xsyon has it become a ghost town?

[Book]

A friend of mine had been playing this game for a bit during beta and telling me, rather enthusiastically, of the kinds of things he was working on in-game. It sounded like something I'd really enjoy doing as well. However, he did tell me I may want to hold off a few months to see how things shape up and develop. That was fair of him to do. I chose to dive in anyway, and I've been happy I did.

The fact that I'm having fun playing the game these days, and I'd like to emphasize playing (which should be fun by definition, otherwise, why play?), doesn't mean I'm blind to the fact that it is not complete as it stands. Of course it isn't. I don't really think anyone would say that it is. Not a single person having set foot in the server as it currently stands would make the argument that the game is complete and should remain as-is. Not one person.

On the other hand, my understanding of what the vision driving where the game is headed sounds really cool to me. Are we there yet? Of course not, see above, not one person would make the claim that we are. I would also imagine even the devs cannot be sure some pothole along the way won't throw them right off the road, but it's an ambitious project in scope taken on by a few people and I hope they have the opportunity to see it through.

Where I think, and thought when I bought the game, the vision for the future of this game is headed is quite realistic battle over resources. When I first read about it, I immediately thought of chimps and bonobos.
Bonobos are a type of "gracile" chimp that live south of the Zaire river. They live amongst gorillas who eat leaves, while the bonobos eat fruits. There's no competition for resources. The bonobos are the peaceniks of the ape tree, they literally make love, not war, literally. Drop a cardboard box inside a room full of bonobos and they don't fight over who is going to check out the box first. They release the social tension by dimming the lights and turning on the ole Barry White, so to speak.

Then, you've got the chimps as we (or perhaps just I) more commonly thought of them. They live north of the zaire river. They live amongst primates that also eat fruits, and thus have a lot more pressure on resources available. These chimps throw feces, break branches in wild displays of anger and intimidation. They seriously form bands of young male chimps that go around the forest murdering young male chimps of rival chimp factions.

We're not there yet. I've enjoyed pvp in just about every game I've played, except for the rare times when not pvping is not an option left to me on a day I'm tired and just feel like chilling out a bit. I'm sure I'd be put in the whole "peacenik" side of things right now but that's really only because I'm enjoying the chance to play with what is there currently. I don't see it remaining this way forever. I may grow tired of it at some point, when it may be time to fire up BC2 or something else and visit Xsyon as things progress. Again, having fun doesn't mean I'm blind .

The point is, the underlying tenets driving development are probably quite true to what many people currently not having fun are actually looking for. We're just not there yet. You can whip a horse all you like, but there does come a point when said whipping is only going to tire your arm. The horse simply can't go any faster, jump any higher, and the option is either to keep whipping the poor thing to death or to accept this is the horse that it is, ride it for what it is, or get another horse.

[darkbladed]

Well here is what I see on page 14...
Peaceniks, like Jadzia, are frustrated by the game and what PVP douches are saying...
PVP douches, like Sirius, are frustrated by the game and what Peaceniks are saying...

Each group is frustrated for different but real reasons,
Each group is insulting the other group because they are different,
So in my book each group is trolling the forums because they are unhappy with some piece of the game;
If they weren't they would be playing the game and not forum trolling.

So can we just end this thread and those like it?
I am gunna report my own post to get some mod attention.
Hopefully they will close this thread so that people can cool off.
I think both sides have some VERY VALID points but I also think that both sides should be ashamed about how they are acting.
Myself included, because I have said things in this and other threads that maybe I shouldn't or were not entirely fair.

So hopefully some of you will start posting apologies before this thread is, hopefully, locked.

For me I would like to start;
Sorry for getting frustrated and calling Sirius an arsehat (I think that's what I called him - or whatever it was I am sorry for that) and I have come to see that he isn't just whining but is genuinely concerned for the game.

[Belight]

There are no appologise on the internet!!!!1

[jokhul]

<snip>
As I said I saw the development pace. I expect Prelude to go for 12 month MINIMUM. It won't end after 6-9 months. I never expected any new content in the first 3-4 month after launch, if we get anything I'll be surprised. I hope they will switch decay and item quality on soon, since it was working during beta only got switched off because of the lag issues. With these 2 things the economy may survive.

If we get cooking and perhaps taming in like 4 months I'll be glad.

Is the state of the game good ? No, not really, but its still fun for many of us. Would it be better if it was full with new features ? Of course. Can we do anything about it ? No. We can wait patiently or leave. Complaining on forums doesn't help even a tiny little bit. The devs are working day and night, they just can't do more. I accepted this in May, thats why I'm still here. Anyone who expect a faster development will be disappointed. Will we see a big drop of the numbers of players ? For sure. Will there be enough players to help the game survive ? I hope so, but we will see.

<snip>

That is about the most realistic post in this entire thread, and the bit I've quoted is exactly the way I see things going in Xsyon.

Things in Xsyon will be changing very slowly. Anyone who doesn't accept that is going to scream themselves hoarse and then leave anyway.

Many of the so-called "peaceniks" are generally more patient and able to amuse themselves with what little the game offers at the moment, but the "PvP-centered" players are highly frustrated because the opportunities for PvP are severely lacking.

Sadly for them, that is not going to change much in the next 4 months or more. Anyone that thinks the tiny Xsyon development team can build a brand new, engrossing PvP system in 4 months from scratch is severely deluded.

