Silkroad Online: It's all about the road

[curvekiller]

Little article written by me:


Silkroad Online – It's all about the road
Have you ever wondered where the bot problem of Silkroad originated? In the community, yes. Everyone wanted to be at the maximum level first, and if they had to use illegal programs to accomplish that, so be it. But Silkroad isn't about that. It's all about the road.
Remember when you first started playing Silkroad? The game's screenshots attracted you, or maybe a friend told you it was awesome. You logged in, after being annoyed by crowded servers, and started your first character. You didn't know anything about goldbots, player bots, bugs, full str, party play, alchemy or anything else. You probably just cared about having fun and spending your time with a game that has nice graphics.
Having fun is what Silkroad should be about. Not about being the highest level in the shortest amount of time. Yes, I agree, in iSRO it's pretty hard to actually have fun, because the bots are already accepted as everyday reality. And why is that? Because as soon as one guy found a way to reach the highest level faster than someone else, and thus defeat him in PvP, the other one wanted revenge. But since SRO has those nasty experience rates, he couldn't get it in a reasonable amount of time. So he asked the other guy how he did it. He used a bot. The word spread quick and the legits declined. With the fall of the Venus legits the last major group of legits fell apart. I'm not saying that they were the last legits, no, there are still some out there, but the last large group left SRO in spring of 2009.
But these guys that I mentioned soon noticed that there isn't much to do at the highest level. You can do PVP, go jobbing and that's pretty much it. Must be pretty boring after some time. And if you don't have an active guild, the time until you quit out of boredom is even less. If people realized, before they use a bot, that it will eventually lead them to quit, the temptation wouldn't be as great. Of course you always want to be able to compete with all those other guys up there – but what if the majority of them don't care if you're there? You're just another maxed guy that tries to stand out from the masses. All because some, dumb, guys decided to use illegal programs to their advantage over others.
Let's just imagine – imagine - a Silkroad without bots, from the start. Imagine Joymax has an update that prevents every third party program from the beginning. You can't even launch Silkroad with the bot.
Everyone would have to start from scratch on the new server, and – guess what – there might even be european parties. Sure, they wouldn't be too organized, because people would have to learn how to actually play a game – which everyone with common sense would do, instead of having your computer play the game for you. But after a while, people would get used to leveling up to yourself. The very active players would very probably get impatient and buy Silk to reach the next level faster, which is why Silkroad has those low experience rates. But they would never get to the cap, unless investing vast amounts of time. And really, that's OK. You're not meant to be capped in Silkroad. You don't have to have every skill maxed. If you do, you should be able to be proud of yourself of having achieved something others haven't. You should just be having fun, and everyone that has experienced lower level parties, jobbing and even PvP before, knows it's possible.
Unfortunately, the community simply will not realize by itself that this is possible, and as long as people are able to cheat their way up while others have to work for their success, they will do it. That's human nature, although there are still many people out there that don't think that way. They're called legits. Even bots are willing to get banned just to play the game in a fun way. Because right now iSRO is everything but fun. Joymax is already improving, they implemented active GMs, improved their events and even ban bots. But as long as powerleveling exists, and some people can still bot, you cannot have fun in the lower levels. Why play for hours on end to reach level 20+ when others can get there in less than an hour just by joining some random high level wizard that runs around blasting every monster bee in sight out of the sky and gets cash for that.
Now, you'll probably ask, what's the point of all this? The point is to let the Silkroad Community know that they don't have to accept things the way they are. You can make a difference.You are the people that keep the servers running. Joymax can't fix everything alone, although they can do a lot. Joymax can't fix people's behavior, e.g. teaming up in a party against one guy and perma-killing him. Or ks'ing others. Or buying gold from gold companies and as a direct result supporting them. There is a lot the community can do. Unfortunately the majority of the community won't even be able to read this article because they are not capable of speaking this language. But those who can, and I'm sure there are people out there that speak both this and their language, can spread the word. Spread the word that it's all about the road to the highest level, not about being at the highest level. It really is all about the road.


//Discuss

[Swindler]

[xzaz]

@HejsaN
But you want to react dont you?

Good story bro, but there is a big BUT. Botting != no community. The botting community is big, bigger then the SRF community. SRF is small. And yes people see gapped as their main objective. There is nothing better in this game to beeing 100 (right now) and finaly you can enjoy the 'game' with PVP jobbing enc. Don't get me wrong the game is more, party'ing having fun, get smashed down by lvl 100 guys that don't speak english even in a very very small scale.
It is fun for a bit, but if you grind 1 hour for 3% and get killed by a lvl 100 thief while a traid, there isn't much FUN about the game. And yes the game is fun the first lvl 20 when everything is new. Back in the old days i was happy to reach chi'in tomb (you couldn't access it back then). I was happy to reach the ferrys @ lvl 16. I was happy when i first saw Hotan in a Guild / Union trade. There are alot of fun things, but it doesn't matter anymore if your not lvl 100. You cannot enjoy it if you are not lvl 100.
The Silk / SOX items made the game even more unbalenced with the gold bots. Rich oil country's (our money but thats an other disccusion) buy alot and we don't even talk about the old CCF. But hey, there is a time that you realize that this is a good game in a way. But that is when you don't play it (anymore).

[Swindler]

@HejsaN
But you want to react dont you?

Wut?


OnT:
This shit have been discussed plenty of times, why bring it up again? This shit will never change, just face it.

[Crowley]

tl;dr version?

