Ryzom

The graphics are beautiful. The AI is maginficent. The storyline seems rich. After 2 weeks of play i can tell this game has a very solid foundation. Still the number of my fellow hardcore mmrpg buddies i could talk into even considering picking it up equals ZERO! Why has such a great product been so underhyped?!?
MMRPG's are about community and mines obviously gonna be in WOW and EQ2.

heepheep wrote:The graphics are beautiful. The AI is maginficent. The storyline seems rich. After 2 weeks of play i can tell this game has a very solid foundation. Still the number of my fellow hardcore mmrpg buddies i could talk into even considering picking it up equals ZERO! Why has such a great product been so underhyped?!?
MMRPG's are about community and mines obviously gonna be in WOW and EQ2.

I think it's largely because so much focus is on WoW and EQ2. The people who are waiting for those games are either simply not willing to play anything else, or are already playing something else, until their preferred game comes out. I heard that all the time in FFXI.. "I'm just playing this until EQ2 comes out..." and so on...

It could either be a very bad thing.. or a very good thing for Nevrax in the long-term.

My thinking is, if Nevrax don't pick up enough players to support the expenses to maintain the game, the designers and developers and such, it could spell certain doom in the form of a pulled plug. This would greatly suck for Nevrax, and of course for those of us who are truly enjoying the game.

On the other hand (you have different fingers! :-p ), if the player population grows steadily and consistently enough, we could wind up with a population of mature players (as there are now) who are dedicated to the game, love the game and are populace enough to allow Nevrax to continue to maintain develop and expand on the world of SoR. This would be something like how Anarchy Online has evolved. Despite its disastrous launch, AO has grown into a solid, respectable and challenging MMORPG. You don't hear too much about AO in MMOG circles.. but log on and you'll see a very dedicated and loyal player population, many of whom have been playing a *very* long time. This is the type of direction I kinda hope (admittedly somewhat selfishly the game goes.

Of course, it could suddenly break wide open and a whole mass of new players might flood in... this would be great for Nevrax, of course.. but.. well, depending on the type of people it attracts, it could a blessing and curse for the rest of us.

But.. time will tell. I do know people who are trying it out.. Some who would like to see a demo.. which I hope Nevrax provides at some point.. a 1 or 2 week trial for those who are on the fence about it and need some hands-on time with it.

Yup it's sad that there is no hype and so very few people will find this game. I did get my brother to buy it but he wont play it because he's all about hype and the big companies. Just played for a little bit and wont actually put effort into it. So he's just going to wait for WOW to come out. You know, a game where everyone is talking about it and bustling with info all over the net and the mags. I think he's more moved by the big scene than anything. And it sucks that a lot of people are like that.

Maybe some more marketing.

Dont think Ill play WOW or EQ2 - SOR is different enuf for me - just hope they get the numbers.
Horizons was very nice in many ways but something went a bit wrong and things fell apart - so much nerfing followed by endless more nerfs turned alot of people off.
Im hoping Nevrax are going to develop SOR better than AE did Horizons.

Yeah I do think it's a shame that some people won't give Ryzoms a try. It's very good and it's a good bit different then most of the other mmo's out there right now.

I can see why people want to play WoW and EQ2. I got to beta test WoW in the stress test and it was good.... only thing tho is it's over all just more of the same ol' same ol'. It's more or less an updated EQ clone. I do plan on messing with both EQ2 and WoW once they come out but I have no plans on cancelling SoR. If I had to choose I'd rather pick a game thats a bit different than to pick one thats pretty much just like many others.

Our best bet tho is word of mouth. Show and tell people what they are missing, try to get them to at least give SoR a chance at least. When I got my copy the guy working at the store started looking out the box. I flipped it over, looked at the screenshots, etc. I told him it was one of those online games..... he said "I know, but it does look pretty good" or something along those lines. Just by checking out the box SoR grabbed him a bit. So we just need to spread the word more, let our friends and family know about this new and very good mmo.

There have been advertisements in different mag's for SoR. Granted at the time I did see it the game was in the last open-beta and not available in the stores. I havent read or seen anything after release.

Personally I hope that it does stay kind of low key. I do want more people in the world but I would prefer to see the current crowd quality and not the leet doods.

I dont think it is the wrong time for the release ... I dont think alot of hype was necessary either. Case in point AO ... alot of hype and very little to back it up. Granted the game is now very solid and as a previous poster said it has a very dedicated player base. Given an example like that I can see why a company would release somewhat quietly and get the opinions of the player base before rushing off to spread the word.

Give SoR a few months and the deves will have it worked to make it great and the word will get out.

I do think name recognition is a major factor. Both EQ2 and WoW have name recognition in spades (as will the Matrix Online and Middle Earth Online in the not-so-distant future). Those games will all be battling for a similar market share, however, while Ryzom seems to be more of a niche product.

