Why I believe NGD has been doing the right thing- community criticisms

[fotomay]

A great many posts on these forums are highly critical of NGD's development of Regnum in the past 5 years. I want to post to express my qualified opinion on why I think , despite all the negative aspects, that NGD has actually been doing acceptably well. I would like to do so by addressing every single criticism raised by forum participants.

All the criticisms are excellent. They are excellent suggestions and they clearly show up where NGD has not hit the mark of a better outcome. However, the main reason I feel none of them justify the sometimes very derogatory and disenchanted remarks about Regnum is because many of them are not commercially realistic.

1) Email security difficulties: While I feel this could have been handled better by NGD, I feel the overall intent and strategy is sound. If we do not use some form of additional security measure, the game could suffer more attempt at hostile and malicious sabotage as may have occurred recently. Given the small size of NGD, I feel it is justified for the community to be more patient and to continue to be critical as NGD updstes it security. This may mean periods where you cannot access the game. Sad, but true.

2) Present unpopularity of TDM: In the past few months many mmos have been introducing PvP arenas and instances on a more focussed scale. So I do not begrudge NGD their attempt to do the saame. While it should have been better thought out, I feel the small size of NGD justifies their attempt to be busy and introduce popular elements. What do I mean by better thought out? I meanthat Regnum's single distinguishing characteristic is that it is the largest sngle instance RvR game on the market right now. TDMs detract from that and effort should not have gone into it without more careful consideration. Nonetheless, TDM instances may yet succeed, and I believe we should give NGD more time, even a year or more, before dispensing entirely with any TDM.

3) Warmasters Exapansion: Many players are sharply critical of how this harmed gameplay. Correct me if I am wrong, but one of they key purposes of warmasters was to improve the power of melee classes as against range and magic classes, rebalancing combat so that it was more tactically interesting. Personally I favour mages, but I feel that purpose has been achieved - Regnum still has the most interest trinity pvp balance in the industry. I feel all other criticisms of warmasters are secondary to this purpose and I give credit to NGD as long as they can maintain that pvp balance.

4) Pace of war: I place the many other criticisms by players under this rubric. This includes things like better bridge wars, settlements, linking TDM to war and so forth (all excellent suggestions, for example by Kyrottimus). Personally, i feel war should be visible on the map and occurring 100% of the time. At the moment, we have running and fort battles happening perhaps at best every 15-20 minutes, and in the meantime players stand idle at CS. This is an improvement on six months ago and I give NGD credit for that. However, I agree with the community that war should be happening 100% of the time. No player should feel comfortable standing idle and at a loss of what to do at CS at anytime (unless they are afk or just tired,).

Now, all the really good suggestions for improvement to the 4 items above fill a good part of these forums. However, the truth is, when I thought about it, NGD is :-
1) a group of 30+ adults (ie: out of date guys) trying to have families,
2) pressured by silly mmorpg "expert" consultants in the industry
3) pressured by wives/partners to make positive earnings
4) living in a country with somewhat deficient software programmers (Argentina)
5) trying desperately to listen to everything and do everything in a logical careful way.
So, when you think about it, I feel everything they have done has been commercially realistic. if they had embarked on any of the really good large scale ideas typically suggested by players, they might have ended up, after 3 months of work, with no justification for their effort.

This is why the ideas we propose must not only be logically sound, they (unfortunately) must be seen to be logically sound by the industry, or else NGD would not be able to justify any mistakes to the industry and may not be able to raise capital in future.

However, to bypass commercial pressures, I suggest this alternative way around the stupid industry pressures. NGD should engage the players on ideas and get players to prefund the cost of implementing those ideas, someone like a private community kickstarter (then we can run the modified version on a test server to test popularity).

So, for the reasons above, I feel we should really give NGD credit where credit is due and put our criticisms in perspective. I feel we should push NGD hard, but be aware it is really quite a small and somewhat parochial dev house tucked far away from the center of Western thought.

Finally, I strongly urge all players to stop insulting and putting down NGD in game and in forums. The number of times I see players stating "NGD is hopeless", "the game is gone to shit", "I am never coming back" etc etc is just not good. You are not helping the game and you are not helping yourselves. Instead, tell the world NGD is small, tell the world about the difficulties, but do so in a constructive meaningful fashion, or else you risk killing the population of your own game.

(edit: edited to remove "pathetic and disgusting" in the final paragraph and replaced it with "not good". maybe ive been watching too much Gordon Ramsay. also hi to Sanguinelamai! thx for any and all criticisms!)

[SanguineLamai]

A great many posts on these forums are highly critical of NGD's development of Regnum in the past 5 years. I want to post to express my qualified opinion on why I think , despite all the negative aspects, that NGD has actually been doing acceptably well. I would like to do so by addressing every single criticism raised by forum participants.

All the criticisms are excellent. They are excellent suggestions and they clearly show up where NGD has not hit the mark of a better outcome. However, the main reason I feel none of them justify the sometimes very derogatory and disenchanted remarks about Regnum is because many of them are not commercially realistic.

1) Email security difficulties: While I feel this could have been handled better by NGD, I feel the overall intent and strategy is sound. If we do not use some form of additional security measure, the game could suffer more attempt at hostile and malicious sabotage as may have occurred recently. Given the small size of NGD, I feel it is justified for the community to be more patient and to continue to be critical as NGD updstes it security. This may mean periods where you cannot access the game. Sad, but true.

2) Present unpopularity of TDM: In the past few months many mmos have been introducing PvP arenas and instances on a more focussed scale. So I do not begrudge NGD their attempt to do the saame. While it should have been better thought out, I feel the small size of NGD justifies their attempt to be busy and introduce popular elements. What do I mean by better thought out? I meanthat Regnum's single distinguishing characteristic is that it is the largest sngle instance RvR game on the market right now. TDMs detract from that and effort should not have gone into it without more careful consideration. Nonetheless, TDM instances may yet succeed, and I believe we should give NGD more time, even a year or more, before dispensing entirely with any TDM.

3) Warmasters Exapansion: Many players are sharply critical of how this harmed gameplay. Correct me if I am wrong, but one of they key purposes of warmasters was to improve the power of melee classes as against range and magic classes, rebalancing combat so that it was more tactically interesting. Personally I favour mages, but I feel that purpose has been achieved - Regnum still has the most interest trinity pvp balance in the industry. I feel all other criticisms of warmasters are secondary to this purpose and I give credit to NGD as long as they can maintain that pvp balance.

