Jumpgate Evolution is on hold indefinitely.

 Jumpgate is still out there http://www.jossh.com/join_today/index.html however the game was bought out and they seem to not care about adding players.  I played the game alot and enjoyed it immensely.

  I would love to see another space sim with Neutonian physics.

"Faster leveling trivializes the content devs work so hard to bring us and leads to a bunch of disappointed max level folk who don’t have enough to do and who feel as though they got bait-and-switched"

 No truer words...

As to how it happened, well first the holy trinity was ground underfoot in the forums (Fighter, healing, Crowd Control) and a lot of posters wanted a change.  Then hybreds were invented, they did nothing great, but enough good to break up the trinity.

Then, pick up groups got ground underfoot, crucified, hit by a bus and ravaged by a pack of wolves in forums everywhere, so no one wanted to PUG, then everyone wanted soloable content and the ability to solo the game.

Soloing the game led to speeding up the game, because no one wanted to play the game alone and wanted that end game experience.

Faster leveling killed crafting and guilds, further reducung the community feel and the want to work together alltogether. 

Mounts or the ability to teleport anywhere...  In early MMO's, you had to travel in groups to survive or if you were lucky enough you knew a druid (gasp) who could get you anywhere from 1/2 to 2/3rds to your destination.

The last killer of games (the big one) was the internet itself, that ability to google, looking up maps, quest completion, hot items and short cuts,  the DAY, the freakin DAY the game is released. That or slap down $19 and buy the book (cheaper if you buy it on release day with the game), all your in game problems solved.

  To me, the day the music died was when I watched a Bard(hybred) solo an area that my group was trying to get items from for a quest.  The Bard could heal, CC, tank, insta travel and had the added bonus of the ability to keep your beer cold.  It was then that I knew that gaming would not ever be the same as there was no longer the need for a group.

Wanted: An MMO with crafting, exploration, individual abilities, housing, guilds, no cookie cutter avatars, guild towns and at least one knock down drag out guild disagreement over a window sconce in the guild buildings foyer.

Yes it is easy to get to max level now, but that is not the point.  For some it is the journey, not the destination.

  There is a major MMO (out longer than WoW), that took a chance and did what it's community wanted, started a server from scratch using the original game only.  The server rules also stated that the next expansion would open up when a majority of the server voted to progress the server.  It was so popular that they brought on a second server with the same rules the next day to handle the number of people that joined the new server.  For all the people that scream vanilla, this might be an idea to bring to the table at Bliz. 

1) No Elves

2) No Klingons

3) No Jedi's

4) No Cylons

5) Not  2 Vs 2 or 3 Vs 3

  Do something different, develop an MMO with new lore. Don't bow down to players and publishers and release a game that does not have a game guide on release day.  Keep all the testing inhouse or locked down, that was a release is a release, not a yawner, because everyone already knows about the game.

I personally would like to see space based, but really it does not matter, as long as there is a world(s) to explore, cities and nations to build.  The last thing is make the game about the journey, not the destination.

and that is why finding a fulfilling MMO will be hard to find.....

   " A vast majority of gamers want the "end game" " or so corporate america has been led to believe that.  Gone are the days when an indy developer makes a game in their garage and shock the world.  Gone are the days where it takes days / weeks to gain 1 level your character, most of today's gamers want that instant gratification or rush from fast leveling / PvP / and getting to the end game.  To me, the advent of 2nd generation  MMO's did a few things to the gaming community, things that can not be undone.  

1.  Made MMO's available to the casual gamer, taking the content and difficulty with it.

2.  Virtually sucked the life out of different types of game development, besides MMO's.

3.  The popularity with console games adds to the instant  gratification mantra.

4.  Through repeated trashing, jokes and villification, the pick up group is dead.

5.  And by extension, companies and websites posting game information to solve quests, suggest build and so on, the day the game is released.

  I too would like to see a game with depth, backstory, learning curve and where grouping is the norm, not the exception.  But that would take changing the paradigm of modern game development.

