Its really simple to upgrade your computer cheaply.

  60$ buys you 4 gig of ram. You dont need more than 4 gig of ram...

  59$ buys you an athlon x2 5400

  99$  ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

RAM

  I am sure most of you fall under the, I neeed more RAM category. YOU do not need more than 4 gig of ddr2 800. This is cheap shit. Out of the entire year,, buy one less game. That one game you didnt buy just got you 4 gig of ram.

VIDEO CARD

SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB will do wonders. This costs 99$. Im sure a lot of you will be able ti replace your RAM and video card and then play any game on the market at a decent resolution with decent frames per sec. Buying this will cost you two games.

  So for the cost of not buying 3 games this year, you have a decent rig. OH noes three fucking games. I am sure some of you can simply add RAM and others simply a video card. I am sure some of you will have to buy RAM, a MOBO, a video card, and a CPU, which can be had for under the cost of a PS3. So dont buy that paper weight PS3 and upgrade your PC.

  If you dont know how to upgrade your PC, purchase the board game Operation and practice for a few hours, then grab your little brothers fit the triangle in the fucking triangle slot game and the square in the fucking square slot, then practice for a few hours. Now you can successfully upgrade your own computer. Oh, and dont forget to unplug the fucking thing, I dont want to be the cause of any electro-shock therapy...

---

Originally posted by Dana
F2P has been doing better than subscription MMOs since 2005. The economy has only been in the toilet for a year.

 

 

---

 
In 2005, gamers were still praising how great World of Warcraft which was released in 2004.
It's only recently F2P has gained ground.
There are a few factors that has lead to the raise of F2P:
Economy: I would argue this is the number one factor. With people losing their jobs nobody can afford to spend $15/month or over $1000 for a new computer and upgrades.

Disappointing Releases: Five years ago gamers were all hyped up on P2P games like Warhammer, Darkfall, Tabula Rasa. When these titles were released fans were disappointed they didn't get want was advertised.

Improved F2P: F2P has slowly gotten better with gameplay and graphics.
 

---

 Originally posted by t0nyd

 

Its really simple to upgrade your computer cheaply.

60$ buys you 4 gig of ram. You dont need more than 4 gig of ram...

59$ buys you an athlon x2 5400

99$ ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

---

I understand that there are some hardcore gamers who lives with their benefices, but spending $218 is not cheap for the average person - especially when you have to spent it between food and bills.

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

Originally posted by Ghostmind

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

Originally posted by Dana

F2P MMOs are all the rage, while subscription games appear to have fallen on tough times. Dana thinks he knows why and it has nothing to do with how people pay for them. It's all about accessibility in this week's edition of Dana Massey Asks "Why Not?"

Ask yourself this: What do World of Warcraft and virtually every F2P game have in common? And what do Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and others have in common?

Many people say Funcom and Mythic copied WoW, but if they did, they forgot to rip off the single most important thing. Blizzard even published that top secret design document on bottom of the box.

It was the system requirements.

This is what F2P games and WoW share the most. Forget design, forget art style. They can all be run by a wad of chewing gum and a rubber band.

Read it all here.

 

I can agree here for the most part. as I see it, though, going along with the "copied WoW" line of thinking, graphics is the "easiest" way that they latch onto to differentiate themselves from WoW. Sure, they could lower the polys (and make the game available to more folks) and substitute graphics as their keystone that they can harp on and PR blitz to death as to how they are different with other creative takes on other gameplay systems. But that creative path requires work...and thought. Again, much easier (and less time consuming) to put a nice sweet view on it and draw in the flies. After all, that gets you a box sale and maybe 1-2 months subscription before the flies figure out it's very sour/putrid under that thin layer of visual sweet.

I can mostly agree here...except for a couple things.

Sure, it might be easier to market pretty graphics, but it's also a much heavier load on the development team, both pre-launch and post-launch, because an advanced graphics engine is always something a developer has to wrestle with. More work goes into developing the graphics rather than developing content, because it isn't as simple as designing for something like WoW.

