This site could probably use a more severe regulation but overall, it's a great site. The articles are in most cases pretty good and the news are usually pretty fresh.

I tend to ignore most of the posts on the forums but some of them are pretty good. The blogs are a bit of a joke since no matter how popular your's is, the official content managers of the site will always have priority over yours. Which mean, yours might not even get a reading. It sounds silly but the weakest blogs and colums are often by the staff here.

Jon wood is great and in most cases, amazing. But I can't really say the same for some of the other columist. Some of them don't even have enough respect to let the dev finish his sentence and this usualy leads to miss information. Others keep talking about issues or situations that we're already in your face back in 2003 while others are skimming through crucial information. Overall, it's not bad but according to the background of the staff, these guys should be like mini John Carmack's, whispering the knowledge of the gods.

So yeah, they need to raise the professionalism on this site.

Originally posted by zaxxon23

Ultimately, no one mmo will have every single one of your desired features.

Actualy, old wow before it was made this easy, had all of desired features for me.And to alot more people.

 I agree OP, this site could of been the death of SWG as well, who knows?

I played MMOs for quite a long while (years), I only peripherally paid attention to forums or websites like mmorpg.com.

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Originally posted by grndzro 
So you would rather companies keep putting out crap just to make a quick buck and people ignorant to it because site's like MMORPG.com don't exist?
Mabye if enough games get trashed because of reviews developers will understand that they no longer can put out a rushed product and skate by to gross profitability.
I wan't  mediocre games to fail, and fail miserably. All this sifting through riff raff to find a diamond in the rough that dosen't exist is crazy. 

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True. I had formed my own opinions by the time I started visiting this site regularly (read: more than once a month). And my low opinion of the overall state of MMOs appears to be matched by the general tone of the posts here.

This place is useful to have especially when people can compare games against each other (as unfair or fair as that may be). Better than reading the same thing repeated again and again on scattered forums elsewhere.

These forums really need to be moderated better or just have the forums removed period. Almost every thread is a troll thread. This site is about promoting games not pushing customers away.

I enjoy MMORPG.com.

I never assume a review by a reader is unbiased.  They're almost always either selling or trashing the game of topic.

I laugh at, and sometimes feed the trolls.  They're usually just as biased as the reader reviews, and pull out some really bizarre arguments for selling or trashing the topic.

Some of the professionally written articles are quite good, IF you keep in mind that this web site is a business and revenue is king.  There's a bit of bias toward advertisers but since almost everyone does advertise here, it's no big deal.

But most of all I enjoy watching the "FUSS" caused by a game's release.  Some of it is obviously done by paid PR reps from other games, but the kiddies who try to emulate the PR reps are the most fun to watch.

"ZOMG Aion is the most incomplete game ever"    HAHAHAHA!

Come on, where else can you get entertainment like this ???? heheh.

Ken

No MMO's ruin MMO's for me. When an MMO releases that intrests me, you wont see me on these forums. For example last one I played was AoC. It launched I played it, never even thought about coming to the forums. 2 weeks pass then i start realizing wtf is going on here this game is turning to crap and fast, wonder what other people think, then I slowly start coming back here to see if others have the same issues. When I played FFXI I think I went to the forums like 10 times tops in 4 years. When FFXIV comes out Ill dissapear from these forums again, I already know theres going to be a ton of trolls and several fanboys. I couldnt care less what the trolls are saying. I am going to be playing the game, now if its garbage ill be back. It has nothing to do with mmorpg.com and everything to do with ffxiv.

I like to think most people here are disgruntled mmo fans anyways, and that lends itself to more negitive topics. If you have a game you like playing why the hell are you on these forums and not playing your game? If you have a serious game question these forums are not for that. If a forum can ruin a game for you, I sugest you never open a forum discussion on any game.

Nope.  I will try to try a game for myself before I decide, or find out as much as I can. If it's something I might not enjoy (Like a sandbox like Darkfall) I won't try as hard.

Originally posted by vladimirSRB

Originally posted by zaxxon23

Ultimately, no one mmo will have every single one of your desired features.

 

Actualy, old wow before it was made this easy, had all of desired features for me.And to alot more people.

Agreed, Vanilla rocked.  I left WoW and don't intend to go back... it's just not the same any longer.

Ken

Originally posted by ENTR0PY

These forums really need to be moderated better or just have the forums removed period. Almost every thread is a troll thread. This site is about promoting games not pushing customers away.

