Taste the Treadmill!

MMO and other random observations. Just the ramblings of an MMOer who has been playing MMOs for WAY to long and isn't very excited about the future of MMOs

Author: phosphoros

So the big news for me this week was the delay of Warhammer Online and the announcement of the Collectors edition.

Also of note was the 2.4 patch for WoW.

The Warhammer delay really sucked for me I have to say.  It was one of those things you figure will happen but you hope it doesn’t.  I guess I’ll just have to find something else to do with my summer now. 

Mark Jacobs has been a damage control machine from hell too.  After hours and hours on the WHA forums he was out there yesterday doing freaking interviews trying to quell the growing sound of Mmogers crying like little girls (and me adding my crying to the chorus).  I know a lot of people hate EA Mythic and/or Mark Jacobs but damn that guys like a force of nature when it comes to him getting the word out about…well, anything!  Between him, Paul Barnett and “The” Hickman consider WAR totally marketingly (Yes, I made that word up, no you can’t use it in scrabble, yes it is quite cool isn’t it?) sexed up.

What’s so utterly funny about it all is everyone and their dog knew it was gonna happen but we just had no clue as to when it would happen.  Then you get all the Mmog sites asking the same 5 questions that Mark can’t answer, or that he already answered on the WHA forums and was probably re-linked ad nauseam to every forum in the free world and a few pay-to-live-free countries.

Just amuses me I guess.  Most people get their news about stuff from only one or two sources so it’s best to get it out to as many sites as possible.  I’m pretty happy overall that the delay will mean put simply, a better game for everyone.  Yes it sucks fuzzy muppet nuts but I’m sure we’ll all be laughing about this next year (unless there’s another delay… *twitch*) over a glass of mulled wine and a plate of deep fried High Elf Ears.

Blizzard seems to have its hand over the kill switch doesn’t it?  2.4 is an utter disaster of epic proportions to which only a Vanguard like launch can compare. 

What?  They gave you content?  Fixed bugs and junk? Revamped the craptastic combat log?  Oh I see how that fails now.  Dumbass's

Granted the Doomed trailer park of Sunwell thingy seems as interesting as a long walk off a short pier with Rosie O’Donnell. I’m sure the achievers will want to get on that right away though.  It’s sort of zero sum in my mind though making content as you go for the high ups who rape it in a week then wait another two months for more.  All the while Blizzard keeps having to make harder and more ridiculous encounters to keep up with Major E-peen and his implants but 10 bajillion sheeple can’t be wrong can they!?

Half the people love WoW and think it’s the next social networking/Mmog revolution the other half wish the other half would die in fire and take WoW with it.  Me, I’m not prejudice, I’ll happily watch everyone die in fire.

But if you read the official forums or the 15 billion other forums dedicated to WoW and/or their super guild that is the coolest, it seems the same 15 people quit. And these apparently are the same people who have quit the game since it first was released and the first major nerf.

Is there an “I quit because this sucks” site out there you can get premade forum posts on why you quit?  If not there should be.  Huge market I imagine if not just to add a little variety.

It’s pretty much a copy pasta from Furors initial EQ “I quit” knuckle dragging elitist snob douche bag rant.  Sometimes more words, sometimes less.  It’s usually the same thing though. 

*Cry cry cry*  You made something different.  I worked real hard to be the first one to own the pink demon pony and now anyone with 1000000 million gold/plat/creds/chits/lindens/etc… can have one and I’m not special anymore.  People don’t inspect me anymore!  *cry cry cry* blah blah blah you get the point. 

Little does anyone know but the sheer magnitude of the attunement needed to do squat in Northrend when Wrath of the Ding-a-ling comes out will be epic in it’s own right and will probably  be turned off a year or so after it’s release.  Why?  It’s to gate “achievers”.  Yes, you pompous little asslords that have to post “first” to a dev post regardless of what the Devs post was about.  You, that pile into new areas and instead of having a little fun with the community you run in with your buddies and blow the content/quests/event to hell in one fell narcissistic moment.  Then you strut around like a retarded rooster pumped up on Viagra. 

So in summary…  I’m really looking forward to WAR and the delay sucks.

WoW is still having people quit 15 at a time and still has almost 10 million players worldwide.

Hmm, interesting indeed.

So these first couple of blog posts here will probably be covering several topics in each with no real direction.  I just thought I'd get some posts up to get my blogging chops back a little bit before I start tackling specific topics.

