Freeing the Frostfather in the Amplitheater of Karutonia by defeating the Devourer, in Age of Conan.  An awesome cutscene when you are successful.  This was only a single group instance however.

As for a raid boss, the first time I saw the Hamidon in City of Heroes was quite the experience. 

I am looking forward to JGE myself.  As a former player of Earth & Beyond, I have been missing the space exploration mmo since it went dark.  Too bad EA didn't support E&B, could of been running still to this day.

Tried EVE and wasn't impressed.  Sure was very pretty to look at but was way overcomplicated for my tastes.  I don't want simple WoW controls but shouldn't need a calculator to engage in combat either.

Originally posted by Rockgod99

With the way things are going in the mmo genre I wouldn't touch a mmo without a trial.

So they better make them work or they wont get my sub and im sure others feel the same after buying 60 dollar game boxes of complete dog shit.

I have to agree with this.  The first 10 days should hook me, IF it's a good game.  I don't need to see the endgame because if the newbie game is dull, too easy or too hard I'm not going to sub to GET to the endgame.  Rerolling is vital to the longevity of any mmo, as long as the leveling up experience is fun, I would keep playing and paying.

You really need a guild that understands they are playing a game.  Games are supposed to be fun, a form of relaxation.  Too often they get too ... anal... and start treating the game like it's a second job.  You see this a lot in the "hardcore" raiding guilds regardless of which game it is.  They tend to bury you in rules, restrictions and requirements... to play a game.

Pretty much after that is just finding a group of people that mesh with my personality.

I think Scott Jennings kind of ignored some key points about the issue at Infinity Ward.

First off there were reports that the men were fired due to insobordination.  Now, for those that don't know IW was owned by Activision.  Not partnered, but everything in IW, the servers, code, employees, everything are under Activision's ownership.  If the head of IW told Activision off, they probably fired him for it.  This is not the same as a publisher-developer relationship, IW was under the Activision banner 100%.

Scott's other reference to WoW is actually quit telling.  Yes, Blizzard is also owned by Activision.  He seemed to glaze over the fact that Blizzard reported WoW's subs have stagnated, coincidentially since Activision acquired them?  This is not a good sign.  Activision is large yes, but their success is due to acquisitions, not necessarily good business practices.

Content really improved once NCSoft took over from Cryptic.  This looks to be another great Issue, probably the last one before xpac comes out I would guess.

Originally posted by Xiaoki

 

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Originally posted by DrowNoble
 
Aion currently has 7 million subs in Asia alone.  Just thought I'd throw that tidbit out there.

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Yeah, and how about you throw a link out there as well.

 

Link 1, 2 months after Asian release:

http://www.curse.com/blogs/aion-en-news/archive/2009/05/23/aion-australian-distribution-and-current-number-of-subscriptions.aspx

Link 2, showing Aion sales and revenue growth Q4 2009

http://www.ncsoft.net/global/ir/overview.aspx

Link 3, for those that don't want to sort thru the above pdf:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/269073

As I'm sure you know companies are reluctant to publish numbers.  Since many in "the public" feel that those numbers are the ones that matter, if you post X subs today and it drops (even slightly) to Y subs next month, you risk people leaving or not starting up.  Remember, Aion was out in Asia a year before the western release Q4 09.  My point was that WoW is not the only mmo that has subs in the millions.  I'll also point out you don't need millions of subs to turn a profit either.

Originally posted by Kilrane

Originally posted by Palebane

Wowhead, Thottbot, cursegaming.com. The only reason the game is so easy is because you play it on easy mode. Try doing that shit without any addons or internet guides.

 

Ya know, if they ever banned the use of mods I might actually think about going back.  Fat chance of that happening though.

Come to think of it, I would consider returning as well if they banned mods.  I never used mods or addons of any kind, not even UI skins.  I did raids and heroics and never had any trouble.  A few guildies one time were confused one time when they found out I been raiding BWL (pre-BC) without mods.  They asked how I could play without them.  Simple, I pay attention.  Unless you played EQ1 "back in the day" you have no concept of raiding.   Try doing a raid of the Manaetic Behemoth with 72 people, no voice chat, no mods and 1 group f**ks up they wipe everyone.

