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The saga of a player who misses the point
Once upon a time, Johnny decided he was fed up with raiding on three level-60 characters in World of Warcraft. WoW had been his first MMORPG, and he had enjoyed it until he reached the "endgame." Not ready to quit the addiction yet, he tried creating additional characters to alleviate the endgame problem. But alas, eventually he simply could no longer stay with it, and left in search of new, greener pastures.
Johnny tried several games, at the assorted behests of his friends, but nowhere did he find that elusive thing he was looking for. Then, he heard about another game - Ryzom. He heard nothing but good things about the game and its community, so he visited the website and clicked on the free trial link as soon as his eyes caught sight of it. Chipperly he filled out the registration forms, downloaded the client, installed, patched, created a character, and entered the world...
He was greeted with a line of quests that gently led him through his first few hours in Ryzom. As he completed each and was handsomely rewarded with money and uber-seeming, epicly-named items, Johnny experienced an epiphany of satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. "This must be that fabled thing called 'fun,'" he thought to himself! He quickly decided that this was the game for him, and subscribed, looking forward eagerly to the hallowed Mainland, where - he was sure - countless quests awaited him. "I'll have as much fun as I had before in WoW, only without the stupid raids!" It was late in the night, however, so he reluctantly logged off and retired to bed.
The next day, Johnny logged into Ryzom as soon as he could, and promptly made his way to the mainland. The pictures along the bottom of the loading screen ticked by with a sluggishness made painful by his anticipation...
And then he arrived!
...
...
"Hey, an NPC, maybe they'll have a quest for me!"
Johnny approached the City Welcomer and checked their missions window. He picked several, and began with the one that asked him to deliver a message to another NPC. Having no idea where the target NPC was, he asked in Region. No one answered. He set off to find it on his own...
*a half-hour later*
"Where the **** is that NPC?" Johnny gave up on the mission and started working on his fighting levels. After bashing a couple hundred mobs to death, it was time for him to log out. He did so with a vague feeling of frustration and boredom.
Over the next few days, that feeling increased each time he played. Every time he logged in, he would be standing in the area he had been hunting in the previous day, so he continued working on his levels. Every so often he'd have to go looking for a new place to hunt, when the exp got too low. Everywhere he went in the starting region, he saw the same mobs, and if he wandered into other regions, he would inevitably walk into an aggro and die.
Finally, after a week of this, he gave up on the game entirely. Before cancelling his subscription, he posted complaints on Ryzom's forum, as well as MMORPG.com, where he had first heard about it. "No one should be tricked like I was!" he thought bitterly.
"Ryzom sucks, cuz they lie and make u think it's fun, then when u give them ur money to get on the mainland theres no content, its just a big grindfest, same mobs everywhere, cant go anywhere without getting killed, no one even plays this game on the mainland"
If you don't see what's wrong with how Johnny played, sadly you are probably a Johnny yourself.
-----------
In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on August 13, 2008.
Comments
Good story and indeed it points out the problems of Ryzom, I think. End of your story is that there is only one way to play Ryzom right and that a lot of people play Ryzom wrong.
I think that a game should provide fun for all players of all kind. There shouldn't be a good or bad way to play the game. A good game should have the depth to provide fun for all kinds of players.
The fact that Ryzom only has a handfull of players, at least I only see a few players online, after two years gives me the feeling that something doesn't work for a lot of players.
I am glad for you Katriell, that you have found your game in Ryzom. As I said in another thread, I am still looking for it and perhaps will never find it.
Niche is good, IMO.
Unfortunately you missed the point of my post. It isn't a problem with the game, it's a problem with the mindset of some of the players who try it. But I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I pity those like Johnny, but the fact is Ryzom isn't for everyone, and that, as I said before, is a good thing. In its strengths it excels, and its "weaknesses" are due to its strengths. Ultimately, you simply can't have depth AND mass-appeal, just as you can't have a huge community that is friendly, mature, and helpful.
-----------
In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on August 13, 2008.
Well, the
sad thing is that less players means less income for Nervax and less
development for Ryzom. But even after stating this, I must say that playing
Ryzom kind of feels like a private club. I couldn’t believe how mature and resourceful
the community can be in this game. So the bottom line is, even though we could
use a bigger community, I would never sacrifice the quality for quantity
Johny tried
to play this game without interacting with other players, and without having any
real fun. In this game your levels does not seem to matter to others, its more
about who you are, and how you behave.