Factions limit gameplay...

    Give me a world where my actions, not my faction, dictate who I like/hate/ally/gank/grind or chill with.  Give me a system to where if I choose the most outlandish combination, and take the penalty to boot, it's allowable.  The laziness is in creating factions, not leaving them out.  Everquest and Elder Scrolls were great with this concept, you determined your fate, not the game or the faction.  Factions are a crutch, both for the Developer and the player, limiting both creativity and immersion. 

http://www.tera-online.com/content/cpe-numbers

Nicely done breakdown of the race and class choices in the CPE.

"easy mode, solo centric, anti social"

   What made the Original MMO's harder?  I really can not say they were harder, they just required a different  generation and computer timeline. 

    When I cut my teeth on computers cutting edge technology was the 75 baud acoustic coupler at the local Radio Shack and the computer accepted programming 2 ways, user input or cassette tape.  As such, not a lot of people used computers recreationally and those who did, and set up bulletin boards, were hard core as it demanded a lot of time.  That ethic translated to early gaming, not easily accessible, difficult to play, impossible to master.  Catering to that crowd was not easy and back in the day software pushed the limits of hardware, another thing separating games from the common community.  So games were not harder, they just tended to attract a certain type of person.  Because this generation cut their teeth on king of the hill, playground mentality, it's idea translated to early games.  Playing as a team was rewarded and even encouraged as player types were clear cut in their abilities and without certain classes, the chance of success exponentially decreased. (Warrior, Healer, Crowd control anyone?)

  WoW changed that, as a corporation they knew that by making the game and not maxing out processes to push hardware to a new level, they would get more people to play the game with existing hardware and that person, casual gamer, found a way to finish the game, attracted a lot more people to the gaming community.  WoW also catered to it's clients which were B-Net script kiddies, the game had to be easy on the pocket and easy on the atention span.  With that came a blurring of the class lines, more different types of characters could tank, heal or control crowds, making it easier to complete the game.

   In the end it comes down to what makes corporations the most money, the easier you make it to log in and kill moss snakes with out insulting anyone's intelligence, the more money you make for the company.

I would take it back to the beginning...  Not one class, but all classes in the game.  I will go back to all of the classes not being overlapped, skill based and all being vital to the operation of a group or raid.  Not what we have today with 3/4 classes that can heal or tank or dps.  Each character should be able to bring something unique to a group or raid.   The last thing is your play affects your environment and your playstyle affects what you get in a game.

Cleric

Heavy Armor, low defense, no egded weapons, spells are granted by a diety, alignment matters and gameplay affects alignment.

How much does a BlizzCon 2010 ticket cost?


Each BlizzCon ticket costs $150. Tickets are non-transferable and non-refundable, and Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to deny admission to anyone who violates this policy.

   I wonder if anyone is going to be left holding the goodie bag...

Sucks,

    There is not a Del Taco within 500 miles or more from where I live, can anyone share a trial key please.   Thanks in advance.

How about this?

http://www.wowwiki.com/Hero_class

http://www.wowlichking.info/page/2/

http://wow.curse.com/articles/wow-en-news/34578.aspx

Exploration is something that is dead in today's MMO scene.  To finally see an MMO that openly talks about exploring as a choice is  something exciting to me.  I am willing to put the time in to properly test the game, not just play to get a head start.  I have Beta'ed every major release since Everquest, providing positive feedback for improving gameplay.

The OP's comment about piracy is incorrect, after sitting down for over 2 hours with a developer and the associate producer, I can tell you that they are looking at piracy and how it can be implemented. 

For me,

 It was the lack of grouping... pick up groups were 0 and if you did get one it was a train wreck or lasted 10 min.  I do not want to solo in an MMORPG, but it seems that now days groups and guilds come prepackaged from other games and run with each other because it is easier. 

