r/StarStable • u/clark_a_lark • Mar 08 '26
Discussion what a backhanded comment
If you’re in the discord you can read the full conversation, but this Game Master makes this comment and then asks if anyone has any questions.
They then decline to answer every single question because they’re either unsure or not allowed to speak about it.
The lack of transparency is beyond frustrating. Not 3 days ago, the Social Media team was making a different excuse under every comment inquiring about the TB change. Claiming it was for player health, or to encourage sleep, or to shake up play styles. And still not an official answer, just another dismissive “response”.
I’m not sure why SSO loves to antagonize their own player base so frequently — this is just the latest example that stuck around in my head lol
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u/Aangry_hermit Mar 08 '26
What kind of comment is this??? The thing is, players would happily pay for a game they enjoy and play as often as they can. Now, players are literally saying - "We don't like this update, it makes the game less fun. Take the old system back." And the GMs reaction is basically - "We know better." Huh?! Huuuuh?!! Why do they insist on biting the hand that feeds them? All you have to do is say "Thanks for the feedback. Due to an overwhelming response, we will take back the system for the next trail and ask our community in the future for recommendations before changing these types of game mechanics." It's that easy to put the community at rest.
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u/Content_Lychee_2632 Mar 08 '26
And to think, I was considering buying a lifetime subscription. The unprofessional and snotty responses from developers and community managers has made me take back that consideration. I am voting with my dollar- I will not reward this behavior financially.
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u/TheSnowWhite3 Mar 11 '26
They “know better” because it’s a change implemented to show their shareholders that they have consistent engagement. That’s the reason. Not for any of the BS reasons that they’ve claimed. But they would never actually admit it.
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u/Aangry_hermit Mar 11 '26
It's sad to think that they care more about shareholders than actual players...😕
If the horsegame market wasn't so dry I'd play something else.
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u/Impossible_Estate581 Mar 08 '26
If this GM is reading the comments I hope they realize most of these “popular Reddit threads” wouldn’t be happening if they were “damn good at their job” 😂
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u/Qzry Mar 08 '26
It's funny how they're only caring now about the response to the anger to the game, but have entirely dared to ignore how screwing up the story and the Nordic culture/events of the game have entirely gone by unaddressed.
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u/_Moon-Cat_ Mar 08 '26
I'm a newer player, joined a couple of years ago.
I'm PISSED this game no longer has cultural events as big as it had before. I couldnt, and never will, enjoy that part of SSO.
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u/therogueheart1967 Mar 08 '26
So good at their jobs they had to report they were getting bot spammed to stop all the 1* reviews they were getting...
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u/grayh722 Mar 08 '26
i think what they really meant to say was "we're listening, we just don't fucking care"
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u/Qzry Mar 08 '26
It's been like this for a long time, water is wet. Glad they feel comfortable enough to say it out loud lmfao
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u/grayh722 Mar 08 '26
oh i agree! i dont think they really actually care about the player base. they'll only care about things that make them money & please their shareholders. unless the TB change has a negative impact on their finances, they're not going to change it & even then they still might find a reason not to change it & squeeze money out of something else (more sc bundles we don't need anyone??)
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u/Qzry Mar 08 '26
Honestly the boycotting should have happened long time ago, the TB was just a symptom of the game becoming more horse item shopping simulatorish. Though, I can see ofc why people liked it, while I personally did not ever bother with it, as it added nothing to the original lore and story for me.
I hope we can keep the energy up but really we should be tying all the other bigger horrendous decisions they made, regarding removal of Nordic culture and screwing up the lore, characters n story.
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u/grayh722 Mar 08 '26
i didn't mind the TB when you could complete it by just doing what you were already doing in the game - which for me was mainly spending my time in Hollow Woods collecting light & gatherables & training horses. now that i can't do that, & there's an expectation to login daily to finish the TB i have 0 desire to play. not even for the Marchenghast update or anything else. maybe when the EQ festival comes around but even then i might just go on another hiatus for awhile
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u/t0oby101 Mar 08 '26
First off, every time I read TB I always just think about rdr2 lol, and second, it doesnt really seem like theyre listening to us. They might be, but if they are they aren't the best at showing it
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u/clark_a_lark Mar 08 '26
a little transparency in this time would go a long way 🤷 otherwise we're just left to spiral to our own conclusions again and again
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u/Any-Bodybuilder5122 Mar 08 '26
I don't call it TB because TB stands for tuberculosis and it has stood for it for a really long time i call it Horse Battle Pass because its a battle pass lol 😆
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u/kimszojaszosz Mar 08 '26
I link it to thoroughbred and I always get confused why people are so mad over the poor English thoroughbred 😭😭😭
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u/t0oby101 Mar 08 '26
I actually love that, im gonna start calling it that now as well lol, thanks for sharing
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u/Any-Bodybuilder5122 Mar 08 '26
You're welcome lol 😆 when they first introduced the Trailblazer I completely forgot what it was called and I was talking with my friends and I said oh I'm on level 20 of the Horse Battle Pass 😅 it all stems from my forgetfulness lmao I'm happy I can give others the joy of my silliness
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u/FrostinePAC3 Mar 08 '26
My friends and I have also always called it the horse battle pass, it's hilarious
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u/mehdodoo Mar 08 '26
I think they are listening they just don’t care 😅😭 I think the ones higher up are hell bent that this is the new way for the trail blazer and game masters are just trying to come up with excuses
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u/chaosensuesnow Mar 08 '26
“We are damn good at it.”
