I first saw the website for this game either while i was playing EQ1 a billion years ago, or right after. Can anyone tell me what it has accomplished in the last.....i dont know...... 8 yrs? Last time i checked it out (again, back in my EQ day) it seemed the only activity was to either RP, which I do enjoy from time to time, or search for some gem or diamond thing that at the time had no reward. So. My question is, What had really changed in this game. I figure I could look on their website, or let their playerbase tell me.

I would say download it and give it a go.  Make up your own mind rather than letting others do it for you.

The reason I say this is because I have read a good chunk of the forum posts here and had a nose round their site and what I encountered made me stay away so as not to taint my soul.   Thats just me.  Other people love it so give it a go :)

I tried it a few yrs ago and for a short period recently. they've added things like mounts/pets also quests have changed(you no longer have to ask for them mutliple times in order to get a response from an npc) they've done some work on the skills and moved things about(gold mine was not next to the magic shop anymore:().  I think there's a wiki that tells you what's in and what's not.  Still a bit too heavy on the rp side for my tastes and i also find the combat very dull.

Don't forget that this is a 100% free mmo and as such not worked on as a full time project (devs need to eat too:)) and as such development is going to be an unmeasured amount slower than a typical mmo, it's also still in an alpha stage.  This seems to be something most ppl on this sight can't seem to understand.

But as already said best idea is to download and see what's changed for yourself

Try it yourself ! For what I know the game changed immensely in the last years. Much more stable and many new features, also the world has been expanded. What it lacks is the typical grind you have in other games where there is one thing after another until you burn yourself. Also it's open source and anyone can contribute!!

The grind is very much still present, at least with the smithing skills.  They made it even worse a few months ago, and essentially told the players that they don't care if it's enjoyable or not.

The game, as such, has not much to offer yet. Loads of dull grinding and nothing hundreds of other free MMOs haven't had already for years. The only good thing the game ever had and probably still has is the playerbase, in which you may be able to find pretty nice and devoted people to hang out with regardless of whether you like to roleplay or not.

As a game it's plain bad, and as an even average MMORPG it's a total fail.

I find it amusing that you are so anti-PlaneShift yet your sig shows a fair amount of devotion to the game.

See, obviously that is the point you will never get Akkaido. For some people it's the players that are important and make a game fun to play. The game itself is pretty meaningless and exchangeable. Other people still playing are the reason why some are still willing to offer them the help they think necessary to play such a game. And yes, I'm pretty sure Lhaa also had a good time playing the game some years back (At least I hope so...wouldn't like it very much to hear he hated all the time we played together..or the time before that when he was one the players I took as example of a great and enjoyable player). But it was never the game itself which was outstanding (and for sure even less the development/moderator team)...it were the other players, their attitudes and how they made playing PlaneShift an experience which made you always long for more.

For the infos Lhaa offers in his (very) old guild forum....Yes, I'm sure they were originally made because of some devotion to the guild he was one of the leaders back then (about 3-4 years ago).  So by your logic it would be better to bury that stuff just because you don't like the way the game headed the last years and not offer it to people who still play and might actually still have a use for it?. Sure...I know...the PS team wants infos on the setting of PlaneShift only available by quests and everyone seeing it unfitting to force people to quest for days just to get the necessary information to play their own character accordingly to their setting isn't the right player for PS.  Still there are some of such people and in my view it's a sign of intolerance to dismiss their needs just because they are not conform with what the PS team wants.

In general I can't see anything wrong with what Lhaa said about the game. Standing at a gold mine for two days hitting the same shortcut over and over again just to be able to later click on one button and spend all that earned money in one second again for training is what I would define as grinding. And before you say that it's not necessary to mine nowadays anymore (at least I was told so)...standing in a field of monsters, running near one and hitting always the same shortcut for attack again isn't much of a difference. The nice about PlaneShift is/was that a lot people didn't care about all those game flaws and just created their own way of having fun in game. And just because I say this...this doesn't necessarily mean they were roleplaying by using the chat window...Hide and seek wasn't exactly very roleplaying orientated but still a lot people liked playing it until it was made impossible by changes to the game. Of course I was always more the person having fun in roleplays still there are/were a lot other way to enjoy the game.

Even for my personal view of what is fun in a game PlaneShift offers a lot (just saying this to prevent the usual "ah, shut up and play a mud" answers). The ability to drop items on the floor is great for Roleplayers. It's possible to play getting drinks for many people sitting at a table by dropping a beer on the table in front of everyone. No need for trading to everyone which others might not even see. Everyone near will exactly see who got a drink and who was left out. Also the chat abilities of PlaneShift offer a lot. First that comes to my mind is the almost unlimited length of chat lines...no need to squeeze your action in a 255 char limit. Also that /me and /my is available not only in main chat but also tells, group guild... is great. By this it's possible to play in closed rooms just by moving the RP to group and nobody outside the room will hear what is said.  Or the books you can write in PlaneShift...not only great for actually writing books but also to create RP items by "misusing" a book to represent an item with description. But none of the mentioned things are unique to PlaneShift...some other games even have a lot better solutions for some of these.

I just find it quit disturbing that people keep on saying that someone is anti-PlaneShift just because they see the actual game as what it is...a unfinished game that hardly offers anything special and always is a few steps behind other mmorpgs feature-wise. People don't keep on playing PlaneShift because it's good...they keep on playing because they found friends there and enjoy the community.