You simply can't have a strong art direction with advanced graphics in an MMO, because, as they say, you can't have your cake and eat it too. This has been said and proven many times over, with World of Warcraft, The Old Republic, Guild Wars, etc. Too much is needed with an advanced engine, and you have to choose between art and content. The downside to that is, in reality you don't really have a choice, because content has to come first.

 

In any case, this is an interesting topic namely because of the swarm of MMOs coming, and most of them can be logically expected to have high system requirements. People have been playing MMOs for years on their old computers, and those very same people are being asked to upgrade by the developers of these new games. Let's see how many actually do, instead of just sticking with that they have.

 

I agree that an advanced graphics engine isn't an "easy" thing to work with. I just think that it has a "manual" or guidebook from which to operate and is very much like the guided content being used in MMOs today. On the other side, coming up with well thought out new takes on other MMO game mechanics/systems and plausibly integrating them so that the crafter and adventurer, the soloer and the raider or the time abundant and the time restricted gamer all feel needed, rewarded...well, that just seems to be something devolpers don't care to think about, much less put into practice. Nah, just put a glossy shine on it, grab your quick cash and start work on the next eye candy making promises that it'll be "different".

2 game spoiled us when it to come setting up your machine

wow wich ran on anything out of the box

and the even worst one

guild wars it came with a in gmae program from the factory to automaticly adjust all setting for best game play

and add to that point that ncsoft got rid of fraps issue(lineage 2 anybody)by adding, in the game again

their own fraps system wich even today havent been beaten in term of quality

so when player say oh tweak this ,tweak that etc

most average joe left when you said tweak

hell even ventrilo in wow used to be popular

we dont bother anymore

if a group say need vent we just skip to player who use the wow chat system

that should give you a pretty good picture of how spoiled gamer have become

me the first

Originally posted by t0nyd

 

  Its really simple to upgrade your computer cheaply.

  60$ buys you 4 gig of ram. You dont need more than 4 gig of ram...

  59$ buys you an athlon x2 5400

  99$  ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

RAM

  I am sure most of you fall under the, I neeed more RAM category. YOU do not need more than 4 gig of ddr2 800. This is cheap shit. Out of the entire year,, buy one less game. That one game you didnt buy just got you 4 gig of ram.

VIDEO CARD

SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB will do wonders. This costs 99$. Im sure a lot of you will be able ti replace your RAM and video card and then play any game on the market at a decent resolution with decent frames per sec. Buying this will cost you two games.

  So for the cost of not buying 3 games this year, you have a decent rig. OH noes three fucking games. I am sure some of you can simply add RAM and others simply a video card. I am sure some of you will have to buy RAM, a MOBO, a video card, and a CPU, which can be had for under the cost of a PS3. So dont buy that paper weight PS3 and upgrade your PC.

  If you dont know how to upgrade your PC, purchase the board game Operation and practice for a few hours, then grab your little brothers fit the triangle in the fucking triangle slot game and the square in the fucking square slot, then practice for a few hours. Now you can successfully upgrade your own computer. Oh, and dont forget to unplug the fucking thing, I dont want to be the cause of any electro-shock therapy...

I think you missed the point. One on this forum your preaching to the quire, i am sure 90% of the people who read this forum already know these things and a lot more. Two the whole point of the topic is about good biz practices and how it relates to the consumer in general population and there average type of machine. The ones that are showing success are the ones who are going for the large numbers and not a target niche group. There targeting people who don't fall in the category of wanting to spend the cost of three games. They just want to download it and play it with no hastle, socialize and have a little adventure or get there rocks off killing a few people in game. Games that cater to these people are going to win the ones who don't are obviosuly failing.

Originally posted by wolffin

Originally posted by t0nyd

 

  Its really simple to upgrade your computer cheaply.

  60$ buys you 4 gig of ram. You dont need more than 4 gig of ram...

  59$ buys you an athlon x2 5400

  99$  ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

RAM

  I am sure most of you fall under the, I neeed more RAM category. YOU do not need more than 4 gig of ddr2 800. This is cheap shit. Out of the entire year,, buy one less game. That one game you didnt buy just got you 4 gig of ram.

