EssenceRO Review

[Chiffon Fairchild]

still waiting for kira final post n more reviews~ 

with d3 coming out, i think alot of server gonna suffer population lost, i wonder how many players will leave eRO for d3 and stuffs..
but good news is, summer holidays is around the corner, so if there is more events and changes/patches/fixes done within this few weeks might just give a little boost to players morale and confidence...

lets pray~ 

[Myteriouss]

I played D3, Didn't really like it that much.

(Played the Beta)

[kiravalentine]

Well I'm not gonna post any reviews yet. The reason is to allow some time for the admin/gms to improve.
Like you said earlier Chiffon, this isn't anything about Paradox. It's just a wake up call for him to improve the server.

D3 is definetly going to affect the server. With less players logging in, the server will turn into a dead city.
Not that it is alive now. I've been speaking to some of the players from various fields e.g MvP, PvP, BG and
others. It seems like they're all unhappy with the current condition of the server.

Speaking of morale and confidence, both are really at an all time low. I did saw an interesting discussion
in the #main while levelling. Some close friends of Paradox are trying very hard to refute the credibility of
this review. I guess this is their own way of restoring player confidence in the server.

Begin To Hope says...

[Tiffycaek]

Alrighty then let's start shall we. The only bad thing I see in this review is the child sex discussion over main. That really does look bad, no excuses there. However,  most of the rest is pretty much stupid.

1. Issues with swearing and profanities. Related issues foul mouthing, rude GM/admin.

This is NOT CarebearRO. If you cannot handle profanities over the internet, my friend you are in for a very rough ride. If you're saying using profanities over main chat is somehow bad, you're always free to @exit main whenever it makes you uncomfortable.

2. Economy.

That's exactly how economies work. When there's more people supplying than there's people buying, prices drop. I fail to see your point here. As for MVP cards being ridiculously expensive, you got one reply to a broadcast. I could have been the one PMing you saying 15b. That wouldn't have made it the market price. And I really don't understand. You're whining about common gear/cards getting cheaper, you're whining about MVP cards being expensive. Isn't that how things are supposed to be? Also, things being expensive is hardly detrimental to the overall experience. You just miss out on some luxury MVP cards, and frankly, if everyone could afford them, there wouldn't be any point to it would there. And finally, making money on the server is easy if you know what you're doing.

3. Server modifications. Related issues balance, Admin not doing his job, staff not working, broken BG.

I do agree, some modifications to gameplay mechanics are beyond retarded. But those were all implemented back when Tira was in charge. Paradox has actually been trying to fix all this nonsense since he's taken over. Also, a hard earned 30-40m for a fortune sword? You're either lying, trolling, genuinely dense, or your friend was fooled by someone, because fortune swords go for 100k-500k tops.

Also, as the server owner has mentioned time and again on the forums, the staff only possesses TWO developers at the moment. Just two people who can actually script and fix broken things and add new shiny things. And ever since Paradox has taken over the server, he's been working on improving the stability of the server and closing multiple abusable loopholes in security. Why is this more important than, I don't know, fixing Battlegrounds? Because a couple of years back, Tira did not pay attention to security loopholes, and the server had to go through a wipe that cost us nearly half our population. Oh, you can add decreasing population to list of related issues as well.

4. Third jobs not working properly. Related issues no new updates, third job skills being restricted in PvP maps and WoE.

If I recall correctly, Essence RO was one of the first servers to even feature somewhat stabilized third jobs. So what if third job skills aren't allowed in PvP or WoE? Have you seen them? These are skills designed for a post renewal mechanics system, which Essence RO does not have. Why doesn't Essence RO update to Renewal? Because Renewal is retarded and makes ridiculous changes to existing mechanics and skills and classes. A majority of people do not want to play Renewal, which is why Essence RO chose not to update to Renewal mechanics, and just keep third jobs as a compensation. And restricted their use in PVP and WoE environments, since they were overpowered to say the least.

5. No BG Broadcasting. Related issues FORCED TO DONATE FOR BROADCASTING LE OMG GASP!@!#$!$

Battlegrounds have their own broadcasting system announcing how many people are on each side. However, due to a majority of BG players abusing it by spamming the announcer, it was disabled. As demanded by the majority player populace. Same thing with broadcasting for BG on main. It wasn't always a rule, it had to be MADE a rule because some imbeciles spamming for BG in main, using caps and whatnot. And this wasn't a one off incident, it was regular. That's why these rules were put into place. As demanded by the majority player populace.

Coming to your issue with broadcast scrolls being sold for donation tokens, I really have to ask, are you just trying to be funny or are you genuinely that dense? How are you being forced to buy broadcast scrolls by DONATING? You can get a broadcast scroll for THREE measly minigame tokens, which cost a measly 150k zeny each. Which takes EXACTLY 5 monster kills (to make enough money to buy all three tokens btw) if you know what you're doing. Or you could take 10 minutes out of your time, and actually go to the minigame arena, and earn 20 minigame tokens by having fun with other players. Sounds like a chore doesn't it? I utterly fail to comprehend how you are being forced to pay money to this dastardly devious administrator who has so cleverly added broadcast scrolls to the donation store as part of his evil plan to extort money from you.

