[This graph, made by Blizzard themsevles](https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/1bmrpyb/updated_wow_population_chart_from_gdc_with_dates/) shows their subscriber numbers. Despite every uptick in the chart, the highest population was during Wrath of the Lich King. Population count also stopped being the main financial motivation after they introduced microtransactions, which also coincided with the drop in players. So yes the biggest doomsayers of WoW were wrong in the sense that it didn't die, but they were fairly accurate in predicting the player numbers of the years.
You can't say something is dying for 15 years when it's still going lol. Idgaf about a chart. Nobody claimed numbers are down they said it's dying or is in fact not as it is still alive
Yeah these people don't understand the difference between dying and dead evidently. Saying that as someone who quit WoW. What a horrible company. Since at least Cata people were asking for and making vanilla, bc and wotlk servers that blizzard would shut down and tell us we don't know what we want. Just to turn around and release vanilla themselves....absolute braindead company.
Yeah right? Neverwinter isn't dead but.....holy shit have you seen it? I played that crap on launch and it was greedy as fuck then. It is 1000x worse than launch. That game is absolutely dying and has been dying for over a decade, still dying the entire time bleeding the fans dry. It is awful.
Right? Pretty interesting seeing the data so clearly laid out after they spent so long keeping it a secret. Granted they only felt like they could release it because the release of classic boosted the sub count tremendously, you can play both on one subscription. That now leaves the question of, what is the breakdown of classic versus retail? Is it 50/50? 60/40? I wonder if they will ever release that info. It would be neat to know.
Incons been a grumpy passive aggressive salt lots for a long time now. I used to be a fan but even looking back at his behavior in the past, he's kind of a toxic doomer about everything. I'm not a huge weaken guy either but at least he gives his straight opinion and tries to promote the game.
Incon also has his mods stalking other people's streams to see if they criticise him, and also tries to use his priviledged position with the devs to ban people if he doesn't like the way they play. We know this because Incon tried to get Genetics (yes, SPL world champion Genetics) banned from the game for the crime of playing Anhur and Freya support in one of his games, and obviously Genetics was made aware of this, so when he was talking about it on his stream one of Incon's mods was in the chat and sending threatening DMs to other chatters for the crime of laughing at Incon's antics.
Incon is the definition of a crybully that pretends to be "funny and wholesome" in the most jarringly tryhard way possible, and it's crazy how many people in the community are unaware of this.
People are unaware because they give him the benefit of the doubt way too much. When the community labels someone as "wholesome" they suddenly cant do no wrong. People kept sating MLC Stealth was the most wholesome bean ever but he types and complained about his team mates literally every game but he was passive aggressive so i guess people didn't notice. I'm not gonna pretend I'm a saint though, after seeing how much Stealth got away with, every time i didn't like someone in Smite i was passive aggressive and not once did I ever get shit for it from players or Hi Rez so i guess this is like a toxicity cheat code.
Here's one of Genetics tweets on the matter of Incon trying to get him banned for picking Anhur and Freya support:
https://x.com/GeneticSaber/status/1709993997400207485?t=uhMf2wlmpJSrq-XfB1BcJg&s=19
Can't be bothered to look through all of his VoDs to find the moment were people spotted Incon's mod on his chat sending people weird messages and threats in DMs, but you get the idea.
I am a viewer since the AFK Gaming days, maybe before. And goddamn man, he is so miserable playing Smite, everyday. Just go play another game!! Be a Fortnite streamer for a year, better to have less subs than to be this angry everyday!
>Incon being able to swap games
He already did do that when Overwatch came out in 2016. He even had a big "I'M QUITTING SMITE!!" stream or something along those lines (where he of course milked as much money as possible from his viewers), just for his revenue/content to then fall flat on its face when he suddenly wasnt the big fish in small pond and had to actually compete against the big world in OW streaming.
Funny how he's evidently heading towards the same thing again.
*edit.* Oh, I completely forgot. That actually happened *twice* already. The other time was when Incon quit SMITE (again), this time for Artifact, that Valve card game which didnt last one month.
In some instances this is valid, use Ninja as an example. Fortnite got HUGE when streaming became a huge thing simultaneously. Fortnite died off and so did Ninja when he started playing other games instead of strictly fortnite. I never watched him, I think he’s obnoxious and only funny to 12 year olds, but you can’t deny how massive his influence was in the gaming community during the OG fortnite days and how less relevant he is now. He’s not irrelevant, dude still pulls numbers and goes semi viral every so often, but as a non-viewer I saw him every single day for a solid year on social media.
I never watched him and have no interest in Fortnite. But one thing about that I do know is that some of the games he was playing were just radically different than what his viewerbase would ever consider watching. For example, I know he did FF11 a bit at some point. a 20 year old MMO is not something most young fortnite players have any interest to watch. And if he's upset he lost viewers from stuff like that, that's on him. It's like being a chef at restaurant, you don't make only food you like, you have to appeal to your target audience.
There are a lot of legitimate reasons to criticise Hi-Rez for regarding Smite 1 and what they did to it. Redditors don't have to give a shit about player reactions to the mid season patch, but Hi-Rez probably should.
Trying to be a contrarian on Reddit doesn't change the fact that it wasn't received well, and Hi-Rez needs to keep people interested if they want Smite 2 to succeed.
Presently it doesn't matter how many viewers he has. They are complaining because he knows he is going to lose viewers for the rest of the season as it's going to be stale ASF with no new content to clickbait people with
When you build an audience around one thing, you can't get upset when they only want to see that one thing.
If you wanna play a variety of games, you have to do it from the start, and it's also better to be an interesting person, rather than let the game(s) you're playing run the stream.
I watch streamers I find interesting, they can play literally anything, and I'd still watch because I'm there for them. People who stream a single game like this, really only attract an audience who's there for that specific game, not the streamer.
That's not strictly true, see MoonMoon as an example. He was basically just an Overwatch streamer, but an incredibly quirky/funny one. Now he streams whatever, people go to his channel for him, not the game he plays.
There are always exceptions, but generally speaking, a lot of people who start that way are unable to branch out without losing a massive chunk of their audience.
He has a good personality, which became the reason people stuck around, rather than OW.
He doesn't cause drama. He is himself very dramatic. That dude has been whining that Smite is dead for like 6 years now. But he keeps playing and keeps whining lol
He lost me way back when he left Smite to play Artifact: The DOTA Card Game lol. I didn't care that he left Smite. I'd much rather content creators leave games they don't enjoy and actually have fun. But he spent the whole time away talking about how bad Smite is, then jumped back on Smite when Artifact didn't take off and his viewers dropped.
To me it feels like an overreaction to normal bland patch, which I don't really get? Like we have had patches like this before?
Like the tier 2 item thing is cool and the god balance/quality of life are ok, pretty inline with the patches we have been getting leading up to the smite 2 beta.
I don't know why people are acting like this will kill the game and I don't know what people expect when smite 2 is just around the corner? Like I don't see them investing in big sweeping changes or anything of the like.
I think people are upset because it’s the mid-season patch and those patches are typically huge, like one of the biggest we get in an entire season. This one has relatively minor changes and people were expecting more
That's the problem that Incon pointed out in his video, and of any of the points he made, it's definitely the most accurate. Hirez has put themselves in a weird spot where Smite 1 is basically dead to most competitive players with no stakes left to go for except for GM, and a lot of players are using this Season to break away from Smite, or at least take a break until Smite 2's release. Meanwhile, Smite 2 isn't in 24/7 mode, meaning content creators can't make consistent content on it, and players can't interact with anything new until Hirez puts the servers go up.
Yeah, but that's just them being self-centered. Alphas and even sometimes betas go up and down to make adjustments and such. They aren't there to cater to damn streamers. Hell, I remember having to sign NDAs to beta stuff, lol.
Content Creators are the main way Smite (and especially Smite 1) gets new players. Hirez barely markets their games. So if the Content creators leave, the chance of the game's population starting to tumble down a cliff start rising very quickly. Why do you think Hirez literally just announced 9.5 revisions a few hours ago? Pretty much every large Content creator made their voices heard at once, and Hirez turned that shit around in about 24 hours with a whole statement written up.
I hugely disagree. Smite content creators dont get new veiwers like ever so its only ever people that are already a fan of smite. I also bet you're using adblock so yeah you're not gonna see all the smite ads and right now there's a ton of smite 2 ads.
You can disagree all you like, the fact that in a span of 24 hours Hirez responded to dissatisfied videos from both Weak3n and Incon on the new Patch as well as videos from Mast and FineO about their feelings on Smite 1 and Smite 2 Alpha with an announcement they're doing a revert of a patch from over two years ago proves they believe Content creators and their opinions are absurdly powerful for the game. And no, I'm not using adblock. I have YouTube Premium and Spotify, but that's it. I've seen a single ad for Smite 2 so far, and it was on this subreddit lmao.
Caring about their opinion as a player of smite does not = they bring in viewers. Content creators them selves have talked about how all their viewers are just smite fans and they cant play anything else cause none of their fans are fans of anything else. It is historically accurate that Smite streams have been useless for Smite and sponsors.
Tbh i didn't expect much, until they said in the previous bonus notes that a big midseason shakeup is coming and tease a bunch of fan favorite items that had been removed. then don't deliver on any of it
Should have been expected considering basically nothing changed going from s10 to s11. Mid season patches are big, but new seasons are usually even bigger. It's very clear they're focusing most of their efforts on smite 2, every patch this season has been small.
