You can change the title or whatever if it's to dramatic but this conversation needs to be had imo.
I know I speak on behalf of quite a few people when I say, it seems that there's no direction nor solid goals in mind for the classic server in terms of the types of players it's supposed to cater to.
You have a few basic types of players, I'm going to break them down into categories that relate specifically to RO and talk about how they affect each other and influence the game. And then I'm going to ask, are these players wanted/having anything done for them or are they (inadvertently) being driven away?
Understand that these roles can overlap!
1) PVP/WOE based players
- these are people who play purely to WoE
- they have little/no interest in PVM past what is necessary to level their character / supply themselves
- they do not need to interact with anybody else because GSBs / LK OP.
- they do not add to the economy because they have everything they need and are self sufficent.
These kinds of players play only to pvp eachother and kill other players. They do not care about the outcome of a fight past "winning" or the rewards/prizes. They exist for a short term goal and prefer MOBA style play.
2) Achievers (WoE/PVM)
- these are people who will hunt/grind for a goal. Those goals could be
- An MVP card
- Zeny
- levels
- god items
- completionist sake (stuff like making every hat or every class)
These kinds of players like unique things and a reward for their play. They create a good opponent for the PVP based players but do not like them. PVP players will get their jollies off of ruining the goals of these types of players in scenarios where pvp is involved. Zeny seekers will hunt things to fuel this group and pvpers.
3) Scientists (PVM mainly, some pvp)
These sorts of players like to find unique ways to kill things and discover different aspects to the game; examples would be how to reach a maximum exp per hour or how to kill the hardest bosses by themselves. These sort of players tend to overlap with group 2, as they open up new possibilities for discovery with their unique equipment or help each other gain new toys. They are also the kind of people who enjoy testing niche things in pvp. They are shunned mostly by group 1 for being ineffective.
4) Socializers/explorers (pvm)
These are the people who sit in town, collect cute hats, talk about cats and make innefficient yet fun levelling and mvp parties. They are the people who create a visible player base, they are the people who will hunt things just to have some zeny to get by, or because they enjoy it whilst they are chatting, or simply just to help. They are often sidelined by the "hardcore" players and spoken of very little if not with complete disregard. Yet they are important because they are the first thing new players on the server will meet before they step into other groups. They fuel the economy and often the levelling groups. They make the server active and fun.
My feelings on playertypes in Classic:
Group 1 dominates Classic - and at the cost of driving almost all others away.
Group 2 has run out of things to do. If they continue to do things as they do, this leads to server saturation / blame from others for "ruining the game". The game is evolving to punish them.
Group 3 are probably reaching a similar level of boredom as group 2. Maybe not quite as bad since there's tons of things that can be scienced and done for fun on classic, but that won't last long.
Group 4 is basically ignored and even harmed by the catering to group 1. The socialization aspects of the game are bypassed and despite requests to create more - these have always been ignored in favour or WoE changes. They feed eachother... and everyone else. Without these guys the server is dead empty and unappealing.
On Classic in general.
Without any decisiveness on what direction the server is taking and what players the server is aimed at... its very hard to keep on playing. The community is pushing for a shift toward a moba style game (and whilst I agree that RO needs some moba style content) everyone else is neglected or pushed away. I don't believe that this is the right thing to be doing. Ragnarok Online is a persistent MMORPG that was always about long term play and long term goals and a free market. Yet these things are being changed or pushed away and those players are becoming discouraged. There are many reasons why long term play is considered detrimental... mainly the attitude of "yeah, the reasons everyone may have played RO back in the day?! Forget it! change the game!"
tldr; the game is changing and it's not the RO that old iRO players would remember or have been a part of. It's not "classic".
Edited by Xellie, 21 June 2016 - 03:07 PM.