My 2 Copper's Worth
This blog will be about mmo games, the companies that create them, and just general issues with mmo's. With the occasional blurb from my wife. All summed up by my 2 copper on the subject. Enjoy.

   Hello once again friends. I'd like to send out a quick apology for my absence, but life happens you know.  I've been keeping up with the scene though, and have finally found the time to ressurect one of my favorite pet projects which is this blog.  I'd like to send out a warm welcome back to the blog "Paragus Rants" you've been missed. If you get a chance give him a read it's good fun.  Ok well enough talk and down to business enjoy and as always comments are welcome down below.

My 2008 Predictions

  So I thought it'd be a hoot to start things back up with a good old fashioned article on what I think will happen in the world of MMO's for 2008. (Like anyone really cares.) But it'll give either some food for thought or some gasoline to pour on the flames below. Without further adieu I now offer you a look into my crystal ball:

1. "Rock Band" will go massive!

   Ok I know this sounds a little weird, but with the release of a patch that will allow players to goup together online to play their game mode "Band World Tour"  "Rock Band" will inadvertantly become a MMO.

2. Bioware and Lucasarts will officially announce the new "Star Wars" mmo.

   Yep folks the unannounced super secret ninja mmo project will be announced, and we will all let out a big collective "No S**t!"  Now if it's not a "Star Wars" mmo that'll be a real suprise.

3. "Warhammer Online" and "Age of Conan" will launch and one of them will suck!

   Both games have been way over hyped to the point that one of them isn't going to live up to the promise, and one is going to deliver. I can honestly say I'm not sure which is going to do what, but I am positive that one of them will fall flat on their face.

4. "Star Trek Online" or "Marvel Universe Online" will be cancelled and one will survive at least another year of development.

   These two games have had alot of conjecture and mystery surrounding them with the anouncment that P2/Perpetual stopped work on STO and the project has been moved to another developer to the rumors that the "Marvel Universe Online" is bogged down in feuds between Marvel, Cryptic Studios, and Microsoft. One of these games is gonna bite the dust leaving us all a littel disappointed that one of two great IP's won't see a future as an mmo for quite sometime and the other will survive at least another year for us to wonder if it will get the axe next.

5. "Wrath of the Lich King" will sell fewer units than "The Burning Crusade"

   WoW will show it's first sign of losing dominance when the new expansion fails to outsell or match sales of the previous expansion.  There's just too many new games coming out and fewer players will bother to spend the extra $40 or $50 bucks to return to Azeroth for another 3 month grind.

   And with that my ESP has run dry. And that's my 2 copper's worth.  Feel free to share your opinion with me below I look forward to reading your thoughts. And thanks for the read.

Until Next Time,

Ivan

   Well hello again friends. I just got done with a test today, and I have to say summer school sucks.  I should've just sucked it up and taken the extra credits last spring, but I digress.  Today I'm going to take us back a little bit and talk about the virtual peasent. Enjoy and as always comments are welcome below.

The Virtual Peasent

   I was driving home from school today, and I started thinking about the new mmo's coming out as well as the bigger name mmo's currently in existence and a thought came into my head. I miss the virtual peasent or more commonly called the crafting classes in mmo's.  Back in the day these people were the backbone of a player run economy, the blue collar class of adventurers, and I wish they were included in todays games.  These classes would for go the fame and fortune of killing major baddies for the simpler life. That of gathering resources and making them into gear that heroes from all around the land would buy.  These chracters were the heroes behind the heroes. 

    Upon thinking about this subject I have to say there has got to be room for crafting classes in todays mmo's. And I'm not talking about crafting professions either. I personally think that it detracts from the building of a community when your warrior can make his own armor or the wizard is sewing his own robes together.  I'm talking about picking a blacksmithing class or tailor or whatever.  My first mmo experience was Ultima Online when it came time to pick what area I wanted to go into for my first mmo I chose to be a blacksmith and a miner.  I'm not sure why I chose it, for some reason it just appealed to me.  In the begining it was rather dull, I would sell a piece of crappy armor or a shoddy sword to a low level fighter, but eventually I got better and had my own shop and was able to start making some really good items and then the players started rolling in. The sense of community I had in that game was one of the best ever.  There's a certain satisfaction of being a virtual small business owner. Granted it's not as glamorous as adventuring, but in that world as well as SWG in the beginning, it was a neccesary role that needed to be filled.