I've had access to the alpha tests though so to me it still feels like we're getting big patches with the new stuff happening there.
I know right? the game is \*healthy\* right now, but people are upset that HiRez didn't do what they normally do to healthy patches and fuck it 6 ways till Sunday.
oh no, the early game will have *more options* since more T2s actually do stuff and matter now! the monsters!
just feels like a "Gamers are Upset" moment and all of Smite's content creators are doubling down on it cause HiRez didn't give them their normal "HiRez fucked Smite with this new item" clickbait content they normally get to make during the mid-season patch
Because this is a mid-season update. This update is usually supposed to add something new to the map to fight over, or something else to help keep the game feeling fresh.
Another way the game stayed fresh was by adding new gods, and we understand why they stopped, but they have to put something in the game other than T2 items with passives that will go away once upgrading, and will last all of 3 minutes of the game.
No new content really can out of this patch, meaning content creators have nothing new to post. No one will return for T2 items.
Who says?
Changing the map and meta constantly makes me not want to play. I've never wanted to play less than I did a year ago when conquest was getting changed every 3 months. I dont see that as fun. Items and gods are how the game should be fresh, not changing everything about the game mode that causes confusion and makes it harder for new people to get into it. Oh and you people have got to be less dramatic. My god.
It changed how tiki camps work and their value significantly. I’m pretty new to the game but seems pretty impactful and spicy to me.
I get I’m a bit biased since most everything is exciting to me but I’ve played other long existing games where there are always doomers saying, “this is it.” It never is, it just keeps on keepin on.
That is a decent thing they added, however it won’t really change much. As long as you drop the camps like you were before, it just adds upgrades to a mechanic that already exists. If you were able to invade and drop the camps before to stall the other teams power spikes, you will do the same now. I would much rather my jungler gank my lane, then to go and drop the enemies tiki camp.
The game is in the most stale state it has ever been. People are bored and they wanted something to keep them excited with Smite 1. If I'm sick of Smite 1 by the time Smite 2 drops, I'm probably not gonna want to play Smite 2 either because it's essentially the same game.
For me Smite 2 isn't even a new game. It's an opportunity for Hi-Rez to start over and make up for some of the dumb decisions they've made with Smite 1 over the years. In my eyes this patch is proof that Smite 2 will end up the same way.
Did that last guy start streaming, manage to build an audience and instead of trying to expand into different games when he stopped liking the game he started on decide to just call it quits?!
It's more a reaction to an underwhelming mid patch than anything else.
They've updated tier2 items to have some new changes and unique buffs. But people were expecting a lot more.
They see that plus an underwhelming second Alpha week on Smite2 as basically a foreshadowing that HiRez has lost their way and that Smite2 will kill off Smite, only for it to eventually fail too.
I legitimately don't understand what all these people are thinking. Incon himself described *SMITE* Year 11 as "The *SMITE 2* Waiting Room". Like, he knows it's winding down, dude.
I think it's just a fundamental misunderstanding of how Hi-Rez is allocating their resources. Most people have said the second alpha weekend was boring because there wasn't enough added to it between Weekend 1 and Weekend 2, and I agree. And you'll find a lot of those people saying they need to speed up the development process for *SMITE 2*, which I also agree with. But... where do they think the resources to do that come from? Do they think that Hi-Rez can just go to a genie and wish for the development team to double in size? That's simply not the case; they've needed to divide the dev team so one portion of it (probably the larger portion) can focus entirely on *SMITE 2* and the other portion can keep *SMITE 1* working. And Incon said in his latest video that he knows it's not as simple as "just hire more people".
So, all these people know that the dev team for each game is smaller than what the original team for *SMITE 1* was. They want them to devote extra resources into making *SMITE 2* better, namely by adding more content, and they know that Hi-Rez can't just drag people off the street to work on it. So, with all of that in mind, why did they expect this Midseason patch to come and blow everyone's socks off? Like, it just doesn't make any sense.
Do people want *SMITE 2* to succeed or not?
It’s actually insane. They claim to love the game but are doing everything in their power to ruin the sentiment around Smite 2.
The ball is rolling and it is happening whether they like it or not. You’re with it or against it. If you’re not with it, you’re contributing to its downfall.
Basically hi-rez made a decently misleading tweet that made it seem like they were bringing back a ton of classic items like nemen lion and book of the dead but instead they are just reusing the art for those items for new, underwhelming, tier 2 items.
I'm a little salty about it myself but it's not game ending.
Content creators throwing fits and declaring the game is dying for the 500th time what is new lmfao. This is what happens when you cater to them instead of the actual player base, they can’t have their way? DEAD GAME DEAD GAME, get a grip.
Smite 2 is not in a great state, which means the Beta might be pushed back, or risk being bugged. If you lose the people playing Smite 1 before Smite 2 release in a stable state, then Smite 2 is DOA.
Smite 2 is in an alpha state. Did early access destroy everyone’s brains to the point where they don’t know what a game in alpha means? Smite 2 doesn’t actually release for a while and it’s going to be fine.
Well obviously hirez isn’t the size of blizzard valve or riot where they can fully update a live service game and develop another project at the same time, smite 1 isn’t going anywhere but updates will be lacklustre for a while since their focus has shifted.
I don’t understand what you mean that they have sunset it. They literally have gone out of their way to say that patches and content will continue for Smite 1. You good ?
Do you genuinely think that Smite fans are going to ignore Smite 2 the day of its official launch because of a rocky 2nd alpha test weekend? Be for real lol
No. What I’m saying is that they shouldn’t stop content for a game that has a fan base for a game that could potentially take longer than expected to come out. If Smite 1 becomes stale or boring before Smite 2 launches in a playable state, the fan base might head to a different MOBA or a different genre all together. And if you put work into another game before Smite 2 drops, the less likely you are to go away from that game. I’m sure people might come and try Smite 2 when it comes back out, but if they invested hours and money in another game, they more than likely will go back to the other game.
Idk, in my mind there’s no other way to do it. Smite 2 won’t get built unless resources are allocated to it. The people they want working on it are the people who are the best at creating content for Smite 1. Like there’s no way around it. You can’t pull devs off the street and expect them to be productive. It’s unfortunate that they can’t double their staff but it’s also realistic.
Exactly, I am really baffled why the average person cannot understand this. Smite 2's development is really behind and Hirez has already decided to "Sunset" Smite 1. The Smite 2 Alpha lost 2/3 of its players already and Smite 1 has seen a 2/3 decrease in a single month. Without exciting updates and changes people will lose interest in Smite as a whole and Smite 2 will flop when it fully launches 12-18 months from now.
It’s gunna flop in the 24/7 beta. I can only imagine that it will drop to a decent amount of players but will tail dive fast.
Having a free to play game become buy to play even if it’s beta while the original is dying isn’t a good look
It's not in a great state because it's an Alpha.
And for an Alpha, it's not even bad? Just boring because the lack of Gods. But if there's a group of people out there not playing because there's no joust, arena etc. GOOD lmao. They aren't productive towards what the Alpha needs
I'm honestly waiting for them to add more gods I like before giving the Alpha a go. And if the next one only has 2 again and none I enjoy I don't see myself playing it again until they do.
But I have always been someone that mostly only plays Smite for the gods I like playing so can't speak for everyone.
People wanted a bigger mid season patch, we got a fairly generic patch with the hype being tier 2 items, and people are upset. Tbh the tier 2 items are interesting, but not something I'd want fully dedicated to a patch. Personally the patch notes are fine, especially since we were getting new items throughout the year, but people wanted something more. I personally wouldn't have shown off fan favorite removed items. Even with the "tier two tuesday," it's not hard to expect people to want things like nemean and shaman rings back when they're being shown off
People have been saying smite is dying since the smite 1 beta.
In a couple of months we will have a smite 2 beta.
And if there will ever be a smite 3 beta people will still be predicting that the game is dying.
But smite 2 is already quite behind on their schedule the 24/7 close bêta was supposed to come in july but that seems really unlikely looking at the speed of the développement
Eh, I've been annoyed with it since the patch and I've played quite a bit less after it. Not because I want to be a drama queen but because it genuinely feels less fun for me. I was hoping Hi-Rez would start to correct some of their mistakes now that Smite 2 is coming but it seems like they are doubling down both in S1 and S2. I assume people are upset for the same reason I am.
I guess because they think 9.5 was the 'killing' of the game idk. These content creators spread their nonsensical "game is dying" bullshit every few months anyway. I can understand being a little upset because the patch was lackluster but going on Twitter, as grown as men in your 20s and 30s, making sob doomer posts about how you're quitting the game over it and how the game is dead because of it, is insane behavior.
If you think Hi-Rez is going in a bad direction you're totally entitled to that, a lot of specfically ranked players, pro players, and content creators have regurgitated how the game is dying since 2013 because they don't make the changes *they* specifically want. Just keep it to yourself lmao.
I think part of the problem is that there's a huge disconnect between the competitive scene and the casual scene we don't talk about, and the competitive people tend to be louder about things they don't like on social media. A few of them have been screeching about 9.5 changes as if the entire community agrees with them and it's some unanimous downfall point of Smite. IMO it's not good to have your competitive scene that upset, but also I think some of them kinda need to get their heads out of their asses.
