Originally posted by downtoearth

Originally posted by shrapnel20

Originally posted by Faelsun

This is just another Asian mmo false alarm, you should be able to tell by the maeningless name that this will be typical asian south Korean dog food. I swear to god I think they have a Kung Fu instructor in the mountains of China naming all of these stupid Asian mmos.  Just another psudo pvp grindfest with bad controlls.

 

this game is being developed by swedes. you deserve a medal for idiocy. congrats!

 

actully i think talos is the same guy from mourning

talos is just a moderator. what would be the connection anyhow?

Depends on your perspective I suppose.  MO looks amazing, but with those graphics I think you will end up paying some major $ for upgrades to your system (the common folk anyone like myself).  Also, I hate FP view, so I would put DF ahead simply because of that.

Originally posted by Faelsun

This is just another Asian mmo false alarm, you should be able to tell by the maeningless name that this will be typical asian south Korean dog food. I swear to god I think they have a Kung Fu instructor in the mountains of China naming all of these stupid Asian mmos.  Just another psudo pvp grindfest with bad controlls.

This really doesn't deserve a reply, but I'm going to anyway.  Dude...do some damn research before you run your head pls...MO and DF have almost NOTHING in common with asian grindfest games.

But I hear you on the attitude for them...if I have to see ads for one more asian grindfest game...I may actually go insane for the second time...lol.

Originally posted by Stellos

Depends on your perspective I suppose.  MO looks amazing, but with those graphics I think you will end up paying some major $ for upgrades to your system (the common folk anyone like myself).  Also, I hate FP view, so I would put DF ahead simply because of that.

Unreal 3 engine is VERY scalable.  I have a pretty decent gaming computer, not the best.. but it's exceptional.  I can run AOC max settings at 20-30 fps.  But, when I load up Unreal 3 and play it, I max out most of the time on 60fps (LCD monitor)  I do have 8gigs of RAM though.  I have a dual core OC'd at 3.2ghz, a 9800 gtx OC'd... so it's a good rig, but by no means a monster.

This game isn't going to be focused on large scale battles... obviously they will do some testing in order to get coding up to par.  For example.. in Ultima Online, before factions released, you'd rarely get into a 5v5 fight, with exception for the hour in which the server reset and saved everything for the day.  Even with todays market, this is really a game for the loner.  You don't need to be in the largest guild, there aren't huge raids for epic gear.  You can be as strong or as rich as anyone else, and you can do it alone (for the most part).

People are too concerned with lag and gameplay elements.. while these are important.. this gaming genre really focuses on player interaction and player created content.  You can do anything you want, anytime you want, anywhere you want.  It's going to matter more on how much time you put into the game.  I wish everyone could experience Ultima Online back before Trammel was introduced.  It was a harsh world.  The game was difficult, character advancement took a lot of time.  About the FP view, it worked in Oblivion.. so give it a shot.  And who knows, they may enable 3rd person before release. 

Originally posted by SignusM

 This game is more suspicious than Darkfall ever was. They claim to be releasing in a few months, but all they have is one piece of concept art, one pre rendered video, and they're already selling merchandise. Sounds Funcomish to me. But hey, the more games like Darkfall the better. 

 

But better? Other than graphics (which no one has actually seen yet, no way they are the video quality, you can't have twitch PvP with graphics better than Crysis) I wouldn't say better. 

sounds like darkfall about 6 years ago... heck, sounds like darkfall at the start of this year.

Originally posted by damian7

Originally posted by SignusM

 This game is more suspicious than Darkfall ever was. They claim to be releasing in a few months, but all they have is one piece of concept art, one pre rendered video, and they're already selling merchandise. Sounds Funcomish to me. But hey, the more games like Darkfall the better. 

 

But better? Other than graphics (which no one has actually seen yet, no way they are the video quality, you can't have twitch PvP with graphics better than Crysis) I wouldn't say better. 

