Thanks for the replies. I guess the the DCU devs have not fully answered this question yet. I hope they will find a way to stay true to their own comics and have gameplay balanace at the same time. A Superman that is not super will not be a good selling point in my opinion.

I agree with the OP somewhat. I hated the huge raids that took all day. Then when the raid was completed only 1-2 people got the uber item and only if you had sucked up to some guild that allowed you to /roll for it. Then you have the teams that always turned you down because they wanted a wizard or tank or cleric. EQ gave me the feeling that you only get rewarded if you had the right connections. If you didn't you're screwed. When I left EQ and EQ2 I left all fantasy MMO's period. I had no desire to play WoW and I still haven't played it to this day. Yep EQ did some hurt to MMOs.

Originally posted by Ekibiogami

First thay said the ship was fallowing the course send back by the Other ships out ahead scouting planets and building Stargates.

Second I rember there beeing 12+ Galaxys that it went through Before it made it there... How many Fracking gates could there be? If it was two or three ships Not many perhaps. But if Stargate has shown us anything to do with the Ancients its that they dont do Anything small or half-assed... There might be a hundred million by now.. This series has so mutch room to grow its retarted.

And I seem to recall that there are no plans for any alien threats for the first season I think... Hope they pull this off.

Bottom line is this will Either be the best or Worst Stargate series so far. I just hope there isent a "Wormhole Drive" ending to the series that gets them home like in Voyager or Atlantas... If it must Die let it Die with them still lost in Bumfrack Egipt.

Yeah, all those galaxies it went through is pretty amazing. I'm not sure how they are going to technically explain the interstellar travel abilities of that ship. I hope they don't do the "omg we have no more Zero Point Modules left!" like they did in Atlantis. Good point about Voyager but Voyager was a science vessel and it used any scientific means possible to get back home. They used a Borg transwarp conduit to get back to earth then collapsed it on the enemy. But you are right, I hope they come up with something more interesting to get back to earth since they obviously can't traverse back or gate back.

Originally posted by metalhead980 

I knew this was going to be a tough thread. it's hard to argue with the Social aspects of a MMO. As Sp games have come closer they havent reached the level of MMOs.

But heres a biggy. Are we giving up great graphics, stories and gameplay for the option to socialize?  Also if Socializing is such a big reason to play MMos why do so many people spend their time solo and shuning group activities like team hunting and open world group pvp.

I see your point but I think people solo for the same reason people go to a restaurant by themselves or prefer to drive to work alone instead of car pool. It's usually more fun with friends along but there's also something to say for the freedom of being solo and advancing without the help of others. Part of being in a social world is the having the freedom to be with others or alone. Being solo or in a group wouldn't be something special unless both options are available. For example, If I climb Mt. Everest with a team of people like everyone always does that's cool but not necessarily special. If I climb Mt. Everest solo and there's no one else in the world to see my great achievement then who's there to care? You need both options in the world. MMO worlds mirror this world because you have the option to choose.

Now since it's a game there's usually incentices to team instead of solo. If your particular MMO caters to soloing then that needs to be improved upon in my opinion - these are social games that should reward social behavior. Also, you have to consider in MMO's the group experience. Sometimes it's better to solo because of all the nubs or jerks you encounter that ruin your gameplay. The social aspect isn't the only one but I think it's one of the most basic reasons to play in a fantasy world. And one of the things that makes it realistic is the freedom to socialize or not in the world. Even people who love to solo still team from time to time - it's their choice.

I think we play MMORPGs for a number of reasons but I believe the biggest reason is socialization in a common environment. Social networking sites like facebook and twitter do not put you in another world where you can interact and enjoy common experiences with those around you. Humans are social creatures and we have always used common environments to socialize in. From sunday dinner to movie theaters to music concerts we have always gathered at common places to share common experiences. Some of us who are less socially adept may never feel comfortable at a dance party but the internet and the MMO environment fixes that with anominity and common world rules. MMOs are places where you can escape your reality and enter a world where you are pretty much on the same level as anyone else no matter what you look like, sound like, etc. MMO's are places where the popular kid and the nerd kid can hang out together. Some of this is changing with the wide use of vent and team speak but the basics are all still there if you want to be anonymous and social at the same time.