VIDEO CARD

SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB will do wonders. This costs 99$. Im sure a lot of you will be able ti replace your RAM and video card and then play any game on the market at a decent resolution with decent frames per sec. Buying this will cost you two games.

  So for the cost of not buying 3 games this year, you have a decent rig. OH noes three fucking games. I am sure some of you can simply add RAM and others simply a video card. I am sure some of you will have to buy RAM, a MOBO, a video card, and a CPU, which can be had for under the cost of a PS3. So dont buy that paper weight PS3 and upgrade your PC.

  If you dont know how to upgrade your PC, purchase the board game Operation and practice for a few hours, then grab your little brothers fit the triangle in the fucking triangle slot game and the square in the fucking square slot, then practice for a few hours. Now you can successfully upgrade your own computer. Oh, and dont forget to unplug the fucking thing, I dont want to be the cause of any electro-shock therapy...

 

I think you missed the point. One on this forum your preaching to the quire, i am sure 90% of the people who read this forum already know these things and a lot more. Two the whole point of the topic is about good biz practices and how it relates to the consumer in general population and there average type of machine. The ones that are showing success are the ones who are going for the large numbers and not a target niche group. There targeting people who don't fall in the category of wanting to spend the cost of three games. They just want to download it and play it with no hastle, socialize and have a little adventure or get there rocks off killing a few people in game. Games that cater to these people are going to win the ones who don't are obviosuly failing.

yep your absolutly right

check free realm work on browser lol

automatic succes 3.5 million play this game

simple you can loose 15 min  easy no drama because you missed the 6.30 raid that last 4 hour minimum

and its so various it please to a big crowd

yes its a bit famly oriented

Originally posted by RZetlin

 

---

Originally posted by Dana
F2P has been doing better than subscription MMOs since 2005. The economy has only been in the toilet for a year.

 

 

---

 
In 2005, gamers were still praising how great World of Warcraft which was released in 2004.
It's only recently F2P has gained ground.
There are a few factors that has lead to the raise of F2P:
Economy: I would argue this is the number one factor. With people losing their jobs nobody can afford to spend $15/month or over $1000 for a new computer and upgrades.

Disappointing Releases: Five years ago gamers were all hyped up on P2P games like Warhammer, Darkfall, Tabula Rasa. When these titles were released fans were disappointed they didn't get want was advertised.

Improved F2P: F2P has slowly gotten better with gameplay and graphics.
 

---

 Originally posted by t0nyd

 

Its really simple to upgrade your computer cheaply.

60$ buys you 4 gig of ram. You dont need more than 4 gig of ram...

59$ buys you an athlon x2 5400

99$ ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

---

 

I understand that there are some hardcore gamers who lives with their benefices, but spending $218 is not cheap for the average person - especially when you have to spent it between food and bills.

 

The average adult could easly spend 200 USD. or save it up within three months. No one has that tight budgets in the real world.

Originally posted by TormDK

Originally posted by RZetlin

 

---

Originally posted by Dana
F2P has been doing better than subscription MMOs since 2005. The economy has only been in the toilet for a year.

 

 

---

 
In 2005, gamers were still praising how great World of Warcraft which was released in 2004.
It's only recently F2P has gained ground.
There are a few factors that has lead to the raise of F2P:
Economy: I would argue this is the number one factor. With people losing their jobs nobody can afford to spend $15/month or over $1000 for a new computer and upgrades.

Disappointing Releases: Five years ago gamers were all hyped up on P2P games like Warhammer, Darkfall, Tabula Rasa. When these titles were released fans were disappointed they didn't get want was advertised.

Improved F2P: F2P has slowly gotten better with gameplay and graphics.
 

---

 Originally posted by t0nyd

 

Its really simple to upgrade your computer cheaply.

60$ buys you 4 gig of ram. You dont need more than 4 gig of ram...

59$ buys you an athlon x2 5400

99$ ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

---

 

I understand that there are some hardcore gamers who lives with their benefices, but spending $218 is not cheap for the average person - especially when you have to spent it between food and bills.

