Reverence wrote:The options open for a player now within the game are as follows in my opinion :
- Pure Roleplayer
Carpenter
Smith
This is a problem with the game as it is now (well, to be specific: as it was months ago, but reading through the post it appears to not have changed at all since when I last played) - the possibilities for the casual player are effectively nerfed.
In all honesty, there's nothing moving me to return to playing Illarion. I am the casual gamer in this case, and I do think I am entitled to say that the game Illarion offers nothing for the casual gamer, atm. Consider me a low-intelligence player, but if I play an RPG, I want to have possibilities at my fingertips, not have to go sucking on somebody else's fingertips just to get anything done.
Gro'bul wrote:You can make it work if you try. One of my characters a cook and brewer has made thousands of coins from playertrades of guess what, food and drink. Many new technical features helped, but you can survive without npc's even when your at the mercy of other players' charity like he was for a while in the beginning. Now he's even starting distributing, skies the limit!
You are only able to do this, because you have previous knowledge of the game (how long have you been with Illarion?), and because you have a sound sense of business (you, as in, you the player, not the character), plus, "luck is half of everything."
Imho an RPG must offer the possibilities to play a role or character you couldn't possibly be in real life;
Reverance wrote:This is not an attack, but rather more of an observation on behalf of a friend. The game wants realism yes, but to much shall destroy it.. And why play a rpg for realism, when you can just step outside your door. It is a place where your imagination is meant to run wild, where you can accomplish the unaccomplishable.
With this quote I wholeheartedly agree, because I'm the casual gamer who enjoys roleplaying games. I like roleplaying, but I don't like it when the game itself prevents me in all possible ways from excelling at anything else but playing roles that are easy to play - in my time playing Illarion, I could not really make end's meet in anything but that which was easy to excel at - making good fighter characters is and always will be easy, all you need to know is how to attack something by means of the game, but even that was a pain in the backside - monsters gave horrible drops, you needed roleplaying to PK, you needed to rely on other players' sense of fairness if you chose to play a thief because there was no possibility to steal given by the client. It was not possible for me to play a mage, in a time where the client hadn't been re-written yet and magic could actually still be used.
In other words, I may not be able to start out as merchant prince when I begin play, but the rpg should offer me foothold so I can play the basics of what would make up a merchant. Call me simple, call me lazy, but I truly have better things to do than to live a second life in a game. This is something Illarion lacks in; information is needed, but that information on the background of the game is dispersed all over the forums and outsourced on other sites like Moonsilver, nowhere accessible in-game; and most oftenly, "learning something" as in learning how to do it in-game means getting accepted by players in-game or becoming part of a clique and learning it OOC. I shouldn't have to be pulling background info out of someone else's nose, this is going far beyond my definitions of "playing a game." Sure, it's a game, it's just not the type of RPG that I'm going to enjoy playing.
For example, there are online RPGs that are devoid of RP, but full of the gaming aspect; however, they demand assenine amounts of time and patience to be played. I don't like those games either, I'm taken in easier by a game with intuitive controls and interface; complex, but simply grasped gameplay, and moderate difficulty (not too easy, not too hard). That all being said, you now have a rough idea of what the utopic and ideal game looks like to me.
In correlation with Illarion, these are its current pros and cons in my eyes:
(+) 1. easy to start. Gameplay is not boggled down by 1 million control aspects.
(+) 2. strong on roleplaying. Most other games in the genre don't offer this.
(-) 1. weak with extra-game communications. Must alt-tab to use IMs, cannot play in windowed mode, no general chat, no in-game PM system (for "sending doves")
(-) 2. many fantasy-typical professions are currently nerfed into non-existance other than when purely roleplayed. Many of them (other than "fighter") are so designed that one has to interact extensively first before learning how to fill out these roles. This will never thrill the casual RP-gamer, nor will promises like "find out in-game" further propagate such notions. This also makes the roleplaying of previously experienced characters unnecessarily difficult; characters are almost entirely a "blank sheet" when one begins play with them. I.e., it is not possible to play a mage beginning with the ability to cast a single spell (so it was before wipe/client re-write.)
(-) 3. too few beginning options; thus too little perspective and outlook of the game's possibilities. Many games offer an interactive, graphical character creation system, where races and "classes" or "jobs" are described as how they are directly in the game's world; thus giving an idea of outlook as to what to work towards to, how to do it, and also giving more starting options and "fleshing out" the game world further for a new player.
(-) 4. amount of players actively online is always rather low; playerbase is limited; microscopic aspects of roleplaying are taken very seriously - sometimes too seriously. With more players, these things would fall out of relation to eachother due to the mass diversity.
