Bless Online has lost more than two-thirds of its players since the release of Early Access on Steam. The server merger is scheduled for the end of the month, but it is unclear how many players will be playing Bless by then.
Bless is losing players. Bless Online launched with 34,392 players on May 28 on Steam in Early Access. However, according to the SteamDB website, only 5,424 players are still playing as of July 3, 2018. The game has lost over two-thirds of its players in just over a month. But what is the reason for this?
Problems at Launch
Chaotic start. Many MMOs face issues at launch due to insufficient servers to handle the influx of players, which typically subsides after a few days. The large number of players leads to disconnections or performance drops. Therefore, players often recommend not to play on an MMO’s launch day.
Bless was also not spared from typical MMO launch issues. Furthermore, the game was plagued by a bug that prevented players from getting past the first loading screen. Additionally, Neowiz restricted faction choices on many servers to ensure roughly equal numbers of players on both sides. Players could not team up with their friends.
Dupe bug gives players an unfair advantage: Just a few days after release, savvy players discovered a dupe bug. Neowiz had not removed it from the game, even though it had been known in the Japanese version for a long time. Through this bug, players diligently duplicated items and made a fortune. Neowiz fixed the bug a few days after it became known and penalized players who had excessively used it. However, the damage was already done.
The classes were not balanced
Unfair PvP. Bless is an MMO with open PvP. Players from the opposing faction can attack and kill you at any time in contested areas. A good class balance is therefore immensely important. However, at the Steam release, many classes were not balanced. The Paladin class, for example, a healing class in Bless, could withstand so much damage that some players completely avoided attacking it because fights dragged on for too long. Mages, a damage class, initially had an ability with no cooldown and low mana cost that they could spam, dominating PvP.
Neowiz responded to the criticism with several balance patches aimed at addressing the players’ problems. The PvP balance improved. However, by that time, the player count was already at 21,487. About 13,000 players had left the world of Bless Online and turned to other games.
Neowiz creates new problems
Surplus of new servers brings new problems. To accommodate the high player influx at launch, Neowiz introduced new servers. However, this decision created a new problem. The remaining players spread out over 15 servers in the NA and EU regions. The world of Bless Online feels empty, and finding teammates for PvP and PvE activities takes a long time. Players demanded a server merger from Neowiz.
Server merger is coming. In response to fans’ criticism, Neowiz announced a server merger. At the time of the announcement, 7,358 players were playing Bless Online daily. Neowiz currently operates 15 servers, which are set to be merged into two servers per region on July 24. Remaining Bless players will have to wait about a month for the server merger. Neowiz hopes this will revitalize the servers.
Is the server merger coming too late? The player numbers for Bless Online are declining daily. According to SteamDB, approximately 100 players stop playing Bless Online every day. If this trend continues, the daily player count could drop to around 3,000 by the time the server merger occurs. The remaining players will then be spread across four servers in NA and EU.
Players express criticism
Neowiz has made many adjustments to the game since the release of Bless Online and has responded to fan criticism. Nevertheless, the game is still plagued by a few issues that hinder players’ enjoyment.
What players criticize:
- The English translation has improved, but is still erroneous.
- There has still been no German translation a month after release. Neowiz wants to work on the English translation first. Fans have initiated a translation project.
- Performance has improved, but it is still poor. Neowiz has announced that they would work on this.
- There is too little endgame content.
Do you think Bless Online can continue to engage players, or will it slowly lose them?