   I guess what I'm trying to say is that in todays mmo's with all the loot coming from questing coupled with the fact that there are no crafting classes kinda dampens the whole sense of community that we found in the mmo's that had crafting classes and had player run stores. And I don't think it's an outdated concept I think it could be incorporated into todays games with some small updates. 

First thing I would do was incorporate a workers look into the character cutomization.  SWG actually did this well you could make an alien with a pot belly and other such features that gave you les of a heroic look and made you seem more from the private sector.  Also clothing and equipment could be used to further enhance the look of these characters.  As well let the player shops actually be located in the larger populated NPC cities.

Second you could change some of the drops to recipes or patterns for the good weapons and armor and limit to it being made once or twice. This gives the adventurer the chance to still get the "phat lewt", but also creates a need for the crafting class.  These classes could be used for repair as well.

Lastly crafters will always need increasingly exotic materials, and I think it would be great if some game created a system where crafters could create quests that players could take and go get these materials for the crafter for some experience as well as a reward that the crafter could select whether it be money or an item of some sort. This last element I think would add a great layer for the building of a strong community. That or you could simply layer in the abiltiy of a party to add one crafter after the party fills so they could gather materials in the more dangerous zones as well as buy loot off of players. This would be a great way for an adventurer to make money.

   In the end maybe I'm way off the mark. Myabe crafting classes are of the past and never to return, but I hope not. I think the further we get away from this concept the closer we get to mmo's becoming less of a community experience and more of a self serving simulation.

  In conclusion to those of you who are still grinding it out as a crafting class my hats off to you. Keep up the good work your communtiy appreciates you. To the rest of you what do you think? Is there still room for this concept? I'm curious to know what you think. Personally I think developers are ignoring it.

And that's my 2 Copper.

Thanx again.

Always,

Ivan

   Hello once again friends. Sorry I've been away for awhile school and marriage will do that to you from time to time.  I thought for my little homecoming I'd hit on a subject that is of great annoyance to me and a little meatier than my previous two posts. Enjoy.

WoW Clones

   The term "WoW Clone" is a provincial four letter word on todays game development forums for up and coming games. It is considered a stigma, but in my opinion it is nothing more than a flawed and empty argument used by those who lack the intelligence to constructively criticize or just like to troll a forum or two and generally piss people off.  In short in my opinion there is no such thing as a WoW Clone,yet!  Well now that felt good to get off my chest.  Now for those of you who might disagree with that statement read on and at least entertain my argument and then feel free to attack it any way you wish. For now though let's go ahead and dissect the WoW Clone argument piece by piece. 

The Myth

    I usually find the WoW Clone advocates arguing the point of game play so I thought I'd just dive right on in and attack that real quick. Here are some popular arguments.

It's a WoW Clone because of it's fantasy theme.

Wrong. Actually the fantasy setting for many of the fantasy mmo's as well as pen and paper games came from or were heavily inspired by Tolkien's books.  So I guess that makes most fantasy mmo's retroactively LOTRO clones.

It's a WoW Clone because the UI is the same.

Strike two.  The UI that WoW employs was originally used in UO and then tweaked and used in Everquest. Just about every mmo uses a similar interface because simply it works. Think of a car like a Ford Taurus. The brake petal is on the left and the gas is on the right. You can find the ignition on the steering column and it sits on four wheels. Well so do many other cars on the market as well; Does this make them all Ford clones?  No it doesn't they're just using what works. Can it be tweaked? Of course, but the basic concept is still the same.

It's a WoW clone because they have the same stupid quests. 

