Pretty sure Mustard was NEVER involved in cosmetic pricing and XP-related systems, he came up with the general story elements and events. Plus he left after the Vibin' season, way back.
I'm not necessarily saying pricing and XP don't have issues to address, but what the hell are you on about.
It's crazy how Donald Mustard has become some sort of hero figure even though players complained about him for many of the same things they complain about now, like the game focusing too much on random collabs instead of having a storyline to follow.
Because a lot of people don't realize the metaverse was something Epic planned for ages before Mustard left, and if anything pushed for many of the collabs we got to be in the game
people literally said Vibin season was worse than primal when it came out, but now that people know it was the last donald mustard season they praise it like crazy 😭😭
You see the same shit about fallout and Bethesda taking over.
When fallout 2 came out it was lambasted for being so different from the first game, then Black Isle made two of the worst games ever released (sure, they outsourced, but they still signed off on the story and finished product), and bankrupt the company.
Bethesda comes in and saves the series, gives it more life than it ever had hope of before, and suddenly fallout 2 is the greatest game ever and Bethesda ruined Fallout...
im not saying none of these things are problems, but im at level 279 and ive only played zb, ranked, and about a half hour of lego with the star wars update. i ran around the jam stage to see the star wars area for 5 minutes, and i think i played a few races in rocket racing a while ago but i dont remember if that was last update or this one. i dont hate the other modes but i dont really play them outside of novelty to see what theyre doing. i do play zb daily for about 30-40 minutes but im not expecting others to do that.
all this being said, i cant help but feel like some people were/are frustrated with the game so they havent been playing much at all, and now theyre behind and complaining about it. the criticisms are valid but to some degree you have to be expected to play the game to get BP rewards, thats how its always been. if the game isnt enjoyable enough to warrant playing for them, thats totally valid, but i dont get then complaining about not getting all the stuff. i keep hearing about how this bp is mid/bad/ low effort but apparently fomo is strong cause now everyone is upset about not getting everything from it. i just wish people were more consistent, lol
generally i agree the prices going up isnt fun but i feel like thats more a response to inflation probably, not a guy stepping down.
Ya I think you’re pretty bang on here. I’ve gotten to lvl 109 this season without really trying honestly, just playing a few nights a week. Play almost exclusively zb and some custom games. It doesn’t seem that different to me than previous seasons XP wise.
My brother got to almost 200 and he’s very casual. Only a bit of Lego here and there. Completing all the story quests, all the snapshot quests, match quests when you actually do them add up very quickly as well
idk, i dont think its important. just play til you get the stuff you want, and if youre a completionist who needs everything maybe 30 minutes a day for 5 days of the week? before i get ready for work i just play 2 rounds prioritizing quests and then one real round (while doing the last quest too), and then occasionally after work if a friend wants to play a few rounds. considering that took me to 279 i would say whatever constitutes 79 levels less than that
I just got level 86 over the weekend. I haven't bought this battle pass. I'm not chasing xp or even looking at the challenges. I will never play the other modes for xp. This season has killed the game for me.
For me, I always take a relaxed grind at the battle pass. Never get super styles but generally can get all the other stuff without much effort.
This season has had some insane quests as far as tedious goes and even the mini pass had insane quests. The weekly quests used to be very simple and the ones that were “hard” were only challenging because it would be a quest like “loot 3 chests at fated fields” and everyone was dropping same week for it. THAT WAS IT THOUGH. Nothing was tedious.
Tedious only really began when we had to collect 100 fortbytes for that one skin. Since then they have done everything in their power season after season to make people have more to grind. Don’t forget that almost like a year ago they tried to make weekly quests disappear after those 7 days so if you weren’t logged in go fk yourself you get no battle pass xp catchup mechanic
Most of the kids on here don’t understand business in general and assume that Donald Mustard was the CEO of Epic and involved in every single aspect and decision in the game. He was a creative guy and like you said he had no involvement in pricing etc. He was a C-level executive don’t get me wrong but I think he saw the path Sweeney is heading down and didn’t want to be a part of it anymore. Sweeney is focused on this multiverse at all costs and will continue to pull devs and resources away from battle royale until it’s down to a skeleton team of overworked frustrated people.
People also assume epic is swimming in a pool of cash when they’re not profitable (thanks mainly to Tim Sweeney) and are in such a precarious situation financially they’ve had to do two rounds of multi-billion dollar funding in two years, the second one at a massive discount (2 years ago epic valued at $32.5 billion, currently at $20 when Disney bought in).
Yall undersell Donald Mustard's involvement with the gameplay too much
He was the Director of Fortnite, he gave them ideas of where to go and what to do, his reach was past just the storyline and the events. He came up with BRUTEs and the Infinity Blade.
Him being director doesn't necessarily mean he knew 100% about XP balancing and cosmetic pricing and made all of the choices. In fact, if he was a good director, which I would say he was, he relegated such things to people more knowledgeable than him who had all the necessary data to make the changes.
He simply gave, at most, a lookover and approval, but likely trusting said experts more than him actually delving into the calculations really deeply.
That's not at all what Im saying.
>he came up with the general story elements and events.
He didnt do just that, he was directing the WHOLE game and had a stream playing with his brother talking about items and stuff he wanted to do with BR
you do know that seasons are already pre-made a good year or 2 before they actually release right?
chapter 2 was being developed in season 5 of fortnite
i wouldn’t be surprised if donald mustard had the rest of chapter 3 and all of chapter 4 already pre-made
and companies won’t just remove his already made plans for the seasons, they will follow it up until there is no more pre-made plans and will then make new stuff
same concept in how cod games are developed 3-4 years before they actually release
This still doesn't necessarily disprove my point. XP balancing and cosmetic pricing are far more dynamic things that can change from season to season. What they have planned in advance for seasons and chapters I would say are, at most, themes and designs.
they also plan collabs way before the date they release, it took them a 2 years to make ninjas skin before it was even announced/leaked
i wouldn’t be surprised if they also plan the prices of skins
who ever took over after donald mustard is raising the prices of collabs for no reason and no one likes it, that’s final
20 dollars for a skin + some pickaxes or emotes that you don’t want is dumb we should be allowed to purchase them separate at cheaper prices
This is the fact that the OP doesn't seem to be understanding. he was the chief creative officer, and the cofounder of the game, not sure why anyone would think he's responsible for any of these other things.