 

sounds like darkfall about 6 years ago... heck, sounds like darkfall at the start of this year.

I'd have to disagree. Henrik is out there going to game conventions and talking about his product in a non defensive manner. I'd agree that they are alike in that Star Vault until now has made a decision to not saturate game sites with everything MO. There is, however, more information for the game out there than what SignusM's post would have you believe. You just have to actually get up and go look for it. For instance, since they officially announced the project in April 2008 they have given out information about the game on a monthly basis. Just check out the Latest News section on the official site.

The video being ingame sounds like bollocks to me.

Originally posted by Jo_16_2

The video being ingame sounds like bollocks to me.

I won't sit here and try to say that all of the video is, but elements certainly look to be. Especially the first part where the character is riding out of the gate and the guards are there. AoC (though I hate to bring it up because of the stigma with that title) currently has that level of graphics or better. And I'm speaking from first hand from playing AoC.

No, I won't say the whole video is, but large parts of it are. And the whole video looked good to me. *shrug*

Sure, but with graphics like that if you want to make a 500 vs 500 battle it should end up well to both sides.

Originally posted by Jo_16_2

Sure, but with graphics like that if you want to make a 500 vs 500 battle it should end up well to both sides.

Yeah, but 500 vs 500 battles is not and has never been something Star Vault has promised with Mortal Online. They have cited a "getting back to their roots" type approach in that they are influenced by Ultima Online (which did not have massive battle either) as opposed to the massive battle promise of AoC.

Battles in UO were most times I'd say 10 vs 10 or less. There were a couple of exception of more people, of course. I know the Shadowclan Orcs numbered many and I imagine they went out in force a few times. But no, 500 vs 500, or Massive Battles (tm-Funcom) aren't what they are shooting for so they should be good with those graphics.

On the contrary, the difference in development times would suggest that MO will be a simplified version of Darkfall.

---

Originally posted by Khalathwyr
But no, 500 vs 500, or Massive Battles (tm-Funcom) aren't what they are shooting for so they should be good with those graphics.

---

And where devs stated there won't be massive battles ?

---

Originally posted by javac
On the contrary, the difference in development times would suggest that MO will be a simplified version of Darkfall.

---

Why you assume MO is going to be simplified DFo, and not UO2 ? MO may be only a codename, and SV a cover.
How's that ?

Originally posted by joshe

 

---

Originally posted by Khalathwyr
But no, 500 vs 500, or Massive Battles (tm-Funcom) aren't what they are shooting for so they should be good with those graphics.

---

 

And where devs stated there won't be massive battles ?

 

---

Originally posted by javac
On the contrary, the difference in development times would suggest that MO will be a simplified version of Darkfall.

---

 

Why you assume MO is going to be simplified DFo, and not UO2 ? MO may be only a codename, and SV a cover.
How's that ?

And where have they stated that massive battles is their goal?
 

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

And where have they stated that massive battles is their goal?

As far as I have seen, Mortal is not at all about massive battles, it is aiming to be a RPG game. DF on the other hand seems to be aiming more to be closer to an FPS game with massive battles, all based on what the devs have been writing about the games. That is why Mortal seems to be the more intresting game of the 2 to me.

Time will tell. And a long time developing a game doesn't mean it will be good either, otherwise Duke nuk'em forever would be the best upcoming game ever.... Diablo & Baldurs gate didn't take that long time to make. Also the development time depends on how big team you have and if you make a completly new engine or use an existing one.

Just because both DF and MO aim for a sandbox kind of game and are influenced of UO doesn't mean they will be particulary close to eachother in gameplay.

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

And where have they stated that massive battles is their goal?

 

As far as I have seen, Mortal is not at all about massive battles, it is aiming to be a RPG game. DF on the other hand seems to be aiming more to be closer to an FPS game with massive battles, all based on what the devs have been writing about the games. That is why Mortal seems to be the more intresting game of the 2 to me.

