SlightlyOlderGamer's page

While I agree that the role flexibility would be a great way to distinguish PFO from WoW, I don't think you're really considering the size of the investment they would have to make in order to create a game that could potentially capture WoW's target audience, and the incredibly high risk that their investment would not see anything remotely resembling a reasonable return.

I didn't mean try to take *all* of their audience, I meant siphon off your 16,000 from their 10,000,000. I.e. the PO Vampire Bat nipping a belly full of profits off the sleeping WoW Cow that never even wakes.

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Yeah, thanks, been there. You're right, there are hundreds of choices. And I've been slowly sifting through them. Pathfinder Online caught my attention because a friend started playing Pathfinder recently and I was impressed with how Piazo handled it, much better than WotC handled 4e.

I can't think of anything left to be persistent in the themes you are describing. Instances that are limited to just you and your friends that reset as you leave (or at least have no effect on others), a lack of PVP means castles etc... will be more or less meaningless and may as well be their own instances that only you and your guild mates see (similar to DDO's airships)

Not at all! Just because I want PvP to require explicit consent does not mean I want it removed, nor does an instanced dungeon preclude a shared countryside, a player run smithy, etc.

I'm pretty sure there are quite a few MMO's out that will meet your needs better

Well, at least it's a good bet to say Pathfinder Online won't meet my needs, hence the note of sadness in my post. I do continue to sift through the MMO review sites, DDO is showing some signs of improvement, and Neverwinter isn't *that* far off so my cause is not hopeless. But it's important that Ryan see the potential audience because over the coming years the game will change and if players like Balodek and myself don't speak up he'll never know that we're watching and can be reached without a marketing expenditure.

The only cost-effective way to deliver Dynamic Content is to have the players themselves be the content.

But a reasonable alternative to truly dynamic content is so large a content pool that you could never get through it all. User contributed content could be produced at that rate (NW2) and be vetted cost effectively, and Piazo certainly has expertise in community contributed content :-) Not that I don't agree that your "player kills provide content" works as a means of preventing the Sysaphus complex (nice analogy, BTW) but I just want to point out it's not the only way.

Again, I realize I am one small voice from the middle of nowhere. I know I will have little impact on the direction of this game and that you care little for my opinion on the matter, but I feel it my duty to whisper in Ozymandias' ear, as it were.

The last first - Your posts here echo my sentiments eloquently and nearly exactly. I will keep watching and haven't completely given up, but non-consensual PvP and loss of my gear is a major disincentive for me. Thanks, Balodek, for your efforts here.

Ryan, I appreciate that you have a specific target audience, and harbor no ill will over the fact that I'm not it, but it does leave me saddened and disappointed. I love that Pathfinder was based on community feedback, and that PO is also taking that route. I have been watching your blog for a while and have been quite impressed with your technical knowledge and your willingness to speak to critics as well as supporters. I tip my hat to you, sir.

Ryan Dancey wrote:

Balodek wrote:

I can't get around the fact that you're flat out telling us you want this game to be a stressful experience with consequences where we get to pay you to be other people's lootable corpse.

Transparency at work. Would you rather we strung you along with half-promises the hinted at the opposite only to reveal at the last minute what the actual plan is?

Just for the record, I don't think you're insane (unless you're actively involved in developing a themepark fantasy MMO with "compete with World of Warcraft" as your business plan).

RyanD

I appreciate the transparency, it's refreshing, and I even understand why you've chosen to alienate part of your potential player base (as you said you can't please everybody).

Ultimately, as I have said, you know far more about what you're doing than I do. I hope this product succeeds for everybody involved, and since you obviously have more invested in this than any of us you want it to succeed far more than we do! It will do so without me, my wife, or about 20 other people I know, as this would be a deal breaker for all of them.

I realized you don't care if I play or not, you've said as much earlier, it just saddens me that you're willing to dismiss casual gamers who don't want to show up every night and risk losing everything they've worked so hard for. I call that life, I have to go to it every day, I see no need to pay somebody for a pretend life that is more work on top of what I already have.

I too play with my wife and a few other RL friends and this will most likely keep us from moving to PO as well. I'll probably give it a try once it goes F2P (not that I'm unwilling to pay for a game I enjoy, but that I'm willing to test the water if it's free), but this direction takes it off my "must play" list.

Ryan, your current target market may be fine and I certainly hope it is, but I think you could successfully compete head to head with WoW - role flexibility and good combat would be more than enough to distinguish PO from WoW.

I've paid hundreds of dollars to DDO for myself and my immediate family, and friends I have recruited have paid hundreds more. But I'm not really satisfied there. WoW isn't my cup of tea either. I've read the forums of many and even tried other MMOs but nothing seems quite right. Many like me are active looking.

As a casual gamer what I'd like most in an MMO is a game where I can have solo activities when I don't feel social, can run with one or two of my RL friends in our own private dungeon when they are on-line, or can meet some new people if I'm feeling particularly outgoing. I don't want to be attacked by other players or have to attack other players to advance. I also don't want to be stuck in the kiddie pool just because I don't want to be attacked by other players. I want to fight the challenging monsters for big rewards (that I get to keep).

Pathfinder Online could do this without losing the persistent world.