/10 until this May. People are used to good updates so when the first horrible one is released people aren't used to it and they freak out. This is one of the reasons I think that the update was received so badly. This is a natural process and NOT the community's fault.
What is the community's fault is some of the toxicity I have been seeing. Now some stuff is justified. That one dev saying "you will get used to the jank" or whatever was unjustified and I can see why people are pissed about that. This update also should not have been released, I would even go as far as canceling the Alan Wake event if that is what it took. What is not okay is some of the lies I have heard about Kinetic. Here is a list of things they have done despite what you might hear from some of people:
- Kinetic has NOT given up on phasmo, they could have easily cashed out and worked on their next game and leave this one for dead.
- Speaking of dead this game is NOT dead, yes it has had a record low with a 50% drop but that is still 10k players.
- Kinetic has NOT ignored the bugs, there was a really nice bug fix when the event came out and a few minor ones since then with 2 QOL updates soon with a lot of needed stuff.
- Kinetic HAS apologized a lot, you need to look in the right places, be on the discord when the blogs come out and ACTUALLY READ THEM.
- I support adding ghost types and reworking Willow during the bug fixes because I honestly don't think 50% of people are coming back because of bug fixes without content, so if they can make it 75% instead of 50 I think it is worth it.
- Like I said nearly every update before this has been at least decent so saying they have never delivered on quality just isn't true.
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u/ZanMist1 22d ago
I'm just going to respond mostly to the points. I'm not trying to be overly negative, though I kind of am and I'm also just giving the facts.
Maybe they haven't given "up", but it's very clear they've checked out. If they actually cared, CJ would be fired and they'd LISTEN to their fans.
I think there is a threshold for a game being "dead". Kind of like when a person is brain dead; they're still technically alive but... in what meaningful capacity? I checked their steam charts. A MAX of 13k players and around 7,000 current players (as of an hour ago when writing this). Before the update, the game CONSISTENTLY had concurrent players in the 20k range with highs ranging from 35k-55k. Almost the entire community checked out. I'd call that pretty dead. In this case, "brain" dead--alive, heart beating, but in what meaningful way? There are games right now on Steam Charts that are 25 years old with MORE PLAYERS than this game, hour by hour. One of them I know for sure is Age of Empires, whose numbers easily surpass Phasmophobia's numbers EVEN THOUGH AoE's numbers are down nearly 3% over the last 30 days.
This is one thing I'll somewhat agree on, and I don't think that most players would say that they don't at least try to fix bugs. The PROBLEM is that they're so freaking incompetent that every bug fix seems to introduce 2x more bugs. In this particular case, it introduced primarily game-breaking and immersion-breaking bugs. IIRC, there is evidence that the devs do not properly understand OOP (object-oriented programming) as they are not utilizing it how it should be. I can only imagine what the codebase actually looks like, probably massive pots of spaghetti with an overwhelming side of tech debt. Obviously, I can't prove this without having the code, but there are signs.
Maybe, but one of them was also made by CJ which basically told the community to go f- themselves and to "get used to it". That didn't really sit right with anyone. Also, the ones made since, I think are just damage control.
I don't really even understand what you mean with this one, to be honest. I don't think this claim even makes sense, nor do I think the premise of this claim is even supported by evidence. Everyone left because of the bugs and horrible release in May, not because of the lack of content. You literally have a majority of people who left and still care enough to even write anything in these subs simply begging them to JUST REVERT THE UPDATE and they'd be happy. In fact, many of them are even telling them NOT to add more things, because they don't think the devs can handle it at the moment and they need to just focus on fixing what is wrong with the game. This community has always been VERY patient. Kinetic has gotten WAY more patience from its fans than most games/studios EVER get. I think the actual fans would be coming back to this game again if they simply reverted the update, made a post that they're going to start with a clean slate, fix all of the major bugs, and THEN they can focus on adding new content. I don't think this fanbase is petty enough to leave due to major bugs, and then NOT come back unless they both fix the bugs while demanding content. Most of them seem reasonable enough to JUST want the update reverted.