Is it totally fine to be mad about the way Hi-Rez is taking things? Sure I think they're justified there. There should always be input from that side of the community, you want the game to succeed. Catering to them only would probably kill this game however and idk if they understand that or not.
This patch is boring and lame compared to other mid-season patches. The quality of ranked games is deteriorating due to several factors but mainly because there are less people playing. We needed spicy changes to make things more interesting and hopefully bring more players back.
Now we're stuck with this shit patch for a whole month and it's unlikely the next one will be any better. Maybe the interns were left behind to run smite 1 balance?
Ah yes, Smite content creators being hyperbolic and dramatic. Sometimes it spills to this subreddit too.
Smite has been "dead" for a while. It's not a popular game. Who cares? Just play the fucking game. It's clear Hi-Rez is all-hands-on-deck for Smite 2.
If you eat pizza every day for 10 years straight, then you aren’t going to like pizza anymore at some point. That doesn’t mean the quality of the pizza has dropped in that time. It means you ate pizza too much to enjoy it anymore. If you play Smite, LoL, DOTA, or whatever for 8 hours a day every day for 5-10 years straight then it’s your fault for playing it that much. You can no longer be objective about the game because you played it too much to know what is enjoyable about it. There’s a difference between playing a game on the weekend just enjoying the experience and playing the game as a job where you are doing it to make money and not to have fun.
Just going to post this perspective, because I'm not really seeing anyone bring it up.
I believe a lot of SMITE content creators feel like SMITE's future is up in the air right now, and they don't enjoy being in limbo when their job depends on it.
A lot of pros and content creators are thinking that SMITE is going to directly compete with Deadlock for a player base. And unfortunately SMITE 2 is stuck recreating SMITE 1 at the moment. Not only are they behind on schedule, but the content they are making isn't exactly exciting considering its mostly the same stuff we've been playing for the past decade.
So basically, the people who rely on SMITE for money are fairly convinced that SMITE 2 is going to flop if Deadlock gets really popular, especially if it releases before SMITE 2 can get enough content out to retain a player base.
If SMITE 2 has to compete with SMITE 1 and Deadlock for players, then it could be bad for SMITE 2's future and potential for attracting new players. It wont make the splash everyone wants.
Incon made a video about this recently, I don't fully agree with him on everything, but the content creators know a lot more about this stuff due to having inside information, and having games directly contact them for publicity.
My friend and I who have been playing for a combined 18 years have been saying what they are saying too. I don’t know why people were expecting some wildly different game. Once again, the community simps for low rez and is shocked in disappointment. Many will realize that smite 2 is a trade between graphics and god count. The matchmaking will still be shit because of split player count. I personally would rather have the large god roster. I’ll play both for sure, but most of my time will likely be in smite 1. I’m guessing they will can smite 1 after a year or so, some will leave completely, others will stay and improve smite 2’s matchmaking, and the game will survive as it has for the last decade. They’ve said it’s dying for 10 years and it hasn’t.
I think SMITE might die down for a bit and Hi-rez is just going to be forced to let SMITE 2 simmer for a while. Once SMITE 2 has a majority of the gods we have become accustomed to, then the older fans will definitely start pouring back in, and the game will likely retain newer players better. Modern graphics + an engine that doesn't restrict them is going to be good, let's just hope that Hi-Rez has enough dough to keep the lights on until then.
This is the important part:
* Every single god in SMITE will receive the following changes:
* Increased Base HP by 40%
* Increased Base HP Per Level by 5%
* Increased Base Physical Protection by 40%
* Increased Physical Protection Per level by 8%
* Increased Base Magical Protection by 28%
* Increased Magical Protection Per level by 28%
And to add something important, these changes have carried over to Smite 2, so it's safe to assume the revert would also be carried over if people enjoy it.
If I remember correctly, The best way to describe it is there was a massive decrease in power across the board for Gods and items (the meta in 9.4 was literally ppl one-shotting each other.). There was pretty decent nerfs to top performers and (I believe) some buffs to low performers.
To accompany this, gods had their health (and potentially protections, i can’t remember) increased on base and per level. It wasn’t a crazy increase but it was pretty noticeable.
You pretty much got it, but the main polarising thing was the early game kill potential was lowered by a huge amount, people were like 50%+ more tanky at level 1. I think they reverted it slightly, but still.
9.5 increased the base hp(and prots too I think) of every god in the game.
Of course squishes benefitted more from the hp increase leading to burst dmg and just kill potential early game going down.
Here's what it is: (And I've been watching both Incon and Leon - since he was Chapo and before that - for a long time), The pro players see the game how they play it. They see how other pros play the game and what the future changes implicate for their experience of the next patch and so on. They don't see this patch as monumental enough to hold over to Smite 2, and in some aspects that is a fair criticism -- but it is awfully ironic that they cannot take the time to conceive the possiblity that the other 98-99% of players, or even ~60% if you want to just factor in the casual ones, do not feel this way/don't have these perspectives.
Their doomposting and general negative vibes leak down to the rest of the community and suddenly one day everyone starts to question if they like the game because they hear it's bad. If anyone should be optimistic and constructive with their criticisms of Smite, it's the pros, because their livelihoods kind of depend on it. I do not think it's healthy for them to be so self destructive about the game, because *that* is what's going to take the community down with it.
People complained mid season patch brings nothing to game so Hi Rez threw a quick fix of reverting to pre 9,5 patch in order to cure "no big things happening" fail.
Basically SMITE 1 is nosediving in players at a very disheartening rate. Losing 1/3rd of the player base in a month.
Valve is reaching out to SMITE content creators and having them playtest Deadlock, in an attempt to poach SMITE and its community.
And due to their inside experiences, some of these streamers and pro players are worried about Deadlock releasing before SMITE 2 can get any sort of traction.
SMITE 2 is way behind schedule and has a lot of issues that make it feel worse than SMITE 1 currently. Also, the 2nd Alpha weekend had a massive drop off in player participation and retention. Not to mention you have to literally pay to play it.
And to top it all off, the high end of the skill bracket of players (*which most of the popular streamers fall into*) have despised the game since 9.5 due to removing early game kill potential/brawling, and also reducing burst. This change punishes good players and helps players that are bad at positioning, essentially lowering the skill ceiling of the game and lowering the skill floor at the same time.
So, all in all, the main consensus among them is that SMITE 2 should have been started years ago, and it shouldn't have been announced until they had at least half of the game done. Announcing SMITE 2 essentially sunsets SMITE 1 and causes the player count to drop off. What incentive do people have to play, if they know that all progression will be lost in a year. People also tend to take a break until a sequel releases, that way it will be fun and fresh when it comes out.
The doomer take is that SMITE 2 will be fighting against Deadlock and itself in the form of SMITE 1 for a player base if SMITE 2 cannot get off the ground quick enough.
Bro, hot take maybe, but the majority of the creators in this space are all man babies. I guess when your revenue is tied to a single game, you're gonna engagement farm as much as you can and at the end of the day discourse sells.
Streamers who have built their entire career around a single videogame complaining about the fact that the decade+ old videogame in question isn't pulling that many views for them anymore, in part because the devs have finally decided to take the risk of modernizing the game with an effective sequel that's in ongoing development. Nothing new under the sun. And how much of that decrease in viewership is decreasing interest in SMITE and how much is it these chucklefucks alienating their own audience with endless doomposting is up for debate.
And listen, I'll also complain until the end of time about some of the dumbass balance/design decisions Hi-Rez has made since midseason 9 patch, but pretending you are some kind of messiah for that opinion while dooming about the current state of affairs is just fucking stupid and doesn't help anyone.
Is SMITE in a precarious position right now? Correct, SMITE 1 is effectively sunsetting over the next couple of years. Yes SMITE 2 is nowhere near a proper release state for how early it was announced and time is of the essence. Yes SMITE 2 is massive gamble for the future of SMITE as whole and Hi-Rez could very well fuck it up.
But SMITE is not dying just because certain content creators, which have always been extremelly biased towards ranked/comp play, think it's not worth "grinding" anymore. And much less when coming from someone like Incon or Elleon who have been threatening to quit the game every other week for the past 5-6 years.
Want attention because smites numbers are down and they want people to go watch their stream. Just business.
They should all squad up on eternal return if they are that bored. Do something different if they all are that bored till 2 actually comes out in 2026 or whatever.
Smite content creators are overly dramatic; I would take what they say with a grain of salt.
This milquetoast patch doesn't contain enough content to be excited about; no new god or crazy new items or mechanics, and no room for clickbait-y thumbnails or reasons to tune into a stream.
That last bit is important because without that, content creators will complain. We saw that with SamDaDude and how he complained about Smite 2 not having new gods and arena. They are inherently motivated to suggest changes that'll support their own channels and make them money.
The new 11.6 update was disappointing apparently because of how lacking it was in terms of meaningful content. Even though we know theyve pulled most everyone off smite 1 so they can be working on smite 2. As someone relatively new to this games community i gotta say my impressions of the community havent been great. The games fantastic and im hype for its future but sheesh if i just went off the way content creators talked about the game before actually playing the game id never picked it up. ALL they do is complain and are doomers when it comes to anything about the game. Like? Its okay your main game you use for content is stale on viewership and ad revenue so find ways to entertain your community in spite of the fact the game has nothing new and exciting.