So first thing I wanted to do was comment on a post I saw  here.  Normally I would just post a comment on his blog but I wanted to go a tad more in-depth than that.

MMOGs I like to see made.

• Rifts - This Pencil and Paper RPG just screams for being made into an MMO.  I'm unconvinced that there is a company that could make it and not screw it up.  The Developer would almost have to use the game mechanics from the RPG adapted to an MMO game.  I think it would be done but as I said, I'm not sure there's a company that could do it.
• Star Wars MMO - Samhain had this on his list but I need to add it to mine as well.  It just needs to be on as many lists as possible.  A Star Wars game, made correctly and maintained, would be a huge success.  Ideally I'd like to see a KotOR MMO but at this point I'll take any Star Wars MMO so long as it's not the train wreck known as SWG.  Also, ideally SOE would not be a part of the creation of this new Star Wars MMO because SOE sucks fairly hard. 
• More Sci-Fi Themed MMOs - Yes, there's a couple coming out eventually and I'm excited but we need more.  How many Fantasy MMOs can we have?  Some would answer "Not enough. ElvesFTW!" while others would say "To Many! Elves FTL!".  Either way I'm personally sick of Fantasy themed MMOs but there just doesn't seem to be an end to them.  The only notable exception to this for me is Warhammer Online.  I'm excited about it mainly because I'm a huge Warhammer fan in general.  Predictably, I'm more of WH40K fan than Warhammer Fantasy but it is Warhammer.  Some addition ideas for Sci-Fi MMOs would be Robotech and Jovian Chronicles.  I'm keeping my eye on lesser known Sci-Fi games like Infinity  and StarGate Worlds (To which I'm not holding my breath)
• Horror Themed MMO - Some of the ideas that jump to mind for this is, and forgive the name example, World of Cthulhu.  I just can see a story-centric company like BioWare making this (Which would never happen of course) and it being incredibly interesting and fun.  It just seems a no brainer for me.  Another example would be something Resident Evil-ish.  Zombies vs Humans type deal.  A while back I heard of a Zombie game being made with this concept but I forgot the name and haven't heard jack about it since so I'm sure it's long gone.  Pity.

I know the high stakes in making an MMO and I understand companies not wanting to take chances but the MMO space is getting stagnant and we need some diversification.  No, I don't count the multitude of F2P Asian games flooding the market using the same engine, the same mechanics and the same cookie cutter character customization. Don't even bring up Bloodymare either.  BLECH!

We seem to be stuck in a rut MMO-wise much like the First person shooter industry was for a while.  Once id started making the FPS to beat the market was flooded with games exactly like it.  Notable exceptions where few and far between but companies did take chances.  System Shock 2 for example scared the balloon juice out of me. Great game.  Then a little company called Valve made a little game called Half-Life and cracked the FPS market in the skull with a ball-peen hammer.  Showing you could make an awesome story combined with excellent gameplay elements and have a winner. 

Right now we're stuck with the WoW era.  Every game that comes out ,with only a few exceptions, will be some derivative of WoW.  Blizzard did a lot of things right with WoW but they did a lot wrong (Raiding till your eyes bleed should have died with EQ).  They took EQ and made it simple and polished. Ripped out the garbage and put in some slick systems.  Making WoW accessible to anyone.  This is a good thing generally but now we are all stuck with the knock-offs.  Age of Conan will be different but it's monster system requirements will hurt it.  What do FunCom care though? They are making it for the PC and the 360.  The 360 is the target though I promise you.  They may not have said that but that's the target. 

Same with Warhammer.  They will release it for the 360 even though they haven't announced.  I honestly think that was one reason why EA was so enchanted with Mythic they purchased them.  They say the demo of Warhammer running on an Xbox 360 and collectively wet themselves.  Warhammer is already getting the WoW fans who don't know any better calling Warhammer a rip-off of WoW.  While some of the game mechanics might be and the interface most certainly is (One of the things Blizzard did awesomely well was the UI and it's customization), the look and feel of the game and the IP in general came along way before Warcraft was a twinkle in anyones eye.  Infact, as much as Blizzard fans (in denial apparently) hate to admit it, Warcraft's inspiration came directly from Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  Warhammer 40K being the inspiration for Starcraft.  The Sincerest form of flattery is copyright infringment.  :)

So If you've read this far I commend you. I did kind of end up moving though a couple topics with generally no direction but I hope it wasn't terribly incoherant. 

Thanks for reading.  Perhaps I'll post something later on if the mood slaps me.