"And ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner"

(fumbles with the envelope a bit, then reads)

"And the winner for best MMORG of 2008 is... None of the above!"

(CHEERS and APPLAUSE)

"What a fantastic night for None of the above.  Looks like None of the above might have a clean sweep of this years MMORPG award categories!"

Ok so I'll be the first to try to pull something else than teenager sensationalism on this poll.."OMG none of the above"...lol.

I have only tried AoC, so this makes it to an easy vote. AoC has however been the best game I have tried in years, so I choose AoC with very honest intentions.

Originally posted by pencilrick

"And ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner"

(fumbles with the envelope a bit, then reads)

"And the winner for best MMORG of 2008 is... None of the above!"

(CHEERS and APPLAUSE)

"What a fantastic night for None of the above.  Looks like None of the above might have a clean sweep of this years MMORPG award categories!"

Funny, cause I think there have been easier years ever than this year. AoC is by fare the best game. And by the way what year was the options better? Perhaps when WOW came out? Nope, did not think so...

Honestly, according to this rule here : "By voting None of the Above, you are stating that this year's crop of MMOs was not only poor, but to your mind, so completely unplayable that no redeeming factors could be found in the nominated games."

According to that rule, I would have to vote for AoC, because it was the only MMO that I got at least SOME enjoyment out of.  (The combat system was something a little new, and building the guild city was fun for a tiny bit).  But it was still a god awful MMO that I didn't play past the first month, and voting for it makes me feel like I'm telling it that it did a good job.

So fuck all of those.  None of the above.

It is not necessary to play all the games to have an opinion about 2008 new games. If a game was not compelling enough to try then it wasn't good in that person's veiw.

I played three and while sure there has to be one that is least worse - none of them warrant being put up as the best of 2008.

Putting any of these up as best of 2008 would imply that it was a good thing and there was nothing good in 2008 from new games.

Worst of all one took an incredibly rich valuable brand and completely ruined it.

Originally posted by JK-Kanosi

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by JonMichael

Originally posted by kb4blu

I voted none of the above simply because they are all equally bad.

MMO's have gone to hell in a handbasket.

 

 

And you played them all, I assume?

 

 

 

I actually did and they all didn't deliver in my eyes.

Seeing the poor quality and scams (AoC) with this year new MMO launches then you can conclude it has been a very very bad year for MMO's.

So I think "None of the Above" is a very very valid option in this poll.

Cheers

 

I don't doubt that you played all of the MMO's released this year. It's not hard to believe that people buy and play every new release these days, unlike how it was before WoW came out. However, I seriously doubt you found nothing good in any of this years releases. Are you telling me you didn't like the graphics of AoC, Tortelage, the combat system, the voice overs; what about the public quests in WAR, or being able to que up for scenarios from anywhere and after the scenario putting you back where you were? Or what about being able to earn points to buy RvR gear at all levels of the game and it being relatively accessible to all people?

I find a person who didn't like even one of those things to be a rather pessimistic person. Keep in mind that the "none of the above" option was for people that didn't like not even one feature in any of this years releases. I voted for WAR, because I did like a few of their features, but I play WoTLK. This is because I didn't like any of the games overall this year. I follow and respect the rules though, so I didn't vote "none of the above," since I liked at least 1 feature in one of those games.

It's not about what was in good in wich game.

Ofcourse Age of Conan had some good stuff in it.

And I am still subbed to Warhammer Online, but that's only because I am guild leader and have great people in my guild I dont want to let down or I would have canceled already.

MMORPG's are suppose to be games you enjoy for the long run. And none of this year's MMO releases have given me that satisfaction.

All of them turned me off within a month.

Be it the lag issues, not working skills / attrtibutes and continues crashes to desktop of Funcom's marvelous patching and utter lack of mid to endlevel content in Age of Conan.

Or be it extreme lag issues, constant Disconnects, extreme lagspikes (since last WAR patch), very wrong and baffling design decisions (everyone hiding in scenarios, no incentive for oRvR, PVE a joke) within Warhammer Online.