4) Pace of war: I place the many other criticisms by players under this rubric. This includes things like better bridge wars, settlements, linking TDM to war and so forth (all excellent suggestions, for example by Kyrottimus). Personally, i feel war should be visible on the map and occurring 100% of the time. At the moment, we have running and fort battles happening perhaps at best every 15-20 minutes, and in the meantime players stand idle at CS. This is an improvement on six months ago and I give NGD credit for that. However, I agree with the community that war should be happening 100% of the time. No player should feel comfortable standing idle and at a loss of what to do at CS at anytime (unless they are afk or just tired,).

Now, all the really good suggestions for improvement to the 4 items above fill a good part of these forums. However, the truth is, when I thought about it, NGD is :-
1) a group of 30+ adults (ie: out of date guys) trying to have families,
2) pressured by silly mmorpg "expert" consultants in the industry
3) pressured by wives/partners to make positive earnings
4) living in a country with somewhat deficient software programmers (Argentina)
5) trying desperately to listen to everything and do everything in a logical careful way.
So, when you think about it, I feel everything they have done has been commercially realistic. if they had embarked on any of the really good large scale ideas typically suggested by players, they might have ended up, after 3 months of work, with no justification for their effort.

This is why the ideas we propose must not only be logically sound, they (unfortunately) must be seen to be logically sound by the industry, or else NGD would not be able to justify any mistakes to the industry and may not be able to raise capital in future.

However, to bypass commercial pressures, I suggest this alternative way around the stupid industry pressures. NGD should engage the players on ideas and get players to prefund the cost of implementing those ideas, someone like a private community kickstarter (then we can run the modified version on a test server to test popularity).

So, for the reasons above, I feel we should really give NGD credit where credit is due and put our criticisms in perspective. I feel we should push NGD hard, but be aware it is really quite a small and somewhat parochial dev house tucked far away from the center of Western thought.

Finally, I strongly urge all players to stop insulting and putting down NGD in game and in forums. The number of times I see players stating "NGD is hopeless", "the game is gone to shit", "I am never coming back" etc etc is just pathetic and disgusting. You are not helping the game and you are not helping yourselves. Instead, tell the world NGD is small, tell the world about the difficulties, but do so in a constructive meaningful fashion, or else you risk killing the population of your own game.

I strongly suspect Fotomay, that you may not have been pushing and fighting for changes as long as many of us has. There are many of us that have been around for much longer than you, I suspect, who has seen the evolution of change. That change has not been for the better, and there were better times in days of old.

While I admire your chutzpah, I iterate to you that some of us are old and tired, and we grow weary of the promises that never materlized, and the voices of whom spoke logical sense that never got heard.

[Adrian]

For starters, we should make a clearer statement about why Regnum users patience is worn.

*WARNING, might get philosophical*
*blink*
*WARNING, might get philosophical*

As a user of anything made by the human being will always, and mostly if we talk about a caring person, check on how they would do it instead. In some, this comes as the very first reaction. Regnum is full of caring people (for not saying that most of them are) and maybe it also is a requirement for them to stay. Caring people think highly of their ideas and, at any cost, they want them to be put in practice. This is why this kind of people achieve: because of the need of applying their ideas and of course, fail and learn.

As it is mentioned by OP, I think that the problems are not that community suggestions are bad (well, some of them suck and some are great, but you get the point) but that they are only subject to a single scenario: user satisfaction with gameplay.

What do you say Adrián? That's the most important scenario! U gon mad? Of course it is, but it must be tied to a bigger picture, in which the game attracts enough player base to subsist and that most of the mechanics live in peace with those changes. Your ideas have possible futures that are never analysed and also, and most important of all, as we all think highly of our ideas, we tend to forget that EVEN if some people support us, it's not what everyone would like. You can make a poll and get an enormous support, but practice is king here, and we risk putting in practice what the game allows to be put (always regarding mechanics, code, server performance, blah blah cassette tape).

*getting back to business*

We make mistakes because everyone makes them, even huge companies. The big difference is that this companies make them in private because of their huge structures. We are condemned to make the same mistakes forever because Regnum makes enough to support the game and our team, but not to make a giant leap and, for example, double the team. You may say "why not use the community to fill that gap?" people must be coordinated and that's not an easy thing to do, but of course, we could try harder.

We need your criticism, we read it. We can't reply everything but rest assured that we react to important issues when we see them. Communicating it all the time is not something we do, and should.

The only thing that really doesn't help is bashing. Saying that we do everything wrong is a paradox of why are we here discussing this and why is Regnum still alive.

[Raindance]

...And here we go back to pampering NGD like nothing ever happened. LIKE ALWAYS :thumb:

[Adrian]

...And here we go back to pampering NGD like nothing ever happened. LIKE ALWAYS :thumb:

No, no. Everything happened. I think that here there's a call to the community to try to see things from both perspectives. We might do wrong, but users should spend at least a bit thinking why we do it. Some times it is thought that we've "given up" on Regnum. We're still doing things for it, aren't we?

[Raindance]

I actually get the impression that when you guys see mass criticism building up, you actually start doing your job. You start posting more, you sometimes reverse the things the community fights against. I can't imagine what kind of game I'd be playing if the community never fought the fatigue changes.

[Adrian]

I actually get the impression that when you guys see mass criticism building up, you actually start doing your job. You start posting more, you sometimes reverse the things the community fights against. I can't imagine what kind of game I'd be playing if the community never fought the fatigue changes.

In your thread I said it clear: even if some anger is shown, I'm seeing topics which can be discussed, not the usual "NGD u suk" but some things that come from real concern. We always do our job and also that which isn't (I'm no CM or moderator) but it is not enough, we know.

[SanguineLamai]

In your thread I said it clear: even if some anger is shown, I'm seeing topics which can be discussed, not the usual "NGD u suk" but some things that come from real concern. We always do our job and also that which isn't (I'm no CM or moderator) but it is not enough, we know.

There are two issues at crux here, where NGD is concerned. The capacity to act, and the Will to act. Many think NGD lacks the capacity and the will to change things for the better.

The capacity to act is dependent on two kinds of resources, tangible resources such as money, equipment, and personnel. Its long been suggested that perhaps NGD doesnt have the resources, or they dont utilize the resources they have to accomplish this. Others have suggested that such intangible resources (Knowledge and skill), dont exist either, which is another primary component of the capacity to take such action. Both determine the degree to which NGD could act for the prevention of the problem and the curing of such problems.

The Will to act is dependent on two factors. Risk vs Reward. Is the reward by taking the risk beneficial to the entity as a whole, or is the risk too great and the reward too little. Often times many here would think that the risk in taking an action to fix things was never taken because the reward in taking that action was too little, or was in danger of making things worse. I stronly feel, as do many of the people who have played this game with me feel, that those who develop the entity do not have the willingness to act to truely correct the situation. And attempts previously to "correct things" have only made things worse.