6. Cover blown.

Seriously? Cover blown? He never intended to hide the fact that it was him. Half the people in Old Payon and Gonryun already knew it was him when the chat shown in your screenshot took place. How is that cover blown? Again, I fail to comprehend your logic.

And GM's wasting their time looking for you and your "team" instead of fixing BG or other bugs or working? It would have taken them around 5 clicks or a couple more to find out who you were. Not exactly a job for Sherlock Holmes.

Spoiler : The above post might come off as hostile, but it is truly not the poster's intention of making it seem hostile.

Edit : You've mentioned revealing your identity three times now, saying you'll do it after your next post. You've made a couple of posts after that. Maybe you should reveal who you are, you could just be someone who got banned or jailed for something and wrote a bad review out of spite.

[kiravalentine]

First of all welcome to the review Tiffycaek. Although your reply is hostile, defensive and filled
with anger I still appreciate the effort you put into it. Thank you for your reply to my review.
Below is mine to yours.

1.

Alrighty then let's start shall we. The only bad thing I see in this review is the child sex discussion
over main. That really does look bad, no excuses there.

This should be directed to Paradox, he is the one giving excuses.

As for your laughable claim of the server supporting discussion of child pornography or anything
of the sort, I'm sure you already know (but conveniently chose to ignore while making this topic) we
condone nothing of the sort and players who engage in such discussions are warned immediately
and then punished accordingly if they continue.

This is NOT CarebearRO. If you cannot handle profanities over the internet, my friend you are in
for a very rough ride. If you're saying using profanities over main chat is somehow bad, you're always
free to @exit main whenever it makes you uncomfortable.

We all know this is EssenceRO (or PedoRO) and not CarebearRO. The use of profanity is bad. I did
not make the rules, Paradox made them. The only problem is, he did not enforce it.

http://wiki.essence-ro.com/index.php?title=Server_Rules
Moderate Offenses -> Harrasment -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harassment -> Types - > Racial harassment


2.
If you fail to see my point then feel free to read my post again. I can upload 20 or more examples
such as those. However one screenshot is enough for two reasons.
Reason 1: I dont have to flood this post. When people are in denial and on the defensive mode,
                 they will refute even there are 100 screenshots.
Reason 2: It serves as a starting point for readers. From there, at any give time, readers can create
                 a character, login, broadcast pretending to buy MVP cards to find out the truth.

I agree when you said you really dont understand. There is also a difference between expensive
and ridiculously expensive. Why miss out when people can afford to buy them? Any readers out
there who prefer to miss out on MVP cards? Frankly, for everyone to afford MVP cards, you'll need
to sell those at 10z each. The question is, will you? Making money on this server USED to be easy.
Spending money on overpriced items is not.

You mentioned I could be the one Pming myself with the overpriced card. I caught the Owner, GMS
and his close friends doing profanity, racial slur, child sex discussions and being biased. Do I need to
fake the price of an overpriced Orc Hero card?


3.

3. Server modifications. Related issues balance, Admin not doing his job, staff not working,
broken BG. I do agree, some modifications to gameplay mechanics are beyond retarded. But
those were all implemented back when Tira was in charge. Paradox has actually been trying to
fix all this nonsense since he's taken over. Also, a hard earned 30-40m for a fortune sword?
You're either lying, trolling, genuinely dense, or your friend was fooled by someone, because fortune
swords go for 100k-500k tops.

Also, as the server owner has mentioned time and again on the forums, the staff only possesses
TWO developers at the moment. Just two people who can actually script and fix broken things and
add new shiny things. And ever since Paradox has taken over the server, he's been working on
improving the stability of the server and closing multiple abusable loopholes in security. Why is
this more important than, I don't know, fixing Battlegrounds? Because a couple of years back, Tira
did not pay attention to security loopholes, and the server had to go through a wipe that cost us
nearly half our population. Oh, you can add decreasing population to list of related issues as well.

Your ability to comprehend is clouded by anger.
What I wrote earlier:
"A friend of mine spent about a week to max his char, plus another hard earned 30m-40m before
realizing that the fortune sword he needs has been modified to only 10 perfect dodge."
Explanation:
That amount went into his character including other gears. I did not said 30m-40m for a fortune sword.

Extra:
Server improvement tips: People login to play, not just to see bug fixes.

Your words:
"Because a couple of years back, Tira did not pay attention to security loopholes, and the server had
to go through a wipe that cost us nearly half our population."
Explanation:
Couple of years later, Paradox did not pay attention to players suggestions, this will cost him the whole population.


4.
You recall wrongly and in the end you're still saying that EssenceRO's 3rd job is not working properly.
Here is a quote from Triper, the moderator for Server Reviews, regarding EssenceRO's 3rd class
http://forum.ratemyserver.net/server-reviews/essencer0/msg142328/?PHPSESSID=20e031452d05dffd2e04bc36d3514a6a#msg142328

It wasn't the first to implement 3rd class, it was the "test server" that eathena used UEHUEHEUE
There was an huge debate about that once at eathena and how someone used Essence to test
them to see if eathena would be able to have them without many changes in the source.

