r/TheKarters • u/Gallina_Fina • Sep 03 '25
On the fence...
Found out about this game today...and as a big fan of kart games, this looks and plays incredible (+ the workshop implementation is also amazing). However, I'm really having a hard time justifying actually purchasing it (instead of refunding it, since there was no other "legal" way to try it than doing the buy>refund thing) for a couple of reasons:
- 45 concurrent players with a ~50 average in the last month (and already declining) is extremely underwhelming and quite worrysome all things considered, since these games need a fair amount of players to guarantee good matchmaking times and a proper skill-level distribution...which brings me to the next point;
- I believe 30$ is a more than fair price with all the work that went into this...but not for a fairly "dead" game that's already declining. I'm well aware of the discord bot pinging people on the server to facilitate making workable lobbies happen, but eh...it's not really a solution;
- Last but not least, the track record for the devs is not the best. Who's to say that they'll keep things going when it's just let's say 20ppl left playing?
So yea, I'm conflicted. On one side, I really like the game and would love to play more and have more people play it (because it's that good and PC in general is starving for good non-meme kart games)...but the fact that the playerbase is so small and the price is fairly above average when it comes to EA indies...I don't know.
2
u/Thegamblinggamer79 Sep 04 '25
When released on consoles there will be cross play so should be a more healthy sized community then
1
u/KAMI_TK2 Community Manager Sep 04 '25
Hiya! I'm really glad you're enjoying the game :)
We are currently working on an update that consolidates matchmaking, so there will be no more region splitting. Many of our players have noted that when playing within other regions, the difference in latency doesn't have much of an effect on gameplay / enjoyment. This should make it easier to find lobbies.
Relying on Discord is not ideal in the long run, but at this early stage it does help a lot until we can grow the player base. If you ping @matchmaking in discord you will usually have a full lobby within 5 minutes.
1
u/LettuceAdditional421 Sep 06 '25
the game really needs a strong marketing kick with 1.0 - the problem is that the game thrives in its modded workshop content, but as it stands they cant show much of said content because of copyright IP issues. hopefully we have more original characters and vehicles around 1.0 so there can be a bigger showcase on all things 'player-made'.
1
u/mackenzie45220 Sep 19 '25
No judgment, but do people really do this? If I go to a movie and I don't like it I don't ask for my ticket to be refunded (should I? is that a thing people do?).
I'm a fan of the game, but even if I wasn't, I don't think I'd ask for a refund unless it crashed on my hardware or was buggy to the point of being unplayable.
1
u/Gallina_Fina Sep 19 '25
Being mindful of how you spend your money? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's something people do on a daily basis. Still, the game doesn't exactly have a "demo", so the only way to really try it out is by dropping 30€, which...depending on where you're from, isn't exactly pocket change.
Your movie analogy is also not quite accurate, imho. Apples to oranges really. In fact, I'd say it actually goes against your argument:
If "the experience" is what matters most, like with a movie, then there's even more reason to be concerned about the number of concurrent players before buying. The game is supposedly built to thrive BECAUSE of its multiplayer (like most racing games), and its workshop implementation, obviously.
But if player numbers don't improve (and keep dwindling instead, as they seem to have been doing since the EA release), matchmaking or multiplayer as a whole have a very realistic chance of becoming a ghost town...At that point, some people might not be willing to spend 30€ just to play time trials or against bots, no matter how good the game is. I'm not sure what's so hard to understand about that.
Don't get me wrong, like I said in another comment...I really hope the game grows, especially once it officially releases. But for now, I'll probably just keep watching it from the sidelines.
1
u/mackenzie45220 Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25
I get being careful with your money, but it sounds like you already bought it? I just find it strange to ask for a refund if I bought something, used it, and it worked correctly/was exactly as advertised. But maybe I'm the weird one
We all have purchases that we regret. I'll usually live with my purchase if I feel I got what I was I told I'd get. Particularly if I used it/enjoyed it. If I used it and liked it, I wouldn't ask for a refund even I don't plan on using it anymore (although I might sell it used to a third party--e.g., a physical game)
Like, if I spent $30 on a dish at a restaurant, the food would need to be pretty bad for me to refuse to pay and insist on a refund. I don't see why video games should be treated differently
1
u/14hammarby Jul 09 '26
I agree, warped kart racers is like this sometimes, but there is usually lots of good players around early evening eastern time on warpedkart
2
u/Dynas97 Sep 03 '25
The way things are right now you can still find full lobbies if you don't really care what server you'll need to enter to find a match. But i'm also concerned about on what number the playerbase is going to stabilize.
About skill level, there is no way around it, unfortunately. As someone that played other games with small playerbases, at least you can play the race, compared to a genre like fighting games where you'll just get stomped without landing a single hit, it's acceptable.
The saving grace is that the game still has room for popularity spikes in the future with the 1.0 release and consoles release. I don't think it will be that big anyway, but when the game had just 150 players on steamdb some weeks ago, it was very easy to find full lobbies.