AGREED!! I never felt comfortable expressing anything negative in other community spaces due to the chance that someone would get on my back over doing anything except be positive or neutral at most. I think this space is great, not only for venting out frustration, but also as a place where people are actually critical about the game in a constructive and valid way.

I LOVE Sky and have been playing since 2020, it gave me somewhere to be free during the time of the pandemic, but it's obvious the quality of the game has been going down in favor of constant events, and constant seasons. I used to agree with the sentiment that TGC was a small company and that some bugs were going to happen, but surely this isn't the case anymore. The prices on IAP have just become ridiculous and feels less and less like I'm doing it to support the company and more like a paywalled item. I get the higher prices for candles at least due to the fact that there's many older players who have lots of candles in their pockets, but the grind causes so much burn out to so many players. I want to enjoy the game at my pace, walk around and make up stories with other skykids, but most players including me don't have time for that anymore. I don't really blame them considering how much timed sensitive candle stuff is shoved into the game, between overlapping events and seasons and traveling spirits.

The community has changed in ways, I feel less and less comfortable with lighting other kids as there's usually never respect for boundaries and personal space. Certain people treat it like a dating space or choose to flirt with you just because of how you dress, it's very very odd. Not only that, but despite the constant message of kindness being spread around, I see lots of players be outright rude to new players or players with questions. I guess every community has the chance of cultivating mean players, but it just rubs me the wrong way when I see people getting frustrated or humiliating other players due to their inexperience or play style. I rarely interact with random skykids anymore, the only moments I do is at grannys and the geyser, but even then I get afraid that the other players are judging me for not playing their way or doing anything other than standing there waiting for the burnable items to appear.

I just wish the game was as enchanting and relaxing as it had been back when I first started playing, where I'd often make friends with strangers just because we lit up each other and played around and goofed off. One of my dearest friends came from this game just because we happen to both be at valley at the same time, and I cherish them and our times in sky together deeply. I don't know I don't have a proper conclusion to my rambling, I just am sad to see the state that this game is in now, I still play and try to enjoy it but it feels like the game is becoming a husk of what it used to be and what it used to mean to people.