This game is what i have been waiting for, for a very long time.  Since i left UO renaisance i have missed so many aspects of that game and cant help but compare just about every game i play to it.  The comradary, the housing, the skills set, the freedom.  These have all made up what ive always considered the best MMO ever, but only one thing was lacking that was graphics.  They did try and bring the UO graphics up a bit but they still fell short, then with graphics there is that problem with not enough users haveing the rig to run the game. 

WoW was lucky in the fact that nobody minded the cartoony graphics everyone was used to from the RTS titles, so when people started playing it they fell right in love with it.   Plus no one had any problems running the game so they didnt need to spend any money and getting there friends online playing wasnt hard cause none of them had to upgrade anything to play it.

Now Runes of Magic has come into the picture, the only downfall i forsee for this game is the lack of following, it doesnt have any past games im aware of to pull a fan base from, which was the key behind WoW's success.  But it has everything any good MMO has ever had, it has simple but attractive graphics, it has skills which the player gets to customize, it has multi classing, it has housing right from the start.  Most importantly about the housing is the ability to customize them, make them your own display and show off your spoils, trophies and valuables from your adventures.  This is partly what brought on the multiplayer aspect of UO, was the conversation pieces that players would display.  They cause envy, they cause drive, they create goals for lower level characters.  The value of having a customizable house is almost infinite, plus its a refuge for people to go to when they want to get away from the constant grinding. 

Just imagine, you been grinding levels, quest, and your crafting for about 2 hours and you really need a change of pace something to change it up a bit before you go back to "work" so to speak.  Now you go to your house and begin rearranging your special items in ways that will bring "oooohh's from peoples mouths as they enter your humble abode.  The sudden sense of accomplishment you gain from this is enough to let you go back to the grinding work of leveling, crafting, and questing if nothing else to look forward to the next trophy you get to mount on your wall.

I personally feel this game will be underrated and overlooked, like so many games out there have been.  People dont realize what this game really brings to the table, they look at some pictures and make assumptions about it without actually reading anythign about the game on the website.  I just hope that people can realize that not just the names we know can be good games, but anyone at anytime could come out with the next big game that sets the new standard for games of all genres.

Thank you for your time.

wow no replies at all, thats unfortunate.  I was hoping to hear what some of you thought about this post.

It's probably becuase you chose to post in the Developer's Corner instead of the Pub or the Runes of Magic forums.  This place sees little traffic.

As for me, I've not seen the game and have no intersest in it.

There was player housing from the very beginning with tons of customization in Everquest II, and it was, at best, a bullshit feature. If the only reason to go into someone's house is to look at how well they've arranged their furniture and take a look at their "special trophies" then no-one's going to do it.

For player housing to be a useful feature, it needs to have a significiant impact on the gameplay. Very few MMOG players get off on moving furniture about, as proven by EQII. Some people got into it, but at the end of the day, the majority of people got a house that could give them the most  broker slots (gameplay impact), and did little to customize (beyond the primary impact).

In SWG, because player housing was important for crafting and economy, people were more concerened with it. The same will apply for Runes of Magic, no matter how many customization options there are.

Originally posted by grunty

It's probably becuase you chose to post in the Developer's Corner instead of the Pub or the Runes of Magic forums.  This place sees little traffic.

As for me, I've not seen the game and have no intersest in it.

I did look for a Runes of magic forum but found none anywhere, if u look down the left side of the screen there is not a listing for Runes of Magic anywhere to be seen.  But you do make a point and in following that point this post was to hopefully get more people to actually take a look at the game.

i completely understand what you are saying, and although i didnt play very much of EQ2 i did try it out and was quickly bored with it and there joke of a trial.  But moving past that my comparison to the housing was primarily from UO Renaisance, im sure there are not just a whole lot of people who have played that game.  But as far as in game impact, the houses had a majority of impact, usefulness, and provided lots of bragging rights.  Much like in SWG the housing was for the players to place and space was limited as to where you could actually place a house.  This alone created a very valuable commodity, just giving out an instance place to dump stuff is not what i could consider housing.  Now as to whether or not RoM is going to just give out an instance area to play mini game in im not real sure, hopefully they are more intelligent than that. 

