Play Ryzom for free one month more

[fadebait]

The reasons why Ryzom went down twice are highly debatable and everyone has his/her own opinions about that.
You say you want them fixed....how do you know they are not being fixed as we speak? /shrug

The reasons are actually not debatable at all. It went down due to lack of money, due to low subscriber rates.
It's also no real secret why subscriber rates were low. Marketing was negligeable which led to a reletively low influx of new players. Of this influx retention was pretty poor - while Silan proved popular the Mainland seemed unable to keep many people for long.

The main game is very different from Silan - there are very very few quests, and those few that there are are not very well designed or interesting. Sandbox game should not have to mean that the only way to advance your skills is endlessly killing creatures, over and over - and yet this does seem to be Ryzom's interpretation.

Ryzom has a lot of depth - it has a flexible skill system, one of the better crafting systems ever to grace an MMO and a lovingly designed and detailed world. The problem is that it really lacks something to actually do when you aren't [dig/craft]ing, grinding or RPing. You have all those shiny level 250 fighting skills? Great. Bar the occasional PvP battle, boss hunt or kitin lair raid there is no actual use for your skills once you have them - the only thing you can do with fighting skills is get better at them, very slowly, and when you have become the best you can be? Oh, time to start again on some other skill.

Until there is something to actually *do* with your skills other than the above I do not see a longterm future for Ryzom. Premade content is not the enemy for sandbox games - it's the only chance of longterm survival.

Unfortunately I get the same impression as an earlier poster - this is a tiny company with very little budget and even less experience in running a sucessful buisness. Implementing the above is a mammoth job even for a large company - I would love to be wrong, but at this point things do not look good for SW.
I will still maintain my subscription until the game finally dies - just in case.
--- ---
I'm sure the above is "negative rubbish", and "not constructive" to some - unfortunately the real world is frequently negative and often not constructive. You may just have to live with that.

[whiterider]

Well, what you've just said is why we need events. Yumeroh has said events will be coming back - if that proves true, Ryzom will lose the sense of aimlessness a lot of people feel.

[acridiel]

Well, what you've just said is why we need events. Yumeroh has said events will be coming back - if that proves true, Ryzom will lose the sense of aimlessness a lot of people feel.

One thing though, please don´t forget that CSR- and Event-Teams have always been composed of volunteers. With exception of GMs.
So it´s quite an easy equation:
No volunteers = no (people driven) Events. (As apart from Invasions)

Just a reminder.

CU
Acridiel

[whiterider]

We don't have event teams yet - we don't have events yet either That doesn't necessarily mean it'll never happen.

[great83]

There has to be more then just events for ryzom to be successful. Look at the history of ryzom and notice a great amount of events when the game first started out. The events alone was not enough to keep the type of server population that is needed.

My personal view on events is they are used to introduce new content, as well as prolonging the current content in a game. Events alone can not act as new content, unless it introduces an radical change in the game (temples and FvF for an exe) So in short there needs to be more then cheap events to keep people logging in on a regular basis.

[blaah]

So in short there needs to be more then cheap events to keep people logging in on a regular basis.

yep, there needs to be vcr to tape the shows and play them when theres time

[iceaxe68]

You have all those shiny level 250 fighting skills? Great. Bar the occasional PvP battle, boss hunt or kitin lair raid there is no actual use for your skills once you have them - the only thing you can do with fighting skills is get better at them, very slowly, and when you have become the best you can be? Oh, time to start again on some other skill.

Until there is something to actually *do* with your skills other than the above I do not see a longterm future for Ryzom. Premade content is not the enemy for sandbox games - it's the only chance of longterm survival.
[...]
I'm sure the above is "negative rubbish", and "not constructive" to some - unfortunately the real world is frequently negative and often not constructive. You may just have to live with that.

What sort of "things to do" did you have in mind? I hear lots of begging for "endgame" content but I still haven't seen any suggestions for what that might be, other than higher level areas to grind through in a couple of weeks to get to 300 and then start complaining again, or elaborations of the other things you've dismissed already such as PvP and boss hunting which already exist, but could be expanded and improved.

I'm not dismisssing your opinion, it's far too prevalent to dismiss as insignificant, I just want to hear what you are actually looking for, as opposed to just "content" which is a meaningless placeholder word. Maybe you have a great idea that would inspire SW and bring something great to Ryzom.

At this point I still have no masters, but I'm getting close in several areas, and frankly, the endless complaining I hear from those who have several masters makes me frightened to complete those skill trees, for fear that the game I love so much will suddenly become drab and empty. Should I just cut my losses and quit while I'm behind?

[akovylin]

what about alamati woods till they work or smth new? alamati woods won't be hard to enable again i assume...

[ajsuk]

Not that we shouldn't come up with some ideas of our own, but this is in large part stuff the devs should be coming up with - Progressing the Saga (dear Jena tell me it still exists) - and, integrating us (the players and our characters and our character skills) in to the game. Books aren't much fun to read if you already know the ending.

(I stress again just in case some people missed it, this is not to say we shouldn't have our own ideas on new content, but the main drive should be new and original stuff coming from the devs - Unfolding the story)

[acridiel]

What sort of "things to do" did you have in mind? I hear lots of begging for "endgame" content but I still haven't seen any suggestions for what that might be, other than higher level areas to grind through in a couple of weeks to get to 300 and then start complaining again, or elaborations of the other things you've dismissed already such as PvP and boss hunting which already exist, but could be expanded and improved.

I'm not dismisssing your opinion, it's far too prevalent to dismiss as insignificant, I just want to hear what you are actually looking for, as opposed to just "content" which is a meaningless placeholder word. Maybe you have a great idea that would inspire SW and bring something great to Ryzom.

At this point I still have no masters, but I'm getting close in several areas, and frankly, the endless complaining I hear from those who have several masters makes me frightened to complete those skill trees, for fear that the game I love so much will suddenly become drab and empty. Should I just cut my losses and quit while I'm behind?

Seeing that it took less than 48 hours for the first player to reach lvl80 (and for the complaints to start even shorter) in "Wrath of the (B)Litch King" your point is more than valid. I agree that its not more levels to grind through we need, but more "life" inside the game.
ATM I´m jotting down notes and thoughts on some ideas that are floating around my busy little head and I hope I´ll be able to write them down properly someday. *sigh* Damn work...

CU
Acridiel