Hey you got me on that one. Just kidding.  If you think the minds at Blizzard developed that great idea well friend you should play some of the older games out there. Quests of the mundane have been around for the entire ten years of mmo's existence. And why not let's face it in a fantasy world peasants and the like are needy people. I will say that WoW did perfect these quests for maximum frustration making sure that only one out of five wolves actually had fur, and that one out of eight boars would actually be made of boar meat.

It's a WoW Clone because it's all centered around equipment and items.

That's getting a little weak me thinks. Now I agree that mmo's of past have been a little too centered on the whole gear idea, but in the end what's the whole point of doing this stuff anyway. To level up get some sweet newer abilities and show off that fancy new robe, sword, shield, or what have you to you friends and community alike. I can tel you this I didn't sit in a basement playing D&D in my youth because I thought it would get me laid. I did it for the chance to level up and get some new gear, and maybe some money on the side.

It's a WoW Clone because it looks like WoW.

Yeah that's a touchy one there.  You see there is a game called Warhammer and about twenty years ago they kinda made the art style that Blizzard's developers kinda liked.  I'm not saying they stole it just that they were inspired by it. Which in the end again would retroactively make WoW a WAR clone.

I'm sure there are many more examples, but I think I've made my point well enough.

The Reality

The reality in all of this is that mmo's are businesses, and they follow a business model.  McDonald's is the most successful burger joint out there, and many of their competitors have copied their business model in hope of achieving a similar success. That doesn't make every fast food burger joint out there a McDonald's clone. Because they take that business model and twist it a little to make it thier own. Our entire soceity is full of competing bussinesses that operate under tha same business model, so it's just silly to try and put down an mmo because they're mimicing a successful way of doing things. Hell that's pretty smart if you ask me. Some of you may be wondering about the yet I had put into my statement earlier as if to imply that you could make a WoW Clone, and I believe you can.

 To do it you simply have to do what WoW did when thay made their game.  You look at the best mmo's currently on the market and you take what they did right and use it, and find out what they are doing wrong or what didn't work out and find a workable solution or leave it, and throw a few of your own ideas in a presto! You did it. You have made a WoW clone. Congratulations.

   In the end I find this phenomenon a little funny because you really don't see it alot in other genres. You don't see FPS or RTS fans going on about how one game is the clone of the other in their forums, and I guess maybe it's because we spend more on mmo's than we do single player games so our expectations are high. I can't wait with all the new games coming out in the next 2 years to see if one of them will become the next great game to be given the esteemed honor of being "Cloned" by alot of the mmo's being developed in that time.

And that's my 2 Copper.

Until next time.

Ivan

  Heelo again friends, and welcome back to my overly opinionated blog.  First off thanks for your support I do appreciate it and will keep on churning these out as long as you will read them.  Since last column we talked about genres I thought we'd just close out the idea today and talk about Intellectual Properties or IP's as they are commonly called.  Enjoy.

  In my experience nothing gets the forums rolling like the anouncemnt of an IP getting developed for an MMO. Well ok maybe an SOE debacle, but I digress.  When I hear of an IP I like getting developed I get excited and worried all at the same time.  Excited because it's an IP I love like Star Wars or LOTOR, and then come the worry that the company developing it is going to screw it up.  So to make sure they don't I like many other fans go to the website and start posting on those dev forums my ideas of what would make this particular IP a great mmo.  Now of course there wil always be an elemant that will say you've ruined it and that it sucks and devs can't please everybody now can they.  The great thing for dev about IP's is that they come with their own pre-fabbed fan-base, and that translates into hype which is free advertising.

   So the question that invariably enters the old noodle is what makes an IP a good canidate for an MMO? Well now that's not a bad question. So let's take a peek at that. briefly, and then I'll share a few IP's I think would make a good mmo.

1. The most important thing ,to me at least ,is that there is a conflict in the general background of the IP. A great example of this is Star Wars.  The rebels vs. the Empire.  Conflict opens up a great motivation in a game and if the company can make you feel a part of the strugle half the battle is won if not well there's trouble in the not to distant future. Or atleast give a a looming threat. It doesn't always have to be about war.  Looming threats of evil or what have you are just as effective just not as in your face.

