What has happened to keeping the NA players informed?

[raynes]

As of late I have been finding that I have had to go to the Euro English boards to be kept informed of what is going on. There has been no post about the new patch on the ATS in the NA server. There have been no contest winners announced and no contests outside of the main one. I look at the announcement section of the NA boards and nothing has been posed in the past 30 days.

Now if I go to the Euro English boards I see patch notes listed. They have the winners of the first contest listed. They have a screenshot contest. They posted a list of the rites that can't be done. There was a post on either the German or French board telling of a State of the Game article comming to the website soon.

I'm really beginning to wonder if Nevrax is making money on the NA server and if they are giving it the same support as the other servers. It just seems like there is more activity from the higher ups on other servers.

I do hope that Nevrax will be smart enough to just close down the NA server (if it's not doing well) and let us move over to one of the others instead of cutting services. I went through the cutting bit with EnB and it's not fun.

[caitiff]

As of late I have been finding that I have had to go to the Euro English boards to be kept informed of what is going on. There has been no post about the new patch on the ATS in the NA server. There have been no contest winners announced and no contests outside of the main one. I look at the announcement section of the NA boards and nothing has been posed in the past 30 days.

The ATS patch was mentioned here: http://www.ryzom.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10957

[raynes]

The ATS patch was mentioned here: http://www.ryzom.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10957

Yes it was mentioned there. But there has been nothing mentioned in the NA ATS board section. There are no patch notes, no instructions on what to test for or what to look out for. The NA testers have to go read the EU english boards to have any clue what to do. (Which has a very detailed post about the patch).

[raynes]

The ATS patch notes were just put up, a full day after the patch and well after other board sections had them. As for the contest the winners are posted here:

http://ryzom.com/show/contest/winners.html

Why wasn't there a post with our servers winners in our section of th boards?

[plarfman]

Woooooooooo I got second place ..........hats are cool ill plug it into my computer.

[caitiff]

Yes it was mentioned there. But there has been nothing mentioned in the NA ATS board section. There are no patch notes, no instructions on what to test for or what to look out for. The NA testers have to go read the EU english boards to have any clue what to do. (Which has a very detailed post about the patch).

oh, well i cant see that board, so i dont know ;P

[jfoxp]

Got a hat myself.
Looks like I need to study more.

-Faileas

[thexdane]

i got a mousepad and so did one of my guildmates and another one got a hat

now if i could only get the gfx card

[jfoxp]

i got a mousepad and so did one of my guildmates and another one got a hat

now if i could only get the gfx card

Ya, heh... I'm not going to stop trying until I get the graphics card, or the last contest ends. We really need a PCI-Express version for the new motherboard, but, I can't pass up the chance at something of that price range for free. The new motherboard and processor have to wait until we can afford some DDR2, as well, so either way, getting an AGP 8x video card now would help me now, rather than later.

On topic to rayne's point: Having a look around, I do see what you mean, rayne. But having been on the other side of the current of a project on a MUCH smaller scale, I've seen more than my fair share of doom-sayers. Not saying you are one. Your point is valid. Just saying that I've seen MORE people predict that our project was going to fail, than I have seen people complain about Ryzom and say that it's going to die. And the project I'm involved with is still going 2000 strong, three years after the game we use was released (NWN).

So, do I think Ryzom is going to die? Nope. Do I think the first 6 months are going to weed out the people who only play games for their mechanics, and not the setting. Yup.

There are two kinds of people I've seen in MMOs over the years. Meh, I'm just going to copy this from the discussion I had in an IRC channel about this topic (not about Ryzom, but the two kinds of people).

This conversation started out with someone asking me why my server tends to be more empty than the other servers in our organization, even though it always gets rave reviews. It starts out with me attempting to answer the question, from my perspective. I went into my thoughts and theories on the two types of players I've seen over the years, and even mentioned the current things I see with Ryzom.

«Themicles»: Because many people treat a persistent world like a set of features, instead of a backdrop. This leads to people coming alone, often. When people come alone, all they have are features, unless a DM is on.
«Themicles»: But, people who, instead, treat it as a backdrop, tend to come more with others.
«Themicles»: And I've seen groups of players, or even just two players, spend MUCH more time on the server than lone players.

«Rykoffe»: Define what you are intending to mean by "backdrop."
«Rykoffe»: And "set of features."

«Themicles»: There are two different kinds of players in the MMO market (though I admit, us NWN PWs aren't quite MMOs, more like Medium Online RPGs, or Small Online RPGs, heh)
«Themicles»: Over the years I've seen two different kinds of players.
«Themicles»: Those who come for the features: Game mechanics that they can manipulate. Fishing is a feature. Crafting is a feature.
«Themicles»: Leveling is a "feature" so to speak.
«Themicles»: And those who come for the backdrop. The setting to experience with others, and roleplay in.
«Themicles»: This was more illustrated to me recently, than ever before, when I started playing an MMO called The Saga of Ryzom
«Themicles»: There are a bunch of players leaving right now becuase this feature, or that feature, or this bug, or that bug.
«Themicles»: They came for the features, and had high expectations based on game mechanics. They ended up disappointed.
«Themicles»: But there are others that are fiercly loyal to the Saga of Ryzom
«Themicles»: They are the roleplayers, who play the game because of the story, not because of the features. These kinds of people are also more likely to play MUDs (text based RPGs)
«Themicles»: Now, Tairis'nadur's main problems? Well, to be blunt, we have few unique "features" to keep the lone players around. And we barely have anyone arround to attract anyone else.
«Themicles»: Some people say that it's because there's not enough places to adventure.
«Themicles»: Well, I'm sorry, but I'm not building a powergaming fest here. The current server represents right around 1 square mile.
«Themicles»: It would be absolutely absurd to have 30 dungeons
«Themicles»: or imminent danger around every corner.

«Rykoffe»: I suppose you've heard it all before, but would you like for me to attempt to remedy the isolation, or would you rather wait until you feel the world is more "perfect" in your eyes?

«Themicles»: It'll never be perfect in my eyes, and NWN is down right smotheringly uninspiring. Mainly due to it's limits.

* Rykoffe puts hands around Tairis's ears. "Shh, Papa didn't mean that."
* Rykoffe chuckles.

[thanakar]

Raynes, not everyone has access to the ATS or the ATS boards so complaining about patch notes not being postedon the ATS board should be posted in the ATS section of the forum, not the general section.