5.
There are alternatives than to disable BG broadcast. One example is to implement BG broadcasting
into the public broadcaster. Completely disabling BG's broadcast forces people to use broadcast scroll.

"How are you being forced to buy broadcast scrolls by DONATING? "
Do feel free to read my post, and again your ability to comprehend is clouded by anger.

3 minigame tokens at 150k ea. That amounts to 450k per broadcast. With the falling population, it
takes about 30 minutes (if you are lucky) to start BG. Send out a broadcast at every 5 minutes and
that amounts to 6 broadcasts which is 900k. If BG stops midway players will have to throw in a few
more broadcast. That would cost about 1m - 2m to get BG going smoothly.

Minigame happens 4 times a day. Lets say players have the time to join 2 out of 4. That itself is no
guarantee to win, and sometimes you end up losing your entry fees. To get 20 minigame tokens as
you mentioned, requires player to join Survival Arena Extreme Mode. What many readers here do
not know is, minigame arena is usually jam packed with Paradox and his close friends. So with the
disabling of BG broadcast, players have no choice but to buy minigame tokens, mostly but not all,
from Paradox and his friends OR "donate" to get broadcast scrolls. Last but not least, not everyone
likes minigame arena.

Then again you dont have to fix BG if you dont want to. Most BG players have already started their
new characters in other servers. They still login to Essence once in a while to check for improvements.
I suppose they will be gone by the time their chars in other server is maxed.


6.

Seriously? Cover blown? He never intended to hide the fact that it was him. Half the people in
Old Payon and Gonryun already knew it was him when the chat showed in your screenshot took
place. How is that cover blown? Again, I fail to comprehend your logic.  And GM's wasting their
time looking for you and your "team" instead of fixing BG or other bugs or working? It would have
taken them around 5 clicks or a couple more to find out who you were. Not exactly a job for Sherlock Holmes.

Post no 14, screenshot no 2. Cover blown 01. He admitted blowing his own cover ... The screenshots speaks for itself
I ROCK AND YOU SOCK : you ttly blew your own cover
Kormak DUllahan : haha
Kormak DUllahan: i did

"Half the people in Old Payon and Gonryun already knew it was him when the chat showed
in your screenshot took place."
Half the people in Old Payon and Gonryun are his friends. These are also the same people who
do not get muted/banned when they harass, use profanity and indulge in child sex discussions.
If GMS can waste time on child sex discussion then it is no surprise GMS can spend their time trying
to find out who caught them with their pants down.


GMS includes Paradox a.k.a Kormak Dullahan a.k.a Monad Of Death. Refer to Post #14
screenshot Cover Blown 02
"Kormak Dullahan: Then I made Monad into a Sura"


Spoiler: To Tiffanycaek
How do you know he never intended to hide the fact that it was him?
How do you know it would take them around 5 clicks or a couple more to find out who I am?
Hmm who are you ? 

[Tiffycaek]

1.

• Instances of harassment reports will be dealt with on a case-to-case basis at the discretion of the enforcing staff member.
• Examples of Harassment include repeatedly attempting to continue speaking to or bothering another player after they have made it clear to you that they don't wish to talk to you, and intentionally evading measures such as /ex.
• Harassment also includes creating characters, pets, or homunculi with names similar to another player's sufficiently-unique name (at the judgement of the enforcing staff member) .

There is no mention about the use of profanities either here, or in the section regarding main chat. Once again, if main chat makes you uncomfortable, leave. The @exit channel command exists for that very reason. If you think using profanities over the internet is a bad and shameful thing, then you're not going to last very long. Because everywhere you go, you will encounter profanity over the internet. Because it's the internet. Because you can.


2. MVP cards should not be affordable to the casual, general public, that's the point of them being rare. You should not be allowed to own them unless you work hard for them. If you wanna own MVP cards without working for it, you might as well leave and go to a high rate server.

You say making money on eRO used to be easy? It still is. I can farm zeny from scratch and afford an orc hero card in one month if I work on it everyday. And I'm one of the laziest people on the server. You just need to know what you're doing. So yes, MVP cards are super expensive. But they're still not completely out of reach. They're just out of reach for casual players, and frankly, that's how it should be. You work hard, you get rewarded, you stay as a casual player, you get lesser rewards. It's simple. And I did not say you were the one PMing yourself. I said I could have been the one to pm you and then say 15b but that wouldn't have made it the actual market price. Don't base your judgement off a single reply to your broadcast.


3. My ability to comprehend was based off your ability to put your thoughts into words. You worded it poorly, thus making it seem like you were insinuating that your friend had to work hard for 30-40m for just a fortune sword. And that still doesn't prove your point. Fortune swords are 100k-500k, takes 5 minutes to make that amount. So it was customized, it's not like you wasted hours on end to buy it and then found out it was useless. And all the customizations are available in changelogs right from the first customs. Available for public viewing. Go through them if you have a problem.

Paradox doesn't listen to the population's suggestions so he'll lose all of them? What suggestions? If you took the time to go through the heap of suggestions in forums, you'll find that 75% of them are just QQ posts and whine posts asking to nerf something in PvP or WoE or PvE or something to make their life easier. Out of the remaining posts, 10% are vague. The staff can't work off vague suggestions, they don't have the time to ponder the implications of a vague suggestion. They need concise, well worded suggestions, that actually benefit everyone's experience, not just a handful of players.