2.  The second for me is that the world the IP is set in needs to be an interesting one for me to explore. LOTOR is a great example of this. That's what really attracts me is the opportunity to be a part of a universe if you will that I loved seeing in film or reading about in a book. The trick is making you feel like you are a part of that world.  If I feel like I'm in a shoddy or lack lustre vision of the world I tend to get a little upset quickly and not want to play in it anymore. Any of you ever felt like that?

3.   The third for me is can you add to explore,or further the main stroy or idea of the IP.  Now most of the time this is an easy one to accomplish, but if you pick the wrong timeline to set your game in you can run into a world of hurt finding yourself stuck to the perameters of the exisitng storyline.

4.  The last for me is can you express the original feel of the IP in the game.  Probably the most important of all of these is the ability of the developer to stay true to the lisence and create the same feel of the IP for the player  in game as we saw or read or played elsewhere.  There are soem great examples out there of how not to do it, but I wion't name any names I'm sure you can guess.

And that about does it for my thoughts on what makes a good IP for a mmo.  It's general and simple, and I'm sure we can go into great detail on this, but as this is a hobby and not a profession I like to keep it simple. To close out this episode of my blog I will share with you soem of my favorite unused IP's to date. So without further adieu here's the list.

For those of you who haven't read these books and are between games get to reading. This IP is ripe for an mmo in my opinion.  You could set this game in the future after the books or during the Butlerian Jihad and you could walk away with an intrigueing world with some awesome factions who all have their own little perks.  The storylines for this game can be deep and mystrious or just flat out policital intrigue. This IP has it all, from space battles to robot invasions, to assainations to land wars over a single planet. Tell me fighting over a desert planet with giant worms that could come up and kill you at a moments notice wouldn't be fun because we al know "he who controls the spice controld the universe."

Here's another untouched gem of an IP.  You could set this monster in the future where man wages war against the machines for survival. SHould you be able to play both sides? Hell yes you should. The missions could be down right disturbing from machines infiltrating human bunkers and wiping them out to humans rescuing enslaved family memebers, and what about time traveling instances where you couldn't bring any equipment. Now there's a challenge.  And the pvp...don't even get me started. 

Yes I know Sony is going to come out ith a game called "The Agency", but what's wrong with a little competition.  This IP is the ultimate team based espionage setting.  You always hav four or five people who specialize in different areas infiltrating, kidnapping, or blowing up stuff.  Give us the option to be bad guys as well and then give us an opposing mission goal or two and it's on.  It would be hilarious fun to infiltrate a player run agency and try not to get discovered the parinoia would be awesome.  Let alone the strategy involved in the PvE protions of the game.

Yep I dared to do it friends.  Harry Potter I think would make a great mmo.  The magical world that is Harry Potter's is absolutely fascinating to me at least, and I think it would be a blast to run around in.  Now I'm not saying put the whole thing in Hogwart's maybe the front third of the game and then let us explore the world as an adult after we have graduated school. Give us the opportunity to dabble in the dark arts and we get some good v evil going real fast. The greatest part is you wouldn't even need the main charcters in it if you didn't want them just the instructors at the school and some mainstays in the grown-up world.  You could even get the side game of quidditch which would be a blast in it's own right. 

Well that's my short list as well as my 2 copper on the whole deal. I'd love to know what you think of some of my choices, but more importantly what IP's would you like to see made into mmo's?  Feel free to comment below or send me a pm on the subject and perhaps we'll revisit this subject with your ideas as the subject. Until next time.

Thanx,

Ivan

    When an mmo anounces that it will be shutting down shop it always gives me a bittersweet feeling whether I liked the game or not.  To be honest with you friends I played Auto Assault and really couldn't get into it, and obviously alot of you couldn't either.  I don't want to spend the space mulling over what went wrong, and why as there are people out there who get paid to do that , but suffice it to say the game just never found a playerbase large enough to build upon.  I have to say my heart goes out to the loyal players of the game as well as the dedicated team of peoplethat gave it their best to make it work.  In the end I think it was a case of good idea poor presentation. 

