General Discussion

*Please try and stick to the topic and try not to re-live old game company nightmares, unless it's part of an exsample, also No soap boxes please, thank you*

idk, but I use my own rules

If a game isn't RMT, it should never become RMT, no excuses.

As long as there's no full gameplay video's it's Vaporware.

I think a player union only helps if you create a site too, players themselves can't do anything unless you combine them and people actually go read the site and support it.

The sites you have now support MMO companies, like this one, you can't have a union run site that has MMO banners.

I think it will happen. Not only for MMO, players have the voice now. When was the last time you read a review? They're all biased imo. I only read player opinions to decide if I want to buy an MMO or not. I don't care about reviews if they're payed to make them since they're never objective.

Players got a voice thanks to the internet. But still things like AoC happen, so it means companies can still fool us.

Blizzard and NCsoft raised the standard very high on server support and bug free software. Thast why Funcom and SoE get so much crap when their games don't work out.

The shamefull thing is that players got fooled by Funcom imo. Not many knew this game was going to run so bad.

And darkfall, jesus christ what an insane hype machine. As long as you have sites and people supporting those, you will get companies get away with stuff like that.

Originally posted by Waterlily

idk, but I use my own rules

If a game isn't RMT, it should never become RMT, no excuses.

As long as there's no full gameplay video's it's Vaporware.

 

I think a player union only helps if you create a site too, players themselves can't do anything unless you combine them and people actually go read the site and support it.

The sites you have now support MMO companies, like this one, you can't have a union run site that has MMO banners.

I think it will happen. Not only for MMO, players have the voice now. When was the last time you read a review? They're all biased imo. I only read player opinions to decide if I want to buy an MMO or not. I don't care about reviews if they're payed to make them since they're never objective.

Players got a voice thanks to the internet. But still things like AoC happen, so it means companies can still fool us.

Blizzard and NCsoft raised the standard very high on server support and bug free software. Thast why Funcom and SoE get so much crap when their games don't work out.

The shamefull thing is that players got fooled by Funcom imo. Not many knew this game was going to run so bad.

And darkfall, jesus christ what an insane hype machine. As long as you have sites and people supporting those, you will get companies get away with stuff like that.

 

RMT, is real money trade. It's the trading of in game  items, (both superficial and stat items) for real money.

I think the idea of reviewing more on requirements and standards is good.

Is the game playable, does it run fine without much bugs? Is there RMT or not? Will there be expansions? How addictive is it really? Do you have to spend months of grinding to have fun?

Those are things you can really define and get an honest answer from.

If I take WoW, it would get a devent review just because it runs fine, it has no RMT but it is highly addictive but you can also have a lot of fun without having to grind a lot.

If people really like WoW personally didn't matter in this review. It just held up to the standards, and when people buy the game they are 100% sure it will run and it at least will deliver. If they like the gameplay or not is still up to them, but the game in itself is fine.

The reviews lately from 'gamer siter' are just opinionated and don't test if the game can run or if it has RMT, or if it's addictive or just plain fun.

I've thought about this sort of thing before too but there would be problems with it.
 

First, this sort of thing already exists on a small and fragmented scale.  Large, well established gaming guilds are sort of like special interest groups that developers pay attention to.  It really is bizzare that devs cow-tow to those people so much because they represent such a tiny fraction of all mmorpg players.  But they do.  They meet with the leaders of those guilds in person, they give them mass invites to beta tests, and worst of all they listen to their suggestions.  This is part of the reason why the genre has been stuck in such a rut since EQ 1.  So what I'm saying is that your union would have to compete with these already entrenched groups for the attention of the devs and gaming companies.

Second, you might think your union would have a louder voice because it would represent all mmorpg players.  But you know what we're like.  Everyone has their own opinions.  The moment the head of your union takes a stand on any issue there are going to be a bunch of people who disagree with him and the union will fragment.  But if the union never takes a stand on anything then it's worthless.

So what are you thinking exactly?  What is the union for and what is it against?  You would probably have better luck with it if you defined the positions you want to support right from the beginning.

Is it just about monitoring the quality of game preformance with no regard to preferences in game design?

Or is it going to take a position on game design?  For example: WE WANT SANDBOX GAMES or WE DON'T LIKE INSTANCING.

I think any sort of organization of this sort should clearly define it's purpse from the beginning.

One of the dumbest things I've ever read on this site=)  We already have a union.  Our wallets.  Don't like the games.  Don't buy them.  Don't play them.   If no one plays the games, they have to change them so that we do.    Blizzard actually asked questions, did lots of R&D and designed WOW according to US and what WE wanted.   Look at the results.  And by "US" I do not mean, elitist, hardcore, MMO gamers with attitude problems.  I meant normal people;)

Theres many other hobbies out there besides games you know=)

Originally posted by Josher

One of the dumbest things I've ever read on this site=)  We already have a union.  Our wallets.  Don't like the games.  Don't buy them.  Don't play them.   If no one plays the games, they have to change them so that we do.  

Theres many other hobbies out there besides games you know=)

Don't patronize the idea.

What do you think this is:

http://www.gamesforwindows.com

It's basically the same idea. It was founded because games need to become standardized in system requirements, quality and accesability.

Voting with your wallet doesn't really work when developers aren't honest and the game is bugged and doesn't meet the claimed system requirements, look at AoC.

a game players union is a very silly idea.

Don't buy their games. If enough people stop buying, they'll change. Problem solved.