Merge the servers?

[killgore]

Some picked "no there are enough players" because there was no option of "no this is a terrible idea"

[dumon]

I'm feeling a bit sad - why don't you put up such a poll that would affect all servers on the other server-forums as well? I'm playing on the german-speaking server, since my native tongue is German.

And I would also vote for "No" - first of all because I don't want to be forced to chat in English. English chat-language is often a riddle to me and my school-English is not "fluent" enough to chat freely.

I can also mostly agree with jezabel.

Even if I think that at least many german players would surely be "able" to talk to you (using some gibberish like myself), I also believe they might not want to Most of all because of the PvP.

There would be surely much more personal quarrels and maybe even griefing if 3 times more guilds would have to fight over the same few outposts that are active on Atys now. And it's always the same with humans - the ones that are most "different" will be always be declared the "bad ones" and will be shunned

There are too many possibilities to annoy guilds and players in Ryzom, which might drive them away out of the game. Like through constant outpost-PvP day and night, hunting harvesters in PvP-zones, lowering the kami-tolerance to make them unable to harvest in "normal" areas, snatching away animals/plants when fighting, and of course verbally as well -_-

The communities would therefore surely split up in language-fractions very soon, flocking together with the players they have known for a longer time, harbouring anger and frustration against the players they don't know yet and who are speaking in tongues they cannot understand - or cannot understand well enough.

On the other hand I don't think that the roleplaying-part - which I love - would be affected a lot. Most of the "real" roleplayers on Leanon are neutrals and generally don't participate in PvP. So if it's about player-RP I think that many german roleplaying-fans would try hard to come together with the english role-players, even if their english is often bad

But for official events we'd really, really need different GMs of all three languages participating and translating for everyone to help us understand what's going on exactly...

[r1vver]

heh, that's why i hate linux - it's all about english in command line

constant outpost-PvP day and night

afair, it's against rules on Arispotle because any war somehow harass someone...

[katriell]

The few remaining English roleplayers are members of non-RP guilds. And back when there were more, almost all of them were members of neutral RP guilds...but not the kind of neutrality you have on Leanon. They PvP'd. Made allies on both sides and participated in outpost battles according to their own policies. It made politics very complicated sometimes.

[sidusar]

Sure, let it be your way. I know nothing about anything in Ryzom, but one thing is pretty universal across all MMORPG - low player count leads to lower player count lead to death of a game. Just saying. You can go back to being elitists now.

Nobody's disputing that we need more players, they're disputing that more players is somehow an inevitable outcome of a server merge and/or server wipe and there's no question or debate about that. Complicated systems aren't that easily predictable.

Fact is there is no way to be sure, such moves have benefited some MMOs and wrecked other MMOs; examples exist to support both sides. Which way would it go on Ryzom, nobody can tell.

If you're sure it will lead to more players, you're wrong. If you're sure it will lead to less players, you're also wrong. Because there's no way to be sure about this. You can only argue that one outcome is the more likely one. The point that should be up for debate here is whether it's worth the risk.

The same debates seem to come around every year or two..

Funny that, if a server merge and/or server wipe had actually happened and not led to much more players, you know the same debate would still come around every year or two, with one side saying the merge/wipe ruined Ryzom, and the other side saying other factors ruined Ryzom and the merge/wipe actually had a small positive effect but just not enough to save it.

And if a server merge and/or server wipe had actually happened and led to much more players, the same debate would come around every year or two with one side saying the merge/wipe saved Ryzom, and the other side saying other factors saved Ryzom and the merge/wipe actually had a small negative effect but luckily not enough to ruin it.

[larwood]

At first I was intrigued with the idea of a server merge - but after thinking about it, I realized that its just an attempt at a "quick-fix".

THE GAME is what needs to be fixed in order to attract new players, not the population.

If i cook dinner for guests, and the dinner is stale - it will still be stale regardless of how many or what type of guests I invite. The solution is to cook a tasty dinner.

There are hosts of threads that talk about content ideas, so I'm not going to pretend to suggest what will "fix" Ryzom - but a server merge certainly wont.

[meryan]

THE GAME is what needs to be fixed in order to attract new players, not the population.

If i cook dinner for guests, and the dinner is stale - it will still be stale regardless of how many or what type of guests I invite. The solution is to cook a tasty dinner.

Thom, you could apply to join the event team or help creating player run events. Then it might not seem stale.

[ajsuk]

God I hate hearing that one. Maybe he did already, but isn't allowed to say. Either way, this is a top-down issue. Even an army of volunteers isn't going to fix bad managerial practices.

[larwood]

Thom, you could apply to join the event team or help creating player run events. Then it might not seem stale.

I'd love to.

But community events aren't the meat of the game. To go back to my dinner analogy: community events are like playing musical chairs or bingo during dinner - the food is still stale.

If we continue to do what we've always done, we will continue to get the results we've always gotten.

There is a place to Give Feedback - Where ideas can be suggested and voted on - I like this in theory. But in practice hundreds of good and valid ideas are at the bottom of the list where they never get seen by voters, never get voted on, and are forgotten. Meanwhile, the first page which is seen a lot gets all the votes because its what people see and read.

Many of the suggestions on the first page are cosmetic... new hairstyles, a random emote, mob level indicator... these are conveniences... and while they are nice, Ryzom needs to make some big, hard, core changes if we want to perform differently than we have in the past.

Personally a few that I think would do well:

- Reduce the GRIND - cut experience required to get to 250 in half or more (remove xp cats).
- Missions (quests) - do on Atys what works well on Silan: missions that are clear to understand, with rewards that are vauled and sought after
- Economy - right now its all about who you know, there is no economy, dappers are junk
- Outposts - with no more cats, these provide more/different plans/special mats/gear
- Range - double the damage to make it compete with melee and magic (in fact since it requires more effort, digging/crafting the ammo, you could argue that it do slightly more damage than melee
- Test Server - so new ideas can be tested by other players before they are implemented
- Instances for NPC bosses - you zone into their little world - removing the boss-camping from other players
- Raids - more kitin raids, reasons for homins to unite in battle

just to name a few... but back to the topic at hand, I don't think a merge improves dinner, it just moves people around at dinner.

[katriell]

But community events aren't the meat of the game.

Why not?

- Missions (quests) - do on Atys what works well on Silan: missions that are clear to understand, with rewards that are vauled and sought after

NO. That wouldn't solve anything, anyway. People still complain about grind and a lack of content in games that are full of quests and raids.