Server Wipe

[danolt]

What sort of reviews do you think a relaunched Ryzom would get if the major new thing was a server wipe? I think it would be very hard to get any advertisement momentum. They certainly could not do a "Come back to Ryzom" campaign.

Whenever I have read reviews, the story and the community are always the two things the professional reviewer found appealing. If those are reset most of the reviews will be written without ever looking at the game at all. "Same old twice failed game, only this time they deleted everyone."

P.S.

I am enjoying using these forums again and fully realize that all participants want what is best for all of us.

[petersk]

Advertisement and development are the keys. No wipe. A wipe won't attract new players but has the potential of repelling old long-term loyal paying customers. What kind of silly marketing strategy is that?

Hate to do it, but am going to play devil's advocate here. I'm not sure how many loyal players there were towards the end, maybe a few thousand for all 3 servers? More? less? If by wiping they can attract, say 50,000 new subs, just for the sake of the argument.... From a business standpoint, If I were running things, I'd take the 50k over keeping the old timers happy. (cant believe I just said that)

I agree with you 100% that hitting the right people with the ads is key in obtaining a sustainable player base. Let's hope Spiderweb knows how to market a product better than GF ( curses the name ).

[iphdrunk]

I agree that to answer this properly, we should ask ourselves what is good for Ryzom and less what is good for us. As Zytatuan just said, it may make sense from a business point of view to do so. Unfortunately, some players, (including me) will decide whether to go on based on what we perceive to be good for *us*... and a wipe, at least for me, isn't.

In other words, I could understand that a wipe may be beneficial shard-wise. I fail to see, completely, in what could a wipe be beneficial e.g. (with all due respect) to me :*) -- joking, I only see one possibility; create a new toon e.g. a Tryker with a weird name and change completely my play style and start ganking harvesters in PR... and I am not sure I would stick --

Apologies for sounding so egocentric, but I tend to think that, at least for me, restarting from scratch will not bring back the "discovery" experience and the "good old times", since we already know most, if not all, things that can state the in-depth knowledge of the game, game-mechanics, game-lore, etc. Some oldies have gone through a few wipes, notably the beta ones and launch, and I saw those as "let's do this again so I can play with a toon I am confortable with". The difference would be now more frustration (especially due to newer commitments). Endless afternoons in which due to different timezones there are not even 2 or 3 players I can team up with.... The pain of wanting to raise afflictions yet feeling ashamed of it... the pain of crafting jewels or light armor....

Game aspects such as recipees, material sources, lands, treks, TPs, ...I will not discover again, for we know them. In this sense, modifying the environment, rather than the players, can, to some extent, bring back the novelty. Change the mat locations, drops, add newer elements... can be more meaningful than some temporary status that will only mean a parenthesis of a few months. OPs will be taken, players will grind again, guilds will reform (birds of a feather....)

Yours
Ani

[jovail01]

I voted no,
I had my heal at 248 and my forest dig at 243, it would be ever so nice if I didn't have to do all that again. I have enough good memories getting them to where they are now, it would feel like I was being unfaithful to them somehow.
*shrugs*
Not that I'd not do it if there were a wipe, but it wouldn't be as Peone, maybe Peoneson?

[danlufan]

well well well... a server reset would ruin the way the game was it would be amazing to come back

we dont want to lose the time and effort that was put in over the years, we dont want to lose the history of the game

[riven99]

i have been here since day 1 admitidly very quiet on the forums my char name ingame is Rivendell many of u may know of it or have seen me in the past and i have some good friends ingame i have not reached the magic 250 in any level at all my goal wasnt to do that really just to play to enjoy the game and i feel the server wipe will seriously hamper any future efforts i have in playing the game

sure i can remember where 95% of the res on the starter island are but the issue i have with it is much bigger than that its the time and effort that was put into the char and put in by many many of my friends Drakfot , Missylee and of course Sixxus my dearly departed real life role model

the guild we all created was calle TNE (The New Empire) i was 7th to join it it existed as one of the few guilds since beta days which i helped with back then in focus beta test i was lucky to get in quite early on so my experiance is profound in the game also had the title eldar of atys now that was a recognition for all of the testers and other ppl who put hard work into the game.

by wiping that title would be gone, to me thats a big hurt i know its only one title nothing to the lvl 250 titles many many of you had . plus much much more the community would suffer greatly and thats not something a new company want to have on thier hands the older die hard comunity we have here is still unique i have never found anything like it even the places i play online games now they are not a scratch on this one

so if its a clean slate they want by wiping i miss this game hugely as it is but i for one will find it hard to lvl again from scratch it is mainly for me a comfort game to escape my RL issues and starting from scratch would not be a option in my own view

Rivendell

High Officer
The New Empire

"The world of Atys is what we made it why take it away"

[sidusar]

I am enjoying using these forums again and fully realize that all participants want what is best for all of us.

