I'm not exactly on topic but the thread actually discusses ways to make money for Ryzom and the most important one is to have the player base happy and most of the time busy. I do remember long times when in Ryzom nothing new happened and people complained about it, only the huge complexity of the game saved it, and as history proves it was not enough.
The exact inverse feeling I've had playing LotrO. The game as is conceived is shallow but Turbine makes the best of it.
I would like to enumerate some things that, as player, made me feel pampered and at the same time wished Ryzom team would have for players as well:
- Servers always up, never have a server down without anouncing it in time, never have a server down without a clear updated if necessary ETA. Never allow wishful thinking involved with that. If some work seems to require 8 hours down and you hope for 6 hours, then ETA>=8 never 6.
- MMO time is faster paced than RL time. Even if you work something that is not ready until a month, have a weekly report with what you are doing so players feel there is somebody working out there for them. Give concrete hints of what is going on. Sacrifice some time to write down in detail over the forums what are you working at.
- Server maintainance is a concept few players appreciate. Add a little patch. Go in small steps. It doesn't have to be each week a huge server fix patch. But each server down accompanied by a small fix gets much more respect than a pure "server maintainance" one. On a side note Ryzom should get rid of the "gold rush" following server maintainance, you know what I mean: bosses and supremes, cmon there should be a way to make them spawn with an individual delay at server start.
- Get a good quests writer. Yeah I do hate quests but the majority of players don't - even the Ryzom hard core ones. Make modular quests and implement gradually. There's no need to make Ryzom quest based, but good stories are appreciated, can anytime start with fame/tribal stories which as mechanics exist already but the quest itself has basic to primitive story. Identify them and rewrite the stories only. Quests are an infinite source of small fixes and upgrades, mainly if they don't interfere with game mechanics. (there are people in the hard core player base you could take as kami/kara advisor for the quest writing and content).
- Use RL time to make IC events. Autumn/spring festivals, fashion contests, runs through the PR, arena fights etc. Automatize them. Let the player come at any time and take part. Advertize over forums in advance. Let such events last 2-3 weeks and revive abandonned cities. Allow all time zones to take part. Set honorfic rewards, mainly wearables that can be showed off without interfering with game mechanics. Make sure the events are not forever (like the lottery) to create inflation. An event has an end as well as a start. People who were not playing at the time of the event will have one more reason to play in the hope they'll be there at the next festival. Even with a low population events make people feel they are not alone on the planet.
- Once in 4-6 month make a major fix. Announce it long time before. Describe it. Don't be shy with words. Implement gradually small abilities that do not interfere with main skills: dance, fishing, hats making, playing songs (or even instruments), diving for pearls or just individual time to stay under water/without water in the desert, source of contests, gymnastics and exercise, hula hoops, climbing trees, all in essence only complex emotes to more development intense stuff like cooking or cosmetics industry.
If these are working then you can think of a second team (Turbine works with 2, one less experienced for maintainance, one hard core for developpment of future expansions if i know correctly) or an overworked same one to create real expansions, these can be - imho - sold in a different box, and can also be developped in a year or more.
Ideas: new small maps, underground dungeons, new special lairs, new improved pvp areas (Matis arena is extremely bad planned, but I feel a very bad idea to revamp such an old part of the game), pets, short distance vehicles (dont't forget Ryzom is a very small world, long distance vehicles would only make it look tiny), player housing, shops, better guild halls (all these last, being instantiated, should be replaceable with better ones still instantiated but buyable).
However future developpments are a secondary thing to worry about for now imo, keeping the game alive as is and make the thin hard core layer of players become a player base should be on first place. Whatever strong seems the enthusiasm now on the forums and klients, it's still only a few over 100 subs Ryzom would get once opened.
Ryzom worked in the past on a depressive maniacal scheme
It either showed fervent, overenthusiastic activity (kitin nest, the ring) that led to unfinished, not working huge expansions or no activity for years where the players felt abandonned in a silenced world. That vision should change first and foremost and hopefully Ryzom, once reopened, will take a stable constant pace of living.