So I think MMO's will continue to grow and be popular just for our human need to socialize, be with friends, and share common experiences. I think this will continue to be the case until someone invents the Holodeck from Star Trek where you can take your whole body into another world instead of just your eyes, ears and fingers.

Originally posted by gwenelyn

I think there are better ways to improve betas, which have already been mentioned - requiring bug reports based on hours played, booting testers who don't report and giving someone else a chance, etc. If the beta is well managed in that way, and the devs are responsive to their testers, I think the end product would be much improved.

This is a decent idea but I don't believe it will work because some folks will just report bogus bugs so they can keep playing the game.

A better beta needs more structure and more supervision from the devs themselves. They need to be online with the players and ask a group of players to test something. Watch the players live, gather the bug info then have the testers move onto the next area of the game to test. Once you have a base of players that really assist with the more structured tests you can release a set of them to do anything they like freely. Proper supervision and structure will weed out those kids who are just there to play a new game.

I watched SGU yesterday and I got the distinct impression that they took ideas from multiple sci-fi shows:

1) Battle Star Galactica 2004-2009. You can tell the camera style and character driven drama has the same feel as BSG. This is a good thing. Also, the sex scene in the closet had BSG written all over it LOL. You can tell there will be more relationship drama between that guy and the girl who's father died. This will be good as I enjoyed the relationship drama in BSG. I'm glad they are taking this element into the new Stargate series.

2) Star Trek Voyager - the concept of a "lost in space" ship trying to get home has been done before with Voyager. Voyager didn't have as good a fan base as the other Trek shows but this show was successful and was not canceled. It seems like with a huge universe out there they would come up with something new but maybe they are trying to stick with something that works - something we can relate to.

3) Original Star Trek - A new planet every week. It appears that the ship in SGU is a robot ship which travels to habitable planets around the universe in order to deposit star gates. The crew is allowed to ring down to these planets but for only 12 hours until the robot ship goes back to traveling. So they will basically be forced to visit a new planet each week most likely. I like this and I hope they will come up with some good and original writing on each world visited. One thing that could be negative is if they repeat the same old "no tech" humanoid worlds that we have seen on almost 100% of the SG Atlantis worlds. Give this a rest please. I'm tired of going to new worlds and seeing poor village humans who speak english. Be more creative and it will work!

My first impression of Stargate Atlantis after this first episode was "Epic Phail" and sure enough the series was canceled. I'm glad they did not create yet another "super villain" to be conquered like the Wraith which was nothing but a high tech vampire. SG1 Season 10 - the Ori was yet another super villain they had to pull out of their butts because the Goa'uld were defeated. I'm glad they did not repeat these mistakes with SGU so far.

My first impression with SGU is that it will be successful as long as the writing is good and creative. The acting wasn't bad and I believe they will improve over time (1st season acting isn't that great anyway until the actors get some chemistry with each other). So I wish Stargate Universe success. It will do well as long as they give us something new and not re-hash stuff they did before.

Maybe they wanted Batman to have super strength so he can finally get down with Wonder Woman after all the years of sexual tension. :p Without it Princess Diana would break his junk in half!

I just watched a dev preview video where Superman, Green Arrow, Batman, etc were trying to defeat a villain in Star Labs. Ok, we all know Superman = god mode without Kryptonite. The interviewer asked the dev about this and the dev kinda of ducked the question saying that in the comics each superhero has a weakness that can be exploited. Umm ok... I saw no glowing green rocks in that video and Superman was there but seemed to be no more powerful than any other hero on that video.

Has this been explained yet?? Will Superman be perma-weakened in the game??

I was a longtime player of EQ1. WoW did not copy EQ but they knew they could do well in the MMO market when they saw EQ's success. So I would not say they copied them but they certainly followed in their footsteps knowing they had an existing base from the popular Warcraft and Starcraft strategy cames.

Looks like we are going to see catgirls on every starbase, standing around using their tails to get catnip and warm milk. LOL We need a canine race to cull their population! :)