Time will tell. And a long time developing a game doesn't mean it will be good either, otherwise Duke nuk'em forever would be the best upcoming game ever.... Diablo & Baldurs gate didn't take that long time to make. Also the development time depends on how big team you have and if you make a completly new engine or use an existing one.

Just because both DF and MO aim for a sandbox kind of game and are influenced of UO doesn't mean they will be particulary close to eachother in gameplay.

Yeah, I've gotten as much from what I have read so far of the game. My statement was more a rhetorical question in response to Joshe's question directed at me. Looking at the interviews and the comments on the MO official forums it's pretty clear they aren't aiming for 100 vs 100, 200 vs 200 or 500 vs 500 player battles. Now that doesn't mean some players won't try to do that. I just don't believe it is a goal of the developers. I get that if they could get 40 or 60 players on a screen battling they'd be happy with it. And so would I. Would it be a cool experience to be in a battle of 100 vs 100? In my opinion sure. But I don't see MO being designed with that happening on a daily basis and I personally wouldn't participate in something like that on a daily basis.
 

Originally posted by DeaconX

From the little we know due to the FAQ, an 'in game' video and a screenshot, I can't help but feel this game is like a 'professional' version of Darkfall.

I'm not knocking Darkfall per-se, that game is trying to do some VERY ambitious things and I hope all goes well for it, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that Mortal Online will have tremendously more polish and gloriously beautiful scenery.

I will definitely keep an eye out for this game.

Not that many similarities.

DF will have a huge non instanced game world without any zones, MO will have a small and partly instanced world with zones. DF gear have less importance player skill high importance, MO gear have more importance player skill less importance. DF is a pure skill system, MO is a mix class and skill system. DF have WYSIWYG loot system MO will likely not have.

Some of the USP I find most interesting in DF and not seen MO.

Seems that MO developers more eager to earn money on a concept rather than a released game like DF. Selling t-shirt with a few screenshots and video precent more or less a 2d view... wtf?

Originally posted by Sandyar

Originally posted by DeaconX

From the little we know due to the FAQ, an 'in game' video and a screenshot, I can't help but feel this game is like a 'professional' version of Darkfall.

I'm not knocking Darkfall per-se, that game is trying to do some VERY ambitious things and I hope all goes well for it, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that Mortal Online will have tremendously more polish and gloriously beautiful scenery.

I will definitely keep an eye out for this game.

Not that many similarities.

DF will have a huge non instanced game world without any zones, MO will have a small and partly instanced world with zones. DF gear have less importance player skill high importance, MO gear have more importance player skill less importance. DF is a pure skill system, MO is a mix class and skill system. DF have WYSIWYG loot system MO will likely not have.

Some of the USP I find most interesting in DF and not seen MO.

Seems that MO developers more eager to earn money on a concept rather than a released game like DF. Selling t-shirt with a few screenshots and video precent more or less a 2d view... wtf?

I pretty sure everything you stated about MO was very wrong. Now I could have missed something could you direct me where it said instancing and gear over skill and such? I can't seem to find any of that, though I will edit this should I stumble accross it.

Edit 1:

Overview info contradicting your statements:

www.mortalonline.com/overview

"Mortal Online is a next generation PC MMORPG both in terms of graphics and gameplay. There are no PvP zones, only an open realistic world where you are free to choose your own path. Experience true real-time combat where you decide every move your character makes and where your personal skill really matters."

Edit 2:

Class system: Does exist but it seems to be completely optional and only restricts you due to the skill cap and conforming to the rules of the guild it belongs to. At anytime you can pretty much just say screw this and stop being a blacksmith in the blacksmith guild, you can still act as a blacksmith just not recieve the guild bonus. It is a lot like the Prestige classes that got cut from DF's release.

www.mortalonline.com/attributesskills

"Classes and Class-Restrictions
Classes in Mortal Online will work rather different than in most other MMORPG’s. You don’t begin the game as a specific Class, although you may choose from different presets to get some help along the way to become one. Classes are managed by special Guilds in the game (meaning “traditional” labor- or profession-guilds like merchant-guilds, blacksmith-guilds, thief-guilds and so on) where you have to apply and get accepted to get the specific Class-title. (You may choose whether to show the title publically or not).

