Greetings Pit Masters!

Now that the most recent update is live and running smoothly I'd like to offer a glimpse into what I'll be focusing on next. This isn't a concrete road map per se, however, it should give those interested a good idea on the direction we're going. After countless hours of thought (and I do mean countless) and inner dialogue I've come to the conclusion that Pit of War has strayed from its original goal and design. As the saying goes "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions". Many of the design decisions made over the past few years were done with good intentions and often in response to a changing marketplace and environment. Some of these decisions were great, some of them were bad. It's hard to know what the outcomes will be in advance. The outcome for many of those decisions is now known and the knowledge gained from them will help shape the future of PoW.

I've more or less thrown in the towel and admitted defeat in the battle for "mainstream" adoption. PoW is a thinking man's (or woman's) game and that flies in the face of the "mainstream" mob. Of course I knew PoW was a niche game to begin with and would never enjoy the success of top casual games, but I had always hoped (perhaps a bit too optimistically) that the joy of this niche could be expanded and exposed to others unfamiliar with it. I'm sure it did put a smile on many a new face, but a niche it shall remain. In an effort to attract more players and be attractive to more players PoW veered off course. It has been a learning process. So, while this particular battle is lost, the war is not. I will never be able to compete with the marketing dollars of the larger companies and PoW will never be mainstream, kind of mainstream, or a tiny bit mainstream, ever. And I'm finally ok with this. I will now shift gears (or pivot for those of you familiar with the lingo of The Lean Startup community) and focus on making PoW the best game in its niche. That will be my new focus starting now and this pivot won't be slow and gradual relatively speaking. It will be as swift as I can make it, which will be jarring for some.

I've spent the last few weeks going over old forum posts (years old in some cases) and taking notes on comments left by users and paying close attention to those players who I consider to be "core players" and even more attention to those I consider to be loyal supporters and backers of the game, past and present. I equally looked at comments that praised the game and criticized it in whatever form the game was in at that time. After distilling the posts down to various topics I then started cross referencing them with my todo list and the current game design in general. Many items on my todo list are being removed due to this, some are being promoted and new items with the highest of priorities are being added. Once I am done with this process I will then look at it from a business perspective and see what is possible and for those ideas that don't seem possible, see what I can do so they are.

I don't have a lot of details to offer at this time, however, as the title of this post suggests, "a return to the past" is a good fit. Not everything new will be changed and not everything old will return, however, the original spirit of what Pit of War was will be the focus. During this transformation some areas of the game will be changed, some will be removed and some new ones added. A few in-game prices may change if "game mechanic A" was subsidizing "game mechanic B" and A is removed for example. Some of you will not like the new changes, some of you will love them. I fully expect what I consider the "Core Player Base" to love the new direction and those players are my new laser focus. I'm certainly not turning my back on non-core base players and will do everything I can to keep the game fun for them as well. I'm sure we'll lose some players as change always does. If my hunch is correct though, it may even turn some non-core players into core players and bring back core players from the past.

As to not leave you empty handed, here are some general ideas you can take with you regarding the new direction:

- The core game loop will be more PvP focused, more varied and in general, slower. Quality over quantity.
- The PvE areas of the game will continue to be present and expanded upon for those interested in having more to do, longer play sessions and looking to be rewarded for their time investment.

I hope most of you like the new direction. I am already excited to get to work on it and would like to apologize to the core players for allowing PoW to run off the tracks for as long as it did. An oversight I shall correct posthaste!

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

P.S. Yes, the new school is still on the way.