   This makes me curious though as to how many more mmo's will suffer the same fate.  In this increasingly competitive market will developers be scared away of trying something different?  Or better yet will it make them step back and really evaluate the quality of the product they want you to buy.  I hope the latter personally.

  I take my hat off to the hard work that the team at Net Devil did, and wish them thebest in their future endeavors.  The true test in life is not whether or not you get knocked down, but more impotantly that when you do you get back up. So now Auto Assault joins the mmo graveyard along with other notable games such as Earth andBeyond, Asheron's Call 2, Motor City Online, and any others I forgot about on Aug31st.  And with that I bid Auto Assault farewell. 

Until Next Time,

Ivan

P.S. If you read MMOWTF Dan Fortier hit the nail on the head with his prediction of which mmo would  close shop.

(Hey Dan you didn't have any insider info did ya? :) )

   Welcome back to my little slice of the big blog pie.  Today might come off as more of a rant, and if that's the case I'll dedicate this episode to one of my favorite bloggers here Paragus.  If you're reding Paragus I hope to do you proud. Ok to the issue at hand.

   What is High Fantasy?

  Now that's a good question, and for the uneducated gamer I will elaborate breifly.  "High Fantasy" is a term used to describe your Tolkeinesque fanatsy setting.  These settings almost always have a midevil setting to them and have races such as elves, humans, dwarves, halflings(gnomes), and of course orcs.  There are usually alot of pretty forests and mountin settings for your fighter, or mage, or thief, or priesly type character to run around in and dispell evil wherever you can find it.  The majority of mmo's out today are set in this enviroment, and I'm here to say enough is enough. 

Stop beating the dead horse

   Now it may just be me, but my God have we not ridden this one trick pony into the grave?  Now I'm not saying that I don't enjoy the occasional romp in an enchanted forest.  Heck I like to slay a dragon just as much as the next guy, but how many times do you want me to do this before I chew my arm off or worse yet chew my wife's arm off. ( I rather like both of my arms) All the cool fantasy IP's are either out on the shelf or soon to be there.  It's been done and done and done.  All I'm saying is let's put another flavor on the menu.  I mean how many burgers can you eat before you crave some chicken or even a hot dog. 

Now I know what youre going to say: "There are other genres out there", and you're right there are, but why not explore them a little further, or at least get a couple of different takes on those genres. Have we really done all we can do with the sci-fi genre? I think not.  Let alone there are a provential ass load of cool genres out there that just haven't been touched yet. What might those be?  Well now I'm glad you asked. Here are a few of my personal favorites:

Genres I'd like to see

Disclaimer: Now if some of these are being devloped I haven't seen anything about it.

Modern Day Horror

This genre is chock full of possibilities if you thik about.  Zombies vs Humans, Humans vs Vampires vs Werewolves, Zombies vs Zombies. All right maybe not the last one that could get rather boring. But you get my point. Tell me you wouldn't want to play a vampire or werewolf or be the guy that can bring them down.

The Wild West

Grab a six shooter and Hang em High yeeehawww.  The untamed west could be a serious good time playing as an outlaw, indian, bounty hunter, sheriff, or the crazed crusty miner type. With showdowns and bar brawls, bank robberies and Indian raids, that's got fun written all over it.

The Cold War

The USSR invades the US and we enter WW3.  Watch the movie Red Dawn you'll see what I'm talking about.  Be a Russian or a US troop or just be a guy caught in the middle.  A clever developer could really make a great one in this genre.

Apocolyptic

Angels and Demons. Heaven versus Hell and earth is in the middle.  This could be a game of Biblical proprtions! (pun intended)

Alien Invasion

Developers could really have a blast with this little ditty from a serious toned War of the Worlds type to a campy Mars Attacks type game.  Why quest for Boar tusks when you can zap a martian!