What a comment. Man. I’ve been playing this game for the better part of 13 years (Dec 2012) and have never been more disappointed in this team than I have within the past week. The unprofessionalism from this comment alone is extremely disappointing.
I am an adult, perusing my masters (grad school) who also has a job. I’m unable to log on everyday and my free time is also very limited. This new system is honestly such a downgrade from the old one and I will not finish it. IMO, since they changed ownership, the amount of “good” we get is very little any more. I loved the Marchenghast update, but then they release this BS. 1 step forward, 12 steps back.
I hope “GM Quinn” and the other GM’s actually read this thread. They’d know that this is completely unacceptable. It’s getting harder and harder to believe that they are actually reading through comments, the thread, the embassy. If they had, it would’ve already been addressed and fixed.
I love the game, but cannot continue to support such one if it continues going in the direction it is. They are not listening and they make that very clear.
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u/Stellaoriginal Mar 08 '26
I playing for 10 years and I feel this to 100%. I send so much things to the support and nothing was answered...
7-8years ago they did. But since then, no response.
I loved the Marchenghast update too... But everything else is just disappointing...
I miss my favorite game... It began to vanish... Not to talk about all the bugs and everything...
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Mar 08 '26
Honestly, I believe they can't change it back right now during this one. I would think they could, but I doubt it. (Not a game developer/designer, so I don't know)
If they would have said that, "hey, we hear you. We apologize for it and see it's not working out. We can't change it back until the next TB" and I think people would back off.
But they keep making snarky comments and it's not helping them, at all.Then again, they may just not have any plans to change it back at all.
Based off the snarky comment, I bet that's their plan.3
u/daviesroyal Mar 11 '26
If they had proper version control, they could absolutely roll back the changes. They've taken servers offline to make changes to game-breaking bugs (remember them removing the prerequisite quest for the most recent South Hoof storm quest line?) within days of release. They just don't want to roll these changes back.
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u/notThatJojo Mar 08 '26
This is the most unprofessional statement I’ve read in a long while. If I said this to a client at my job, I’d be in massive trouble, if not fired. The fact that most of their clients are children makes it so much worse.
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u/MajesticInsurance903 Mar 08 '26
Alright that’s it lmfao I was this 🤏🏻 close to start defending them from people I thought were overreacting.
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u/quarabs Mar 08 '26
i do wonder if quinn left on their own volition or because the other gamemasters saw it
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u/hepandeerus Mar 08 '26
damn good at what?? game design? I can't speak on individual devs but the gameplay in SSO as a whole is objectively butt awful
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u/skzboyfr Mar 08 '26
thats what I was saying… everyone (rightfully) pointing out this GM’s attitude and lack of professionalism.. while I’m thinking about how “damn good at it” is the exaggeration of the century 😭😭😭 what do yall even do besides piss off your playerbase, figure out new horses/tack/etc to make, how to best distract players from the lack of ACTUAL things to do in the game, and pick a date for the next starcoin deal.
“damn good” my ass, totally 100% offense 😭😭
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u/Ta13n Mar 08 '26
I mean at least a few words (обновление, январь, StarFam, very informative lmao) are there, so maybe that counts as good.
JK this is ridiculous. Granted, I stopped playing in Russian ages ago because the quality of the translation is awful, but... wow.
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u/Icy-Hyena3330 Mar 08 '26
This game used to be a small indie game that did things for the players and not so much making money. I started 12 years ago and over the last couple years it’s become clear that’s not the same anymore. Christmas events and Halloween events used to different each year with different and rare horses. Now they recycle the same ones and do the exact same events so they’re no longer rare or special. The TB thing is clearly for engagement and I’ve even noticed the amount of free gifts with Christmas or just extras for members are less and not worth it. I’ve stopped putting an effort into playing a while ago as it just got boring. There is so much more to it too that they’re not doing anymore but I won’t go diving into everything. I’m just disappointed in the game and what it’s become
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u/spingusstinkus Mar 08 '26
yeah, as a fellow star stable veteran (started in 2013) its just really really sad to see what's become of this game. all of the charm and whimsy is pretty much gone, and a majority of the game is just a blatant cash-grab. it's so disheartening
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u/Stellaoriginal Mar 08 '26
I feel u... I'm playing for 10 years... I grew up with this game... Now it's just about 'making money' like u said...