 

 

The average adult could easly spend 200 USD. or save it up within three months. No one has that tight budgets in the real world.

men i wish i was you i bet you dont have kids right

This article discusses a good point, but there are many, many factors that make a succesful mmo.  WoW was accessible in another way, the gameplay.  And there are many other things that made WoW the most succesful MMO ever.  But I think it succeeded for one reason and one reason only: it's a damn good game.  The whole package was good.  It performed well, gameplay was easy to get into but still had challenges, the world was very coherent, it was fairly polished (compared to most MMO launches), etc.

Companies need to work on making good games, not trying to focus on one little thing that they think will win over customers.  The complete package must be made.  Unfortunately, to get a game on the same level as WoW would require a lot of resources, something many development teams don't have. 

Simplicity is also a good idea.  Your average gamer has no idea what a pixel shader is, let alone what 2.0 vs. 3.0 vs. whatever else is out there now (stopped caring about this stuff awhile ago).  They want simple settings that are easy to figure out. 

Then again, you CAN also target the niche markets and do very well.  Look at EVE, it continues to grow because it serves its niche very well. It's a good game though not quite as polished as WoW is, and thus, continues to be succesful and has only really started becoming very big recently because they've fixed a ton of things wrong with the game and made a big marketing push with Apocrypha. 

Originally posted by BwanaKuu

This article discusses a good point, but there are many, many factors that make a succesful mmo.  WoW was accessible in another way, the gameplay.  And there are many other things that made WoW the most succesful MMO ever.  But I think it succeeded for one reason and one reason only: it's a damn good game.  The whole package was good.  It performed well, gameplay was easy to get into but still had challenges, the world was very coherent, it was fairly polished (compared to most MMO launches), etc.

Companies need to work on making good games, not trying to focus on one little thing that they think will win over customers.  The complete package must be made.  Unfortunately, to get a game on the same level as WoW would require a lot of resources, something many development teams don't have. 

Simplicity is also a good idea.  Your average gamer has no idea what a pixel shader is, let alone what 2.0 vs. 3.0 vs. whatever else is out there now (stopped caring about this stuff awhile ago).  They want simple settings that are easy to figure out. 

 

Then again, you CAN also target the niche markets and do very well.  Look at EVE, it continues to grow because it serves its niche very well. It's a good game though not quite as polished as WoW is, and thus, continues to be succesful and has only really started becoming very big recently because they've fixed a ton of things wrong with the game and made a big marketing push with Apocrypha. 

yep and the only game that might be starting to scare blizzard right now is even for me a huge surprise

freerealm 3 million sub in 2 month not a lot of brand new game can brag about that even wow didnt have that many in 2 months so for soe its a huge succes

f2p was always hard to get american player to play

i think its probably the only f2p that can brag about having succes in america

Originally posted by t0nyd

 

  Its really simple to upgrade your computer cheaply.

  60$ buys you 4 gig of ram. You dont need more than 4 gig of ram...

  59$ buys you an athlon x2 5400

  99$  ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

RAM

  I am sure most of you fall under the, I neeed more RAM category. YOU do not need more than 4 gig of ddr2 800. This is cheap shit. Out of the entire year,, buy one less game. That one game you didnt buy just got you 4 gig of ram.

VIDEO CARD

SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB will do wonders. This costs 99$. Im sure a lot of you will be able ti replace your RAM and video card and then play any game on the market at a decent resolution with decent frames per sec. Buying this will cost you two games.

  So for the cost of not buying 3 games this year, you have a decent rig. OH noes three fucking games. I am sure some of you can simply add RAM and others simply a video card. I am sure some of you will have to buy RAM, a MOBO, a video card, and a CPU, which can be had for under the cost of a PS3. So dont buy that paper weight PS3 and upgrade your PC.

  If you dont know how to upgrade your PC, purchase the board game Operation and practice for a few hours, then grab your little brothers fit the triangle in the fucking triangle slot game and the square in the fucking square slot, then practice for a few hours. Now you can successfully upgrade your own computer. Oh, and dont forget to unplug the fucking thing, I dont want to be the cause of any electro-shock therapy...

Pretty sure none of those components will fit in my laptop.

No, laptop gaming is the wave of the future, step way from your desktop and set yourself free.