Classes will have prerequisites in the form of skills, attributes or sometimes even things like reputation, social status or wealth. In essence, you will have to give up certain attributes and/or skills in favor for others, meaning your choice of skills will be restricted. In turn, you will benefit from certain Class-bonuses as long as you stay true to your Class by meeting the prerequisites. Whether it’s worth to make that sacrifice or not is of course up to you."

Originally posted by Writh

Originally posted by Sandyar

Originally posted by DeaconX

From the little we know due to the FAQ, an 'in game' video and a screenshot, I can't help but feel this game is like a 'professional' version of Darkfall.

I'm not knocking Darkfall per-se, that game is trying to do some VERY ambitious things and I hope all goes well for it, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that Mortal Online will have tremendously more polish and gloriously beautiful scenery.

I will definitely keep an eye out for this game.

Not that many similarities.

DF will have a huge non instanced game world without any zones, MO will have a small and partly instanced world with zones. DF gear have less importance player skill high importance, MO gear have more importance player skill less importance. DF is a pure skill system, MO is a mix class and skill system. DF have WYSIWYG loot system MO will likely not have.

Some of the USP I find most interesting in DF and not seen MO.

Seems that MO developers more eager to earn money on a concept rather than a released game like DF. Selling t-shirt with a few screenshots and video precent more or less a 2d view... wtf?

 

I pretty sure everything you stated about MO was very wrong. Now I could have missed something could you direct me where it said instancing and gear over skill and such? I can't seem to find any of that, though I will edit this should I stumble accross it.

www.mortalonline.com/forums/776-20080415-answers-your-questions.html

I personally feel that instancing is totally ok when it can be motivated in the game. To give you an example, Arena Fatalis, the large gladiator court in the capital city of Tindrem, will most likely be an instance. More examples in source.

www.mortalonline.com/faq

Q: What is the PvP like in Mortal Online?
A: Our game differs from most other MMORPG’s in the way that it is based on PvP and player interaction – the PvP is not a feature added on top of “the real game”. This means that Mortal Online is played on PvP servers only. Your chances of success in the real-time combat are based on your skills as a player, however character skills and equipment is of course an important factor to victory as well.

www.mortalonline.com/forums/3653-study-mo-world-size-density.html Everywhere they mention 4k simultaneously.

Most my statements are based on guess from what they write and what they not writing and the state of game and planned release.

Originally posted by DeaconX

From the little we know due to the FAQ, an 'in game' video and a screenshot, I can't help but feel this game is like a 'professional' version of Darkfall.

I'm not knocking Darkfall per-se, that game is trying to do some VERY ambitious things and I hope all goes well for it, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that Mortal Online will have tremendously more polish and gloriously beautiful scenery.

I will definitely keep an eye out for this game.

Agreed, completely. Adventurine has little to no care for PR, and it really rubs me the wrong way how they expect future customers to accept that. Star Vault is definately handling their entire operation in a much more professional manner, following industry standards even.

Originally posted by Crusader13

Originally posted by DeaconX

From the little we know due to the FAQ, an 'in game' video and a screenshot, I can't help but feel this game is like a 'professional' version of Darkfall.

I'm not knocking Darkfall per-se, that game is trying to do some VERY ambitious things and I hope all goes well for it, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that Mortal Online will have tremendously more polish and gloriously beautiful scenery.

I will definitely keep an eye out for this game.

 

Agreed, completely. Adventurine has little to no care for PR, and it really rubs me the wrong way how they expect future customers to accept that. Star Vault is definately handling their entire operation in a much more professional manner, following industry standards even.