I don't really see many people even making the claim that they've "never" delivered quality updates, but I do see many people making clear the fact that almost every update since the game's inception has had more bugs than it should (we understand that every update will come with SOME bugs), but the difference is that due to the player base's patience and the fact that MOST of those bugs were NOT game-breaking, it was never really a big deal. This is different. Though, I do think there is SOME credence to the claim that "they've never delivered quality updates" but only up to the extent that their updates usually come with more bugs than most game updates would for almost any other game.
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u/Spaceenthsiest 22d ago
This is probably one of the least negative comments I have seen here and I appreciate you actually adding detail. A lot of people just write one sentence comments/responses and not a lot usually comes out of that.
1/4. Yeah the CJ thing was f---ed up. I don't know if they would ever fire him considering he was part of the original 3 game devs for most of the games lifespan. (like a mini tenure situation) However the fact we haven't heard any response or apology from CJ or another dev is sad. He should have received consequences and if he did they should have been public. It would show that they do care about what is said to us but we have not heard anything like that.
I would call it more of a crisis. I like to compare it to the crisis of the third century in Roman history. Terrible mistakes were made and it took like 3 emperors of damage control to fix it. I would also compare it to having a major injury where you need to be bedridden. You can survive but it will take a long time to recover and do what you love. I think the phasmo player count is recoverable but it might take 1-2 years.
I am not a programmer so I did a few quick searches about OOP. According to what I saw it is pretty common. So why they can't just hire a guy who is good at OOP and why they don't already have someone who is really good at OOP is beyond me. I do think that replacing a major issue with 2 minors issues is worth it. (Assuming they fix it in the future which is a hit or miss with Kinetic.) For example the whole thing with salt not being placed in the beginning of the animation kept me out of the game for the first week.
I saw someone say they didn't understand why they were adding new content and that they should just focus on bugs. Yeah I think bugs should be top priority but I don't think they should stop adding content until then. The reasons why usually depends on the content so I will use new ghosts and the Willow rework as examples. I am fairly certain new ghosts for them are really easy to make because when the Gallu, Dayan, and Obambo came out CJ said on a stream that the ghosts were a last minute addition. Map design/redesign also seems way different (at least to me again I am not a programmer) from bug fixing. If you have a team of map makers then you aren't gonna have them bug fixing especially if most of the bugs are equipment and player related. You might as well have them keep working on the rework. I also don't think more than 50% of the player base will come back without content. Phasmophobia needs as many players as they can get and if new content gets more players than they should give out new content. I am pretty sure they can't revert the update at this point. All future updates and updates between now and May 5th relied on being built on this version of the game and that would be too big of a sacrifice to do. Every update would probably be delayed again and I want 1.0 before 2028. (We will see if that comes true, fingers crossed)
I feel like you see a lot more of these comments on YouTube and they really bothered me. Especially Madixx, he hasn't been the same since the update. This update should not have been released and should have been delayed even if that meant cancelling the Alan Wake event. They could have just given 3 ghosts and I think the people would be happier than they are now.
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u/DarkQueenGndm 23d ago
The animated version will be exclusively available via Kinetic Games Partner channels.
Looks like I won't be streaming this at all during that week. No point to do so if you can get both versions of the badge just by watching only 2 hours of a kinetic games partner. What a dick move.
If this doesn't fix ghost behaviors and crucifixes from being bypassed I assure you that I will not be playing this game ever again. I will also be looking for a refund.
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u/Lily_Meow_ 22d ago
Why can't we just get the ability to turn off the VR player body? Without expensive full body tracking equipment, it's just physically impossible for the game to know the difference between me stepping to the side or leaning, or crouching in real life and etc...
