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Hi there! I watched this video https://youtu.be/-B1CyzwOtDU and I was curious about the game. I want to know before picking this game up if it is still worth playing. How bad are the things said in the video really?

o broken user interface
o bad or broken tutorials
o confusing skill system
o no autoloot
o no main story
o grinding quests

also why does this game have a mp3 player, lol

Thanks
Marco

- User interface is from 2004 basically, so it's old-school but totally usable and clear -> for me it's false.
- Tutorial are on Silan (newcomers area), you need to read them to understand the system. They are being reworked so this will change.
- Skill system is not confusing. There is no class, you can level up everything. You can also customize every action maybe that's the confusing part of it but it's also what make the system cool.
- Indeed, there is no auto-loot.
- There is a main story and sub-stories too, but it requires some involvement and research to get in.
- Yes, the game is a grinding game ... you need to grind to level up and missions are somewhat always the same.

The game as an embedded mp3 players, because in 2004 it was more convenient to use that, than playing audio from a third-party software (because you know, people likes to have their music instead of the game ones after XXXX hours of enjoying the game).

Yes, the video is accurate.

If you ignore all the ingame webbrowser minigames, then the UI is fine.
The learning pace of the game is pretty uncalibrated, the tutorials are rather haphazard.
The skill system is a tree with bricks. But at the trainers you buy phrases instead of bricks. Which are a preset collection of bricks. Not confusing at all. Or is it?
There's no auto-loot. It's on my TODO list, though, at least.
The main story got abandoned in favour of some RP side story, based on the whims of whoever is loudest.
The majority of missions are autogenerated placeholder missions, because the leveldesign was never finished. Then that got topped up with a bunch of manually created side quests that don't really matter either.
There's an MP3 player, because there's no ingame music.

I really like the User Interface, it is better than a lot of other games I have seen. Like was mentioned, it is a bit of an old school style interface, but it is very usable, functional, and straight forward. I also find it has a lot of really small features about it that I wish other game interfaces had.

The tutorials built into the game are not the best, but the starter / newbie island missions will teach you the basics of how to play the game. My recommendation is to run through it twice with 2 different characters. The first time to get the hang of things, the 2nd time to help solidify it. Part of the problem is the skill system can get pretty involved and VERY customizable, I am not sure if any tutorial can really prepare you for the options available, something you just kind of need to get the hang of by using it. Any toon can potentially play any type of role in a team (group) just by switching out your skills and tweaking them for the exact role you want to play. Well, granted you have leveled those particular skills up...

That leads into what you call a 'confusing skill system'.... it is not as much confusing as quite involved and very customizable. Just takes a little while to get the hang of it, but once you get the hang of it, it works very well. I do wish there were more games out there that had the versatility and options in the skill / class system as this one, but that is personal preference.

Autoloot is overrated. There have been a few MMOs out there I have played where I wish I could turn autoloot off in certain situations.

There is most definitely a main story, also tons of side stories. You just need to travel around and talk to NPCs to get some of those stories, if you are expecting the storylines to be shoved down your throat like some games do, you will be disappointed.

Grinding Quests? Out of the 20 or 25 MMOs I have played over the years, the ONLY I have ever played that did NOT have grinding quests was Dungeon Runners.... I miss that game.

I feel that that person just wanted an "idle-clicker" RPG with zero effort required, and was so angry that Ryzom didn't give him that that they didnt' even try to attempt to learn. In fact, at a few spots, he seems to go out of his way to NOT learn simply for the sake for making a clickbait video. 

The only totally accurate part of that video that I can see is that there is a learning curve that is a bit steep for some people's tastes, and the tutorials are not up to snuff. However, I feel that, "This game is not for me.", is a more rational and mature response than that video. 


o broken user interface

Not broken by any means; simply old-school. It's not your modern "limit the options and focus on looking pretty" type of UI. It has a lot of functionality once you learn it, and the entire point of an interface is to get information from and give commands to the computer. In that regard, it's actually among the best I've seen

That said, it is a little unintuitive, and I admit that I would've had a hard time with it if I hadn't grown up with more primitive UIs back when you needed to RTFM just to figure out how to load and run programs because mice and GUIs were not a thing yet. 


o bad or broken tutorials

Admittedly true, which is why Silan is in the process of being revamped. I think most of us have learned more from other players than we ever did from Silan.

