It's all about developers wanting to please both PvE and PvP players in some cases, one cannot survive without the other and if so, you got a niche game that caters to one side of the spectrum and their is no long term money in that.

WoW is still that anomaly game that caters to both equally to a degree.

Not many PvE players like PvP, believe it or not and in my experience, there seems to be more PvE players than PvP players when it comes to PC gaming.

So as a developer, you cater to the masses and not the minority.

Thousands of Accounts Suddenly Cried Out in Terror and Were Suddenly Silenced.

It also looks like history repeats itself once again in the SWG Universe, it's unfortunate, however, I still blame the frontman at the time of PreCU, Smedley and Torres.

They took SWG into a direction that the game wasn't even constructed for, because of greed and jealousy of what WoW was accomplishing at the time. Me being a fan of the old school SWG, I believe it things went different and not introducing the NGE garbage that was forced on us, SWG would still be around and one of the NON-Linear mmo's out there today with EvE.

I still can't figure out why in the HELL SOE hasn't fired this tool. His track record absolutely SUCKS for retaining mmo's.

Ok, I vented... whew..

This is not a kick in the ball's to the fans that stayed around after the NGE was implemented, but you folks should of seen this coming. Believe me, I tried coming back a few times after NGE was implemented, however to me it was a POS and I wasn't going to pay $14.99 a month on a game that I know longer recognized or enjoyed.

Am I sad to see it go, well, back in 2005 is when my SWG died after the so many hours and hours of game play, but SOE should of just stayed with the same formula and not even bring in NGE. SWG may still be around in full force even with TOR around the corner if NGE wasn't brought in.

NGE was the nail in the coffee for all PreCU players and NGE players. Now I can say, it sucks doesn't it, when they take your game away. 

I will opt myself to see the end of SWG December 15th, I maybe able to catch some old friends online that I lost contact with throughout the years and get to say FU Smed one last time in the SWG Universe.

Originally posted by DoomsDay01

I had a lot of fun moments in SWG pre NGE. But to be honest, the best moment ever was when I told smedley he could go "F" himself after he screwed over the creature handlers instead of actually fixing the one  problem that could have fixed the entire class, When he ignored the creature handlers and his own community relations people. When he told us you are fixed and he would revisit our class in 1 year, thats when I said F U and quit the game.

Sadly, Sony online entertainment is always going to be last place in good mmo's till they get rid of that sob. I don't see how anyone over there hasn't made this connection yet and freakin fired him.

We old schools vets tried to petition NGE (as you can see it didn't work and there was a mass Exodus of us that left).

However, Its worth a shot to the OP to fight for the game you love to play, but your going to get the same end results as we did. 

I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but in the words of Han Solo, "Goodluck, your going to need it".

My favorite moment is when I started in Mos Eisleys, I walked into the cantina for the 1st time and then the music began to play. This is the biggest immersion I felt when I played SWG for the 1st time, I actually felt like I was in Episode IV. I was scrambling around to find Han Solo and Chewbacca, but of course I did not find them.

I found my way outside the city and bumped into some nasty Mountain Squills for the 1st time, well they decided to come after me so I ran back into the busy city and tried to find safety in the cantina, however the 2 Mountain Squills chased me into the Cantina and all hell broke loose with players using there CDEF weapons to take down the beasts (and someone screaming, who brought these damn things in here) , however the Mountains Squills managed to kill alot of players in the city since we all didn't know what we were doing and most of us got introduced to cloning that day :)

All I can say is 2 Mountains Squills could take out 20+ players that day.

So if you were playing on the Chilastra Server and was a victim to these incident, I like to apologize for getting you killed.

I enjoyed Dragons Age as well, it gave me a break from all the garbage we call mmorpgs today. Not everyone will agree on what a great RPG is, since we all have different tastes and gamestyle of playing, however I give a huge thumbs up for Bioware on this RPG.

I just completed Dragon Age 2 also, even though 1 was much better, DA2 felt more like your MMORPG combat system (at least to me). The gameplay is much faster than 1, but still a good game to pickup. As one person stated, I too felt limited in DA2 with areas to explore since the whole story seem to revolve around Kirkwall and your Rise to Power. We need some more DLC for this RPF though.

However both Dragon Age titles have replayability and still love going through the forks in the road on both games storyline.

I will be trying out the Witcher 2 by Atari, it's got a lot of hype around it now, so going to wait and I haven't even tried Witcher yet, so I may just pick this up from Steam for 20 bucks before diving into W2.

I got both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 waiting as well.  About these 2 other titles from Bioware, I am still a little skeptical since the game mechanics are more of a FPS over the shoulder view, instead on what I got used to in the Dragon Age series.

I am getting more amusement out of these RPGs since the MMO scene seems pretty flat right now.

My quick suggestions would direct you to..

1. Lord of the Rings Online

2. Warhammer Online

3. Age of Conan

Since LotRO is free and WO / AoC have free trials, you won't lose $$$$ to buy and try.