These are just some of the examples me and the wife came up with that we thought would be fun and most important differet to play.

I guess in the end when it comes to the fantasy genre there's just so many glowing swords I can oooo and aaaahh at.  Only so many sets of armor I can find or make.  And think about this cool little perk. You wouldn't have to quest for boar meat or wolf hides. Well maybe you wouldn't. And that's my 2 copper on the subject.

 Well that's about it for me tonight. Thanx again for the read, and I'd love to hear what genre you'd like to see done. Go ahead and let your imagination run wild and post a comment if you'd like and tell me what you'd like to see.  Next time we'll talk about some Intellectual Properties that I think woul dmake awesome mmo's. Until then.

Thanx

Ivan

   Let me first start off by saying thank you to those who read my first 2 posts. Your patronage is appreciated.  Now to the meat of the subject.  SOE of course has to do something the week after I write my blog about them to once again get the forums abalzing with their name. Media Hogs! SO I thought I'd tack on  a little snippet to look into the new matter at hand and offer my provential 2 copper on the subject. So friends enjoy a bonus issue of My 2 Copper's Worth.

   So here's the skinny.  The devlopers of Pirates of the Burning Sea announced this week that they have partnered with SOE to distribute and market the game as well take on the task of money collection. This is an identical deal that was struck last year with the creators of Gods and Heros.  Now I don't blame anyone here for not be too happy about this. SOE has a solid reputation for upsetting it's consumer base.  (Check my previous post for more info).  Nor do I blame anyone who sides with PotBS creators.  Let's take a look at the pluses and the minuses of these ventures with SOE, and see what SOE gets out of the deal as well. 

 What do these two companies get out of the deal? 

Simple enough they save a ton of money. Developing an MMO is an expensive venture in itself, but then factor in marketing costs, and production costs of packaging and your really talking some bucks. So by giving SOE the marketing and the billing these companies are avoiding a large obstacle. Let alone SOE are masters at marketing (they've gotten us a couple of times haven't they?) , and with the station pass that opens up the opportunity of players of SOE's other products to take a look.  And let's not forget E3 exposure and SOE's little get togethers. This deal offers these two companies a chance at a mainstream and highly competitive market which is a huge boost over going it alone. Now remeber neither of these companies has agreed to let SOE handle customer service nor does SOE have much if any say in the development and release of the game. Which is good news. As we have seen the tragic results of that with the recent release of Vanguard. (Sorry Vanbois) SOE's responsibilities include making boxes, marketing, and billing. All things they have experience in and handle well.

Now, what does SOE get out of it?

Well on this I'm gonna throw out a little conjecture here. 

First off they get to be behind two games that they didn't have to spend a dime on developing. So any money they get out of the deal is mostly profit. If the companies go under I'm sure they have rights to buy the games and keep them running as well.

Secondly I think SOE is trying to relegitimize itself in the eyes of the consumer. I think the first attempt at this was Vanguard, but that backfired as they got their claws a little deep in that game. But with these other two games they aren't in deep so if they are successful it's a win win for them with their name on the box the public stock rises in the eye of the consumer.

Third it really makes that Station Pass look attractive now doesn't it.  With 3 new games added to it in a years time that's just insanely a good deal for those of us who like to play more than one game. On top of that they two out of the three are unconventional settings as well. Which is a plus on the diversity end of things.

Fourth and Final point. It gives SOE a platform to try and get some more people playing the games they own. My guess is by the time these 2 games are on the shelf we'll be seeing a Vanguard free trial showing up around the same time.

Now for this to work these games need to launch well. Not Vanguard launch, but somewhat smooth and 80% bug free. Good reviews would only help as well.

In the end I have to admit I like SOE business model when it comes to these games, and if they stick to this model could become a protal for smaller developers to get their games exposure to a larger market share than they could on their own.  SOE could very well end up with a great little collection of niche games that could attract a sizeable fan base and alot of money as long as they can keep themselves out of the developers way.  So if you're a fan of either of these 2 games I wouldn't be too worried the worst case as of right now is you'll have more people to group with at launch. Well that's my 2 copper's worth.