Mods have made for lazy gamers.  It seems though that Blizzard is trying to ease people away from mods by giving the existing UI the same functionality of popular mods.  It wouldn't surprise me if sometime in the future Blizzard outright bans mods.

More importantly, mods have probably opened the door for hackers, keyloggers and gold farmers to do their dirty work.  WoW allows mods and has the most trouble with those problems, not a coincidence.

Originally posted by Valgar1

Does it matter?

if they lost 80% of there current subs they still have more subs then any other game out. Unless somthing better comes along which so far hasent they will only lose minimal people anyway.  WoW isnt going anywhere for a long time hate it or not.

Aion currently has 7 million subs in Asia alone.  Just thought I'd throw that tidbit out there. 

The fact that they can't draw new players, vet players are slowing leaving is NOT a good sign.  I've noticed this long before Blizzard finally manned up and said it.  It was getting harder and harder to get raids going, decent 5-mans or finding groups for elite quests.  Instead of trying to improve the game to stop the bleed, Blizz just makes it easier to get groups.  This is only a temp-fix.

The fact that Wrath did NOT bump the subscription numbers tells me that Cataclysm isn't going to have much an effect either.  When they announced the xpac, reaction was rather luke-warm.  During one stage presentation announcing the upcoming changes, they actually got booed.  Never a good sign when Blizzcon fans are booing you on your own stage at your own convention.

Also something to think about.  Roughly 70% of subscriptions are in Asia, most gold farmers are based in Asia.  I don't think those two numbers are unrelated.  Until they get caught the farmer is a subscriber after all.

First and foremost Blizzard needs to listen to their players.  They been doing what they want, when they want it and how they want for so long and the players have been suffering for it.  No one asked for goblins or worgen as a playable race.  What players have asked for is new classes, yet instead blizzard recycles old classes over and over.  They did that in BC by giving each faction a "new" class (blood elf pally, draenei shammy) which required no work on their part as they already existed.  Come Cataclysm, we get tauren paladins (among others).  If you look any any other MMO at its 5-year mark you'll see that Blizzards 1 new class 2 new race progress is terribly lacking.

Second they need to have someone that knows the classes.  Ghostcrawler said in an interview that ret pally damage is lacking, then at the end of the same interview said ret pally damage was too high.  Well which is it GC? 

Next, they need to add content that is NOT raiding and NOT daily quests.  The game is saturated with raiding and daily quests.  Patch 2.4 was excellent as it added a little bit of everything, including a new 5 man.  Yet during Wrath we get patch 3.1:  more dailies and raid.  Patch 3.2: more dailies, raid and a 5 man.  Then patch 3.3 we get: another raid and another rep to grind.  Each of these patches only benefitted those that are lvl 80.

Finally they need to make pvp meaningful.  The old honor system at least had some point, as you needed rep to be able to acquire the pvp items.  If you won, you get more rep.  Therefore, people wanted to win.  Now with the "welfare epics" dumped onto the vendors no one cares about winning, its all about the net honor points.  I can get honor faster by losing than I can by winning.  At least Blizzard (finally) admitted that Arenas were a mistake.

Blizzard seems to be doing a slower version of the SWG NGE.  The game today isn't the same as the game was 5 years ago.  This can be for the better if they improved things, but that isn't the case.  Blizzard has been nerfing and dumbing down the game steadily since BC.  It's no surprise then that they finally admitted they've had no increase in subscriptions in 2 years. 

I'd absolutely play a 100% pve mmo.  I've done my share of pvping (DAoC, WoW) and just find I burn out quicker on pvp content than I do pve.  Many western gamers prefer pve over pvp anyways as evidence by success of pve-centric games such as EQ2 and CoH.  Even WoW has more pve servers than pvp.

If the pve content is fun, immersive and challenging the lack of pvp won't even be noticed by me.  Sure, allow things such as duelling if you want as that is just "for fun" pvp, requiring no balancing by the developers.  For the most part though I enjoy exploring the game world and experiencing the lore while doing quests. 

If I wanted pwn some noobs and teabag away, I'd be playing Counterstrike  or Halo. 

Originally posted by SaintViktor

Another turning towards the social gaming apsect of mmos. I'm sure down the road we will see big companies like Blizzard and NCsoft turn their attention this way as well.

