"For example, both the players and the devs know that our PvP system needs some work, so we created a PvP Strike Team built around three hard-core PvP players, one of them a coder."
OK, this worries me, for several reasons. I am drawing on my own gaming/publishing/writing experience but, obviously, I'm not a computer games type primarily, so these concerns may not be as relevant.
Putting someone who is really keen on something, in charge of something, does, on the face of it, seem like a good idea.
They're going to be enthusiastic, motivated, keen and will want to produce the 'best thing EVAH!' but it does have its drawbacks.
People who are keen on something don't necessarily see the flaws in it or can't appreicate the point of view of someone who doesn't appreciate it in the same way they do.
In this case, might it not be better to have the input of someone who HATES PvP? Not just PvP fans? If you can interest and/or excite someone who loathes PvP with your implementation won't it have a broader appeal?
Imagine if you were producing a standard fantasy MMO and the people producing the graphics/powers/implementation of each of the fantasy races were runaway fans of those races. You'd end up with an arms race between the Elf fans, who thought Elves should be the most powerful and dynamic race and the dwarf fans who thought it should be them.
I'm not a big fan of 'balance', per se, as it often destroys story objectives and hooks, but putting the enthusiasts for something with no tempering guide can be a recipe for disaster.
A whole race/power/class or aspect of the game can become a 'Mary Sue'.
Speaking for myself, I can't STAND PvP unless it serves a story goal. The problem we have at the moment seems to be limited PvP venues, its always in the Prime Roots. Can we not have PvP turn on and offable in the other zones for events? And we need faction selection, which was around, but bugged, at one point.
This whole PvP direction concerns me as, while it may bring in extra customers, they may well turn out to be the 'leets' we've managed to avoid so far. The Ryzom gamer population doesn't seem to be as keen on PvP as a lot of others and I also worry that Nevrax is pegging too much on PvP outposts and the faction war.
and no mention when were going to get stuff thats been on the test server for months and has never come to the live server =/ 