What I liked:

Combat
Skill System
Missions (WONDERFUL!)
World detail
Atmosphere
Graphics

What I didn't like:
Quantity of content
No way to reset skill points
No point in alternate characters
Little to no social interaction
Poor chat and guild UI
Poor AH UI
Poor UI in general
Nvidia lining pockets so developers neglect ATI cards specifically on an engine (AOC's) that is already tried and tested. I shouldn't have to "fix" things at a driver level myself.

I know the game is dead from their pushing back the content updates, nomatter what happens otherwise - that's it. It's done, over, zip, zero, nada. I could deal with a low population niche game otherwise. But not one that you can EQ1 your way through in a week and do nothing but repeat missions you did three days ago. I played AoC for six months, and Anarchy Online for five years. I would've thought by now they learned a thing or to.

Originally posted by Keylogger

No way to reset skill points
No point in alternate characters

Just wanted to touch on this a little.

That is one of the sell points of the skill wheel.  You can/will eventually get all skills unlocked.  The system also allowed you to pick and choose combinations you wanted.

The caveat to that is, if you chose a path and really didn't like it, you had to keep using it to unlock new things to try.  You either kept going or made a new character.  A new character that would eventually unlock everything.

The same problem could be said of the issue with chosing your skills.  You are allowed to pick and choose what you like.  But, someone in the group has to pick certain skills for certain encounters.  So, that freedom to pick and swap is also not quite true freedom.

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Originally posted by paroxysm

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Originally posted by Keylogger No way to reset skill points No point in alternate characters

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Just wanted to touch on this a little.

That is one of the sell points of the skill wheel.  You can/will eventually get all skills unlocked.  The system also allowed you to pick and choose combinations you wanted.

The caveat to that is, if you chose a path and really didn't like it, you had to keep using it to unlock new things to try.  You either kept going or made a new character.  A new character that would eventually unlock everything.

 

The same problem could be said of the issue with chosing your skills.  You are allowed to pick and choose what you like.  But, someone in the group has to pick certain skills for certain encounters.  So, that freedom to pick and swap is also not quite true freedom.

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True, the skill wheel in theory did solve that issue - but given the way I play I would've maxed everything out regardless, letting me reset glaring mistakes on my primary (or only as the case may be) isn't going to change anything other than how much I enjoy playing what I am at that given moment.

Anarchy Online had a similar, though in my opinion better implemented skill system with a certain amount of resets. Leveling took alot longer, and character development more detailed - in the end the limitation on resets only served to hurt the system itself.

These huge skill trees that allow for freeform experimentation, stat allocation and play styles are a great idea. Until you gimp them purposefully in a misguided attempt to stagnate said experimentation.

I didn't stop for any specific reason. I actually like everything about the game itself. The setting, etc. I guess if I had to narrow it down, I'd say it just didn't have that "keeping" power for me.  I just sorta lost the desire to log in after a while and realized it wasn't worth continuing my sub for a game I wasn't playing.

It's not even a matter of "if they went F2P", because the subscription has absolutely nothing to do with it. If I'm willing to play the game, I'm willing to pay for it. No problem there.

I have nothing specific against the game, though.

Originally posted by paroxysm

2.  Combat was not good.

3.  PvP was horrible and boring very quickly.

4.  Crafting was quite possibly the worst I've ever seen.

6.  Character creation was not good enough for a game made to let you look how you wanted to look.

7.  Lack of depth in equipment.

 

1.  I liked the setting. 

2.  I liked the skill wheel even though I knew it was just a new look and would lose it's flair. 

3. I liked the missions.

The bad out weighed the good.  I knew the game would not keep my interest very long at all and was not worth the investment to me.

 

Can second these. Greatest atmosphere I ever seen in a MMO but bacically a very poor Themepark MMO.

I was a huge fan all through out development. But in the end it was just another MMO. I still think it has huge potential, but I burned out in beta. The setting was awesome, I wanted to learn all the story, but it was just another MMO.

I guess in the end I am just going to have to take a break from MMOs. I may yet come back to it, as I hate to see non-fantasy mmos not get attention.

Originally posted by Keylogger

 

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Originally posted by paroxysm

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Originally posted by Keylogger No way to reset skill points No point in alternate characters

---

Just wanted to touch on this a little.

 

That is one of the sell points of the skill wheel.  You can/will eventually get all skills unlocked.  The system also allowed you to pick and choose combinations you wanted.

The caveat to that is, if you chose a path and really didn't like it, you had to keep using it to unlock new things to try.  You either kept going or made a new character.  A new character that would eventually unlock everything.

