I may come back simply to play a Beastlord. I still can't understand why it was never included in the first place.

Grind? I don't mind grind if it's a means to an end. I mean, grinding mats for a house/guild hall....Not really a grind....Killing monsters/players for skill increase...Not really a grind. Killing monsters/players cuz there is nothing else to do....That's a grind.

I voted 'No' but fat lot of good it will do me. Sadly, it seems as though this is the future of MMOs and we'll have to get used to it.

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

Not a WoW fan so I won't interject my opinion here, I just wanted to offer this to those who think fox races can only be cutesy:

Umm....That's kinda cute.

Sorry, but based on my experience with GPotatoe (terrible customer support, cash shop, etc)  via Allods Online (a once great game) there is no way I am going to try UWO again. I tried it in beta, liked it but decided to wait for it to mature a bit. Too bad as it seemed like a refreshing title.

Shame on you GPotatoe.... :(

Bear shaman are awsome. But the OP doesn't want melee. So I guess I would recommend Necro for a pet class and Ranger or ToS (Tempest of Set) for range.

If you haven't purchased one yet I would recommend the 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176126&cm_re=2509M-_-24-176-126-_-Product

It's out of stock at NewEgg, but you can find them elsewhere for $200.00.

While I understand your dislike of Vista (pretty much everyone hates it) I can't recommend Linux for gaming. Windows games don't play on Linux. You need to run something called WINE (it's a windows emmulator) and it really doesn't work that well for most games.

Bite the bullet and get Windows 7. It is by far the best OS that Microsoft has ever made. If your machine can run Vista, it can run 7.

Originally posted by Madimorga

Haven't posted in this thread in a long while, but it seems to be the same old same old.  The anti-socials vs the hyper-socials in a blame war to the death.

 

So here is my bad MMO analogy for the year to explain why I'm fed up with being social in MMOs and maybe fed up with MMOs in general:

 

For years I ate at the same restraunt several times each week. The service was fine, the menu was satisfying, and the ambiance was fantastic. All that, and the price was right, too. Of course, it was my first restraunt, and the only one I ever ate at during those years, so maybe some of my satisfaction came from not knowing any better.

 

At any rate, a few years ago I decided it was time to find a new restraunt. The menu didn't change much anymore, and the clientele had changed a lot. For the worse. All the people I used to see every week were gone, and some of the customers who replaced them were an unsavory, stupid lot. A disconcerting percentage of them seemed to come into the restraunt, not to eat, but to spit in other people's food, tell obnoxious jokes at the top of their lungs, and undercut the restraunt by selling the restraunt's own food, mostly stolen from other customers' plates. Sometimes they would even try to get me to pay them to eat my dinner for me, assuring me that what I really came in for was the dessert!

 

Some restraunts kicked the spitters out, and some called it a house special, claiming customer spit adds seasoning. Other restraunts made it reasonably easy to deflect the incoming spittle and prevent at least some of the food theft. Their only solution to the noisy joke tellers was to suggest that customers dine with friends and ignore the people at the other tables. And most restraunt owners claimed to loathe the illicit salespeople, but for some reason were completely incompetent when it came to removing and trespassing them.

 

I wanted to find another restaraunt that I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed my first one. I would have been happy to stay with my new restaraunt for many years. But everywhere I went, all over town, I saw the same people who had infested my first restraunt. No matter how good the food was, it was hard to enjoy the experience, what with having to guard my plate from spitters, ignore the (usually bad, sometimes racist, always repetitive) jokes, and constantly dodge illicit salespeople. Even though I usually dined alone, I used to be open to sharing a table with one or more strangers. But now whenever anyone walks up to me, I find myself tensing up and automatically assuming they're going to spit in or steal my food, tell me a stupid joke, or try to sell me something.

 

I've had a few pleasant dining experiences over the years since I stopped going to my first restraunt, but the other customers make it difficult to judge the quality of the food and service sometimes, and even though I'm a creature of habit, I can't seem to stay with one for very long anymore. Some say restraunt food just isn't as good as it used to be, and some say maybe it was never that good, and maybe we're all just tired of eating out, but I think my disatisfaction has more to do with my fellow diners. Perhaps take-out is the answer.

OMG! I've been to that restaraunt! Dang spitters!

Right now I am subscribed to Rift, AoC and LotRO. Thinking of re-subbing to WoW. Haven't played since before Cata.