Remove the forums? This site's main feature is its forums - without which the site would die... and I I'm getting fed up with people calling foul 'go away troll' 'kill the troll' and 'oh look a troll' just becaue they decide to post their dislikes about a game - wake up to reality not everyone likes Aion or whatever it is you dont like to read negative comments posts or reviews about.

lol i cant see a bunch of school aged kids deciding my mmo choice. haters and spoiled brats they be arrrgggg!!lol

I would never come here to get advice on wether to play a game or not, but I would never go anywhere else either. I look at the features of a game and decide if it offers enough of what Iike  to justify purchasing.

I come to mmorpg to talk about the games and discuss the features in them. I would also be very sceptical about extreme reviews (either for or against) you have to question the motives of posters who (and I can honestly say I see it on a daily basis on one board or another) state they are only being to brutal because they want to save other gamers the trouble of buying the game and wasting money. What a crock of shit.

Truth is most companies are aware that this site will influence consumers so until we can clearly identify the marketeers from the gamers I would never base a playing decision on anything on the forums.

I guess all I was saying is that reaading everybody elses insane critiques of games makes me realize things in them when playing that I would have noticed before. Being an innocent game was so much more fun : )

Originally posted by Ozreth

I guess all I was saying is that reaading everybody elses insane critiques of games makes me realize things in them when playing that I would have noticed before. Being an innocent game was so much more fun : )

I know what you mean, but I think the trick is to become and egotistical, sycophantic, megalomaniacal, sociopath and things go alot more swimmingly.

What you have to remember about this site is that most of the people posting here are doing so because they are currently jaded by the released games and are looking for the next "shiney" thing to attract thier attention. Thats basically why there is alot of negitive posts on these forums. People hop onto the bandwagon of thier next "gem" and hype the crap out of it expecting it to be the game of the century, which most often than not it is'ent, then they return to bash the evil game that ruined all thier expectations and look for the next "shiney" thing to attract them. Cycle repeats.

Alot of the "old-school" attitude comes from the fact that many of us remember those games (EQ, UO, AC, M59, etc) with affection while we kinda skim over the fact that they too had bad points but at the time our options were VERY limited. Sure we invested a great deal of time on those old school favs, but for the most part there was'ent really anything else for us to play so we gloss over the flaws.

These days it seems a new game releases every quater and the market has exploded with new games. Really we have it good these days with all the choices and options but people seem to forget the early days of thier favorite games. We compare new releases with our favorite games forgetting that we are making a comparison between a fresh game with one that had 3 or more years worth of content updates.

Really we are asking games developers to do the impossible ... we are asking them to give us a brand new game with the content and features (polish) of a game thats had 3-5 years worth of time to get it right. I find thats the major issue with todays consumer. WoW has driven this attitude to the max, it cant be denied that WoW has the lion's share of the western P2P market and anyone who has played WoW and looks at a new game will automatically make thier judgement based on WoW. Really? Making comparisons between a 5 year old game and a brand new one is hardly "fair" when it comes to content / polish. (Graphics etc are generally much better in new games, but we all know that content is king when it comes to player retention)

Lets be honest, its my opinion that most of WoWs current player base never played the game at release or even the first year or two of the games lifespan. It seems that being a "Vanilla" WoW player is now a badge of honor. They really dont know the life cycle of an MMO and how they expand over time, they expect all the bells and whistles from day one.

The other major issue is the market demographic has changed. Gone are the days when people who played MMO's played for 4-6 hours a night and 10+ on the weekends. The majority of the market is "casual based" and just wants to log in for a few hours here and there and play. Games are designed this way too. The hardcore players will burn through a new games content in a couple of weeks and begin the screams of "no end game!!" Developers are just begining to accept this, they accept now that from a hardcore player they will be lucky to get 2 months subs. Casuals however are a money source for them .. casuals dont burn content that fast and will sub for months before reaching "end-game" giving the developers ample time to add a little more content for them.

Since MMORPG.COM is an unusal demographic, IE most of the posters here fall into that hardcore framework to some degree or another, you will tend to see more negitive posts here from them.

The bottom line is ... the casual players are more than happy usually and are too busy playing thier game and getting on with thier daily lives to bother posting on these boards. It comes down to "silence is approval" ... developers know how many people are playing thier games .. if 5% are screaming that content suxs, no end game, blar blar and the rest are playing without complaint .. well its a no brainer for them to accept the loss of the hardcore players.
 