Originally posted by RZetlin

 

---

Originally posted by Dana
F2P has been doing better than subscription MMOs since 2005. The economy has only been in the toilet for a year.

 

 

---

 
In 2005, gamers were still praising how great World of Warcraft which was released in 2004.
It's only recently F2P has gained ground.
There are a few factors that has lead to the raise of F2P:
Economy: I would argue this is the number one factor. With people losing their jobs nobody can afford to spend $15/month or over $1000 for a new computer and upgrades.

Disappointing Releases: Five years ago gamers were all hyped up on P2P games like Warhammer, Darkfall, Tabula Rasa. When these titles were released fans were disappointed they didn't get want was advertised.

Improved F2P: F2P has slowly gotten better with gameplay and graphics.
 

---

 Originally posted by t0nyd

 

Its really simple to upgrade your computer cheaply.

60$ buys you 4 gig of ram. You dont need more than 4 gig of ram...

59$ buys you an athlon x2 5400

99$ ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

---

 

I understand that there are some hardcore gamers who lives with their benefices, but spending $218 is not cheap for the average person - especially when you have to spent it between food and bills.

 

 Hardcore gamer? Ahh the age old moronic reply of " you must live with your parents if you can afford 218$!!! ". If you can not afford to spend 218$ every 2 years to play PC games, then go buy a used super nintendo...

Originally posted by t0nyd

Originally posted by RZetlin

 

---

Originally posted by Dana
F2P has been doing better than subscription MMOs since 2005. The economy has only been in the toilet for a year.

 

 

---

 
In 2005, gamers were still praising how great World of Warcraft which was released in 2004.
It's only recently F2P has gained ground.
There are a few factors that has lead to the raise of F2P:
Economy: I would argue this is the number one factor. With people losing their jobs nobody can afford to spend $15/month or over $1000 for a new computer and upgrades.

Disappointing Releases: Five years ago gamers were all hyped up on P2P games like Warhammer, Darkfall, Tabula Rasa. When these titles were released fans were disappointed they didn't get want was advertised.

Improved F2P: F2P has slowly gotten better with gameplay and graphics.
 

---

 Originally posted by t0nyd

 

Its really simple to upgrade your computer cheaply.

60$ buys you 4 gig of ram. You dont need more than 4 gig of ram...

59$ buys you an athlon x2 5400

99$ ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

---

 

I understand that there are some hardcore gamers who lives with their benefices, but spending $218 is not cheap for the average person - especially when you have to spent it between food and bills.

 

   

 Hardcore gamer? Ahh the age old moronic reply of " you must live with your parents if you can afford 218$!!! ". If you can not afford to spend 218$ every 2 years to play PC games, then go buy a used super nintendo...

why would we do that wow is still nice,gw is nice too f2p is getting mature

so all of us with 2003 computer can still have fun in  pc gaming

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by t0nyd

 

  Its really simple to upgrade your computer cheaply.

  60$ buys you 4 gig of ram. You dont need more than 4 gig of ram...

  59$ buys you an athlon x2 5400

  99$  ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

RAM

  I am sure most of you fall under the, I neeed more RAM category. YOU do not need more than 4 gig of ddr2 800. This is cheap shit. Out of the entire year,, buy one less game. That one game you didnt buy just got you 4 gig of ram.

VIDEO CARD

SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB will do wonders. This costs 99$. Im sure a lot of you will be able ti replace your RAM and video card and then play any game on the market at a decent resolution with decent frames per sec. Buying this will cost you two games.

  So for the cost of not buying 3 games this year, you have a decent rig. OH noes three fucking games. I am sure some of you can simply add RAM and others simply a video card. I am sure some of you will have to buy RAM, a MOBO, a video card, and a CPU, which can be had for under the cost of a PS3. So dont buy that paper weight PS3 and upgrade your PC.

  If you dont know how to upgrade your PC, purchase the board game Operation and practice for a few hours, then grab your little brothers fit the triangle in the fucking triangle slot game and the square in the fucking square slot, then practice for a few hours. Now you can successfully upgrade your own computer. Oh, and dont forget to unplug the fucking thing, I dont want to be the cause of any electro-shock therapy...