Normally though, it's just one or two subs. LotRO and AoC were both 1 year subs. Not sure that I will re-sub once they expire. Have to see what the F2P crowd does in AoC and what Isengard is like.

When a new game comes out you often have the option to buy it in a boxed set or via download. The boxed set usually comes with a short manual, a map, some marketing stuff and maybe a friend/trial key. When you buy the same game in download version you get the game. Usually no manual, map or anything else. This is even more noticeable when you by a CE version.

My question is why are they priced the same. I mean all of that packaging, the shipping costs, inventory, etc for the boxed set has to cost more than a DL version. And you usually get less from the DL version. At least they could put a pdf of the manual or map etc online.

You! Yes you. Slowly put down the WoW authenticator....Slowly....Slowly.....Now take three steps backwards.....

Originally posted by Darth_Osor

Because people like it.

Is this a serious question?

Of course it is a serious question. And let me ask a few others too.

As a dwarf in WoW I hated the ram mount. Why not get rid of it. I mean I hate it. I'll never ride one. Good candidate.

Many people of have complained about gnomes being too small and really only useful for punting. Get rid of them. 

A lot of people will only play horde or alliance. Why not make Horde/Alliance only servers!?!

Just my thoughts on the matter.

As long as you have no problems on the Freeport server why would you leave. I have an account on AB and reactivate it once in awhile. When ever I roll a new alt I am usually in empty zones. Sure, EQII has the mentoring system, but it's no replacement for active zones.

Good luck on you new game.  :)

1] Allow more customization in the player housing. If I had my way, player housing would combine the best of EQII and UO player housing.

2] Remove the instancing in Bree while eliminating the lag. (Hey, it's a wish list)

3] Add more hobbies. Fishing was great, let's have some more.

Originally posted by Vanpry

http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/3365/page/1

 

What is a sandbox MMO, anyway? We often hear laments of old time gamers who miss the days of old-school Ultima Online and complain that no one has dared to properly fill that void. In the decade-plus since UO's launch, the market has been dominated by level based games. As cries for a sandbox MMO continue to grow louder, I wonder if it has not been so long that the memory of what they truly were has begun to fade. So, this week, I examine what, to me, was the essence of a sandbox MMO experience and how I'd like to see one built in this modern era.

Being a true sandbox MMO is about more than just mechanics. It's a virtual world where people can truly settle into a role. It's not about combat mechanics, quests, or storyline. It's about freedom.
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The idea of freedom is where so many more recent attempts at sandbox MMOs have gone terribly wrong. A sandbox MMO is not necessarily a hardcore experience. Ultima Online could be quite hardcore, but that was the beauty of it. It was, at its root, whatever the user made of it. For some, that meant hardcore PvP. For others, that meant picking berries or begging for change. What made UO magical is that it brought everyone in. It was open, it was inclusive.

Its inclusiveness was the magic of Ultima Online, and to me, the single thing that any would be sandbox MMO needs to replicate.

In a level-based MMO, players grind through content and levels in search of some sort of end game. Less time, means slower progression and thus delayed access to end-game content.

This is an important part of a theme park game's business model. They cannot let players max out their levels in a week or no one will stay subscribed over the long term.

Sandbox MMOs keep people involved through the sheer variety of what they can do. It doesn't take nearly as long to master a skill. A casual player can, in theory, get some core skills to a point necessary to do just about anything in their chosen field relatively rapidly. Sandbox MMOs keep people involved through options, choice and variety.

A truly great sandbox MMO also flattens the relative power curve between characters. In EverQuest, a level one is infinitely less powerful than a level 10, who is in turn completely unable to even compete with a level 25. That level 25, though, can stand in front of a level 50 character and swing his or her sword all day and never even make contact. "Miss... miss.... miss... miss...." and that level 50 can smite that level 25 all the way back to the Bronze Age with a flick of the wrist.

A great sandbox MMO turns this curve on its ear. A guy with 25 skill in swords should be precisely half as good as the guy with 50 skill. Sure, there's an advantage to being twice as good, and yes, the guy with 50 skill will usually win, but the point is that the 25 skill guy is not some infinitesimal peon, not even worth the notice of his better.

This simple dynamic opens up the game world from day one. Lots of level based MMOs have mentoring systems and other ways to bring people together, but they always feel a bit forced. In a skill based MMO with a flat curve, a veteran warrior who knows how to use many weapons, armors and magics can take a younger warrior under his wing and out into the world. Sure, the younger player may not be as skilled or do as much damage, but he can still contribute, and no one has to worry that he's just diluting their XP gain.