 

The same problem could be said of the issue with chosing your skills.  You are allowed to pick and choose what you like.  But, someone in the group has to pick certain skills for certain encounters.  So, that freedom to pick and swap is also not quite true freedom.

---

 

True, the skill wheel in theory did solve that issue - but given the way I play I would've maxed everything out regardless, letting me reset glaring mistakes on my primary (or only as the case may be) isn't going to change anything other than how much I enjoy playing what I am at that given moment.

Anarchy Online had a similar, though in my opinion better implemented skill system with a certain amount of resets. Leveling took alot longer, and character development more detailed - in the end the limitation on resets only served to hurt the system itself.

These huge skill trees that allow for freeform experimentation, stat allocation and play styles are a great idea. Until you gimp them purposefully in a misguided attempt to stagnate said experimentation.

 

You hit on it a little.  It's why I said the skill wheel is just a new look.  It's not truly a new system.  You can unlock them all, but not use them all at once.  You are still limited in what you can have at any one time.  Sort of like using a reset.  You just aren't limited to a single tree/class/spec or a number of resets.

AO had a lot of good ideas and a lot of poor implementation that not many have really even tried to copy.  Even FUncom themselves in their other games.  Though, I did have a laugh when I saw TSW was adding rocket launchers.  What next? Mechs?  Worse move than shadowlands.  Mechs were horrible.

AO had stat issues because some of them didn't work correctly, some of them were not well understood by even FUncom staff(add all def/off), and some were never replaced/updated(parry & riposte).  Map nav was also a fiasco.  Throw in horribly thought out class templates based on outdated and never updated ideas, poor understanding by devs of game mechanics(what do you mean mobs don't have stats?), and perk imbalance(mongo rage for example) and you have a huge mess.

WoW also stagnated experimentation in spec trees.  Look at old skill trees and compare them to MoP ones.  Look at what they did to Death Knights trees when people first tried dual wield.  GC and company are hell bent on removing choice in order to make balance easier.  But, because how they go about it, how encounters are designed, and lack of anything other than tunnel vision, they are no closer to balance now than they were in vanilla.

Originally posted by quasar941

When you first try a new game, everything is new and exciting because you're still trying to figure everything out. After playing for a while, you finally start to "get it" and you settle into the process of enjoying the game.

 

Sometimes after playing for a while you discover that the game just isn't as much fun as you thought it was going to be. It took me 5 years to reach that point with WoW, four months with Vanguard, two to three weeks with AoC, a month with Rift, and two hours with TSW. I played through 3 beta weekends and one free play weekend and I still hadn't found the first thing about the game that made me want to run out and buy it. The last free weekend I didn't even bother because I knew I would be wasting my time on a game that I genuinely didn't like.

 

There's no single thing that sticks out as the feature that I liked the least, but there are a bunch of little ones. I didn't like the animations. I didn't like the combat. I didn't like the character customization options. I didn't like how difficult it was to move around without fighting your way through swarms of 3+ mobs. I hated the insanely wide aggro ranges. Some of the investigation quests were fun but none of them could hold a candle to the type of puzzle solving I am used to from single player RPGs. I didn't like the "class-less system", I would much rather play specialized characters than one that tries to be everything. I didn't like the ridiculously over-the-top, non-interactive voice overs, I found them highly annoying and completely immersion-breaking because the dialog was not natural or believable as something that ordinary people placed in an extraordinary situation would say. I didn't like the quest restrictions because they had me running over the same areas again and again fighting through the same packs of mobs that I had already killed a dozen times.

 

In general, I found it tedious, linear and not very interesting (or fun), which is really sad when you consider that I still play and enjoy FC's older game, Anarchy Online, which is 12 years old with 20 people left playing.

     Excellent post...Pretty much exactly how I felt when I played....Whats funny is I am still one of those 20 in AO lol (froob tho)

People who knew anything about MMO's knew about Funcom as a company.   A lot of people I think were hoping and willing to see if the company had changed.   You have an odd scenario here, a company that produces good games but then almost goes into self sabotage mode once the games are released.

I already mentioned why the game did not appeal to me before ,however i will chime in on something i notice in gaming.

What i notice is a LOT of people seem to use Characters models as an excuse when in reality EVERY single game uses pretty much the exact same quality models.The rest is just tattoos,decals ,hair color/styles really not a lot that is worth not playing a game over.

The other FACT is that other than JUST the face,your entire MODEL is covered in gear ,so why would something you can't even see be a problem?

It baffles to me look at ONLY one possible answer,they really are not interested in a new game and just stretching for any reason to not play.