And I still maintain, security loopholes being fixed should be the number one priority for any server. Which is what's going on right now. And most of the fixes launched are minute changes, they won't be apparent to players immediately. One thing you failed to mention, which I'll go ahead and bring up here, is that the staff should release small event logs of every bug fix they perform so that people who think the staff is doing nothing, can check them out.


4. Yes I'm saying that they are not 100% functional. And I'm defending it by saying they should not be 100% functional on a server without renewal changes. If you want to play 3rd jobs, go to a server that advertises renewal system and 100% functional 3rd job classes.


5. You're assuming those costs for a single player. Why should a single player be broadcasting for BG recruitment? Even if every other player present in BG broadcasts just once every 5 minutes, you can still fill half an hour of BG recruitments spending just one scroll each. But I do agree that there needs to be a separate solution for BG broadcasting, however you're just making it sound dramatic and way worse than it actually is.

If you don't want to go to Survival Arena to earn tokens, you can buy them for 150k zeny each, and making money to buy 3 tokens takes 5 minutes TOPS. And the Arena isn't "jam packed" with Paradox and his close friends. They became friends with Paradox because he frequents the Minigame Arena (not just to play, but also to check for AFKers in SA, saboteurs, and other offenders). Not the other way round. Paradox doesn't clog SA with all of his friends on the server, thus forcing other players to stay out. The regulars in SA just became friends with Paradox due to proximity and frequent interaction. Stop dramatizing it.

You don't want to buy them from players, don't want to attend SA and then cry about being "forced" to donate to buy scrolls? That's just dumb. Like I already pointed out, you are not forced to donate to buy them (which was your point I believe? I think I saw something about being extorted?), you just have to work a little. But oh my god, that's such a chore isn't it?


6. The cover blown chat was a gag. A joke. Anyone who's interacted with Paradox on one of his legit characters knows that all his characters are in his personal guild. He also has the same Headgear and Wing disguises on all his characters, thus making him easily recognizable. If you seriously believe he was trying to hide his identity from the server by pretending to be just another legit player, then you are uninformed. Get your facts straight before making accusations over a public forum.

Once again, they don't need to waste their precious time trying to find you. It's easy. They have logs. It's a matter of a couple of minutes, not days wasted trying to find the illusive secret spy that you believe you are.

How do I know he never intended to hide the fact that it was him? Because he joined his personal guild when he was a novice. He made that character in front of 15+ people in Gonryun, 10 of whom aren't even his close friends. How do you know he did intend to hide the fact it was him? Do you have any proof? If you're going to accuse someone of something, bring concrete proof, not abstract screenshots which prove nothing. And no, your screenshots don't prove jack. Because like I said, a lot of people already knew who he was when that chat took place.

How did I know how many clicks it would take? I don't know. I guessed. How many clicks do you think it would take to enter a name in their log and search and find related accounts? Not too many, I'd think.

Who am I? I'm Tiffycaek, it's the name of my main character. And you called me Tiffanycaek, so obviously you know who I am. Why ask then? Why this drama? Who are you? You claimed you would reveal your identity a page back and you still keep dodging it. If you really think you're doing the right thing and not just flinging s*** out of some personal grudge, go ahead and reveal your identity. Who are you?

[kiravalentine]

It seems like you are still clouded by anger. I'll skip replying to the parts which you still fail to understand.
Here is the summary of your reply, in quotes:

1.You're assuming those costs for a single player. Why should a single player be broadcasting for BG recruitment?
2.The cover blown chat was a gag. A joke.
3.Once again, they don't need to waste their precious time trying to find you. It's easy. They have logs. It's a matter
   of a couple of minutes, not days wasted trying to find the illusive secret spy that you believe you are.
4. How did I know how many clicks it would take? I don't know. I guessed.
5.You claimed you would reveal your identity a page back and you still keep dodging it.

My reply
1.Because other players won't fork out scrolls for BG recruitment and nobody can force them to.
2.My friend often farts in the lift. He tells everyone that it's a joke to avoid embarrasment.
3.I've waited for more than 25 days for them to find me.
4.You must be a good guesser.
5.You said the GMs would take 5 clicks or more to find me. For me to reveal myself requires 15-25 clicks
(logging in, click preview, click submit, upload the images etc etc). So I waited for the GMs to find me instead.

[Lunaeriia]

Hi, I'm a player of EssenceRO and I've been following this review for the past couple of days  since it came to light. I admit I agree to some of the points stated in this review, but also  I disagree with some of subject matter. My intention is to be neutral with my own opinions  and comments of what goes on with the server, I don't want to take sides.

Just a quick background of myself as a player, I've been playing EssenceRO on and off since  2008 where Tira was present as server owner. I did not play enough though and honestly, I do  not really know any information about server side complications, population or economy was  like due to also playing World of Warcraft at the time. Around late 2011, I returned to the  server and since then I have had a reasonable amount of online activity so I am aware of the  server population, economy, WoE, MvP, PvP stuff etc that has happened recently. Please take  note I am friends with Paradox924x and whatever I say is not based on my personal opinion of  him as my friend, it is based on his position as a server owner and the comments that have  been made in this review.