I agree with this 100%. I mean, look, noone (at least me for sure) is not asking that they speak to me, a potential customer, in warm and caring tones. Not at all. Speak to me in the manner that you would expect from a co-worker in the private sector or in general in a non-sarcastic way? Absolutely! And it doesn't matter how much bashing they or he (Tasos) has taken on forums or elsewhere. He's supposed to be a professional. Professionals let such things roll off their backs like a duck does with water.
 

Now, some folks don't mind being talked to like they are idiots or a lesser being just because they ask legitimate, tough questions. Even in the context of a situation where they are expected to hand over money to the offending individual. I mean, look at SOE customers who have had a game changed drastically (and completely out of the spirit of the common clause that "Gameplay may change"), have recently had RMT functions (even if they are of the most innoculuos levels) introduced in EQ and EQ II after they were explicitly told it would never happen and yet they still give SOE money. Personally, I can't (won't) benefit someone who speaks to or in my general direction in such a way. *shrug*

Star Vault is involved with its community and most likely at this point, 8 months after officially introducing their title, has interacted with said community and release more information about there game than Adventurine did in its initial 8 months of being public. Check out the compliation of dev quotes as composed by the Harelquins DF guild. If this is a truly encompassing list, and I have no reason to doubt the creators didn't orchestrate an exhaustive list, it is quite surprising to me that this is a sum total of their forum interaction in their official forums. The MO devs are certainly present on their forums interacting with its members (comparatively and proportionally speaking with regard to the length of time each forum has been up) and in an IRC channel as well.

Essentially, if I went to shoe store A looking for X shoes, asked a salesperson if they had them and got the reply "Do you see them on our shelves? No? Then what do you think." I'd be much less inclined to purchase a different pair or even come back as I would if I got the response "Shoe X? Sorry, we don't have them in stock currently. Shoe Y is a good substitute, though. Let me show you them." Adventurine so far has clearly shown they prefer to be the first salesperson with their continuation of putting Tasos out there as their salesperson. In fairness, it's their right to and it's my right as an educated consumer who has experienced this once with SOE to recognize the behavior and not spend my money there.

To each their own.

Edit: Oh, and Crusader13: Tau Va!

Originally posted by Sandyar

Not that many similarities.

DF will have a huge non instanced game world without any zones, MO will have a small and partly instanced world with zones. DF gear have less importance player skill high importance, MO gear have more importance player skill less importance. DF is a pure skill system, MO is a mix class and skill system. DF have WYSIWYG loot system MO will likely not have.

Some of the USP I find most interesting in DF and not seen MO.

Seems that MO developers more eager to earn money on a concept rather than a released game like DF. Selling t-shirt with a few screenshots and video precent more or less a 2d view... wtf?

You are so completely and utterly clueless that it's simply scary. Absolutely everything you said about MO is untrue. Go do some research before you make another stupid post like that.

I'm happy to see there are people here who correct idiotic posts like yours. A big thank you to all of them.

As for how many players they are planning to be able to display simultaneously on the screen, Henrik has given a ball park figure on IRC that they are hopeful can be achieved, but I guess we will just have to wait until beta to get a better idea.

To the people worried about not being able to run the game. Well, maybe it's time to upgrade your PC? Because if you have anything less then a fast dual core CPU, a dx10 GPU (8800GT and above) and 4gb of RAM, then you are behind the mid range gaming PC. If gaming is your hobby, then you gotta invest in it if you want to enjoy it to the fullest. Stop asking for developers to make games with outdated graphics simply because you are not willing to spend a few hundred bucks on your PC every couple of years.

Originally posted by L1ghtsabeR

Originally posted by Sandyar

Not that many similarities.

DF will have a huge non instanced game world without any zones, MO will have a small and partly instanced world with zones. DF gear have less importance player skill high importance, MO gear have more importance player skill less importance. DF is a pure skill system, MO is a mix class and skill system. DF have WYSIWYG loot system MO will likely not have.

Some of the USP I find most interesting in DF and not seen MO.

