Nevrax NA Team is Picking Up Speed

[stellus]

We've addressed the NA Nevrax CS team with some thoughts on what could be done to further improve Ryzom's image in the gaming world. I must say, I'm impressed, but will it be enough?

We had mentioned getting the game in stores like EBgames and Gamestop. Lo' & behold, I find 2 boxes sitting on EBgames shelves (which I carefully rearranged so that the front of the box was showing ) and also one box sitting on Gamestop's (very tiny) PC section shelf.

We had also brought forward the point that there weren't too many reviews in the popular gaming sites such as IGN.com. Now I'm not sure if Nevrax called up IGN to invite them to review the game, but it's now up there and on front page of pc.IGN.com's site in full feature. Despite the half-arsed review done by IGN on the game, it's still out there.

So far, so good Nevvy my friends. Keep up the hard work! I'm starting to notice a change in the way PR is handling things. But will this be enough?

I'd say get some free trials out there and that could further help the cause!

(Now if only Nevrax wuold accept American Express cards )

[lucid120]

First, I'd end forced servers, encouraging players from multi-national guilds to invite their friends

improve documentation to limit new player frustration/poor reviews due to lack of understanding.

"buddy key" program, allowing subscribers to invite friends to play knocks out free trials and ensures this influx of new players has a guide waiting for them when they log in.

Make the game available for purchase and immediate download online. Impulse buys are a marketing dream. (: Nevermind the fact that direct sales increase availability and drop overhead (every download is pure profit).

That said, it's good to see they're working so hard to make things better. Keep up the good work!

[stellus]

Agreed. The buddy key system worked well for Planetside since it was hard to find a retail box in stores at one point.

I do believe the game is available for digital download on the main page. Not 100% positive though.

[lucid120]

Agreed. The buddy key system worked well for Planetside since it was hard to find a retail box in stores at one point.

I do believe the game is available for digital download on the main page. Not 100% positive though.

It's not. Otherwise, I'd have been playing a lot longer than I have been.

[raynes]

"First, I'd end forced servers, encouraging players from multi-national guilds to invite their friends"

They really don't force servers. You can pick the one you want to start, you just have to stay there. And yes at first it appears that this is not a good policy, but it's a necessary one. Why? Becuase one of the selling points of this game is that each server will take the story the way they want through the actions of the players. It would really put a kink in things if people were playing on a server, suddenly one of the other servers has something exciting happen, and people jumped ship.

[lucid120]

Unfortunately, at this time, the game doesn't have the name or the population to do things like limit customer choice. I chose the NA server, but later find out some friends are over on the EU server...your customers will cancel before they purchase another account.

That said, you underestimate the investment that people put into their characters. Simply "jumping ship" is extremely unlikely to occur. It would take some significant differences to cause an exodus of note..if that occurs, then there's a much deeper problem than just a "cool event somewhere else"...

[slaval28]

I think this game will grow alot by word of mouth like AC1 did back in the day. This game is the greatest MMO I have played since AC1 and it is being run by a bunch of professionals. A combo not found often lately in the MMO world. I look forward to some of the changes that will help promote this game but the easiest way for us to increase the amount of people playing is to get the word out.

[bizango]

Unfortunately, at this time, the game doesn't have the name or the population to do things like limit customer choice. I chose the NA server, but later find out some friends are over on the EU server...your customers will cancel before they purchase another account.

That said, you underestimate the investment that people put into their characters. Simply "jumping ship" is extremely unlikely to occur. It would take some significant differences to cause an exodus of note..if that occurs, then there's a much deeper problem than just a "cool event somewhere else"...

I agree that investment in a character would make a difference, provided accounts were still limited to just one server at a time. If it were as simple as just starting *another* character on the Euro-English server, I also agree that people would jump ship. Players would gravitate to where the coolness is happening.

I seem to recall that at this time, it is not possible to move your account to another server but there were hints that in the future, it may be possible. Moving accounts (not characters) would alleviate the finding old friends problem, and hopefully Nevrax puts that process in place soon.

[larsa]

... I'd say get some free trials out there and that could further help the cause! ... )

I would disagree with you on that one, sorry.

Ryzom is still in a shape (bugs, missing features, missing "content") that makes putting up a free trial a very dangerous action, causing that bad reviews and negative publicity will be readily readable on about every message board gamers tend to visit. I would think that a free trial in the current situation is akin to asking for bad PR all over again, just look at the IGN review that focuses on broken missions, non existing quests, missing explanations and NPCs with no name and nothing to tell.

Nevrax, sadly, did something like that with the first open beta back in spring when they presented a game to the general public that was in no form or shape ready for an open beta - and Nevrax is still suffering from this bad publicity. There are still many people around that remember how the game played back then (badly!) and I think it makes little sense to present yet another version of an unfinished game to the wider public.

I believe there's only one possible successful strategy for Ryzom: Nevrax has to increase their speed of progress. I don't know why progress is relatively slow with the game (not only counting progress since release but since closed beta months ago).

I remember a post from me from some time ago on the beta boards where I speculated that Nevrax seems to employ 20 artists and 4 programmers instead of the other way round ...

[stellus]

With the state Ryzom is in right now, we need to push some sort of demo out there. We need to get players in the game. If it means waiting until Patch 1 goes in before deploying a trial, then so be it.

Slaval...Lineage 2?