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The inevitable downfall of KDice
AIex_o wrote
at 3:00 PM, Thursday April 24, 2014 EDT
It's been almost 9 years since KDice started. I remember starting somewhere early 09, when the player pool was at its peak. It was a news article I read somewhere where I got the sniff of this game. Probably most of you discovered this game trough google, a friend or another site recommending it. How much do you think that is happening now? Not much right? I can't speak of much of the older days pre march 05 -to feb 11. Is when I started to compete and socialize. But since then I've seen players retire for different reasons. Which is normal at any game. The issue is that KDice is loosing players more than its gaining.

And the result is what we have now, we're seeing a weak and unfair competition. Where tournaments and member tournaments are ruining the competitive side of it. Some of you might remember back when members wasn't so small, therefore the points were spread out in a much larger portion than it is now. It was possible for skilled non members to still compete with the tourney scraping players.

Now the table limits are now seriously fucked up! Players with 5-30K are playing it. Some for fun, fair enough. But there should be some kind of limit. The higher tables struggle to get players to fill it. There should be a 10k table so table players can compete with tourney players. But what's the point when the limits aren't allowing them to fill anyway?

About the members. I was a paying member for 2-3 years, so I know what's going on there. The difference is that the pool has gone down and it's basically free points now. If one is not getting 30K+ from those alone, you're either really shit or not playing that much. I can't even count players on one hand in there that I consider a skilled player. Just look at their PPG, ASR or % of top 3 table pos to see what I mean.

As much as I hate it with passion, the paying members are the ones who keep this alive. Without them I doubt Ryan would even consider keeping KDice going with its server costs.

About the mods and cheating. It was worse before, no question. But comparing now to before is a bit wrong too. Straight up cheating or PGA comes in waves at periods of time. It's less obvious trough OTF and its less frequent due to a smaller player pool. I'm not gonna be a hypocrite and say I wasn't cheating, I was! big time. The community is mostly self moderated now, and the cheating is mainly a problem at the small tables. The reason the mods have slowly retired is because of Ryans lack of commitment. He doesn't even grant them free membership ffs. Being a mod is a thankless job, 100% charity work for the community and therefore you'll see inconsistency in modding. The mods can only do so much with the limited tools in their possession to keep the cheating at an "OK, this is acceptable/ as good as it gets" level. If you see or feel the need to complain about cheating, prove it! It's not that hard to take a screenshot or tape it if you see something. Otherwise, shut the fuck up, and accept that the mods can't take action because you said so.

So what can we do as players? For KDice, not much, we could change the horrible OTF style which some rely on, not saying its bad now compared to before, but players should always play to win! Just look at Thrillho or apignarp (only ones I could think of atm) they always play for themselves and gets top places without the OTF style. (not getting into that anymore in depth).

kakku man and Deadcode made 2 very decent Greasemonkey scripts that enhanced the KDice experience with its auto end, luck panel, and player notes.
Mikeypoo and nufilis created another KDice based game called xcion, which was shit, they eventually shut down and moved to a spanish facebook site (Tuenti). Deadcode then made his version of KDice called War Social. Its development has stopped due to lack of time and currently there's rarely player there.

There's no preview in this awful forum so I probably fucked up the layout and context somewhere. Anyway, these are my opinions. I don't expect everyone to share my view or agree with me.

TL;DR: All things come to an end.

Replies 1 - 10 of 23 Next › Last »
Slinus wrote
at 3:23 PM, Thursday April 24, 2014 EDT
Lil Johnson213 wrote
at 3:50 PM, Thursday April 24, 2014 EDT
Avoiding OTF is like literally working against the wiring of your brain and Ive said this since 07 and I still uphold it is impossible for this game to be OTF free...
Thraxle wrote
at 3:59 AM, Friday April 25, 2014 EDT
Solid post. Sup fellas.
superxchloe wrote
at 9:29 AM, Friday April 25, 2014 EDT
I'm not a fella but sup thrax anyway

I don't know that any of this is new, but it's very well said. Props to the ASR shoutout :P But if the player pool were larger, membership wouldn't be such a huge advantage (though I agree it needs to be nerfed a bit) and there would probably be like, actual competition. Clearly that isn't the case, with the player pool shrinking rather than growing. I played a nightly last night for the first time in a couple years and there were 10 players vs. 25 two years ago vs. 35-49 three years ago. Even the mini freeroll isn't filling, and that's a huge testament imo to how badly membership has shrunk.

But eh. Action clearly isn't being taken to address the problems.
dasfury wrote
at 9:43 AM, Friday April 25, 2014 EDT
sup rob, chloe
jurgen wrote
at 3:35 PM, Friday April 25, 2014 EDT
I agree with almost everything that Alex said

The member advantage could indeed be nerfed slightly although I also think it's only a small group of people who complain about it. Unless someone farms 100k on members, it's pretty doable to beat a member for gold. Let's not forget that this game is free for 1000s of people because a few dozen people pay Ryan to at least keep the server online.

The limit for top 100 has increased a bit again after dropping under 11k. Now it's over 12k-13k again, mainly due to Ryan adding 3 daily freerolls. These freerolls pump as many points into the global point pool as the member tourneys do: 3 x 7500 free points. Add all the other tourneys and the kill bonus and there is plenty of point inflation that will help the non members catch up with the member advantage.

Anyway, too many points to be made, I'm just going to agree with Alex
davilfs wrote
at 7:16 PM, Saturday April 26, 2014 EDT
Well, i think that we, as players, could do something... I don't know. Trying to advertise a little bit more, or paying the membership. I still think that this is a wonderful game and there is nothing compared to it. If the game was made to android it could get a lot of new players too. Well I'm quite dumb (as u know), but I think there is still some chance of future here.
Buttwank wrote
at 8:26 PM, Saturday April 26, 2014 EDT
More Points for members, and people without memberships can now only play at 0 tables, and if you get above 20k points you can only play at 0 tables.
Smoke Two Joints wrote
at 10:22 PM, Saturday April 26, 2014 EDT
Travis just because you can't play without friends doesn't mean others can't. You are a weak person, a terrible player and a contributor to the demise of this site.
ehervey wrote
at 10:38 PM, Saturday April 26, 2014 EDT
You are a very harsh person STJ
KDice - Multiplayer Dice War
KDice is a multiplayer strategy online game played in monthly competitions. It's like Risk. The goal is to win every territory on the map.
CREATED BY RYAN © 2006
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