| 2552 posts found | |
|---|---|
|
The End of Server Mergers? When a MMO mergers servers everyone makes a big issue of it, the forums are full of it. But more importantly for the MMO company the gaming press is full of it. Merging servers is seen as being worth a news item in the gaming press. MMO’s do not want that bad publicity, so what have they decided to do? Not merge the servers but allow free character transfers instead. So bad PR as been turned into good PR, “Hey we are allowing free server transfers now!” If you want an example of free character transfers going wrong look no further than Aion. The migration of players to servers where they thought their side would win caused population swings. The migration of swathes of players does not engender server community or stability, the MMO suffers. If you want an example of a very modern launch doing this look no further than SWTOR. Why are we getting free character transfers? So there is no press release about mergers. This is bad for MMO’s, merging servers allowed the company to ensure populations did not get too low. Servers were merged to ensure all the ‘light’ populations became ‘medium’. Free character transfers is just chaos and will not stop server population problems, it just creates a new type of problem. We know that MMO's start with more servers at launch to take up the extra demand, later they have to be reduced to suit the games working population. This is no big deal. MMO's should grip the population problem by the horns, don’t run scared of bad PR and give us character transfers. |
|
|
Its really difficult to stop the world becoming so disorted the original game is lost and players will drift away as nothing can be done to alter what has happened. So once those Orcs have set up camp, they are not going home etc. The problem with world changing events is it changes the world to a point where good gamplay becomes hard to balance. So a restart is the solution, after all loads of players like playing alts, here you play a new one each time the world restarts. Tales of the Desert uses this idea, but its a crafting and economic game, not sure how strong the story is. Why not apply this to what we more often think of as a MMO? |
|
|
Ok put your imagination hats on.
Classic MMO design, from Dwarves to Dragons. But this is a world with a story, which you create as you go along, the players actions creating a new world with different outcomes.
Once the story is over the game resets, you carry over some advantages and start again at level 1. Last time the Orcs ran roughshod over the realms, but this time what will happen? Will the Elf manage to find and work the ritual that will protect his people? Will the humans arrive by ship in time to save the realms?
No rubbish end game, no endless alts, one character who picks his path and forges his way across the realms for good or ill.
|
|
|
Whats the best Pay2Win game in your opinion?
The Pub at MMORPG.COM « General Discussion 4/13/12 9:47:13 AM
We used to get players asking what the best F2P game was. Now they are asking what the best Pay 2 Win game is. Ffs how this genre has fallen. |
|
|
They say a good MMO never dies, well that’s very true on MMORPG.com. Take Star Wars Galaxies, it closed last year (total coincidence SWTOR was coming out) in December. But its forum does not show it has closed. Not even the blurb under each forum name shows it is no more.
You have to wonder, how many more on the game list are now defunct? We need a separate forum for old MMO’s like there is one for up and coming MMO’s.
|
|
|
Guild wars...two. |
|
|
Dont have a level 50? Drop sub for a month.
General Discussion « Star Wars: The Old Republic 4/13/12 6:07:07 AM
Its the age old end of leveling problem, what they have done does not solve it, but it not the end of the world for those below 50 either. |
|
|
If you don't buy the game until after launch and looking at the reviews you can't fall for broken promises. It is gamers buying habits that allow promises to be broken. |
|
|
General: PAX East - The Future of Online Games
News Discussion « General Discussion 4/12/12 8:37:27 AM
Informative and amusing, liked it, but to be a designer or involved in MMO production there are clearly some buzz words you need to say as often as possible: Online space. Heck of a lot of fun spaces out there in MMO land. :D My favourite quote which summed up the last few years, MMO’s wanted to be “everything to everyone and were nothing to anyone.” Trouble is that’s where we still are at, and I only see more nothing to anyone on the horizon.
|
|
|
The fact it will be f2p is a cause for concern not joy. That the game has seen a switch to 'MMO' from being a social hub game is also cause for concern. You don't just change the fundamental architecture of a game with the wave of a wand. The three classes are just one of the things which point to how this game was designed before they decided to call themselves a MMO. I say decided because it takes more then proclaiming yourself to be a proper MMO and doing a design makeover to be one. NWN has had a long and illustrious history, players should realise this new game is its own beast and judge it as such. |
|
|
Guild Wars 2: Guild Wars 2 - Why World vs. World Will Rule
News Discussion « General Discussion 4/03/12 10:24:50 AM
WvW is not RVR, you are not playing against a tribe/race/monsters that you only see in open world pvp zones. You will fight norse guys just like you who are teamed up with Chars etc. Thats nothing like the feeling of defeating Hibernians who you only see when fighting them in contested regions, or raising your flag in a living landscape which is adjecent to your own realm. Compare that to beating a server, there is no personnal connection, its not in the same league. |
|
|
"Ready When it's Done" Oh come on, ready when the investors won't wait any longer to see some return you mean! |
|
|
“There is nothing that I like better than a game that can cater to just about any type of player.”