Seems that MO developers more eager to earn money on a concept rather than a released game like DF. Selling t-shirt with a few screenshots and video precent more or less a 2d view... wtf?

You are so completely and utterly clueless that it's simply scary. Absolutely everything you said about MO is untrue. Go do some research before you make another stupid post like that.

I'm happy to see there are people here who correct idiotic posts like yours. A big thank you to all of them.

 

As for how many players they are planning to be able to display simultaneously on the screen, Henrik has given a ball park figure on IRC that they are hopeful can be achieved, but I guess we will just have to wait until beta to get a better idea.

To the people worried about not being able to run the game. Well, maybe it's time to upgrade your PC? Because if you have anything less then a fast dual core CPU, a dx10 GPU (8800GT and above) and 4gb of RAM, then you are behind the mid range gaming PC. If gaming is your hobby, then you gotta invest in it if you want to enjoy it to the fullest. Stop asking for developers to make games with outdated graphics simply because you are not willing to spend a few hundred bucks on your PC every couple of years.

100% agree!!

Hope is ok I dont call others names or make fun of there posts lol..

New mmo's HAVE to try to cater to everyone. Or else you will have a very small player base. All you have to do is LOOK around. No matter how you like or dislike WOW .. ANYONE can play it. But what are we talking about.. PVP .. Darkfall and Mortal. Both will not be a hit. To talk like it will be makes us look like fools. We have to wait till a few months after launch. AoC,VG,War, blah blah.. everyone NEW they would be the next NEW WOW.. yet look what happen.

But again were talking PVP ONLY. Still people joining WOW.. why? Then look at ANY mmo that has PVP. There just is NOT millions of players dying to play PVP only! Its not like it use to be. Where players even though it was a game played by for the most part played by rules. Now its BANK everything and gank. And do this over and over and over. Make it so you CANT bank any type of armor.. then it starts to get FUN. But then most wont play. then its to hard.. pffft see.. Now people just want it easy. This is just how I see it and I can be 100% wrong :))

Originally posted by Zeblade

New mmo's HAVE to try to cater to everyone. Or else you will have a very small player base. All you have to do is LOOK around. No matter how you like or dislike WOW .. ANYONE can play it. But what are we talking about.. PVP .. Darkfall and Mortal. Both will not be a hit. To talk like it will be makes us look like fools. We have to wait till a few months after launch. AoC,VG,War, blah blah.. everyone NEW they would be the next NEW WOW.. yet look what happen.

But again were talking PVP ONLY. Still people joining WOW.. why? Then look at ANY mmo that has PVP. There just is NOT millions of players dying to play PVP only! Its not like it use to be. Where players even though it was a game played by for the most part played by rules. Now its BANK everything and gank. And do this over and over and over. Make it so you CANT bank any type of armor.. then it starts to get FUN. But then most wont play. then its to hard.. pffft see.. Now people just want it easy. This is just how I see it and I can be 100% wrong :))

 

I completely disagree with you.

New MMO's don't have to copy WoW to be successful, quite the contrary, they need to find a different playerbase, people who are not interested in WoW. It's difficult to compete with Blizzard, for any developer.

This is exactly what MO is doing, they are catering for a niche crowd of players who have been waiting for a sandbox game since UO. They have stated that they are not planning to get a huge number of subscirbers. Even 100k would be considered a success. If it gets more, then that's of course very good.

Where the hell did you come up with the statement that everyone thought AoC/VG/WAR would be WoW killers? Only idiots thought that. There won't be a WoW killer, ever. WoW will only seace to excist if Blizzard pulls the plug, and that won't happen any time soon.

What do you mean PvP only? Are you so completely clueless as to what sandbox really means? A sandbox PvP game doesn't mean that the only thing you can do is PvP. There are A LOT of other elements to the game (like crafting, exploring, economy, politics, socializing). Just because the game is set in an open PvP environment doesn't mean it that's the only thing you can do.