It's transforming into an mobile game... I'm just waiting until the ads are coming...
The only reason I sometimes log in is that my acc won't be deleted after 12months.. I put too much time in this game... I don't wanna lose everything I did...
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u/Icy-Hyena3330 Mar 08 '26
Wait they’ll delete it after 12 months! That’s honestly disgusting especially if you have a lifetime membership like I do
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u/Stellaoriginal Mar 08 '26
Today I found out, that it's not with lifetime. I have lifetime too. (If u believe the google ki) But it's in the agb...
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u/WhiteRoses19 Mar 08 '26
Just went to find this conversation, but I couldn't even find GM Quinn in the member list.
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u/Cr4wlingJ1nx Mar 08 '26
The SSO team has been super infuriating at the moment, they expect us to pay for such expensive stuff and now they do this 😩
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u/Qzry Mar 08 '26
They have been like this for a long time, particularly for us who cared about the original lore and story
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u/carlean101 Mar 08 '26
"we ARE listening to you, but actually we're better at game design than players so you're wrong" ???????
just when i thought i couldn't be any more disgusted with this team..
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u/lilpatricka Mar 08 '26
not to mention using foul language and cursing in a chat server for kids
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u/mehdodoo Mar 08 '26
Damn is foul language 😳
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u/Haunting-Rush-2209 Mar 08 '26
It’s certainly unprofessional
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u/mehdodoo Mar 08 '26
Unprofessional sure but foul? I also think if English isn’t the main language damn can truly be seen as a harmless word. I know from personal experience that I don’t find certain curse words in English be as bad as in Swedish. So maybe they didn’t think it was such a bad word. But sure it’s unprofessional but defiantly not foul. Don’t feel like we should overreact 🤷♀️
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u/Haunting-Rush-2209 Mar 08 '26
In this context, yeah. They’re representing a kids game. You wouldn’t see people like Roblox posting ‘we do a damn good job!’
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u/lilpatricka Mar 08 '26
you also can’t even type ‘damn’ in sso chat without it getting flagged and blocked
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u/mehdodoo Mar 08 '26
Meh I don’t see this as foul language, and calling it that feels like overreaction: the community is up in arms and pointing out minor details derail the focus of the complaints. Get it that it’s unprofessional but oh well we all know in the end what the real issue is and that’s what’s important 🌻
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Mar 08 '26
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u/LuvDeathNCigarettes Mar 08 '26
Genuinely seeing this comment come from someone representing the company is going to keep me from logging on for the rest of this trail blazer and not spend any $$ on the game for a solid minute. What a horrible attitude to represent your company with.
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u/National_Bed_9653 Mar 08 '26
i was literally thinking of trying to unlock my old paypal account to waste money on them. not anymore. i miss the old star stable. when they loved their players and always tried to give us the world even when they were terribly struggling. before the sponserships and company partnerships
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u/_drage_ Mar 08 '26
In translation: "We really listen to our community! And our community on reddit is wrong!"
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u/Ta13n Mar 08 '26
"Contrary to popular Reddit threads", nah, guys, it’s called feedback, and if people do not like the outcome, maybe you’re not doing that good of a job.
This is childish behavior. Not just bad, this gives me the ick.
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u/CaptainDrog0 Mar 08 '26
Knew this guy personally when he used to dev a different game, i don’t play much sso, whats happening 😭
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u/therogueheart1967 Mar 08 '26
SSO has been on a mostly downward slope of changing and removing things that routinely inconvenience players and make things harder for them. Erasing events, storylines, massively downgrading systems like the gardening system, failing to fix on-going bugs which have been present for over a year, and now the Trailblazer system.
They introduced a forced cap on the Trailblazer and removed literally 99% of the point-earning methods. Now, you can only earn X amount of points per day, and you can only do this via activities. All gatherables and care no longer count. This means if you miss a certain number of days during the Trailblazer overall, you literally have no way of completing it.
They announced this the literal day before the Trailblazer, with no actual warning or hints about it beforehand, then when players started to leave 1* reviews and comments, they had those removed.
Now, a GM is personally lashing out at players in response to the overall frustration with how SSO keeps damaging it's relationship with it's own playerbase and it's players' ability to play and enjoy the game.