And to be
honest, I myself do play in a similar way quite often, but somehow I end up
having a lot of fun, because I explore and am not afraid of some challange. A few days ago I found an excellent leveling
spot, full of mobs that I could easily fight due to proper protection values. But
lately, the season changed and winter came, and with winter, Kitins migrated
into this area. A typical Johny would escape from the place, as it became quite
deadly as the gigantic insects could easily kill me with but a few hits, but I
endured, avoiding deadly mobs and doing a fast attacks to clear the mob spawns
that was under the patrolled areas (spawning of mobs in ryzom kind of reminds
old arcade games, you need to kill every single mob in a group for them to
respawn).
In the end,
I could agree that though Ryzom could be a bit more friendly for the beginners,
but on the other hand it should be for everyone. As it was once stated, games
can be compared to any other for of art. On one side we have popular things
that appeal to wider array of people, and on other side things more refined
that has a small but firm group of fans. Sorry for sounding like an elitist
jerk, but after playing the most poplar games out there I must say that your
typical Johny in your typical mmo game is a guy who just wants to have
everything put on a silver plate. If you do not not understand whats wrong with
our Johny in that short story, well, that’s too bad. Just a short reminder, you
play online games to play with other people, and you play games to have fun in overall.
Ryzom clearly is not targetting everyone... it's targetting a very specific kind of player... players who like sandbox games with cool and unusual lore. There may only be a few thousands of us, but we get to play a game that is done WELL, because it is not trying to be all things to all people.
C
I'm an ex-SWG player who, after terrible downfall of SWG, tried about every MMORPG on market. I have played WoW for about 9 months, EVE for 2 months, Guild Wars, Lineage 2 for less time and many others on free trials.
Saga of Ryzom got me excited again, sandbox style and bits and pieces that were clearly borrowed from SWG. But then, I got to mainland, got into a guild, and saw that apart from solid ideas, great graphics, there just isn't any excitement in this game. Mind you, I am not looking for WoW clone, I am NOT looking for instancing, raids and things like that. I AM looking for something that do not look so bland and empty. If the devs had actually made questing, and maybe even took the whole game into more familiar grounds (there are other familiar things than elves and dwarves) than this weirdish looking world, game could have MUCH more people in it.
Bah, seems that SWG before "combat upgrade" still is the best game I have ever played. And I'm not even Star Wars fan.
NEW IDEAS that can refresh the STALE state of MMORPGs
Can you name any of those other familer grounds that aren't elves and dwarves? Not meaning to be smart but in the MMO world I cant think of any.
Also I'd be willing to bet the only way to make the setting suddenly attract more people would have been to make it your traditional elf orc hack nuke setting and personaly I'm very very glad they didn't. Unfortunitly most MMO players prefer the non sandbox and those elf orc hack nuke games.
The topic seems to focus on sandbox vs. non-sandbox. I would like to add that I prefer sandbox over non-sandbox. I do not want to be told in what direction I should go. Not by the game, not by a guild and not by colleague players :-)). As I said I am a loner and I want to discover things on my own.
That said I think that sandbox games can be more interesting than Ryzom. As I said before in another thread that I have played Ultima Online for many years. It was the mother of all graphic MMORPG's and it was very rich in content and gameplay. Unfortunately it couldn't keep up with the 3D developments and they invented all strange things to keep their playerbase form running to other games, which was the reason for me to quit.
But nevertheless developers can learn a lot from that early game. Part of the roleplaying aspect is that one can distinguish themselves from others in clothing, pets, houses, hair or otherwise. UO provided that, without loosing control/balance. Another aspect is that people can distinguish themselves in their role. It was possible to have your own shop, near your house, with your own unique items for sale. Some people sold themselves as interior decorators for the houses and castles, because you could create all kind of objects with the in game items, like piano's, aquariums and so on. You won't believe how realistic it was, if you haven't seen it. Treasure hunting was a good way to find nice items. Smiths could make very good armour and repair the armour you have got, but you also had the chance to find very good items on creatures. A good balance between luck and skill.
My point is that sandbox games do not only have to rely on the community, the guilds, the collaboration with other players. They can also be fun for that gamer that wants to develop a solo role, but still a role. Just like in RL :-)
Can you name any of those other familer grounds that aren't elves and dwarves? Not meaning to be smart but in the MMO world I cant think of any.
