Back after 9 years 😈

[Smoothe]

Hey RedRyder! I remember you! My real life wife and I are also old school Rohan players from 10 years ago back in the Ynk days. In many ways, Rohan Ynk gave you more for you money back then than does Rohan Playwith. The game has become "excessively" monetized now. Here are some examples: Costumes purchased back in Ynk days came with stats attached. With Playwith, now costumes don't come with stats and require separate so called "patterns" to have stats which are not even permanent but only 30 days! -Sheesh- But the madness doesn't end there. Very expensive end game weapons like Epics which we paid $150 (15K RP) are now replaced by Trans & Trans Opa weapons which use these silly "sockets" which allow for a "TEMPORARY" weapon enhance for -drum roll- three whole days! Again this is monetizing what used to be permanent by making it temporary. However, it doesn't stop there! Mounts like snow cougars and the like which used to be permanent after purchasing them from the item mall are now all only 30 days only with the exception for the goofy looking "bison" one. IMHO Ynk was more user friendly to its player base than Playwith. Even GM's are not of the same caliber as old Ynk GM's who where much more social and fun than Playwith's GM's who seem more like GM bots than real GM's. My wife and I recently returned a couple of months ago and spent waaaay too much money for this game. We missed the nostalgia and many of the game community. You were always a great GM! I wish Playwith would hire you back to teach these new GM's a thing or two. Anyway, good to hear from you. "TwilightEdge" (Janus) Tempest. Originally started 10 years ago on Ankma Server with the guild "WhiteRose" and later formed the guild that many may remember called "QuestCrew." I also had various toons who where members of guild "Forever" which dominated Ankma back in those days. Yes, I remember Esoteric as well. It's always great to run into the true "OG" players of Rohan. Hope to see you guys around in the realms. PEACE!

[RedRyderOG]

Hey RedRyder! I remember you! My real life wife and I are also old school Rohan players from 10 years ago back in the Ynk days. In many ways, Rohan Ynk gave you more for you money back then than does Rohan Playwith. The game has become "excessively" monetized now. Here are some examples: Costumes purchased back in Ynk days came with stats attached. With Playwith, now costumes don't come with stats and require separate so called "patterns" to have stats which are not even permanent but only 30 days! -Sheesh- But the madness doesn't end there. Very expensive end game weapons like Epics which we paid $150 (15K RP) are now replaced by Trans & Trans Opa weapons which use these silly "sockets" which allow for a "TEMPORARY" weapon enhance for -drum roll- three whole days! Again this is monetizing what used to be permanent by making it temporary. However, it doesn't stop there! Mounts like snow cougars and the like which used to be permanent after purchasing them from the item mall are now all only 30 days only with the exception for the goofy looking "bison" one. IMHO Ynk was more user friendly to its player base than Playwith. Even GM's are not of the same caliber as old Ynk GM's who where much more social and fun than Playwith's GM's who seem more like GM bots than real GM's. My wife and I recently returned a couple of months ago and spent waaaay too much money for this game. We missed the nostalgia and many of the game community. You were always a great GM! I wish Playwith would hire you back to teach these new GM's a thing or two. Anyway, good to hear from you. "TwilightEdge" (Janus) Tempest. Originally started 10 years ago on Ankma Server with the guild "WhiteRose" and later formed the guild that many may remember called "QuestCrew." I also had various toons who where members of guild "Forever" which dominated Ankma back in those days. Yes, I remember Esoteric as well. It's always great to run into the true "OG" players of Rohan. Hope to see you guys around in the realms. PEACE!