I'm not going to pick at every single issue which has come to light but I'd like to put my  opinions forward about the following:

1. Issues with swearing, profanity and the content of what goes on in #main chat.
2. Server modifications and the opinion that it's lacking.
3. Any issues with the staff members.

This is NOT CarebearRO. If you cannot handle profanities over the internet, my friend  you are in for a very rough ride. If you're saying using profanities over main chat is  somehow bad, you're always free to @exit main whenever it makes you uncomfortable.

Really Paradox? Child pornography? This server should be de-listed. Its one thing is players  talk about it and get punished. But who punishes the head admin when they say immoral and  negative behavior?

To respond to some of the claims you made in your post:
We allow the use of profanity and expletives, though not in a derogatory or hurtful form  towards others. All you have to do is post an Abuse Report on our forums and we take care of  the problem. Most, if not all, of the players you have posted screenshots of are repeat rule  offenders and had already been adequately punished for their transgressions.
As for your laughable claim of the server supporting discussion of child pornography or  anything of the sort, I'm sure you already know (but conveniently chose to ignore while  making this topic) we condone nothing of the sort and players who engage in such discussions  are warned immediately and then punished accordingly if they continue.
I'm not even sure what you could possibly have derived from the conversation about the  discussion on the earthquake that occurred off the coast of the Indonesia except that it was  astounding, terrible and all of us at EssenceRO hoped for the best for anyone involved.

In regards to the issue that has come to light about the swearing, profanity and the content  of what goes on in the #main chat channel. Yes, I do agree that the accusations about Paradox  and some of the other staff members indulding in a conversation about the subject of child  sex and making jokes about it was bad. Especially since it was screenshotted and it was on  the #main chat channel which the entire server can see. The content what is discussed on the  #main chat channel, in my own opinion, is not moderated as well as it could be. The EssenceRO  rules state the follwing rules in regards to what is tolerated in the channel:

Main Chat Abuse:
Marketing on Main Chat is not allowed. This includes discussing anything in regards to  buying, selling, trading or price-checking.
Recruitment or party searching is not allowed. This includes recruiting people for Guilds,  Battlegrounds, Mini-games, MvP parties, PvP parties, or any other parties or groups.
Non-English chat is not allowed. These should be limited to other forms of chat (e.g. private  message, general/local chat, etc).
Note that main chat abuse on a greater scale will result in a higher punishment, as per the  judgment of the enforcing staff member.
On the first offense, the player will be given a warning (in the case of non-english chat,  this may be delivered in the offender's native language).
On the second offense, the player will be muted for 15 minutes.
On the third offense, the player will be muted for 1 hour.
On the fourth offense, the player will be muted for 3 hours and jailed for 6 hours.
On the fifth offense, the player will be muted for 6 hours and jailed for 12 hours.
Further repeated offenses will result in punishment as outlined under Moderate Offenses.

http://wiki.essence-ro.com/index.php?title=Server_Rules

Under these rules, I do not see anything that forbids about the content of what was  screenshotted earlier in the review. Yes, under moral reasoning, what was spoken about was  entirely wrong and anyone with a good conscience would have not contributed to the  conversation. But nobody is perfect and honestly at some point, most people would have  laughed at a crude joke or participated in one. I must admit that I have done in the past myself and I'm not proud of it, but I will admit it.

Although continuing down with the EssenceRO rules:

General Malicious/Inappropriate Behavior:
If the administration feels that a player is demonstrating malicious or inappropriate  behavior on the server, then the administration reserves the right to punish the player as  they see fit.
Also note that committing an offense to an excessive point may be deemed as committing  multiple offenses and the punishment will be more severe, decided at the discretion of the staff.

Again it states in the rules that it is under the server administration's discrecion on what  they see to be fit as offensive. Now everyone has their own moral views and it seems that it  depends on the admin's own personal opinions in regards to conversation content.
It is clearly stated in the EssenceRO rules that it is not an offense in the #main chat  channel to talk about subject matter that may be deemed unfit for some. If this is a problem  for players, they should have read the terms of service which a person must agree to when  signing up for a new account.

The terms of service clearly state:

Terms of Service
Please read before creating an account!
By registering for an account on EssenceRO, you agree to abide by any and all rules set forth  by the staff of EssenceRO.
Rules are expressed via the website, forums and staff members' advisements.
If the rules are updated at any time, you are expected to refamiliarize yourself with them.
You understand that while the staff will make reasonable effort to notify the public of rule  changes, this should not be expected.
You will be held responsible for knowing the updated rules at all times.
If at any point you do not agree with the rules set forth, you are required to uninstall  EssenceRO and cease access to any and all accounts.
If you fail to do so, you forsake any express or implied rights.

http://www.essence-ro.com/service/tos/

If you do not agree with the rules or their content, it clearly states that you should  uninstall the server cilentside and stop playing. Or you can simply type @exit main in the  chat box so you don't witness to such conversations.