Contras 1-3 would not be an issue if the game enjoyed a highly active playerbase with many players online at any given time, because the game can compensate with the roleplaying aspect. However, they are detrimental to keeping a casual player at the game; the casual player (like me) can't even achieve the feat of taking RP seriously if there's no gaming aspect to go along with it. Hell, what do I want to see pure acting for? I can see people acting like they're somebody else by stepping out my front door. I even see people acting like that on the non-RP forums of Illarion.org. If I want action, adventure, or just a fantasy hobbit farmer chilling out on the roadside, I plug into an RPG and just get that fix. The problem is - most games offer that fix minus the roleplaying, Illarion on the other hand offers roleplaying, but essentially doesn't allow the "quickstart", or should I say, "the special something" that more oftenly than not will make someone take things from the level of casual gamer to the next-higher, the addict.
Many of the contras are also, sadly, part of the reason why the amount of active players is always too low. One could attempt to bypass this with amazing graphics - sex sells, so do graphics. Good graphics keep the casual gamer. But all in all, that's just graphics, not really helping out the game. This thought also makes any other technical gimmicks or special features appear redundant until the backbone is sturdy enough to carry the weight of Illarion's world.
Things like "powergaming" should be daily, decent roleplayers should be able to explain powergaming by means of roleplaying, I know I can so I know anybody else can. People complained after the wipe that others were just trying to become the best at their skills asap - what exactly was wrong with that? Those people were playing the game, filling out the game world. Those people raised the online player count up by +1 each. You can't tell me that they would have done that forever, people forming groups and roleplaying together would have happened one way or another. You see it in those other games without roleplaying - forming guilds, clans, etc., comes about quickly with big support of players; many just join those guilds because they want to technically be in a guild, no more. Some do it so they can legally fight player-vs-player; some do it because they got bored of skilling up and collecting stuff, some do it purely for roleplaying... don't you see a pattern here?
Reverance wrote:When i first started this game, there were a large amount of options available, they may sound minimul but they led to greater things, here are a few examples.
The Herbalist
Yes i know rather boring sounding. But not really, you stood about the favourite herb spots talking to other collecters, at times these collecters were druids themselves which would drag you into further roleplay, and maybe result in the herbalist becomming a druid. A world of roleplay here, and an easy social group to get into.
At this time i realise druidry is still not implemented, but these gathering spots are no longer available, and the art of walking around collecting these herbs is truely a boring thought. I know for sure i would'nt consider doing this task. This in itself leaves out the roleplay of characters showing other characters herb spots. which was once part of the teaching of druidry.. And a fun part of the game.
The Farmer
You once had the farmers union, a group of people who roleplayed together for many hours, perhaps you can find thier thread if you search for long enough. Once again another world of roleplay. The farmers had thier own tasks and goals and friendships. The life of living in the open country, surviving on ones own. and the comradeship for a set goal. And not to mention a good living which created the best roleplay circumstances as it promoted sitting around waiting for the food to grow in which time you sat and spoke to fellow farmers.
At this time there is no point, why farm for something which has no need or profit. Not all farmers wish to make cabbage soup all day. Another past time gone which could so easily be solved.
The Warrior
Travelling to the spider mines and harvesting the rich ores guarded by the creatures within. A task the strongest feared and only the most fool hardy would partake. Yes! fighters once had a purpose more than Pking and fighter GM creature attacks, they were once hired by the rich to escort them to the more dangerous regions of the map where the valuable resources could be found. Well, i imagine the red skeleton does drop a key occasionally, And if your lucky you could get some silver coins which you cant spend. Pretty yes?
And there other examples, but call me lazy.
Indeed, these are good examples; in fact, The Warrior as you describe him here wasn't even possible at the time I started playing, and that was over a year ago. By that time, The Warrior had been nerfed by a rule called "powergaming", in which playing extensively and thus training your fighter character extensively was technically illegal. Even The Herbalist and The Farmer, they were also in crossfire of being considered powergaming out of the same reasons - doing the same action many times in a row. God forbid making a farmer who was a fighter, too! Regardless of the powergaming shtick though, nerf is nerf; there was a wipe, a re-write, and right now you can't even cast magic in the actual game.
All in all, this is a horrible state, considering that the availability of those elements exponentially increased the possibilities of gaining more future veteran players by offering them many different niches to fill in and form yet more flesh around the skeleton of the game setting. I must say though, this is not only on behalf of the game itself - people orbiting around this phenomena called "Illarion" have continuously contributed to a decline in things, with steadfast dedication.
I know radical suggestions are not easily accepted, but the suggestions are there, open for any of those who can read in between the lines.
Aris wot eva =)
