Reads like this is a pretty one sided thread. I'm with Warren, let's get the other side of the table fleshed out a little bit more, based off of Neji's response:
Can you explain in detail what benefit it will really do to the game now? =)
If we are going to separate roleplay and the in-game as far as "game" goes, then I at least have got nothing positive to put forward aside from donations from grateful people (take your potion with that one). Adding yet another race, another village of birth, it honestly won't change the in-game dynamics much for the better if at all. The scrying and all that are largely for RP reasons.
From what I've seen, most of the active players who actually post stuff, in public or even in private, tend to participate in some sort of RP. The only reason that many want Oto back as a village of birth is aesthetics. There are several reasons why I strongly believe it is a matter of aesthetics:
- You can visit the village. From anywhere for a set amount of travels. If you have issues going there, doing some RP, and levelling, then all I have to say is, prioritize your precious travels.
- You currently cannot get PvP'ed in Oto, so staying in the fields aint that bad. Not like dwellings costs have ever really been something affiliated with race (I don't think natives get a discount. No out of state costs).
- We have a function at the bottom now that tells you when posts are made in major villages. You don't have to waste money scrying or waste travels traveling when you can tell when there is an update of some sort on the thread you want to check.
- As stated earlier, much of the activity is RP-based at this point from what I've seen; as a result, the in-game perks (which would likely have to either be borrowed from another race or re-invented at this point) are hardly worth the time either. There is little to no strategic advantage to being Sound at this point.
It is a matter of prestige, a matter of reminiscence from a peoples who no longer have their symbol printed in their bio. Ame doesn't have a public village board, but it seems to be doing fine. Ame doesn't have a race attached to it in-game, and it doesn't seem to be hurting too badly. I use Amegakure largely because I am not as confident some of the other non-village board villages are doing well enough to count for this point.
It's like colonial America. Give the people a taste of freedom, take it away, and the people want it back without the strings. Sound used to be a race in-game that still lurks about, that still exists in a very select circle. Once Sound no longer became a race, then either by coincidence or the new space opened up by other village boards (or the general decrease of people on SL period) Oto seemed to take a hit in the activity department.
Would returning the race bring back activity? I doubt it. If a lack of an in-game race really kept you from playing as a Sound ninja (or playing at all for that matter), then, well, I don't even know what to say to that. Because that sounds completely ridiculous, considering that not even missing ninjas can get a race or place of their own (that you don't have to get disfigured for) and they have been one of the most frequent non-fodder character types in the series, and that other "minor" nations have never had a race to call their own.
In short, except for people giving more donations to show appreciation, there is not much of a motivation for you to add Sound back in as a race the way I see it. Especially considering why the villages are the way they are now:
http://forum.shinobilegends.com/index.php/topic,6859.0.html
Poll