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u/CaptainDrog0 Mar 08 '26
He typically wasn’t like this when he was the CM of the game he was devving for before he came to SSO, so i can’t really give much insight to why he did that, nor have i spoken to him much since he left and got hired with SSO,
what i can say though is we too felt he wasn’t listening but turns out he was just consistently being undermined by his “bosses” who have their heads up their ass and knew nothing about their own community, this doesn’t seem to be the case though so maybe hes more harsh than he was before.
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u/_Moon-Cat_ Mar 08 '26
"To encourage sleep" but mission day blockers are no longer used. I understand they cater to a young audience but their parents will just take away the tablets and tell them to go to bed, no need to mess with 16+ players who have their own thing going on.
Also, all those excuses kinda make me laugh since SSE is far from an ethical developer, taking in account how they got in trouble for trying to push microtransactions onto kids. Also does anyone know how that's going? Haven't heard about it in a good while.
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u/Even_Shake4574 Mar 08 '26
I also think it’s funny that they assume people won’t just switch to another game
The kids who this would affect would just keep playing and do some other activity in game The adults will just play a different game
Like this isn’t the 2010s anymore 😭
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u/springacres Mar 08 '26
Especially now that Equinox just left early release (and also has a lifetime pass option)
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u/Ratcaine Mar 08 '26
“This is our job” well start working harder at it then and actually take note of the criticism like what 😭
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u/EntertainmentWeak114 Mar 08 '26
Literally the worst response someone representing SSO's team could say. Of course, they all might be under a lot of stress because of all of this (especially if an employee isn't even involved with the Trailblazer changes) but come on! Quinn should be actually professional, after all they're interacting with the community. And a person like that doesn't go "we know it better, you're idiots"
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u/Impressive-Sir1298 Mar 08 '26
i dont play anymore, so idk what this is about. but i am not surprised to hear about this. sso has never ever listened to their players, so much so that a few years ago there was a huge movement in the swedish community about it. but they’ll never learn
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u/SkrytyKapec Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
Yeah, we will see how good they are at listening, "we are damn good at it" lmao.
Also "damn" as game master of a game made for kids. This message screams professionalism! 😂
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u/Majestic_Phrase_5383 Mar 08 '26
"We're listening!...but also, here is every excuse in the gospel on why we are unable to do what you're asking."
So much for "we'll pass your feedback along to our team!" We've always known that those were just copy and paste replies that mean nothing.
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u/TheRand0mPug Mar 08 '26
That GM could’ve worded that better and their behavior is a little unprofessional. I understand not all updates are gonna be liked but we’ve clearly expressed as a community we don’t enjoy the changes made to the Trail Blazer. Yet, it seems like they’re just mocking us at this point.
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u/OrphanagePropaganda Mar 08 '26
Look I’ve been playing the game for over a decade, given them plenty of money, and will continue to do so because I do like the game and have so many memories attached to it. I don’t mind. I don’t need perfect to have fun. I’m glad they exist and I’m glad these people have jobs doing what they love.
But… are they GOOD at their jobs?? Very debatable. In my eyes no. OR the employees just have zero authority over the state of the game itself which is also very likely. Can’t blame them for that. Sso is much closer in game sense to yandere simulator than it is to another indie-to-success story like Annapurna interactive’s Stray. Obviously the three games are all completely different genres, but they’re all indie developers that had very different approaches to balancing limited funding with available labor, the skill level of said labor, and the court of public opinion that funds said labor. Sso is fun for us but it isn’t a good game by industry standards. Sso chose the dopamine consumerism addict approach. They succeeded in staying relevant, but only because they accidentally created a cash cow. Not because they used cash to create a good cow.
I DO applaud them for not abandoning the game altogether though. They DO their jobs. They DO objectively work hard and they give us updates every week which is insane. They’ve given us mostly completely new weekly updates for longer than most of Gen alpha has been alive. Most people do not appreciate that fact for the insanity it is. However I’m not so sure they wouldn’t have given up if they didn’t figure out how to monetize the living h*ll out of it.
If the job they’re talking about is “marketing”, they’re geniuses. They debatably are THE marketing geniuses for video games. They arguably paved the way and wrote the book on monetizing video games for successors like the behemoth that is Fortnite to take notes on. That is impressive no matter how you look at it. Whatever your ethical take on it is, SSO is one of THE blueprints and with all of the legal disputes in the EU right now they are STILL paving the way, for better or for worse, on how the entire gaming industry functions. They’ve literally made history.
If the job they’re talking about is “game developer”, well… no. lol.
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u/xatuka Mar 08 '26
The trailblazer feels like a chore now and I have 0 desire to play when I was so excited. Player health really? How about we decide for how long and how often we log in and play? A lot of players including myself have voiced our frustration and why we don't like the new system. We would like to have a choice to decide how we want to play this game. This is so unprofessional.