Yep, we just disagree on what we would be best. Not surprisingly, given we can never be sure what the effects of any change will be....

I voted no. I can see the benefits a wipe would bring, I just think all those benefits will either be temporary, or will only apply to part of the playerbase. While the drawbacks of a wipe will be permanent and will affect the entire playerbase. Plus many of the benefits of a wipe could be brought about through other means as well, without those drawbacks.

I'm not sure how many loyal players there were towards the end, maybe a few thousand for all 3 servers? More? less? If by wiping they can attract, say 50,000 new subs

True, but consider:
1. This assumes enough people will know about the wipe to attract 50,000 of them. If we had that kind of advertising, would we still need a wipe to attract them?
2. Those 50,000 new subs would instantly reduce the number of established players to less than 5% of the server population, thus ending the "too many high level players" situation without needing a wipe.
3. If there were really 50,000 players out there who are only holding off on joining Ryzom because they want a fresh start, Cho's population would've dwarved Aris's within days. It didn't.
4. If they're not already joining Ryzom because it's a neat game, but would join simply because of a wipe, how long do you think they'd stay?

Your devil's advocate hinges on an "if" that is far from certain. If introducing flying space elephants as a new playable race would attract 50,000 new subs, if I were running things, I'd do that too. The reason we argue against it is because we don't believe it will. We could be wrong ofcourse, you can never be sure until you try, but then it's too late to change your choice.

I'm speaking from experience when I say it won't take you long to get the levels back, the fun of doing it again far out weighs the masters sacrificed to do it.

That depends entirely on the player. Sure, anyone could master again in a few months... Oh come on, you were asking for it.

[whiterider]

I'm speaking from experience when I say it won't take you long to get the levels back, the fun of doing it again far out weighs the masters sacrificed to do it.

That depends entirely on the player. Sure, anyone could master again in a few months... but there's a reason why I've been playing for a year and a half and still not got my heal above 247. I level for fun, not for levels - and that seems like an argument for a wipe, because I'd get to do all that over again.
But the fact is that the first 100 levels of my heal were an utter pain in the arse - it was frustrating and annoying, and I wouldn't repeat it for a gajillion dappers - and that was without the boredom of doing it grind-style. Now, though, and pretty much since hitting 130 - I love healing. It's fantastic! And I will still love it when I'm 250 and I have to heal OOT to avoid nerfing everything. I feel I've earned the good times with a lot of boring slog. I really, really don't want to have to slog any more.

players arent going to want to start playing on Arispotle, being a few low level players in a server full of multiple master players.

Why not? One of the best things about Ryzom is that those with high levels go miles out of their way to help new players. I certainly wouldn't have stuck around beyond a few weeks if it weren't for my guildies letting me be a sixteenth wheel on all their awe-inspiring ventures through PR, random treks that I didn't actually need... I got rezzed so much that by rights I should have started glowing, and I loved it.


And.. yes, I suppose in the end, what's best financially is what should be done. But I doubt that a wipe would attract any more new players than it would lose old players - especially as I think only a handful of newbies will care either way.


Edit: Sniped by two people. If I repeat what they've already said, I apologise

[squire20]

wipe = quit!

dont even talk about this! lol! /smack!

[dentom]

Hate to do it, but am going to play devil's advocate here. I'm not sure how many loyal players there were towards the end, maybe a few thousand for all 3 servers? More? less? If by wiping they can attract, say 50,000 new subs, just for the sake of the argument.... From a business standpoint, If I were running things, I'd take the 50k over keeping the old timers happy. (cant believe I just said that)

I agree with you 100% that hitting the right people with the ads is key in obtaining a sustainable player base. Let's hope Spiderweb knows how to market a product better than GF ( curses the name ).

*adds some curses to GF*

I would agree with you if the numbers above were realistic. But I doubt that these say 50,000 potentially interested players would only (!) come to Ryzom if there was a wipe.
Ryzom appeals the more mature players and I can't believe that these mature players are repelled by a longer running server. Ryzom attracts people - as stated above - with its background, its community, its open skill system and continuing event-driven story. An advertisment should go into this direction. And a wipe wouldn't favor any of these strong points, the advertisment-effect won't be bigger if you wipe the database. In contrary, people could scratch their heads about the background of this decision, old players will spread frustrated views and posts.

Of course I want to keep my character. And of course that contributes strongly to my absolute NO to a wipe.
But I would sacrifice my character if I knew for sure that a wipe would make Ryzom a successfull, profitable and well-developed game.
But considered rationally, I see in wiping only the chance of damaging the existing player base without a new attraction effect for a considerable number of players - mainly because the wipe-effect would be short, very short and non-profiting for new players. And because I see much better and more effective ways. In contrary, I would consider a wipe as a negative advertisement.

(I'm talking about a voluntary wipe by the company. If it has inevitable technical reasons I will play ryzom with a new char after a wipe, because I love this game. But if there's free choice my position is clear: no wipe please.)