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Originally posted by demarc01
 
Alot of the "old-school" attitude comes from the fact that many of us remember those games (EQ, UO, AC, M59, etc) with affection while we kinda skim over the fact that they too had bad points but at the time our options were VERY limited. Sure we invested a great deal of time on those old school favs, but for the most part there was'ent really anything else for us to play so we gloss over the flaws.

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I think the problem is that MMO's havent really gotten any better, I loved playin AC cos it was a good game.. ok Aion's graphics are much better but that improved graphics have big cost, no more open worlds just mind numbingly dull zones and instances.. OP its not the site thats made you jaded its just that MMO's just arent any better if not worse than 10 years ago...
 

When I was young, parks had those huge wooden structures where you could play on for hours. They would go really high up and wow, I'm suprise that none of us died on them. I remember those huge slides and such... now in Montreal, all those old structures were replaced by those tiny little plastic structures. They look nicer thanks to the colors and they still allow a certain amount of games to be played but overall, they are tiny tiny and very restrictive.  MMOs are pretty much the same now our days. Much nicer with much better graphics and sounds but the actual game, lacks.

So many games to play in there.

Versus this...

 So no, MMORPG didn't ruin MMOs for me. They ruined themselves without any help. MMORGP simply lifted the carpet and saved me a lot of money.

Mabinogi is a great game and when it came out in beta here, people started praising this little title. All I had to do is ignore the trolls a bit.

Nope, mmorpg.com didn't ruin mmo's for me -- some discussions have been quite inSIGHTful.  On the other hand, generally lax to poor moderation has ruined mmorpg.com for me.  Like mmos, mmorpg.com seemed better in older days but has devolved due to the aforementioned rabid fans/fanbois -- as a result I don't visit as frequently as I once did.  Argument generates page views though, and page views generate ad revenue...

edit...possible freudian slip (' ;

It's a culture thing. All that MMORPG needs to do is lift their sleeves and start banning people and create interesting conversation. MMORPG doesn't try to create a culture, they just sit around picking their nose. A good community needs a certain amount of care and sometimes a good backhand to redress it.

I understand that at first, people will get mad at locked thread and such but in the long run, it will be easier for everyone.

Originally posted by Ponico

It's a culture thing. All that MMORPG needs to do is lift their sleeves and start banning people and create interesting conversation. MMORPG doesn't try to create a culture, they just sit around picking their nose. A good community needs a certain amount of care and sometimes a good backhand to redress it.

I understand that at first, people will get mad at locked thread and such but in the long run, it will be easier for everyone.

Most definitely.

I like this site :)

Originally posted by SgtFrog

I like this site :)

 

It's not horrible, just frustrating at times due to the......unchecked passion shall I say? ( ' :

YES! Since I started leveling mmorpg.com , nothing else has been as fun.

MMORPG.com can save you money!

That's right, you can quote me on that, I said it!

Anyway, being informed isn't a bad thing. Being informed before you pay money or invest your time in something is always smart. Wouldn't it suck to see a new game on the shelf, seeing how cool the pictures on the box are, going home, installing, registering, and finally logging in, only to find lag, full bot community, spam, and no real content in the game? Wouldn't you have rather read all of that before you dropped $50 on that trash?

Learn to read what people are saying, not just what they're writing, but how they're writing and what their angles are.

MMORGP.com is a cool site and I visit it frequently. I'm much more informed about happenings in the MMO world than without it; it's a good source.

Originally posted by Ponico

It's a culture thing. All that MMORPG needs to do is lift their sleeves and start banning people and create interesting conversation. MMORPG doesn't try to create a culture, they just sit around picking their nose. A good community needs a certain amount of care and sometimes a good backhand to redress it.

I understand that at first, people will get mad at locked thread and such but in the long run, it will be easier for everyone.

My thoughts exactly.  I've been a member of this site for about 3-4 years.  Back then, there were very interesting topics to read.  I found this site at times to be more informative than alot of the official forums for MMO's. 

Within the past few years, the forums started changing.  There were less informative posts and more and more troll posts about how "this game sucks", "don't buy this game", "carebear", "no sandbox", "WoW clone"... and so on and so on. 

It's to the point now where I visit this site half as much as I used to, because most of the postings here are troll posts and the moderation of the forums is laughable.  People who retaliate against trolls get warnings and bans and alot of crap gets un-noticed by the moderators.

I agree with you that the moderators of mmorpg.com need to really take control of their site, so it can continue to provide a positive service to the community... unlike what it's doing now.  There's just too much trash to weed thru at the moment.