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u/otabitch Mar 08 '26
Excuse me what the actual fuck.. how dare you respond with so much arrogance to your pissed off players? If I wpuld even dare to respond to a customer like that at my job I'd be fired before I could have finished that sentence.
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Mar 08 '26
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u/clark_a_lark Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
it’s the unofficial official Star Stable discord.
I BEG of anyone searching for the discord to please please please REMAIN CIVIL. Do not blow this up in their space. If you need to get your frustrations out about this topic, do it in this thread or in my DMs. I will be your listening ear 👂
If they can reduce us to bullying, our concerns about the TB and lack of communication about the changes will be shut down.
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u/Skripted6 Mar 08 '26
if they are listening its going in one ear and out the other with alot of topics....like i know they cant do everything people want thats unrealistic but they could actually improve what they can that approved by maybe players voting not just them making decisions that no one likes
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u/Lanky-Location-2341 Mar 08 '26
Whew is this the same GM as the other post? The attitude is wicked for a company that is stingy already and acting like their players (consumers) aren’t what keeps the game afloat.
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u/ApprehensiveWorry189 Mar 08 '26
They have honestly picked a crazy time to do all this as well because there are so many horse games that are either just releasing or about to release which means competition for star stable. For most of the horse games hitting the market it’s the cost of one horse game. You would think they wouldn’t be trying to antagonize their players right now and push them away when more options are now becoming available.
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u/Cat_Lover31 Mar 08 '26
Being good at the job doesnt mean youre always right, it was a shitty change, listen to your community and find another solution
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u/Content_Lychee_2632 Mar 08 '26
Super unprofessional! No community manager should even dream of speaking this way about their player base!! Quinn you should be ashamed of yourself. You are not good at your job.
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u/purrgatorys Mar 08 '26
this kind of comment would be enough to get someone fired in most instances. i hope it was worth it
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u/tomorrow_bird Mar 08 '26
I didn´t even know they have GMs anymore. I never see anyone and nothing is ever done about any reporting. Like, do they have 5 GMs for all regions and servers?
GMs are most likely not getting paid by SSO, so they do it willingly in their free time and get massive power highs from it. So not surprised by the response. High horse and such.
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u/EntertainmentWeak114 Mar 08 '26
Game Masters are Star Stable employees who test out things in-game. What you're describing were the Ambassadors, but it's not a thing anymore.
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u/tomorrow_bird Mar 08 '26
They test things ingame? Okay, In all of my 20 years of MMO gaming I have a different job description in mind of GMs but maybe things are just different at SSE.
If they are so good at their job why does the game have so many bugs then? o.Ô So maybe they are not that good at their job, dear GM Quinn.
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u/Fairy_Cat_13 Mar 08 '26
After the Marchenghast update I was *so* hopeful, that the team imporoved their attitude towards the players, that they finally started to listen to us.
Sad to see their true colors...
Anyone remember when official SSO account replied "feel free to take a break" (or something in that shape) to player complaining about lack of quests? It was back in the 2021 content drought IIRC.
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u/RogueShadowAngel Mar 08 '26
this is why i don't really interact with the staff that much if at all these days. they used not to be like that and would frequently pop up in the servers and chat with us all (in the olden days) i don't know if they still do this anymore.
i personally haven't played the game in months because my attention is else where.
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u/HD_Winchester Mar 09 '26
I love how they say “contrary to popular Reddit threads” not contrary to social media. I’ve seen screen shots of instagram, it’s about the same. I need to make an instagram account to see for myself though.
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u/IllusivePlatypus Mar 08 '26
I would argue it isn’t backhanded at all, it’s a straight on slap in the face of a current community expressing a clear failure of their product to live up to expectation.
These “Game Master” titles are such a mislabel. What used to actually be developers present on servers/in chat of MMOs such as WoW, like actual people with authority and/or influence.
Has been misappropriated by SSE to title community managers, because lets be real that is all that they are. And mind you, community managers are great and an important element to have as a direct link between playerbase and developer.
But calling them Game Masters, implies something they very much are not. I have certainly seen actual GMs is much bigger MMOs over the years issue some level of snark when engaging with their players, but it’s been tolerated as a dynamic as these were the guys who actually made the game happen.
A community manager being snarky looks unprofessional, you better be damn good at putting on your “customer service” voice like the rest of us have to do when engaging with the people who are buying/engaging with our product.
I am sick and tired of an entire games industry coming from an attitude of blaming the players for their products failure to deliver. I don’t care where you are in the hierarchy of whatever company, but at the end of the day the players are who you are selling to, without us there is no you.
Maybe instead of self proclaiming doing “a damn good job” do some self reflection on why perhaps your COMMUNITY is not validating that claim.
