How to fix the game (brainstorming) - IDEAS FOR RYZOM

Bitttymacod

I have not met an MMO that does not involve a lot of time investment on the player's part and a significant amount of grind. As for the staying power of new players, churn is also a feature of all games.

That grind must be either fun or addictive (think rats pressing a lever for random cheese drops addictive, there's a study on this). Ryzom promises neither. You grind just because you're required to - impossible to hit some mobs or players otherwise - not because you want to unlock some high level fun content.

Digging is not fun for YOU, it's fun for me. Leveling CAN be done in large groups (e.g. Shalah and Plod teams, and use of multiple teams in the same area). You say that there should be a fun or addictive activity and then you criticise repetitiveness. The two are inversely related (see any dungeon crawler).

See above. Nothing is fun about pressing "4" to heal, for 30 minutes/level at 240. This is a grind you just *have* to slog through, if you want to compete with others in actual gameplay. And usually grind is rewarded with something (you know, dangling the carrot) - Ryzom doesn't dangle anything.

For every person that says Ryzom's grind is fun, I hear 10-20 others who say it's not, or just quietly slip away because of the state of affairs.

If you have ideas for things that will improve the game, make them explicit and work them out (in detail). As Irfidel pointed out, some things do get implemented, some things don't.

I can sit on a stool and tell you that it's badly designed - sometimes even "why". But I could not tell you how to design and build a good stool, that's not my craft.

I am not a game designer or architect. There is a reason why those actually have a job with its own title, and get paid significant money for it. To come and tell me unironically that I should do this job for free (even if I were qualified for it) is just crass.