Also I'd be willing to bet the only way to make the setting suddenly attract more people would have been to make it your traditional elf orc hack nuke setting and personaly I'm very very glad they didn't. Unfortunitly most MMO players prefer the non sandbox and those elf orc hack nuke games.
NEW IDEAS that can refresh the STALE state of MMORPGs
Well then, I have to say - what about science fiction? what about humanity's past? Roman Empire, Middle Ages, or even some of the great works of literature? Or even all that with some twist, like just bit of twisted past or present? Any of that would attract way more people than this world that really isn't so attractive in lore or in many other things, for beginning just the looks of races? I had to make a Fyros female just because I could not stand the looks of my first char - male Matis.
Anyways that is just not the point of what I was been saying, the whole game is something to me, but not - quite. I will be searching for another gem among MMORPGs, and Ryzom just isn't that to me, as all other current games are not.
Looking forward to try out Age of Conan and Lord of the Rings Online, though.
P.S. "Quote" did not work, I had to make another post and paste my response which should have been in my previous post... Couldn't edit it, always stays the same.
/Shrug
NEW IDEAS that can refresh the STALE state of MMORPGs
Sci Fi's haven't really done well in the MMO market and sci fi covers alot of potential settings where only a few are well know. Even Star Wars Galaxies at it's peak pre the messing around with changing the core game systems didn't match EQ1 subscriptions at the time and IMO it was a much better game and a star wars title. EvE which is a really nicely put together sci fi (not one i'd play but I do recognise it's good parts) doesn't have that many subscribers.
Roman Empire. We'll see how it does with Roma Victor and Gods and Heroes. I'm guessing both will be niche games though ..... could just be my general disintrest in the setting talking though. Well in Gods and Heroes case anyway, Roma Victor has niche game written all over it.
Middle Ages. I'm not sure what that would be, just knights and peasents and the church? No magic? Once you start adding magic and fantasy elements your heading straight for the typical elf orc game setting.
Great Works of Literature. Probably some out there that would work well but Age of Conan and LOTR which are the two currently in development are very close to the elf orc hack slash or one of the mainstays in that genre. Also tieing yourself to a exisiting setting with alot of lore to go with it brings it's own set of problems, look at SWG and complaints about the number of jedi in that time setting.
The complaint about how your character looked is more a graphics dislike then a setting and lore dislike IMO. It's fine, I really dislike the character models in both WoW and EQ2 for example, but it isn't a fair reason to bash the setting itself.
I understand you don't like the Ryzom world (your intitled too by the way, not disgreeing there) but your claim that changing the setting would instantly increse subscriber numbers isn't backed up by how well other MMOs have done with non elf orc settings and even the games your looking forward to are close to or are elf orc settings and from my understanding one of those is a non sandbox game too (LOTR).
I personally love Ryzom. After 6 years of rather heavy MMO gaming, I finally found one I truly enjoy.
Not sure why people are having a hard time understanding the game. It's pretty straight forward.
There are plenty of people on most of the time I play. I have never had an issue finding a group.
Graphics are amazing, runs smooth as butter on my outdated PC.
Plenty to do, unless you need the game to tell you what to do. If you log in and stare at the screen waiting for it to tell you what to do next, you will be bored.
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Support Independent Game Developers
Ryzom clearly is not targetting everyone... it's targetting a very specific kind of player... players who like sandbox games with cool and unusual lore. There may only be a few thousands of us, but we get to play a game that is done WELL, because it is not trying to be all things to all people.
C
Why can't you have a sandbox game (game that lets you learn basically as much as you want, with no linear distinct path) with cool and unusual lore AND have a lot of ready made content to simply enjoy.
Venge Sunsoar
Okay, replace the above examples of "quests" (a.k.a. content) with more fitting ones but I guess you catch my drift: when a MMORPG has standard content then chances are that you get standard characters. (Now, I ask you, what's unique about your character when he has done exactly the same quests like every other character in the whole game?)
That's why some players prefer a sandbox: it leaves room for the imagination of the player instead of churning through ready made content. Sure, that style won't be enjoyable for all sorts of players but that's okay in my book: I'd rather have a couple of smaller niche games than a "one size fits it all" approach.
I maintain this List of Sandbox MMORPGs. Please post or send PM for corrections and suggestions.
Okay, replace the above examples of "quests" (a.k.a. content) with more fitting ones but I guess you catch my drift: when a MMORPG has standard content then chances are that you get standard characters. (Now, I ask you, what's unique about your character when he has done exactly the same quests like every other character in the whole game?)
