The saga of a player that misses the point

[motan]

If "Johnny" left one week after subscribing, he didn't do it a second too early. We do not want impatient kids, we do not want peaople that need to be told what to do every minute and, above all, we do not want quests.

What's more, I play from time to time on the island and I've seen it: veteran players keep saying on the regional chat tens of times every day that there are no quests on the mainland - whoever doesn't get it deserves to find it out the hard way.

[cloudy97]

Harsh words there Goupi!

But let me ask you all, would some optional quest that get a player started on the mainland ruin the sandbox-gameplay? Say, a few missions that makes you understand WHY you should work for the Kami or the Karavan (or not), or some stories that defines the races and their relation to each other. Something that makes it easier for a new player to get attached to the main storyline. (I never did a Silan quest above part 3, maybe it is there already)

[jamela]

This is why I do my best to refer to the Silan missions as tutorials. It helps put them into perspective.

Yes, the word "quest" ought to be struck out of Ryzom language. There are Tutorials, Tasks and Rites, no quests. I'm all for plenty more rites. Perhaps the word Mission should be changed to Task throughout Silan and Atys?

[kyesmith]

I really dont see why people like doing quests for exp in other games, all their doing is dressing up grind into missions that you grind, i much prefer ryzom as you know where you stand, i hit the same mob for hours i get X amount of exp from them, sure beats running around atys killing 1 mob here then running another 5mins to give Mr X a present. Mindless quests can be done solo with little need to ever encounter another player, its an MMO game whats the point in that, i try not to lvl solo whenever it can be helped unless ofc in the non combat trees.

[vladww]

I really dont see why people like doing quests for exp in other games, all their doing is dressing up grind into missions that you grind.

I understand your point of view but..
Quests are not always grind missions.

Quests can be from a " kill x mobs then report to me " to a 10 steps dynamic lore aventure ( call it rites, just semantic really ).

Thats the second type ofc i'd always wanted to see in Ryzom.

- Ryzom Lore shouldn't be on the forums/website, it should be ingame, as the core part of hundreds of rites.
That is the original David Cohen vision of Ryzom (encyclopedia).

- Rites should be dynamic, meaning with random elements, so each player have different ways of progressing and solving the rites.

There are a majority of trial players who leave Ryzom after RoS because the encyclopedia/rites are not or poorly implemented on the mainland.
Thats including a few friends of mine, who are in no way L33t kids expecting a spoonfed game experience, but mature & fun rpg players.

Ryzom is an awesome game but adding hundreds of optionnal lore rites would make it even greater imo.

[acridiel]

Will come soon (tm)

[jamela]

(response to Vladok, sorry I didn't make it clear initially )

Quest / rite? Yes, it is semantics, quest and rite mean different things. A quest is a search, classically for something of unique value such as the Golden Fleece or The Holy Grail, although equally something mundane like your favourite brand of coffee. A rite is a procedure typically to achieve a certain goal, whether that be formalizing or solemnizing something for the sake of custom or learning or discovering something new, enlightenment.

The problem is that "quest" has encompassed another meaning in other games, and it's not appropriate in Ryzom because there are no unique-but-everyone-can-get-one items, or storylines which purport to affect the lives of NPCs but have no actual effect since the next player along can go through just the same storyline. Yet Ryzom Tasks appear on the surface to be the same type of game construct as the quests elsewhere because you pick them up from NPC Mission-givers and they go into your Task window, so players may be forgiven for having similar expectations, and for calling them quests.

Rites are dynamic to a degree, you just have to make each step, so I'm not quite sure what you mean. We could do with many, many more, each revealing details of the lore; perhaps not all unique and maybe that's what you mean? Fyros and Matis rites, for example, revealing the same details, but with a slightly different slant? The Chronicles are great, for wide dissemination of storyline and more general lore. I wish that they were also available ingame and that we could try to investigate some of the stories and so discover more detail.

R² will, of course, allow for the type of quest typical to other games. By the looks of it. Storylines that have no effect upon Atys in general, rather unsatisfying for that, but still fun to do

[diyanna]

Little Johnnies problems are...

That having played WoW in every spare minute so that he can become 'Uber' or 'leet' he now considers himself an expert in MMO's and feels that he can judge every other game by his own very narrow standards.

That he has the attention span of a goldfish.

That he needs to be told every step of every mission and detailed instructions of how to do it because he can't think for himself.

That he has absolutly no social skills whatsoever and doesn't uderstand the concept of guilds or any other social aspects of online worlds.

That he is incapable of reading any instruction offered him on screen and expects everyone else to bail him out otherwise he gets into a strop and throws his teddy out of the pram.

I say good riddance to little Johnny and all his friends, I don't want or need them in my Gaming life.

[necrosub]

[Edit: Wrong thread. Ooops!]

[magick1]

*puts on asbestos suit and starts a devil's advocate message*

A most fitting title topic, and that goes to both "sides".

To Johnny this game was a grind fest, to him it was empty of player, to him it wasn't fun, to him it was devoid of content. Since that is what he found in the game when he tried it, he felt let down and even 'lied to'.
That is his opinion and experience of the game, you might not agree, but that doesn't make it less true for him.
Not everybody expects or wants the same in a game, and thereby have different expectations.
Agree or don't with him, but if you don't understand where he is coming from, you too are sadly missing the point.