And because of the community some others still offer their help even if they stopped playing. Not to do anything for PlaneShift but to do something for people they like who still play. Sorry, I couldn't care less about helping PlaneShift after the last years. Talad calls me a liar for no reason (at least no reason I'm aware of) and a lot people just see me as troll because I won't praise the PS team and the game all the time. I doubt my name will ever show up in any credits (except maybe the sourcecode or the svn submit logs that almost nobody will ever see). The reason why I submitted the patches for the ability to run scripted commands at startup was because some other people asked me to do it. A bit different for the extended tab completion...that one was really mainly done because I wanted to use it and then only posted on the bugtracker because others thought they might have use for it also. Same for the spellchecker...I needed to learn a bit about hunspell..so needed a playground. Someone still playing the game suggested to include one in PlaneShift...so sure, why not. That's also the reason why I had no problem to make a patch that allows the saving of crafting and settings books as text files and gave it to people wanting it. I don't care at all that the PS team will see this a cheating...what should they do about it...the only place left to ban me is the bugtracker. I fail to see how saving of crafting books could "hurt" any other player...all the patch does is save those people the hassle to get the text with wireshark. For me the other players are just more important than some game which I doubt will ever be finished.

So..if you mean by anti-PlaneShift having problems with how PlaneShift develops, the crap the team does all the time and their inability to take any critics..yes of that I am guilty. Can't speak for Lhaa but I think he shares at least some of my views on PlaneShift. But all that doesn't keep people from caring about the real advantage of PlaneShift..the players. Not that it is really much of an advantage nowadays with the almost non-existent community (compared to the already small community a few years ago) but it has still some nice people. In my view all what Lhaa did is tell people pretty exact what to expect from PlaneShift...Not the usual "All is fine about this game" but a "Don't expect anything from this game...it are the people that make it enjoyable." But with people like you Akkaido I think it should be understandable at least for a few why even the picture the community gives from itself starts to get...grey.

Edit: Typos

Say, what's your opinion on the new MyPlane release?

Now you really made me read the PS forum again just to find out what you are talking about :/

No idea...looks like another feature PlaneShift must have as almost all other mmorpgs already offer it. To start with something positiv..It wasn't forced upon players like the guild list some time ago. Every player can choose if he wants to participate and what informations should be shared. And I think this is already the most important to say about it. It's an option, not a must. If you don't like it you can stay away from it (just maybe not of the consequences adding such a feature might have).

Seen from my roleplayers view it's just another kick in the nuts...but not really that surprised about it. The suggestions from people in the PS forum about how it could be improved also seem to show how most people want to use it. Sure, lets make it a hall of fame with the top monster killers, top magic users, top fighter, top crafters... Appears to me as if it is bound to lead to even more grinding in game. Make it possible to find characters by their skills...great, let's just look for weak characters to rob or get rid of the need to ask around to find a proper smith. Looks for me like just another source of OOC information people will start using in game. Just wait...soon people will create characters with a list of items they sell, another character to contact in game and a PS forum PM address to contact when not being online in their OOC description. Then in game the trade channel will be filled with web-addresses to those character profiles. And people will start running around with weapons in the hands all the time in towns just that their precious shinies are show on that page.

Of course I can also see a few nice things this offers from the roleplaying point of view. No need anymore to use a patched client or a tool like wireshark to get the character descriptions of others to make for example a "wanted" poster of character. Also nice that there is a possibility to look up another characters description if you want to describe that char in game to someone else.

So sorry niklasboelter...I think what you made is a fine addition and a step forward for PS to a mmorpg and for sure something a lot of people want to have but for me and the way I enjoyed playing it looks more like another step backward. But knowing that the way I used to play PlaneShift isn't wanted anymore...not even really tolerated anymore I think it's a good addition for the remaining players that already have completely different views on how to enjoy this game than me. So nothing against the general idea of such a service I just personally think some things about it should have been done different.

I think niklasboelter's post stating that he's not interested in making it a "hall of fame"  and that he wants to implement roleplay supporting features into MyPlane speaks some volumes though. Perhaps contacting him with ideas could be helpful.

*sighs*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_(process)

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The suggestions from people in the PS forum about how it could be improved also seem to show how most people want to use it.

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And how should I help? I have nothing to offer for something like this. The kind of roleplaying in PS nowadays is more centered around the "rolling" of dice and comparing it with skill values than acting in a "role". And that is fine...people should have fun the way they want. But to this kind of fun I have nothing to contribute as I can't understand it.
 

What most people want generally does not mean that it is the best option or direction. I would sieze the opportunity to have some input, niklasboelter is a nice chap and fairly approachable. To encourage people to move from the dice crap to "role" playing, perhaps it would be a good idea to talk to him about a feature in MyPlane for creating a character profile including things like "career", "home city", you know, break it down into points that can be filled out like a Facebook profile. It would certainly be a start.

MyPlane is a great addition! And if that is going to be a problem for some, then they cannot play any other mmorpg, because all main stream mmorpgs have it. I'm sorry for them! Meanwhile you grumble on what's bad and spend your time to look at new ways to say this game is a failure, I play and enjoy it !

I'm neither playing PS nor am I a part of it's community anymore. Of course I said my opinion while I still played and tried to get it heard. After all I think everyone tries to make a game as fun for oneself as possible. But that's not the case for me anymore. I don't plan to ever play it again. The focus of the game has shifted away from the roleplaying centered playing style to a...style where the game mechanics tell you what to do as long as you keep on speaking in character. And obviously this is what most people currently playing want or they had stopped playing by now. So why should someone who doesn't play anymore tell them how to improve the game even more when it's clear that these suggestions aren't what most players want at the moment. 

What has this game accomplished? It's the only open source, completely free, 3D MMO. It's not a particularly great game. But it potentially could be in another 10 years or so, once there's enough content, gameplay refinement, a complete graphics overhaul, etc.

Well, it's sure moved further along than vaporware like Citadel of Sorcery

I agree with Aiwendil on this, I play some and wish there was more rp and less leveling.

by the way, the community still misses you, Aiwendil ;)