OFFICIAL NEWS

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

+1

There are no laws that make it a requirement for friend request confirmation in MMO's, in any country that I am aware of. If someone is stalking you in Ryzom, its a very easy fix with the ignore button. If it continues im sure the CSR team would not hesitate to respond to a ticket.

I think you are being just a little over the top here...

Not worried about some random stranger stalking me in Ryzom but one very well known, to me, man using this feature to track me yet again.

Clearly, this community doesn't care about such a very real threat...Vodani deleted.

So your one of THOSE kind of people....

Im sorry mate but its not up to the entire game to be changed to suit issues you are having... If you have these issues and tickets/police are not resolving it perhaps a name change or deleting your character is the best option.

And if its a real threat to your physical safety I would dare say you probably have bigger things to worry about than playing a game... Good luck.

Actually having option to restrict your online status only for persons you have in your friends list or guild would be nice.

[quote=Entendu]
Am I missing something here? Vodani was talking about a toon possibly being stalked as a real threat, how can a toon be threatened.

A toon is a toon it tell's no one your real name or where you are from it is just a toon, if someone bothers you r toon use ignore if that is not enough...teleport somewhere else, they wont know where you teleported to or just log out ,it actualy is no big deal.

As for keeping a record of when your toon logs in and out.....give it a break, who in there right mind cares enough to keep a record of how long each toon plays and say someone did go to all that trouble what they going to do with the record.......nothing at all it is usless. and meaningless

Exactly what kind of person is that? Also, exactly how does a blatant ad hominem add anything to the discussion?

Yes and no: The goal of a stalker is also to control the behavior of their target, and, preferably, to isolate them. Quitting the game is playing into both of those desires. The less Vodani interacts socially, the less he or she has a network of people who can at least provide some grounding influence, the more he or she will be at risk. Either from the stalker, potentially encouraged by the "victory," or just from the sort of strain that can put on a person.

It may not seem like a big deal to you, but it actually matters to someone who has to spend their time looking over their shoulder. If nothing else, blowing off steam is vital to the emotional health of the individual. Someone who is stalked living an entirely isolated and utilitarian life, ultimately, has given all of their power over to the person stalking them. It also further endangers them. It may seem odd that an online game might be where the line is drawn, but it makes absolute sense. When one is trying to let their hair down, they want to actually be able to do so.

Vodani: I'm not suggesting you endanger yourself, naturally. Keep safe, keep connected, and remember: you're not the only one.

Yeah, you did miss something. Vodani was saying that he or she was being stalked, not the toon. The toon is a tool. As for what could be done with the data? Usage data can be used to establish daily patterns. Such as: when you're at home. When you're at the office. Whether or not you've stayed late at the office. It also allows certain stalkers to maintain the delusion of a connection between them and their target, which further fuels stalking behavior.

Should I continue?

+1 Absolutely

The crazy conspiricy theory kind of person.

Okay lets assume Vodani is being stalked... How does the stalker know that him/her play Ryzom? If "Vodani" is a word associated with their RL name or something the stalker would know then honestly their an idiot. If the stalker has hacked into the computer and know they play Ryzom and know their user name 1) The stalker wouldn't need to be on Ryzom to harrass or stalk this person and 2) They have much larger issues then people seeing them online.

hrmmm...

I would like to point out that the new feature does not actually add any functionality that the old friends list window did not have. I can still see who is logged in who is on my friends list by looking at the window. (In fact I turned off the notification as soon as I figured out how; I've got enough random stuff appearing in the chat boxes.)

I do understand Voldani's concerns; even cyberstalking is scary and threatening, and if the rl person stalking the rl Voldani is using the login to know when he/she is at the comp, that is information that could be used to harm him/her. However, that information was available before.

am surprised that no one has suggested a name change for Voldani. If there is a real stalking threat, the CSR's can implement a name change as being for a good and sufficient reason. (Unlike, for instance, removing the intrusive 't' in Bitttymacod.) Voldani has lost nothing of the effort he/she has put into the game and the stalker may suspect, but cannot prove, especially if Voldani does a few changes in appearance as well (easily accomplished either by a CSR or a simple visit to the hair parlor).

All this talk of subbing is a real turn off, not only on the forums but esp. in-game...
I don't want to think about real world expenses while playing in a virtual world (if I did want to do that I would play entropia).

Also, don't fall into the same trap that the horizons/istaria player base did--i.e. marketing for the game in return for in-game rewards--that's really really really lame.

I'd much prefer to simply play the game, and then when my character/avatar(bleh those a#$%^&@s)/toon/etc. reached a point where that became relevent, make a decision then.

As for percieved stalking, first ask yourself are they really stalking me or am i just freaking out? If so, ignore works quite well as I have found; after that, simply report them and then the CSR's can monitor both of you =P; they take that kind of thing very seriously. In my experience the CSR's are more ammenable than the "griefer".

Concerning the friends list:
A more realistic implementation at this point would be something along the lines of the client not allowing a person who has been ignored to friend that same person, and subsequently track them...seems more plausable at this point. I'd much prefer the "griefer" being restricted, or having to change rather than the "griefee".

this for soloreaper:
for the pvp flag, do you mean pvp like arena or pvp like dual OR pvp like fighting another with the pvp flag.
I got assassinated once while I had the flag on, but I never attacked that player and it remained; so do I need to attack them and do damage at least once as well??

I am amazed that apparently there are many players out there who don't consider this new feature a privacy issue.

It is definitely a feature change if something that would have to be observed manually by looking at icons in a friends window suddenly changes into a status message that can easily be grabbed by scripts. The hurdle to capture player's logon/logoff has been lowered.

This is ok in my eyes because I can see the benefit for those wanting to be notified when their friends logon.

However, not providing at least an opt-out is careless, to say the least. As a matter of fact, I would have expected that this is an opt-in feature.

Come-on folks, if it comes to spam email, to unwanted mail delivery, unwanted phone calls and other pestering side-effects of companies and individuals trying to make money, most people do agree that there must be an opt-out facility, and a growing population believes this should be opt-in. When online websites suddenly publish private pictures there's an outcry. If google would suddenly publish the search terms and times of all those people who have an account at their site - with the username attached - there would be an outcry, too.

Although this friend list notification may seem harmless to some, it is a fact currently that it cannot be turned off by those who'd like to stay private, and it is a fact, that logon/off profiles of toons can be established.
This is the first thing I'd personally ask the developers to fix asap.

It does not matter if you're stalked or not. Everybody has a right to decide for himself what information one is to publish. The last thing we need is a few more players dropping out just because of ignoring some common sense good practices when it comes to personal privacy.

Try to not make the debate a matter of personal issues.

erm, not to downplay any concerns here, but i think the only thing that the patch did was to allow ppl to friend others when they are offline... it's really a very simple change.

previosly there was nothing to say that a person with ill intent couldn't friend someone while they were online...

so, I think that a micro-update to *hide* someone from a person they've ignored is the best solution at this time; furthermore, the freinds list patch really has nothing to do with Voldani's stalking issue.