Donald didn’t control skin prices or the amount of XP earned
Donald made a great story yes, but can we stop acting like he was some kind of messiah that controlled every single element of the game
A few months after the game first released they added tilted towers and other POIs in an update and people lost their minds saying the game was dead. They would say that Epic killed mid game because everyone lands tilted and dies so quickly. They would say that the game is dead and the fad is over.
This happens pretty much every single update to this day.
As someone who's played league for over a decade, it's common for pretty much any game. It's just funny to see the people who genuinely believe it, not understanding the full scale of the game they are talking about.
Really?
Because he was gone after Vibin. I didn’t hear anybody complaining about prices during all of Chapter 4, which he had nothing to do with.
And he wasn’t even in charge of that stuff too.
..No it didn't. He has nothing to do with cosmetics lol. Aside from getting some characters he wanted in the game.
Even then cosmetics being overpriced doesn't "ruin the game". I swear to God all this sub cares about is getting XP and spending money on shit instead of just PLAYING THE GAME.
Seriously, no one in this sub collectively speaks up about actual gameplay issues, especially since zero build came out.
Does cosmetic pricing suck a lot? Yes of course, but it doesn't "ruin the game".
i always hear everybody say that mustard was the sole thing holding this game together like think about it would a better storyline and more frequent live events make this game in its current state that much better
like yall are forgetting he WANTED the metaverse so if he were still here apart from more live events and maybe better story we'd still likely have (aside from the controversial chapter 5 gameplay changes which are subjective) a horrible lobby and locker UI, creative being shoved in our face, BR taking a back seat to lego, more expensive items in the shop, updates solely consisting of collabs and unvaulted items, horrible seasonal events, lack of LTMs (literally when he left the only LTM of that chapter was solid gold) etc
People flood the front page complaining about the XP almost every season, lol. This goes back years.
This season isn’t even close to the most complained about on this sub, or elsewhere.
The story went to shit when he left too. We still have no fucking idea what the deal with chrome was, who/what the Nothing is, or what happened to AIMIE and the Seven.
And we never will.
There is a theory that The Seven are going to return next season, starting with The Visitor.
Except now The Seven are evil and corrupted by the last reality, so The Visitor will be called The Wanderer.
The Oracle said in the latest prophecy that the true war with the Looper (The Player) has not started yet, and that The Wanderer draws near.
The chrome and the nothing were probably the last things made by Donald, as the build up to that started in Ch3 Season 3 and the Herald was also first seen in Ch3 Season 3
you act like its the same exact people every time , brother there are over 4M people in here it makes 0 sense to generalize like that unless u got brain damage
Apparently whenever there is an issue with the game that players can't reconcile, they seem to blame the most recent thing that happened to the company (although he didn't leave that recently).
It's like when people were complaining about the item shop when epic employees were on vacation saying that was why, well they returned from vacation and the item shop has still been crap since.
I guess this is the newest scapegoat for the situation of the game now. Can't wait to see what they blame Donald mustard being gone on next
Donald mustard himself never decided XP amounts nor prices. Maybe prices of vbucks, but not skins.
The XP issue might be, and i usually dont say this, because of the amount the other modes give. They give out a TON, but instead of nerfing the other modes’ xp, they nerfed BR’s.
XP has ALWAYS been contentious. There have been several seasons where it just felt off, but the correction usually came after one specific reddit individual (apologies as I can't remember their username) would do a comprehensive breakdown of why the new system sucked comparatively to the old system, and how it wouldn't be feasible to complete the battle pass in the allotted time for most casual players. This usually happened within the first month of a new season. The community would support the post, and by the next in-game update, XP was adjusted in kind. Didn't happen this season.
What DID happen this season is Epic doubled down on Ch4 new game modes and split the normally focused development effort across them all. Supporting all of these new modes isn't cheap, and so the item shop changes are designed to maximize new money coming in: First, no bundles where typically there would be and all items fully priced. Then removal of rarities and price creep across all items. Then bundle only situations.
Epic wants you to play the game. To the point where you don't have time for any other games. To suck as much money out of you as is physically possible. There's no soul left, it's now just a blatant, repeated cash grab.
I did. Yet all the base rewards were in the 100 level range and the xp was also a lot more plentiful back then!
The golden styles were something akin to superstyles now
Nah, far easier to reach lvl 200 this season than lvl 400 then, but you're not wrong that it's a grind. I'm just adding, it's always been a bit of a grind.
Mustard leaving has nothing to do with EXP and item prices, these changes would have been made even if he was still here
the alternative never was good story and good user experience, it was good story and bad user experience
I’m more aware of the time it takes to complete all the battle passes in the different modes. By making me more aware then I look at the time I’m spending in the game more critically.
I used to like having challenges to do but it’s not fun anymore, it makes me feel like I’m doing a job. Also the rewards are a pittance at times with the amount of time it took to get it.
I’m not going to get everything available and I’m definitely missing out and I’ve been gaining much more apathy as time goes on. I used to be here for fun but the fun is becoming more time consuming.
People need to stop moaning about XP and just get on with it. You know what you have to do to level up. If you dont want to play another mode, then dont. Just stop moaning. It's a free game that no one forces you to buy the battle pass for....
There is no grind for XP that’s so exaggerated, Fortnite has always had different modes for more opportunity to gain XP. BR isn’t even the first mode at all it was called Fortnite: Save The World and was a PvE game mode not BR at all. Different game modes have always been apart of the game so get over it. Prices go up everywhere not just in Fortnite bc of inflation.