Not sure about Blizzard, they seem to just not care what the public wants.  They do what they want, how they want it, when they want it.  Similar to SOE's attitude during the peak days of EQ1.  As reported by G4's The Feed on Feb 11th, WoW subs have not increased since 2008 and people in their free month aren't getting passed level 10.  This is during the release of an expansion, which usually would cause an increase in subs. 

NCSoft would be more receptive to turning their attention to other ways of doing an MMO.  They've always been receptive to consumer wants as evidenced in their CoH franchise.  Some complain the pvp is lacking in CoH, but that is because the players of CoH have wanted more co-op and customization instead.

Original post by Jon Wood...

Earth & Beyond was launched in September of 2002, and closed in September of 2004. With of the briefest live periods of any online offering, E&B was an ambitious title that never quite gathered enough of a following to please its publisher, EA Games. What's sad, as any former player will tell you, is that the game was actually pretty impressive. The first to offer both space flight as well as traditional avatar exploration (though admittedly the latter of which was limited most to space stations), E&B was rather ahead of its time and received many positive reviews from critics. For whatever reason though the game was never really a barnstormer, and unlike EVE it was never given enough time to gain steam.

I was in the beta and later a subscriber.  What I can tell you is that EA had just bought Westwood Studios at this time.  Westwood, famous for its C&C games, was now doing an MMO.  At one point in the beta, they brought down the servers for a patch.... to ensure the EA logo remained onscreen for 10 seconds.  Seriously.

EA didn't support Earth & Beyond.  The content patches were fewer than they are in WoW.  There was little advertising for the game.  No posters, cardboard standees, magazine ads, etc.  When I went to buy my retail copy the store clerk at Software Etc hadn't even heard of the game.  Almost like EA just wanted to milk this for some money and had every intention of killing it eventually.  After all, this was Westwood's baby not EA's.

Not only was the game nice to look at, you could land on some planets, but it had a great way to advance.  Many companies spin "innovation" but E&B really came up with something.  The cap was lvl 150, broken up into 50 combat, trade and exploration levels.  You kill stuff you gain Combat xp.  Just expore the universe or break down loot to learn the recipe you get Explore xp.  Sell or create items and you get Trade xp.  Get to an overall level and you do a mission to upgrade your ship and get promoted.  So your Terran Enforcer goes from Commander to Captain, you get a new rank plus a bigger flashier ship.

Of all the MMO's I've played E&B is the one I miss the most.

Originally posted by NightCloak

Oiy... People need to get over themselves and learn to understand facts.

Richard Garriott didn't ruin Tabula Rasa. NCSoft did. They forced changes very late in the development and that caused major problems.

Also, why hate a man that failed at making a game after he succeeded many times before?

I also wonder how many people hate Richard Garriott and played CO, said it sucked and bought STO? Or disliked EQ and bought EQ2? Or thought DaoC wasnt great and bought WAR?

I doubt most of the MMO gamers are interested in what he is doing now since its social media and browser based.

Sorry but the "facts" state something different.

Richard put his name on Tabula Rasa, then pretty much abandoned the game.  He seemed more concerned with going into space than continued development on a game with his name on it.  Then after he goes to outer space, he pretty much just quits and leaves demanding money from NCSoft for "his" game's share.  He did interviews and such about "Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa" before launch often but then afterwords he was no where to be seen. 

He sold Origin to EA.  As a result there have been no Ultima games released since and 4 years since the last UO expansion.  Basically, he took the money and ran.

If he had stayed with Origin, I have no doubt we'd have a single player Ultima game on a 360/ps3 now as well as more expansions for the UO players out there.  If he had stayed with NCSoft instead of chasing a childhood fantasy, Tabula Rasa would still be up and running with his guidance. 

To answer your other questions, since CO sucked I did not buy STO.  I liked DAoC, but didn't care for the WAR trial so left.

Originally posted by erictlewis

I thought  lotro earned the most improved game reward,  or one of them at least.  I find the entire story funny.

I guess folks like conan, i made it 2 weeks in beta and gave it up and never ever looked back.

LOTRO may have won most improved game from someone else, but AoC won it from this site. 