Paradox: The use of "curse words" is not the same as using racial and sexist slurs.  When I  asked a question on #main, three people responded, two called me "faggot" and "dumb donkey  nigga".  Profanity had little to do with me being offended.  Don't try to blame your server's  crass behavior on other people's reactions.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to be rude and start calling people names just because  they're asking for help completely baffles me. I do feel the admins and ingame GMs do need  to enforce more rules when problems like this arise. If people want to swear at each other  for a joke then leave them to it, but if it's in #main chat where the entire server can see  it and where more people can contribute. I feel the staff should step in and tell the  offending players to stop before it gets out of hand which I don't think happens enough. Name  calling and awful remarks to people is considering as bullying in my eyes and I don't agree  with it, I'm sure most people will agree with me on this one.

In situations where it happens out of #main chat, in local chat or private messages where the  GM team can't see what the situation is. The players do have the opition of reporting the  culprit through an Abuse Report on the EssenceRO forums.

http://forums.essence-ro.com/forum/12-abuse-reports/

An abuse report has been made long time ago
The screenshot below is exactly the same as the first one posted in this review

Now take a look at the posted date, the number of replies and then compare it to today's  date.
0 Replies and 0 action taken...   
I suppose readers have a clear understanding of what Sunflower b**** says...
"Not like Dox would ever do anything"

I'm really not sure what to say about this but I'm not going to attack the GM team on why  these abuse reports haven't been answered. In my opinion, the staff member who is in charge  of enforcement on the server should be dealing with these and escalating them only to the  admins if they need a second opinion. If the staff team don't have enough time to deal with  these, perhaps recruit more staff members who are willing and compentant to deal with such  reports in a reasonable manner. If no one has replied, let the players know that there are  staff shortages and perhaps someone will come along.

I feel that there are some problems with the set up of the current staff team but I do believe that the server administrators are not entirely at fault. I feel that the GM team  needs to be more disciplined and refrain from behaving a certain way. For example, talking to  their friends from their GM accounts in public or on #main chat. If you want to have a chat, log on your player account. Even if the players know the identity of the staff member's legit  characters, it looks bad if a GM is trolling or saying something to their friends which isn't  deemed offensive to them. Because they have the EssenceRO GM tag, new and other players will  look up to them and think badly. When you're on your GM account, you're there to support the  community depending on your position. Be it general support and queries, enforcement of the  rules or hosting events. You are not there to have a chit chat, do it on your player account.  A GM is a postion of respect and should be looked upon in a positive way not a negative one. I don't believe GMs should be hidden away completely but their presence should be limited in some way. Btw, none of this is directed at any GMs personally; this is my opinion on how RO private servers should be run in general.

One issue which keeps coming up is the lack of server modifications and content. I'm not  entirely sure about server side issues such as third class skill modifications and the game  machanics, but when it comes to custom content I do think the server needs more player  variety.

EssenceRO has the usual game mechanics such as MvP, BG, PvP and WoE. The custom content that  I can see is that in the Mini game arena is mainly the Survival Arena which has five  different options: Easy, Hard, Extreme, Time Attack and Race to the Finish. I'm sure you can  visualise what Survival Arena is, you have to survive a number of monsters for a certain  number of rounds, defeat 8 MvPs under a certain time limit as in Time Attack and reach the  end of the map before time runs out in Race to the Finish. Easy mode is for characters under  level 100, Hard mode is for characters between level 100 and 169 and finally Extreme mode is  for characters maxed out at level 170. Survival Arena is open four times a day on the  following times: 04:00, 10:00, 16:00 and 22:00. There is also a disguise arena.

Survival Arena is one way to earn mini tokens, depending on the level you enter at. You'll  recieve the following: 5 minigame tokens for Easy, 10 minigame tokens for Hard and 20  minigame tokens for Extreme. Although there are entry fees to participate in SA: 50,000z for  Easy, 100,00 zeny for Hard and 500,000 zeny for Extreme. You can't access any storage or any  other @ commands whilst in the arena. There is a discount for Survival Arena. SA Discount applies only to members within a guild when accumulatively all the guild members have successfully completed SA Extreme 200 times. The prices for all SA Modes are then halved. All information was taken from the Minigame NPC ingame.

EssenceRO -- Survival Arena - Extreme Mode

Although some players may not want to participate in Survival Arena to gain mini tokens.  There is an extenstive suggestion forum on the main forum where players can list their own  ideas and put them forward to the community for their opinions.

http://forums.essence-ro.com/forum/300-suggestions/

Although presently it seems Paradox and another staff member named Okale are the present developers for the server. I don't feel that the GM team have enough time between themselves at the present time to be constantly working on content updates. The staff applications are open and have been for a while now. There are developers out there but they don't seem to be applying or those that do, aren't competent enough or have insufficient knowledge. I don't really need to go into this subject matter as Tiffy another player from the server has already said what needs to be said:

Paradox doesn't listen to the population's suggestions so he'll lose all of them? What  suggestions? If you took the time to go through the heap of suggestions in forums, you'll  find that 75% of them are just QQ posts and whine posts asking to nerf something in PvP or  WoE or PvE or something to make their life easier. Out of the remaining posts, 10% are vague.  The staff can't work off vague suggestions, they don't have the time to ponder the  implications of a vague suggestion. They need concise, well worded suggestions, that actually  benefit everyone's experience, not just a handful of players.