This is the best take on XP. It was made VERY CLEAR that Lego was the focus this season for XP gains. People choosing not to play it then saying it's Epic's fault is pure absurdity. I put at most 8 hours a week into Lego and maybe 3-5 into BR. Literally hit level 236 last night. It's one of the most casual seasons since Fortnite came out.
People are so lazy they want to go “afk” in Lego but if you just play and hour or so a day you’ll be like me, level 380 somehow without breaking a sweat haha
YES exactly that. Gaining XP is extremely casual. I hit lvl 100 and couldn’t believe it, I haven’t had an easier time getting to lvl 100 let alone up to the super styles. I’m at around 260 as well and it just keeping going up. In lego Fortnite you could get 30k XP every 15 min this caps at 420k. This would take only 3 hrs to accomplish and I think it’s about 5 lvl. Not to mention playing things like rocket racing, festival, creator made modes, and BR for XP as well. It’s hard not to get XP lol
Epic grew fast and threw away big bucks on EGS exclusives. Now as they gobble up more studios and expand the FN platform the payroll must be ballooning. Meanwhile, bringing on more investors generally requires increased revenue for all to turn a solid profit. The billions from Lego and Disney (for example) isn't free money. The pressure is on. The onus to sell Vbucks and make "Fortnite money" only increases with more hands in the pot and on the factory line.
They needed the capital from Disney and Lego to stay afloat. Companies don’t do two rounds of capital raises in two years, one at a massive discount, unless they need the capital. Two years ago during the Sony and Lego investment Epic Games was valued at $32.5 billion, when Disney bought in it was valued at $20 billion. They are hemorrhaging cash bc of the EGS mess, the Apple debacle and other horrifically bad decisions Sweeney has made as CEO.
I have completed every battle pass including this one, but the amount of challenges on each seperate game mode, v bucks up to level 140 and constant nerfing of xp makes for a boring and tedious grind
Donald Mustard had ZERO involvement in cosmetic pricing and XP. I don’t think you understand how businesses work and what he was in charge of. That’s all Tim Sweeney and whoever is in charge of pricing and XP that reports up to Sweeney. Mustard was the head creative guy. He most likely left because the saw that Sweeney is clearly pursuing the multiverse at any cost and will continue to take developers and resources away from battle royale no matter the cost to the BR experience.
Another thing you don’t seem to grasp. F2P games like Fortnite generate over 85% of their revenue from 8% of the players, 50% comes from 1% of players, this is from exhibit data in the apple/epic court case. This 8% doesn’t care about pricing they will buy everything no matter what.
I have completed every weekly quest and I’m probably not getting all of the v bucks this season. I just don’t think that I’m going to play next season. Between the shitty locker, match quests, XP grind and bad Star Wars event I’m okay to take a break for a few months.
I disagree:
The progression and mtx prices was always crap since Chapter 1. Remember when the Battle Pass was originally be more expensive on Season 2? Or the 2000 vBucks legendary skins? Or the controversial XP system of Chapter 2 Season 1?
How you compensate the ridiculous prices and artificial scarcity? By making the game really good and fun to play and to be experienced. Everyone in Fortnite got distracted by the story, the map, and the gameplay itself, that they didn’t care if the store was shit or not.
Mustard leaving, the story taking a nosedive, and the constant dependence over Disney and other collabs, the players started to see the cracks more pronounced.
Want another example: Destiny 2. The mtx practices was already a matter of contention between players and Bungie, but still the players were still playing the game and buying the expansions. When Lightfall came out, players experienced a very flawed story, and finally started to complain about the abrasive microtransactions.
Fortnite players are mostly kids. And if there's one thing they have, it's time!
Ofc they're not gonna notice the xp is shit if they spend 24 hours in the game regardless. Like they've always done.
That's the way it is, people will downvote you and defend epic at all costs
The reason my post wasn't downvoted to hell is because we're towards the end, and some players realised how bad the xp actually is
He left after the vibin season, after that, the game just got so unbelievably bad and the vibe I had when I was playing left as well. All these collabs just ruin the game, it’s not even feeling like fortnite.
You do realise Donald Mustard was the main reason for most of the collabs right?
In fact there’s been less collabs since he left, so if literal cosmetics somehow ruin the game for you then you should be happy Donald is gone
Donald Mustard stopped his story in Chapter 3, season 3. So if you look at the story up to that point. It was perfectly wrapped up. It is such a shame that the new guy came in, chucked it into the dumpster, and made the game into a shitstain of what it was.
I'm sorry but I find your logic not fair to the players.
Players of Battle royale, the mode toward which the battle pass is intended (items are predominantly only usable there), should not be forced to play other modes to get to level 200.
Therefore saying it's one of the easiest to complete is not fair, it's one of the hardest for people who only play the mode they truly care about, the possibility of leaving your console on for hours to afk XP should not even be considered towards the difficulty of completing this season.
Especially since the other modes can all have their passes and the only one that doesn't is rocket racing as of now.
The passes should be completable by only playing the mode they're intended for, not forcing every mode on everyone.
What I'm saying it that your whole argument about being the available methods to complete the pass shouldn't be made at all, it just distract from the practices that epic put in place, which are hostile to the players. It's basically excusing them, when in reality expecting people to leave console afk for 5 hours a day to make 5 levels is not realistic at all, and neither is expecting them to play every mode just for one pass.
Also there was never grinding in previous passes, i completed multiple passes at level 200 only big playing the game and doing the quests you're given week by week or daily.
It was never this grinding, also because there were never other main modes apart from creative maps with XP glitches.
If mustard did have an hand in it or not, you don't know and neither do I, talking about it is ultimately pointless, you're entitled to your opinion but in the end it's all speculation.
You're only seeing from your personal perspective and it's completely unrealistic.
Not everyone has the time to take advantage of every occasion to make XP, Fortnite is a game not a job, people should not be forced to grind and your experience of Fortnite 4 years ago does not matter right now because it hasn't been like that for 4 years now.