Honestly to the core of it all, I would want to go back to unmodded forts, unmodded castles, less beautification and more function. Less dependance on making things look nice, or benefiting the game as a whole by offering a wider array of premium items. Instead I propose actually attempting to broaden and enrich the game as a whole. New classes could have long been added over attempting to constantly break fix the existing classes. Broaden the playing field, make the map larger, terraform new areas. Focus on the strategic aspects of the game, the very thing that draws players to it, much like myself.

Efrendi left the game, because of the nature in how Warmasters unbalanced the game. Because of what the game was turning into, and he saw it then. Perhaps he was right all along, and perhaps some of us should have listened to him.

Im just not sure anymore.

[JainFarstrider]

In your thread I said it clear: even if some anger is shown, I'm seeing topics which can be discussed, not the usual "NGD u suk" but some things that come from real concern. We always do our job and also that which isn't (I'm no CM or moderator) but it is not enough, we know.

Hey, this isn't that new of a thread, but I just wanted to make a comment on what you said.

I think when many of the people on these forums start to rage about NGD, it's because of the communication gap between the playerbase/forum and NGD. You guys have been consistently lessening that gap, I will give you credit for that, but the gap is still pretty big to make NGD seem very, very far away.

And when players who have been expressing their concerns or suggestions for a long time are met with cold silence from Regnum's developers, an answer like "hi, we've looked at your concerns and are discussing it" doesn't cut it for them. Normally it would. But years of threads with solid discussions and no NGD posts makes players feel unsatisfied with some of the replies NGD is making.

As for mistakes, I can't really discuss much about that since I have literally no experience in that field. But wouldn't it be wiser for NGD to at least reach out to the community? I don't mean like posting a poll or something, but perhaps have a group of dedicated players who can preview new patches or expansions to at least make sure that new content doesn't conflict with what already exists in the game.

One of the biggest problems that I see in CoR/RO is that NGD is RUSHING into patches/expansions/new content. Sometimes great amounts of thought and care are placed into long-awaited features of the game. And then sometime later a new patch renders those features useless or unplayable.

Many of the new releases in RO give off an impression that NGD isn't looking very much at the community and its responses to past content released. I don't know what prevents NGD from doing this. Could it be your sponsors pushing you? Internal conflicts in the company? I don't know, but I hope that NGD could steer towards this direction more often.

TL;DR
I think NGD needs to
1. Communicate more effectively and frequently
2. Revise old content carefully before releasing new content
3. Observe and plan very carefully about creating new content that would both satisfy the current ommunity and expand the player base
4. Perhaps stop making so much new random premium content (seems like wasted effort, I thought perhaps the pope skin might have been a bit too far)

Cheers, I don't play the game right now because where I live makes my ping go sky-high, but I really care for RO.

[Carn]

TL;DR
I think NGD needs to
Every post should have this!

1. Communicate more effectively and frequently
2. Revise old content carefully before releasing new content
3. Observe and plan very carefully about creating new content that would both satisfy the current ommunity and expand the player base
4. Perhaps stop making so much new random premium content (seems like wasted effort, I thought perhaps the pope skin might have been a bit too far)

Cheers, I don't play the game right now because where I live makes my ping go sky-high, but I really care for RO.

+1

[Lebeau]

Let's face irrefutable facts, this is a business: a small business. Due to various ongoing, limiting contraints, circumstances & economic realities, NGD's business model is NOT about improving the gameplay/functionality of CoR, focusing on or retaining it's long-term, low-or-no-spending OLD players or keeping them satisfied. It looks as if it NEVER will be. So, just face that.

NGD's business model IS about improving the LOOK of the game, attracting NEW players who'll come, spend $5, $10, $20, $40 or even more money over a few short weeks or months .... then, once they stop spending due to disenchantment from their eventual recognition of 'the-CoR-reality' .... they usually leave. This frees up the limited server & routing resources available to NGD & makes 'room' for NEWER, new people ... SPENDING people. High traffic, high turnover is THE plan....

This is what NGD has intended (or just accepted) for some time now, to get what money they can over the scant few remaining years of this game's viability. Both from diehards who just won't leave (& thus who need NO real incentive or enticement at all to stay ... like dogs on leashes), & definitely from those NEW players also, who regularly come, then go, like the tides ... & FAR more of these come & spend their cha-ching on NGD if game revenues & company resources are spent on advertising & dolling the game up with 'eyecandy', NOT bug-&-glitch-fixes.

The plan is all about NEW player flow, come, spend, leave, again & again, over & over, rinse & repeat. Get it? If NGD really wanted more to stay & play, netcode-engine-gameplay-&-balance-fixes would be the priority, but they aren't because NGD essentially doesn't. Period. Look at the collective threads on a variety of subjects for years now & all this IS all there, essentially staring out at any willing to just open their eyes & see it. Yes, they did fleece the OLD herd with new gears & a higher lvl cap when noobs weren't footing the bills & they might yet again .... but that isn't really change & such a move would assuredly break the existing game formulas/mechanics.

NGD has honestly said recently, albeit in a round-about way, that they just CAN'T do all (or even most of) the NEEDED fixes we're been asking about for months & even years & yet, they further made it CRYSTAL-clear they will NOT allow community coders or any other 'outsiders' to help them get it done either. Thus, what u c, as it is, IS what u get ... is what we ALL get. It IS what it is, do NOT expect ANY different or ANY more, or your expectations will be setting you up for CERTAIN disappointment, becuz' u r just foolin' yo'self .... if u like it as it is, play & enjoy it. If not tho, like I said, expect NOTHING substantively different.

[Awrath]

1) Email security difficulties

No issues with this, haven't tried the new login system.



2) Present unpopularity of TDM: In the past few months many mmos have been introducing PvP arenas and instances on a more focussed scale. So I do not begrudge NGD their attempt to do the saame. While it should have been better thought out, I feel the small size of NGD justifies their attempt to be busy and introduce popular elements. What do I mean by better thought out? I meanthat Regnum's single distinguishing characteristic is that it is the largest sngle instance RvR game on the market right now. TDMs detract from that and effort should not have gone into it without more careful consideration. Nonetheless, TDM instances may yet succeed, and I believe we should give NGD more time, even a year or more, before dispensing entirely with any TDM.

And what do you think will happen with TDMs in a year or more? I'll tell you, nothing. The problem lies in the fact that NGD (who don't disagree) are building upon code they do not fully understand. Any changes they make to the game, they must again delve into the code they don't understand. This is the reason why what are seemingly simple but annoying bugs remain unfixed for years on end.


