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Why I think Wakfu will fail (actual argument inside) I've seen quite a bit of turmoil lately regarding difficulty changes, new attributes, etc. As I said before I don't think those changes are bad, on the contrary, but the reaction from the community has given me some clues about how and why Wakfu is going to fail in the MMO market unless something really drastic is done soon.


So what's wrong with wakfu in my opinion?

• It lacks identity as a product, and it doesn't know what audience it's catering to.

This may look trivial, but it's possibly the main flaw in Wakfu's design process. It's not shaping up to be a necessarily bad game, but it's a game full of contradictions that stem from the fact it's trying to aim for two radically opposed audiences, intending to please both and failing to do so. Let me be more specific.

Wakfu tries to be a family-friendly game, accessible, eye-catching and cute. This is a major depart from Dofus which, even though shared the colourful art, was a more irreverent game full of adult humour. Wakfu is marketing itself as a theme park game, building a player base thanks to a very long open beta which as we all people know tend to draw people attracted to free games (which usually translates to the younger audiences).

This design direction is reflected in the following mechanics:

1. Easily accessible gameplay, with simplistic tutorials and an easy combat system.
2. Lack of any real consequences on death. The penalty is negligible, death is a minor annoyance.
3. For the most part of the game, lack of any risk whatsoever unless the player intends to face it (most monsters won't attack if you don't decide you want a fight).
4. Lack of any real negative impact on other players aside from certain annoyance when ganking.

These aren't bad features if you're building a theme park game in which the objective is to have fun. However, this collides head-on with the other direction Wakfu is trying to go, which is:


Wakfu is trying to be a serious, sandbox game with emphasis on such complex things as environmental impact, politics and territorial conquest. Wakfu has been offering those qualities as a way to cater to more adult audiences that want a game in which they have actual impact. That's why Wakfu drew my interest as an EvE online vet. These kind of people are scarcely present in betas and are usually drawn by finished products which good critics and aren't deterred by monthly fees.

This other direction can be seen in:

1. Interesting (altough quite limited currently) environmental impact mechanics.
2. Player driven economy (with everything up to coins being player-made).
3. Free PvP with a criminal system in place.
4. Lack of any traditional quests in exchange from an open ended, player driven experience.

Then again, those mechanics aren't bad by themselves, but together with those I listed previously it becomes a time bomb.



Why is this so terrible?

It's simple: Games can't be all things at once. If I make a shooter, I can't expect it to be a revolution in the strategy field, at least not with a reasonable budget. Wakfu is an ambitious project that is trying to put together elements from two radically opposed worlds and is failing to do so in a coherent manner.

Players who are looking for a Theme Park experience (typically younger audiences and casual adults) will find the game boring because the lack of traditional quests, and the repetitive gameplay. They will find comfort in the fact that the game is easy-going and forgiving, but since they will not get involved in environment and politics will quickly become tired and leave. An example for this would be a World of Warcraft completely devoid of quests, in which some people who you don't know or care about are changing the weather of your grind area, cutting some trees and dictating what laws you follow.

Players who are drawn by the Sandbox design will find it extremely lacking. While Wakfu appears to allow a lot of player influence, it soon becomes evident that the impact a player can have is severy limited in order not to "hurt" the casual players. What's the point of being a criminal if you can't steal and loot from your enemies? What's the point of hurting the environment if you can't do actual, meaningful damage that someone can't fix by just replanting? Imagine an EvE online in which losing your ship means nothing and you reappear with all the loot in your hangar.



The reality of these two audiences is that once the game goes live and people have to decide whether to pay for Wakfu or not, they'll jump on each other's throats. Once Ankama is done with basic design such as tuning the classes and finishing the areas, they'll have to decide what route they want Wakfu to follow, and whatever they do will piss half the audience off.



Wakfu needs to decide once and for good what audience it's catering to, and secure a loyal player base. Only then the design path will become clear and they can start to be creative. If they don't do it now, it's going to get worse and worse. You just need to see the reaction to the last patch. I Interpret this last patch as a step towards the "Sandbox" side, with more complex attributes and a higher difficulty. See how upset everyone is? Even I, supporting the Sandbox side, did get angry at the patch because of server restrictions, which are a terrible decision more appropriate for a theme park game in which player interaction is not really taken seriously (which yet again shows Ankama's bipolar design choices).

