Xanje Reviews 4

This might be long, so bear with me. Please note this is simply MY OWN opinion and observation on things I've seen during my time playing Xanje and being in the off-site Discord. This review is only posted with the intent to hopefully help Xanje create a better game going forward and isn't meant to cause any bullying and/or harassment towards any staff member of Xanje. DO NOT bully or harass anyone of the Xanje staff please.

Xanje has always been such a great game however ever since the original owner stepped down and left a mod in charge, things have gone downhill tremendously. I want to be so clear that this review has nothing to do with current mods, previous owner Chaos, or co-owner? Routine (who does amazing!)

Now for some of the problems since ownership change. To list a few things:
- Prices of pets keep changing and going up. Before there was typically an expected price. One current example of this is the Lembie being priced at 300,000 coins when players are used to the typical 100,000 in the premium pets section of the main pet shop. Direwolves almost went up as well but that didn't happen as players were promised a certain price for them in Id's.

- Orphan release events lack well thought out effects and also no longer have rare pets, though currently it is *possibly* being worked on. Examples of this are the same type of effects over and over (blizzard/winter). Allegedly rare pets stopped being included in releases when a staff member disagreed with it and left however they are back now since their friend is in ownership. This is an example of how friendship in staff allegedly tops player suggestion. In my opinion, staff and owners should not heavily be into playing the game they are helping run for reasons like this. I want to note that this is just alleged, but lines up timeline wise.

- Instead of fixing bugs and issues that players post in the forum in a timely manner, focus tends to go on other things.

- A specific owner now charges in game items in forums to offer advice on pet worth instead of simply engaging with the community and helping.

- In my opinion, rude and off-putting replies by specific owner off-site. An example of this is telling someone "Might want to get used to reading. A lot of the guides on this site are going to be in a written format as it is a forum game". This was shown to higher ups at the time and nothing was done. This is not how owners should speak to players they depend on to keep the game running. Also rude responses to players asking questions - "I dont get what being able to access the event link had to do with reloading a page or having a billion pages open or really anything" when a player was asking how an event worked. A simple "This is how you do it :)" with examples would've been much better customer service. The person asking wasn't fluent in english. I would add screenshots showing these situations but this review site doesn’t offer that option unfortunately.

It is incredibly heartbreaking to see what was such a good game going downhill. SO many people I know have decided to quit and I am also starting to part ways with my pets because I no longer want to support a game going down a road like this. It's sad to know that the original owner worked so hard throughout the years to keep this game afloat and now it's all tumbling away, but there's only so much players can tolerate and only so many times issues can be bought up.

This all said, I hope someday something changes in Xanje and the game can operate like it once did. It has so much potential and was my favourite game. Once again, this is just my personal experience within Xanje.

This site has potential but I don't think it can go anywhere good with the owner it currently has. I've been on this site for years and have seen the decline from a fun site to play to now where almost everything is money motive. Don't bother even trying to bring anything to their attention, you'll either get ignored or passive aggressive comments. The most recent event they have up both threads were locked so players couldn't comment their valid concerns anymore. This isn't the only "controversy" they have had, earlier this year they seemed to be pro AI but after seeing the comments of distain they pulled a full 180 seemingly due to people saying they would leave / stop spending money / stop supporting the site. This makes me believe the only reason the owner retracted the statement is due to money which is the only thing the owner cares about. If they're losing money then they'll do whatever it takes not to but if it doesn't involve money then they couldn't care less. It's honestly sad to see. It's been incredibly frustrating and disheartening to watch a site I once loved and came to for escapism become a place I no longer enjoy being on and need to escape from it. I don't know what xanje needs anymore but I do not see it improving with who is running it currently, it's obvious they cannot handle any sort of criticism and I honestly feel bad for all of the (mostly) UNPAID volunteers she is using and abusing. I am here to warn anyone else to just stay away to save themself from heartbreak and frustration, it is truly not worth it just find another game.

I've been playing for roughly 3 years now. xanje doesn't force you to spend money. the patterns/designs are done for free by the artists. most of the pets are free and for everyone or anyone. if you have an issue you write a call for help and I've only ever had to do it a handful of times but I get a response within a single day. the site strives for inclusiveness, all are welcome. there are a lot of glitches reported on the help forum that sometimes get overlooked for months at a time, but that's the only constructive criticism I have. the community is great, the mods are helpful, and the artists are warm and kind.

Generally good petsite if you just stick to the pets. Kind of pay to win. One of the mods is passive aggressive borderline rude. It's not too bad if you stay out of their way. The roleplaying part is dead.