Calling GameForge to Task! ;)

[wakatack69]

Ok,

You will see straight away i dont make many posts, and my account is very new - but at the same time, i dedicate an average of 35 hours a week playing (thats the same as what most people work hehe)

Anyway here are some simple recent statistics before i say my two pence;

55 pags from the Feedback section on a single thread over 13 months;
15 Pages on a Poll topic about what some of the community believe is causing peeps to leave, not return, and preventing newbies from comming - this also includes many suggestions outside of the original poll.
Several posts from existing players telling of how hard the tried to get new players onboard and how the very problems that are tearing appart this existing community are proving a core reason in preventing it growing.


This post is not to re-write 100's issues, suggestions, etc; but rather ask for the single most important requirement of any relationship (Business or Personal); COMMUNICATION!!!


GameForge; I am saddened to see the lack of updates;

In Testing: 1 item, last updated October 2006 (10 months OLD)
In Development: 4 items, updated September 2006, February 2007, March 2007, May 2007 (11, 6, 5 & 3 months OLD)

I personally am on a 6 months Sub; but alot of players of any MMO pay for 3 months or 1 months at a time...
Considering only 1 items out of 5 has had an update within 3 months... do you not know why people leave? Do you really not know why people arnt comming here?

The game is sold as a Living Planet, there is stacks of information on this site (ok from Nevrax days) showings tons of updates, events, progress, development, etc...


People pay for subscriptions for games like EQ1 & 2, WoW, SWG, etc etc for a reason... THEY EXPECT UPDATES!!

[There is a game called Guildwars, if you want to play an MMO which has little to no updates but is also has NO monthly fee...]

And updates dont always have to be downloadable ingame updates; they can be forum posts of what you guys are tinkering with... how are the brainstorming sessions going? what about your visions?

I mean look at the latest posts on numbers... sure alot of peeps dont respond, but its not like the Aniro 330 and Arispotle 180 is suddenly going to become 33000, and 18000 respectivly.

We all know you arnt making money, and we all know a bussiness can only invest so long and a time will come to call it quits (err Nevrax to Gameforge)

But i question this... DO YOU ACTUALLY HAVE ACTIVE DEVELOPERS AND ACTIVE TESTERS?

I clarify, DEVELOPERS not "Bug Fixers".


I have Eq2 account with all Expansions & Addons, I have WoW account with Expansion, I have ALL Guildwars expansions; yet i play Ryzom for 99% of my time.... logging into the others to download updates and trip my "innactive period" meter on the accounts :P

But i dont think anyone here will appreciate a Christmas present of - geeze, thanks for the aproximate 500 hours of your life (from now til Xmas), and your £xx fees, but we finally realised we cant and wont move forward.


I, like another Ryzom member, attempted recently to get new players over; couldnt have been worse timing... right in the middle of the dodgy patches...
They stuck with it through that... but considering a reversal, repatch, and patch of a patch later it was still unstable (yes i STILL cant exit program or make flags without a crash, thus having to spend my first 10 minutes customising ALL Settings again on every login); the finally decided its not worth paying for this at the moment....


Dont care for the Wheel (dont have enough dappers to truly enjoy wasting my time), LOVE the Titles (Female Tryker, so enjoy things liie Priestess & Mistress of the Blade), and well... never got to try out the whole Stamina / Weight thingy...

But none of those are going to keep or attract players...



So appoligies for the RANT; what i am asking is for Updates.
I want to see regular posts from GameForge of what REALLY is in testing, and what REALLY is in development.



Well thanks everyone; see you ingame tonight hehe
There's an OP battle to be fought :P

[acridiel]

I agree to 99% here, the one percent being me strangely having almost no trouble with crashes and such...

But Communitcation IS a thing Nevrax did undesputeldy and sadly far better than Gameforge.

Even counting the occassional post by Marjo, who´s at least trying.

CU
Acridiel

[gillest]

Originally Posted by acridiel

But Communitcation IS a thing Nevrax did undesputeldy and sadly far better than Gameforge.

This could really be a sarcasm as we all thought that there could not be worst than Nevrax communication wise but sadly proves to be so true .

Agree 100% with OP (Original Post, you silly, not Outposts )...

Tho I have to confess, for the last 2 weeks, I did not say it so nicely as OP did

[acridiel]

Oh, I´ve seen far worse than Nevrax... *cough*

[katriell]

More and better communication would certainly be appreciable.

Tell us what you intend to do with the game in short-term and long-term, other than:

"We're going to implement new, Silan-style missions on the mainland someday." ...Dun dun dunnn...

I do appreciate the attempts to fix bugs and make minor improvements, though. Actions speak louder than words, and so far the patches introduced during GameForge's ownership have not dumbed down the game, and some (like the stamina change) have actually accentuated its complexity. The technical issues have of course been problematic, but that's less important than the preservation and continuation of what makes Ryzom, Ryzom.

[komissar]

I love the stamina change (weight) imho it's the one addition that has really made cc fighting worthwile

Just my 2 dapps

[arfindel]

An old idea made new might be to select community representatives to keep an eye on the main suggestions put on the devs table. Can have proffessions prepresentatives (like armor makers, weapon makers, digger, melee, etc) or can have civilisation reps or even factional reps.

They could work on a technical level together with devs and CSR to select those proposals for further development that seem feasible, or to select those bugs that are urgent from those less important. They could work on an RP level with the CSR body to propose, design events, made more of the areas that are underused now - or not used at all...

They could work together with player base to create guides, manuals etc for people in their professions (no not spoilers, but the game in most cases is complex enough that if you find out the principle still have a virtual infinity of possibilities to explore)

[gillest]

Originally Posted by komissar

I love the stamina change (weight) imho it's the one addition that has really made cc fighting worthwile

I agree fully with that, I am just sad, that what seemed to be a "fine tuning" for the better actually made it much worst...
Worst = more time from devs to find and solve issues which were not there before = more delay on actual eventual new content..

And obviously NOT a word to let us know what is happening...
I know Marjo is out there and probably having a hell of a time but lets speak about someone else who WAS full of promises...
What was the name of the GF rep? Phelan or something?
Havent seen him post anywhere for ages...
German are famous for efficiency, reactivity and return on investment.....
Does it means they simply forgotten about us and Paris office is struggling alone?

Now i am kinda running out of patience lol, i give this GF guy 15 days to speak to us or I start revolution on the 3 forums

Easy to calculate: 15 days: today 23rd august: he has until the 38th August

[wakatack69]

Hey everyone,

Just letting you know, i am not a drive-by-poster - been reading updates today between stuff at work.

Thanks for all the positive nice replies, and special thanks to FAA; i am all for your suggestions


I hope Gameforge will speak up soon....

Thanks


P.S , confession - when i first started reading the forums i got so confused with the term OP (Original Poster), as I was already aware of the ingame Outposts (OP).... heheh

[acridiel]

Originally Posted by gillest

Easy to calculate: 15 days: today 23rd august: he has until the 38th August

MUAHAHAHA!
Very good!

CU
Acridiel