Too bad you haven't been back since beta, it's very much improved since launch days.  Gone are the annoying "+0.1% fatality chance" items, replaced with a rating system.  They added a 55-65 zone called Ymirs Pass complete with a new dungeon with possibly the coolest final boss fight (with cutscene).  Iron Tower was added to the Common District for those 78+ that wanted something harder than normal dungeons but easier than raids.  All in all AoC today is not the same game it was back in 2008.

Originally posted by ShastaHawk

I think 15 bucksis too much as it is. What do you get for paying 15 bucks? The ability to play 1 game online. I repeat; ONE GAME. I dont see where they see the justification in that when you can pay 4 to 8 amonth for xboxlive which enables you to play their nearly entire library at no extra cost

 

I know I'm comparing apples and oranges and dont want to start a pc vs console war but thats the way I see it

In the early days of EQ1 the sub fee was only $10.  SOE raised it to $15 not long after EQ1 was a hit claiming, among other reasons, the increased cost of bandwidth on their part. 

I think the reason console owners get more online stuff "free" is that you paid an extra $10 on the game.  You also bought the console.  Unlike my PC, which can play any PC-compatable game regardless of who makes it, a 360 can only play 360 games.  So, by giving 360 owners "free" online content they are basically rewarding you for buying that console and encouraging people who don't own one to go buy one.

Going Rogue should show some spotlight on a game that has been fairly quiet for a while.  Personally, I blame Cryptic as they seemed to get lazy with updates for a while, then sold the rights to NCSoft.  Once NCSoft took over, we started seeing Issues coming quicker with more features that had been asked for by the players for some times.

There are those that may be getting sick of traditional fantasy type mmos, so CoH would certainately be an option for them.  Since, in  my opinion, Champions is a disappointment that should help more people come to CoH.  The success of comic movies shows there is a huge audience for comic-related media.  I'm sure some of those movie goers are gamers as well.  By freshing up the graphics on the environment it helps the game to not look dated.  Character customization is pretty much covered, so next up is to make where your character flies around in look better too.

I have to disagree with this Spotlight.

In a f2p game, such as DDO, it's fine to charge extra for game components.  Since they didn't make money off me on the sale of the game or on a monthly basis, they need to get income somehow.

In a subscription based game there is no reason to charge me extra for game content.   Paid character transfers, name changes, etc are fine as they are "out of the ordinary" and the company has to stop and take time to honor your request.  Charging me a sub fee, then nickel and diming me for content is not the right way to do things.

Seems to be a starting trend that companies give less "free" content less often and have started added extra pay-to-have content.  Look at WoW, in vanilla days there were major patches about every 2.5 months.  During BC that was up to every 5 months.  Now in Wrath it's 3 patches in 15 months (and counting) with vanity pets for sale for extra cash, faction change for cash, etc.  Crytpic charges subscriptions, but then adds more content that has to be paid for separately.  Heck even Dragon Age Origins had something similar on launch day, charging $5 for the storage chest despite the fact you already dropped $50-60 on the game.

Games only need around 20k-25k subs to break even, anything above that is profit.  So Cryptic doesn't "need" to charge me $2 to have klingon races in the Federation, they just want the extra $2.

Originally posted by LordDraekon

Once again, the COH devs are focusing on the wrong things. Remember when they implemented PhysX when almost no one had any interest in buying the extra card? Adding that was a big performance hit. Now, once again, they're focusing on the environment. But the real draw in a Superhero game is the character model. I'm still seeing mittens! You still run everywhere like a ninny. No walking. The flight poses were removed, never to be seen again. No jet pack power or costume options. Anyone remember the Jingle Jet? Paragon, clean up your character models, then worry about the City! Ugh!

Haven't played in a while LordDraekon? 

You can walk in the game if you want, it's an inherent power like sprint is.  The PhysX they added was for those that had the card.   They added ragdoll physics for those that didn't have the PhysX card.  Focusing on the environment is what the players have asked for.  They really don't need to work on character models as they've already added TONS of customization options, the most recent being the power customization.

Jingle Jet is still in the game.  You can buy it during the Winter Event and use it for 30 days real time.

They also added costume change emotes as well, optional if you want to use them or not.

So, I'd say they've done a lot recently for character models.  It surely doesn't hurt to give Paragon or the Rogue Isles a new coat of paint.