Still in Beta
What happened to Crazy Party?
That is a very difficult question to answer, but I am going to try my best. I might even have some testimonials at the end.
Introduction:
Seriously, what happened? The answer is pretty simple, but also more complicated. Also, the truth is I don’t know what has gone on behind the scenes with the development of the game. I never knew, so that hasn’t changed.
So, this article is more about why I don’t play it and why it isn’t featured here on bsg much.
For those who are newer to BSG, you might be surprised to know that here on this very blog, Crazy Party has at least 5 articles dedicated to it specifically, as well as at least 3 more that mention it.
On top of that BSG has done over 50 streams of crazy party, although very few in the last 2 years.
So, what happened, why did this game just sort of disappear off the radar?
My Personal Experience:
Honestly, there are a number of factors involved with why I don’t play it much if at all anymore. The main reason is that the game has just lost interest for me.
I could leave it at that, but I don’t think that really does justice to why this game really fell off for a lot of people.
If it were just, in fact, a loss of interest, any time a new version came out, I would be excited to play it even if it was just for a little while. But that doesn’t even happen. so let’s explore why by looking at the different modes Crazy Party has to offer.
The Mini Games:
When I first started crazy party, there were less than 120 mini games in total.
With the latest version, there are now nearly 290 mini games.
Now, I would love to say that the quality of mini games has remained what it was in the early days. but the truth is. it hasn’t.
Slightly different versions of games we already had or games that are just no fun to play means the more games they put in, the fewer that are actually interesting to play.
This becomes a 2-fold problem. First, with nothing really to get me excited for mini games, new versions mean nothing. As mini games were my favourite game mode, why would I care if a new version came out with 5 new games, only one of which I find interesting?
This also means if I do play, it is the same mini games I have been playing now for over 5 years… not changing really, just the same shit.
I have played so many rounds of mini games that the games I do like I am over, and the games I didn’t like before I like even less due to the fact that I can’t break them up with the much better games.
But what about the battle mode?
Battle:
I will be the first to admit battle isn’t my favourite thing about Crazy Party. but that wasn’t always the case.
On the surface it feels like the changes to crazy Party battle would be a good thing.
When I started playing you could have a max of 60 cards in your deck, this was expanded to 80.
You would generally have a single type of card from the 18 such as ice or fire, but now you will find people with cards of 5 or more types in each deck.
You generally only had between 30 to 150 hp to take from the opponent each round, and now you can have in to the thousands.
400 or so cards were spread between the 18 types. This means each type had about 22 cards to pick from and you could have up to 4 of each in your deck. now with nearly 1000 cards, each type has around 50.
Not to mention, with all the new cards came different things they could do and places they could end up.
This means for starters, building a deck has become a headache. Sure, I know some people love that kind of thing. But honestly the amount of time you need to put in to deck building now is just not enjoyable.
The game has been built up around long form play. Yes, it is possible to build decks designed for shorter games. but even then, a lot of the changes they have introduced are designed so the games last longer.
AS a person who was only kind of into battle before, making the games longer doesn’t appeal to me.
Everything Else:
It feels cheap to lump everything else in crazy Party together like this, but truth is I just don’t have enough to say about some of this stuff to put it in its own section.
Micro Games: While fun in small amounts and are quick and easy to play, are well… just that. They are quick and fun for a short time, but with each one only being 30 seconds, they start repeating very, very quickly. I have no issue with them existing, but they aren’t something to keep my interest when everything else has faded into the background.
Board Games: I am not even sure why these are still in Crazy Party. This is a concept that on the surface is fine. You have a board and as you go through it, different things happen. The Mario party series is literally built on this platform. But the Crazy Party versions are, well… boring. other than getting a mini game square every now and then, it is just people slapping enter on the dice and hoping to land on the blue squares instead of the red squares.
Battle Quest: Does anyone still remember that this is still in the game? You can even see how many bots you could unlock from this game mode in the statistics. But as they never finished it, you can only get 6 and after so many years I have lost faith they will ever finish this game mode.
Hours Played:
Okay, so here is where I admit what is probably the real reason for all of my lack of interest in this game.
I have played Crazy Party way too fucking much.
Like seriously, I have played many, many hours of this game over a reasonably long period of time.
But that also speaks to how much I enjoyed this game. Playing online against others was a lot of fun. And if you found new people to verse you just added new people you could hang out with and play Crazy Party with.
But that also means I have played some of the mini games literally hundreds of times.
Even I have to admit, jumping the same pits in the same spots over and over again does get old fast. The number of mini games in crazy Party means you can have lots of variation. But it still gets old if you play it enough.
Lack of Players:
So, the final thing I want to talk about is that I am clearly not the only 1 to feel this way.
Look at the early BSG streams of this game when we had parties of 15 to 20 people playing along with us. Now we are lucky if we have 5.
I would have days where 5 or 6 different people would ask if I wanted to play Crazy Party and I would have casual games of anywhere from 4 to 12 people just playing.
Now I am lucky if I want to play and can get just one person to join.
As the social part was a big factor in enjoying this game, it means this is just another reason it is boring nowadays.
The Solution:
So, does A solution exist in the problem of regaining interest in this game?
Sure, I could ask for an overhaul on board games, find some way to make interesting new mini games again. maybe introduce some form of online play that allows for both micro and mini games to be played. Include achievements for playing and doing certain things online.
Give me things to work for instead of just a few new cards to unlock and maybe my interest would come back.
But between the lack of new content, the ever-dwindling player base and a sense that I have done everything I could hope for with this game. I doubt I will ever be back on Crazy Party like I was years ago.
Final Thoughts:
In the end I know some people still play this game. But between a lack of new content and lack of a solid player base in my circles. This game is not what it was and will likely never be again.
Disagree? Tell me so in the comments below.
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