Suggestion to the community?

[JainFarstrider]

Balance is desperately needed, I think everyone agrees on that, but the OP is correct. NGD have worked, still works, and will work at their own pace, regardless of how many people post how upset they are about how slow it is.

Constructive criticism, on the other hand, could really help RO push towards where the community wants it to go and where it needs to go.

Destructive/off-topic comments (for example stupid memes that are out of context) both towards other players OR NGD gets RO nowhere. NGD may not care about what one posts, but the chances of them listening to that person gets slimmer and slimmer by the amount of rage posts that he posts.

As for balance threads, the thought underneath them is nice and well-meant, but they usually end up in flame wars or no one in development looks at them.

[Kitsuni]

Originally Posted by JainFarstrider

Balance is desperately needed, I think everyone agrees on that, but the OP is correct. NGD have worked, still works, and will work at their own pace, regardless of how many people post how upset they are about how slow it is.

Constructive criticism, on the other hand, could really help RO push towards where the community wants it to go and where it needs to go.

Destructive/off-topic comments (for example stupid memes that are out of context) both towards other players OR NGD gets RO nowhere. NGD may not care about what one posts, but the chances of them listening to that person gets slimmer and slimmer by the amount of rage posts that he posts.

As for balance threads, the thought underneath them is nice and well-meant, but they usually end up in flame wars or no one in development looks at them.

I've been around since mid-2007 and I can honestly tell you that NGD has only listened a few times, and then they have always turned around a month later and undid all the changes that helped the game (e.g WM update just after a balance update). I'd advice people not to blame players; it is not their fault, they've been going through this for a long time and become very bitter. They've done the whole "we're going to have hope again" thing so many times...

It has never mattered how constructive players are, NGD will still only listen to 10% of it and do 90% random things that nobody likes. Don't be so quick to defend a company, who, in the past, answered negative critisisms with "good advice" which told us to go play other games instead. There are good reasons people act the way that they do, and asking them to change yet again won't solve anything. This thread whining at people is no better than people whining at NGD.

[Awrath]

Originally Posted by Kitsunie

I've been around since mid-2007 and I can honestly tell you that NGD has only listened a few times, and then they have always turned around a month later and undid all the changes that helped the game (e.g WM update just after a balance update). I'd advice people not to blame players; it is not their fault, they've been going through this for a long time and become very bitter. They've done the whole "we're going to have hope again" thing so many times...

It has never mattered how constructive players are, NGD will still only listen to 10% of it and do 90% random things that nobody likes.

Be lucky anyone is still playing by this point, let alone saying anything to NGD at all, it doesn't matter if its good or bad, its still a privilge considering there are a million better games out there for Windows and in recent times even Linux has better games due to Humble Indie Bundle etc.

Don't be so quick to defend a company, who, in the past, answered negative critisisms with "good advice" which told us to go play other games instead.

I understand the point you are making, believe me I am not the biggest fan of NGD's choices of changes for this game nor am I a fan of some of NGD's responses, i.e. chilko complaining about the English forum, not the most professional moment from him. Does he have a right to complain? Perhaps, but as a developer he needs to take the stick and work out why people are unhappy.

I do believe the WM update was NGD's biggest mistake. An ill thought out expansion, in fact, an expansion that wasn't even finished and even today, I believe this expansion isn't complete. Another moment of leap first look later. 1.6.7 was very enjoyable, the class balance was a lot better than it had been, then boom, extra 20 power points for all. Bah. Still annoys me.

This being said, I have to disagree. One thing that keeps me on this game is the unique RvR aspect, which I have not found in another game (but then, I am not much of a gamer). Yes, it became worse with the introduction of beacons, but I am still having enough fun to continue investing in Ximerin, for now. I recently created a character in Ignis after getting extremely tired of zerging everything, and fun is back on the menu!

With regards to the OP. People have every right to whine and complain, be it a free game or a paid game. Complaints in the real world lead to solutions in most cases, for the complaints that are valid anyway. So, it's a normal thing to do, except in our case, our genuine complaints are disregarded, so there is no solution, as a result people get more agitated and complaints rise. This being said, there is a time and place to complain, and I do agree that NGD's Amun testing thread isn't one of them, but hey, when they ignore the actual complaints thread, what can people do .

In conclusion, the current situation in the forum is ultimately NGD's own doing. They need to reply to suggestions, even if they disagree, say why and move on to the next one. Some acknowledgement of the issues the majority of players have with current game mechanics would go a long way.

[standistortion]

Originally Posted by Awrath

....
i.e. chilko complaining about the English forum, not the most professional moment from him.
...

That's another point maybe worth mentioning. When I started playing there was still a feeling of playing a game made by some regular folks for the fun of it but there has been a constant shift towards a commercial product from a professional game studio competing with every other MMO for your bucks.

NGD has a large player base waiting for "that" update but I don't think that player base wants a "pay to win" commercial game. I've always considered xim a contribution to the developers and I don't think I'm alone but maybe that just doesn't pay. Unfortunately NGD doesn't do professional well, a player that left a year ago as "player of the week" and Alsius with 4 gems on the map (lol) are some good examples of that. If NGD want a commercial game then they'll need to clean up everything and present a polished and professional corporate image everywhere. Personally I hope they don't, I hope they listen to their existing player base and turn RO into the kick ass indie RvR game it should be, warts and all. Poorly thought out comments from the dev's and obviously broken stuff everywhere haven't put that player base off so far, they're only human at the end of the day and it's the action we want.

[JainFarstrider]

@Kitsunie - I agree that NGD hasn't been listening a lot, but the fact that people whine about RO and expect NGD to dig through their whining to get a solution isn't very realistic. I'm not angry or upset that players do this, because I can understand why they feel frustrated. What I'm trying to say is that it won't help RO, and that they shouldn't think it will help. I try my best not to whine.

@Awrath - From what I've read from their blogs and whatnot, NGD doesn't seem like a very big OR uber-professional team. Yeah, it's not professional, but I can understand how Chillko can get discouraged/exasperated by many of the forum posts.

@Standistortion - Agree with you. Although I think NGD does get a chunk of money from partners and investors, so they aren't hanging by a thread. Doesn't mean that they're raking in cash though.