Tumbleweed
It's not the new zone that is needed, it's new activities, new things to do, new tools for creating player content - and by player content I mean not silly quests and clockwork theatres, but things that happen when one interacts with other players. This is MMO after all, this genre is about interacting with players, ....
Tumbleweed:
What you say above is quite true, but it involves players who want to invest time and effort into creating that content, and that is not anything that the devs or event team or any *outside* group can do. Event team can encourage and help people, and the technical help can do small things to assist, but it rests upon the *players* to do the heavy lifting.
If adding a new region causes the players to *want* to do the heavy lifting, then it seems to me that a new region is a good thing. If the release of ARK, or introduction of PoWo, causes players to make that effort, well, it seems to me that they have then served a useful purpose.
However, the game doesn't need any of them -- it needs enthused players. And it has them -- it's just that no one is trumpeting their deeds.
Example: The recent event scheduled by the event team to search for a Marauder, Fakuang, for the purposes of bringing him to testify in a Zorai "justice gathering". It was clearly set up by the event team to succeed and make another "clockwork theatre" piece. Oops. The Marauder *players* rescue him, and when a challenge from the Zorai expedition *players* suggest a 2x2 contest, it is held and the Mara win again. Fakuang (or whatever his name is) is still at large.
Example: SKA studies on the characteristics of the Kitins. Efforts by the players (headed by Zendae) over several months produce real numbers which are then incorporated in a "book" that is accessible in game. The studies were made by hunting kitin, both on the surface and in PR, in groups. This has recently been expanded as Serae Zendae made a proposal to the Rangers Aspirant to assist in gathering further data. The event team (Wuaoi, the Ranger Instructor) didn't do anything! It's happening because of the players.
Suggesting implementing the Ring (or PoWo) as a way to encourage this is not wrong -- nor is it a panacea. Suggesting a new region is not wrong, but it is not a panacea either. What strikes me as wrong is sitting around complaining about things being dead and waiting for the devs and teams to do something when one could be organizing the players into doing things *despite* the event team.
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Remembering Tyneetryk
Phaedreas Tears - 15 years old and first(*) of true neutral guilds in Atys.
(*) This statement is contested, but we are certainly the longest lasting.
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