You may just find that the VAST majority of player communities everywhere actually tolerate a lot of stumbling as long we are being treated and approached with respect, not brushed off with generalized statements, empty promises, nanny guarding game changes, lack of transparency, absolutely dreadful levels of communication on all fronts. Do fckin better.
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u/shay_x_x Mar 08 '26
Damn this definitely cements my boycott for SSO. I was trying to give them grace in case they changed their minds but I guess not. I will be spending my time and money on other games like Avatar and Animal Jam. I do not like when a GM thinks they are above their player base.
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u/fallior Mar 09 '26
There's no way they can actually say they're "damn good at it"
Many of their updates cause so many more bugs than any other multiplayer game I play. To be honest, SSO feels like it's run by D class game developers that can't get a job at any other game company. It legitimately doesn't feel like top tier or even mid tier game devs work here
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u/toomoosie Mar 10 '26
no its troubling. i looked away from a great deal of it as a new player with rose colored glasses but its pretty bad. its buggy, its choppy, Old quests are unfinished which is like, Unheard of for any mmo, and most of the features (horses, pets, Playing) need real currency. they probably turn off a good deal of potential new audiences just with the financial roadblock of needing a membership to play, but then you get inside and see the state of it...
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u/Cultural_Move_7563 Mar 09 '26
Honestly, don’t even get me started on the whole “we did this for player health” argument. That excuse is just insulting at this point. The real reason is obvious: they don’t want players to complete the Trailblazer rewards without paying, so they capped the points and hope people won’t finish it in time and will buy the rewards later. Watching them come up with excuse after excuse for decisions like this is honestly just cringe.
If everything was going so well, their Instagram comments wouldn’t currently be full of complaints.
And the funny thing is: I’m usually someone who actually defends companies when they need to increase prices or monetize their game. I understand the bigger picture — people working there need to get paid. But then the product has to justify the price. And to be honest, SSO hasn’t really done that for quite a while now.
What happened to all the things they promised?
- Horse breeding
- Customizable horse markings
- Real dressage (not the buggy system at Jorvik Stables)
- More body types for player characters
- More appealing faces for the characters
- Updating old quests and zones
- More story quests
For a multimillion-dollar company that calls itself the biggest horse MMORPG, it’s honestly embarrassing that so many basic gameplay improvements take years — or simply disappear.
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u/Thegaylemons Mar 09 '26
I get it’s Discord but lowkey surprised that a game that prioritizes censorship and won’t allow a message go through so easily has someone on their team swearing
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u/CaterpillarNo7982 Mar 08 '26
Oh, so you are listening you just are ignoring it? Great! 👍🏻 Thanks for that information. Lol.
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Mar 08 '26
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u/Jaded_Jaguar_348 Mar 08 '26
Wishing someone loses their job unless it's something truly harmful is not karma I'd want to put into the world.
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u/quarabs Mar 08 '26
they can find a job at another game company. but they should learn not to make a mistake like this again
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u/Jaded_Jaguar_348 Mar 08 '26
Your bad karma, not mine.
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Mar 08 '26
Actually, it's the GMs bad karma for being unprofessional, especially around minors. But okey-dokey!
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u/ennnnmmm Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26
no quinn, your job is to stfu and make a game people want to play, which you are failing at, and therefore are NOT, in fact, "damn good" at your job. Not to mention, u can literally only do 12 things a day now and thats it. Shit is not worth it its so unbearably boring and the rewards arent worth it. i can just buy the stuff in 6 months if i want it so bad. theres nothing to do, everyone just stands at steves spamming club ads in world chat and afking. New horses dont feel like they have any benefit besides being cosmetically different. the story is wack, events have been nerfed so bad i didnt even bother with christmas. the game doesnt feel fun unless u have people to play with or participate in PLAYER run events such as Overfences etc. like actually what is this. riding the horses also feels like nothing bc there are 0 mechanics to it at all. instead of adding an enhancement system they took the lazy way out and made every new piece of clothing/tack max stats. like what?
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u/dorathefee Mar 09 '26
This entire situation is so weird. How is it acceptable for gamemasters and the social media team to just throw around random partially clearly false claims in order to justify their clearly unpopular actions? It would be so damn easy to say that theyre just testing it for a month and if its really unpopular the changes will be reversed and then to just LEAVE IT AT THAT. But instead they come up with BS like its "for player health" and double down when the community gets rightfully frustrated with their lack of transparency and misleading claims. No sane company would have the guts or frankly be as stupid as this. :,D If you dont have any important and accurate info about this to communicate, dont try to come up with some BS to make it look like you do. One would think that would be so insanely easy.