As far as the ingame impact, the player housing in UO provided, a spot to set up a vendor/shop that would sell your items while u were offline.  It also provided convenient storage area for your items, such as potions spell reagents, diff armor or weapons for diff purposes.  This was available because of the freedom to drop a house anywhere in the world that there was a large enough flat ground space.  Houses also provided a safe haven from PKs which made the game immensely exciting.  Knowing you could find safety in your own home, you could lock the door and give permission to enter to a specific list of people.

Now on to the decorating part of my post, I understand this is not for everyone, and the bottom line is if a game comes down to people only looking for ingame impact then the game has already failed.  If the players of a game cant......for lack of better words have pride in there characters in game then the players are not very interested in sticking around.  Instead they are basically looking for a reason to leave the game, unfortunately this MMO war that is going on has become for the most part just that.  What i would be betting on and advixing RoM devs to bet on is the aspects of the game that appeal to loyal gamers.  Gamers who know what they want and enjoy the small things in life, even in a fantasy game life. 

UO still has a huge following of players that have remained and still pay for there accounts, WoW obviously has its huge following as well.  The fans of these other games stay with the games for many reasons, the people that make up there guilds are all on for diff reasons.  Granted there are a few people who play simply for the Warcraft Lore, or because UO is all they ever learned and dont wanna start over.  But for the millions that are looking for a game that can improve on what they already like in other games; now there is the market that any new MMO dev should be aiming for. 

This game has the ability to present that, whether they like decorating, dressing up, role playing, leveling, questing, pvping, or even a combination of any of these as long as gamers can find what they want in a game they will stick to it.  Honestly i think people are getting tired of trying out game after game always looking for that next great game that they will know from day one that "this is the game i'll play for a very long time". 

Sorry im long winded call it passion if you want too, or obsession either way bottom line is, this game can provide what people want.  Its just a matter of whether or not they pay attention and are willing to provide what people expect.

You're right. Player housing can have immense function, as SWG and UO attest to. But think of it this way: there's no point in having a shop in your house if there's a central auction house; there's no point in houses being a safe haven if there are safe havens all over the place.

Figure out the function of player housing, and direct it from there.

ultimately its not all about the player housing, that is just a feature they offer that many games dont, my point was that they are offering so many valued features in this one game that they should really get a little more recognition.  Im just wanting more people to actually realize what all they offer, go to there website and look at thee features link and look into there concepts on char development.

RoM has the potential to go far, really far but they need to make sure they hold true to what they are offering, and dont do what AoC did and offer lots of things and then not deliver when they said they would.  Yes that is part of developing and marketing but there is also a relationship you must hold with your market and lieing or letting them down is not going to keep that relationship strong.

Well, EQ2 have a lot better playing housing system, you can even change the floor and walls there, chose betwen a lot of places an so on. Still it is a nice feature, but they ripped Eq2 and simplified.

The graphics are the best I seen in ane F2P game. The dual class system is ok but GW does it better.

Sounds are really bad however. And bosses seems to be a tad too hard, this is just a balancing issue and will probably be fixed however.

Yes, it will totay own all F2P game but it will have a hard time with the P2P games. Also Guildwars 2 will be tough to beat, while it initially will cost money it will have no monthly fees and the graphics I seen from it are at least in AoC class... And the fun factor of it seems really high.

No, I see RoM as the biggest F2P game in a year but it won't kill of the P2P games. The only threat to monthly fees in the next year will be Guildwars 2. RoM will probably have more players than the rest though since anyone can make an account. Also it is a perfect game to play when youre currently tired of your main game.

www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/category/454