3) Warmasters Exapansion: Many players are sharply critical of how this harmed gameplay. Correct me if I am wrong, but one of they key purposes of warmasters was to improve the power of melee classes as against range and magic classes, rebalancing combat so that it was more tactically interesting. Personally I favour mages, but I feel that purpose has been achieved - Regnum still has the most interest trinity pvp balance in the industry. I feel all other criticisms of warmasters are secondary to this purpose and I give credit to NGD as long as they can maintain that pvp balance.

You are wrong. The key purpose of the WM expansion was to generate income. Melee classes have gained no advantage versus ranged classes. If that was NGD's key purpose then why increase the range of bows in the first place? The main gripe most people have with the WM expansion is the lack of thought that went into the effect that this expansion has on class balance. Every class has gained an additional 20 power points as well as an increase in stats thus throwing what balance there was out of the window. The classes which gained the most from the extra 20 power points are barbarians and marksmen. I don't know in what world you observe PvP balance in this game, since it does not exist.


4) Pace of war: I place the many other criticisms by players under this rubric. This includes things like better bridge wars, settlements, linking TDM to war and so forth (all excellent suggestions, for example by Kyrottimus). Personally, i feel war should be visible on the map and occurring 100% of the time. At the moment, we have running and fort battles happening perhaps at best every 15-20 minutes, and in the meantime players stand idle at CS. This is an improvement on six months ago and I give NGD credit for that. However, I agree with the community that war should be happening 100% of the time. No player should feel comfortable standing idle and at a loss of what to do at CS at anytime (unless they are afk or just tired,).

This brings us back to the WM expansion. Before the introduction of teleports, bridge wars and open field fights were commonplace. These sorts of fights were a lot of fun, and often we would attempt to seek out such a fight. Teleports played a part in ruining what used to be a lot of fun.

With regards to the actual pace of war, granted the limited number of players on haven does play a part.


Now, all the really good suggestions for improvement to the 4 items above fill a good part of these forums. However, the truth is, when I thought about it, NGD is :-
1) a group of 30+ adults (ie: out of date guys) trying to have families,
2) pressured by silly mmorpg "expert" consultants in the industry
3) pressured by wives/partners to make positive earnings
4) living in a country with somewhat deficient software programmers (Argentina)
5) trying desperately to listen to everything and do everything in a logical careful way.
So, when you think about it, I feel everything they have done has been commercially realistic. if they had embarked on any of the really good large scale ideas typically suggested by players, they might have ended up, after 3 months of work, with no justification for their effort.

Point 1: How can one be out of date? I don't understand. If you are designing a product that requires technology in order to make use of it, then surely, as you have decided to make this your profession, you must keep up with the times and keep your knowledge going and make continued professional development a priority.

Point 2: What? While I appreciate your sarcasm with regards to expert consultants, it takes no expert to realise that game play bugs are bad for the image of any game especially considering they hinder game play.

Point 3: Yes. A better game = better income. So if this is their sole source of income, then really, NGD should put a bit more focus on doing what's necessary to keep the game alive. If the fact that the 10 year old code holding them back is a major issue, they should be working on either rewriting it or attempt to decipher the 10 year old mess.

Point 4: Don't get why that's relevant. Are you telling me that because the country is not renowned for its programmers, then it must mean we should have lower expectations of anything written by Argentinian programmers?

Point 5: I'm sure they are, but they fail to address the fundamental issues which are holding them back. Until they can, this game does not have a bright future.

Don't get me wrong. I like that they introduced an auction house. I like that knights got a an absolute block spell, buggy as it may be. I like that arcane devotion is now instant cast. I'm sure there's many other things NGD have done which I have been happy about.


This is why the ideas we propose must not only be logically sound, they (unfortunately) must be seen to be logically sound by the industry, or else NGD would not be able to justify any mistakes to the industry and may not be able to raise capital in future.

However, to bypass commercial pressures, I suggest this alternative way around the stupid industry pressures. NGD should engage the players on ideas and get players to prefund the cost of implementing those ideas, someone like a private community kickstarter (then we can run the modified version on a test server to test popularity).

So, for the reasons above, I feel we should really give NGD credit where credit is due and put our criticisms in perspective. I feel we should push NGD hard, but be aware it is really quite a small and somewhat parochial dev house tucked far away from the center of Western thought.

Finally, I strongly urge all players to stop insulting and putting down NGD in game and in forums. The number of times I see players stating "NGD is hopeless", "the game is gone to shit", "I am never coming back" etc etc is just not good. You are not helping the game and you are not helping yourselves. Instead, tell the world NGD is small, tell the world about the difficulties, but do so in a constructive meaningful fashion, or else you risk killing the population of your own game.

(edit: edited to remove "pathetic and disgusting" in the final paragraph and replaced it with "not good". maybe ive been watching too much Gordon Ramsay. also hi to Sanguinelamai! thx for any and all criticisms!)
Rewrite this engine of theirs for better opengl support as well as fix bugs, get rid of absolute armour resists, separate spell trees for every sub class and introduce scaling for mages, then that's a project I will happily support with my money. In its current state, not anymore, for me the fun is over.

Wall of text.
Information on paragraphs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragraph).

[SanguineLamai]

Rewrite this engine of theirs for better opengl support as well as fix bugs, get rid of absolute armour resists, separate spell trees for every sub class and introduce scaling for mages, then that's a project I will happily support with my money. In its current state, not anymore, for me the fun is over.


Exactly dear.

Focus on game mechanics, NOT game beautification.

Fix bugs and issues. Dont attempt to change the game dynamic entirely from what it was, which by the way was working VERY well, just to address peoples issues.

Introduce small facets to the game in an attempt to correct whats wrong with it. Create balance by adding sublcasses, rather than nerfing and re-nerfing the existing classes.

Stop event-based updates based on holidays that do nothing for morale and only show the eventual greed of those who participate in it. (Purple Fever, nuff said).

Stop all this glitzy nonsense. Id rather have the above kind of fixes than ever I would for Tenax/Alasthor/Vesper to have a new shiny home. Its not even a home I would go and look at. Doesnt benefit me.

[fotomay]

And what do you think will happen with TDMs in a year or more? I'll tell you, nothing. The problem lies in the fact that NGD (who don't disagree) are building upon code they do not fully understand.

Actually i dont mind if TDM goes nowhere/gets removed. I suspect Regnum is the only RvR mmo where everyone is in one instance and it needs to keep and promote this unique quality.

You are wrong. The key purpose of the WM expansion was to generate income. Melee classes have gained no advantage versus ranged classes. If that was NGD's key purpose then why increase the range of bows in the first place? The main gripe most people have with the WM expansion is the lack of thought that went into the effect that this expansion has on class balance... I don't know in what world you observe PvP balance in this game, since it does not exist.

I can't find the quite by Adrian anymore :( but in it Adrian specifically states that the purpose of WM was to boost melee power and ensure the trinity balance between archers, mages and melee was preserved.

