Apology accepted.

Actually the build up to the game was great and it was an amazing effort for a small studio. RIP another indie MMO.

The Balmorra and Tatooine bonus series were fun, just be ready to accept that you're not going to be leaving those planets as soon as you thought. Some of the rewards are moddable items which you would otherwise have to get from grinding flashpoints or a rare loot drop.

Nar Shadaa and Alderaan are at higher levels than you would typically be when you leave the planet so I recommend leaving, then if you feel you need the xp/loot/tokens later on, return.

Big damage numbers, multiple mob combat, combo system, gear forging and Korean text. Looks like grind to me!

The problem with a couple of these points are they require a lot of work for little payback.

Maybe some people spend an hour getting their char looking just right, but that's still just one hour out of the hundreds you'll play. Add to that that armor will change the look significantly, that one elf ear looks like another at a distance and that not everyone will spend an hour then it starts to not be worth it in terms time creating art assets, having highly customisable nose lengths etc.

Player housing is another time sink for devs. How often does the majority of players chill in their crib? Most worlds will be filled with housing anyway so why not just claim something there if this is for RP purposes. Housing should only be a feature if it is part of gameplay, e.g. AoC cities.

Cursor targetting in combat just doesn't work well enough unless the MMO is very FPS-like. Also witness the success of Planetside, Roma Victor & Earthrise to see what twitch MMOs can do. Maybe those games just suck anyway but I'd rather be pressing hotkeys with some reaction based skills, e.g. on Parry/Block/Evade skills.

Crafting I agree on. Very few games get this right.

Quests - a random generator will cause more boredom, not less. The WoW quest revamp has shown how quests can start to be fun again. That requires a hell of a lot of work by quest writers and scripters but that is the content that players consume. More meaningful quests that work towards the completion or destruction of some in game structure would be fun but need to be repeatable by the next player. The Public Quest system in WAR was a step in the right direction but did feel grindy and artificial with repetition.

Based on his preferences, I think the writer should play... Fallen Earth

Ryzom should have been high on that list. Not only do the overall level of final stats depend on the quality of the ingredients but each ingredient modifies particular stats. What it lacks is craftable components that are ingredients for items from other craft skills.

Most crafting systems, even some of those mentioned in this article use preset recipes. Sometimes they throw in a mini-game or add vanity items you can craft.

Roma Victor should get a posthumous mention.

FFXIV has a high degree of crafting skill dependencies, forcing either cooperation with players or extreme dedication.

You guys think she's hot? Two clues:

A) Very covered up, especially the hands.

B) Manly face.

If you check out the ER lore pages there's a little known article about how parts of human DNA were lost and they had to improvise when it came to the fairer sex. Short version: that chick has a codpiece round the front.

Er, this isn't an ad to date the imaginary woman - maybe look at the features and see if there's something you like: skill-based advancement system, player-driven economy, extensive, meaningful player-vs.-player combat, sandbox-style game mechanics.

Worth checking out the vids available because it is looking a bit shaky this close to launch. There is more polish and smoother looking gameplay in WoW, LOTRO etc. If you're one of the site regulars that bemoans lack of originality, meaningless PVP or the rise of themepark MMOs then you really should try it because ER is supposed to be the antidote to all of that.

That is a really weak looking box though.

Sounds pretty lame. No adult servers?

Why not play minecraft instead and spend a fraction of the sub money on hosting?

Great armour and weapon design on the 2nd one. Looking really detailed. Wonder what they're aiming at though - invisible monsters?

Wasn't that game switched off already?

Oh.

Man, Sony Station is looking really weak these days. Free Realms is the best thing on there. SWG will likely be pulled when SWTOR launches, PotBS is going F2P, Planetside should have gone a long time ago. That leaves 4 different versions of EQ plus a kids MMO. Kind of defeats the object of a game pass.

So all those AoC zone flythroughs and fatality clips gave people a really good idea of what playing that game was about?

The EVE massive fleet trailers accurately describe the day to day life of an average player?

LOTROs clips of bear and boar model animations showed the rich world of that version of Middle Earth? Ok, bad example.

I'm not suggesting people use their imagination, that would be a terrible thing for a gamer to have to do! Check the facts on forums.play-earthrise.com 

What these screens show is a new environment.

I don't understand what all the fuss is about a video. Take those screenshots above, imagine the character running from frame to frame. There's your video. Doesn't really tell us much more.

TBH though I don't know why Masthead doesn't spend a day putting some uninformative clips together.

We already know this is a sandbox game with a deep crafting system and unrestricted PVP. It has been likened to pre-NGE SWG and EVE online. That pretty much sells it for me, video or not.

This is just carebear nonsense copied from LOTRO.

The start of another interesting set of articles from The Survivor Guy.

It would be great to find a F2P game that has got some depth and is more than a clone (although a few P2P games are equally guilty of this). If the game is decent enough then I'm happy to support it through the item shop. Now where's that decent game?

I found Aika a bit rubbish. RoM was more fun.

Dragonica is the Maple Story clone right? MS is different and an entertaining time waster until the grind sets in.

There are also a couple of open source aka free MMOs. Would be great to see a Survivor series examining those too.

They should take note of the system in WAR and put tokens in a separate inventory, quest items too. There are so many different rep items I usually end up with 3 bags permanently full (including pots, food, resources, tools, quest items) - leaving 2 bags for collecting drops. These don't last long with all the junk loot.

To further complicate matters, vaults seem spread around and housing chests are of course even less accessible. Even the costume feature, while a great idea, leads to more inventory confusion because you can sell the item once equipped.

Anyway, the game is great fun but I too wish they'd overhaul their inventory system (especially with who knows what cool item shop goodies we might get).

Will be funny if this is actually a good game. Imagine you're completing an epic quest with friends that will change the game world while dinosaurs with lasers battle around you.

And then you remember this is The Mummy Online.

Nice conclusion to an entertaining and well-written series of articles. Where next for the survivor guy?

No doubt this is good news for Earthrise too as Masthead are licensing their engine to Interplay for the Fallout MMO.

Originally posted by nakuma

yet another asian grinder renamed and pumped out to the western masses. yay....<end sarcasm>

The sad thing is that this game is getting so much coverage compared to titles with at least some originality. Most likely due to better PR on the publishers part. What is happening here is that development funds are spent on publicity instead of creativity.

Expect a lot of noise about this game until just after launch when it will die out and the next clone starts being hyped.

For me the future is Earthrise and here's why.

Look at the most successful Sci-Fi MMOs of today Eve Online and look at its strengths: skill based, player-based economy, almost all items player-crafted, open pvp with the right ratio of safe zones, territorial conflict which affects the economy and trickles down through the whole game.

Earthrise is part of the way in replicating those features and we'll know if they've got the rest right at launch. It also solves a couple of weaknesses I feel in Eve: playing as a spaceship and a feeling of detachment in combat. Tipped as having a similar combat system to Tabula Rasa this should interest FPS fans but have the correct intensity for MMO players.

Anyway the game is out in Q2 and will live and die based on its player base so check it out!