achim wrote:why do you ever forget to mention the other side? if they will restore to the state before patch1, there will be also a bunch of people leaving the game. many people I know would not even take part in a poll with answer possibilities like that.. we love the new patch, now ryzom has become a new and even more strategic game than before.
Well, it stands to reason this:
1) The changes in the combat system were not well known before the patch. Infact very few people anticipated the level of change. Many of us were aware that certain spells were getting "re-balanced" (I don't like using nerf especially when its obvious to see that blind was over powered..) however no one knew the extent of the modifications made to the game.
2) If people were playing the game happily before (even people who like the patch) it stands to reason that they would continue to play along happily if the game had its risk/reward ratio tuned back towards closer to the original state of the game.
I mean, in all complete honesty (and we can be honest here right?) many of the people who are die-hard defenders of this patch would not leave at this point under almost any circumstance. I'm not accusing achim of being this way, but for some people Nevrax could crap on a plate and hand them a spoon.. and well you can guess the rest.
If you flip through some of the pages of the sticky petition on the NA boards you will see a few people who are like, "I like this patch but I don't want to see everyone leave".
I think that position makes sublime sense. MMO's after all are business endeavours. You may like/not like a particular change to the MMO, but if it cannot sustain itself fiscally - well then it doesn't matter too much. Right now Ryzom has a very small player base, and if you look at some of the polls the number of people who are quitting is a significant amount (as a total percentage) of the revinue of this game.
Frankly the competition with MMO's through the holiday season is going to be *crushing* this year. I expect to see plenty of gift wrapped boxes of EverQuest 2 and Worlds of Warcraft this Christmas - probably not so many boxes of Saga of Ryzom.
Obviously there needs to be some sort of happy medium established here. A game that doesn't offer a good risk/reward scenario is not one that is likely to retain customers (and in my opinion both pre and post patch 1 risk/reward scenarios are not good). However a game that alienates a large portion of its subscriber base without being able to garner new subscriptions to replace that churn is doomed as well.
Anyway, we will all have to wait and see what happens.
Me personally, I just got my copy of EverQuest 2 tonight. I am going to enjoy more hamster-wheel goodness from SoE until this mess gets sorted out and I can decide if I want to continue on with Ryzom or not.
Later