- The only MMO’s that get made these days try to cater to as many types of player as possible. In doing so they end up only pleasing the biggest player denomination, that is the solo, casual, easymode crowd. But that makes the most money so why care about the rest?
“You don’t have to have a degree in Quantum Physics or Nuclear Science to figure out how to use skills and to use them effectively”
- Nice way of saying it has been dumbed down enough so that a toddler could play it.
“For those with a more detailed oriented view of gaming, the skill and trait systems offer a wealth of micromanagement joy.”
- No, there will be certain builds each class will use, on a website near you by launch day.
“Caveat emptor!”
- I don’t wish to be picky, but this means ‘let the buyer beware’. What that’s got to do with being overwhelmed by nearby mobs . :)
“There was no need to join a group but to just get in there and start fighting.”
- That sounds like a real exercise in teamwork and camaraderie, can you even remember the name of anyone you ‘grouped’ with?
I think GW2 will be a good modern MMO, but as normal you will hear nothing about the problems with modern MMO’s and the genre in general.
|
|
|
Maybe next time a software house will be able to make a game that is not World of .... The effect of WoW on the MMO genre was disscused in a recent article, even here in a very differant kind of game they could not bring themselves to actually think of a new title. |
|
|
The Ford analogy is a fair one as long as you remember the quality that WoW brought into certain areas of the genre. There the analogy breaks down as Ford had little in the way of quality. The zone design, quests, humour, all were great and formed a themic whole. |
|
|
Artarus was right about exploration in WoW, that was one of the preWoW values they held too. They are not going to shrink the size of their MMO now to maximise profit. But add on a cash shop, simplified combat, add more quests so you can just avoid any hard ones and still get to max level, they have done all that. |
|
|
The Positives
The problem with ‘accessibility’ being a positive is that it leads to dumbing down and making MMO’s for people who only play a game for one or two months. In seeking to widen the demographic as much as possible all the innovation, complexity, and exploration has been removed. MMO’s are now made for solo players to increase the ‘accessibility’ so we hardly group. Positive for sales, but not positive for the genre. Just bringing in more people to anything in life does not make it somehow magically better. Oh and ‘accessibility’ is another name for maximising profit, readers got that right?
The ‘death and loss’ positive was a mixed bag. Yes it showed that you did not need extreme death penalties, but it started the ball rolling to no penalties worth mentioning, which is where we are now.
When we come to the third positive I agree, UI customization was championed by WoW and rightly led to an expectation that this was now going to be the norm.
The Negatives
The celestial steed issue: it made two million dollars in four hours. Read that again. Now you know why MMO’s have changed so drastically for the worse. MMO’s were developed by enthusiasts who wanted to make a new genre and make a mint themselves. Now they are run by suits who have no interest in gaming. Last years VP of Haagen-Dazs is this years president of a gaming company near you.
As players we have seen many issues raised by the advent of WoW but there is one overriding fact that drowns all others out – KERCHING! The money is rolling in…players not happy with the Celestial Steed?.... KERCHING!....players not happy with no penalty for death…. KERCHING!...players not happy with anything…<insert credit card being swiped noise here>….they don’t care.
The money is rolling in with each new phase of accessibility/profit maximisation, so a few old players leave, why should they give a damn?
|
|
Originally posted by Skyy_High Well at least that shows they are not taking a press release and tarting it up to make out it is an article. But yep, more research required. |
|
|
Game of Thrones: GDC 2012: Game of Thrones Goes Sandbox Warfare
News Discussion « General Discussion 3/13/12 5:40:43 AM
Oh no a gaming company has got its hands on another IP. Cue mad hype build up and countless tie-ins. Only time will tell if the game beneath the title is a worthy addition to the incredibly overcrowded MMO genre.
|
|
|
MMORPG.COM is going to have a prereview for every single class? How many are there? It would be nice to see more time spent telling us about gameplay, PvE, PvP, crafting and so on. |
|