At the moment, we don't know much about EQ2 other than it's designed and operated by Sony Online Entertainment, it's class-based, and it's non-PvP. Apparently it will be heavy on eye-candy, which will be a draw for the "next big thing" crowd and it will be aimed more at grouping-centric dynamics (though apparently soloing will be theoretically possible, even if not ideal).

WoW is pretty much an open book. The most frequent comments about WoW say "it runs smooth as silk and as stable as a slab of concrete," and "while it brings no new ideas to the table, it plays like a greatest hits edition of MMOs past and perfects those old ideas in many ways." The quest-based nature of the game is often touted as being rather original, though the quests themselves seem to be the traditional "kill this, get that, escort the other" variety with a great deal of associated lore. The system offers very little customization, for better or for worse. You choose a pre-designed class, you pick a pre-designed Tolkienesque race, you choose a pre-rendered face, you choose some hairstyles, and you choose two trade skills, then it's off to killing and looting creeps and critters. Later you can pick and choose from a few specialization skills, which offer the only real way to differentiate your character from anyone else.

WoW is, however, based on Realm-versus-Realm, which will be a turn-on for many and a turn-off for others. The levelling curve is very fast, and "hero classes/levels" are promised at the end, as are PvP perks.

The Saga of Ryzom offers a great deal of customization. As a matter of fact, I think it's the only skill-based game of the modern era other than CoH (in which the skills were bundled into classes similar to Anarchy Online anyway), and the two couldn't be more different. Granted, the appearance customization is only slightly more advanced than Asheron's Call 1, which shipped years ago. The game allows you to choose exactly what kind of character you want to play, however, and that's a significant draw for many people who've been playing MMOs for awhile. You can use melee AND ranged weapons AND magic AND craft AND harvest..or not. It's the only game out there that lets you do whatever the heck you want. There is consentual PvP, an evolving storyline, and what seems to be an ongoing series of GM events.

I think Everquest 2 will appeal to the PvE players of EQ1. I think WoW will draw in the Battlenet players, as well as friends of said players and EQ1 players who still want to PvP. Both games will grab people who are attracted by shiny boxes with scantily-clad women on the cover. I think Ryzom will draw players from AC1 and older gamers who are sick of classes and Tolkien races that narrowly define them into pre-designated roles; this is further supported by the fact that there were nine people over the age of thirty on the [Windermeer] Fyros starter island region chat last night. I have no doubt that Ryzom will be seriously outsold by said games, but I think the game will find and keep a fairly loyal following. Whether it's enough to maintain things such as GM events or not is uncertain, but I don't think we'll see the game shutdown in the near future.

One thing to keep in mind is that the game appears to have been targeted at a small audience. Look at the number of servers- one North American server farm, one German, one French, and one English. SWG launched with around a dozen North American servers alone. Nevrax isn't aiming at huge chunks of the market (though I'm sure they'd be pleasantly surprised to get them), they're aiming at lower hanging fruit. Word-of-mouth will definitely be important, and I have to believe it'll continue to spread. This game -is- something different, something new, something challenging in a genre where all of those things are rare concepts. Players -will- find it when the games aimed at the lowest common denominators start to wear thin. I hope.

The only way SoR will be able to survive in the long run, as it seems to me right now, is by word of mouth. I do hope that in the next few months they decide to advertise some more, get the name of the game out more.

For what it's worth I've dragged two people over here, one who was playing CoH with me, the other who just about to start, and they both love this game. One of them is trolling the CoH boards trying to lure more people here too, it's rather amusing

Anyways, I hopes SoR will be around for a while, otherwise I'll be a sad panda...

tayster wrote:The only way SoR will be able to survive in the long run, as it seems to me right now, is by word of mouth. I do hope that in the next few months they decide to advertise some more, get the name of the game out more.

For what it's worth I've dragged two people over here, one who was playing CoH with me, the other who just about to start, and they both love this game. One of them is trolling the CoH boards trying to lure more people here too, it's rather amusing

Anyways, I hopes SoR will be around for a while, otherwise I'll be a sad panda...

IMHO, they need a demo out there. Let them get some of the remaining launch wrinkles ironed out, slay the lag beast once and for all (it's dying now, it seems, since that small patch they recently implemented), and maybe get Patch 1 out the door so the game is closer to their final "launch" vision for it. Then get a demo out there and start inviting people in.

Ad-wise... I've seen alot of banners spread about on gaming sites and have seen some 2 or 3 page spreads in some of the gaming magazines (not cheap!).. So Nevrax has been spreading the word.. I just think people have their WoW and EQ2 blinders on.

I am telling everyone I know who's a gamer and interested in MMOGs to give this game a try; and I feel secure and confident in the recommendation. I really like what Nevrax has created; more all the time. A good friend of mine (a vet of FFXI and AO, but playing neither at the moment and possibly open to something new) will be checking it out tomorrow on my PC... trying to think of what I can show him while he's here to give him a good overview of what the game offers. I'm still on the starter island.. so it's not like I can show him any of the "later stuff".. Hmmm...