The first few weeks I was in Ryzom were an absolute blast. Things that I immediately liked about the game (pls note Silan did not exist when I joined) :
- Lack of 'paths' on the mainland.
- Awesome mature community.
- Great graphics.
- Stanza system seems like a genius concept.
- Friendly GM's.
- Treks are great fun.
- World is huge.
- The expansion sounds like a great idea.
- I have been to the Tryker, Matis and some of the Fyros mainland.
- I have levelled my digging to 11, melee to 55, magic to 75, crafting to 1.
- Died approximately 2938129371 times !
- Been to an Outpost battle.
- Joined a Guild - the lovely people at Pegasus Foundation
Things that are making me not want to login to Ryzom :
- Death penalty. This both puts a dampner on exploration and also makes switching from dieing in combat to digging a problem because of the level difference.
- Levelling just feels like a chore and requires (imho) a group to make any significant progress. Don't get me wrong I like grouping, but there are times when I log in for a short time that I do not want to trouble people to group up.
- Self heal timer is too slow for solo play.
- Although the worlds landscape is interesting, there is not many places of interest on them.
- Complete lack of any 'dungeons' - ok caves would be more fitting here, but so far Prime Roots is the only one I have seen.
- Digging and crafting do not really interest me but it seems to be what people do a large percentage of the time. Admittiedly I only got to lvl 11 or so dig but that was so boring I do not understand the appeal?
None of us are called Johnny but I guess we are all players 'that missed the point'!
I still have a few weeks left before my account expires to get 'the point' so would be greatfull for any pointers as to what it is I am missing. Thanks for taking the time to read this long post