That's why some players prefer a sandbox: it leaves room for the imagination of the player instead of churning through ready made content. Sure, that style won't be enjoyable for all sorts of players but that's okay in my book: I'd rather have a couple of smaller niche games than a "one size fits it all" approach.
Yeah, right. Ryzom has a lot of unique players, all walking in the same clothing, having the same weapons, killing the same animals, having the same skills, because every character can have all the skills on max.
Why think in extremes. It is not all about quests. It is about content that makes a MMORPG interesting. Ryzom does miss a lot of that content. I am not going to mention the things I posted before, but it doesn't have to be quests.
Think out of the box. Out of the sandbox. Out of Ryzom.
Let me give it to you straight, McHuberts.
IT IS YOUR FAULT YOU MISSED THE POINT OF THE BLOODY GAME.
Now stop making grand absolute claims as to the ultimate nature of the game when all you can ever really say is your own opinion based on your own brief and attention-span-afflicted experience.
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In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on August 13, 2008.
We could do with more I agree, but people still manage to look pretty unique.
4 races, three armour types each, each with three armour styles, plus extra 'caster pants', plus Aen armour, plus refugee rags.
Same weapons?
Each race, plus factional... daggers, swords, spears, clubs, staves, maces, longswords, axes, pikes, pistols, rifles, launchers, autolaunchers, bowrifles, caster mittens...
Same skills?
The power players will likely have elemental plus a melee skill at 250 but which melee skill? Plus what about their other skills? Being a good crafter takes a massive amount of effort so people do specialise, same with digging.
What makes a character truly unique is the player and the persona they give the character, not stats or equipment.
'Content' is different to everyone, Ryzom actually demands that you show some creativity and effort. Just because you lack these things or don't see the reward in them is no reason to bash, it just illustrates your own lack of 'content'.
Postmortem Studios
Roleplaying games to DIE for
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Yeah, yeah, I don't have a clue. I was only born a few weeks ago. Never played a game before. Do not know what I am talking about.
It is a sad thing that it is impossible to discuss the game, without getting flamed by the senior players of Ryzom. It is logical that you defend the game in which you have invested so much time, but I detect some tunnel vision.
Never mind. I reviewed the game, cancelled my account and leave you guys in this forum, bashing everyone who has the slightest comment on your jem. :-)
Ok then what is the point of the game? What you have stated is your opinion, don't accuse mchuberts of doing the exact same thing you are.
A sandbox game does not mean lack of content. A sandbox game lets you create your own purpose, your own skill path. NOT LACK OF CONTENT. You can still choose whatever skills you are looking for, train the way you want your character to be and still have ready made content. The two are not at all incompatable. You can still have quests. You can still create a methods whereby players can make quests. It still takes so many resources, fights... to keep a city going. In essence there is still a reason to go out and get those skills. What is my purpose here? In the end it is to have fun. I would like a game where I can pick whatever skills/options... I want, make the character exactly who I want him to be in every aspect. This does not let the developers off the hook by not making content.
Too many people think sandbox means lack of content. This is not true, lack of things to do just means boring IMO.
Venge Sunsoar
I don't like cars, don't drive, don't know anything about them.
If I were to offer my opinion on a ferrari it wouldn't be much use to anyone.
Postmortem Studios
Roleplaying games to DIE for
Shop here
You people like the game, McHuberts and I don't like it. Simple as that. I canceled my subscription. The game is boring to me so much, I am literally falling asleep when playing. Community is great, people helpful, but that's all. It's just that some people CAN enjoy such type of game, but other cannot.
My RL friend started the same day as I did, he likes the game and he will continue to play it. Me, I'm just going to wait on something new.
NEW IDEAS that can refresh the STALE state of MMORPGs
It's not so much that there's a right way and a wrong way to play Ryzom. It's just that some people are never going to have fun without feeling like they are "beating the game" by reaching obvious signposts like levels and finishing major quests. And there are some people who are going to feel trapped in a game that is all about reaching those obvious signposts. It's not a problem. The answer is simple: they should play different games.
I don't know why so many people apparently think that every game should accomodate every player. That sounds like there really should just be ONE game that everyone can play and enjoy, but as far as I can tell, every game has fans, and every game has detractors. Different players are looking for different things, and there's no reason that they should have to (or even WANT to) play together.
