This post is going to be TL;DR so for those of you who won't bother, and therefore are probably the cause of this post, you can just scroll down and start your troll logic.

In fact this post is aimed more toward the developers; I hope that you guys actually get to read this and don't find too much offence with it.

Let me explain.

I do not mean that this game is not fun or bad in any way. Quite the opposite. It is very, very fun and innovative. This game will not fail on it's own merits or from technical game play reasons. It will fail because of the players.

By now most of you actually reading will have guessed what this post is going to be about - Griefing. Right now eyes are rolling, trolls are gleefully clicking U MAD!?? :D away on their chip filled, greased smeared keyboard and the rest are undoubtedly going, "I know but this has been covered in other posts."

I know griefing has been posted about before, along with numerous helpful suggestions to get rid of it. I'm not writing to suggest ways to fix it because I am not going to play this game anymore.

And it's not just me.

Like most of these small games our group heard about this one not too long ago through word of mouth from a few folks we play Minecraft with. Minecraft plus guns! They proclaimed. We were sold. Our first few Ace of Spades games were awesome. Ridiculously fun. If there was a purchase option we, a group of six, probably would have done so off the hop. I feel very fortunate that there isn't one, since I would feel very ripped off right now. Even if there was a donate button (If there is we sure couldn't find it) the developers would have gotten 60 dollars right there.

Then after a few games we noticed a trend. The griefing. Ridiculous amounts of griefing. Those first few games were flukes; large, full servers full of people who wanted to play the game properly. Oh, bunkers got chopped up - bridges collapsed. But it was always a different coloured avatar sapping these positions. The way the game was meant to be.

We kept a record at the point we realized that this game was a trolling paradise. From a total of Sixteen Half Hour to Hour long games, we only had three matches were there was no prolonged, sustained griefing. And out of the three playable ones there was still griefing, just small individual actions that bored the perpetrator enough to only last a few minutes.

Beyond those three, whether it be two or three individuals or large groups, every single game besides the first few we played seemed to have half our own team, and remember there were often 4-6 of us who know each other IRL joining together, doing everything in its power to sabotage and ruin the efforts of those attempting to play the game.

We weren't playing to build pretty pictures or elaborate structures. Most of our construction consisted of small trenches, foxholes, the occasional bunker. On fewer occasions we assisted engineer type players erect bridges or tunnels to the enemies rear. Nothing we constructed on our own ever took more then a minute or two to build.

And nothing lasted more then ten minutes unless it was built on the extreme fringes of the map. And only on five, FIVE out of numerous occasions, could we clearly attribute the destruction to the opposing team. In defence our positions would be chopped up by our team mates, often LOLLING and asking U MAD? On attack we would literally be stalked until we left once it became obvious we were trying to work as a group and play the game legitimately. If we stopped for a moment we'd instantly be getting buried in so our screens warped - and when we shoveled ourselves out to get free we'd be instantly team killed.

Even with six of us voting the Vote Kick system never worked. None of these griefers were ever kicked. Not once. If we were fortunate enough to have an admin in a server they had to waste their time following these people, who would immediately become boy scouts. Only a few outright banned people, and even then other griefers would just hurl accusations at our group until one of our number was kicked out, even if at the time we were in the heart of the enemies base getting their intel. Our teams tent, if it wasn't on the base level, was quickly buried and entombed in the Earth.

In the end if we wanted to avoid frustration we could only play this as a pure FPS; which is pointless. There are other games that do pure FPS and better. To attempt to utilize the core of this game, using the terrain and building ability to your advantage, immediately brought down the Griefing locusts. As soon as it became obvious we were a group, there to play the CTF aspect and not just to run around alone placing random technicolour blocks, we would become targets and be constantly harassed.

This game is ruined by the players. Not those who attempt to play it normally, no, but by the majority that are there just to troll and disrupt every single server as much as possible. It is a waste of time to attempt to play it when there are other games, not necessarily better, that have a much better online community. I do not know why this game is so flooded with griefers, trolls and jerks but they are a majority. There is no point posted specific examples of servers or individuals perpetrating these acts because it is so prolific that you only need to join any random sever with a single player to see it in action. Even here in the forums you can see them, proud of themselves and spouting tired troll logic at any reasonable post.

Once again this situation is well known within the Ace of Spades community and has been addressed before, but this post is addressed to the developers.

Your game will not succeed with this player base. Not unless you implement a pay to play system to drive off the free floating trolls, which is probably impossible right now since this game is relatively obscure.

You have lost six players - yeah big whoop in the larger picture right? We aren't the only ones. I am just leaving this post to let you know that many new players are turned off almost immediately. Those that stay are either converted to Griefing or, god bless them, so enthralled with the game that they're desperately and at the moment vainly trying to enjoy it. Our beginners luck for fun games was a massive fluke. We were beginning to spread good word of mouth, the thing that powers small projects like these, but we quickly rescinded our praise.

I have seen other posts in other games - Minecraft, etc - telling people to stay away from this one. Not because the game is bad, but because it's impossible to enjoy due to the online community.

Developers, I don't know how you can overcome these problems. I hope you find a way and do, and that you prove me wrong in the long run and that Ace of Spades becomes successful and popular. We have no suggestions because we have wasted enough time with all of this. We are not the only ones. We desperately wanted to play. We really wanted to pay - it was that good at the beginning.

However this community has driven us and our money and our positive word of mouth away. We weren't the first and we most definitely will not be the last.