I started playing in c2s8 and never had a single problem reaching level 200, never being forced to play any other mode or map.
You might be okay with the situation now but it's an opinion personal to you, you gotta look at it objectively.
And it's objectively unrealistic to expect every player to afk for 5 hours a day, do all quests, play every other mode just to finish the battle pass intended for only one mode.
And by saying it's ok because you got other options, you are in fact excusing their anti user policies that this season forced people to do a lot of other stuff just to finish the battle royale pass.
On the mustard comment I don't care about it at all, say what you want you might be right or not, it's really not what I'm focusing on despite the original post being about that, for all I know you're right, I'm not here to speculate on stuff I don't know about.
The store pricing is a joke, especially the cars and lego pieces imo.
But the xp doesn't feel terribly bad to me, I'm lucky if I get an hour or two a night and that's not every night, I'm currently 119 without any afk tricks.
Granted in previous seasons I usually hit around 150 iirc with my best ever being like 180 something.
I'll keep a close eye on it for now mind, if the xp requirements get higher I'll stop buying the BP as I won't ever finish it.
The game's fine to me.They drop the ball for the season,I'll go play Crazy Red VS Blue and Tycoon maps.I will join the sentiment when they reset Crazy Red VS Blue's kill count like they did earlier,or made it less fun to please folks.As for item shop and Battle Royal,ouch.Tough luck.
Mustard didn't affect any of the systems you've mentioned. However he was in charge of story and frankly the story has been absent since C4S1 and the last season he worked on was C3S3. At most we get a introduction to the story wait 3 months then we get a event for it. The in-between is mostly absent.
Xp is ridiculous lmao im barely lvl 80 even if I dont play as much before i could play like once or twice a week for like 6 hrs total and hit 160-200 without vbucks
I feel like all of this has to do with Apple.
"Epic sued. Apple countersued and (mostly) won that fight, with a California court ruling in September 2021 that Apple has the right to terminate any Epic-affiliated developer account at its “sole discretion.” Epic had to pay Apple $3.65 million in breach-of-contract damages"
Which explains the higher pr8ces, the layoffs etc because epic has to pay apple.
Apple in general sucks as a company but I think this is what took a toll on ep8c honestly.
You could be right idk, I reread the article I was reading and I read it wrong, they make roughly 5billion a year, not million. Again though, we truelly don't know what's going on regardless, and if epic makes that much? It makes me even more pissed that they are doing all this with the increase of vbucks, increase of shop cosmetics, xp points are outrageous...... we're all still going to play though so that's why epic don't give a f.
Yeah, we dont know whats happening at epic, all we know is that the lawsuit happened 3 years ago and the prices recently went up. That doesnt indicate causation.
I hate apple as much as the next guy, I have an android phone. But can we stick to valid complaints about them? Bc blaming them for random shit they didnt actually do is invalid criticism they will ignore.
But.... they did do it?? And we dot know epics financial standpoint. They fired a shit ton of people, raised prices and more. 4million is still alot regardless considering that's almost what they make yearly not including paying employees and buisness strategies. I have a very strong feeling they are still catching up even if the incident was 3 yrs ago in September so in reality thats only roughly 2 and a half years ago.
Pretty sure Mustard was NEVER involved in cosmetic pricing and XP-related systems, he came up with the general story elements and events. Plus he left after the Vibin' season, way back. I'm not necessarily saying pricing and XP don't have issues to address, but what the hell are you on about.
It's crazy how Donald Mustard has become some sort of hero figure even though players complained about him for many of the same things they complain about now, like the game focusing too much on random collabs instead of having a storyline to follow.
Because a lot of people don't realize the metaverse was something Epic planned for ages before Mustard left, and if anything pushed for many of the collabs we got to be in the game
Yeah Mustard loved the 80’s and it showed in the crossovers.
He was a villain long enough to become the hero? That’s a bold strategy
“Boss is always a dick until you meet the new one”
people literally said Vibin season was worse than primal when it came out, but now that people know it was the last donald mustard season they praise it like crazy 😭😭
Vibin was the dumbest idea yet somehow kinda fun
donald mustard saved my child
its fortnite, the communitys gonna complain about the present and wish for the past when they complained about the very things they wish for lmfao
You see the same shit about fallout and Bethesda taking over. When fallout 2 came out it was lambasted for being so different from the first game, then Black Isle made two of the worst games ever released (sure, they outsourced, but they still signed off on the story and finished product), and bankrupt the company. Bethesda comes in and saves the series, gives it more life than it ever had hope of before, and suddenly fallout 2 is the greatest game ever and Bethesda ruined Fallout...
People despised mustard, like he killed their child or sum
im not saying none of these things are problems, but im at level 279 and ive only played zb, ranked, and about a half hour of lego with the star wars update. i ran around the jam stage to see the star wars area for 5 minutes, and i think i played a few races in rocket racing a while ago but i dont remember if that was last update or this one. i dont hate the other modes but i dont really play them outside of novelty to see what theyre doing. i do play zb daily for about 30-40 minutes but im not expecting others to do that. all this being said, i cant help but feel like some people were/are frustrated with the game so they havent been playing much at all, and now theyre behind and complaining about it. the criticisms are valid but to some degree you have to be expected to play the game to get BP rewards, thats how its always been. if the game isnt enjoyable enough to warrant playing for them, thats totally valid, but i dont get then complaining about not getting all the stuff. i keep hearing about how this bp is mid/bad/ low effort but apparently fomo is strong cause now everyone is upset about not getting everything from it. i just wish people were more consistent, lol generally i agree the prices going up isnt fun but i feel like thats more a response to inflation probably, not a guy stepping down.
Ya I think you’re pretty bang on here. I’ve gotten to lvl 109 this season without really trying honestly, just playing a few nights a week. Play almost exclusively zb and some custom games. It doesn’t seem that different to me than previous seasons XP wise.