 

Pretty sure none of those components will fit in my laptop.

No, laptop gaming is the wave of the future, step way from your desktop and set yourself free.

 

 

  In my opinion laptop gaming is a joke. Do what I do, sit on your couch and play on your 47 inch lcd at 1080p. I have a lap board that holds my keyboard and mouse and its so comfy sitting on the couch. Small fonts can be a problem tho. I easily do this on a 1000$ machine that I built almost a year ago.

 Also, your a bit wrong about the lap top...
 

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 800     47$     This laptop ram was cheaper than my RAM

  Obviously, I dont know the specs of your laptop. I dont know what RAM you have in it nor what its compatible with, but I suggest you find out and if you have 2 gig of ram replace it with 4...

I don't really think you can say system requirements are the reason some mmo's are successful and others aren't.  Aside from AoC and EQ2, no mmo has ever been considered graphically equivalent to single player PC or console titles of the same vintage.

System requirements are partially responsible for Blizzard's massive audience, but a huge marketing budget and timing/word of mouth play an equal if not greater part.

Frankly, PC games are still a technologist's hobby.  People that are uncomfortable swapping out a video card or a stick of ram should really stick to Bejeweled or the Wii.  The days of 'plug and play' PC gaming are a long way off, if they ever arrive.  The only thing that might change this are these horrible cloud computing services currently in development.

There is not so mush to say about this topic, only:

"/agree"

The computer I play on was absolute top-of-the-line in late 2006, early 2007. Since it was assembled, I've replaced 2 hard drives, 2 video cards, and memory. I had a lot more disposable income when I assembled it. I credit the power supply and motherboard for its longevity. If the motherboard, processor, or memory dies, it's more cost effective for me to buy a whole new rig. But until then, and since I have things like rent to deal with now, I have ZERO intention of buying any upgrades unless a part fails.

The 20" monitor I'm using currently is failing. It was purchased for $400 initially. Yesterday I ordered a 23" LCD for $160. If the "mid range" $150-200 video card I bought last year fails, I imagine I'll be buying a $40-70 one. Why?

Real life. Having to spend money on stuff other than hardware upgrades. And because the $40 video card today will run every MMORPG on medium settings and every first person shooter available on low settings. For online first person shooters, those in the know keep their graphics settings low for a competitive advantage. For MMO's... well, how much do you really pay attention to graphics?

I had my wife initially playing World of Warcraft on a 1.5-2 year old laptop with integrated graphics (She also played Sims 2 on this laptop).  Later on we purchased a 19" LCD and a $230 desktop that had 2GB of memory and a PCI express slot. I had a spare video card that I bought 3 years prior for $50 and installed in her desktop. She has played Sims 3 and WotLK on this computer since.

I have 2 stepchildren. One of them has a desktop with integrated graphics and plays Team Fortress 2 regularly and doesn't complain about it. The other used to have a P4-based Celeron laptop with integrated graphics and played Runescape and World of Warcraft with it.

All in all, there are 6 computers between us, 3 of which are laptops, and 4 of the 6 computers have integrated graphics. And if you think people don't use integrated graphics to play video games, you should probably do a little research.

I'd like to think my family is more typical of MMO gamers than some of the people posting in this forum (especially the ones who think spending $800-1500 on a desktop computer, and upgrading every 6 months to a year, is normal). I don't foresee any of us playing any MMO, F2P or P2P, if it doesn't run on our current hardware. And that's the bottom line.

First of all i would argue that F2P is NOT a succesful genre outside of Korea who i believe started it all.I am talking F2P with item amll not an actual f2p game.

Secondly i have mentioned this SEVERAL times,WOW has NOTHING to do with specs.If Blizzard was truly after a game that ran on everything,they would have went after the Playstation market,since at the time it was the biggest gaming platform on the planet and they chose not to.That right there is proof enough specs had NOTHING to do with their planning,oh unless they decided they did not need that extra cash or the largest market to draw from....ya right.

Truth of the matter is that Vivendi was hurting for cash,this is why to this day Blizzard is still using an ancient game engine,they are a cheap developer who is afraid of taking chances or advancing technology because of the cost involved.I am sure Blizzard has the cash flow now to move on or advance,but they will milk that ancient cost efficient tech for as long as the suckers are willing to pay for it.