And so on....

I enjoyed Star Wars Galaxies for a year (till NGE hit), I enjoyed World of Warcraft for over 1 and half year, I enjoyed EverQuest 2 and still do (but now canceled as I cant be subbed and able to play everything), I enjoyed LOTRO and still do (MoM just being the best expension ever).

Just face it! None of this years launced MMO's delivered and all of them felt rushed out of the door, lacking, broken and above all left you with a sour taste full of dissapointment.

Every MMO launches with bugs and has issues around launch (be it unforseen server problems, too many players, etc). But this year we talk about MMO's being launched with missing (while advertised) features, broken game systems, extreme poor performance and not well thought out design decisions wich doesn't seem to work in the live server environment (wich is the case in WAR).

Cheers

I voted for Age of Conan as I'm still playing the game and I think it's a great game now after a very rocky start.

The words "engrossing crafting system" as a description for a feature that's a part of AoC is a complete joke however. It was firstly the most bugged crafting system in an mmo, and then when most of it worked it became the most boring, then the most overpowered with gem stacking and after that it became the most useless when they nerfed all the gems.

It is only now that crafting is becoming a useful part of the game with the addition of new recipes and systems, up until this point it was anything but engrossing .. laughable is closer. Also we are still awaiting the addition of gem balancing due to come in january to bring crafting to the level it should be at.

I voted none of the above because to me if you are voting for best new game it means that the game has had success. I don't think any new game has had that much success if any to warrant any reward given.

Age of Conan because it's most unique. WAR was fun for a bit, but I don't see it offering much innovation.

I can't wait for Darkfall to come out! 

Everyone already knows that this years crop of MMO's didn't pan out the greatest at launch..

Wouldn't a "Which of these new MMO's has the greatest potential" (with the same options) been a better poll this year?

• None of the above.

Those games are all bad.  I played War, what a joke.  All hype, no meat.  It's like a loaf of Wonder bread...it looks good, you buy it, you open it up and find that a piece of paper has more substance to it than the whole loaf.

I vote for Chronicles of Spellborn as the Best Of for this year.  The game is live and playable, so it really shouldn't be in the "most anticipated 2009" listing.

As a vet since UO, EQ1 until now,

i'd say Atlantica Online teaches a lesson to all the devs that have been copy/paste the same mmo recipe for the last few years.

For those who haven't tried it, check it out .

Incredibly, the more innovative, fun, complex, content-full mmorpg of the last 3 years is .... free.

I'm impressed that mmorpg.com included Atlantica Online in the poll, you guys haven't lost touch to whats really happening in the genre.

Just like you started to keep us updated with Darkfall, Mortal online & Earthrise. Great job.

Originally posted by streea

The sad thing is, "None of the above" will probably win, regardless of the fact that the majority of people who will vote that way did not A) play all of the games listed or B) play these games outside of the beta. There's too much whining on the site about MMOs not being creative, yet all of the titles introduce creative aspects to their game, or that it it had problems at launch, regardless of the fact that things have been added and things have been changed. It's like people get stuck in this "once burned, twice as angry" mentality where they're unable to accept that things sometimes do change for the better.

Dittos; people should imo disqualify themselves unless they have played all the games objectively.

The only one I've played on the list is AoC, and I didn't play long enough to judge, quitting mostly for reasons not related to AoC. I will slam them big time for improperly listing the RP server (Cimmeria) as just a plain PvP server, as the population there was NOT RP and so immature as to make the Trade channel in WoW look respectable (For those who don't know, Trade is the closest thing to a channel that can be read by all players on a server in World of Warcraft - it can be read by all players in a capital city - so accumulates the biggest collection of off-topic garbage. and I do mean garbage.). So much for hoping the 'mature' rating would lead to a more mature-acting player base.

Originally posted by kaydinv

Originally posted by JK-Kanosi

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by JonMichael

Originally posted by kb4blu

I voted none of the above simply because they are all equally bad.

MMO's have gone to hell in a handbasket.