I feel there is nothing wrong in the WM expansion if it also has the primary purpose of generating income. Unless every piece of work is directed towards this objective, Regnum may not survive. (NGD doesn't have an open chequebook and timebale like Blizzard does).

I believe Regnum has, presently, probably the best PvP balance in the industry (but it can and needs to be improved). I've tried Silkroad Online, Bloodline Champions and looked at Tera, Rift, Aika and Aion - Regnum is the only pvp i know of where u can drop in for 20 minutes fight and feel and see every bit of your character contributiing, and those of your opponents as well. The other mmos feel sort of like a mashy smooth mixed paste of mushy ugh. (perhaps due to lack of clarity, precision, logic, graduation and disclosure of abilities).

This brings us back to the WM expansion. Before the introduction of teleports, bridge wars and open field fights were commonplace.

These sorts of fights were a lot of fun, and often we would attempt to seek out such a fight. Teleports played a part in ruining what used to be a lot of fun.

At the moment I find that bridge, open field and fort fights happen about once every 15-20 minutes on Haven. This is acceptable to me.

I would like it to be more intense and continuous but overall this is the position we need to improve upon. I suspect we can't go back to the previous times because the industry playerbase for RvR was entirely different then. There are a lot more mmos with aspirations to faction pvp now than there was when Regnum started. (ok sometimes its a lot slower than 15-20 mins, but i tend to feel off-peak periods shouldnt be counted..... )

Point 1: How can one be out of date? I don't understand. If you are designing a product that requires technology in order to make use of it, then surely, as you have decided to make this your profession, you must keep up with the times and keep your knowledge going and make continued professional development a priority.

By out of date i mean that as 30 yos, they cannot expect to understand everything about their front line audience - which for mmos i think it is 12-25 yos. High schoolers and college students all now seem to like gfx, instanced arenas, action combat etc nowadays -- its a different hip crowd to when the devs started Regnum. So it isn't just technological, its a different audience altogether. They need to understand them before applying the tech skills to build something.

note: it is possible that the Regnum playerbase is 30-50 year olds and that NGD can instead focus on catering to them only. In which case, the revenue base demographic has to be adjusted for financial projections, and project expenditure adjusted accordingly. No point spending megabucks on the forums demands if it turns out that only attracting the 15-20s will yield enough sales to cover costs.

Point 2: What? While I appreciate your sarcasm with regards to expert consultants, it takes no expert to realise that game play bugs are bad for the image of any game especially considering they hinder game play.

By expert consultants i dont mean just eliminating bugs. I mean NGD is being told everyday by industry experts and the media that they must update gfx, boost their cash shop, have more instances and generally make Regnum like another WoW. Rift, Wildstar, Tera are all already somewhat clones of WoW. We dont want Regnum to become a WoW clone. Yet NGD has to be cautious on what risks to take.

Point 3: Yes. A better game = better income. So if this is their sole source of income, then really, NGD should put a bit more focus on doing what's necessary to keep the game alive. If the fact that the 10 year old code holding them back is a major issue, they should be working on either rewriting it or attempt to decipher the 10 year old mess.

I suspect a major code rewrite would not be commercially feasible right now. That could be a rreally expensive ($5m+? dunno....) exercise and would only be justified if the additonal sales were reliably projected. I'm even doubtful that a major code rewrite will reduce the frequency of bugs unless front line programmers out of MIT are hired tokeep it up to date (too expensive for Regnum without a maybe 20x jump in player numbers).

Point 4: Don't get why that's relevant. Are you telling me that because the country is not renowned for its programmers, then it must mean we should have lower expectations of anything written by Argentinian programmers?

I believe it is relevant because we may not be able to expect engineering standards from NGD which we can expect out of North American programmers. Maybe im wrong because Im not an industry insider. But.. I have heard Argenina's culture is slightly fascist (different to others) - and it is a beautiful and vibrant society but it just doesn't produce as many Nobel laureates. Nobels are not the only measure of how good or worthwhile a country is, but maybe Argentina is not that hot in science/engineering excellence. NGD can still use overseas programmers but.. they work in a different time zone..

Point 5: I'm sure they are, but they fail to address the fundamental issues which are holding them back. Until they can, this game does
not have a bright future.

Personally, I think the most likely outcome for Regnum in the next few years is stable player numbers. NGD has to really lift their game and think internationally and plan specifically to be No.1 to raise prospoects of growth. However, even though my prognosis is average, I do not feel it is right for me to go around saying stuff like "this game is shit" "i will not spend another penny on NGD" or other bad things about NGD because it doesnt help ourselves or the game grow players numbers. Instead i feel we should just respect that NGD is trying to do its best, and hey, maybe the server wont be around in 2 years time but we still can have a good time now.

For veterans who feel the "fun is over" i feel that mmos are like theme parks. And sooner or later you may get tired of all the rides. In which case itis perfectly ok to go out and enjoy other rides or parks.

[kmdk]

Rewrite this engine of theirs for better opengl support as well as fix bugs, get rid of absolute armour resists, separate spell trees for every sub class and introduce scaling for mages, then that's a project I will happily support with my money. In its current state, not anymore, for me the fun is over.

+1 One for this.

About Warmaster ..was nice idea ...but practice fall in extreme ,that kills the casual player.

WM resists and enchantments fall in hand of half server population and other half population got disappointed about how long need to spend in game after fast nerf of quest to take wm coins.

Wtv,as casual player ,got bored of game after i've seen how long need to spend in game to be able to get a wm or lvl 60 armor.I've just quit because i was not able to compete or proper play the game without equipment.

Yes it's about game mechanics,i don't think any of old players just quit because of visual improvements ,but always because of bad implementation of game mechanics.
Yes game expansions boosted NGD profit ,but also lost base of players,and not because of NGD's profit ,just because gameplay fall in extremes for casual players or bad changes for addicted players.

[Krungle]

Many of the younger players were demanding better graphics, hence the recent update for character models.

However, updates to the gui, as has been suggested, is part of what these younger players are talking about when they say 'gfx' or 'looks.' More mouse-over popups, a better chat box, etc.

Putting time into bringing dragon loot back is needed. Putting time into a Hall of Infamy was not needed. Putting time into years old bug fixes is also needed. Putting time into instanced PvP when the entire game is RvR and PvP is not needed.

Adding more levels is a waste until the above mentioned stuff is fixed. It is about priorities and 'keeping up with the Joneses' cannot be part of the priorities when the Joneses have deep pockets and NGD does not. However, a bug-fix dedicated team is needed in any MMORPG.

[bois]

I'll say this.

In my opinion NGD made many right moves. Theoretically. What caused problems is not the ideas themselves ( the principle) but :

A: the timing.
B: the scalability to diverse servers
C: the deployment
D: Initial quality control and then ongoing review after a short period say 3 -5 months.