Ankama need to pick a side, do it now, and stick to it. My suggestions are as follows:

1. Introduce quests. Do it now, before release. I don't care of what kind, minor stories, minigames, activities to keep people entertained. Move people away from the current grinding model. Have them depend on the environment and politics a little bit to make use of what is already coded.
2. Stop improving the politics/economy/environment for a while until the game is stable.
3. Reduce difficulty, enforce replayability and soloing.
4. Implement mechanics to prevent excessive griefing in PvP enabled zones.
5. Simplify the attribute/skill system and implement a respec mechanic so people won't be able to have a "flawed" character.
6. Improve the achievement system. Many more achievements with actual meaningful rewards.
7. Improve the housing / decoration aspect of the game, specially with collectibles.

1. Make death meaningful. Loss of items is a good idea, make people value their life and exert caution.
2. Create monster aggro. Make monsters approach and attack you based on the level difference. Implement a "runaway" system based on Dodge or whatever attribute to escape dangerous fights. This should give the world a feeling of depth instead of a colourful painting.
3. Make PvP meaningful for both the offender and the attacked. Looting is a possibility. Of course make penalties for being a criminal much worse too.
4. Iterate in the economy aspect of the game, so there is actual economy. Make resources heavy so you have to carry them. Make trade routes that can be assaulted and goods stolen. Radically divide how resources are found in nations so trade between them is mandatory.
5. Give the government true power, aside from the ability to meekly reward and punish people. A bad government should be a hell, and a good government a noticeable boost to a nation. Make it so people hate and love governors from day one, and give them the tool to overthrow them.
6. Greatly enhance the importance of Environment. Right now it's just a gimmick. Make it so the extinction of a creature has drastic effects that need actual effort to be fixed. As in real life, this will mean there will be more care put into protecting the species, and more initiatives to deter players who hurt them will appear.

Those are my two (well, maybe more than two) cents. Now let me know what you think.


This post has been edited by Aranfalc - January 10, 2012, 10:48:35.

Well Said, Couldn't have put it together nearly as well as you did.

Though a question for you, yes Wakfu is trying to please 2 audiences.
But with the upcoming release, and the Subscription on its way too,

Wont the formentioned Audience be driven away (The Young, F2P Type of player).
And thus hopefully solve the confusion that Wakfu has created ?

The Ecosystem would actually mean something once its released, as im sure any F2P players will have restrictions, and im guessing that has to do with the Ecosystem especially.

Thats the only question i can get off, at the top of my head right now.

Will re visit this topic at a later stage,

Regards,
Canine

I suppose "ecosystem" is one of the weakest features in game. People prefer just to take, not to seed the plants. Governor does nothing to plant wiped species. And no quests... That's very bad...

Okay, I'll discount the deliberately provocative thread title and bite.

I don't agree with your main point, because there is no reason a game can't both be family-friendly and accessible, and a serious sandbox at the same time. It does not need to be difficult in order to be complex (In fact, a good game must be both complex and easy at the same time. Want an example? Pokemon.), and it does not need to be brutal and unforgiving to be player-driven.

I think Wakfu did a good job at combining the two a few months ago: it kept its mechanics simple, while offering a lot of choice and tricks to learn, and enough places for a dedicated, or even a fairly casual player to make an impact, yet it was always fairly obvious what you could do. The changes since then made it lean more and more heavily to the first direction you're describing, and I'll admit that I don't like these changes at all, because they try to simplify already simple rules and mechanics, and end up with very little substance to play with, and right now the game's stuck in this weird limbo where it fails as both. But trying to pull it entirely in one description won't do much good, either.

From your "Sandbox" suggestion block, I'll say that points 1-3 do nothing to add to the game's actual sandbox-y-ness, simply making it more unforgiving without a real point to it. Points 4-6 are good, though - and already partially implemented. Economy was a major part of the game (Even though few players bothered to take a closer look at it) until the market changes, Sabotage proved that a bad government is hell even with current rules, and I think the environment system involved some sort of illnesses that made it much more important before I joined.

"Theme park" block, eh. Most of those are quality-of-life changes that are needed one way or another, except quests. And there's nothing to simplify right now. The mechanics are as easy as they get, the only point of contention being specific formulae that define how much extra XP you get from a point of wisdom, how lock and dodge interact and the like. But even here a simple "more is better" never stopped working.


This post has been edited by Grichmann - January 10, 2012, 10:55:56.