Thnx and until next time

Ivan

Warning!

Images and or events in the following blog may contain emotionally disturbing material. Read on friend together we can conquer these demons.

   Well here we are friends at last. No more gab about my personal life or my wife we're into the stuff you care about (hopefully) mmo's and the companies that create them. I thought it would only be fitting to start then with one of the most talked about companies on the market.

   With their reputation for buggy launches, overnight overhauls, broken promises, and poor customer service SOE has accomplished what many have not the alienation of their customer base.  What was once a leader in this industry has now become one of the most despised and untrustworthy companies out there today.  The very mention of their involvment with a game is enough to make alot of gamers turn away from a game altogether if not at the least be very nervous of what's to come.  Today I'm gonna give you a quick overview of what went wrong, what is wrong, and what I think SOE needs to do to get back what was lost: the trust of the consumer. 

What Happened

   This is a point of some conjecture within the mmo community.  What happened that pissed off so many people.  From what I can tell and have personally experienced it's a combination of things. But I'm pretty sure where it all started.

   If any game had high expectations it was this one, and SOE's first mistake was they matched those high expectations with alot of hype so by the time this game was ready to launch hundreds of thousands of people were ready to join the Galactic Civil War. When the day came and we all wanted to get on....well alot of us couldn't. I personally took the day off to play and found the eight hour ordeal of trying to get on at the least a little exasperating.  But we were willing to look past that because if we know one thing launch day in the world of an mmo is a provential nightmare for any game. After things smoothed out we were all quite content and having a pretty good time.  The downfall came with 4 simple blows:

1.  The Jedi Grind- When they came out with the force sensitive village the entire focus of the game went to earning your Jedi, or getting the right gear so you could kill one. Gone was the galactic struggle, and here we were thrust into some preverse reincarnation of the clone wars.

2. The Combat Upgrade-  With this came their attempt to make the game more challenging and what we could once kill alone we had to kill in groups.  We all came back and found we'd been wussified and that wasn't cool.

3. BUGS,BUGS,BUGS- If not their biggest mistake it is a close second.  SOE did a horrible job of finding and fixing bugs. We were 1 year into the game and still complaining about week one bugs.  One of the most famous of these was the always hated Imperial Hat Bug where you couldn't put your hat on to complete your uniform. (I wander if they ever fixed that?)

4. The NGE- The creme de la creme of mistakes where SOE lost close to half of it's existing population. This little overnight patch sent the community in an upraor and rightfully so. With the NGE came a more action oriented gameplay. Beter loot drops (Farewell economy). And the abiity to create a jedi (KOTOR anyone?).   All of this and there were still bugs from week one sitting around.  To this day people are still sour at SOE for this. There's even a "Disgruntled SWG Vets" forum thread on this site. 

But friends don't think you're reading the rants and raves of a Star Wars fanboy we have other examples to look at as well. Remeber this little gem?

To say it simply this game defined the word repeatative. Not to make things any better was the ability to switch your skills to be what ever you needed to be so there's no need to group or ever buy anything. I think MxO became the first Massive Single-Player Online Role Playing Game. The one thing this game had going for it was an excellent storyline that you could play through from the beginning and watch it unfold.  The SOE bought the rights to the game and the storyline just stopped, and a new one started that was pretty much silly at best. It was like they introduced supre powers to the matrix it was just plain weird. This game started with somewhere around 10 servers and I believe the lat time I checked was down to 3 or 4. 

The Present

So here we are in today SOE stock with the gaming community has taken a serious hit, and we get the launch of another seriously hyped game:

I'm not going to take alot of time here as ther are some excellent Blogs already on the subject of this game, but here's the skinny.  We are told that this game is the true sequal to Everquest with huge lands diverse races, an engaging crafting system, and the new addition of diplomacy. What we got were BUGS, BUGS, and more BUGS.  Remind you of something?