Take TDM. It is a good idea. I agree that instances is one way forward. However, you can't fill certain servers and it is absolutely crucial to have these servers at least 80% filled regularly before you do a TDM type thing. To do otherwise simply cannibalises your existing , not enough base.

In such a case, the best thing to do is have only PvE instances to start. Some of these can be premium ones which have an option to be bought into via Warmaster coins .

Let's use Warmasters. This was a good idea. Raise revenue and add some content. Let's not fool ourselves, that is what it was all about. Anything else is a steaming pile. It broke balance in so many way it ain't funny. However, from an economical position, I would say it was about one year too late.
In addition the initial deployment was ehrm, underwhelming. NGD was convinced that it was brilliant so they (via Zombrex) did the "coming soon" marketing gimmick. It was underwhelming but at least it filled the coffers. Mission success. Then, a review (despite prophecies and much protestation) took over a year to come.

Now, for the rest I agree with Awrath in the main so I rather not go over that ground. I prefer not to be a rationalizer or apologist for NGD. They are in business and face the same constraints that every entrepreneur (myself included ) face. That list you made fotomay would never be an excuse in my business and it shouldn't be in theirs. Either you are in or you are not.

While I do care about the fortunes of the company and my comments may sound callous, let us get it straight what this is about.
This is for profit, not a charity.

In finality, your commentary makes many assumptions and suppositions I tend not to agree with.
Many of these "veterans" as you call them are actually professionals in the tech industry and others that bear relevance. The resident intellectual resource in this community is higher than average (although it may not seem so at times).

Ironic is it fotomay that you caution us yet you readily make an affront to Argentina, its geopolitics, its location and the ability of the programmers of this game in their professionalism, programming capability, and their ability to stay relevant in their industry without any concrete evidence for this. Interesting.

[fotomay]

Putting time into bringing dragon loot back is needed.

im actually opposed to any permanent drop boss loot. my belief is that all boss items should be time limited (maybe 1 week).
in its ultimate incarnation, i believe RvR pvp should be based on all players selecting from the same inventory of equipment (which is statistically the same as random loot, provided the random number generators are working).
otherwise than that im happy for dragon and its loot to be brought back.

Putting time into a Hall of Infamy was not needed.

i feel the Hall of infamy is a good move. NGD needs more features which make it unique amongst mmos and must also promote these features.

(NGD must get the Hall of Fame right, then trumpet to the whole industry that it is the first to have a good ingame Hall.)

Im not sure but i dont think other mmos have a Hall of Fame feature which dynamically updates yet - but surely WoW must have one?

Putting time into years old bug fixes is also needed.

definitely. i wish evey bug could be economically ironed out: occasional holes in terrain mesh, stuck in position holes, movement controls stuck bug, inconsistences in behaviour of lamai builds vs other human shaped builds, inconsistencies in behaviour of invasion mechanics including apparent inability of devs to state clearly what they intended -- all marks of an unpolished mmo.

Putting time into instanced PvP when the entire game is RvR and PvP is not needed.

personally, i wud have skipped it but i respect that there is always 1) more than 1 path to success 2) things i do not know about or which i am totally wrong about; and 3) a need to try to stay aligned with popular industry trends.

Adding more levels is a waste until the above mentioned stuff is fixed.

i agree. no level additions at all ever would be my default position. (there are some limited exceptions).

[fotomay]

Ironic is it fotomay that you caution us yet you readily make an affront to Argentina, its geopolitics, its location and the ability of the programmers of this game in their professionalism, programming capability, and their ability to stay relevant in their industry without any concrete evidence for this. Interesting.

maybe i am biased against Argentina. and i could be totally wrong, but ive been trying to think what could be the cause of the difference inquality and texture of an mmo like Rgenum compared to other big budget mmos. is it just money? maybe so, but maybe there is something else. i really appreicate diversity in society, but i think we need to acknowdlege differences and shortcomings. so that's why i mention it.

(note differences can be strengths and not just shortcomings). and it is true, i dont have concrete evidence for it. so i could be totally wrong.

[jorgeseg]

I believe it is relevant because we may not be able to expect engineering standards from NGD which we can expect out of North American programmers. Maybe im wrong because Im not an industry insider. But.. I have heard Argenina's culture is slightly fascist (different to others) - and it is a beautiful and vibrant society but it just doesn't produce as many Nobel laureates. Nobels are not the only measure of how good or worthwhile a country is, but maybe Argentina is not that hot in science/engineering excellence. NGD can still use overseas programmers but.. they work in a different time zone..



What the... Dude, after that u shouldnt keep posting, u said everything about how serious we should take ur comments with that paragraph..

[bois]

Who said it would be updated dynamically?. NGD is simply going to add halls in the instance and simply manually add the models of the winning players of each season to those add on halls.

Personally , one area I like about NGD is that it encompasses their cultural flair which distinctly has a Latin American feel. I live in an area where this kind of passion exists and I consider one of the strong points. This is why I don't play Asian replicant, grindfest mmos. It has no taste.
I applaud them for maintaining their identity and add their culture to the game. I think they should expand on this in their content. Mexico to Argentina will applaud it. As a region of fast economic growth, their push should stay with the Latin market.

NGD has bucked the trend and offers a retro type game. It is an Indie developer and as such it must innovate, not replicate. It has managed to keep a cult base of players just on the back of this innovation and seemingly limitless potential. Potential that is not yet realised. And, I strongly feel that potency is not in following the industry with every idea it has.
Ever major move forward by the big guns has been through innovation. NGD can do the same albeit at a micro scale. This is all we have been saying for years.

[fotomay]

Personally , one area I like about NGD is that it encompasses their cultural flair which distinctly has a Latin American feel. I live in an area where this kind of passion exists and I consider one of the strong points. This is why I don't play Asian replicant, grindfest mmos. It has no taste.
I applaud them for maintaining their identity and add their culture to the game. I think they should expand on this in their content. Mexico to Argentina will applaud it. As a region of fast economic growth, their push should stay with the Latin market.

NGD has bucked the trend and offers a retro type game. It is an Indie developer and as such it must innovate, not replicate. It has managed to keep a cult base of players just on the back of this innovation and seemingly limitless potential. Potential that is not yet realised. And, I strongly feel that potency is not in following the industry with every idea it has.
Ever major move forward by the big guns has been through innovation. NGD can do the same albeit at a micro scale. This is all we have been saying for years.

i fully fully support this. i also strongly support NGD regional/cultural identity.

(yet if NGD is to really be global, i feel it should meet standards of engineering and problem-solving at an international level. the culture and indie thinking can be kept. thats my opinion i guess, but my suggestion may not be correct. theres more than one way for Regnum to reach the top.)