Ryzom can get deep if you are into deep play, and a good tutorial should give at least some indication that there is more than just the utter basics, but it's a fine balancing act between teaching what one needs to start out while piqueing curiousity and intimidating them with information overload. Ryzom rewards learning, which is something many other games fail at. But in it's current form, it doesn't do a great job of teaching. That's where the community steps up, and the community here is part of teh reason I stuck around more than a few weeks. Many of us are more than willing to teach. 


o confusing skill system

It's more fine-grained than many other games, especially as the skill tree branches out at higher levels, but the progression seems pretty straight forward to me. Aside from the fact that you can edit/customize your actions, what confusing? Is it option shock?

o no autoloot

I can think of a couple of reasons why that's actually a good thing. One is anti-botting. Another is to make you a bit more mindful of where you drop your target; you have to use a bit more strategy than just unload damage and get rewards. 


o no main story

Atys has a history, and plenty of lore. But Ryzom is not the type of story-game where you can speedrun your way from beginning to end in 30-80 hours. It's more of a living world than an interactive movie. 


o grinding quests

It's a little grindy if you are after whatever rewards NPCs offer, or simply tons of XP, but what RPG isn't? And if you have enough (dappers/fame/Elyps) to be happy, you can just ignore quests and go full-sandbox. The amount of grind required depends on your goals. Sure, achieving some goals is a total grind, but others... not so much. It really depends on what you want.

You should keep in mind that he's a youtuber, he just wants that 10 minute mark for the ads, he won't be returning to the game even if he loved it, how can someone experience the entirety of an MMO if all he's aiming for is content good for 10 minutes?

This applies to most of his "worst mmos" series, every mmo has something to offer, that's why they're still alive, people still find it appealing to play and those MMOs aren't trying to compete with Big Titles like WoW, GW2, FFXIV.

"Ryzom is not for casuals" it actually is, MMOs got dumbed down.

Interesting video. I look at the game with mixed feelings right now, I loved it when I played it back then, however there were far less mmos out there at the time and Ryzom has also changed a lot. I think Ryzom is an amazing experience when played as a group, it was never designed to offer a solo experience like epic story instances or pay to win cash shop mechanics when you are stuck. And I am thankful for that.

In my understanding you and some other refugees start on a strange planet and have to survive. Somehow. Find out how things work. Explore. Experiment. Team up.

But it looks like this is and always has been a niche in the world of mmos. Who would even be a potential new player base for Ryzom? The Steam launch showed (sadly) how little player try and even less stay with the game. Also the video above has over 205k views. This is the stuff people see about the game when they get a random youtube recommendation.

Having watched the video a second time, or at least parts of it, I think some of the points are valid though. Many people do think Silan is the main game and the rumor system is kinda confusing. Also the help system is scattered across so many places like ingame tutorials, ingame browser help, forums, wiki... He could simply ask another player or in universe, but how many people actually do that?

arc

Pretty much. Personally, I never understood the fame-seeking glory hound mindset much beyond a purely academic understanding of egomania. 
Ryzom is quite niche. The things that turn off the average gamer are the things that have kept me here for years. I have a sneaking suspicion that I am not alone in that either; I'd wager that a lot of us have stayed here because Ryzom has things that no other MMO can offer, though what those things are varies by personal taste. 
Eccentric people. The type that don't mind a bit of grind or a learning curve. The type that have an analytical mind, and like a game that has enough detail to keep them exploring different nooks and crannies for more than a few days. The type that like fine-grained control instead of canned actions and a relatively small selection of pregenerated gear. The type that prefer interesting mechanics over 4k graphics with ray-tracing. The type that prefer setting their own goals and taking part in a dynamic world over following the NPC prompts to the end of a story then moving on the next game. The type that want something other than just a slightly different take on the standard formula. 

That said, Ryzom is a bit inaccessible. I nearly quit very early on until I did something I generally never do in online games; engage with the community. Like many, I had preconceived notions based on experience with other MMOs that were.... less friendly. So I totally understand why so few ever tap into the best and most accessible learning resource that Ryzom has; Uni. Hopefully the new Silan will change that and result in the more introverted new players being less frustrated by the learning curve.

Can you point out the parts of the video where he's wrong? He clearly did put effort in attempting to learn the more complicated parts. I guess you didn't even try to watch the whole video.


Silan is the worst thing that ever happened to Ryzom. They're delusional if they want to keep polishing that turd.


Please elaborate. The things that made Ryzom unique are long gone already.

I'm not spending an hour-plus watching it again and pausing for note-taking to provide information that your tone suggests you'll ignore anyways. Especially in light if the fact that that he has made a brand of such rants (including but not limited to 33 other "Worst ever..." videos), and his stage-name is "Strife" implying a desire to sow discontent. I feel that you forgot the quote marks around "effort" in your attempt to justify portraying satire as truth.

