Review of Ryzom posted to my guild of 200+

[spaaz69]

I've said it once and I'll say it again. WoW is nothing more then your typical fantasy MMO. As of now in beta, classes are broken, the game is bugged with server crashes, class bugs, and just about anything you could name in any other MMO. The dev's have stated that WoW will be shipping incomplete as what has been promised and people are growing discontent for it's ever pervasive move to a more and more EQ type game play. Saddly, I haven't played it for sure, but from what I've seen and heard, EQII and WoW are almost a spitting image of one another, gameplay wise. I wouldn't be surprised once the the games hit retail if each company starts accusing one another of stealing.

With that said, SoR is definitly going to need some patches because it just has this empty feeling to it, but the two patches comming out look very promising. The one thing I do like is the flexability unlike any other MMO out there with skills and modification of powers. Unlike the bigger MMO's comming out, I think SoR will have a very slow start, but with time will eventually pick up. The emersion in the game is unlike any I've played and draws you in a lot better then SWG, WoW, although AO did a pretty good job. I think the European companies are starting to get a hang of the MMO industry with the emergence of AO and SoR. They haven't found a knock punch just yet, but I do think they are heading in the right direction with orginal designs and mechanics. I'll stick SoR out for a while because I'm definitly interested in seeing where it goes and also the community is very excellent.

[phoenyx]

I've said it once and I'll say it again. WoW is nothing more then your typical fantasy MMO. As of now in beta, classes are broken, the game is bugged with server crashes, class bugs, and just about anything you could name in any other MMO. The dev's have stated that WoW will be shipping incomplete as what has been promised and people are growing discontent for it's ever pervasive move to a more and more EQ type game play. Saddly, I haven't played it for sure, but from what I've seen and heard, EQII and WoW are almost a spitting image of one another, gameplay wise. I wouldn't be surprised once the the games hit retail if each company starts accusing one another of stealing.

I keep trying to drop the WoW thing and you guys just don't give up. This thread was about a critique of Ryzom. I used WoW and AO only as a comparisons for specific talking points.

Nontheless the above quote is so far out of the ballpark that I must respond yet again with what will appear to be a WoW fanboi response. It's not, really, but I'm amazed at the folks who are posting some really wild B.S. about WoW.

First off, I've betaed both. WoW for quite a long time now. EQ2 pretty much since Euro beta became available. The games are nothing alike, other than the fact that EQ2 ripped off the "griffon ride" mechanic almost wholesale from WoW, and did a very crappy job of it. EQ2 plays pretty much like EQ1 did. It just looks a whole lot prettier, and there and snappy voiceovers from the NPCs.

Otherwise, WoW is not more similar to EQ2 than any other MMOG has been similar to EQ2. The two games are light years apart in terms of bugs, playability on midrange and low-end systems, the landscaping and zone design, the mission types and variety, the classes, the entire artwork style and feel, etc. The games are in no way a "spitting image" of each other. Not by any stretch.

And I will say this again, unequivocably. I have played almost every MMOG from launch. Most of them from open beta or closed beta or even alpha stages. I'm well aware of the propensity for bugs, balance swings, and all manner of rough edges in the first few months for any MMOG. I've seen horrible betas and launches, and I've seen smooth betas and launches. I don't have unrealistic expectations and I have a broad perspective.

EQ2 is typical of most MMOGs in its current beta state, trending towards the worse end of the spectrum. Buggy, crashy, laggy, lots of content not fleshed out, and even high end systems choke on the graphics. I'm amazed that SOE is supposedly planning to release this game in mid-november. You are warned.

WoW, on the other hand, is absolutely the most stable, fleshed-out game I've ever seen in the beta stage of development. There is so much finished content it's not funny. There are a couple classes who don't have their talent trees yet. There is still some class balancing going on but remember, it's still *closed* beta and they have lots of data to mine and player feedback to work with. There are some aspects of their PvP system yet to be fleshed out. That's it folks. This game has been more finished and polished in the past several months of closed betas than I've seen in most games 6 months after retail launch. As for bugs and crashes and lag? LAUGH. There is practically none. The netcode is stable. The only technical complaint anyone really has is with their BitTorrent-based client patcher.

It's not just me. My guild can argue internally for days about the merits and pitfalls of a given game. You should have seen the internal war over Lineage2. But *every* one of us in closed beta and the dozens more who played stress test for a week ALL, to a person, agree that WoW is the most stable, complete, and rich game we have seen in any beta, let alone a closed one. During the stress test when they opened up a dozen servers for a week and had essentially a one-week, free-for-all open beta, there was almost no discernible hit to in-game lag, log-ins, registration process, nothing.

You can argue whether you care for the fact that WoW has no innovative features. You can argue whether you like the Blizzard artwork style. You can argue that the game is too fast-paced or doesn't have deep enough crafting for your tastes. But when you argue that the game is buggy, lacking content, has crashes or lag, or is the "spitting image" of a POS game like EQ2, I'm going to argue with you, because I know different.

[cerest]

I think this thread has run its constructive course. For the sanity of everyone who posted here I'm going to close this thread. Phoenyx is entiitled to his/her opinion and I'm going to just leave it at that.