I'm an old Ultima Online gamer and this game has huge similarities of the early years of that game and as such I think it would be a very good idea to look at the right and wrong turns of that game.
In short, that game was made more and more safe and easy, great for the Newbies but bad for the hardcore players. The dev's relied on getting their game back on the the shelves to attract New players - and hence subscribers - and kept pumping out more and more expansions, making the game safer and less challenging for each one.
The trouble With this strategy, I felt and still feel, is that most New players will only play that one free month (remember this was a game funded by sub's) some of the New players will play for a few months and a very Select few will play for a year or more while the hardcore gamer will not only keep playing for years and even decades, he will also keep pestering everyone he knows to come play the awesomeness. It's fun to be alittle bad sometimes and it's fun to be a little scared sometimes and it's well Worth beating up the keyboard at times when the end result is that you've worked hard to achieve something.
The free PvP and the Free looting.
Personally I was completely sold when I recently read about this game - I love realism in a game, and so I love the free PvP and free looting system.
That said, this game is taking it a little bit to the Extreme seeing as there are no apparant ways to protect whats Yours leaving the game completely open to griefers.
Looking at the issue With an unbias mindset I can understand how this system must greatly reduce the Income for the owners of the game since the majoroty of gamers
are more or less excluded from playing it, particular in this case where they rely on players risking RL Money on buying items they will eventually have taken from them.
Ultima online combated this in a pretty ingenious way - Houses in that game are safe and items inside remain safe aslong as the players are paying for their Subscriptions.
If the player stops paying for the Subscription the house will decay and fall within a week and the active players will be able to loot whatever is inside. This, not only served
as a middleground between the die hard PvP'ers and the carebears, but it was a good way to Ensure People didn't end their Subscriptions even if they took a break from the game
and hence earned Money for the makes and maintainers of the game. Win/win.
Personally, I think I'm the average MMO gamer. I'm a grown up in a full time job and that means I got Money to spend on my hobbies.
I ran to the store to purchase a good starting package for my character but stopped to consider the consequences of spending a fair amount of Money on this game;
I'm a New player, and People are bound to kill me - Seeing as I wouldnt be able to keep my stuff safe in my house or even in a bank it would be near stupid to blow
Money on it, even though I wanted to. Stephen Fry comes to mind.
Particularly when I'm Reading alot of bad PR about the community in this game, apparantly being
bullied by clans and prepatch virtually unkillable characters - Surely they must see that if they run everyone else out of town they will be alone waiting for the server
to fade out one by one as population dwindle?
Legendary weapons
Personally I despise the idea of "insured", "blessed", "Hereditary" or otherwise unlootable hero items because I enjoy fair PvP and the danger of loosing an expencive piece of hardware will encourage most PvP'ers to either Level the playingfield by using "normal" weaponry or risk having People gang up on him and loose the item. I think any MMO should strive to not be World of Warcraft.
I dislike the game, but as the saying goes "You can't argue With success" - then the proper Counter argument could be "Do you really think you can emulate that success well enough to be picked over it?".
Realism makes for better PvP. If you think it's fun PvPing in a danger-free environment hitting People With Christmas trees and wearing Christmas decorations - play wow -
Stay original, Stay different, Stay Salem
The introduction to the game
Also the ingame tutorial should focus more heavily on the skill system and the gluttony. I'm pretty sure most People will install the game log in, understand nothing and log back out never to Return. I think there are not too many of us willing to sit Down and really try to understand a game.
That's it for me this time, and keep in mind it's written from a New players perspective so be gentle if I've gotten any misconseptions about the game - I'm Still Learning.
(None of the above was intended to insult any person in this thread or otherwise in the game).