It is quite possibly to play the standard MMO like EQ1, EQ2, or WoW in a sandbox fashion by logging on and just doing what you feel like or what you feel makes sense for your character (WWMTD? What Would My Toon Do?), but you're going to get a lot of unsolicited advice if you do, about how you could level faster or more efficiently, and about where and how you could be getting better gear. That's a pain, and it is annoying, if all you really want is to see what's over the next rise, and maybe make some friends with the same curious streak.
...
This is where I draw the line: __________________.
Yeah, yeah, I don't have a clue. I was only born a few weeks ago. Never played a game before. Do not know what I am talking about.
It is a sad thing that it is impossible to discuss the game, without getting flamed by the senior players of Ryzom. It is logical that you defend the game in which you have invested so much time, but I detect some tunnel vision.
Never mind. I reviewed the game, cancelled my account and leave you guys in this forum, bashing everyone who has the slightest comment on your jem. :-)
Well I know I'm not a senior player of Ryzom but I won't flame you for not liking the game and I'm sure plenty of the vets won't as well. You tried it, you didn't enjoy it, fair enough. Not every game is for everyone and not every sandbox game is for players that like that style of game. For example I don't enjoy EvE, although I respect CCP for what they've done with it. Some of the disagreement you got here was about specifc game details (like lack of clothing) where vets or other players can disagree without it being a flame though.
Anyway, good luck and I hope you find the game your looking for.
I left this game 2 years ago, im suprised it is going still i give it that it is one tough ol 'gal. I beta tested this game from closed beta test through to release at which point i quit and joined WoW. I have now since quit wow and for now mmorpgs alltogether.
Im Suprised this age old argument still rages on. Ryzom community back in my day was great, really nice people. I personally got bored like other people of fighting kipee or whatever they were called even before they stopped the lvl bug (once upon a time if you spammed your ability long enough on a mob you would get 1 level up for its death :P).
Back in my day they had produced some very basic quests that were quite difficult to complete (collect 60x lvl 120 material of this type etc etc)... These werent quests nor even tasks you'd want to do.
Ryzom was a rushed game and has suffered from financial problems for a long time, it had huge potential and as an ex-beta fanboi It promised so much i followed the game for a year before it was released over huge battles and other features promised long ago. Its always been niche because it only can appeal to roleplayers... its a sandbox it has little to no content and its quests (did at least) have no real story or 'storyline' around them. Nothing to drag you into the lore of the world so to speak other than material on the website. Only those people who truly enjoy imagining alot of things like events will enjoy it.
Its just different playstyles, I wasn't a 'role-player' die hard, but i played the game for a time because i got into the grind fest... and the community was great. Upon my leaving of the game i hadn't played the game for 2 months just logged into the chat program Klients... just for the community. In the end chat program wouldn't cut it for me and i quit.
They were many things that as a beta tester I expected to see implemented, the progress was very slow and this was my farewell post listing the problems 2 years ago.... I bet some of them are still relevant now. And then you shall see why people don't like the game... because progress is incredibly slow, it has cool roleplaying staff but progress = bad.
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Well im giving SoR a break for 6 months or so, maybe when i come back
itll be a game i want to play. Ive thought about this for over a month
now and eventually i came to a decision....
There will be no trial period and as such i will base my purchase choice on beta experience.
Ill go into my reasons for not playing SoR at release.
1. Im moving accomodation soon and its going to be a fair bit more
money to stay at this new place so i need to save the pennies, of
course i would have enough money if the other reasons werent present
but this reason adds to the collective reasons anyways.
2. Ive played in beta since 2.3, ive played for 7 months and generally
am growing tired. Over this time i have grinded and grinded loads, and
also over time the reward for said grinding has diminished to such a
point its depressing.
3. I originally entered Ryzom beta watching the Teasrer 1->4 videos
which are still available. Back at that point ryzom was portrayed as
something different but with the classic RPG system of Classes. Sure
the classes werent just rogue,thief,warrror etc. Each race had its own
'type' of fighter, a type of wizard, a type of healer, a type of buff
wizard, a type of harvester a type of ranged fighter. These classes
were restricted
such that a harvester couldnt be a good fighter etc. This is how i like
RPG games to be. I.e a mage is weak and lacks Hps, a fighter is strong
but lis only a meat shield and can use his weapon etc etc. Now a mage
is not weak as he lvls fighting to gain hps. A mage is not a mage,
there are no characters. If anything there is just one class for
release people can play: Bomb Healer/Melee Fighter/Part time
crafter/Part time harvester. U need nothing else. There can never be
sole crafters or sole harvesters as a crafter needs money to lvl so
must fight, a harvester needs hps to survive so must fight, a mage also
needs more hps so must lvl fight. So for no 3 my reason is ryzom has
changed from what i originally thought it would be.