It is very unlikely that Xsyon will EVER have a PvP system that even approaches the quality of Darkfall or Mortal Online. Those 2 games both have a bigger dev team, and combat is their focus, whereas in Xsyon combat is merely a feature of the game, not it's reason for existence.

It will probably take at least another 4 weeks to get the lag, zone crossing bug and server stability sorted. We're still seeing little lag spikes, even with the population as low as it currently is. And we don't even have the basics (item quality/durability, decay, animal spawns, etc.) working yet. Without those features, NOBODY will stick around, not even the "peaceniks"...

[Saolite]

Maybe Or maybe I knew what I was getting into, thats why I'm not frustrated.

I was here when they first announced the launch day...15th of March. In 2010. Then they modified it to 15th of April. Then to 20 of May. Then to 15th of Jun. Then to 25th of August. Then in August they said it will be launched 'when ready'. I've been here for more than a year now and saw the development speed. Yes, it was (and still is) very slow. It took months to implement basic features.

When Jordi said that the game will launch in March 2011 he was honest and admitted that its necessary to keep the development going. I accepted the fact that the game has to launch in an unfinished state otherwise it may never ever launch.

As I said I saw the development pace. I expect Prelude to go for 12 month MINIMUM. It won't end after 6-9 months. I never expected any new content in the first 3-4 month after launch, if we get anything I'll be surprised. I hope they will switch decay and item quality on soon, since it was working during beta only got switched off because of the lag issues. With these 2 things the economy may survive.

If we get cooking and perhaps taming in like 4 months I'll be glad.

Is the state of the game good ? No, not really, but its still fun for many of us. Would it be better if it was full with new features ? Of course. Can we do anything about it ? No. We can wait patiently or leave. Complaining on forums doesn't help even a tiny little bit. The devs are working day and night, they just can't do more. I accepted this in May, thats why I'm still here. Anyone who expect a faster development will be disappointed. Will we see a big drop of the numbers of players ? For sure. Will there be enough players to help the game survive ? I hope so, but we will see.

Is it correct business to launch an unfinished game ? It is if they were honest about it. Were they honest enough ? No, I don't think so. It would have been much better to be more frank about the state of the game. Though the devs hardly advertised the game, or they didn't advertise it at all, so we can't blame them for that. It were the players who started the hype in February, and I was worried when I saw that. Its never good to promise non-existent features to people to get them to buy a game. And the word 'potential' makes me want to scream, lol. Who buys a game for potential ? I buy a game for what it is not what it might become one day.

And I see another problem. Players simply don't like to believe some facts if they don't like it. So they are like 'ok they said so but we will see', they keep living in denial and when they actually get to see that they were wrong they start complaining. This is plain stupid imo.

Its not about PvP pr peace. Its about accepting the game as it is now, being able to wait and have fun meanwhile or choosing to complain. I understand everyone who is upset about the promised but still missing features like comfort, item and skill decay, taming, archery, animals, better combat. But I have no sympathy toward anyone who complains about features that were never promised.

I personally agree with this post, almost completely. A few parts I disagree on, not so much out of viewpoint, but because of personal opinion -- but otherwise, the logical side of me agrees with this.

All the people I invited to Xsyon still play, as do I -- we, however, play only 3-4 hours a day as compared to the 10 hours a day we put in when we first arrived.

We're here until things get better, one way or another. Some people leave, some people stay. Just the way things are in every game.

I do agree with the above poster, though -- a few of the more basic features need to be enabled as soon as possible. Item Decay and tooltips, at the very least.

[jemmus]

Additionally, and in my opinion, it's far too easy for even one or two dedicated players to build up their place and get everything they need. There's too much junk, too many resources, it's too easy to learn recipes, too easy to get to high skill levels, there's little reason to explore, to travel and to trade. Thus people think there's nothing left to do.

I'd agree with this one. Meaningful challenge + reward for overcoming challenge = stimulation and satisfaction. Not too challenging if all the resources you need are too readily available. A little more scarcity or danger (danger not necessarily from PVP, could be from the environment) could improve the game I think.

[biophazer242]

A little more scarcity or danger (danger not necessarily from PVP, could be from the environment) could improve the game I think.

Tribe of cannibals could make for some good danger

[boomer0901]

I'm making a revolution around the game world atm, seen about 9 ppl thus far, travelled about 3/4 around so far, and not just in a straight line, any totem I see as I go, I go to it and check it out. Found about a 6 dozen or more abandoned homesteads and about a 7 completely abandoned homesteads with buildings still built

[jemmus]

Tribe of cannibals could make for some good danger

There you go. Make it a tribe of scrap-hogging cannibals and we might have all bases covered.

[coca]

Just would like to mention when i bought this game i came into it expecting nothing what so ever. i had zero hopes and ambitions for it and decided to try it. so far going from not expecting anything from the game i have grown to like it for what it does have and throw that word potential around a bunch.

this game is like the spiritual successor to UO, if the lag issue and animal problem are solved in this month then they can move on to other issues. thats all we need right now to tied a major part of the player population, if they can turn on item decay in the next month that will stimulate the economy.

Didn't read the features list... smart man.. I think *scratches head* Ignorance is bliss.