Good to see new people enjoying LoL xD

Just wanted to say, you can't really "get stuck in craft sections" because A) you can always sell your items and B), you can buy a big recipe all at once. Ex. if you need 2 more items to buy the final item and you only have 1 item spot, you can wait till you have enough money to buy the whole thing.

And since I'm at it, I definitely say to people to give this a try. It's cool, it's refreshing, it's more newbie-friendly than other games of its genre and it'll be free to play!

Nooooooo :(

One of the best PvP games I have played...

RIP. And let's hope that sooner or later a dev will finally release a game with this kind of PvP and character customization (without the lag, bugs and with better graphics)

I'm more of a forum crawler than anything else, but just had to say Thank you very much!!

Great post.

I definitely know how's that, especially since I used to play (quit WoW a few months ago) in a small server, so unless you're known around, it's gonna be tough to get started on raids.

I've also gone through the stress of getting in the occasional PUG raid and failing miserably because of the people not knowing what to do, either because it's their first time (and seen people that have learned the encounters quickly), or because they're utter morons (not just because you tell em to do something 5 times in a row and they still don't get it, but because they''re compelled to do exactly the opposite). But, I'm not an elitist and I'll gladly add new people in a raid if they're willing to learn, after all the idea of playing with different people is what MMORPGs are all about. But since the Achievement system, I've seen the elitism in raids even worse than before. Hell, I remember I did the new VOA boss with a decent PUGthe same night the new patch was added (I was quite geared for the encounter, mind you), and of course we failed several times because we didn't know how to do it properly. Then I stop doing serious raiding for about a week because of real life and college, I check here and there how the encounter work, I start looking for a group to raid him, and all of a sudden I can't because I don't have the Achievement. Does that mean that every time there's a new raid I have to rush to go through it faster than anyone else just to have the achievement or I won't be able to do it anymore? (Of course, I eventually killed him, being a healer helps in getting in the occasional PUG).

I know, I repeated most of what the OP said, but I had to vent off. The game should be more friendly to the new 80s, because getting started in raids nowadays can be quite stressing. Actually, it can be just as hard to get started in later raids like Ulduar than the first ones. And when the new raid comes, I hope people is ready to rush through it, or they will be left out that one as well.

I agree that Blizzard has to work a way around the Achievement system, although the idea of the OP of giving top gear for adding new people would mean alot of people literally getting ran through the raids.

I have to admit, this time I actually thought Aventurine would release as scheduled...

Edit: Well, just took the time to read the article (had to reply as soon as I readthe news :P) and they're delivering an open beta on the 22nd. Getting the chance to at laest try the game and having it delayed by only 1 month...I guess it's not THAT bad. But seriously, Tasos has to stop giving away false dates. Makes the company look completely unprofessional.

I'd say GW. Pretty flexible, allows you to build your very own build, has specific skills per profession and allows you to easily change build. SB also has a great class system. It allows for a huge customization.

Wow class system is not so bad. Sure, each class is very active and fun to play, but I honestly dislike the talent system. It really locks the flexibilty on you character: if you want to do a Holy Priest, you might pick some talents over others, sure, but you'll end up with most of the talents and skills as any other Holy Priest. And the fact that you've got several classes being able of healing/DPS/tank makes you 1 more of the crowd, kind of makes you lose the sense of "uniqueness".

I personally love a skill systemover class system. However, the problem is how to balance it correctly: in most games, there will be usually some builds and choice of skills that will work better than others. Thus, having a mix of class and skills usually ends up working for the better

Might check Shadowbane. Graphics are not that good, but the character customization and PvP are worth it. Great game to play while you wait for Darkfall xD

Great idea! Joined. Hope to see you soon in-game (as soon as we can all play, that is).

/signed

Stamina is also a factor to be taken in consideration. Running, turning around, shooting... That might end up using a lot of stamina from the archer. Perhaps there will be a skill related to melee that might make them use less stamina. Perhaps, as it was hinted at earlier, there will be some kind of snares.

All in all, it's all just speculation. We can only assume that Aventurine would be smart enough to think bout this kind of balancing. The only thing we can do is...yep, you've guessed....WAIT AND SEE

If the gameplay is actually great, then I'd even accept UO-like graphics, or EQ-like, or SB-like...oh wait, I'm actually playing SB and enjoying it . Heck even Diablo-like (the first one). I wouldn't mind 2D if it's done right. However, nothing TOO cartoonish.

Playing Shadowbane as well. Till DFO comes out.

Originally posted by daelnor

WoW has it in a watered down generic sense.  They get a lot of the little things right, which other devs either ignore, don't care about, or don't have the resources to do.

Honestly, the most diverse games I've played are MUDS.  Nothing MMO's have done can even come close to comparing, they just have shiny graphics.

 

Indeed. Wow aims to a wide market, but doesn't go way too deep in most facets it shows.

I love MMOs, but they've become limiting in lots of ways. MUDs and PnP RPG really give you alot more immersion and freedom, if you have a bit of immagination. In D&D, combat and crafting was just a small part of the things you could do. Having and managing a castle, an army, spying on rivals, having spells to control other people, to make you fly, etc etc etc. The game would reward you for using you head and getting out of tough spots rather than just killing the zillion mob with a sword or fireball.