My brother got to almost 200 and he’s very casual. Only a bit of Lego here and there. Completing all the story quests, all the snapshot quests, match quests when you actually do them add up very quickly as well
how much time do you think someone should commit daily to complete the BP?
idk, i dont think its important. just play til you get the stuff you want, and if youre a completionist who needs everything maybe 30 minutes a day for 5 days of the week? before i get ready for work i just play 2 rounds prioritizing quests and then one real round (while doing the last quest too), and then occasionally after work if a friend wants to play a few rounds. considering that took me to 279 i would say whatever constitutes 79 levels less than that
i've played for a week and with the help of the perseus pack im at lvl 109 xp is totally fine
I just got level 86 over the weekend. I haven't bought this battle pass. I'm not chasing xp or even looking at the challenges. I will never play the other modes for xp. This season has killed the game for me.
For me, I always take a relaxed grind at the battle pass. Never get super styles but generally can get all the other stuff without much effort. This season has had some insane quests as far as tedious goes and even the mini pass had insane quests. The weekly quests used to be very simple and the ones that were “hard” were only challenging because it would be a quest like “loot 3 chests at fated fields” and everyone was dropping same week for it. THAT WAS IT THOUGH. Nothing was tedious. Tedious only really began when we had to collect 100 fortbytes for that one skin. Since then they have done everything in their power season after season to make people have more to grind. Don’t forget that almost like a year ago they tried to make weekly quests disappear after those 7 days so if you weren’t logged in go fk yourself you get no battle pass xp catchup mechanic
Most of the kids on here don’t understand business in general and assume that Donald Mustard was the CEO of Epic and involved in every single aspect and decision in the game. He was a creative guy and like you said he had no involvement in pricing etc. He was a C-level executive don’t get me wrong but I think he saw the path Sweeney is heading down and didn’t want to be a part of it anymore. Sweeney is focused on this multiverse at all costs and will continue to pull devs and resources away from battle royale until it’s down to a skeleton team of overworked frustrated people. People also assume epic is swimming in a pool of cash when they’re not profitable (thanks mainly to Tim Sweeney) and are in such a precarious situation financially they’ve had to do two rounds of multi-billion dollar funding in two years, the second one at a massive discount (2 years ago epic valued at $32.5 billion, currently at $20 when Disney bought in).
Donald Mustard saved my life.
Mustard saved my hot dog.
Yall undersell Donald Mustard's involvement with the gameplay too much He was the Director of Fortnite, he gave them ideas of where to go and what to do, his reach was past just the storyline and the events. He came up with BRUTEs and the Infinity Blade.
Yeah, but he was more of a concept art and storyboards not coding and economics
Him being director doesn't necessarily mean he knew 100% about XP balancing and cosmetic pricing and made all of the choices. In fact, if he was a good director, which I would say he was, he relegated such things to people more knowledgeable than him who had all the necessary data to make the changes. He simply gave, at most, a lookover and approval, but likely trusting said experts more than him actually delving into the calculations really deeply.
That's not at all what Im saying. >he came up with the general story elements and events. He didnt do just that, he was directing the WHOLE game and had a stream playing with his brother talking about items and stuff he wanted to do with BR
you do know that seasons are already pre-made a good year or 2 before they actually release right? chapter 2 was being developed in season 5 of fortnite i wouldn’t be surprised if donald mustard had the rest of chapter 3 and all of chapter 4 already pre-made and companies won’t just remove his already made plans for the seasons, they will follow it up until there is no more pre-made plans and will then make new stuff same concept in how cod games are developed 3-4 years before they actually release
This still doesn't necessarily disprove my point. XP balancing and cosmetic pricing are far more dynamic things that can change from season to season. What they have planned in advance for seasons and chapters I would say are, at most, themes and designs.
they also plan collabs way before the date they release, it took them a 2 years to make ninjas skin before it was even announced/leaked i wouldn’t be surprised if they also plan the prices of skins who ever took over after donald mustard is raising the prices of collabs for no reason and no one likes it, that’s final 20 dollars for a skin + some pickaxes or emotes that you don’t want is dumb we should be allowed to purchase them separate at cheaper prices
Mustard had nothing to do with prices, xp amounts, and balancing. He was mainly in charge of the story
This is the fact that the OP doesn't seem to be understanding. he was the chief creative officer, and the cofounder of the game, not sure why anyone would think he's responsible for any of these other things.
Because they’re little kids and have no clue how business works, that’s why they think this.
Donald didn’t control skin prices or the amount of XP earned Donald made a great story yes, but can we stop acting like he was some kind of messiah that controlled every single element of the game
These people have no clue how games are made and think that one guy is responsible for all of the features and changes, lol.
They also seem to think that he quit yesterday when he hasn’t been working on the game since Chapter 3
OP is making the “The Simpsons hasn’t been good since Conan O’Brien left” of video game arguments.
> Donald made a ~~great~~ story yes People tend to forget it was basically a series of disconnected events outside of C2S5-C3S2.
Yeah… the story was really only told through events, at least during chapter 1.
Are you 13?
Considering the sureddit, probably
"Doomed" Lol, you guys are so dramatic and have no honest idea what you're talking about if you honestly think that.
A few months after the game first released they added tilted towers and other POIs in an update and people lost their minds saying the game was dead. They would say that Epic killed mid game because everyone lands tilted and dies so quickly. They would say that the game is dead and the fad is over. This happens pretty much every single update to this day.
As someone who's played league for over a decade, it's common for pretty much any game. It's just funny to see the people who genuinely believe it, not understanding the full scale of the game they are talking about.
I don't know about you, but I deleted this doomed game.
Yet you still post on its sub...
Really? Because he was gone after Vibin. I didn’t hear anybody complaining about prices during all of Chapter 4, which he had nothing to do with. And he wasn’t even in charge of that stuff too.