And I still maintain, security loopholes being fixed should be the number one priority for  any server. Which is what's going on right now. And most of the fixes launched are minute  changes, they won't be apparent to players immediately. One thing you failed to mention,  which I'll go ahead and bring up here, is that the staff should release small event logs of  every bug fix they perform so that people who think the staff is doing nothing, can check  them out.

In conclusion, I could go on about the positives and the negatives of the server for a long time but I won't. Regardless, some players will have their own opinion. I love the server and I really hope that instead of this entire forum thread being seen as negative, that it can be turned around and benefit the server in some way. There are some things that I don't agree with in the way this review has been presented such as some players from the server being impersonated, old players pretending that they don't play the server in order for others to percieve their comments negatively and the way the screenshots seem to be taken.

But all, in all. Thanks for reading this! =]

[kiravalentine]

Hi Miyuko. Your opinion is most welcomed as you presented it in a civilised manner.
We may not agree on everything with this review. Here is my quick reply to clear
things up.

Under these rules, I do not see anything that forbids about the content of what was
screenshotted earlier in the review.

Answer
No EssenceRO rules forbids child porn discussion but does that make it right?
Speaking for myself, this is the first time I saw child porn jokes and I did not
laugh one single bit. Before you go on protecting these paedophiles please
take a moment of your time to read this. As a matter of fact, every reader should.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18076184

General Malicious/Inappropriate Behavior:
If the administration feels that a player is demonstrating malicious or inappropriate
behavior on the server, then the administration reserves the right to punish the
player as  they see fit. Also note that committing an offense to an excessive point
may be deemed as committing  multiple offenses and the punishment will be more
severe, decided at the discretion of the staff.

Answer
You are right. the administration reserves the right to punish the player as  they see fit.
If the offender is the owner/gms' friend, then administration will see it as unfit to punish them.
If the offender is not friends of owner/gms, then administration will see it fit to punish them

Terms of Service
Please read before creating an account!
By registering for an account on EssenceRO, you agree to abide by any and all rules set forth  by the staff of EssenceRO.
Rules are expressed via the website, forums and staff members' advisements.
If the rules are updated at any time, you are expected to refamiliarize yourself with them.
You understand that while the staff will make reasonable effort to notify the public of rule  changes, this should not be expected.
You will be held responsible for knowing the updated rules at all times.
If at any point you do not agree with the rules set forth, you are required to uninstall  EssenceRO and cease access to any and all accounts.
If you fail to do so, you forsake any express or implied rights.

Answer
Their TOS did not mention anything about supporting or allowing sick child pornography jokes.
If they mentioned that explicitly, I would not have joined this server in the first place.

The players do have the opition of reporting the  culprit through an Abuse Report on
the EssenceRO forums.

Answer
The reports have been made and posted as evidencein this forum. No action has been
taken so far, there is no excuse for that. If the staff who is in charge of enforcement
on the server is not performing his duty, then both him and the owner should be held
accountable. It's the owner's responsibility to make sure his staffs carry out their duty.

Although presently it seems Paradox and another staff member named Okale are the
present developers for the server. I don't feel that the GM team have enough time
between themselves at the present time to be constantly working on content updates.

Answer
And yet they have time to do 3 things
1. Indulge in child porn jokes
2. Trying to track me down ....
3. Receiving and spending donation money

[Lunaeriia]

No EssenceRO rules forbids child porn discussion but does that make it right?
Speaking for myself, this is the first time I saw child porn jokes and I did not laugh one single bit.
Before you go on protecting these paedophiles please take a moment of your time to read this.
As a matter of fact, every reader should.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18076184

Their TOS did not mention anything about supporting or allowing sick child pornography jokes.
If they mentioned that explicitly, I wouldn't have joined this server in the first place.

There are a number of things that the rules do not state and there are a number of subject matters in this world that could be considered vulgar and disgusting to numerous people. My point was not to protect anyone and yes, I do agree that the content of their discussion in the #main chat was bad. No offense but I think this sick child joke thing has been taken a bit far to call them paedophiles. I highly doubt they've sexually abused a child. It was a nasty and vulgar remark, nobody is perfect though and most people have laughed at awful things like that.

The reports have been made and posted in this forum. No action has been taken so far, there is no excuse for that.
If the staff member who is in charge of enforcement on the server is not performing his duty, then both him and
the owner should be held accountable. It is the owner's responsibility to make sure his staffs carries out their duty.

God I'm not even going to reply to this anymore because...

Well. I've worked out who you are from myself and a few other people. You use the exact same grammar as me and I'm English. You spell words completely differently from the Americans. E.g. you spelt 'civilised' with a S rather then the American way which would be with a Z. Now EssenceRO only has a number of people from England and I know four people on the server personally. Two of the people I know have been banned for some reason and could possibly have issues to the server. I have screenshotted proof that it's one of you who wrote this entire trash talking 'review'.

So regards to the Creed or Strawberry Milk. Nice one for impersonating Kira Valentine and causing this s***.