Combat i find is a very good reason and to be honest i don't even remember combat,so i can't even comment on it,as i was not in the game long enough.

Just to rehash VERY quickly ,without a long post,i find Funcom is stuck creating games that feel like single player games.They NEED to get a grasp for what a MMO SHOUDL be about,and no that does not mean copy other games just becuase those other games have success.Success is imo never a simple theory,i find marketing and hype and misleading PR goes a LONG way above the actual quality of a game.

Originally posted by Wizardry

What i notice is a LOT of people seem to use Characters models as an excuse when in reality EVERY single game uses pretty much the exact same quality models.The rest is just tattoos,decals ,hair color/styles really not a lot that is worth not playing a game over.

The other FACT is that other than JUST the face,your entire MODEL is covered in gear ,so why would something you can't even see be a problem?

It baffles to me look at ONLY one possible answer,they really are not interested in a new game and just stretching for any reason to not play.

What? Covered in what gear?  There is no armor.  All stat gear is invisible at the moment other than your weapons.

The game is made to let you look how you want to look.  To wear the clothes you want because they have NO STATS.  The only time your character is "covered in gear" is in PvP.  Which, everyone wears a faction uniform to reduce rendering of all the different clothes.  It's supposed to be for performance in a big PvP environment.

Heads.  FUncom has never been good with heads. 

The models are pretty stiff too.  A lot of the clothes follow certain trends as well.  Hello skinny jeans...

The problem is, one of the game's sell points was looking how you want to look.  That means people will want to look "cool" "bad***" and unique.  The character creation has way too few options for a game made to be this way.  It should have been obvious to anyone with half a brain that people would want lots of choices.  It doesn't.

Originally posted by paroxysm

Heads.  FUncom has never been good with heads. 

The models are pretty stiff too.

Yeah, these are problems I have with any game that doesn't do them right.  They're not BIG problems, but character creation is your first real introduction to an MMO, and if you're not impressed by it, it could sour the experience.  In fact, one of the reasons I liked Aion and Perfect World at first, before realizing they were both pretty dull, was how fun it was to create a wide variety of characters.  Then there was APB, which went downhill a lot quicker after CC, but had much better models and heads than TSW.  A FREE TO PLAY at that.

I played bit in Beta.

When I imagine game with zombies and other undead things - then Valve's left 4 dead is best from that genre. The Secret world was nothing like that. - It was just pretty basic theme park MMORPG. Mobs were standing and spawning to their locations. Killing them was simple - agro too many and you are dead. Agro suitable count - and after awhile you win. There was no similar feeling like in L4D where you hear zombies coming from through door and walls. There was no piles of dead zombies after fight. Just pretty standard MMO stuff (bit better hidden thought). No fear - no feeling.

Second problem was that when I heard that people started to recruit certain builds to dungeons. It was all over again holy trinity and countless hours of waiting that healer or tank build. No thanks.

Third problem was character customization. Not enough options. Nothing cool to wear (like latex catstuit from Underworld).

Originally posted by Eir_S

Originally posted by paroxysm

Heads.  FUncom has never been good with heads. 

The models are pretty stiff too.

Yeah, these are problems I have with any game that doesn't do them right.  They're not BIG problems, but character creation is your first real introduction to an MMO, and if you're not impressed by it, it could sour the experience.  In fact, one of the reasons I liked Aion and Perfect World at first, before realizing they were both pretty dull, was how fun it was to create a wide variety of characters.  Then there was APB, which went downhill a lot quicker after CC, but had much better models and heads than TSW.  A FREE TO PLAY at that.

 

While i do agree TSW's CC is bland and lacking more options IMHO, and one of the things i too didn't like about the game (not the worst, not good either), APB's CC is one of the best i can think off for online games, probably only beaten by EVE's.

So i find that comparasion pretty bad since not only does it beat P2P games but also F2P and B2P ones.

I'm having a weird time with TSW at the moment. While I think the game is excellent, I just can't get myself to play it lately. I'll log in, do 1 or 2 quests, then log out again and not go back for a day or two, where I do the same thing again. I don't know why as I enjoy the game, have fun while playing, I just move on after doing a few things.

I'm thinking its a lack of goals at this point. I'm one 50pt ability away from completing my second 'class', so not really that interested in doing those. The population seems to have dropped right off so I couldn't get a group for the Egypt dungeons and haven't seen a single word spoken in Transylvania, so that's out of the picture. So at the moment it feels like a single player game due to the lack of other players around, so I do a couple of things then play another game for a while. It's not keeping me attached, but I can't put my finger on why.

I really wish there were more players around as the dungeons are the best I've played, teaming up with other people is always the major draw for me.