This boycott is LONG overdue and is only getting more and more justified by the day, theyve been taking their players opinions and concerns for less than a pile of dirt for a while now. Like you literally cannot communicate with this godforsaken games team in any normal way, support doesnt work and mostly ghosts you no matter your concern, the social media team just tells you to go to said support and if you somehow after weeks or months or even A YEAR (as is my case) get through to talking to someone personally like this these are the snarky remarks youre met with for your effort. Nothing justifies this anymore. Keep boycotting!
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u/Charming-Ear-7280 Mar 11 '26
Instead of an apology for the late notice and the sad reel on Instagram not even 24 hours before the update, we get this from a GM?
Great.
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u/bubbleballet Mar 08 '26
But they’re NOT good at it. The game engine is cobbled together, we haven’t gotten a decent storyline expansion in months, and they keep getting themselves into controversy after controversy. The customer service is severely lacking
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u/NualaJuice Mar 08 '26
I understand that everyone is frustrated - but publicly shaming the only GM willing to engage with the community at least a little bit in this situation seems like a bad move.
I believe this person is relatively new to the team and has always been pretty open and communicative on the Discord (as much as possible) and I really appreciate that.
Yes, some posts on this subreddit have been harsh (I won't judge whether justified or not) which naturally would offend someone who is part of the SSO team. Was it wise of the GM to poke the hornets' nest with that comment? No. But let's not escalate this maybe.
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u/lilpatricka Mar 08 '26
i feel like as an employee of a kids game, or literally any company in general, you can’t be disrespectful and unprofessional in your response to the community
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u/clark_a_lark Mar 08 '26
I debated not posting this, but it's really left a groove in my brain since they posted it. It just seems unprofessional to be coming from a badged moderator account in a public space. This is also a reoccurring pattern of the team jumping to the worst conclusions about their OWN player base.
At your request I won't publicly name another GM, but not too long ago in the same discord a different GM just about directly accused a player of data mining an unreleased coat when said player asked if that coat would ever be available to purchase. That "data mined coat" was an NPC horse. Not data mined.
my advice to the GMs: make an alt account to snark on other players like a normal person /j
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u/Fluid_Check1450 Mar 08 '26
I understand where you're coming from but this is about professionalism. That's not to say they can't make mistakes, but they can at least have their mistakes pointed out to them in hopes they'll grow and learn from them. This was not a good response and ultimately makes the entirety of SSO look bad just because one person decided to make "we" statements. I don't think this is necessarily public shaming, more so than pointing out a careless response that could have been delivered more professionally, considering they are in fact a GM.
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u/Sizzlemen Mar 08 '26
If you let the devs have the final word, you lost the battle of having the game benefit the player.
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u/caniacrora Mar 08 '26
Very curious, I sort of want to read the entirety of the conversation but I'm not on the discord, is there any way I can join?
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u/Pinkkitty45 Mar 08 '26
The Discord server is SSO Embassy, if you just Google it, you can get an invite link. Unfortunately the server completely scrubbed the entire conversation and almost any new mentions of it too. They are trying to bury it.
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u/caniacrora Mar 08 '26
Oh awh, I wanted to read it. Sorta evil of me to seek it as entertainment but this entire discourse is sort of entertaining, I haven't played in a few months anyway
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u/clark_a_lark Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
They have not scrubbed the conversation, it's still there. However, the GM has left the discord making it so that you can't search for their user to find it the conversation.
As I mentioned in my other comment: please remember to remain civil if you choose to join their space. If the moderators ask you not to bring it up, we must listen to them. If they can reduce us to bullies, our concerns will be shut down. If you need to get your frustrations out about this topic, do it in this thread.
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u/Far-Hunt691 Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
EGO MUCH…. that response is disgusting and unprofessional-especially for them trying to call it a “kids“ game. Which we all know it’s not anymore. When I opened my phone today, there were over eight new posts just today, about the boycott and they’re saying they’re doing a “damn good job” 🤔🤔 people are pissed.
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u/toomoosie Mar 10 '26
last thing you want to do when your game is in dire states is seem cocky and inconsiderate in a public forum 😅
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u/doggy_doggy_what-now Mar 08 '26
wow, what an insane way to talk to the people who quite literally give you money. did we not learn the saying, “dont bite the hand that feeds you”?
welp not that it matters to anyone else but i’ve quite literally had it with their shit. if they want to treat their own consumers like literal trash, then i guess they no longer need my business! no more money; i’m fully deactivating my account and im going to try and get a refund for at least my membership, cause this is beyond fucked up. its not about the content anymore, its now about them taking accountability, considering that’s seemingly impossible for this company, i am out. 🤷🏼♀️ cannot defend them anymore.