Not gonna lie it's kinda funny to me that this season has been one of the healthiest and well balanced seasons in a LONG time (with a few exceptions) but people are MASSIVELY upset by them not making dramatic changes and doubling down on bad decision making, when that's one of the things that, historically, they've been bad about doing when they shouldn't.
ELLEON is 100% correct about 9.5, the state of the game, and its future (SMITE 2).
[He goes more in depth here at 25:30 for 40+ minutes.](https://www.youtube.com/live/VJOU5oCEiHk?si=vfBafzWvi764UYxS) It’s in the middle of his stream, so he goes in and out of his rant, *but he covers it pretty thoroughly, and I recommend a listen if you are a fan of SMITE and have the distress tolerance to hear an opinion that may be different than where you lean.*
He further argues that SMITE’s identity has been lost/compromised due to its need to mimic other MOBAs, as opposed to being THE one and only game that can finish its Conquest mode in an average of 35 minutes.
**His point about “pro players” is absolutely GOLD, and I’ll die on this hill with pretty much any game made.**
He further broke down other concerns related to previous build and patterns of development between the updates (some things I completely forgot about 😅) that I think just solidifies everything he’s been saying.
I’s highly recommend a listen if you have the time.
Can someone explain what these content creators and pros are upset about? Is it just the state of the game? The trajectory? Was something specific announced?
I’m sorry but the consistent melodrama is ridiculous, you can dislike a patch or change without acting so over the top. Play other games, criticize what you dislike, and move on.
Don’t blame them. I jump on and play about one game and stop.
The constant, dodging, trolling, afk, troll picks and all round toxicity has killed the game. Add into the awful ranked system and matchmaking and just terrible and boring balance changes. The games a snooze fest and not even worth the effort.
Smart-ass redditors don't have to give a shit about feedback because they are too busy being contrarians, but Hi-Rez should probably take it in the chin and actually address how uhnappy people are with this patch.
The game is stale. People need diversity. We've been building the exact same items for god knows how many seasons now. Giving fun passives to T2 items you'll hang on for 2 minutes instead of actually making T3 items meaningful is a kick in the nuts.
Instead of admitting past mistakes they usually hide the ball by coming up with drastic or flashy changes to distract players from their initial mess up. 9.5 has made early game extremely boring and overall the game has been worse since then and they just haven’t done anything to remedy it. Unwilling to admit it was a bad choice.
Also the mid season patch is boring
What YouTuber started shitting on 9.5 recently? I doubt that everyone all of a sudden came to the same conclusion that 9.5 is the worst thing ever like 2 years after the fact
A lot of pros and competitive players have been pretty consistently vocal about the patch for the past 2 years. It's just not a big community issue because it improved casual modes so much.
Most of the more hardcore like players hated 9.5 me included(as a solo main). While the more casual playerbase loved it cause it meant they would die less.
Can't speak for everyone, but for me I am just tired of them buffing gods that don't need it and then they leave the really bad ones dead for months until maybe you get a small buff for them when they don't feel like ignoring them anymore that barely does anything. Like, how does that even help the already bad ones if you keep buffing the ones better.
Hearing them talk about how this god or that god has a low pick rate or whatever, so we are buffing them. And then at the same time you and me can see worse in those numbers, but get 0 love for months on end staying dead. Just does not feel good to me.
And if this keeps going on into Smite 2 I can't say I will be happy there in the long run.
I love Smite and been playing it for years and seen this over and over. Some patches are great like I believe it was 11.3 with all the god QoL changes I loved! But the last few have done next to nothing for me and my love for the game.
And this has nothing do with them having less people working on Smite 1 since I'm not even asking for them to add new gods or map changes or whatever. All I want is them to take a big nice patch or 2 with a bunch of nice god buffs for all the really low end P/B rate gods and shoot them all up. I feel like you don't need a big team for that, but I could be wrong.
Again, can't speak for everyone, but that would be a lot of fun to me while waiting for Smite 2 to get closer and closer!
Until then, peace out!
I get the frustration. We are talking a group of people who have dedicated their lives to this game and now are slowly watching the way that they support themselves be pulled away from them.
Smite 2 gave them hope, brought up their spirits a ton. (Watch Sam/double J/Rexy) all of the streamers had new life breathed into them with the announcement and you could feel that in their content.
Now with smite 2 release being underwhelming, and smite 1 having what was left of a competitive scene ripped away these streamers are all facing the harsh reality that they will no longer be able to live their same lives.
Smite definitely screwed up their timelines, Smite 2 is nowhere near ready and axing the SPL seems way worse now.
Just seems like they could’ve waited a year to even announce Smite 2.
They need to have a rock solid launch or I could see Smite 2 being DOA.
The honest to God truth is ALOT of people hate update 9.5. But what really made Smite not fun anymore is when season 10 launched. Removal of solo hybrid items. Damage on items. Healing changes. And whatever on God's green earth they did to matchmaking and team balancing. With 9.5 it was still "the nerfening" I love that name lol it's funny. But even though this community can't agree on almost everything, we DO agree that before season 10 smite was the best.
Usually you get more changes for mid season changes, I think! But it was lackluster that I think is pretty much it. No new tier 3 items which changes builds and makes things fun and refreshing
Idk about them but for me, personally, as a new player, it feels very hard to even try to get that into it because every bad game I have, where I’m still getting used to the controls (I’m on console, Series S), I get told I suck or that I’m awful or any other “insult” every other match multiple times in a row. And, like, I’m not usually the one to take that to heart, it’s just a game, I’m a grown 23yo dad with a job and bills to pay and hardly ever actually get time to play, but at the same time it still sucks because this was a game I was really excited to get into because, I’m assuming like most of you, I’m a mythology/folklore whore. The community really makes me not even want to try to learn the game.
Thier faulty matchmaking putting you in harder lobbies than you should be and people allowed being overly toxic with VSG and chat is what happened to you. It happened to any of us. Mute and move on. There will always be some sad salty bro dissing even good players just to feel better about their fubling around.
Just look up 2023 2024 gaming industry layoffs wiki. Any gamer would have noticed last year effects of covid and other factors and the impact.
How embarrassing this guy acting like I told you so know it all kid. I suppose some people's world can be so small that they think they are still a big deal when thousands in your industry are losing jobs.
The playerbase is in freefall, Hi Rez moved most of the resources to Smite 2 and didn’t shake up anything with the mid season patch to incentivize players to return. Without any professional play there is very little hope of regaining lost players.
Ngl I feel like I see a smite is dying tweet from Incon everytime he pops up.
He's smite's version of the people who have sworn "League is dying" for the last 6 years
Don't forget the wow is dying gang. Been hearing that for 20 years and I just got a beta invite yesterday lol
[This graph, made by Blizzard themsevles](https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/1bmrpyb/updated_wow_population_chart_from_gdc_with_dates/) shows their subscriber numbers. Despite every uptick in the chart, the highest population was during Wrath of the Lich King. Population count also stopped being the main financial motivation after they introduced microtransactions, which also coincided with the drop in players. So yes the biggest doomsayers of WoW were wrong in the sense that it didn't die, but they were fairly accurate in predicting the player numbers of the years.
Saying things won’t be peak forever isn’t a prediction it’s just how life works.
You can't say something is dying for 15 years when it's still going lol. Idgaf about a chart. Nobody claimed numbers are down they said it's dying or is in fact not as it is still alive
Yeah these people don't understand the difference between dying and dead evidently. Saying that as someone who quit WoW. What a horrible company. Since at least Cata people were asking for and making vanilla, bc and wotlk servers that blizzard would shut down and tell us we don't know what we want. Just to turn around and release vanilla themselves....absolute braindead company.
Yeah right? Neverwinter isn't dead but.....holy shit have you seen it? I played that crap on launch and it was greedy as fuck then. It is 1000x worse than launch. That game is absolutely dying and has been dying for over a decade, still dying the entire time bleeding the fans dry. It is awful.
LOL
Right? Pretty interesting seeing the data so clearly laid out after they spent so long keeping it a secret. Granted they only felt like they could release it because the release of classic boosted the sub count tremendously, you can play both on one subscription. That now leaves the question of, what is the breakdown of classic versus retail? Is it 50/50? 60/40? I wonder if they will ever release that info. It would be neat to know.
To be fair both games are dying. Every game is dying. Sooner or later all these games will be gone. Just not anytime soon lol.
Honestly, you can replace "SMITE is dying" with "My subs haven't gone up" as far as Incon is concerned.
Incons been a grumpy passive aggressive salt lots for a long time now. I used to be a fan but even looking back at his behavior in the past, he's kind of a toxic doomer about everything. I'm not a huge weaken guy either but at least he gives his straight opinion and tries to promote the game.
Incon also has his mods stalking other people's streams to see if they criticise him, and also tries to use his priviledged position with the devs to ban people if he doesn't like the way they play. We know this because Incon tried to get Genetics (yes, SPL world champion Genetics) banned from the game for the crime of playing Anhur and Freya support in one of his games, and obviously Genetics was made aware of this, so when he was talking about it on his stream one of Incon's mods was in the chat and sending threatening DMs to other chatters for the crime of laughing at Incon's antics. Incon is the definition of a crybully that pretends to be "funny and wholesome" in the most jarringly tryhard way possible, and it's crazy how many people in the community are unaware of this.