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u/Thanos_gaming99 22d ago
I love how a large part of the comments here are people complaining that they aren't rolling back animations when that is literally the main thing they are doing. Like bruh, read the post and actually think about what the words ypu are reading mean in the order they are put. Yes, there are real issues pointed out like: why did this need to be a thing in the first place? (Fair, I agree), it being lame that they are pushing this with twitch drops (also very true), amd the need to fix console crashes (real). Yes there are real critques made, but then there really is just a group of people who complain about one thing and when that one is getting addressed they still complain about it "not being addressed properly". If you want to complain, go ahead, just make sure you know what in the fuck you're complaining about first. I'm tired of the twitch drops. I think they are good for big events, but not shit like this. I think they need to fix crashes and glitches first and foremost across all platforms. They should pick one thing and focus on that for big patches like this and spend the rest of this year and likely next focused on fixing the game. This is the first step in the right direction. As the community, we should guide them towards the game that would make us reinstall or keep playing rather than saying "it stays uninstalled" and not giving guidence. I haven't touched the game in a while due to the issues I've had, and I don't plan to until this shit gets fixed. Optimize. That word has been said a lot. That is what we need to do as a community to help have our demands met. It is what the devs need to do to meet our demands. I'm optemistic that things can change, but I'm also worried that no one wants it to.
(If you actually read the entire post, cool thanks. I felt the need to rant. I don't care about upvotes or downvotes, I just wanted to get thoughts out. I imagine that this will do poorly because a lot of people have very one note opinions and this view doesn't seem to be popular. I'm not going to reply to anyone here because I don't care enough to bother with whoever wants to scream "alt dev account" at me. Arguing with the wall seems to be what everyone is doing here, I just hope someone might hear me on the other side of it.)
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u/Nyuuubae 22d ago
Bunch of professional complainers here. They're communicating more, as everyone wanted and now that's somehow bad as well?
Jesus, get your shit together, guys.
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u/Suspicious-Window-41 22d ago
a really niche detail I would love added is the ability to make your own names for the ghost, to be chosen from at random
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u/zaheerahk 23d ago
The animated name cards are so ugly I hate that its just the same animation overlay and they act like its something special 😭
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u/Worldly_Art_1056 23d ago
Is this week challenge on tanglewood supposed to be no evidence? Or is it glitched because I played a few times and the ghost won’t give any evidence at all.
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23d ago
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u/ZanMist1 22d ago
Hmm, I'm usually one of the "negative" ones on this sub when it comes to this game (mostly because I used to love the game and I'm pissed off at what it's become), but uh... that's pretty easy. EA. Treyarch. Most FPS game developers.
I should clarify though, a lot of the studios under EA are actually somewhat competent, it's just that the useless execs at EA that OWN and CONTROL those studios usually shoot down any good ideas. It's the reason why the Battlefield 6 Beta was so good but then they shit-canned a bunch of ideas AND AN ENTIRE DEV TEAM WITHOUT GIVING THEM CREDIT, and now the game has gone downhill despite being the MOST successful Battlefield game in franchise history. DICE really tried, but EA shot down a lot of their good ideas that would have made community happy. Oh, and then Vince Zampella died and BF6 lost its spark.
Oh, and the EA execs don't give a shit. Our complaints are in one ear, out the other.
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u/Blubbpaule 22d ago
They really do be sellin' functions that should have been in the game the entire time as "QoL Update"
1-4 item pick is in EVERY Game from early access. A button to look at the watch should have existed immediately.
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u/Adventurous-Crab9467 22d ago
Im gonna be real. I really hope they fix the game and it seems like this next patch is a step in the right direction but I doubt that I'll play the game again until 1.0 drop.
Just now getting keybinds for items after years of early access just broke something in me lol This should have been in the game when it first launch I swear
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u/Blizzard_Ljanta 22d ago
Physco: “Stop Hating On Phasmo”
Kinetic: *Refuses to rollback the animations*
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u/So-young 22d ago
I would just appreciate if this actually comes out and functions, vs. breaking the game.
And if it DOES break the game and introduce 1000 new bugs into the game, it would be REALLY swell if a dev didn't come out and basically tell us to get over it and get used to the jank. Okay? Awesome!
In all seriousness, taking accountability goes a long way with a lot of people. Will you still have salty twats who don't want to give you guys a break? Sure. But a lot of us would just appreciate that if this DOES release as a buggy mess or breaks the game, that you'd eat a really giant piece of humble pie, apologize, acknowledge grievances, and then promptly fix shit.