[bois]

I will agree with you that service standards and business practice be advanced towards global benchmarks. Its communications methodologies need to be reviewed as well.

Also egos need to be left at the door. Both for NGD and the community at large.

[KKharzov]

(I'm no CM or moderator)
Oh but you were. How quick we are to forget. Hop on the magic school bus kids, and be sure to fasten those seat belts. It's time for a blast from the past.

"Adrian", AKA adrianpf, AKA Geemlee, AKA gamemod, AKA Kailer; One of the biggest jokes that this game ever saw. An arrival that sent the game and community spiraling downward into the consuming masses of oblivion itself. An extremely emotional user that became CM because chilko deemed that he was the only person at NGD that had any decent writing skills in English. Contrary to whatever Kailer told him during his job interview, chilko didn't know that Kailer was actually a crybaby and in reality wasn't very welcomed in the community, which is why he was initially just known as "gamemod". You can find so many examples going back from way early on:

I just dind't want to say this, because it's a comic and we all should laugh about it, but:

Please, change the impaled dwarf's name to other of your invention, i'm being mocked everywhere, just can't take it anymore, I want to be famous for my skills in battle, not for an infortunate event, or just don't be famous at all.

If you do so, thanks.

http://iwconstructions.com/Regnum/slides/0032.jpg

But hey, let's make him a moderator anyway, because he's the perfect choice. What happens when you give an emotionally unstable man in his 20's the power of a CM? Revenge a la mass bans. "I'll shut up those people that mocked me". He even gave himself a few thousand karma points on the forum to shield himself from all the negative ones he was getting. I'm amazed you found the guts to show your face around here after you single-handedly drew away half this game's original community. I guess now that after 95% of the original community is gone you deemed it safe to come out of your shell and pretend to be a cool new hip and friendly mod. If there's anyone in this game that needs to apologize for what it's become, it damn well better be you.

[Thrillem]

....I've just quit because i was not able to compete or proper play the game without equipment...

That is very very very IMPORTANT. More important that many think.

I know many players who quit this game because of that. Many players think they suck because they lose too often against other players. So first they try another class.. and then another and another until they realize that it's not a particular class, it's not that they suck. IT'S THE EQUIPMENT. If you dont have good gear you will keep losing. This was not important in the past but it has become essential now. Especially with the introduction of Legendary items it has become increasingly important to get top items (with lucky boxes). This has also become very important since the introduction of TDM.

[Linuxmage]

That is very very very IMPORTANT. More important that many think.

I know many players who quit this game because of that. Many players think they suck because they lose too often against other players. So first they try another class.. and then another and another until they realize that it's not a particular class, it's not that they suck. IT'S THE EQUIPMENT. If you dont have good gear you will keep losing. This was not important in the past but it has become essential now. Especially with the introduction of Legendary items it has become increasingly important to get top items (with lucky boxes). This has also become very important since the introduction of TDM.

I will add to this, it really has gone this way. There are certain people in other realms who play very noobishly, yet they dont die simply because of uber equipment.

"Why cant anyone kill Mitsaras? Why is it taking 4 barbs, 3 archers, and 3 mages just to kill him?"

"Oh, he's got dragon ammy, and loads of uber equipment, makes him almost unstoppable."

There is a goat hunter who is very new to this game, yet she is taking 30-40 hits to kill, or 3 or 4 of us in 10 hits. We discovered she had obtained a dragon amulet, and had bought herself some extremely strong equipment.

The boss drop equipment really can make some players very OP, I know of a few in syrtis who are completely OP and near unstoppable.

As an aside, I was looking through commerce, and noticed someone had posted two items of the same type -- one legendary, the other Epic. The Epic weapon was actually a better weapon, as the bonuses on it had more of a positive effect on the wielder, due to them being larger bonuses. (Hc+17, Conc +5, Slashing +10)

The legendary however, was a list of 5 minor gems effectively. all +2. The weapon was no better than a common version. (AS +2%, CS +2%, Dex +2, Spell focus +2, and one other I dont remember.)

So, I have learnt its possible to get even a special class item that will out perform a legendary, and you really have to understand what will make a difference and what won't.

[fotomay]

I know many players who quit this game because of that. Many players think they suck because they lose too often against other players. So first they try another class.. and then another and another until they realize that it's not a particular class, it's not that they suck. IT'S THE EQUIPMENT....


i agree with Thrillem and Lebeau - i support making all boss items time limited, and actually i dont feel there is any need for legendary equipment.

But... the problem I have is that I just don't how how those moves will affect the playerbase and sales revenue of lucky boxes. What if 10% of the playerbase plays only because they can buy OP gear? What if those changes drop lucky box sales by 90%?

I don't really know the solution to this but i think one way forward is for NGD to have statistically rigorous measures of things like pvp encounters, wars, fort fights etc for each encounter and for each player and gear in use. These benchmark performances need to be fully disclosed on a bell curve for the community to see live on a website. Then a mathematical formula applied to disclose how much OP/bonus gear is generated and in use on a real time basis. I feel this is needed so NGD can justify having a fixed lucky box charge out rate and a boss item drop.

it's actually only simple mathematics.

[Adrian]

Many players think they suck because they lose too often against other players. So first they try another class.. and then another and another until they realize that it's not a particular class, it's not that they suck. IT'S THE EQUIPMENT.

I will add to this, it really has gone this way. There are certain people in other realms who play very noobishly, yet they dont die simply because of uber equipment.

Equipment is obviously one of the biggest gameplay problems not because of equipment itself, but for a simpler reason which comes from a lack of testing. Regnum may seem a small game compared to others, but the amount of combinations in armor and skills is enormous. And that, summed up to your rivals combinations... my god, we could need hundreds of testers for each balance update.

What am I trying to say with this? Somehow the obvious: that this isn't something happening now, but since a long time and all that accumulation brought the game to this situation. Equipment is not completely imbalanced, but there are certain cases in which, as you mention, there are big differences that may have to be tuned. It is normal that some classes with certain equipment outperform others, but it has come to a stage when balance is really needed and the big problem -and the point I'm trying to make- is testing, not because it's wrongly done, but because it's not enough.

Again, it's not enough that we (even if a lot of people disagree) got better in a lot of areas -mostly those which aren't "seen"- but we should and sadly didn't in personnel, specially that which allows balance to take place. Regnum never expanded enough monetarily to allow this. *WARNING* not crying over the same issue as always, we are here to be honest and try to talk about problems just as they are, aren't we? */WARNING*

So, given this particular issue and the original post of this thread, I honestly think that, even if it's not the ideal of what should happen, you ask too much from NGD given what we all know about Regnum's possibilities. BUT, that doesn't mean you're not right in most of your statements and also that despite that we will still keep trying. I just insist on keeping things real, and sometimes, even if we accept our mistakes, I see that we are being pushed harder than we can cope with, and that is just (at least for me, not talking for all of NGD) something that usually translates into one of the big overheads in our development process: how and what can we do to overcome this, given our structure as developers and does this "doubt" makes us choose the wrong focus?

