On the ending of Ryzom and other stories
Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 9:15 pm
I have decided to quit Ryzom after nearly two months of playing. Ryzom has been the shortest Ive played any game post-release seriously. Ive decided to go back to playing Eve, however, I think Ryzom has a lot of good things going for it hence the subject of this letter. This letter should be read as being criticism in the classical sense of the word.
I wrote about the problems with the Ryzom economy before. This was my first (and only) post on these boards. After playing and becoming more immersed into Ryzom society my reasoning behind the lack of a good Ryzom economy have only been confirmed. This is the number one problem facing new player retention today. My original solution was, generally on mark, but still shallow. Having a system which requires players to craft / forage / produce anything strictly for the utility of skilling is neither realistic nor a good market solution and this inherently this a major crow bar into my remedy which I proposed. As was rightly pointed out, crafters need to craft thousands of goods in order to skill just a few levels. The market can not absorb these goods and hence they are simply dumped to NPC vendors at wildly inflated prices. Crafters have little incentive to meet market demand and even if they did the GUI which is in the game will not allow buyers and sellers to meet, hence the transaction cost of any good is extremely high and production for the sake of trade rarely occurs.
What Ryzom fails to recognize as a game is that skilling = time. Some people have more time at their exposure to play games then others and it is inherently unfair from a perspective justice to award people more ranks of skill simply because they can spend more time online. I also strongly dislike grinding. Though, if there is a definitive goal I will grind to achieve this goal. In Ryzom, you grind to be awarded with yet more grinding. For example, I can grind my digging skill and be awarded with a higher dig skill so I can grind more. I can grind my fame skill so I can get awarded with PR access so I can grind more in the PR.
This is not logical game design. A more rational system is the system which Eve has implemented and that is the system which gives you skill points for time directly, no matter if you are online or offline. This eliminates the grind and is a just outcome.
People will continue to play a game even if it is content-less so long as they can continue to accrue power, wealth, and fame (real fame). If these things are empty or missing players will either not play at all or they will play for the novelty and soon move on. I can use the example of Eve here, people do not play Eve for the end game; there is no end game. We can talk about the litany of reasons about why people play each individual game but one thing about Ryzom which is nearly for certain; few people play Ryzom because they enjoy it. They play Ryzom because they acquired a social circle of friends and they get a certain benefit from this. If and when people realize this they will leave with their circle of friend(s). I am certain I will get many replies saying I enjoy Ryzom!. And, you are in the few. This is not unique to Ryzom. I once saw a poll about EQ when I played asking why people and an amazing number (for greater then 50%) played because of their friends / guild. Once WoW and EQ2 came out, these guilds / friends moved.
Playing a game for the hope that good new content will be released in the future is not a very good measuring stick. When I advise people on buying and selling stock, I always say: If you ever use the word hope then it is time to sell. The same is true with online games. If you are saying: I hope Nevrex will release good content in the next patch, then you have already gone past the point of no return.
Nevrex wishes to release R2, which is player created content and this is a mistake. Player created content in an online world is a non-competitive business model and I am surprised the VCs didnt stomp this. What Ryzom is aiming for is player driven content and that is an entirely different beast. There is a little of this in Ryzom, but the real player driven content can be found in Eve.
The XP crystals is actual game content and an objective except it is an extremely poor one (albeit the only thing in the game at the moment). This is a system where power will beget yet more power and is inherently bad. Small guilds wishing to come up from the bottom will never have the same opportunity that larger and more established guilds do. Yes, it is true that certain guilds do pass out crystals, however they do this selectively to those whom they deem worthy and not equitably. The new thing which I forget the name of (which prevents spawning) will only exacerbate this. If you think one guild is difficult to remove with the option of infinite respawns, try it if you only have one go.
Player created content is preferred to GM driven content. Personally, and most people for that matter, have a tough time getting into an RP roll (most people in Ryzom can, however, since people tend to do what they are most efficient at). However, it is not difficult for me to get into a real player trying to exact revenge because of a lost ship, declare war on the enemy because of a real issue and not something abstract, or bending the market to my will. Gm driven content is extremely costly. Nevrex made a choice when making this game for Gm events weekly. I do not think they were prepared for how man power intensive this is. For each man/hour that is used in this one time here now gone tomorrow can not be used in permanent content. I think it was a good experiment myself, but I think this is something that Nevrex should seriously think about reconsidering. If people are playing 15 bucks a month for a two hour event which is only fun ¼ of the time (for each persons own preferences), then most people are going to quit or not bother subscribing.
All that said, I think Ryzom could be the best game out there which is why I tried it in the first place. I think a lot of the innovation at Nevrex is second to none. If some things do change for the positive, assuming the VCs dont pull the plug, then I will re-up my account. I'll continue to follow this thread and will be more then happy to answer any questions.