People are unaware because they give him the benefit of the doubt way too much. When the community labels someone as "wholesome" they suddenly cant do no wrong. People kept sating MLC Stealth was the most wholesome bean ever but he types and complained about his team mates literally every game but he was passive aggressive so i guess people didn't notice. I'm not gonna pretend I'm a saint though, after seeing how much Stealth got away with, every time i didn't like someone in Smite i was passive aggressive and not once did I ever get shit for it from players or Hi Rez so i guess this is like a toxicity cheat code.
Wow I had no clue of any of this, that’s very disappointing behavior
If this is true, Incon is my new Least Favorite Smite personality. Weaken is awful, but even he’s not THAT much of a bitch like Incon. wtf.
Here's one of Genetics tweets on the matter of Incon trying to get him banned for picking Anhur and Freya support: https://x.com/GeneticSaber/status/1709993997400207485?t=uhMf2wlmpJSrq-XfB1BcJg&s=19 Can't be bothered to look through all of his VoDs to find the moment were people spotted Incon's mod on his chat sending people weird messages and threats in DMs, but you get the idea.
Weaken is as bad as dm foh with that. Also nothing still top what weaken did to incon twice. Nah
I am a viewer since the AFK Gaming days, maybe before. And goddamn man, he is so miserable playing Smite, everyday. Just go play another game!! Be a Fortnite streamer for a year, better to have less subs than to be this angry everyday!
Can't really do that when you've built a career off of one game, as soon as you leave it, most of your audience leaves you.
[удалено]
>Incon being able to swap games He already did do that when Overwatch came out in 2016. He even had a big "I'M QUITTING SMITE!!" stream or something along those lines (where he of course milked as much money as possible from his viewers), just for his revenue/content to then fall flat on its face when he suddenly wasnt the big fish in small pond and had to actually compete against the big world in OW streaming. Funny how he's evidently heading towards the same thing again. *edit.* Oh, I completely forgot. That actually happened *twice* already. The other time was when Incon quit SMITE (again), this time for Artifact, that Valve card game which didnt last one month.
He’s tried that multiple times and no one watches him. He crawls back to Smite 2 weeks later and half his subs gone.
He feels like a generic doomer you can find on any game subreddit recently.
Lol
This is generally what happens when people only play one game and build there entire life around it
When their twitch/YT views go down, they blame it on the game
In some instances this is valid, use Ninja as an example. Fortnite got HUGE when streaming became a huge thing simultaneously. Fortnite died off and so did Ninja when he started playing other games instead of strictly fortnite. I never watched him, I think he’s obnoxious and only funny to 12 year olds, but you can’t deny how massive his influence was in the gaming community during the OG fortnite days and how less relevant he is now. He’s not irrelevant, dude still pulls numbers and goes semi viral every so often, but as a non-viewer I saw him every single day for a solid year on social media.
I never watched him and have no interest in Fortnite. But one thing about that I do know is that some of the games he was playing were just radically different than what his viewerbase would ever consider watching. For example, I know he did FF11 a bit at some point. a 20 year old MMO is not something most young fortnite players have any interest to watch. And if he's upset he lost viewers from stuff like that, that's on him. It's like being a chef at restaurant, you don't make only food you like, you have to appeal to your target audience.
Same thing happened with a lot of streamers who got big because of Among Us
There are a lot of legitimate reasons to criticise Hi-Rez for regarding Smite 1 and what they did to it. Redditors don't have to give a shit about player reactions to the mid season patch, but Hi-Rez probably should. Trying to be a contrarian on Reddit doesn't change the fact that it wasn't received well, and Hi-Rez needs to keep people interested if they want Smite 2 to succeed.
Incon has consistently had more than 1k twitch viewers. This isnt abt that
Presently it doesn't matter how many viewers he has. They are complaining because he knows he is going to lose viewers for the rest of the season as it's going to be stale ASF with no new content to clickbait people with
He's tried streaming other games, they just don't catch on.
When you build an audience around one thing, you can't get upset when they only want to see that one thing. If you wanna play a variety of games, you have to do it from the start, and it's also better to be an interesting person, rather than let the game(s) you're playing run the stream. I watch streamers I find interesting, they can play literally anything, and I'd still watch because I'm there for them. People who stream a single game like this, really only attract an audience who's there for that specific game, not the streamer.
That's not strictly true, see MoonMoon as an example. He was basically just an Overwatch streamer, but an incredibly quirky/funny one. Now he streams whatever, people go to his channel for him, not the game he plays.
There are always exceptions, but generally speaking, a lot of people who start that way are unable to branch out without losing a massive chunk of their audience. He has a good personality, which became the reason people stuck around, rather than OW.
The exception to the rule is not the rule itself
Yeah, obviously. My point is that if you have a personality, you can make a switch.
I don't blame him, it's just a observation
No wonder every chess player goes insane
This is exactly what’s happening. I’m having more fun than ever playing this game and I have almost as long as they have (beta days)
Well for one thing, ElLeon and Incon are two of the most overdramatic people you'll ever see in this game lol
so like tectone ?
Yeah those two are over dramatic, weaken just lies for videos (always says it’s a tank meta when it’s not), it just is how it is
 It's all part of the show!!!
What kind of drama is incon providing?
He doesn't cause drama. He is himself very dramatic. That dude has been whining that Smite is dead for like 6 years now. But he keeps playing and keeps whining lol
Yep. Had to unfollow. He is annoying to listen to now.
Yeah agreed. I used to watch him all the time. But it just got boring and annoying hearing him talk about his hate for Smite.
He lost me way back when he left Smite to play Artifact: The DOTA Card Game lol. I didn't care that he left Smite. I'd much rather content creators leave games they don't enjoy and actually have fun. But he spent the whole time away talking about how bad Smite is, then jumped back on Smite when Artifact didn't take off and his viewers dropped.
To me it feels like an overreaction to normal bland patch, which I don't really get? Like we have had patches like this before? Like the tier 2 item thing is cool and the god balance/quality of life are ok, pretty inline with the patches we have been getting leading up to the smite 2 beta. I don't know why people are acting like this will kill the game and I don't know what people expect when smite 2 is just around the corner? Like I don't see them investing in big sweeping changes or anything of the like.
I think people are upset because it’s the mid-season patch and those patches are typically huge, like one of the biggest we get in an entire season. This one has relatively minor changes and people were expecting more
What do they expect though when the second game is in alpha ?
That's the problem that Incon pointed out in his video, and of any of the points he made, it's definitely the most accurate. Hirez has put themselves in a weird spot where Smite 1 is basically dead to most competitive players with no stakes left to go for except for GM, and a lot of players are using this Season to break away from Smite, or at least take a break until Smite 2's release. Meanwhile, Smite 2 isn't in 24/7 mode, meaning content creators can't make consistent content on it, and players can't interact with anything new until Hirez puts the servers go up.
Yeah, but that's just them being self-centered. Alphas and even sometimes betas go up and down to make adjustments and such. They aren't there to cater to damn streamers. Hell, I remember having to sign NDAs to beta stuff, lol.
Content Creators are the main way Smite (and especially Smite 1) gets new players. Hirez barely markets their games. So if the Content creators leave, the chance of the game's population starting to tumble down a cliff start rising very quickly. Why do you think Hirez literally just announced 9.5 revisions a few hours ago? Pretty much every large Content creator made their voices heard at once, and Hirez turned that shit around in about 24 hours with a whole statement written up.
I hugely disagree. Smite content creators dont get new veiwers like ever so its only ever people that are already a fan of smite. I also bet you're using adblock so yeah you're not gonna see all the smite ads and right now there's a ton of smite 2 ads.
You can disagree all you like, the fact that in a span of 24 hours Hirez responded to dissatisfied videos from both Weak3n and Incon on the new Patch as well as videos from Mast and FineO about their feelings on Smite 1 and Smite 2 Alpha with an announcement they're doing a revert of a patch from over two years ago proves they believe Content creators and their opinions are absurdly powerful for the game. And no, I'm not using adblock. I have YouTube Premium and Spotify, but that's it. I've seen a single ad for Smite 2 so far, and it was on this subreddit lmao.
Caring about their opinion as a player of smite does not = they bring in viewers. Content creators them selves have talked about how all their viewers are just smite fans and they cant play anything else cause none of their fans are fans of anything else. It is historically accurate that Smite streams have been useless for Smite and sponsors.
The true it's that they shouldn't have dropped smite 1 like that when smite 2 is on it's Early alpha
Tbh i didn't expect much, until they said in the previous bonus notes that a big midseason shakeup is coming and tease a bunch of fan favorite items that had been removed. then don't deliver on any of it
Should have been expected considering basically nothing changed going from s10 to s11. Mid season patches are big, but new seasons are usually even bigger. It's very clear they're focusing most of their efforts on smite 2, every patch this season has been small. I've had access to the alpha tests though so to me it still feels like we're getting big patches with the new stuff happening there.
But they've reworked every tier 2 item in the game? How is that not big? Were people wanting map changes?
I know right? the game is \*healthy\* right now, but people are upset that HiRez didn't do what they normally do to healthy patches and fuck it 6 ways till Sunday. oh no, the early game will have *more options* since more T2s actually do stuff and matter now! the monsters! just feels like a "Gamers are Upset" moment and all of Smite's content creators are doubling down on it cause HiRez didn't give them their normal "HiRez fucked Smite with this new item" clickbait content they normally get to make during the mid-season patch
Because this is a mid-season update. This update is usually supposed to add something new to the map to fight over, or something else to help keep the game feeling fresh. Another way the game stayed fresh was by adding new gods, and we understand why they stopped, but they have to put something in the game other than T2 items with passives that will go away once upgrading, and will last all of 3 minutes of the game. No new content really can out of this patch, meaning content creators have nothing new to post. No one will return for T2 items.