 

 

And you played them all, I assume?

 

 

 

I actually did and they all didn't deliver in my eyes.

Seeing the poor quality and scams (AoC) with this year new MMO launches then you can conclude it has been a very very bad year for MMO's.

So I think "None of the Above" is a very very valid option in this poll.

Cheers

 

I don't doubt that you played all of the MMO's released this year. It's not hard to believe that people buy and play every new release these days, unlike how it was before WoW came out. However, I seriously doubt you found nothing good in any of this years releases. Are you telling me you didn't like the graphics of AoC, Tortelage, the combat system, the voice overs; what about the public quests in WAR, or being able to que up for scenarios from anywhere and after the scenario putting you back where you were? Or what about being able to earn points to buy RvR gear at all levels of the game and it being relatively accessible to all people?

I find a person who didn't like even one of those things to be a rather pessimistic person. Keep in mind that the "none of the above" option was for people that didn't like not even one feature in any of this years releases. I voted for WAR, because I did like a few of their features, but I play WoTLK. This is because I didn't like any of the games overall this year. I follow and respect the rules though, so I didn't vote "none of the above," since I liked at least 1 feature in one of those games.

 

"I follow and respect the rules though..."

You sound like you're a 5th grader trying to stay out of "trouble." Don't take everything literally, or else you'll end up sounding like a little kid (as you do right now).

Edit: I voted for NOTA, because every one of those games sucked. Especially WAR, that waste of money.

Yes, because kids respect other people and rules.  Anyways, my age is in my profile; there's no need to hide it. I guess I'm a pretty old 5th grader then. At least my son and I are going to the same elementary school...

Voted for Warhammer - having bought and played both WH and PotBS this year.

AoC doesn't make best of the year simply because of it's launch.  It's probably got potential - but of the new releases it simply didn't make it out of the gate strongly enough and generated enough badness to promote a restructure right after launch.

PotBS is unfortunate because I'd love for another independent to get the same success as CCP and EVE have - but the dev team simply didn't know what game they wanted, nor had any idea how real players would play their game once it was released.  Again - lots of restructuring immediately after launch - they're on their 3rd lead dev by my count.

Hadn't heard anything about Atlantica Online - so it's a bit unfair to discount them I suppose, but lack of impact speaks something about the game too I suppose.

Finally, I discounted None of the Above out of hand - as there is a "best game of 2008" even if it's the best of a mediocre crop.  Having the option there simply allows people to vent their spleen and frankly means next to nothing in the category.

Of the lot I find Warhammer entertaining, pretty stable and the dev team has been cranking out fixes and content since launch without any crazy damage control or stop-gap scenarios (yet anyway).

** It amazes me constantly that people who supposedly have played many MMOs are constantly comparing newly released games to ones that have been out for years.  In an iterative field, the longer a game survives the better it gets.  I fail to see how anyone can seriously compare current-day WoW (for instance) to a brand new game in terms of scope or content or stability and think it's at all relevant.  Compare apples to apples at the very least.

Originally posted by Smokeysong

Dittos; people should imo disqualify themselves unless they have played all the games objectively.

Why? Do I have to get kicked in the groin to be able to say I don't like it? All these games were fantasy. Some of us don't like fantasy. That means we're not going to like it so why should we play it, hence voting NOTA.

Voted Atlantica Online , by far the most innovative game of this year, nothing really compers amongst the generic gender.

My vote is for "None of the Above".

I don't think unprecedented is a good word for Age of Conan's character development / customization.  I mean I guess if you mean just appearance thast one thing but when I think of development & customization I think skills etc etc.    As far as class / level systems go DDO blows Age of Conan out of water.  i'm not crapping on the game Age of Conan but its mechanics were only unique in their combination but singled out everything's been done before.

btw if you judge Age of Conan by 1 - 20 I'd say its the best...but since I look at the over all I'm voting Warhammer.

I am going to abstain from this vote as I feel that all of the MMOs above did have some redeeming features but overall should not receive a vote as "Best of 2008".