Back to the F2P issue,it has NEVER been a factor or mentioned in the north american market until the recent spam of F2P junk hitting the market everywhere.Most of these games are VERY old tech that would have no chance to charge an up front cost,they are in fact older games that have failed once and are tryin a go at it again as a f2p model.The F2P model is being spammed on every site so much that it is being shoved down our throats.

I do not think for one minute that the people with cash and are  willing to P2P want anything to do with F2P.The mere fact that ANYONE can make players over and over is a PERFECT setup for RMT and troublew makers,because they have NOTHING to fear frlm losing a player,F2P will ALWAYS be a bad idea for gaming.

---

Originally posted by t0nydHardcore gamer? Ahh the age old moronic reply of " you must live with your parents if you can afford 218$!!! ". If you can not afford to spend 218$ every 2 years to play PC games, then go buy a used super nintendo...

---

That's nice. But I'm not living in the US; I'm in Hungary. I can't buy that motherboard/CPU/VGA for that price, it's closer to the reality with a 1,5-2 multiplier. Plus I don't have that money. (currently if something will die in my computer I can't replace it...)

dude, i loved every single thing u said, that's all i'll say

Originally posted by veritas_X

I don't really think you can say system requirements are the reason some mmo's are successful and others aren't.  Aside from AoC and EQ2, no mmo has ever been considered graphically equivalent to single player PC or console titles of the same vintage.

System requirements are partially responsible for Blizzard's massive audience, but a huge marketing budget and timing/word of mouth play an equal if not greater part.

Frankly, PC games are still a technologist's hobby.  People that are uncomfortable swapping out a video card or a stick of ram should really stick to Bejeweled or the Wii.  The days of 'plug and play' PC gaming are a long way off, if they ever arrive.  The only thing that might change this are these horrible cloud computing services currently in development.

let me be blunt ,if guild wars could do all they did 4 years ago and have it all plug and play 

i dont know why anybody couldnt do  it 4 years later 

are you saying game designer and computer maker are regressing (becoming retarded)

Haven't read the comments but have to say that even though I don't play WoW that I appreciated how easy it was to play on my computer. When I first started, I actually had a computer below specs but was still able to play reasonably. Graphics are actually not high on my list. I love WoW graphics. I just want a good game but too often in past year there has been cause for me to think (next computer is somewhere between a year and 6 months away) that I don't know if I will ever try the game if I find something else accessible and fun.

Originally posted by Wizardry

First of all i would argue that F2P is NOT a succesful genre outside of Korea who i believe started it all.I am talking F2P with item amll not an actual f2p game.

Secondly i have mentioned this SEVERAL times,WOW has NOTHING to do with specs.If Blizzard was truly after a game that ran on everything,they would have went after the Playstation market,since at the time it was the biggest gaming platform on the planet and they chose not to.That right there is proof enough specs had NOTHING to do with their planning,oh unless they decided they did not need that extra cash or the largest market to draw from....ya right.

Truth of the matter is that Vivendi was hurting for cash,this is why to this day Blizzard is still using an ancient game engine,they are a cheap developer who is afraid of taking chances or advancing technology because of the cost involved.I am sure Blizzard has the cash flow now to move on or advance,but they will milk that ancient cost efficient tech for as long as the suckers are willing to pay for it.

Back to the F2P issue,it has NEVER been a factor or mentioned in the north american market until the recent spam of F2P junk hitting the market everywhere.Most of these games are VERY old tech that would have no chance to charge an up front cost,they are in fact older games that have failed once and are tryin a go at it again as a f2p model.The F2P model is being spammed on every site so much that it is being shoved down our throats.

