About Silan, f2p, etc.:
First let me say that if they had kept Silan the freeby zone and never implemented a trial period I probably never would have quit playing, though I'm not sure since my fall-out with a CSR who is no longer present was pretty bad--this over a simple quest reset...that was on arispotle over a year ago.
Anyway, I returned when I heard that Ryzom was now fully open with level caps for f2p. In my opinion this is one (if not "the") best f2p implementations I have seen in an MMORPG, and I have been playing since the early/middling days of evercrack... This easily trumps ddo's implementation: 1. because it is so simple to understand, and 2. because if you're adventurous--if not stealthy--enough, you can at lease "explore" the whole game.
Ryzom is a fully functional, p2p, true sandbox MMO--one of the few left (this is a huge selling point btw)--with its "roots" in both pencil & paper role paying as well as at least one cinematographic reference. It has a solid rendering engine, along with what I can only describe as "conversational" a.i. (they pee on you, you pee on them etc.).
I would discourage Winch Gate, as the publisher, from attempting to give it a more theme-park, f2p, (if not wowish) feel--for the sake of profit--with certain non-immersive, i.e. real world, events etc. (this may satisfy some of the older players). Silan is a bit theme-park, but newbies sometime need that sort of thing before they get exposed to the wide world that is the root ball of Atys. Sandbox purists can easily travel to the ML if they so choose.
I like that I can be completely self-sufficient, but at the same time there are any number of ways to interact with other players.
My initial experience this second time playing would have been greatly improved if I had the option to port a very well made trial character, even for a small fee, without having to sub.
I am against closing off sections of the game; however, I am not against reverting back to just Silan or areas close to the main cities (Dofus--another French game though in flat 2d--did/does this with their f2p players ((you can still explore the rest of the game, but you can't interact in any way with it))), though I don't think that would ever happen at this point. Although the earlier levels are much easier than the latter, Winch Gate can safely say that fully half of the levels are free. That in and of itself is a ton of f2p cred.
It seems that Nevrax, at least from a development standpoint, knew exactly what they were doing. Hopefully we will be able to see their vision fully realized.
(hopefully without any of the b.s.)
Au revoir Arispotle,
Regards,
Hadrian Kross
First let me say that if they had kept Silan the freeby zone and never implemented a trial period I probably never would have quit playing, though I'm not sure since my fall-out with a CSR who is no longer present was pretty bad--this over a simple quest reset...that was on arispotle over a year ago.
Anyway, I returned when I heard that Ryzom was now fully open with level caps for f2p. In my opinion this is one (if not "the") best f2p implementations I have seen in an MMORPG, and I have been playing since the early/middling days of evercrack... This easily trumps ddo's implementation: 1. because it is so simple to understand, and 2. because if you're adventurous--if not stealthy--enough, you can at lease "explore" the whole game.
Ryzom is a fully functional, p2p, true sandbox MMO--one of the few left (this is a huge selling point btw)--with its "roots" in both pencil & paper role paying as well as at least one cinematographic reference. It has a solid rendering engine, along with what I can only describe as "conversational" a.i. (they pee on you, you pee on them etc.).
I would discourage Winch Gate, as the publisher, from attempting to give it a more theme-park, f2p, (if not wowish) feel--for the sake of profit--with certain non-immersive, i.e. real world, events etc. (this may satisfy some of the older players). Silan is a bit theme-park, but newbies sometime need that sort of thing before they get exposed to the wide world that is the root ball of Atys. Sandbox purists can easily travel to the ML if they so choose.
I like that I can be completely self-sufficient, but at the same time there are any number of ways to interact with other players.
My initial experience this second time playing would have been greatly improved if I had the option to port a very well made trial character, even for a small fee, without having to sub.
I am against closing off sections of the game; however, I am not against reverting back to just Silan or areas close to the main cities (Dofus--another French game though in flat 2d--did/does this with their f2p players ((you can still explore the rest of the game, but you can't interact in any way with it))), though I don't think that would ever happen at this point. Although the earlier levels are much easier than the latter, Winch Gate can safely say that fully half of the levels are free. That in and of itself is a ton of f2p cred.
It seems that Nevrax, at least from a development standpoint, knew exactly what they were doing. Hopefully we will be able to see their vision fully realized.
(hopefully without any of the b.s.)
Au revoir Arispotle,
Regards,
Hadrian Kross