I agree, Aranfalc is saying that you have to choose between "theme park" and "sandbox" but there are certain attributes about each option that I love having in-game. I always thought that's what made Wakfu so wonderful, that they took bits and pieces and made them work together. But at the moment... what your saying about Wakfu being in limbo, very true. It's all just so... strange.

I think there's a different problem than this "split direction" (arguably a symptom of the problem).

1. There's another split direction "axis", the one between Dofus and "innovation".

a. Effectively Dofus has proven itself as Ankama's success, all their other products are effectively spin-offs (except some minor publishing products). This is mostly why we keep seeing the return of Dofus systems, because they are a known quantity and that game "makes money". Anything else is a risk.

b. Wakfu is not Dofus 2.0, which was actually released after Wakfu entered Beta. If you have 2 MMOs in the same company, they need to be sufficiently different in order to avoid wasting effort competing against yourself. So, the idea that they should duplicate systems from Dofus is exactly counter to that purpose.

This leads us into an observed problem, that at multiple stages in Wakfu's development they have added, then removed various systems from Dofus. The recent addition of int/agi/str/chance was not the first time those stats have been added, and they were removed previously.

However, there is also a flip side of this, with numerous completely new systems (with no equivalent in Dofus) being added to the game and then removed. Some were removed after very negative feedback (re: disease), some were removed to "streamline" the game (re: monster-family variety). Unlike the "borrowed" Dofus systems, a lot of these developments came across as "toys"... essentially a designer had an idea, and they tried to wedge it into the game. They weren't designed to fix a problem, but just to add something more (like a bad fanfic were the main character is a "half-dragon vampire witch half-orc elf").

At least a couple of changes were simply "roleplay"-orientated, with the actual result being unhelpful and obstructive.

Overall, the game's development comes across as a collection of design prototypes, without any guiding design ideal. Some new idea gets thrown into the pot, then thrown out again.

The 4~5 years of Beta were not intentional. When it started, it was as with most MMO Betas, designed for a few months at best (to lead into the initial hype-train before release). The cartoon was suppose to accompany the release... the cartoon now into its second series.

The Beta has reached this length because they simply couldn't finally decide that the product was done... or that it should be cancelled. They scrapped 2 "versions" (and multiple parts of each version) because they couldn't fix themselves on one goal, to achieve or fail at.


This post has been edited by GoldfishGod - January 10, 2012, 11:17:45.

I didn't mean to say it had to be difficult. The sandbox improvements I propose are in the line of giving the game impact, which is different. I'll give you an example: Arcade games can be very diffcult, but have little impact. Dying just means you need to insert coin and press continue. Being brutal and unforgiving is one thing, being hard another, and I am a firm supporter to the fact that a serious world needs serious punishments, which wakfu lacks.

About Pokemon... Pokemon is a milestone in game design and an example of excellence, but in fact it did have a specific audience, the theme park's. Pokemon is like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar is a kids show, but due to sheer excellence it invades other audiences, moving older people like me. I agree that Pokemon is a great example, but not everybody can make a game like that, specially when it comes to a MMO in which the interest of many people collide.




I think we agree more than what you think. The latest design choices by Ankama have made it simpler, yet harder at the same time, which moves the game towards a mindless grind. That's not what I'm proposing for the Sandbox direction. Even in that direction, they could make monsters much easier (in fact it would make sense, knowing that death is now much harder to deal with).

My preferred path (sandbox) would mean much more complexity and brutality, but not necessarily difficulty that enforces a repetitive grind.




Actually there is a very, very big point in having an unforgiving game. Depth, fear, respect, do a lot for the mystique of a game. Wakfu lacks any sort of feeling of exploration. I can roll a new character and stroll around the highest level areas with terrible, terrible monsters giving me a dumb stare. How is that a living universe to you? I want to feel I'm earning the right to advance to new areas, or if I do trespass, that I'm running a risk.

PvP changes would make it more unforgiving but also give more rewards to the criminal. This is actually quite beneficial for a game, because having unrewarded criminals means only griefers will take that route. Piracy in EvE online is pretty much rewarded ganking and pirates are among the most mature and interesting people in the game.

Then for 4-6, they might already be implemented but to very little extent. We need more of that. You agreed that it was fun an interesting to have illnesses, bad governors and the like. But it could be much worse, and much better when it's good. I'm not asking for a harder time, just for more impact. Impact is the key. I'll bring EvE online as an example again. Recently, a big EvE corporation decided to monopolize a resource (ice) by shooting everyone who tried to mine it, making the prices skyrocket and creating a universe-wide diplomatic cluster**** that is dictating the entire direction of the game. Now that's what I call impact.



