Note: I apologize for the length of this post, I may have just went a little bit over my head on this.
After rediscovering the link to Illarion on an entirely different onling gaming forum, I found myself wondering why there was a discussion embedded into the same thread that had to do with the lacking general population of players of this game. At that point, I was a little on the curious side and decided to give it try for myself to see what it was really all about.
From my own personal point of view, I'd say everything looks great so far and I really enjoy the graphical design, scheme and simplicity of both the main website and the forum, it's very pleasing to the eyes since it isn't cluttered with random ads, 343x432 images displayed in signatures (in fact, they're disabled from what I can tell) and keeps with the traditional 100x100 maximum avatar size, unlike some of the other game froums I've encountered within the last week. The ideas, graphics, background story, implemented systems and so on seem very logical, neat and unique for a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. At this point, I figured the only reason the community seems so compact to others is because of the fact that the gamemasters only accept players who want and are willing to roleplay, so acceptance is limited. Going through the system myself and reading around the context within the site, I clearly see the point the staff here is trying to make, however I'm wondering if it would be better to use these test questions in some sort of form for the ingame world, like a tutorial, rather than to limited the desired person who wants to play to only some clickable buttons, a simple form and some text on the website.
This way, anybody can download the client right away, etner the game world, be impressed with everything they see and attempt to try their best to adapt to that world -- by following the rules and such -- so they have the possibility to stay, rather than to answer some questions while being distracted by the constant urge to get into the game and perhaps "give up" before getting to the step that has to do with the creation of his / her character. Of course, this doesn't apply to everybody who wants to join, obviously, but I can see if maybe it has happened before to a few individuals. I understand you're giving another chance as well if you fail and I realize the test shouldn't be a problem to those who understand the main concept behind the game, however, wouldn't it be more fun for newbies to have to learn from the acts / steps / guidelines of other players and NPCs?
Also, when it comes to registration process, I do have a few things I'd like to discuss about the Account System.
1. Are the test questions that were devised for the system the same for every new player who attempts to appply for a character? I'm assuming they aren't the same, but after going through the system, it made me wonder and now I just have to ask.
2. Perhaps a few of these questions are unfair or confusing? There is no doubt I passed the test for myself, otherwise I probably wouldn't have not been able to create a character and log into the game client, but out of the five questions I answered, three of them seemed to stand out in their own different way. Since I don't want to risk spoiling any of the answers here on the public forums, maybe I can e-mail one of the gamemasters to further elaborate on my point?
Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to play around in the game for very long, seeing as though the sever seemed to have crashed a few days ago during the afternoon. My time is usually limited, but I hope I get a chance to meet some of you ingame soon.
