I have read over the posts in this thread I created and I see that there is a half -n- half mixture of those who are fed up, and those who are gleefully tolerating the "problems" Ryzom has in its current state. I must make one correction to an above posting: Dark Age of Camelot was nothing like this or any other "poor" launch. I played DaoC from day one, and the game was introduced fully functional with no major grievances to inhibit fun-filled playing. Yes, it did have a to-do list, like all on going projects, but most of these things were of the nature of 'additions', such as player housing--not game stopping lag and visible unfinished programming (buttons and such that say NoObject.blah.blah, etc). Daoc also had some housing keeping in order such as making style icons 'unique', but they HAD style icons, although somewhat generic and overused. Some dungeons did not yet have a 'loot list' for monsters to drop, but they DID drop money, and who complains about receiving money? So please do not wrongfully debase an excellent MMORPG's launch in order to belittle the problems put on the retail shelf by Neverax.
WARNING: The following is of the 'conspiracy theory' mindset. If this sort of thing upsets you, please quit reading now. And.... who knows... maybe they aren't out to get you.
Furthermore, I believe now that Ryzom's current state isn't just due to oversight and some poor planning. After all, much of what annoys me I perceive as not 'unfinished' business with this and that, but more like 'abandonment' of work on this and that--sound, world/terrain barriers, skill stanzas, etc. I hypothesize that we received Ryzom in its current state for one reason: The near launches of World of Warcraft and Everquest II. Anyone plugged into the MMORPG world (fans and developers) knows that no matter what crap these games may be (highly unlikely to be anything but at worst good, more likely very good or awesome), people will swarm to buy both WOW and EQII. Retail store will have trouble keeping them in stock. These games, by the numbers, will be overnight successes---even if only for a week (again, unlikely that their success will be short-lived, as I predict they will be excellent quality games of this genre). But here's the problem for Neverax: Most rational human beings who play these types of games realize/follow game purchasing patterns. Most folks do not have or will not spend $45 after $45 after $45 on new games of a similar genre in a short period of time--say 1 to 2 months. Also, most people have a certain amount of patience, and at some magic threshold, they CAN and WILL wait to buy a game they really are looking forward to rather than purchasing an 'alternate' that looks promising--I suspect this threshold is somewhere in the 4 week range. Ryzom is the 'alternate' to WOW and EQII. Ryzom's publisher knew that if they didn't get Ryzom on the shelf before the wait for WOW and EQII crossed the 'magical' I-can-wait-it-out threshold time of the impatient MMORPG buyer, Ryzom would be a retail disaster as those 45 dollars were allocated to the two biggies right around the corner. Thus, they put Ryzom on the shelf 6-8 weeks before the heavies hit the shelf and what do you know... you and I bought the Saga of Ryzom, unfinished and all.
Even if you only play it for a month or two, and do so just to 'feel' that you got your money's worth, well, that's okay, Neverax got your money's worth too, and while it may not amount to what a strong subscriber base can do over a period of a year or more, it atleast offsets Ryzom development costs by some substantial amount.
The more I think about it, the more this scenario seems a correct analysis of our situation. How much success could you be planning on having with one North American server? I surmise taking a spot as one of the top successful MMORPGs was not a goal in the last few weeks of Ryzom development meetings, but rather initial retail sales were the goal, knowing that a serious subscriber base would not follow. And if this is the case (we would never, of course, know), then I certainly feel duped.
But time will tell if I am on target with my assumptions, so don't slander me yet.