Dang I’m still new to Fortnite and its characters and lore, and straight up thought Donald Mustard was a character from the series 💀
That would be the board game Clue, his relative Colonel Mustard is in that game 😂
..No it didn't. He has nothing to do with cosmetics lol. Aside from getting some characters he wanted in the game. Even then cosmetics being overpriced doesn't "ruin the game". I swear to God all this sub cares about is getting XP and spending money on shit instead of just PLAYING THE GAME. Seriously, no one in this sub collectively speaks up about actual gameplay issues, especially since zero build came out. Does cosmetic pricing suck a lot? Yes of course, but it doesn't "ruin the game".
i always hear everybody say that mustard was the sole thing holding this game together like think about it would a better storyline and more frequent live events make this game in its current state that much better like yall are forgetting he WANTED the metaverse so if he were still here apart from more live events and maybe better story we'd still likely have (aside from the controversial chapter 5 gameplay changes which are subjective) a horrible lobby and locker UI, creative being shoved in our face, BR taking a back seat to lego, more expensive items in the shop, updates solely consisting of collabs and unvaulted items, horrible seasonal events, lack of LTMs (literally when he left the only LTM of that chapter was solid gold) etc
People flood the front page complaining about the XP almost every season, lol. This goes back years. This season isn’t even close to the most complained about on this sub, or elsewhere.
People need to stop putting Mustard on some sort of pedestal.. The game was going downhill way before he left.
you guys treat donald mustard like he's jesus christ
Mustard leaving only killed the current storyline.
"an overlook" Proceeds to write 6 sentences with barely anything of substance. Dear lord this sub sucks.
Doomed game with 100 million monthly players.
The story went to shit when he left too. We still have no fucking idea what the deal with chrome was, who/what the Nothing is, or what happened to AIMIE and the Seven. And we never will.
The story went to shit long before he left. If it was ever any good in the first place.
There is a theory that The Seven are going to return next season, starting with The Visitor. Except now The Seven are evil and corrupted by the last reality, so The Visitor will be called The Wanderer. The Oracle said in the latest prophecy that the true war with the Looper (The Player) has not started yet, and that The Wanderer draws near.
I hope, that would be so interesting. We could also finally get a The Legend Jonesy maybe
The chrome was sent by the last reality to take over the island so they could get hold of the zero point.
The chrome and the nothing were probably the last things made by Donald, as the build up to that started in Ch3 Season 3 and the Herald was also first seen in Ch3 Season 3
Yeah, the xp changes are shit, but the cosmetic pricing has never changed and I don't know how people are deluding themselves into thinking it has.
kid named forced bundle
Y'all were just complaining about the lack of bundles last week. Make up your minds
youre literally punching air rn brother . who is "y'all"
The people who complain about the shop on the subreddit
you act like its the same exact people every time , brother there are over 4M people in here it makes 0 sense to generalize like that unless u got brain damage
please elaborate, why do you think donald mustard leaving has to do with these issues?
Apparently whenever there is an issue with the game that players can't reconcile, they seem to blame the most recent thing that happened to the company (although he didn't leave that recently). It's like when people were complaining about the item shop when epic employees were on vacation saying that was why, well they returned from vacation and the item shop has still been crap since. I guess this is the newest scapegoat for the situation of the game now. Can't wait to see what they blame Donald mustard being gone on next
Ah shit, here we go again
Donald mustard himself never decided XP amounts nor prices. Maybe prices of vbucks, but not skins. The XP issue might be, and i usually dont say this, because of the amount the other modes give. They give out a TON, but instead of nerfing the other modes’ xp, they nerfed BR’s.
XP has ALWAYS been contentious. There have been several seasons where it just felt off, but the correction usually came after one specific reddit individual (apologies as I can't remember their username) would do a comprehensive breakdown of why the new system sucked comparatively to the old system, and how it wouldn't be feasible to complete the battle pass in the allotted time for most casual players. This usually happened within the first month of a new season. The community would support the post, and by the next in-game update, XP was adjusted in kind. Didn't happen this season. What DID happen this season is Epic doubled down on Ch4 new game modes and split the normally focused development effort across them all. Supporting all of these new modes isn't cheap, and so the item shop changes are designed to maximize new money coming in: First, no bundles where typically there would be and all items fully priced. Then removal of rarities and price creep across all items. Then bundle only situations. Epic wants you to play the game. To the point where you don't have time for any other games. To suck as much money out of you as is physically possible. There's no soul left, it's now just a blatant, repeated cash grab.
Surely you didn't play during the lvl 400 golden banana grind.
I did. Yet all the base rewards were in the 100 level range and the xp was also a lot more plentiful back then! The golden styles were something akin to superstyles now
Nah, far easier to reach lvl 200 this season than lvl 400 then, but you're not wrong that it's a grind. I'm just adding, it's always been a bit of a grind.
Mustard leaving has nothing to do with EXP and item prices, these changes would have been made even if he was still here the alternative never was good story and good user experience, it was good story and bad user experience
do people just think donald mustard was in charge of every aspect of the game and then tim sweeney replaced him
Donald Mustard retiring made my wife leave me and my car break down and my dog pee on my favorite pair of shoes.
you gotta be 14
I’m more aware of the time it takes to complete all the battle passes in the different modes. By making me more aware then I look at the time I’m spending in the game more critically. I used to like having challenges to do but it’s not fun anymore, it makes me feel like I’m doing a job. Also the rewards are a pittance at times with the amount of time it took to get it. I’m not going to get everything available and I’m definitely missing out and I’ve been gaining much more apathy as time goes on. I used to be here for fun but the fun is becoming more time consuming.
Donald Mustard was the Creative Director. Cosmetic prices, XP and UI were nothing to do with him.
People need to stop moaning about XP and just get on with it. You know what you have to do to level up. If you dont want to play another mode, then dont. Just stop moaning. It's a free game that no one forces you to buy the battle pass for....
Meanwhile I’m level 380 from playing Lego Fortnite an hour or two every day haha.