Look at any MMO that has PvP? Ok, let's look at Lineage 2. That has PvP, you can kill anyone almost anywhere. Has tons of subscribers and is definitely a success.

Your problem is that you keep comparing everything with WoW. WoW is a game that was designed to appeal to as many people as possible. It's easy to learn, easy to play, runs on very old computers ect. Of course it will get a lot of subs. There are so many casual gamers out there who are playing WoW.

But this doesn't mean there isn't room on the market for more complex and challenging games. And that's exactly the subscriber base that MO (and DF) are aiming for.

Just because other MMO's don't get millions of subs doesn't mean they are not successful. I'd say an average MMO that gets 100-200k subs should be considered a success. I mean, look at EVE for example. Definitely not a very standard MMO, has hundreds of thousands of subscirbers, is PvP oriented, 0.0 is completely FFA and policed by the players.

---

Originally posted by Zeblade
Hope is ok I dont call others names or make fun of there posts lol..
New mmo's HAVE to try to cater to everyone. Or else you will have a very small player base. All you have to do is LOOK around. No matter how you like or dislike WOW .. ANYONE can play it. But what are we talking about.. PVP .. Darkfall and Mortal. Both will not be a hit. To talk like it will be makes us look like fools. We have to wait till a few months after launch. AoC,VG,War, blah blah.. everyone NEW they would be the next NEW WOW.. yet look what happen.
But again were talking PVP ONLY. Still people joining WOW.. why? Then look at ANY mmo that has PVP. There just is NOT millions of players dying to play PVP only! Its not like it use to be. Where players even though it was a game played by for the most part played by rules. Now its BANK everything and gank. And do this over and over and over. Make it so you CANT bank any type of armor.. then it starts to get FUN. But then most wont play. then its to hard.. pffft see.. Now people just want it easy. This is just how I see it and I can be 100% wrong :))
 

---

Well, maybe not in 100%, but your quite wrong ;)

You don't talk about a hit, you talk about sales hit.
All games you have mentioned were sales hits, but at the beginning they were a big mistake.
I said it already couple times: MO is developed as a niche game. Not as game to compete with wow or other themepark quasi-mmorpg, like AoC or WAR was thought to be. MO's target is a fanbase of a fantasy ffa sandbox mechanics and lore. The same as it was for pre trammel UO.
You think mmorpg has to have 5mln subscribers ?
Not even 1/5 of this. It's enough to have solid 100k active subscribers, and such number will be easily acquired.
I don't invent, I base on the amount of gamers, which were attracted by fake ffa titles, and were pis# off, when those games lost almost every aspect those gamers were expecting to have.
And epic fails started to spring up like mushrooms after the rain.
Nothing more to add.

Next thing is the PVP you are talking about. MO isn't going with the devlopement path as themeparked games.
Those are based on pve mechanics, and then some end pvp content is being added and tweaked to fit the game's world.
This time it's different. Firstly pvp mechanics has to be proven that it's working excellent, and there won't be problems with creating different mechanics for pve purposes, cause everything will work almost percfect. It's not about turning pvp_on, allowing to gank everyone you wan't and laugh at him. MO is much more complicated when it goes about the whole ffa pvp aspects.
You will be able to kill everything on sight (everything, not only a hard coded opponents), but you will have to face consequences of your actions. The word "consequences" has huge impact on the whole game mechanics and playstyle. No more free ganking. Or meaningless pvp as in fps games: you die, respawn, yell "hooooraaaayyy" and rush again to kill something or die trying, without any real punishments/rewards for your actions.
Nvm, it's not the topic about game mechanics.

I agree with your last sentence: "Now people just want it easy."
If they want easy game, let them play EQ or its later clones like WoW.
If those more ambitious look for a challenging game, DFo, MO, fallen earth, earthrise and more upcoming sandbox titles will be worth of at least trying.

btw: read Khalathyr's signature, and maybe you'll find what is really going on.