Unless you have played them before, very good games to pass the time till a new and innovating mmo comes out, even though, those 3 are themeparks's.

But here is my other choices in sandboxy fantasy style mmo's, however heavily PvP based.

1. Darkfall

2. Mortal Online

Me, I decided to just keep playing a non mmorpg game called Dragon Age / DA2 by Bioware to pass my time.

Even though I am dabbling in LotRO and AoC, I find myself playing the RPGs more often now than the MMO's, go figure.

Goodluck on your adventures!

Just got back into the game a couple of weeks ago.

The game may not be jammed packed with players around my level, like it used to be, however I am enjoying my time back in Hyboria after 2 years of absence.

The 1st video got my vote as well 

Alot of talent out there these days.

Originally posted by grafh

im sorry op, but im not a fan of faction pvp. sandbox is supposed to be set by the players with little to no outside interference. so if player factions are added to the game, that means that its kinda not sandbox to me personally.  races and sexes are all good. not being able to kill people in my own faction kinda makes me mad lol. especially if they are arses!!

To each there own I guess, I get enough of friendly fire in Counter Strike and Call of Duty, yeah I know these aren't mmo's, however when I see most mmo's today with FFA, there nothing but one Big Arena Deathmatch and reminds me on these FPS shooters (especially the way there making mmo's today).

They need to make a sandbox mmorpg for the masses and not be specefic to one type of player base.

Too much PvP becomes a niche mmo game, too much PvE becomes to much of a carebear mmorpg.

Then you have players saying, where is the PvE in this game or where is the PvP in this game.

Can we get a happy medium somewhere.. I know it can be done.

All I am going to say is..

- Star Wars Galaxies during its early sandbox days was just perfect enough for me.

IMP, REB or Neutral

Run around Flagged or Not, its up to you. I was a big fan of the Tef system.

- Dark Age of Camelot during its golden years, the BEST themepark PvP faction system I have ever seen.

- Shadowbane my favorite OPEN PvP combat, yes it had it faults with balance issues, but the game was extremely fun!

- Planetside was my favorite FPS / MMO style PvP 3 faction system back in 2003, unfortunately I was too much in SWG at the same time.

So if any game is done right, faction or not, its all about the game mechanics and direction.

We do have too many FFA mmo's out there right now, there just not being done right <imo>

I too am waiting for that 3 Faction system in a Sandbox MMO with a nice PvP system attached.

Thanks for the heads up.

I guess videos can still be misleading to the actual gameplay itself.

I managed to get some greats deals on steam a week ago for GTA, thats why my curiousity sparked an interest in APB.

Thanks again everyone.

By looking at the vids and the gameplay, is the game comparable to GTA?

I really haven't looked into this style of MMO since Auto Assault (however in AA, you were mostly in the car than out).

And are there any other good fan weblinks to this game?

Originally posted by Robsolf

Originally posted by knox1711

 Yeah, that is just it...some players spent months unlocking a jedi, then, overnight, SOE wipes out all that effort by making jedi a starter class that anyone can respec to with 3 clicks..

MMO developers that have a clue realize that they should strive for longterm relationships, win-win relationships, with their customers if they want their game to thrive.  Wiping out player effort, arbitrarily, heinously, with no regard for player feedback, is about as big a nubcake move as a company could make...

While I can certainly understand the frustration of those who basically played the game in ways they could have not possibly enjoyed for months so they could get jedi...

The old jedi system should have never existed, and neither should the new.

All they had to do was put in Permadeath for JEDI and kept with the blue glowie if you died.

That would make players think twice on making another JEDI in the game.

I would of kept them a Alpha class, however I gurantee you would have almost every BH player on the server looking to kill you for bragging rights.

Kings Quest comes to my mind when I see WoW's graphic immersion factor.

Elwynn Forest

Barrens

Wetlands

Originally posted by sookster54

Pikeman animations were the best, it was neat fighting in style. Animations now look dumb with that benny hill crap.

 

And on that note about Benny Hill, I give you Darth Velveeta: NGE Jedi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4MvwU58Jk0

I remember what Jedi became esp with that Trials of Obi Wan expansion, what a fiasco that was.

I took a look at some of those 8 bit games, WOW!

I have no problem paying -- $14.99 a month / $3.75 a week / 5 cents a day --if the game keeps in interested.

Other than that, when i see MMO's that go this route it becomes Pay to Win with certain cash shops.

No thanks.

Plus games that don't have a monthly fee bring in a real bad player base <imo>

Originally posted by SuperXero89

This scares me.  On the regular PvP servers, I have never seen so much ganking and newb griefing.  I shudder to think what this will be like.

I remember when I got killed by level 40s+ and I was only a level 15 at the time.

A couple of level 40s+ players were just spawn killing all the lowbies on my server and were just raping anyone questing.

It was one of the many reasons I left AoC.