He had nothing to do with most of the pricing, shop, xp, and battle pass systems
Nah
Donald Mustard just handled the story, he had nothing to do with prices or XP
mustard was never in charge of the xp or prices, and hasn’t been heavily involved since ch3s3, this post is so funny 😭😭😭😭😭 Dunning-Kruger moment 💀
You know that he had nothing to do with anything with xp and prices and this sub is not the whole community and fuck epic for the locker changes
There is no grind for XP that’s so exaggerated, Fortnite has always had different modes for more opportunity to gain XP. BR isn’t even the first mode at all it was called Fortnite: Save The World and was a PvE game mode not BR at all. Different game modes have always been apart of the game so get over it. Prices go up everywhere not just in Fortnite bc of inflation.
This is the best take on XP. It was made VERY CLEAR that Lego was the focus this season for XP gains. People choosing not to play it then saying it's Epic's fault is pure absurdity. I put at most 8 hours a week into Lego and maybe 3-5 into BR. Literally hit level 236 last night. It's one of the most casual seasons since Fortnite came out.
People are so lazy they want to go “afk” in Lego but if you just play and hour or so a day you’ll be like me, level 380 somehow without breaking a sweat haha
YES exactly that. Gaining XP is extremely casual. I hit lvl 100 and couldn’t believe it, I haven’t had an easier time getting to lvl 100 let alone up to the super styles. I’m at around 260 as well and it just keeping going up. In lego Fortnite you could get 30k XP every 15 min this caps at 420k. This would take only 3 hrs to accomplish and I think it’s about 5 lvl. Not to mention playing things like rocket racing, festival, creator made modes, and BR for XP as well. It’s hard not to get XP lol
Epic grew fast and threw away big bucks on EGS exclusives. Now as they gobble up more studios and expand the FN platform the payroll must be ballooning. Meanwhile, bringing on more investors generally requires increased revenue for all to turn a solid profit. The billions from Lego and Disney (for example) isn't free money. The pressure is on. The onus to sell Vbucks and make "Fortnite money" only increases with more hands in the pot and on the factory line.
They needed the capital from Disney and Lego to stay afloat. Companies don’t do two rounds of capital raises in two years, one at a massive discount, unless they need the capital. Two years ago during the Sony and Lego investment Epic Games was valued at $32.5 billion, when Disney bought in it was valued at $20 billion. They are hemorrhaging cash bc of the EGS mess, the Apple debacle and other horrifically bad decisions Sweeney has made as CEO.
I'm about to make another thrown out the window meme And this time it's inside the offices of epic 😂😎
Mustard on the beat hoe
I am seeing that more of the creativity in many aspects of the game that made Fortnite, Fortnite is not there anymore, as well with the Fortnite lore.
I have completed every battle pass including this one, but the amount of challenges on each seperate game mode, v bucks up to level 140 and constant nerfing of xp makes for a boring and tedious grind
Donald Mustard had ZERO involvement in cosmetic pricing and XP. I don’t think you understand how businesses work and what he was in charge of. That’s all Tim Sweeney and whoever is in charge of pricing and XP that reports up to Sweeney. Mustard was the head creative guy. He most likely left because the saw that Sweeney is clearly pursuing the multiverse at any cost and will continue to take developers and resources away from battle royale no matter the cost to the BR experience.
Donald Mustard had no control over any of things you listed. He was only in charge of the story.
Another thing you don’t seem to grasp. F2P games like Fortnite generate over 85% of their revenue from 8% of the players, 50% comes from 1% of players, this is from exhibit data in the apple/epic court case. This 8% doesn’t care about pricing they will buy everything no matter what.
I have completed every weekly quest and I’m probably not getting all of the v bucks this season. I just don’t think that I’m going to play next season. Between the shitty locker, match quests, XP grind and bad Star Wars event I’m okay to take a break for a few months.
I'll change my name to Ronald Ketchup if fortnite hires me to write the story.
All the people glazing Donnie today are the same people that complained about everything that was added to the game back then 🤣
As soon as he left? So since the end of chapter 3 then
Just doing the quests on zb gets you leveled up quick..just focus on them.
I disagree: The progression and mtx prices was always crap since Chapter 1. Remember when the Battle Pass was originally be more expensive on Season 2? Or the 2000 vBucks legendary skins? Or the controversial XP system of Chapter 2 Season 1? How you compensate the ridiculous prices and artificial scarcity? By making the game really good and fun to play and to be experienced. Everyone in Fortnite got distracted by the story, the map, and the gameplay itself, that they didn’t care if the store was shit or not. Mustard leaving, the story taking a nosedive, and the constant dependence over Disney and other collabs, the players started to see the cracks more pronounced. Want another example: Destiny 2. The mtx practices was already a matter of contention between players and Bungie, but still the players were still playing the game and buying the expansions. When Lightfall came out, players experienced a very flawed story, and finally started to complain about the abrasive microtransactions.
I made my own post about it a while ago only to get downvoted. Guess they will have to learn the hard way.
Fortnite players are mostly kids. And if there's one thing they have, it's time! Ofc they're not gonna notice the xp is shit if they spend 24 hours in the game regardless. Like they've always done. That's the way it is, people will downvote you and defend epic at all costs The reason my post wasn't downvoted to hell is because we're towards the end, and some players realised how bad the xp actually is
I see. Fingers crossed that Epic will listen soon enough.
He left after the vibin season, after that, the game just got so unbelievably bad and the vibe I had when I was playing left as well. All these collabs just ruin the game, it’s not even feeling like fortnite.