I agree with quests being unnecessary, EXCEPT nothing is done towards the sandbox path. The game just lacks content. It has a terrible, terrible problem of lacking content. I think this should be obvious to anyone with objectivity and they should find a way around it before release, and even quests are better than nothing.


This post has been edited by Aranfalc - January 10, 2012, 11:11:39.

Oh yes. Disagreeing on one point, even one as broad as this one, does not mean we disagree in general, and it's great to argue with someone who understands that for once.

You misunderstood me as meaning that complexity and difficulty are the same thing, I think. They aren't, and one does not necessitate the other. I gave Pokemon exactly as an example of an easy (On the surface), but complex game. Yours of arcade games complements it by giving something simple, but difficult.
The updates since I've joined the game made the game simpler, but more difficult, while not doing anything for its approachability (Another important characteristic that makes the game seem easier or simpler, but let's keep it out of our discussion, at least for now). Let's just get this bit of misunderstanding out of the way.

I agree that impact is the most important part of any open-ended game: what's the point of playing if you don't make an impact, after all? EVE is a great example of that, as basically everything you do, even as a starting character on a dinky frigate, has an impact and feeds into other things, however small it might be. But I don't think that only your failures must have an impact, and that impact should be easy to make, in fact. A death penalty is a good thing in my book (Simply because it stops you from brute-forcing your way through the game), but it doesn't have to be very brutal - just enough to get the point across. Same with looting in PvP and the like.
Economy, ecosystem, territory control and politics are all great ways to add to the impact a character can make without affecting the character directly. At the same time, neither system can directly and immediately cripple a character if mistreated. I think they should be developed, not shifted out in favour of essentially meaningless combat and quests. What would complement those? Personal/guild territory control (housing) with more features than a regular Haven Bag gives, as long as you can hold them. Structures a governor can build on a captured island that can be attacked by other nations. Things like that.

As to the aggro bit, I can't say that I've seen most of the game's content yet, but as I understand it, we don't exactly have a lot of particularly dangerous areas intended for a higher-level character/more dedicated player. I see no reason why such areas cannot be added.

I kinda agree with all of you.......the point of Wakfu was a new innovative game with never before seen features like ecosystem and government and stuff. I do kinda enjoy the mix of the two sides (sandbox and theme park) but yet sometimes the diversity annoys the **** outta me.

Plus with the new update, wakfu has become more "dofus-like" some part of which is good but the rest is horrible. It makes Wakfu another grind game(cuz of xp nerf), which was one of the reasons i left dofus. Also i preferred the original stats......they were simple. Now with over 20 stats to choose from and receiving such less points(5 per lvl) to spend it makes the game really horrible. The overpowered monsters and impossible solo play is no good either. Theres a lot more that i may mention later.

I don't have much time now so i'll just say.
Wakfu systems were good before this patch.


And btw, Dhrellers do agrro you if u go near them and you can avoid them if u run fast enough. But i think they're the only aggro monsters in game yet.

• Needs a more detailed / helpful tutorial.
• No quests, no real story, at a lost as to what to do. ( Especially towards completely new players, like me )
• Too few NPCs.
• Unable to sell anything to any NPCs, which most likely forces you to throw whatever items you don't want away since most people never really wanna buy anything.
• Complicated map, not enough direction help, players can get lost easily. ( Again, especially new players )

• Very nice tactical gameplay. ( I love Final Fantasy Tactics )
• Fun dungeons which really require teamwork.
• Nice community.
• And everything else like the stats, spells, elements.

• Make a much better tutorial, covering topics such as the importance of elements, stats like WP, Perception, Dodge, Angrr, etc.
• Introduce quests, or story-based achievements.
• Introduce NPC trading. This might screw up the market / Kama minting, but I think it could be solved by introducing "different Kamas" ( think Gold, Silver, and Copper Kamas ), more materials / effort needed for Kama minting but better rewards ( so that grinding is still feasible ).
• Make a better map / guiding NPCs / whatever that can help players navigate better. Hidden paths are fine just the way they are now though.
• Make it possible to walk through your own team-mates in fights.

These are just based on my own experiences, and are solely my own thoughts & opinions on Wakfu right now.
I don't wanna talk about politics or economics because I haven't quite got the grasp of it yet.

