I've been talking to my co-workers about that, sharing your sentiments that I want a virtual world over another eq clone. Something that isn't 100% sandbox, but has elements of both but a non-liniar world.  Talking with alot of the designers on several game teams they all seemed to echo that the trend of eq clones has begun to peter out and that the future looks to be a regression to more old-school styled mmo;s which were trying to make virtual fantasy worlds rather then level grinds.

So there's hope... I mean if they all seem to say the same thing and they're the people making the games, it can't be that dark over the horizon.

I like it. :) Fun music video to promote the next season of the show.

Tonights forcast. Doom and Gloom. Followed by: Tony the adorable dancing puppy!

Very cool video. Really seperates itself from the visual look of EVE which Jumpgate has somehow slipped into. I signed up for beta and am excited to see how it plays.

Ok Chill808 is right, the moral is comming accross as don't try. That's not true. WHat we're trying to explain is the gravity of the request and the ammount of effort involved in doing it.

PIctures > Words. 50 pages, 100 pages, 3000 pages. People who are producers who control the real money don't have time to read extensive documents. THat's why they want a 1-2 page pitchdoc which bulletpoints what this game is like by compairing it to existing games that exist (so they have a frame of reference).

i.e. It has a seamless virtual world like World of Warcraft with instanced dungeons. 

Also use bullets to point out how this game is differant then the other games out there and why it will succeed.

Concept Art; Concept Art; Concept Art. As I said having a novel of lore and systems outline is great but that can be done in the preproduction part of the game. You need some visuals to sell the mood and idea to the suits. While you may have a clear idea of what your world feels like and the mood it evokes, words alone are not enough to really convey this feeling to people who are looking to invest millions into it. Get concept art; if you lack any artistic ability. Well that's a big hinderance and I hope you have an opertunity to convey your idea in words alone but having worked with alot of developers and executives they're very busy people who won't sit for an hour to hear lore to "try and get" the mood. THat's why concept art helps so much to sell the mood of the game and evoke excitment in your investors.

Protyping through 3D is great. Mirrors Edge was sold through demo video's made in maya to convey the sensation of park-cor in a first person game. Words couldn't sell that to people. Use 3d Packages like Blender.

Pitching a game is like pitching a script in hollywood. 1:10,000 people get their scripts made into TV shows or movies without connections. Go to conventions, con's, E3.. shmooze and make contacts with other designers.

A single 57 page doc is not enough to warrent a multi-million dollar investment. Especilly if it isn't based on an existing successul game model.

So I'll thow my 2 cents in since I have worked on several MMO's (Including World of Warcraft). We spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week making environments, textures, art assets for environments for several years. That's a team of 8 or so artists. The character team will have about ten or more and have to create the races, NPC's, Wearables, etc.. then FX guys for particle systems. Then coders to make the tools as part of preproduction which usualy runs a year or two till the pipeline is smooth enough to go into full production mode. Now WoW had a team of 70+ people and took 4 years to develop.

As much as I wish it weren't true, people demand eyecandy in games these days and eyecandy calls for a level of artistic skill. With juggernaughts like guildwars, age of conan and wow out there a simple poser model just dosn't cut it. If something dosn't feel professional most people turn away at a glance. I mean seriously look how people crap-talk a game based on 1 screenshot on these forums. Or diefy it based on 1 screenshot as the next wow killer. Pictures sell a game.

There are a handful of games like Runescape which are low graphics but do well. More power to em; they tend to have a young audience. WURM Online barly has graphics equal to Asherons Call from the 1990's but it has a loyal fanbase. Granted it's run by a handful of skilled developers that wear several hats.

No my friend to do a real industry mmo you must make a prototype to present in a pitch meeting. The pitch doc's usualy come from internal sources rather then outside licences. Companies will only consider producing a game (funding the development team) if they have a prototype that really wow's them or breaks new ground. But even a prototype needs eyecandy.

FYI I applaud WURM Online; I just wish I could get past the graphics to enjoy it. Ah well..

I'm gonna say no just because every time the rabid forum fanbase declairs a game the next WOW KILLER the game fails. I call it the forum curse!!!! As soon as kids stop squeeling at screenshots before they even know what the game is like or about and proclaiming it the ressurection of christ; then we'll find our next great game.

The sad part is some kid made this up to get a laugh and make a stab at SOE; yet 5 years from now some ill informed forum poster will write about the time SOE sued LA when it never actually happened.

I'd check here and the freerealms.com site if I were you. Sometimes MMO's give out limited keys to popular mmo sites, but then a few days later offer open beta on their own site. Heck sign up for beta now, they might be flagging accounts in waves.

Hehe this thread is exemplary of this blog topic:

http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/scorpchen/042009/3640_My-opinion-is-that-you-have-no-right-to-your-opinion

I doubt this is the sort of game any jaded MMO player who plays WoW, War, EQ2, or any of those more mature MMO's is going to be able to appreshiate. It's very clearly designed for what kids want and how kids learn and play games, so there will probably be more hand-holding then an experienced player is used to. So just take any 'reviews" from 35 year old raiders with a grain of salt :) the game isn't made for them, so they might not find alot to hold their interest.

RTM! SKY IF FALLIN! OMG! CALL DA PREZEDENTZ! OMG!

/yawn

Totally and they're revamping the graphics engine code to update it. You see EQ2 was built with the assumption that CPU speeds were the way of the future. Back when it was being made, CPU's kept getting faster and GPU processing wasn't available. So flash forward and everything is GPU these days while the engine is still churning everything through the CPU. BUT NO LONGER!

Thanks to SOE's continued support for the game, they're evolving the engine to use deferred lighting (defer processing of shadows and point light rendering to the GPU) as well as take advantage of multi-core CPU's. Other enhancments are on their way (GPU shadows should be here any day now, the next update will have it and people on the test server already have a huge improvment to performance). Also the stenciled shadows are gone and soft shadowmaps are back so that'll help too!

 (Disclaimer: I've played alot of MMO's and have burned out on em and keep comming back to EQ2 so I have a deep respect for a game I can keep coming back to and finding things to entertain me. When the shiney new feeling of the latest and greatest MMO flop wears off I keep comming back to EQ2 and find it just does so much right and still looks good doing it.)

Sent! Cya in game!

Posting some more cool pics to spread the love!

It's a magical world! Come join us!

With the next live update (this week) they've deferred the shadows to the GPU rather then CPU, and changed from stenciled shadows to soft shadows. Everyone on test was saying the performance differance is amazing. Mine looks this good when I have shadows on, and come next live update they'll be on all the time :D.

Invite sent!

Here's some nice scenery in the game I found on a players web blog. Shows off some of the current look of the game for those interested in checking it out! Come visit us in Norrath!
 

Anyways, just want to share some of the cool look of the game for those who are more familure with the inital blander look of the game at launch. Five years can really change a game huh? Come join us! PM me for a buddy key or make a post with yer email and one of us will send you a key which gives you a runspeed boost cloak as well as the ability to party with us and gain a boost to your leveling exp! Give Norrath a try for 14 days, you'll see how much there is to do and how much new content is constantly being released.

Yeah, check out this guys post. He takes pics while he plays and posts them. This is what MY game looks like when I play, not all grey and gloomy.

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?&topic_id=344003

Glad you're all giving the game a shot! If you roll a toon on Antoniya Bayle hit me up if you have questions, I play as Tovana and of course Arioc.