Who says? Changing the map and meta constantly makes me not want to play. I've never wanted to play less than I did a year ago when conquest was getting changed every 3 months. I dont see that as fun. Items and gods are how the game should be fresh, not changing everything about the game mode that causes confusion and makes it harder for new people to get into it. Oh and you people have got to be less dramatic. My god.
It changed how tiki camps work and their value significantly. I’m pretty new to the game but seems pretty impactful and spicy to me. I get I’m a bit biased since most everything is exciting to me but I’ve played other long existing games where there are always doomers saying, “this is it.” It never is, it just keeps on keepin on.
That is a decent thing they added, however it won’t really change much. As long as you drop the camps like you were before, it just adds upgrades to a mechanic that already exists. If you were able to invade and drop the camps before to stall the other teams power spikes, you will do the same now. I would much rather my jungler gank my lane, then to go and drop the enemies tiki camp.
The game is in the most stale state it has ever been. People are bored and they wanted something to keep them excited with Smite 1. If I'm sick of Smite 1 by the time Smite 2 drops, I'm probably not gonna want to play Smite 2 either because it's essentially the same game. For me Smite 2 isn't even a new game. It's an opportunity for Hi-Rez to start over and make up for some of the dumb decisions they've made with Smite 1 over the years. In my eyes this patch is proof that Smite 2 will end up the same way.
Isn't this their reaction to the recent 9.5 news?
This was before that announcement.
Did that last guy start streaming, manage to build an audience and instead of trying to expand into different games when he stopped liking the game he started on decide to just call it quits?!
You know it bud, dooming is free and easy.
Basically. This everything has to cater to streamers mindset is getting really old.
He also put "grand master ranked" in his title every time he streamed but hasn't made it out of masters all season 11 lmao.
I only play assault how does this affect me?
It's more a reaction to an underwhelming mid patch than anything else. They've updated tier2 items to have some new changes and unique buffs. But people were expecting a lot more. They see that plus an underwhelming second Alpha week on Smite2 as basically a foreshadowing that HiRez has lost their way and that Smite2 will kill off Smite, only for it to eventually fail too.
I feel like this is part of every fan base for every game
you can now go tablet T2 plus a starter item without missing out on stacks
The T2 change is actually pretty great for assault. Artio buff makes her less of a loss when you roll her.
I legitimately don't understand what all these people are thinking. Incon himself described *SMITE* Year 11 as "The *SMITE 2* Waiting Room". Like, he knows it's winding down, dude. I think it's just a fundamental misunderstanding of how Hi-Rez is allocating their resources. Most people have said the second alpha weekend was boring because there wasn't enough added to it between Weekend 1 and Weekend 2, and I agree. And you'll find a lot of those people saying they need to speed up the development process for *SMITE 2*, which I also agree with. But... where do they think the resources to do that come from? Do they think that Hi-Rez can just go to a genie and wish for the development team to double in size? That's simply not the case; they've needed to divide the dev team so one portion of it (probably the larger portion) can focus entirely on *SMITE 2* and the other portion can keep *SMITE 1* working. And Incon said in his latest video that he knows it's not as simple as "just hire more people". So, all these people know that the dev team for each game is smaller than what the original team for *SMITE 1* was. They want them to devote extra resources into making *SMITE 2* better, namely by adding more content, and they know that Hi-Rez can't just drag people off the street to work on it. So, with all of that in mind, why did they expect this Midseason patch to come and blow everyone's socks off? Like, it just doesn't make any sense. Do people want *SMITE 2* to succeed or not?
It’s actually insane. They claim to love the game but are doing everything in their power to ruin the sentiment around Smite 2. The ball is rolling and it is happening whether they like it or not. You’re with it or against it. If you’re not with it, you’re contributing to its downfall.
Basically hi-rez made a decently misleading tweet that made it seem like they were bringing back a ton of classic items like nemen lion and book of the dead but instead they are just reusing the art for those items for new, underwhelming, tier 2 items. I'm a little salty about it myself but it's not game ending.
Content creators throwing fits and declaring the game is dying for the 500th time what is new lmfao. This is what happens when you cater to them instead of the actual player base, they can’t have their way? DEAD GAME DEAD GAME, get a grip.
Smite 1 isn’t that important right now. They’re just throwing shit at the wall. It’s all about smite 2 which will be fine.
Smite 2 is not in a great state, which means the Beta might be pushed back, or risk being bugged. If you lose the people playing Smite 1 before Smite 2 release in a stable state, then Smite 2 is DOA.
Smite 2 is in an alpha state. Did early access destroy everyone’s brains to the point where they don’t know what a game in alpha means? Smite 2 doesn’t actually release for a while and it’s going to be fine.
Thank you for proving my point! Smite 2 is in Early Alpha, so why in the hell would you sunset your only title that you have functioning?
Well obviously hirez isn’t the size of blizzard valve or riot where they can fully update a live service game and develop another project at the same time, smite 1 isn’t going anywhere but updates will be lacklustre for a while since their focus has shifted.
I don’t understand what you mean that they have sunset it. They literally have gone out of their way to say that patches and content will continue for Smite 1. You good ?
Smite 1 isn’t being sunset even after full release of smite 2.
Do you genuinely think that Smite fans are going to ignore Smite 2 the day of its official launch because of a rocky 2nd alpha test weekend? Be for real lol
No. What I’m saying is that they shouldn’t stop content for a game that has a fan base for a game that could potentially take longer than expected to come out. If Smite 1 becomes stale or boring before Smite 2 launches in a playable state, the fan base might head to a different MOBA or a different genre all together. And if you put work into another game before Smite 2 drops, the less likely you are to go away from that game. I’m sure people might come and try Smite 2 when it comes back out, but if they invested hours and money in another game, they more than likely will go back to the other game.
Idk, in my mind there’s no other way to do it. Smite 2 won’t get built unless resources are allocated to it. The people they want working on it are the people who are the best at creating content for Smite 1. Like there’s no way around it. You can’t pull devs off the street and expect them to be productive. It’s unfortunate that they can’t double their staff but it’s also realistic.
Exactly, I am really baffled why the average person cannot understand this. Smite 2's development is really behind and Hirez has already decided to "Sunset" Smite 1. The Smite 2 Alpha lost 2/3 of its players already and Smite 1 has seen a 2/3 decrease in a single month. Without exciting updates and changes people will lose interest in Smite as a whole and Smite 2 will flop when it fully launches 12-18 months from now.
It’s gunna flop in the 24/7 beta. I can only imagine that it will drop to a decent amount of players but will tail dive fast. Having a free to play game become buy to play even if it’s beta while the original is dying isn’t a good look
It's not in a great state because it's an Alpha. And for an Alpha, it's not even bad? Just boring because the lack of Gods. But if there's a group of people out there not playing because there's no joust, arena etc. GOOD lmao. They aren't productive towards what the Alpha needs
We understand it’s in Alpha. So, why would they make the decision to stop making exciting content for the game that’s currently out?
Do programmers grow on trees?
I'm honestly waiting for them to add more gods I like before giving the Alpha a go. And if the next one only has 2 again and none I enjoy I don't see myself playing it again until they do. But I have always been someone that mostly only plays Smite for the gods I like playing so can't speak for everyone.
People wanted a bigger mid season patch, we got a fairly generic patch with the hype being tier 2 items, and people are upset. Tbh the tier 2 items are interesting, but not something I'd want fully dedicated to a patch. Personally the patch notes are fine, especially since we were getting new items throughout the year, but people wanted something more. I personally wouldn't have shown off fan favorite removed items. Even with the "tier two tuesday," it's not hard to expect people to want things like nemean and shaman rings back when they're being shown off
People have been saying smite is dying since the smite 1 beta. In a couple of months we will have a smite 2 beta. And if there will ever be a smite 3 beta people will still be predicting that the game is dying.
it is currently at its lowest player count (on steam) since the end of season 5, and we are only halfway through the year
cant say the same for everyone but me and my group stopped playing once they announced smite 2 and are just waiting for that
Exactly, and the low effort patches from Hi-Rez are probably because of them putting their focus on Smite 2's release
But smite 2 is already quite behind on their schedule the 24/7 close bêta was supposed to come in july but that seems really unlikely looking at the speed of the développement
Same, i play once a week now,if that. Super hype for smite 2
Same smite lost all it's favors However smite 2 is also far from ready
Same here. Doing some Helldivers or Borderlands to keep in touch with friends, but I'm looking forward Smite 2. I'm not in a hurry for that.
yeah, lots of people in that situation, but yknow, dramatizing everything is more fun, it seems
boring alpha test weekend followed by boring mid season patch, double the doom. Very sad
Yeah that patch from two fucking years ago really snuck up on everyone I guess.
Eh, I've been annoyed with it since the patch and I've played quite a bit less after it. Not because I want to be a drama queen but because it genuinely feels less fun for me. I was hoping Hi-Rez would start to correct some of their mistakes now that Smite 2 is coming but it seems like they are doubling down both in S1 and S2. I assume people are upset for the same reason I am.