  The last good guild that I was part of was EQ1, because the game mechanics forced you to group and guild to get through the game.  Levels meant something  then and  were not ground out solo or able to max the level of the game in a week or 2.  I was one of the early beta testers and quit because the game to me was sterile.

You can thank WoW and its various spin offs for what you are suffering through.  In the old day you had to group to get to places and you had to have a guild to make it to the hard stuff. 

  Today groups are throw-away and guild are used for hopping if you do not get satisfaction.  Most  every game suffers from it.  Content of some of the older games has been changed also to reflect and easierr time to level and make it  to the harder content.

  Pick up groups have also died a voilent death as they get trashed in games today,  people carry that perception from game to game and the feelings just intensify. 

If I try out a new game today, I come armed with either personal friends or from a guild in a previous game, for me this has helped me survive the dry patches.

To me it was one thing, a community.

 To survive in early EQ, you needed to group, from there you needed a guild, to get anywhere fast, you needed a druid, to survive encounters you needed a good mix of players from the holy trinity (fighter, cleric, crack producer) .

  Beyond that it was a community, people lived, died, married, divorced, cryed, screamed and wept tears of joy...... over a game.   People were actually connected to each other and sometimes it was larger than life.

WoW changed that, groups and guilds became disposable, solo play was the norm and that disease spread to all the games out there today. 

To me EQ was special because the game allowed you to become part of something bigger, even if it was online.

The key to a good game is evolution...

   In the beginning there is a game that has a lot of player friendly learning zones, a lot of midgame content, and some end game content.  As the game matures not only do you get expansions to keep your player base playing the game, you revamp some of the player friendly beginning zones, moving them up to midgame or end game content. 

  The idea is to evolve your world as your player base evolves, a game with 3+ years under it's belt does not need a lot of zones for beginners or intermediate gamers, but it does still need a zone to be interactive for all players. 

  An example of this is a game that I currently play, even though you "finished" a zone and all the content, sometimes the story line takes you back to that zone now that you are stronger.  This not only makes use of the zone for more than the recommended level, it also allows for some interaction between new and veteran players. 

  In the end it is more than end game, the game has to be replayable (alts) and the content has to change to meed the needs of the audience.

They can recover,

   But only if they come clean with the industry / fan base and admit up front that it is work in progress.  And then... at least make leveling meaningful.

  I'll give you an example, I have a friend that plays WoW, he has 3 or 4 characters that he enjoys playing on a regular basis.   Then he read about some WoW emulators and made a character on one, he leveled to 80 in 3 or 4 days and could go anywhere and do anything in this world....... and he walked away from it.  I asked him why and he replied that it was not a challenge and there was no sense of ownership or attachment to the character.  Now I understand that WoW is not the model game, but it it harder to level that AoC.

  Understanding that a computer game is not "work", there still needs to be something that tells the player that they are progressing, without dumbing it down.  If AoC was not supposed to be level centric, then they should have built it like Guild Wars and not a game that gives the semblance of a MMO with true levels.  If their goal was PvP and endgame then cut out all of the other "requirements", make everyone the same level (1 or 80, no matter) and get on with the PvP, making it a gear centric game.

  I can not speak for the younger crowd, but my generation wants a challenge wether it is at work or play.  We also want that sense of community that is missing from a lor of games now, I know that it will never be as it once was (lol) but I can always hope.

   It really depends on what you want from an MMO.  To me LOTRO shines in the fact that it is like a story that is unfolding before your eyes.  The cut scenes (between events) are well thought out and give depth to the game.  The combat system and crafting system are not anything out of the ordinary, but each are enhanced by group play.

  My only thing is that at this time there are no new servers to play on and given that it is hard to find a consistent group to run with to advance your character, there is room to solo a lot of the game, but some things require a group to complete in a timely fashon.  You best bet is to game with 2-3 friends or to read the server forums and decide on a guild that you think will assist you with low level play.  All in all I think it is a 7.5 to 8.0 out of 10, it is a good game especially if you have read the books and can follow along as the story unfolds.