whiterider wrote:martl, yes, I agree. But we shouldn't be changing things because it works well for Generic MMO #56253490564934 - we should be changing them because after careful thought, we think they would work well in Ryzom. And a cash shop will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, (EVER) fit that requirement.
(Note "we" is interchangeable with "our devs", yes.)
Quite true and well said.
martl wrote:Leaving Ryzom as it is, has already almost destroyed it. I agree, imitating other games is the wrong way, but each of these has some things in it that might improve the fun and attract more players.
Of course, the main idea has to be to maintain the unique character of Ryzom.
For the most part I agree. Keeping Ryzom static is not the way to go; bugs must be fixed and features must be added or modified, but only with careful consideration.
The only point I disagree on is that Ryzom has already almost been destroyed. The servers are down and the game's future is uncertain, but at least Gameforge didn't effect any harmful mechanics changes. Ryzom is still Ryzom even in this circumstance. To contrast, look at Star Wars Galaxies - still running, with the same title it has always had, but can anyone honestly say it's the same game it was before the CU and NGE? How many of the people who enjoyed it before those changes would tell you it's everything it once was? It's all changes that ought to be scrutinised and weighed, though, not just huge and obvious ones.
The biggest contributors to Ryzom's lack of financial success, I think, have been a lack of marketing and ill-considered changes that led to population drops, like dumping multiple PvP-oriented additions onto a community that was accustomed to PvE. I like PvP (in other words, I don't share Grimjim's outlook), but that's something that could've been handled better. Also: Less than optimal development management and communication in general.