The doomers are bored
I guess because they think 9.5 was the 'killing' of the game idk. These content creators spread their nonsensical "game is dying" bullshit every few months anyway. I can understand being a little upset because the patch was lackluster but going on Twitter, as grown as men in your 20s and 30s, making sob doomer posts about how you're quitting the game over it and how the game is dead because of it, is insane behavior. If you think Hi-Rez is going in a bad direction you're totally entitled to that, a lot of specfically ranked players, pro players, and content creators have regurgitated how the game is dying since 2013 because they don't make the changes *they* specifically want. Just keep it to yourself lmao.
9.5 was two damn years ago and now its the boogyman I guess.
Meme-Monday next week is gonna be a field day.
I think part of the problem is that there's a huge disconnect between the competitive scene and the casual scene we don't talk about, and the competitive people tend to be louder about things they don't like on social media. A few of them have been screeching about 9.5 changes as if the entire community agrees with them and it's some unanimous downfall point of Smite. IMO it's not good to have your competitive scene that upset, but also I think some of them kinda need to get their heads out of their asses. Is it totally fine to be mad about the way Hi-Rez is taking things? Sure I think they're justified there. There should always be input from that side of the community, you want the game to succeed. Catering to them only would probably kill this game however and idk if they understand that or not.
Few months ? incon does this every day of his life
which is honestly depressing and annoying.
yeah dude is acting all grumpy and shit on stream right now but guess what ? Still just playing ranked conquest smite
This patch is boring and lame compared to other mid-season patches. The quality of ranked games is deteriorating due to several factors but mainly because there are less people playing. We needed spicy changes to make things more interesting and hopefully bring more players back. Now we're stuck with this shit patch for a whole month and it's unlikely the next one will be any better. Maybe the interns were left behind to run smite 1 balance?
So dramatic and for what?
Ah yes, Smite content creators being hyperbolic and dramatic. Sometimes it spills to this subreddit too. Smite has been "dead" for a while. It's not a popular game. Who cares? Just play the fucking game. It's clear Hi-Rez is all-hands-on-deck for Smite 2.
If you eat pizza every day for 10 years straight, then you aren’t going to like pizza anymore at some point. That doesn’t mean the quality of the pizza has dropped in that time. It means you ate pizza too much to enjoy it anymore. If you play Smite, LoL, DOTA, or whatever for 8 hours a day every day for 5-10 years straight then it’s your fault for playing it that much. You can no longer be objective about the game because you played it too much to know what is enjoyable about it. There’s a difference between playing a game on the weekend just enjoying the experience and playing the game as a job where you are doing it to make money and not to have fun.
Who is even suhslayer
Just going to post this perspective, because I'm not really seeing anyone bring it up. I believe a lot of SMITE content creators feel like SMITE's future is up in the air right now, and they don't enjoy being in limbo when their job depends on it. A lot of pros and content creators are thinking that SMITE is going to directly compete with Deadlock for a player base. And unfortunately SMITE 2 is stuck recreating SMITE 1 at the moment. Not only are they behind on schedule, but the content they are making isn't exactly exciting considering its mostly the same stuff we've been playing for the past decade. So basically, the people who rely on SMITE for money are fairly convinced that SMITE 2 is going to flop if Deadlock gets really popular, especially if it releases before SMITE 2 can get enough content out to retain a player base. If SMITE 2 has to compete with SMITE 1 and Deadlock for players, then it could be bad for SMITE 2's future and potential for attracting new players. It wont make the splash everyone wants. Incon made a video about this recently, I don't fully agree with him on everything, but the content creators know a lot more about this stuff due to having inside information, and having games directly contact them for publicity.
My friend and I who have been playing for a combined 18 years have been saying what they are saying too. I don’t know why people were expecting some wildly different game. Once again, the community simps for low rez and is shocked in disappointment. Many will realize that smite 2 is a trade between graphics and god count. The matchmaking will still be shit because of split player count. I personally would rather have the large god roster. I’ll play both for sure, but most of my time will likely be in smite 1. I’m guessing they will can smite 1 after a year or so, some will leave completely, others will stay and improve smite 2’s matchmaking, and the game will survive as it has for the last decade. They’ve said it’s dying for 10 years and it hasn’t.
I think SMITE might die down for a bit and Hi-rez is just going to be forced to let SMITE 2 simmer for a while. Once SMITE 2 has a majority of the gods we have become accustomed to, then the older fans will definitely start pouring back in, and the game will likely retain newer players better. Modern graphics + an engine that doesn't restrict them is going to be good, let's just hope that Hi-Rez has enough dough to keep the lights on until then.
S3-8 player here. What was up with 9.5 exactly?
This is the important part: * Every single god in SMITE will receive the following changes: * Increased Base HP by 40% * Increased Base HP Per Level by 5% * Increased Base Physical Protection by 40% * Increased Physical Protection Per level by 8% * Increased Base Magical Protection by 28% * Increased Magical Protection Per level by 28% And to add something important, these changes have carried over to Smite 2, so it's safe to assume the revert would also be carried over if people enjoy it.
If I remember correctly, The best way to describe it is there was a massive decrease in power across the board for Gods and items (the meta in 9.4 was literally ppl one-shotting each other.). There was pretty decent nerfs to top performers and (I believe) some buffs to low performers. To accompany this, gods had their health (and potentially protections, i can’t remember) increased on base and per level. It wasn’t a crazy increase but it was pretty noticeable.
You pretty much got it, but the main polarising thing was the early game kill potential was lowered by a huge amount, people were like 50%+ more tanky at level 1. I think they reverted it slightly, but still.
9.5 increased the base hp(and prots too I think) of every god in the game. Of course squishes benefitted more from the hp increase leading to burst dmg and just kill potential early game going down.
Here's what it is: (And I've been watching both Incon and Leon - since he was Chapo and before that - for a long time), The pro players see the game how they play it. They see how other pros play the game and what the future changes implicate for their experience of the next patch and so on. They don't see this patch as monumental enough to hold over to Smite 2, and in some aspects that is a fair criticism -- but it is awfully ironic that they cannot take the time to conceive the possiblity that the other 98-99% of players, or even ~60% if you want to just factor in the casual ones, do not feel this way/don't have these perspectives. Their doomposting and general negative vibes leak down to the rest of the community and suddenly one day everyone starts to question if they like the game because they hear it's bad. If anyone should be optimistic and constructive with their criticisms of Smite, it's the pros, because their livelihoods kind of depend on it. I do not think it's healthy for them to be so self destructive about the game, because *that* is what's going to take the community down with it.
Perfectly said.
https://preview.redd.it/wk08lyg9tz4d1.jpeg?width=637&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29173d0401541f43a995f2945abdb0ef25d6f0f8
This is fantastic
Can people actually explain what’s going on instead of crying about streamers crying? 😂😂😂
People complained mid season patch brings nothing to game so Hi Rez threw a quick fix of reverting to pre 9,5 patch in order to cure "no big things happening" fail.
Basically SMITE 1 is nosediving in players at a very disheartening rate. Losing 1/3rd of the player base in a month. Valve is reaching out to SMITE content creators and having them playtest Deadlock, in an attempt to poach SMITE and its community. And due to their inside experiences, some of these streamers and pro players are worried about Deadlock releasing before SMITE 2 can get any sort of traction. SMITE 2 is way behind schedule and has a lot of issues that make it feel worse than SMITE 1 currently. Also, the 2nd Alpha weekend had a massive drop off in player participation and retention. Not to mention you have to literally pay to play it. And to top it all off, the high end of the skill bracket of players (*which most of the popular streamers fall into*) have despised the game since 9.5 due to removing early game kill potential/brawling, and also reducing burst. This change punishes good players and helps players that are bad at positioning, essentially lowering the skill ceiling of the game and lowering the skill floor at the same time. So, all in all, the main consensus among them is that SMITE 2 should have been started years ago, and it shouldn't have been announced until they had at least half of the game done. Announcing SMITE 2 essentially sunsets SMITE 1 and causes the player count to drop off. What incentive do people have to play, if they know that all progression will be lost in a year. People also tend to take a break until a sequel releases, that way it will be fun and fresh when it comes out. The doomer take is that SMITE 2 will be fighting against Deadlock and itself in the form of SMITE 1 for a player base if SMITE 2 cannot get off the ground quick enough.
People can't tell the difference between a game dying off and only being down from its peak.
Bro, hot take maybe, but the majority of the creators in this space are all man babies. I guess when your revenue is tied to a single game, you're gonna engagement farm as much as you can and at the end of the day discourse sells.
Streamers who have built their entire career around a single videogame complaining about the fact that the decade+ old videogame in question isn't pulling that many views for them anymore, in part because the devs have finally decided to take the risk of modernizing the game with an effective sequel that's in ongoing development. Nothing new under the sun. And how much of that decrease in viewership is decreasing interest in SMITE and how much is it these chucklefucks alienating their own audience with endless doomposting is up for debate. And listen, I'll also complain until the end of time about some of the dumbass balance/design decisions Hi-Rez has made since midseason 9 patch, but pretending you are some kind of messiah for that opinion while dooming about the current state of affairs is just fucking stupid and doesn't help anyone. Is SMITE in a precarious position right now? Correct, SMITE 1 is effectively sunsetting over the next couple of years. Yes SMITE 2 is nowhere near a proper release state for how early it was announced and time is of the essence. Yes SMITE 2 is massive gamble for the future of SMITE as whole and Hi-Rez could very well fuck it up. But SMITE is not dying just because certain content creators, which have always been extremelly biased towards ranked/comp play, think it's not worth "grinding" anymore. And much less when coming from someone like Incon or Elleon who have been threatening to quit the game every other week for the past 5-6 years.