[Zyphir]

That's how things go in every game. I used to play RS (blame me for that lol), but it had a great community and actually managed to ban bots, with a good reporting system and such. But that's not the point now. I think it'd be great to have no bots. I for myself only play a game like this to have fun. I don't care if it takes ages. I played Runescape for 4 years or so and never got to maximum level and I never cared, just because there's so much behind every game (normally) than just getting a high level. Of course we all want a high level, but I think it's more enjoyable to do everything by your own, discovering the game like it really is, than botting till you've got it right. That's also a bit why I hate the SP thing, where you need to farm first and so on, because that really encourages the botting in my opinion. But well I guess bots are just something we'll have to deal with, like you have to do with in every game.

[XesoS]

Realy HejsaN im gona talk with Admin about you Replays , if you dont have something to say than shut it ...


OT : Still Sro2 wont come out , if they will it will be a update to a old one

[Smi!ezZ]

Realy HejsaN im gona talk with Admin about you Replays , if you dont have something to say than shut it ...


OT : Still Sro2 wont come out , if they will it will be a update to a old one

Replys***

tl;dr

[Swindler]

Realy HejsaN im gona talk with Admin about you Replays , if you dont have something to say than shut it ...


OT : Still Sro2 wont come out , if they will it will be a update to a old one

And btw, SRO2 is confirmed to come out late 2010 in a completely new game if I remember correct, so if you dont have any valid information, shut it or I am going to talk to mod about your replays.

[BuDo]

Every free 2 play mmo game I've played are built to slow the progress of the players unless they subscribe to the game's item mall service. The game companies design their games to gather maximum profits and this is how they do it.

Players who love the game but can't afford "item mall helpers" are forced to cheat. Not saying cheating is warrented...I'm just stating what I've observed. Joymax went a step further and still made it tedious even when you purchase silk. Company greed.

Joymax would be better off if SRO was a subscription based game where every player needs to pay a monthly fee to play with ZERO possibility of loggin on unless you subscribe. We'd have less people botting..at least we'd have less gold bot farmers.

[heroo]

couldn't find the time to read this, sorry man

[heroo]

Realy HejsaN im gona talk with Admin about you Replays , if you dont have something to say than shut it ...

HejsaN, you have a problme dude. he's going to talk about your reply's with the admins

[Swindler]

Realy HejsaN im gona talk with Admin about you Replays , if you dont have something to say than shut it ...

HejsaN, you have a problme dude. he's going to talk about your reply's with the admins

No, he is going to talk about my replays with the mods

Code: Select all

[Smi!ezZ]

couldn't find the time to read this, sorry man

[img]img[/img]

Realy HejsaN im gona talk with Admin about you Replays , if you dont have something to say than shut it ...

HejsaN, you have a problme dude. he's going to talk about your reply's with the admins

double post!

[/Pi]

In every game, especially in an MMORPG, there will always be someone who will try to cheat, and often times succeed. That's a given - ALWAYS. You can blame the community of cheaters as much as you want, and you have all the right to do so, together with all the evidence you can amass. But cheating is so widespread and commonplace that it's expected by both players and companies. Pointing your finger at the cheater is pointing at the obvious. They will ALWAYS exist.

Who then rightfully deserves the blame and the responsibility? The company, in this case, Joymax. They made the rules. They should enforce the rules. By ignoring the cheaters, they sent a message that it is perfectly fine to cheat. They have been doing this for almost the entire lifetime of the game. It has now come to a point where Silkroad is beyond salvation.

You can convince a community to do good and play by the rules. But when this community is the Silkroad community, don't even think about it.

Btw, welcome to 2007.

[evilpeta]

Realy HejsaN im gona talk with Admin about you Replays , if you dont have something to say than shut it ...


OT : Still Sro2 wont come out , if they will it will be a update to a old one

Replys***

tl;dr

replies*

[NuclearSilo]

isro =/= ksro/csro/vsro

[heroo]

double post!

reply's***

[Lempi]

No u.

[Smi!ezZ]

double post!

reply's***

wow that's even dumber than my mistake xD

[heroo]

double post!

reply's***

wow that's even dumber than my mistake xD

yeah i was referring to your mistake, but i thought you typed reply's, but you actually typed replys.

[Fresh]

Oh, General Discussion, how you warm my heart.

[Squirt]

tl;dr

[Disconn3cted]

tl;dr

What does that mean?

Ont: I'm not reading that much text. Would anyone like to summarize it?

[Squirt]

tl;dr=To long;didn't read

[Lempi]

tl;dr=To long;didn't read

tl;dr=Too long;didn't read

[larrylhm]

well, one of the last surviving legit guilds/union will be Etnica (VENUS). When i played Chinese on Neptune i was bored as hell, since majority are bots, and i cant really find any good guilds that doesnt have 'em.

i started a warlock on Venus, hearing that there're a lot of legits around. I was disappointed to find that, even tho there ARE legits, majority of them are botters in disguise. Luckily i found Etnica guild and saw how a true european party worked.

but your article. yeah its pretty true. if only JM can ban all the bots, it'll definitely be a nicer game, cos i can actually findn people to party... oh. and they can totally raise the EXP rates. its rubbish.

[Heosphoros]

Tl;dr

Summary please.

[Trace]

Playing games is about having fun. It is perfectly fine to enjoy the journey, enjoying competitive pvp is fine too. F2p games like sro attract a lot of competitive pvp players (think about the demographic, the age range), getting a competitive edge (in any form) is the natural course of things. You either have to have better regulations and enforce them, or have a community that shuns them. We tried to do the later and failed. So part of it is our fault as a community.

If you want a legit community, it starts with you. Don't bot, don't cheat, play fair and see how far you go. Inspire people to join you, and think of creative ways to have fun.

[Blurred]