P.s. Btw Tiffy says sup liam chan

[Tiffycaek]

Hi Creedlings I almost missed you

shoutouts to my homies chris liam marc cid david mattieu bffs 4 lyf 

[papachan]

There are a number of things that the rules do not state and there are a number of subject matters in this world that could be considered vulgar and disgusting to numerous people. My point was not to protect anyone and yes, I do agree that the content of their discussion in the #main chat was bad. No offense but I think this sick child joke thing has been taken a bit far to call them paedophiles. I highly doubt they've sexually abused a child. It was a nasty and vulgar remark, nobody is perfect though and most people have laughed at awful things like that.

God I'm not even going to reply to this anymore because...

Well. I've worked out who you are from myself and a few other people. You use the exact same grammar as me and I'm English. You spell words completely differently from the Americans. E.g. you spelt 'civilised' with a S rather then the American way which would be with a Z. Now EssenceRO only has a number of people from England and I know four people on the server personally. Two of the people I know have been banned for some reason and could possibly have issues to the server. I have screenshotted proof that it's one of you who wrote this entire trash talking 'review'.

So regards to the Creed or Strawberry Milk. Nice one for impersonating Kira Valentine and causing this s***.



P.s. Btw Tiffy says sup liam chan

I believe this thread is about the Review of EssenceRO, not about some drama on who this person really is, what guild they represent, or discriminating the person from the way they're typing.

To correct your "assumption", civilised is not only used by people residing in England, it is also used by Australians, Canadians and of course, us Anguillans.

Now before this thread is derailed, I have to say it is very unfortunate that you guys decide to defend a server that promotes foul and disgusting language. Regardless if the server is not a "carebear" server or anything of the sort, it still does not look correct for a member of the staff to use or promote that kind of behavior. This review is based on this players experience in EssenceRO. Not of anyone else. Just his (and maybe his friends as well who is experiencing the same thing as he.)

Again, I'm speaking on my personal opinion, and not from facts. People have their reasons to play on a server (friends, WoE, social events, etc) and I'm sure you do as well. However, if you were a parent of two kids, you would know how it feels. But I digress.

[Triper]

Stick to the server review discussion, guys.
Nobody cares about who is who except the ones reading this topic seeing people claiming something and posting the evidence of that so they can see how are the servers that are potential candidates to their choices.

I could be the son of Bin Laden and nobody would care/believe[well, some people would if I was him but whatever, ignore this part!].

[Hirohashi]

btw liam is no English he is Argentinian xD. this post has mostly the true except some parts that i don't really know im never on main so i don't actually care about that topic.

[Chiffon Fairchild]

i agree to some points and doesnt agree with some points of watever the reviews here that has been posted so far.

Points that i feel is:/-
- GMs are not doing their job well enuff in enforcing a certain standard within the server etc, becoz there is no clear lines of it... and enforcement is only done as they see fit, which some, i believe kira is 1 who feels, GMs are quite biased to their circle of friends. however also agreed on miyuko part when she said abt how a GM should act like. there is always 2 sides of things, good and bad..

- The server is quite, stagnant, not much implementation, and players login to "play and haf fun not see bug fixes", that much i do agreed to a certain degree to wat kira say, i came to eRO, its either MVP, SA, chat or offline to sleep, as a non-woe guild, non-pvp i seldom goes to BGs therefore i might not know as much. But also agreeing to wat Tiffy said abt Bug fixes and security loopholes is priority, but do understand that no server is 100% bug free, 100% secured. Along with every new implementation tht comes into the server, there will b more bugs to fix, more loopholes to fix, more players abusing the new things, we cannot stop that at all, thats why we haf GMs to control abuses, n the dev GM to fix them, a server i feel, should b always coming out with more varieties of stuffs that keeps players interested in it, therefore implementing of new stuffs to the server should not stop, and prioritize your bugs and security loopholes fixes, the importants ones n slowly to the others. But eRO has kinda completely stop coming out with new things.

- 75% whine abt nerfing this and that, then a poll is required, to check if server difficulties is too hard for the players with recently changes etc. its not abt the GM thinks 75% is s*** and continue his way of doing ignoring them n losing 75% players becoz of it. Server populations may drop becoz of GMs think they are s*** suggestions, and players no longer enjoying in it. i believe feedback n suggestions are to b taken positively not thinkin its just s***. Whine post = Players dun feel like they are enjoying, n a GM should listen, as tiffy said, benefits the experience of EVERYONE not just a handful ( does 75% is more or is it less to u? )

- Guessing who is whoever is not important here, if GMs wants to waste time on doing such unproductive things, i think they can do better in listening to feedbacks n having more fixes done in that meantime, so i dun get the idea why u guys would wan to find out who kira is or watsoever, it seems like to me if u guys know who he is, he will get all the craps from u guys when he goes into the server, and if tht is so, i believe it should b under harassment offense for causing a distress/grief to a player. but that is something i cant say much abt.

All in all, i feel that this server is very stagnant, becoz there is nothing new (updates or maintainance is all bug fixes), SA mostly fill up and MVP or chatting is all i ever do in eRO nowadays, i believe most of the players who moved to new servers also wish to see something that will boost their morale or confidence in this server and on my previous posts i listed 2 concerns, abt the population drop due to d3 and also summer break is around the corner, i believe they also would like to see more new things in this server when they comes in.