[Linuxmage]

I see that we are being pushed harder than we can cope with, and that is just (at least for me, not talking for all of NGD) something that usually translates into one of the big overheads in our development process: how and what can we do to overcome this, given our structure as developers and does this "doubt" makes us choose the wrong focus?

I think NGD needs to look at where this game is going and present a roadmap for development to the community.

Communication is key in any development process I have found, and I strongly believe that this game has had enough new features and expansion for now. Put any further expansions on hold, and prioritise bug hunting and balance for the next year. The only new features we need to see are more in the vein of fixing old issues and bugs, stuff such as the keymapping issue.

I think I speak for a lot of us when I say that bugs and balance are two major issues that we as adults, and some of us are developers ourselves, see as large hold backs in this game.

I personally believe that if the balance updates are implemented as a priority, and the users are allowed to feedback about balance - the developers NEED to talk to bois and some of the veteran players with some urgency - then we can really turn around the Haven and Valhalla population issues. The game is getting very negative reviews on Steam as a whole, and attracting a new playerbase with the upcoming competition on the horizon is of vital importance.

You yourself know where a full compilation of balance issue threads are located, where it has been reasoned out what is right and what is wrong. The forums themselves contain the research you need to commence on a bugfix and balance splurge like no other seen.

Now I agree that some of the balance issues exist because of older more obfuscated code that the devs are still attempting to work out. I am not sure that there is a solution to this, aside from coming clean about what bugs and issues have made it to the "wont fix" list because of old code.

I come from an Open Source development background and have spent 15 years in the world of Linux and FLOSS. It has always been found that the more heads are able to work on a problem, the faster and easier a solution gets.

I accept that you wish to keep this game closed for financial reasons, but I am asking that the devs as a team look much closer at what the players have been able to work out are issues, and feedback to us which ones they believe are workable, and which ones are a problem. The players can and will do your research. In this particular case, you have a full team of voluntary bug hunters and people who can tell you what gear has problems and how it affects the game overall.

So, to sum up, bugs and balance. Nothing else. At all. Do this for the next year, and you will have a game that can compete in the RvR MMO space with some success.

[fotomay]

Equipment is obviously one of the biggest gameplay problems.... *WARNING* not crying over the same issue as always, we are here to be honest and try to talk about problems just as they are, aren't we? */WARNING* ..... I just insist on keeping things real, and sometimes, even if we accept our mistakes, I see that we are being pushed harder than we can cope with, and that is just (at least for me, not talking for all of NGD)... how and what can we do to overcome this, given our structure as developers and does this "doubt" makes us choose the wrong focus?

really good observations by Adrian. actually, i like to think the Regnum is a fairly simple thing to solve :-
1) We want it to be the industry's best RvR mmo
2) We have a long list of things we wanna do (all good suggestions i feel)
3) Let NGD categorise them all into -
a) Economic - can do within 1 year. Get low hanging fruit first.
b) Non-economic - maybe do next year.
4) Consider cap-raising/kickstarter for possible non-economic ones.
5) Communicate those decisions to the playerbase, then implement.
Done?
I also like linuxmage's approach btw.

i dont think we can do more than that. no need to get stressed out of unhappy if things dont work out, because the above means we did our best?

[Lebeau]

I will agree with you that service standards and business practice be advanced towards global benchmarks. Its communications methodologies need to be reviewed as well.

Also egos need to be left at the door. Both for NGD and the community at large.

I truly wish things had went down differently. To be fair, initially NGD really did alot with a little. The problems mostly began about 3 or so years ago, when they had lost most/all of the original coders & decided that lower dev-costs, eyecandy LOOKS & generic mass-market features were all more appealing & to be preferred over polishing the gameplay, improving balance & eliminating the many bugs, glitches, exploits, etc. that drive so many away once they grow familiar enough with this game.

These people who leave often do so feeling cheated or pissed once they know the deal/score, having routinely had just one too many bad experiences with CoR gameplay lag/crashes/bugs/glitches/exploits/etc. ad naseum... & that ofc. is DIRECTLY responsible for the dismal press reviews, bad publicity & the bad reputation NGD & CoR publicly gained & still continues to have & maintain in gaming news & circles. My point is, this WAS avoidable (then, not now .... now, it's already TOO late).

Their business model made & makes them $ yes, but it also increasingly works against NGD over the longterm. They have an inchoate 'broken' game that puts 'style' over substance, appearance over gameplay; all they did by having this 'purty'-looks-draw, high traffic/turnover model & by getting all the resulting, increased public exposure therefrom, is to gain very short-term revenue streams that just don't last, while simultaneously creating & maintaining an ever more widely-known & negative public opinion of their game.

The more who come, play & leave disappointed &/or disgusted are the word-of-mouth that NGD has been creating & it has essentially already destroyed the very slim chance NGD may have ONCE had to break out & make a small indie game like CoR wildly & widely popular. They knowingly or otherwise chose this path & have no one & nothing else to blame really. NGD did this to themselves....

NGD was/is short sighted & went with a high-noob-traffic, high-noob-turnover business-model to make their ends meet. In the longterm, however, by choosing to not address/fix all the ongoing gameplay issues/bugs/glitches/etc., they lost the golden opportunity they once had to have glowing press reviews & great gameplay, to have players stay & play, & to have their game & playerbase grow exponentially in leaps-&-bounds by simple word of mouth alone. Economic reality, impatience &/or greed doomed their effort ... doomed this game.

This fail-dynamic business model is essentially producing ever-diminishing returns as a result. Both in player-population & in their finances. With each passing year, NGD must partner, push & advertise twice as hard to overcome CoR's increasingly bad rep. just to get 1/2 as many to come & try the game .... & as time goes on, this trend is only getting worse ofc.

They're in a bad situation & it's only getting worse; as things stand, no fix is ever coming or even possible. NGD has clearly (& honestly) stated on their own forums they have NO intentions & little means to ever bugfix CoR, & they will NOT allow others to do so either ... http://www.championsofregnum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98389 ... (read between the lines, peeps, this is as crystal-clear as NGD ever gets). Since NGD will never partner anyone with sufficient means & resources to do all the much-needed coding jobs to be done & won't/can't do it themselves either, only an outright MIRACLE could turn things around. End-of-story.

/me prays for miracle anyway....:angel2: