An Open Letter To N3TWORK On Why It’s Bittersweet Deleting Legendary: Game Of Heroes

Dear N3TWORK developers,

Congratulations on your 4th year anniversary. For over 3 years now, I’ve regularly logged in to spend a few minutes or even a few hours at a time matching gems and collecting heroes. This will be my last week playing the game and I’m already feeling a little nostalgic.

During this time, you have made many changes that have kept the game new and interesting and also many changes that have infuriated players, including myself. It would be easy enough to say I’m deleting the app because I’m unhappy with many of the recent developments that have led to a mass exodus of long time players. It’s more complicated than that, but this letter isn’t about my in-game complaints. Don’t worry, my personal departure will not hurt your bottom line so much – I haven’t spent any money on the game for years. I just don’t want to invest any more time or energy being annoyed each week.

I won’t be sad about no longer playing, but I will be sad to leave my guild members behind. I’ve been in two guilds during my time playing and have stayed long after we lost too many members and were no longer competitive. As have some of the other long-standing guild members. I’ve stayed because of the odd connection I’ve developed with my anonymous guild-mates, who I only know by their usernames. From time to time, we would share bits about our real lives and I’ve even found myself wanting to share some of the things in my own life with these “friends” whom I’ve never met.

Though none of the 2 or 3+ year veterans have explicitly said why they’ve stayed, I think the sentiment is the same as mine – the camaraderie.

Here’s the thing. In the game, I’ve met people from all walks of life. A couple of truck drivers regularly going from one distribution center to the next logging on whenever and wherever they’ve parked for the night. Nurses on 24 hour shifts playing on their off days or after a shift to relieve some stress. I’ve had guild members update me in real time about political upheaval in their country or a flooding in their county. I’ve laughed along when a stay at home mom shared ridiculous stories about her rebellious teenage daughter. And I’ve offered my congratulations to a new grandmother after she shared news of holding her granddaughter for the first time months after she was born because of the current pandemic. It’s nice to share in someone’s good news.

But I’ve also shared in the bad. I’ve met guild members who have gone in and out of hospitals because of debilitating illnesses. There were times I’ve logged in to play and went to the chat first to check if they were out of the hospitals. I’ve “held” their hands while they shared a story about their latest organ failure scare or emergency room visit. I’ve talked to them while they were recovering and used the game as a distraction from the pain. When these members stopped logging on after a few weeks, I could only hope that they left the game for some other less terminal reasons. Years have passed, and I still wonder whatever happened to them.

After all this, it didn’t actually surprise me when I found out that a member with a name like Lord Baldir Valeria* turned out to be a middle-aged woman who was having problems in her marriage that she didn’t mind sharing. Though the conversations were not long, the anonymity of it all perhaps made her feel safe enough to open up in the game where she might not have been so candid with someone she knew in real life.

In general, I’ve met some really decent people in the game.

Even as my job as a travel filmmaker and photographer takes me all around the world, I’m grateful to the game for providing a platform where I could encounter and have conversations with people I otherwise would never have met or spoken with in real life. It gives you perspective.

This letter is not only to share my own experiences, but to make one request to you, the developers: do right by the players who remain.

There are people who spend what I would consider a ridiculous amount of money each week to stay competitive with their guild in the global standings. I don’t know any of these players, but I do know people who spend much more than I would, even while they work minimum wage jobs and live month to month. It’s not my place to comment on someone’s financial situation or how they choose to spend their money – so I never say anything.

But I also know people who live in countries where the local wages are even less than what we earn in the United States and unimaginably less than where you are located, in San Francisco. I know, I’ve lived in San Francisco for the last 14 years. Still, they spend money in your game and sometimes come away with almost nothing in the pack pulls for that week.

For the most part, almost all the cards are more or less useless after the week’s event. I know it’s a business model. I know you need to give reasons to spend money each week to stay competitive. I know it’s a choice that people make whether they choose to spend their money or not. Still, I think you can do better.

I ask you, as developers and business development strategists, to also consider who your players are and why they choose to spend the money to stay in this game. Maybe for some, it’s more than just a game and something that gives them a little distraction from whatever is going on in their lives.

For these players and everyone else who is still logged into the game after the 4th anniversary, I implore you to consider changes that might give loyal players (and not just your VIP members) a way to still enjoy the game without having to spend an arm and a leg and hope to pull enough cards for a reasonable deck each week. I have no specific recommendations, but I’m guessing your team, as most software and game developers do, have discussed all iterations of game mechanics and can think of a way or two to do this.

In parting, thank you again for the game play over the last few years. Even as I’m lucky enough to travel the world the world and work a dream job, I still log with the same intent as many others – to find a little distraction. Good job as you continue to develop new games, but don’t forget about the people who helped get you guys to the point where you could do that.

*names have been changed to protect the identity of people

Updated on August 18, 2020