XP has its place, but it's a very anti-social mechanic. At its core, it dictates that the less people you have with you, the better it is for those who are there. It encourages exclusion, because each new person divides the pie that much more. Ironically, by making advancement a more shared experience, game designers have also made it a more anti-social one. Skill based games personalize advancement completely. It doesn't matter if there are 100 people whacking the dragon or 10. A whack is a whack. By personalizing advancement, players are free to view other players as allies and companions, rather than black holes that leach experience away from them.

Sandbox MMOs are also about far more than combat. This is where Darkfall misses the mark for me. Yes, it has a wealth of options in its design, but fair or not, it's developed a reputation as a hardcore PvP world. It's all about killing and looting. This is not options. The beauty of UO was the ability to be a minstrel, an author, or fisherman. Not everyone wanted to be a warrior, and even those that were, could easily slip off that one persona and show off a whole new side to their personality.

In fact, UO took it even a step further. Not only did the skill system promote the mastery of skills that had absolutely no combat benefit or application, but the world itself allowed people to develop themselves even further. There were poets in UO. There was no poetry skill, but people used the books to create their own niche inside that world.

Sometimes modern MMOs have this overwhelming need to make everything a mechanic. Pretend you were hired tomorrow by SOE to work on EverQuest II and your first task was to make an "author" profession for the game. What would you do? Odds are that within the confines of that game, the most logical thing to do would be to give players the ability to practice writing, gaining experience in it. Perhaps you'd add an adventure component, where players can gain experience through visiting locations in the world, talking to key NPCs, etc. All of these would then make the "books" they produced more valuable to sell at market.

There is nothing precisely wrong with a mechanic like the above, many would enjoy it, but this is a core place where sandbox MMOs differentiate themselves from theme park MMOs. An author in a true sandbox game is someone who can actually write, someone who types words into a book and shares it within the world. A great sandbox MMO would encourage and reward good authors and develop mechanisms to help promote good writers and bury bad ones. There would be no leveling up or even gaining skill. The bottom line is that in a traditional theme park MMO, a book is a commodity produced by the character and with some tangible in-game value. Unfortunately, it is a widget. It can never be opened, enjoyed and read. The inverse is true in a great sandbox. A book has no value save those words inside it.

Another big difference in my ideal sandbox game is that the goals are larger, more grandiose. In a regular MMO, people have little quests to accomplish specific tasks. In a sandbox MMO, these have their place, but since they're not necessarily needed for advancement, the emphasis is on fun.

A proper sandbox world would have larger scale goals, world events and challenges that players must work together to combat. I am not saying Live Content, or even big epic "come on at this time" style events. These are more like trends. The world lets you know there are zombies in the North this week, so everyone works to clear the North of zombies. Maybe pirates invade another week.

The key is large, cooperative, story-driven trends within the world that bring the community together against common goals. People want to be able to contribute in their own way and a well run sandbox MMO is one where the developers know just how involved to get.

Developers need to stir the pot, but not necessarily make the soup. They need to throw challenges out there and reward people, but if they try and get too involved, suddenly the whole thing can go to hell. The beauty of a sandbox game is that players often make their own content. The role of the developer is to give them situations in which they can shine, and then tell the world about it when they do. Players are the stars of these worlds.

This, to me, is what a sandbox MMO world should be. There are many definitions, but to me, too often in the nostalgia of Ultima Online, we forget what specifically made it such a wonderful place. It was by no means perfect, but it's been a decade and no one has successfully made a spiritual successor to it. That time has come, and somewhere, one can only hope someone will step up and make a game that is truly representative of all that Ultima inspired, not just one part of it.

That was an incredible wall of text....But a fascinating read and one that I thought really illustrated the differences between theme park and sandbox MMOs. 

Look, it's pretty simple really. Start a game company and run it the way you want. Failing that, just enjoy the games you like.

Monk for EQ1

Minstrel LotRO

Hunter WoW

What's the point of getting excited about upcoming new AAA releases? I am not looking forward to being disappointed. I am, however, looking forward to all the gnashing of teeth and stamping of feet from self deceived players (ala FFIV) .

Ok. that's rather cynical. I guess I am looking forward to WoD and maybe GW2.

I can't wait to start the log grind fest for the Noahs Ark questline.  Certainly going to be a repeatable quest.

And once the ark is complete you can do all the animal gathering quests! I think this thing may finally kill off WoW!