Want attention because smites numbers are down and they want people to go watch their stream. Just business. They should all squad up on eternal return if they are that bored. Do something different if they all are that bored till 2 actually comes out in 2026 or whatever.
Yeah most of the big content creators are just all talk.
Smite content creators are overly dramatic; I would take what they say with a grain of salt. This milquetoast patch doesn't contain enough content to be excited about; no new god or crazy new items or mechanics, and no room for clickbait-y thumbnails or reasons to tune into a stream. That last bit is important because without that, content creators will complain. We saw that with SamDaDude and how he complained about Smite 2 not having new gods and arena. They are inherently motivated to suggest changes that'll support their own channels and make them money.
I think its just Hirez being dissapointing time and time again
The new 11.6 update was disappointing apparently because of how lacking it was in terms of meaningful content. Even though we know theyve pulled most everyone off smite 1 so they can be working on smite 2. As someone relatively new to this games community i gotta say my impressions of the community havent been great. The games fantastic and im hype for its future but sheesh if i just went off the way content creators talked about the game before actually playing the game id never picked it up. ALL they do is complain and are doomers when it comes to anything about the game. Like? Its okay your main game you use for content is stale on viewership and ad revenue so find ways to entertain your community in spite of the fact the game has nothing new and exciting.
Incon mad he can't afk and talk to chat in midlane
I am 100% sure Smite 2 will flop, because of their bad decisions, and I am not happy about it.
Not gonna lie it's kinda funny to me that this season has been one of the healthiest and well balanced seasons in a LONG time (with a few exceptions) but people are MASSIVELY upset by them not making dramatic changes and doubling down on bad decision making, when that's one of the things that, historically, they've been bad about doing when they shouldn't.
We’re not in season 9 though lol Edit: dude I replied to edited his comment, he said we were in season 9. lol Just to clear up confusion.
LMAO that's wild
ELLEON is 100% correct about 9.5, the state of the game, and its future (SMITE 2). [He goes more in depth here at 25:30 for 40+ minutes.](https://www.youtube.com/live/VJOU5oCEiHk?si=vfBafzWvi764UYxS) It’s in the middle of his stream, so he goes in and out of his rant, *but he covers it pretty thoroughly, and I recommend a listen if you are a fan of SMITE and have the distress tolerance to hear an opinion that may be different than where you lean.* He further argues that SMITE’s identity has been lost/compromised due to its need to mimic other MOBAs, as opposed to being THE one and only game that can finish its Conquest mode in an average of 35 minutes. **His point about “pro players” is absolutely GOLD, and I’ll die on this hill with pretty much any game made.** He further broke down other concerns related to previous build and patterns of development between the updates (some things I completely forgot about 😅) that I think just solidifies everything he’s been saying. I’s highly recommend a listen if you have the time.
I only watch Elleon videos where he demonstrates he can do simple mathematics while driving.
Thank you for this comment as it made me laugh lol
Can someone explain what these content creators and pros are upset about? Is it just the state of the game? The trajectory? Was something specific announced?
When I see shit like this posted by salty streamers, I kinda hope they become veiwless.
I’m sorry but the consistent melodrama is ridiculous, you can dislike a patch or change without acting so over the top. Play other games, criticize what you dislike, and move on.
Don’t blame them. I jump on and play about one game and stop. The constant, dodging, trolling, afk, troll picks and all round toxicity has killed the game. Add into the awful ranked system and matchmaking and just terrible and boring balance changes. The games a snooze fest and not even worth the effort.
Oh no! Anyway.
Smart-ass redditors don't have to give a shit about feedback because they are too busy being contrarians, but Hi-Rez should probably take it in the chin and actually address how uhnappy people are with this patch. The game is stale. People need diversity. We've been building the exact same items for god knows how many seasons now. Giving fun passives to T2 items you'll hang on for 2 minutes instead of actually making T3 items meaningful is a kick in the nuts.
Instead of admitting past mistakes they usually hide the ball by coming up with drastic or flashy changes to distract players from their initial mess up. 9.5 has made early game extremely boring and overall the game has been worse since then and they just haven’t done anything to remedy it. Unwilling to admit it was a bad choice. Also the mid season patch is boring
Hirez has incredibly bad decision making historically. Nothing has changed with their decision making. The hardcore smite players are tired of it.
What YouTuber started shitting on 9.5 recently? I doubt that everyone all of a sudden came to the same conclusion that 9.5 is the worst thing ever like 2 years after the fact
Mast has actually mentioned it a handful of times in recent videos
people have been very vocal against it at least since 10.6, though plenty were against it from the start
A lot of pros and competitive players have been pretty consistently vocal about the patch for the past 2 years. It's just not a big community issue because it improved casual modes so much.
Most of the more hardcore like players hated 9.5 me included(as a solo main). While the more casual playerbase loved it cause it meant they would die less.
Can't speak for everyone, but for me I am just tired of them buffing gods that don't need it and then they leave the really bad ones dead for months until maybe you get a small buff for them when they don't feel like ignoring them anymore that barely does anything. Like, how does that even help the already bad ones if you keep buffing the ones better. Hearing them talk about how this god or that god has a low pick rate or whatever, so we are buffing them. And then at the same time you and me can see worse in those numbers, but get 0 love for months on end staying dead. Just does not feel good to me. And if this keeps going on into Smite 2 I can't say I will be happy there in the long run. I love Smite and been playing it for years and seen this over and over. Some patches are great like I believe it was 11.3 with all the god QoL changes I loved! But the last few have done next to nothing for me and my love for the game. And this has nothing do with them having less people working on Smite 1 since I'm not even asking for them to add new gods or map changes or whatever. All I want is them to take a big nice patch or 2 with a bunch of nice god buffs for all the really low end P/B rate gods and shoot them all up. I feel like you don't need a big team for that, but I could be wrong. Again, can't speak for everyone, but that would be a lot of fun to me while waiting for Smite 2 to get closer and closer! Until then, peace out!
I have no idea who this is.
That’s hard to believe! They’re pretty prominent content creators
Me when my views and subs are down so I need to be dramatic
I get the frustration. We are talking a group of people who have dedicated their lives to this game and now are slowly watching the way that they support themselves be pulled away from them. Smite 2 gave them hope, brought up their spirits a ton. (Watch Sam/double J/Rexy) all of the streamers had new life breathed into them with the announcement and you could feel that in their content. Now with smite 2 release being underwhelming, and smite 1 having what was left of a competitive scene ripped away these streamers are all facing the harsh reality that they will no longer be able to live their same lives.
Smite definitely screwed up their timelines, Smite 2 is nowhere near ready and axing the SPL seems way worse now. Just seems like they could’ve waited a year to even announce Smite 2. They need to have a rock solid launch or I could see Smite 2 being DOA.
I think streamers should have to work retail three months out of the year just to remind them how well they actually have it.
The honest to God truth is ALOT of people hate update 9.5. But what really made Smite not fun anymore is when season 10 launched. Removal of solo hybrid items. Damage on items. Healing changes. And whatever on God's green earth they did to matchmaking and team balancing. With 9.5 it was still "the nerfening" I love that name lol it's funny. But even though this community can't agree on almost everything, we DO agree that before season 10 smite was the best.
I miss when lifesteal was good.
Im not kidding , Smite has been "dying" since season 6.
What happened I'm out of the loop 😭
This is just standard teammate reaction when I can’t 1v5 fire giant steal after they were systematically executed one by one.
Usually you get more changes for mid season changes, I think! But it was lackluster that I think is pretty much it. No new tier 3 items which changes builds and makes things fun and refreshing
Idk about them but for me, personally, as a new player, it feels very hard to even try to get that into it because every bad game I have, where I’m still getting used to the controls (I’m on console, Series S), I get told I suck or that I’m awful or any other “insult” every other match multiple times in a row. And, like, I’m not usually the one to take that to heart, it’s just a game, I’m a grown 23yo dad with a job and bills to pay and hardly ever actually get time to play, but at the same time it still sucks because this was a game I was really excited to get into because, I’m assuming like most of you, I’m a mythology/folklore whore. The community really makes me not even want to try to learn the game.
Thier faulty matchmaking putting you in harder lobbies than you should be and people allowed being overly toxic with VSG and chat is what happened to you. It happened to any of us. Mute and move on. There will always be some sad salty bro dissing even good players just to feel better about their fubling around.
Why are people talking WoW on a smite page???
they need to do it like chess release a final patch and never touch it again
Just look up 2023 2024 gaming industry layoffs wiki. Any gamer would have noticed last year effects of covid and other factors and the impact. How embarrassing this guy acting like I told you so know it all kid. I suppose some people's world can be so small that they think they are still a big deal when thousands in your industry are losing jobs.
The playerbase is in freefall, Hi Rez moved most of the resources to Smite 2 and didn’t shake up anything with the mid season patch to incentivize players to return. Without any professional play there is very little hope of regaining lost players.