4. Item System: The item system currently in SoR, For Me is bad. I like
an item system where items are desirable and people want them. People
go questing for days and months for one Godly Item that they can use to
show off etc. In ryzom we have player made stuff in which we can vary
minimally colour/sap(or hp) boosts. Sure other stats vary but in the
end everyone wants the same type of armour just a different colour.
There are no "Wizardbanes Crest", or "Great Yubos Prize" type items.
Nothing to hunt for, nothing to make ure char look cool.
5. The entire spell system is repeatitive, cold 1->12, acid
1->12. With people using 3-4 spells throughout their entire game
life.
6. There are at max 4 class trees, there are no social skills such as
fishing, dancing,cooking,singing,bartender etc etc. Nothing to add to
the game other than for people to fight constantly. There are also no
items such as rejuvenation pots or anything like that.
7. I find using the whole GUI system cumbersome to use. Ive played
other mmorpgs where the item spawns when a mob dies but on ryzom u have
to actually click on the dead body and pull off the items u want. This
takes about 4-5 clicks whereas it wouldve been much easier for it to
fall to the ground, maybe this is to do with quartering and the fact
nothing drops any items anyways. When selling items it takes forever as
you click on the item and then have to click on another box which if u
are selling different types of items can resize after every click....
This makes selling lots of junk take 20+ minutes. == not fun.
8. We will not be able to ride mektoubs at release, i know its a not a
biggie but still we know the gms can use them so why cant we.. after
all it was promised to us.
9. Currently the Guild Outposts missions havent been tested at all by
the FBT team, i have never seen an outpost anything but rubble... So it
leads me to believe that that primary feature of the game wont be ready
int ime.
10. Raids.... of all the raids i tested, even with boosted characters i
continually died over and over again. The entire mob system is either
stupid or intelligent... i.e its too good. All the mobs in a raid would
target one person at a time thus insta-killing them and quickly moving
through the entire raid defence group. Even if raids did work i just
see them as mob bashing still.
11. Talking of Mobs, currently people find it very hard to find which
mob to kill, and with the current system people die easily.
12. Exping has slowed greatly, such that a user will have to camp a
certain range of mobs over and over alot of times before he can proceed
onto the next group.
13. Ive played for a long time, ive been lvl 202 healing magic, lvl 202
offensive magic, lvl 154 2 handed range, ive wrote a guide for ryzom on
ranged fighting. Of all these achievements i doubt i will ever reach
these lvls with the current system. Ive been to every land, ive played
every character multiple times, ive tested all of the current lvling
paths melee fight, ranged fight, off magic, def magic, harvesting,
crafting. I dont see anything new to keep me interested as well as the
other problems i have.
14. The game world is small, you could walk over it all in a day if
there wasnt killer aggro mobs that nobody can kill blocking your way.
15. There are no dungeons, instanced or not. Nothing to do other than mob bash.
16. The current missions arent the actual quests but still i dont know
how long it takes to make a good story for the game but still if there
doing it in the last month till release wont it be a bit rushed?.
17. If 1000 players ever were present on a game server... which i
currently doubt ever have been, it would firstly get lagged (as we have
seen when we had the FBTA open weekend), and there wouldnt be enough
mobs to support the population cause the world is too small.
18. During my open beta days the server population has always been
99999, this has always been a little itch under my skin if u will. They
never tell us how many people actually are active on ryzom. As a rough
guide on arispotle (Euro English server) at the weddng of shizen ki and
Jayce we had 150 odd people playing. Lets say 200 max. Now as the end
of the server event id have expected the majority of the population to
be present for such an event. If this is the active population of a
server then at release when people pay for the game wont the server be
a bit deserted?. They never tell us the population number because they
dont want us to know how few people play ryzom... is my only guess at
the reason. To back this up when the server has got to 1000 max players
(thats its max), it lagged to hell. Now it doesnt do that normally so
we could say the server has never reached its maximum during normal
times.