I do not think for one minute that the people with cash and are  willing to P2P want anything to do with F2P.The mere fact that ANYONE can make players over and over is a PERFECT setup for RMT and troublew makers,because they have NOTHING to fear frlm losing a player,F2P will ALWAYS be a bad idea for gaming.

lol p2p for average game maker is a dying way of doing business in pcmmo

solo would probably sell but mmo is just too competitive

everyone of  p2p dream of the money wow make now

but dont forget when wow went online it was a wreck

but lucky them wow saved them

but now another issue point and it the huge lost of money from activision 

and blizzard can just hope for better days 

nobody really knows what the futur mmo way of paying for it 

but one thing is sure ,player arent buying p2p as they used to and tends to go f2p route 

is it the futur? nobody know 

Interesting read. While I personally don't think that hardware specifics make or break it ones MMO experience since most die hard gamers such as myself invest in the next gen technology or as close as they can get it. They always have and always will. One can buy a really decent gaming rig for around $900 US ( and shopping around for parts subsequently less)

Here is something I found while surfing the web taken from the web site of Steam.  "Each month, Steam collects data about what kinds of computer hardware our customers are using. The survey is incredibly helpful for us as game developers in that it ensures that we're making good decisions about what kinds of technology investments to make. Making these survey results public also allows people to compare their own current hardware setup to that of the community as a whole". Link store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/  Their survey is very insightful as to what gaming rigs their average user has which is above average in system specs.

The whole free to play  vs pay to play really does boil down to the economy. While the average Joe on the street has felt  crunch ( since it was officially acknowledged)  for roughly  a year it has in fact been in a downward spiral since 2002. A bad economy doesn't happen over night for everyone but rather years. While new MMO's come and go  the reason really boils down to in my view is what their paying customer base will put up with for the buck.

Excellent article. As much as I despise wow, I will give it credit in many places, and graphics is one of them. I'm not a big fan of the childish style of the game, but the actual graphics engine is freaking PERFECT.

Originally posted by Khaunshar

I am sorry, but I think this one is making it too easy.

GTA: San Andreas had no low reqs. GTA 4 has pretty high specs.

 Sims 3 is quite hardware hungry, Spore is despite its looks not that happy with a low-end machine either. CoD4 sold like hot buns, yet wants quite a machine. Oblivion, The Witcher, Fallout 3...... there is a huuuuge number of gamers and interested people who do have good machines.

There is accessability, and there is laziness. The latter one is the problem. Age of Conan and especially Warhammer ran like crap because their engines are not well-coded. They are not well-made, and are not suited to the demands of an MMORPG. Look at Aion: It runs BETTER than WoW once about 20 people are on screen, and looks infinitely better. Look at Guild Wars, a game that can handle basically anything without dying.

WoW isnt even particularly well-coded. As soon as you got more than about 20 to 30 characters on screen, anything even remotely near the minimum reqs just dies. I had guildmates who met the recommended reqs, and couldnt enter Dalaran during Primetime, and we had to move their characters on our machines to Naxxramas.

The relatively lower system specs may well have helped WoW at its launch, but today, anything but empty zones full of solo quests requires much more power than can be justified with the bad graphics and tech.

What matters is using an engine, using tech that is suited to the demands of a MMORPG. You dont have to have it run on a calculator to be successful, there are millions of players out there whose rigs are not hamster-wheel-powered with wooden dial-up and a broken bathroom mirror as screen. What you need is to do what Guild Wars did, what Aion did, create a game engine that isnt a rip-off of a singleplayer shooter, but that works for 60 people on screen.

And that means scrap the 20 shaders, real-time physics and 30-layer-textures, leave those to the powerhouses that can make them manageable like a good Shooter. Hire the best of the best texture artists, use a decent netcode, polish the hell out of your code, and your game will both look excellent, and run well. Maybe it could be prettier, yeah. But crappy graphics with the excuse of accessability is not the way to go.

Today is not 5 years ago.

^this^

I do not think that the majority of MMO games are well optimized.  NCsoft in particular has shown me that you can "have it all" as long as the game has good optimization.

Having said that, I would love a good, new, isometric MMO.  That's actually the perspective I'm most comfortable with (I don't come from a FPS background), and I think the decision to go isometric has huge advantages:

1)  Developers can create worlds that have both a large size and a lot of detail if you go isometric...seamless too.

2)  Developers can concentrate more on the content development side of things.

3)  The game affords certain tactical advantages, and allows the player more control over the character.