Well, cheers mates.


This post has been edited by KrisLuna - January 10, 2012, 17:36:12.

@KrisLuna: Lately there has been added dungeons sets, such as Respite Set and others. NPC salers are against game philisophie.
Other points are similar to my opinion: most of new players gets lost way too easy. Even with finding professions teachers they don't how to get there. More quests and better awards, because they don't realy motivate you to do any.

Also I think that game is too hard now. Devs want us to cooperate but still, they try to force us, by making mobs strongers and us weaker. That's not the way. You should play with group because you want to, not beacause you have to. That way is just ain't much of fun.
If you need to, get more bonus for teamplayers, but don't make soloing imposible.
Goverment should have more power, so they will make a difference. Right now, they don't realy do anything much.

I really wish they could include some of those stuff

- A market System ( like the new auction house in Diablo III ) or something in that direction
- A quest system and a real achivement system ( the one that is in the game now i a joke )
- A Better Map
- Pull back the old mob and char system before 0.300 patch ( or do something better then is now )

As KrisLuna pointed out, the game may be daunting towards new players, despite its fairly simple nature. This is what approachability is all about, and what Ankama really should address. Personally, I don't mind the game figuratively tossing newbies off the pier and telling them to swim or else - as long as possible questions are answered in a manual.
But a basic tutorial, or even just an annotated screenshot of the interface that would explain what all the numbers and symbols mean would do a great deal towards reducing the newbie confusion.
Not quests or NPC merchants, though. Rewards should not come from nowhere in a player-driven game. Instead, more ways to gain and use resources (Including citizenship points and suchlike) and affect more than just yourself (Through economy? Guild- or nationwide rewards? Territory control?) are the ways to go.

There is something we, the players, can do about it, in fact: write a manual ourselves! I've even started working on one, but then the big patch hit, and now I'm a bit too busy overall to re-do it. I'll see what I can do about that annotated screenshot, though.

It's a complex discussion. But this phrase summarizes all:


BTW, the game should move more towards theme park. It cant be "serious". The classes (or races) are so different that its hard to believe they could reside in the same planet.

I am coming from a full permadeath sanbox game with open PvP, free crafting, building and stuff. I came here for some relaxation, but still wanted to enjoy the freedom and excitement sandbox games tend to give. So what I am trying to say is that a mix of a themepark and a sandbox MMO doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. The game I was playing before was more stress than fun in the end.

That being said I agree with you. Especially politics need to be made more meaningful and choices have to have an impact or you might as well get rid of this aspect of the game. That means there needs to be a complete overhaul of the warfare system, because conquering some islands back and forth and whoever has to go to bed first looses just doesn't cut it.

Totally agree on the economy system too. Printing your own money? An endless supply of items into the system? That will lead to instability without a doubt. The regionalization of ressources and equips is a nice idea, but needs to be fleshed out more and there need to be actual restrictions to form an actual trading system. Right now I can just warp to the nation I need my ressource from and get it.

Your view on the power of the government is problematic. You have to keep in mind that an abusive government is able to ruin many players gaming experience and that can hardly be the goal here. So there at least need to be new mechanisms to get rid of the government. Revolutions and such could make for cool game mechanics btw. Right now it is: The one with the most alt account gets to be govenor and only those alt accounts could downvote him, so that never happens. That should at least be fixed with release and them charging money I hope.

All of this is facing the problem of Ankama wanting to make the most money though and it seems to be still true that a themepark MMO earns you more than a sandbox one even though the latter is catching up. So they will hardly go and implement harsh death penalties, full looting or similar things if it drives away their main audience: Kids. Because as indecisive as it may seem at first I am pretty sure that is the target audience (although your points plus the very sophisticated char building and combat system might suggest otherwise).

I feel a rather different point should be brought up in regards to all of this:

What is Wakfu supposed to be in regards to Dofus? A successor, a variation?
From what I am currently gathering, it's supposed to be a Dofus 2.0 as the similarities, world, mechanics are way too comparable. On the other hand, it feels like the game is suffering from depth that people prefer in Dofus - What makes the old playerbase prefer this over what they already had?

Even more questionable to me is the fact that they are still actively supporting both (or I'd almost like to say that Dofus is still getting more support at that) - Surely you might get a new crowd on this, but why do it all over again when you could catch two birds with one stone - They'll need to invest double the time and money now for a split community.

Mhh i dont agree....