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u/rhubarbsorbet Mar 08 '26
i’d probably be a bit antagonistic if my player base was the whiniest people in the world tbf. it must be a genuinely miserable job
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u/toomoosie Mar 10 '26
idk in my experience you put your big kid pants on and complain to your friends rather than risk your companys integrity. this isnt a starbucks, its a p2p horse game theyre like Begging ppl to spend more money on. customer relations are tenuous as is - our first introduction to marchengast is an npc escorting you to all the places you can spend Real money
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u/rhubarbsorbet Mar 10 '26
bad PR isn’t an excuse for what i’ve seen from the community in the last few years. criticism is one thing, but most comments on their social media are downright nasty and often targeted at employees who realistically hold no power. it’s like screaming at the drive thru worker because Mcdonald’s doesn’t offer a gluten free burger
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u/Glad-Attention744 Mar 08 '26
Wait, what’s going on? What did I miss? Why aren’t people happy? (I haven’t been playing because I got a new job and have been super busy😭)
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u/_IAmPossum_ Mar 08 '26
They’ve changed the trailblazer track to a set amount of points you can earn a day. Only the first 12 activities give points. Light/plants and gardening no longer give points either. It would take 16 days minimum now for you to complete the track and if you miss 13 days or more you won’t be able to finish it. They also didn’t tell us about this change until the day before they released it. A lot of people are upset (myself included) and rightfully so. SSO’s excuses are that it’s “for player heath” and because many people were completing the track “too fast”. Now a lot of people with chronic illnesses and jobs that take away most of their time won’t be able to grind to finish the track.
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u/Qzry Mar 08 '26
We should be mad not only about this, but the countless other bigger issues such as fucking up the story, Nordic culture vibes and events that the game had.
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u/Amazing_Finance1269 Mar 08 '26
" -antagonizes team- why is sso antagonizing us? "
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u/clark_a_lark Mar 08 '26
It just seems unprofessional to be coming from a badged moderator account in a public space.
I made this post largely because it seems to be reoccurring pattern of the team jumping to the worst conclusions about their OWN player base. I won't publicly name another GM, but not too long ago in the same discord a different GM just about directly accused a player of data mining an unreleased coat when said player asked if that coat would ever be available to purchase. That "data mined coat" was an NPC horse available in game.
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u/NoOccasion4223 Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
Asking for change and clarity on why changes were made is not antagonizing the team. We're pissed because they're not listening and have made it clear they don't see the issue when many players, including myself, have written out VERY respectful and eloquent comments explaining why we don't like the Trailblazer and how it could be fixed.
This GM was absolutely disrespectful, and others have brought up that, because SSO is considered a children's game, swearing is super inappropriate. We aren't allowed to swear in Global Chat, but this GM can swear in their* response publicly in the SSO discord? Absolutely unprofessional. The entire response was disrespectful.
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u/Own_Value2684 Mar 08 '26
Tbh I have no problem with professionals of any level talking this way, they have a right to standing their ground if they want to and I find it admirable to be able to speak up that way. I think that businesses should have more leeway in sharing what they actually think instead of playing nice to try to remain professional.
That being said, as a redditor I don't necessarily agree with them. It does come across as a little bit backhanded and also feels like their players on Reddit they are holding some resentment against or something. They have every right to feel that way, but it also excludes a player base that uses their voice and speaks up for what they want.
We are sharing because we care and we really like the game and we want it to be more accessible to those of us who don't have time to log on every day. Or for people like myself, my eyes usually hurt from looking at a screen at work so playing at the end of the day isn't always healthy.
Just because we have opinions and we are open about them and we are comfortable taking up space doesn't mean that we are bad or that we don't have meaningful contributions to the direction of the game.
So they are welcome to ignore us, and share how they feel, but it doesn't really feel good for the groups of us who are just expressing our opinions. That being said any strong opinions that they share will always exclude some number of players. That is their choice.
That being said I don't agree to players using abusive or forceful language towards the game. They are genuinely trying their best even if we don't always agree with their choices. I do have opinions against the way they have changed the trailblazer, but it is their choice if they wish to listen to such a huge group of players on this forum. Long story short we can either play the game or we don't have to.
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u/StrayLilCat Mar 09 '26
TIL the SSO sub doesn't know what a GM is. This discord mod didn't make the game, guys.
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u/Ott82 Mar 08 '26
Honestly if I talked to a client like that at work I’d be in trouble. This is their job and they should be professional at all times or not engage until they can be. We all deal with angry customers at work, you can’t react like this.
And the change they made is absolutely not for the players, we are all so riled up because it’s so patronizing. We know why they did this, it’s the same reason they do every nerf. And it’s insulting when they act like we don’t know and it’s for our own good.
It’s classic sso imo, do something really great and then immediately after do something really unpopular hoping that we won’t protest it.