Smoothe, thanks for the detailed update! And I appreciate the props. I'm sure that the current GMs are doing their best with what they're able to do. And while I'm sorry to hear that they don't seem as player-focused as the old days, I can tell you first hand that running a game as a service is HARD. You have to get the game balanced, the updates working, new content to keep it fresh, and finding the right people isn't easy. And at the end of the day, a game needs to make money in order for it to survive. Since the game launched in '08, we've seen games monetize the "right" way (Fortnite) and game monetize the "wrong" way (Star Wars Battlefront II). Generally in my experience in the game industry, there are 6 ways to earn money from a game:
1) pay for it outright (this is a dying model)
2) subscription (this is uncommon nowadays)
3) paying for items that allow you to advance more quickly through levels or move throughout the gameworld more quickly
4) paying for "vanity" items that are merely cosmetic but don't offer any kind of advantage over another player
5) advertising (doesn't work well unless you are a NASCAR or FIFA type of game in which advertising is an integral part of the environment)
6) donations like Kickstarter, Patreon, GoFundme, etc.

Back in the YNK days, I was in many conference room meetings where we discussed monetization. "Pay to win" was never an attractive model to me. I hope that it's not like that now. But like I said, it's not easy running a game, and especially not easy running a PROFITABLE game. I will say that the fact that the game is still around after over 10 years speaks to the quality of the game at its core, and the quality of the community that it draws.

[Smoothe]

Thanks for the breakdown Ryder! I still wish you were a GM again! -smiles- I'll try to look at it from the perspective that you've mentioned. I understand that things must evolve. However, I also understand the old mantra "if it isn't broke don't fix it!" -smiles- You are correct that Rohan's longevity is a testament to its quality especially in the game mechanics department. Insofar as a pure hardcore PVP MMO, it's still one of the best out there! Since leaving Rohan and coming back, I've played most of the other current flagship MMO's like: WOW, ESO, BDO, GW2, and Arch-Age (Relics of Hiram). However, the only two MMO's that are no installed on my desktop/laptop are Rohan and Star Trek Online. Neither are the most current games; however, something about both keeps me engaged. Again, it's good to see you back with the experience & perspective that you bring to the game! -cheers-!

[White Arctic Fox]

Dank je, Fox!

Wow je bent Nederlands? Ik zou graag is willen overleggen met je over hoe het er terug in de tijd aan toe ging, misschien kan ik daar nog iets van leren. Ik speel dit spel al heel erg lang en heb erg mijn best gedaan om het te verbeteren, dit lukt alleen maar met mondjesmaat. In ieder geval leuk om je hier terug te zien na zo'n lange tijd!!

Smoothe, thanks for the detailed update! And I appreciate the props. I'm sure that the current GMs are doing their best with what they're able to do. And while I'm sorry to hear that they don't seem as player-focused as the old days, I can tell you first hand that running a game as a service is HARD. You have to get the game balanced, the updates working, new content to keep it fresh, and finding the right people isn't easy. And at the end of the day, a game needs to make money in order for it to survive. Since the game launched in '08, we've seen games monetize the "right" way (Fortnite) and game monetize the "wrong" way (Star Wars Battlefront II). Generally in my experience in the game industry, there are 6 ways to earn money from a game:
1) pay for it outright (this is a dying model)
2) subscription (this is uncommon nowadays)
3) paying for items that allow you to advance more quickly through levels or move throughout the gameworld more quickly
4) paying for "vanity" items that are merely cosmetic but don't offer any kind of advantage over another player
5) advertising (doesn't work well unless you are a NASCAR or FIFA type of game in which advertising is an integral part of the environment)
6) donations like Kickstarter, Patreon, GoFundme, etc.

Back in the YNK days, I was in many conference room meetings where we discussed monetization. "Pay to win" was never an attractive model to me. I hope that it's not like that now. But like I said, it's not easy running a game, and especially not easy running a PROFITABLE game. I will say that the fact that the game is still around after over 10 years speaks to the quality of the game at its core, and the quality of the community that it draws.

The most successful games (League of Legends, Fortnite etc.) Basically rely on F2P + skins2pay. You can play it at no cost and the only items that cost money are basically skins/emotes/apperances and so on these do not give direct advantages over another player but they do allow you to ''show off''. This concept is mostly combined with microtransactions (Fortnite) and you get a really profitable game.

I do however not think that this model will work for rohan since the main playerbase now consist for 80% of veterans and they have invested thousands of dollars into this game, switching to basically free2play for all items would mean most of them would quit.