-Noobs and casuals don't really feel the difference between the features of some crap like wow or nice sandbox games, they are ok until you let them grind and farm equips You have no idea how many people from my country i've encounter that only say "ehi lets exp! yo lets exp ! someone for exp?"and were happy like that.
. If you add things like politics they will just ignore it and keep focus on having a stronger char.
That means you actually CAN create a mixed combination between sandbox game and classic mmorpg. For example, want more death penalites, loot the dead and stuff? Allow that only in war areas, for those who wanna pro play. Want monster aggro? Create determinate dungeons with stronger monster which aggro you, and gives you stronger drops, or more xp. Another thing i think wakfu miss is some kind of arena where you can do normal pvp duels, like a stadium, and raise you rank. Would be a nice design (a big palace with all players talking outside like in the last pokemon games) and would be enough to give them something to do in end game. More achivements, more customizable stuff, other things that can help bind those players (and not only them i like that stuff too ) and not mine the gameplay can help the cause.
The fact is: They are ok until you give them classic and traditional stuff, we get fun with original and new things. The answer so is having both things. Plus, players that will play for awhile may learn something and one day, become the pro players.
They cant simply sustain with our moneys, they need those players too.
The real problem of ankama is that they dunno what is marketing, they dont speak to their players, they arent clear when doing changelogs, they have no idea of what is relationship with costumers. About all the problems of the last patch, if someone of them would had said "ehy dont worry guys, this is only a test, those changes arent permanent, we are doing this because blablablabal what we want to achive is blablablabla . for those who have problem doing this and that, we advice to blabla". You would have seen how differents would have been the tones of the ones who complain about whats going on.


This post has been edited by ReilaTheMadness - January 10, 2012, 18:15:44.

While I prefer to work on open PvP incentives more instead of reducing PvP to some arena sport I agree that Wakfu in general needs more PvP events or something and on larger scales than only lvl80+ chars fighting for islands.

The combat system and the character building is what make this game great and it is so much more fun to have tactical battles against other players than against the stupid AI.

First of all i wanna say i don't think Wakfu will necessarily fail, is just it won't be as successful as Dofus, if they stay like they are at the moment.

I've been into Wakfu since the very first beta, so i know what the process has been like all these years.
Like someone mentioned originally the game when it first started the beta it was supposed to go like other games, few months into it and then launch but it didn't occur because they didn't have an exact idea of what they wanted (even know i'm not sure if they got it at 100%).

The argument about sandbox or themepark, well i agree with the people that say it has to has at least some of both to appeal, yet it should be more sandbox than themepark or the other way around.

For me these are the negatives that need to be changed:

1. Lack of purpose to continue playing.(A.K.A lack of direction)
I mean the game doesn't even has a proper story, kinda, when you make a new character you get thrown in this world and then you're supposed to keep playing, but what's the reason for this? well nothing, we don't have a reason other than make your character stronger, or simply play with friends, like let's say you get lvl 80, and you can beat most of the mobs in the game (of course most are under lvl 60 so), what keeps you going?, the story itself is almost non existant, etc.

2. Nerfing of solo play
I agree the exp before was way too high, but now is very little, specially for solo. That said, solo play is almost impossible, we know Ankama wants to promote cooperative gameplay which is by all means a good thing, yet they nerf the solo play so much is just as bad. Not everyone has either the time, or the need to group and get better exp, drops, etc. Obviously group play should have it's advantages but while this is true the solo play should also be doable.

3. Adding characteristics.
To be honest i don't know if this is good or bad, while yes we get a more specific character, i'm not sure if everyone will get this system right away, like me for instance was a bit confused at first when i first saw it, i was like why are they doing this again. Before most of the builds were ap based yes, and while now they added more characteristics like perception, the states one, and range, most of the people will choose either ap, or agi,int,etc.

4. Politics and ecosystem.
Enough said, you guys have said it all i think.

5. Quests
Again i don't think quests are truly necessary and they are kinda compensating this with umm the achievements system, but if your going to do this give us better rewards or more complex achivements.

6. Tutorial.
Again agreed with what people have said.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” - Robert A. Heinlein

We used to be able to be generalized before. Ankama just wants to force people to group play. The above quote and pre-exp-nerf/patch is perfect evidence. Wakfu is going downhill. We can't stop it. They say "Hindsight is 20:20." It is. Don't moan about these problems, just wait it out, cause we're all going to have to (Most likely. I don't want to put myself into a corner here.).