19. There are still many bugs and balancing issues that have not been
sorted for release, 3 months realistically should have been enough to
sort these problems. My main dig is at ranged weapons they have never
been looked at. No extra skills or abilities for those who choose to
use ranged weapons other than the fact they dont even have accelerated
attack now or bleeding like they did in Open beta. There are others
such as the exp system not balanced correctly and mobs being
overpowered, or exploits and the such.
20. Ryzom engine is only 2d, members from the TNE would remember when
we went into Kirosta caves in matis in Open Beta... boy was that fun
getting attacked from mobs underneath us which we couldnt target nor
attack.... Yay! fun. With this if a mob is underneath u it is
essentially nexct to u and can attack it at will. At release im sure
they wont give people the option to enter wireframe mode and thus try
to attack the mob.
21. There are no preorders for the game at amazon.co.uk or at any uk
site. now 1-2 months before release this would be alright but 2 weeks
before release and people from uk are disadvantaged that they cannot
preorder is very bad. Ive asked Gms and they tell me yea we will get
that sorted this week.... but still amazon returns "All Products
search: we were unable to find exact matches for your search for
"ryzom" . Would you like to search again?".......
This to me shows bad form for the releasers, to offer a special offer
to those who preorder but a large proportion of your audience cant even
preorder and gain these extras is unfair.
22. For release i fear not enough people will play ryzom to make it
enjoyable... even if all the other points werent present. IVe seen
countless people leave... im one of the original closed beta testers
and im prob in the last 20 people of the 5000+ closed beta testers that
originally got accepted into beta. It doesnt end there either. During
Open Beta people left, people from this site Kid_a, HPM (was a
moderator), sasayaski, Mr_E, fozzik,afk4life just because they got
bored of the gameplay. It also doesnt end there during FBT over 500+
people have been accepted... now i know lots of people became inactive
and left or were banned etc. Shizen,archea,tylantia,jayce. They all
left because one or another ryzom had lost its fun. And now i am added
to that list
Overall for me, me and ryzom has too much history, ive lost many
friends playing the game and made new ones. My phrase on every monday
of the FBT was welcoming the new FBTers "more meat for the grinder
eh?". Because they would mainly replace those that had left
Generally the levels of FBT remained at a rough 150 lvl in klients. So
what does this mean for me? Well ive seen too many people leave the
dropout rate for beta testers is around 96%.
23. Ryzom isnt very popular, on many mmorpg sites it gets slated for
similar reasons i have listed here. Its got to be brilliant to compete
against the likes of EQ 2 and WoW because it doesn have Hype like those
games so it needs impress people. Unfortunately i dont think it is good
enough to compete vs these mmorpgs. They have more funds, power,people
and resources to make much better immersive games. You want an idea of
peoples opinions? http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion.cf.../506/setstart/1
. About 50% of the posts are "Ryzom wont succeed" or "Ryzom is dumb".
These are from experiened mmorpgs who do pay. Further evidence is the
old warbucket competition for the beta places. 500 closed beta places
went to Warbucket a World Of Warcraft fansite within a week none of
them played ryzom and it was highly slated on their website because of
this.
24. During Open Beta my char got wiped... it was a freak of nature. The
devs didnt know what went wrong or how it happened basically i was told
'tough luck...'. Now its ok in beta but what if that happened in
release? how would they compensate someone? would they?.
25. There will be no trial period, therefore there will be no way for
people to see the game as it would be at release, with all the content
in it. This would be a good way to attract people into the game but
giving the game open beta with no content and nothing in it will just
show people the boring grind. There will be nothing to hook them into
buying the game. They expect beta testers to preorder on faith alone,
unfortunately i have none left.
26. People who preorder get a special 'reward' they get to FBT while
the game is still in release... WOW, amazing. Maybe its just me but
your paying them to play a game not beta test for them. If you always
play on the FBT server then u really arent playing the actual release
your just paying to beta test. IMO this is wrong. Of course thge
fanatics will get pulled into this offer and will do it for them. But i
personally dont expect to pay to beta test a product no matter how much
spin is put on it, its still beta testing.
27. Finally i forgot this as one of the earlier reasons..... Magic is
impossible to play solo now, with the cast delay even thought the
animations are nice they still dont hide the fact your sitiing there
for 1.5 seconds to cast a spell while someone wil melee weapon can
basically do more damage than you and have more hps than u.
Beta Tested: Lineage 2, Ryzom, City of Heroes, RYL, EverQuest 2 World Of Warcraft European
Truly Loved: World of Warcraft