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I'm only going to say this once. Given how popular AQW is, I know I'm likely to be in the minority with this opinion, but I feel strongly regardless. I really, really, really dislike this injection of AQW content into DF, for a multitude of reasons. -First and foremost, a one-way crossover of this magnitude with AE's most popular game is always going to feel like an attempt to ride the more successful game's coattails instead of having DragonFable stand on its own (numerous) merits. It feels like DF is stooping to a lower level and just seeing it fills me with a kind of sadness and embarrassment - I know that DF is better than this, and inserting content from a poor, non-canon derivative of DragonFable's own story just to attract a few more players feels kind of like a sell-out. While I understand that there are several nods to AQW in DF, they're often just that - nods and easter eggs for players of both games to pick up on but not something that panders to just one of them. The only other comparable was the Frostval 2014 event (which I feel similarly about and know that many other players feel the same way) - but at least that was just supposed to be a joke-y one month holiday event rather than a serious facet of the game that will presumably be taking up 14(!) releases. This is of course ignoring AQW itself; even if you like the game you can probably agree that this release is pandering or selling out to it - just imagine how people who dislike AQW's bastardization of DragonFable's lore and characters feel about it. -My second gripe is the wasted potential that comes with retreading content another game has done. I think it's not controversial to say that there are many, many underexplored facets of DragonFable's lore that we'd love to see more of - Great Dragons, Uaanta's continent, Volkenraad, or even just revisiting concepts we already know a ton about, like the Corrupted Seven (say what you will about how enjoyable the actual gameplay was, but at least it was actual DragonFable content). There's nothing that DF can add to the lore of the Chaos Lords, and people who only play DF won't know or care a single thing about them. It's dismaying to see that AQW characters with no bearing on DF are treated as being more deserving of 14(!) releases than actual DF characters or lore. On its own in a vacuum this wouldn't really be that big of a deal - we've gotten Trigoras and the Dragonoid, after all - it's only in conjunction with the other issues (ie, just AQW specifically) that makes this something I dislike. When the preview came out on Wednesday I held out hope that we'd just be getting monsters from other AE games in general or something similarly inoffensive, but that clearly isn't the case. -Somewhat related to the above point would be the nature of the actual Chaos Lords themselves. Chaos versions of DF characters like Alteon and Drakath would actively hurt DF's ability to stand on its own from the perspective of people who don't play AQW or aren't familiar with its story (and don't even try to rationalize the 13th lord). Seeing Drakath as the edgy, straight-out-of-fanfiction, purple tween vampire that AQW turned him into will be especially painful, but fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately)... -...That won't be for a while, because most importantly this is projected to take up FOURTEEN RELEASES. All of the above problems are made immeasurably worse by the fact that they will continue to linger until the end of next year at the very earliest. AQW pandering is going to choke out releases that could be dedicated to actual DragonFable content for over a year. They aren't going to go away next month, or next week, or even next year - they're a continuous state of being for the next 14(!) months at the very least. And that's the most soul-crushing part. While there's no doubt in my mind that the DF team will be able to make a better rendition of AQW content than AQW itself can, I still find myself unable to feel comfortable with it on a conceptual level; while it's very minor in the greater scheme of things, seeing DragonFable stoop to this makes me feel like something I love has been marred. As Inn releases have generally been my favorite I'll be taking a step back from the game for a while - typing this post out probably took longer than playing the release would have but I felt the need to voice my opinion nonetheless. I hope that this release encourages AQW's larger playerbase to take up an interest in DF, and I hope that everyone else can enjoy it too.
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