In the mean time, anyone who wishes to play Eve, you can find me there under the same name (Etruscus and my alt Etrusan).
I wrote about the problems with the Ryzom economy before. This was my first (and only) post on these boards. After playing and becoming more immersed into Ryzom society my reasoning behind the lack of a good Ryzom economy have only been confirmed. This is the number one problem facing new player retention today. My original solution was, generally on mark, but still shallow. Having a system which requires players to craft / forage / produce anything strictly for the utility of skilling is neither realistic nor a good market solution and this inherently this a major crow bar into my remedy which I proposed. As was rightly pointed out, crafters need to craft thousands of goods in order to skill just a few levels. The market can not absorb these goods and hence they are simply dumped to NPC vendors at wildly inflated prices. Crafters have little incentive to meet market demand and even if they did the GUI which is in the game will not allow buyers and sellers to meet, hence the transaction cost of any good is extremely high and production for the sake of trade rarely occurs.
What Ryzom fails to recognize as a game is that skilling = time. Some people have more time at their exposure to play games then others and it is inherently unfair from a perspective justice to award people more ranks of skill simply because they can spend more time online. I also strongly dislike grinding. Though, if there is a definitive goal I will grind to achieve this goal. In Ryzom, you grind to be awarded with yet more grinding. For example, I can grind my digging skill and be awarded with a higher dig skill so I can grind more. I can grind my fame skill so I can get awarded with PR access so I can grind more in the PR.
This is not logical game design. A more rational system is the system which Eve has implemented and that is the system which gives you skill points for time directly, no matter if you are online or offline. This eliminates the grind and is a just outcome.
People will continue to play a game even if it is content-less so long as they can continue to accrue power, wealth, and fame (real fame). If these things are empty or missing players will either not play at all or they will play for the novelty and soon move on. I can use the example of Eve here, people do not play Eve for the end game; there is no end game. We can talk about the litany of reasons about why people play each individual game but one thing about Ryzom which is nearly for certain; few people play Ryzom because they enjoy it. They play Ryzom because they acquired a social circle of friends and they get a certain benefit from this. If and when people realize this they will leave with their circle of friend(s). I am certain I will get many replies saying I enjoy Ryzom!. And, you are in the few. This is not unique to Ryzom. I once saw a poll about EQ when I played asking why people and an amazing number (for greater then 50%) played because of their friends / guild. Once WoW and EQ2 came out, these guilds / friends moved.
Playing a game for the hope that good new content will be released in the future is not a very good measuring stick. When I advise people on buying and selling stock, I always say: If you ever use the word hope then it is time to sell. The same is true with online games. If you are saying: I hope Nevrex will release good content in the next patch, then you have already gone past the point of no return.
Nevrex wishes to release R2, which is player created content and this is a mistake. Player created content in an online world is a non-competitive business model and I am surprised the VCs didnt stomp this. What Ryzom is aiming for is player driven content and that is an entirely different beast. There is a little of this in Ryzom, but the real player driven content can be found in Eve.
The XP crystals is actual game content and an objective except it is an extremely poor one (albeit the only thing in the game at the moment). This is a system where power will beget yet more power and is inherently bad. Small guilds wishing to come up from the bottom will never have the same opportunity that larger and more established guilds do. Yes, it is true that certain guilds do pass out crystals, however they do this selectively to those whom they deem worthy and not equitably. The new thing which I forget the name of (which prevents spawning) will only exacerbate this. If you think one guild is difficult to remove with the option of infinite respawns, try it if you only have one go.
Player created content is preferred to GM driven content. Personally, and most people for that matter, have a tough time getting into an RP roll (most people in Ryzom can, however, since people tend to do what they are most efficient at). However, it is not difficult for me to get into a real player trying to exact revenge because of a lost ship, declare war on the enemy because of a real issue and not something abstract, or bending the market to my will. Gm driven content is extremely costly. Nevrex made a choice when making this game for Gm events weekly. I do not think they were prepared for how man power intensive this is. For each man/hour that is used in this one time here now gone tomorrow can not be used in permanent content. I think it was a good experiment myself, but I think this is something that Nevrex should seriously think about reconsidering. If people are playing 15 bucks a month for a two hour event which is only fun ¼ of the time (for each persons own preferences), then most people are going to quit or not bother subscribing.
All that said, I think Ryzom could be the best game out there which is why I tried it in the first place. I think a lot of the innovation at Nevrex is second to none. If some things do change for the positive, assuming the VCs dont pull the plug, then I will re-up my account. I'll continue to follow this thread and will be more then happy to answer any questions.
In the mean time, anyone who wishes to play Eve, you can find me there under the same name (Etruscus and my alt Etrusan).