Suffice it to say that he went far enough beyond your typical new-player problems to exhaust any benefit of a doubt, and a little extra looking really didn't help his case.
This one is actually easy. The crafting system is more (and better) than, "3 steel plus one leather equals generic sword". The ways that you can tweak crafting recipes, spells, and attacks to your playing style is far more fine-tuned than the multitude of other games I've seen. The macro system is a nice touch. Overall, the fact that you can change things to suit you instead of being forced into a One True Way is something that I have not seen elsewhere. 

The fact that players whose characters hate each other are more willing to break character to help new players than many other games is, in my experience, not unique but rare enough to be worth mentioning, and also a nice bonus.

I find the review a bit spicy but it's quite accurate tbh. The guy learns the game super quickly and gets what's happening too, so he kinda knows what he is talking about and even complements the cool stuffs, even if he's a bit repetitive about the hardcore thing. Also I laughed on many parts because many of those have been frustrating to me too =D

For OP, judge it yourself as how it feels to you, don't try to ask to others how you should feel about something. Experiencing stuff yourself is awesome part of life ;)

Also have to say +1 for our dev team for commenting on the video and saying they are working on it, you wont see that often ;)

That guy knows what he talks about, he has played them all. His review is very spicy, that's the intention.

Also see his final video on his series of "this MMO sucks" where he explains how he understands it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGnCMjltJQ - it might put his commenting into perspective.

He certainly has some points, yet one does not need to agree with every, as every player has different favourites. In other areas he probably has points many players agree with - but and there's room for improvement - and it's being worked on.

That said, this game has an incredible world, and mostly excellent game mechanics and one of the best communities there is around any game.

The target audience thus is:This puts it quite accurately. Those people will love Ryzom.

Well, actually I only watched half of that review. I never understood the charm of listening to someone talking about a game, or a book, or a movie he/she plays/reads/watches outside of a more or less short review in written form. Used to write some myself, and heck! it's far more fun to write a negative review than to be wax lyrical about something which actually was good. Alas, that someone can earn a living by doing videos which are almost an hour long I find quite puzzling, although I appreciate the effort that goes into it - writing a script, cutting the video, doing the narration, and in between dressing up, fresh from the hairdresser, to record on-screen appearances.

I obviously did sit through the video linked by Elke, which sort of did amuse me - partly because of all the effort to look good and sort of relaxed, striving to deliver a perfect talk - again scripted, pretty obviously, and rehearsed. The amusing bit amongst the (very respectable) hard work is that he's holding that empty mug for seventeen minutes - a prop to underline the relaxed performance, but, well, just a prop.

Also amusing in a way is the attitude on display, putting, as Elke writes, "his commenting into perspective". It does, as fundamentally he says what has to be done to please his patreons and YouTube followers. Even in he would hate, say, WoW, with all his heart, he wouldn't do a "the worst MMO game ever" video about it, as it would cost him followers. The "worst games" have to be those with the smallest player base - those which are obscure enough to enrage, if at all, only few, while pleasing his herd for exactly the reason he states: that negativity is shareable and popular. ;)

Pretty much. Sensationalism sells. What you say doesn't matter so long as you get views. And that's why I am how I am today; you can only roll your eyes so much before it wears on you. 
It does, since it's far less of the "Give me views and Likes!" clickbait of the rest of the channel. It also shows that 

When you come on too strong (as I often do) you get backlash. No matter how much truth there is to your words, your tone will get your point ignored or invalidated. Even people who would normally agree with you will turn against you, and minor disagreement turns visceral. 

That's why a balanced approach is best.Whether or not Ryzom is a good game is subjective but I think that everyone here (except possibly Kaetemi) would agree that Ryzom is not an unmitigated disaster, merely something that has a mix of strengths and flaws that are not for all tastes. And what some consider flaws, others either consider strengths or simply don't care as much about as what they feel Ryzom did right.

Ryzom sure isn't perfect, and some of what makes some of us love it are things some people may not like, but it's definitely worth a try. It'll go a lot better if you go in expecting (or at least don't mind) a bit of a learning curve that may require the mentorship of an experienced player or the help of the community to make of for one glaring flaw that is in the process of being fixed. But don't form an opinion based on one source. OP did well to not take that one review at face value, and ask for other opinions.

Agreed. But I was referring to the MMO that received a Best Story Award. With an interesting and engaging story, that's not just the usual bad anarchists vs goodie-two-shoes MMO fare.