Honestly, I think you're better of with either mahirim or ork. Since Humans, Mirdains and Dwarves with be in the same faction, it'll mean more people with you, but chances are that most jerks will join this faction too, become murder and hunt you down regardless. Alfar are by themselves, meaning you'll have lots of people to hunt you down xD So I see Orks and Mahirim as the way in between.

And yeah, the lore will eventually be written by the players. I've been thinking bout becoming an Anti myself and go Mahirim xD

1- Solo-Player: Someone who is either a casual player and doesn't get to group much or someone who never cared for the MMO part of the game.

2- Hardcore: The contrary of casual. The kind of people who has/takes the time to dedicate to MMOs and likes to compete with others, either being having the most gear, knowing the most bout the game or just pwning the most in PvP.

3- Grind: An annoying,repetitive, yet effective way by the devs to keep the players playing a game long enough to get a good chunk of money from the subs.

4- RMT: An even more annoying way to suck money out of players. Potential to suck more cash, but usually abhorred by most MMO players.

5- Community: What differentiate a RPG from a MMORPG.

6- Sandbox: Type of game who just gives the basic tools of character creation and development to the players, giving these the freedom to do what they want in-game.

7- Linear: A way for devs to give players an idea of how to progress deeper into the game (instead of letting them figure it out) and at the same time an excuse to reduce the amount of content they need to put in a game.

8- PvP: One of the reasons of why MMOs became so famous: having other people to compete against.

9- PvE: The other reasons of why MMOs became so famous: having other people to play alongside them.

For PvE, LOTRO and DDO, hands down. Hardly any PvP to look at, but if you're really not interested in that, then no problem.

Originally posted by FarScape

Duke Nukem Forever is the True Definition of Vaporware... not Darkfall =P

Ditto :P I'd actually be surprised IF it ever makes it to the stores

lol, good luck waiting for that game. It's not an MMO, it's supposed to be a FPS and the name is Duke Nukem Forever. It's been in development stage since as far as I can remember and right now it's in what is called "Developer's Hell": for several reason, like lack of funds, people being fired and new people hired, years going by and developing team having to update graphics and such...well, the game is still there, stored somewhere, waiting to be finished....but you never know, we might see it in the stores by 2020

Indeed, all games start with bugs here and there and some game design flaws that eventually get fixed. But when new players have to choose between WoW or a new buggy game that feels like WoW, they'd rather stay with WoW ofc. Till they get bored and actually try to give other MMOs a chance.

The problem is that, even if MMOs have some features more than others and different theme, they end up being the same grind-and-quest system. Who said that MMOs need to have levels? Or classes? Or stats? Or any other standard that has become usual to see in MMOs? The fact is that MMOs still have a close mind regarding the industry, they keep working on old game designs that has been going around since D&D.

What devs need to do is to branch out, try new things instead of just copy-pasting stuff from existing games. They might not get the amount of subs that WoW has, but then again I think it's going to take a while for a MMO to become this succesful. You can make more than enough money by aiming to a specific market instead of sticking to the usual model of MMO and trying to get in a bit of everything. Actually we've seen as of lately that the latter ends up working even worse.

Hopefully, the new year will bring alot of new and fresh mmos (DF,Mortal Online, Earthrise, etc)

Originally posted by tubelight

 The reason why everyone and their uncle tries to be like WoW is because its been proven time and again that sandbox games cannot succeed in ways that WoW did. We have seen it in many games, take for example EVE Online. IMO this is the most advanced sandbox game out there right now, and how many users does it claim to have? 400k? 500k? 1mill? Thats still 10 times as low as WoW. Forget EVE, take SWG or any other fantasy based game that was close to a sandbox and ask yourself how many users did it have at its peak?

The reason why WoW got all those subs compared to the old-school sandbox games is that all those games aimed to the gamer (or as people call it, hardcore gamer). The kind of people who played games from years back, people used to RTS, RPG, etc. What WoW did was aiming to a broader audience. An example would be EVE. A nice game. Why it doesn't have the amount of subs that WoW has? Apart from being Sci-Fi, which doesn't appeal to everyone, is that it is in fact complex. I know 40-years-old people who never played a game before and play WoW in their free time, but I'm sure that if I put a game like EVE in front of them, they wouldn't know what to do. Nowadays, you see people who have never played a MMO (or even a video-game) running around with their level 70 toon in WoW. Why? Because it's got content, it's polished, it's easy, and it has a little bit of everything. Is WoW a good MMO? No doubt. Is WoW the best MMO? Don't think so. The only reason it has so many people playing is because it's where most people start playing MMOs nowadays. That's also why most WoW-clones failed: why playing a game that looks like WoW but it's less polished when...well, you can just play WoW? Especially if you've been already been playing WoW for a while. Devs should just forget trying to stick a little bit of everything and hope to get the amount of subs Blizz did. What they should be doing is a game that actually feels different and that aims to a specific market, so as to attract the hardcore gamer and, probably, the new gamers when they'll eventually get bored of WoW (which happens for everyone sooner or later, people eventually get bored of the same). Trying to copy the original will only keep devs sinking painfully.

Well yes, the ffa pvp is still the staple of SB. It's definitely not for everyone, but it's perfectly possible to level up. Just get in a guild. Being in a guild will get you groups to level up, which is easier, harder to get pked and funnier. That and a little bit of care when going out to level, like keeping an eye on track, going on remote camps, avoiding HZ and so on.