IDEAS FOR RYZOM

The idea that some people never pay for online games just because of some principle or philosophy is appalling. Online games take work to create, promote, and run.. they don't just happen. It's hard to understand how so many people don't appreciate that and refuse to support the people who made their entertainment possible.

Anyway, I very much agree with this:

I personally came to a point where I couldn't justify continuing my monthly subscription so I had to discontinue it for a while. In that time I missed Ryzom and would have loved to check in and say hi once in a while, and keep up with current events. Had I been able to do that, I probably would have resubscribed much sooner than I did. Instead, I was completely disconnected and Ryzom went out of view. It wasn't until it was put in my face a few times by the steam promotions that I started thinking about it again, and now I've reactivated my subscription. I think if I had been able to access my account I would have been tempted to resub much sooner.

Sometimes I would pay if the content has reasonable prices. A bad example is Star-Conflict, which asks for my monthly money above my expense just to get into the mid-game, tripples that for early-late game and 10x to play in the top tier.

I also don't pay for games that act as Gate-keepers or footpads between Linux or your hardware and community content.
I believe that community content leads to digital slavery - The game that collects the most valuable content and steals it by locking it away from users via proprietary software, easily-changeable terms of use and sold access will be the most demanded. This can't be right.

EDIT: I call this is not a question of payment, but a vote from a citizen. The evil comes in shape of a gift here.

BUT

For all other games, I figured out a good formula for how much you should pay:
– (Your PC's cost) * (the time you play this game) / (the time you keep this PC)

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My PC purchase cost is about 100€ per year, but my internet cost + taxes for "digital media usage" is about 500€ per year.

I think it's not very surprising that we easily spend between (400€ / 4 years) and (800€ / 3 years) when the main factor is internet and tax costs.

I am ready to pay about 20€ a month for games, wikipedia donations, etc.
BUT
I would never pay 10€ a month for a single game. I pay more 10€ once for a game I enjoy over a week and play 2.

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I remember the times before 2007 when I bought offline games such as "Earth 2160" on a CD to play it's campaign – back then me and my brother paid 20€ total for 1-2 games about each third month.

When I compare this to the develope-once, get-paid 1'000'000-times games from today I fear that the most demanding games with most community-content or money to pay developers are the ones that catch all customers rather than the really good ones.

I agree with Bittty.

I'm teetering on subscribing but I have to say that being over 100 on a couple of stats, I don't see what more I would get out of the game at a higher level to justify a subscription. WAIT! Before you get too angry with me....

Ryzom, IMHO has these major things going for it (there are many others I wont list for brevity):

• Great art style and execution.
• Smooth predictable movement, combat and navigation.
• Complex and interesting harvesting / crafting beyond almost all games of the genre.
• Well designed and meaningful skill trees that do not punish the player for exploring
• Open and dangerous world with diverse landscape (though the mobs are very similar all over)
• Weather and time (day/night/seasons) affect the player experience in a meaningful way
• Community, I feel like I know a lot of people here and find it easy to make friends.

That said, the subscription is expecting me to support the continuation of server maintenance and development and in return I get additionally:

• more storage
• faster xp gain
• ability to level character and have a few more skills
• the server stays running to keep up the community
• the community of volunteer developers are encouraged to support the game (just a guess here)

This is compelling, but in reality it feels like subscribing means:

• the server will stay up and will remain largely unchanged as it has since it began over 10 years ago
• The status bars on my characters will grow faster for more time my character will level up a bit more it will know a few more recipes and it knows a few more skills.
• If I stop paying I lose the hours I put in (my time has some value too)
• If I keep paying I find I have spent about US$100 in a year
  but I could have just nearly all that the game really has to offer e.g. community for $0. If I feel guilty about that, I will play something else. Why should anyone feel guilty about a game?

That said, I think some games (I wont mention names) give a lot back to players for their money even though they are f2p (and Ryzom is more like free demo):

• additional content in the form of maps, puzzles, story, prizes, achievements, bling
• users are never punished for not paying
• lots of ways to spend small amounts of real money for cosmetics, experience boosters, additional storage (these are permanent increases) pets and in game currency to buy items and crafting components.

I think the idea of making payments only to reward players monetary contributions instead of threatening punishment should be considered. Anyone running an MMO should see the value of the time that players give to create the community and foster its growth especially in a "sandbox" game where players must define their own goals and create novel experiences for others, especially those that are first entering the game.

Many Ryzom players are very helpful to new players. They invest time and energy to keep the world alive, but I think too many players end up leaving because they have a hard time seeing the future in novel experiences based on what they learn of this games history.

As someone who has played many other MMOs and is currently paying for more than one, Your points are quite valid. Here are some things to consider.

1) f2p --> p2p ---> f2p transition is coming, it is officially announced. This will be a big deal, lots will return.

2) IF you can afford it as an "entertainment bill" (by cutting something you don't need even) it's basically an investment. Is new stuff coming? Actually... yes... for the first time in a long time.

3) If you support the game the changes that need to happen are more likely than if you do not. Similarly if you sread that idea to newbies, and friends, and in the form of reviews etc, actualisation is more likely than not

It's kind of an "if you can afford it you might as well"

Vanity items and skins, non combat things,would quite possibly save the game in terms of money problems. I expect it will happen one day. Till then they need us.

Every player can see that what make Ryzom unique is the roleplayer comunity.
In front of all the other MMORPG, if you want to succeed you have to improve what you are the best in, because Ryzom will always be a niche game.
So if there is a game who could the most profit of cosmetic microtransaction model, this is Ryzom.

Pay to win ( like double xp, stat cap,...) is not a good model, cause Ryzom is the MMORPG where "wining" is the less meaningfull, and its not what drive player compare to other games.

All right, this is a lots of works to change the model and do cosmetic stuff, but begining by selling pets with no hiting box and who are just a mini model of existing mobs is that dificult to do in middle term ? instead implementing fishing and other stuff ?

+1 for the microtransactions model

Loved and I had a chat last night and some ideas that came from this are:

Keep monthly/yearly subs that provides only:

• double xp for the time paid
• a special non-storage (only follows player, also does not fight, aggro, etc) pet (made from pool of existing mobs), or cosmetic item for every full year that a player subs to reward long term support.

Microtransactions that can provide players (EDIT) *with dappers* to buy:

• extra permanant storage
• cosmetics (not including long term sub items)
• pets (not including long term sub pets)
• xp catalyzers
• more things that other players make
• (EDIT) packs of additional map markers

(EDIT) This hopefully adds more dappers to the economy and provides more meaningful sinks in which to spend them.

I'm not sure where guild related benefits would fall but I suspect they should remain as they are with the subscription model.

I do not think buying xp cats or getting double XP is pay to win. As Fifi points out, the term "winning" is not applicable to Ryzom. I think players should be able to accelerate the progression of their toon if they desire as they may be vets making a new toon, don't like to grind, have limited time, want to catch up with friends. Experience Points are not nearly as meaningful here as finding teams, making friends, and gaining actual knowledge about how the game works. That is if you don't learn how to construct effective actions from stanzas and learn when to use them, learn the traits of weapons and armor, the strength and weakness of mobs and tactics your toon levels will have little meaning.