From what I've gathered the game has already lost a bundle of players and is in the process of trying to merge servers as well as fix bugs and add content. Yikes that's alot on the plate.  The devs asked recently that it's players be patient with them while they sort things out, and I ask Why should they? These people have invested time and money in updated rigs and software only to get a game that still needs alot of work. Shame, Shame. With the consistency of buggy launches why should one trust the next product you put out? On top of all of this have we heard anything from SOE's other older offerings? The answer is no. SOE hypes the new games forgets the old ones and are left right now probably losing some serious money.

The Road Back

Is this the end of SOE? Right now there's one mmo out there that has more oplayers than all of SOE's games combined (WoW duh.)  To the dissapointment of many of you the answer is no. But SOE has alot of work ahead of it if they want to stay competitive in this market.  Some of that work is already underway in my opinion with the great stuff they are doing with EQ2. Their latest expansion "The Echoes of Faydwer" is an excellent offering upgrading graphics, adding lands and content, as well as a new race. let alone allowing you to buy all the previous expansions plus the basic EQ2 all in one package for under $50. Not a bad start, but SOE should be investing in alot more of their offerings in the same way. MxO celebrated 2 years of existence and not a peep about it nothing new to launch and no expansion. That's just goofey. Maintaing the status quo of your games or drastically changing them doesn't show any commitment to the product or the people playing it. On a side note though I believe SOE has returned to the original stroyline in MxO which is another step in the right direction. One other thing they have going for them is

This game is a departure from the classic fantasy that SOE has beaten into the ground. It's a fresh concept with some new twists in setting as well as gameplay. What SOE needs to show me at least is that they can launch a fully functional game. If it's not ready delay it show some commitment to quality. Get behind Vanguard which sounds a little overwhelmed and get them throught his launch so they can start getting their people back. It's just launched there's hope for it! All in all SOE's comeback is going to have to start with a basic commitment to quality, and start spending some money on your products rather than taking it.

But in the end that's just my 2 copper.

Hope to see you next time. Thanks for your patience. Hope I didn't bore you.

Ivan

Next week: WoW:Community or Sub-Culture.

Well to start this whole thing off right I feel I should introduce myself good and proper. 

My Real Life

   I am a full time non-traditional (old) student returning to finish what I started a longtime ago. It's pretty fun, and also affords me some valuable free time to let my mind go here.  I got married for the first time about 2 months ago to a very beautiful gaming nerd to which my friends are all jealous. If your nice I'll post a picture of her sometime. All we pretty much talk about are mmo's.  We love them.  So it's safe to say that our house oozes a steady flow of geek on a regular basis. We have 4 cats that were all my wife's idea. She's got a thing for animals.  We reside in the heart of the midwest in good ole Iowa. Where we have a pretty simple yet fun life playing games and upgrading our rigs.

My MMO Life

This all began about 10 years ago when I bought Ultima Online by complete accident.  I had thought I bought another Ultima game, but it turned out to be one of my most happy little accidents. I played a miner/blacksmith there for about 2 years never really adventuring as much as outfitting the adventurers. I moved on to Everquest for a short stint, and then to SWG until the "Jedi Grind" made things a little silly.  Since then I've played a myriad of games like EQ2, CoH/CoV, Auto Assault, EVE, Planetside, LOTRO, and of course the 8 million pound gorilla WoW.  Currently I have active subscrptions for WoW and just restarted my CoH subscription to check out the new updates. I truly love this genre of gaming.  I love the idea of having my own personal little adventures in what ever IP I am exploring at the time. Nothing else in my mind compares to the fun and the friendships I have had in mmo's.

So that's just a little bit about me to get things started. I will try to update this post on a weekly basis so keep checking in.  I look forward to interesting dialouge between us, and if there is an issue or a game you would like to hear about drop me a line and I will do my best to accomodate you.

Thanx,

Ivan

Next weeks topic: SOE (this should be a fun one)