theHunter Classic

Disgusting, lying company.

[h2]The Worst Way to End a Game[/h2] I heard the news that this game is being shut down in a few months, so I decided to give it a try before it disappears from the store. Well, it turns out the developers have disabled new account registrations, making the game completely unplayable for anyone who didn't create an account beforehand. So this is basically a double backstab: people who have spent thousands of hours grinding this game will have all their progress wiped out in a few months, while people who just want to try it before it disappears aren't even allowed to play it. This is some of the worst developer behavior I've ever witnessed. The level of disappointment I feel is hard to put into words. [h2]0/10 – You can't play it anymore, so there's no game.[/h2]

[h2]Preface:[/h2] theHunter:Classic is a game that has been a part of my life for more than half of it. I started in October 2012 at 8 years old without a lick of hunting experience. I fell in love with it from watching youtubers like Pratze, BillytheCrayon, HooCairs and RonMctube. Everything from the graphics to the UI at the time drew me in. I played back on my mother's old Dell laptop and the game was everything I wanted and more. I have thousands of hours playing video games in my 22 years on Earth. Without a doubt, theHunter: Classic has given me some of the memories I cherish the most while gaming. I've gotten my younger siblings to fall in love with it, my best friends and even my girlfriend enjoys to play from time to time. theHunter: Classic introduced hunting as a whole to so many new people (including myself). It brought so many people into the genre and for them to garner a love for the outdoors. It is a true hunting simulator, offering realism that promoted problem solving, patience, goal-setting, research and most importantly a solid communtity that still exist 17 years later. Through its competitions, missions, profile system, Hunterscore system and detailed lifetime statistics, players had a sense of belonging and a reason to continue playing. A place of permeance to return to. But, that is all being stripped away. In my own opinion, this is just one big ploy to get what was left of theClassic fanbase over to COTW. After seeing the player numbers dwindle this year ( due to the word of the first major update in nearly a decade, players including myself, were taking a hiatus from the game) Corporate must have seen the game as dying since COTW has about 8k players a day currently. I'm telling you, if the game made it to the engine update and the first content release after, this game would absolutely surge again. You can't expect a game to grow if it's not being updated. So many people haven't had the chance to play Classic, due to lack of console ports (which I know would most likely be impossible). I see so many young people who only have access to a console, and want to play Classic still. Not to mention that they will lose a part of Classic player base who rely on the game requiring low system requirements. How's a COTW key going to help them out if they can't physically play the game? Corporate has been trying to kill Classic for years. They haven't promoted it since the release of COTW, and especially after the F2P update. There's a whole part of the COTW fanbase that doesn't even know Classic exist!! I have a feeling that the only funds they put towards Classic is operating cost such as keeping the servers up. They have a small team of devs who actually care (and are being left jobless) and have been working hard only the engine update, as well as a bunch of planned content for the future. Imagine how many players would come back if an African reserve was added like what was supposedly planned. Or hell, even the raccoons, wolverines or feral dogs they had been cooking up behind the scenes. If Corporate had any ounce of respect for the Classic playerbase, they would put some of the money they have been stuffing in their pockets towards finding a way to keep the game up while still making money. I would 100% down if they were to revert back to a subscription model/pay a base rate if it meant I could keep playing. I would even take starting over 14 years of progress all over. I love this game so much. Thanks to all the Developers who worked on this technological marvel. No hunting game will ever replicate hunting like Classic did. Thanks for sticking around and putting up with frustrated players when events don't roll as planned lol. Thanks to all the content creators (especially HooCairs for the countless hours of research and work put into the wiki) who showed this game to so many people, and taught many people things about theHunter and hunting itself. Also, whoever runs Avalanche Studios is absolutely spineless. Force the hardworking developers who actually had passion for the game be the ones have to break the news to us. Great Stuff, Really Respectable. I have never made a post for something I cared about so much. I don't expect anyone to read all of this ( I'm just venting). I am beyond frustrated, devastated and in denial over this lmao. It honestly feels the same as losing a family member. I won't be having the wool pulled over my eyes any further, and I'm done with Avalanche/Expansive Worlds. I won't be moving over to COTW. I'd rather go back to games older than me, such as Trophy Hunter 2003 or Deer Hunter 2005 to get closer to what Classic offered. *i've posted this elsewhere bc i want anyone who made the decision to close the servers to see this. i had to shorten this by over 1800 words so i cut-off an entire section explaining no matter how hard Avalanche tries to wrangle me into COTW, it just isn't the game for me and many people.*

the devs suck ass, bring this back

I was never good at this but it looks like to me that they are shutting this down to make people go to call of the wild instead. They could have just added a offline mode for the people that still play this but it's obvious that they want all of this game's playerbase to move to call of the wild since 1 they made call of the wild free for players that owned this previously and 2 they say its "impossible to make the game offline" but they already had a singleplayer mode in the game which they can't make offline? Honestly unless you really like hunting games I wouldn't bother playing call of the wild because a studio shouldn't have to force you to play the newer version of their game (Just found out these people made generation zero or at least bought it out as well which they made so much DLC for and I actually bought some of it. Which they also just decided to randomly stop working on the game no hotfixes or anyone to fix bugs leaving the players that had bought the DLC like me to play a game with lots of bugs and no one to fix them so yeah ♥♥♥♥ avalanche)

Stop Killing Games. Shutting down servers is so scummy, just allow people to privately host it. I won't even mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars these companies have made off their shady microtransactions and backpack/gun/clothing "DLC" packs. All of which are now just disappearing into the void. Scumbags.

Promised a new backend update and delivered a shutdown instead. I regret ever spending anything on this now. I had some decent setups for maps so other players could enjoy and I will never get to host anything with my limited time during the Summer and Fall season. I haven't been playing waiting on this backend update and now I regret that as well. This was one of the best hunting sims available and now it's dust in the wind. Deleting our accounts with no offline version is a giant middle finger. You can stick that middle finger straight up your lying asses. Expansive Wallet can choke on their profits. Curse your lives from here on. Karma is a b!tch. I had a lot of great times and memories on this game and now I will never trust your companies again. Go pound salt.

Another company that is still in business shuts down the servers for a game rather than trying to find an offline solution. Vote with your wallets people!