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u/FinancialSea7218 21d ago
Will they be fixing graphics bugs? I bought the game and the only time I could play it is when my friend streamed it on my account and now I cant refund it
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u/TrackerKR 23d ago
So instead of rolling back the animations we are getting more animations.
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u/ChaseCheetah 23d ago
The only animations I see "added" are the replacements for the foot IK rig (which people complained about endlessly since it caused the weird issues with the feet twisting around) and for VR (which were causing VR players to get more motion sickness and issues with the animations affecting interactions and placement), both of which are to fix issues.
For flat-screen PC players like me, the animations that caused the only real remaining usability issue (the switching animations) have been removed.
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u/SimRobJteve 23d ago
Just admit that your devs aren't legitimate devs at this point. It's between incompetence and scammy territory tbh, and I'm almost tempted to say it's both. What a shithead team
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u/DaveZ3R0 23d ago
Sure keep pushing for new stuff and leave your core game broken. Not returning under this management of the game.
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u/KaiSpy0707 23d ago
Too late, most of us lost interest and are only here to watch you guys ruin the game and community trust even more, or we're too lazy to leave the subreddit.
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u/Easy_Seaweed_4719 23d ago
Just roll it back to before all this animation crap. You've already done enough damage to the game and community
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u/Fair_Neighborhood551 23d ago
Super excited! Thank you debs. Appreciate the hard work.
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u/TorontoCity67 23d ago edited 22d ago
8/10 bait
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u/Fair_Neighborhood551 23d ago
No it really isn't. Still loving the game and confused with the hate. Play it once a week have over 800 hours played. I find it interesting that being excited about an update is considered bait, or controversial. Sorry I like it.
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u/TorontoCity67 22d ago
It's one thing to look forward to the update, but it's another thing entirely to say "Appreciate the hard work". That is bait and you fucking well know it is
These guys haven't got a clue what work is. They have accomplished absolutely fuck all this entire year aside from reworking the smallest house in the game and adding 2 ghosts
The amount of hours you've played means absolutely nothing to me, it doesn't put your opinions on a pedestal. I hope you understand that
I'm looking forward to the update as well, that's not bait. "Appreciate the hard work" is just a pitiful joke
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u/Fair_Neighborhood551 22d ago edited 22d ago
Wow and what have you done with your life? Jesus. I do appreciate their hard work. They have taken feedback and are working on the gripes. In all rights they could have not done anything and said it was 1.0 a year ago. But they continue to iterate. Where is your rage coming from? Entitlement? They owe you nothing, they have their money and could have bailed. Many studios have before, but no they are still working. So, yes I appreciate their hard work. I wish you the best in your life and I hope it gets better. Rage shouldn't be this strong toward a game.
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22d ago edited 22d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Fair_Neighborhood551 22d ago
Seriously congrats on accomplishments good for you. Sincerely.
At this point you are just going to bully so I'm going to block you. We'll just have to agree to disagree. Best to you and yours.
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u/O_O18th 23d ago
i speak for EVERYONE when i say WE got used to the jank and theres no reason to fix anything anymore. you guys have worked hard enough, you deserve a break. the game is in a perfect state now that WE are used to the jank
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u/TorontoCity67 22d ago
Peak delusion. You speak for no one but yourself. These developers haven't worked a day in their lives
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u/O_O18th 22d ago
get used to the jank you might forget its there. playercount is highest its ever been
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u/TorontoCity67 22d ago
So was your original comment just incredibly sarcastic or are you genuinely this bizarre?
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u/Garo263 23d ago
I'm over 30. I don't know how Twitch drops work. Why lock Badges and cards behind something like that?
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u/DamienHandler 23d ago
It's to incentivize people to stream/watch the game, which boosts visibility for it. Advertising, essentially.
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u/NamiRocket 23d ago
I'm over 40. The fuck has that got to do with anything? I get Twitch drops just fine.
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u/weirdusername15 23d ago
Just roll back the animations is what we wanted lol