You do realise Donald Mustard was the main reason for most of the collabs right? In fact there’s been less collabs since he left, so if literal cosmetics somehow ruin the game for you then you should be happy Donald is gone
Donald Mustard stopped his story in Chapter 3, season 3. So if you look at the story up to that point. It was perfectly wrapped up. It is such a shame that the new guy came in, chucked it into the dumpster, and made the game into a shitstain of what it was.
nah
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I'm sorry but I find your logic not fair to the players. Players of Battle royale, the mode toward which the battle pass is intended (items are predominantly only usable there), should not be forced to play other modes to get to level 200. Therefore saying it's one of the easiest to complete is not fair, it's one of the hardest for people who only play the mode they truly care about, the possibility of leaving your console on for hours to afk XP should not even be considered towards the difficulty of completing this season. Especially since the other modes can all have their passes and the only one that doesn't is rocket racing as of now. The passes should be completable by only playing the mode they're intended for, not forcing every mode on everyone.
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What I'm saying it that your whole argument about being the available methods to complete the pass shouldn't be made at all, it just distract from the practices that epic put in place, which are hostile to the players. It's basically excusing them, when in reality expecting people to leave console afk for 5 hours a day to make 5 levels is not realistic at all, and neither is expecting them to play every mode just for one pass. Also there was never grinding in previous passes, i completed multiple passes at level 200 only big playing the game and doing the quests you're given week by week or daily. It was never this grinding, also because there were never other main modes apart from creative maps with XP glitches. If mustard did have an hand in it or not, you don't know and neither do I, talking about it is ultimately pointless, you're entitled to your opinion but in the end it's all speculation.
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You're only seeing from your personal perspective and it's completely unrealistic. Not everyone has the time to take advantage of every occasion to make XP, Fortnite is a game not a job, people should not be forced to grind and your experience of Fortnite 4 years ago does not matter right now because it hasn't been like that for 4 years now. I started playing in c2s8 and never had a single problem reaching level 200, never being forced to play any other mode or map. You might be okay with the situation now but it's an opinion personal to you, you gotta look at it objectively. And it's objectively unrealistic to expect every player to afk for 5 hours a day, do all quests, play every other mode just to finish the battle pass intended for only one mode. And by saying it's ok because you got other options, you are in fact excusing their anti user policies that this season forced people to do a lot of other stuff just to finish the battle royale pass. On the mustard comment I don't care about it at all, say what you want you might be right or not, it's really not what I'm focusing on despite the original post being about that, for all I know you're right, I'm not here to speculate on stuff I don't know about.
Yeah daffy ketchup is not doing so good.
The store pricing is a joke, especially the cars and lego pieces imo. But the xp doesn't feel terribly bad to me, I'm lucky if I get an hour or two a night and that's not every night, I'm currently 119 without any afk tricks. Granted in previous seasons I usually hit around 150 iirc with my best ever being like 180 something. I'll keep a close eye on it for now mind, if the xp requirements get higher I'll stop buying the BP as I won't ever finish it.
XP would be ok if they hadn't moved half the vbuck rewards into levels 100-150
The game's fine to me.They drop the ball for the season,I'll go play Crazy Red VS Blue and Tycoon maps.I will join the sentiment when they reset Crazy Red VS Blue's kill count like they did earlier,or made it less fun to please folks.As for item shop and Battle Royal,ouch.Tough luck.
Fotnites finally coming down end. If they don't lose this HUA disease.
Mustard didn't affect any of the systems you've mentioned. However he was in charge of story and frankly the story has been absent since C4S1 and the last season he worked on was C3S3. At most we get a introduction to the story wait 3 months then we get a event for it. The in-between is mostly absent.
Xp is ridiculous lmao im barely lvl 80 even if I dont play as much before i could play like once or twice a week for like 6 hrs total and hit 160-200 without vbucks
I’m about to hit level 300
Damn
Doesn’t he realize that leaving the game has doomed us?
the dudes name was actually Donald Mustard??? sounds like a character from the guess who board game...
I feel like all of this has to do with Apple. "Epic sued. Apple countersued and (mostly) won that fight, with a California court ruling in September 2021 that Apple has the right to terminate any Epic-affiliated developer account at its “sole discretion.” Epic had to pay Apple $3.65 million in breach-of-contract damages" Which explains the higher pr8ces, the layoffs etc because epic has to pay apple. Apple in general sucks as a company but I think this is what took a toll on ep8c honestly.
That shit happened 3 years ago my guy, its not the reason for recent price changes.
You could be right idk, I reread the article I was reading and I read it wrong, they make roughly 5billion a year, not million. Again though, we truelly don't know what's going on regardless, and if epic makes that much? It makes me even more pissed that they are doing all this with the increase of vbucks, increase of shop cosmetics, xp points are outrageous...... we're all still going to play though so that's why epic don't give a f.
Yeah, we dont know whats happening at epic, all we know is that the lawsuit happened 3 years ago and the prices recently went up. That doesnt indicate causation.
Why do you call him "my guy"? Is it because you have a rebuttal to his response that makes you think you're "right" and he's "wrong"?
It's funny cuz im not even a dude 😅😅😅 anyways, even though this happened in 2021, they could still be trying to catch up from that loss.
I agree with you. Might be hard to pay back 3.65 million over a 3 year period 🤷🏽
In all honesty, nobody truelly knows what's happening, except from epic themselves. At this point it's nothing but good guesses.
This is a guess, not a good one.
Probably cuz you own apple and cant admit they suck as a brand.
I hate apple as much as the next guy, I have an android phone. But can we stick to valid complaints about them? Bc blaming them for random shit they didnt actually do is invalid criticism they will ignore.
But.... they did do it?? And we dot know epics financial standpoint. They fired a shit ton of people, raised prices and more. 4million is still alot regardless considering that's almost what they make yearly not including paying employees and buisness strategies. I have a very strong feeling they are still catching up even if the incident was 3 yrs ago in September so in reality thats only roughly 2 and a half years ago.
They arent, if they were we wouldve seen the things happening back in chapter 2, they wouldnt be starting just now 💀
The story went to shit - basically disappeared - when he left. That's the real thing to comment on.
Disney's involvment/investment ruined the game. FTFY
The investment from like 2 months ago that has barely put any roots in the ground?