TOR is going to decline rapidly if you ask me.  People won't be comparing it to WoW that is for sure.  Maybe RIFT, but I see RIFT coming out on top over time.

Originally posted by Blackbrrd

Americans might not appreciate the date, but in most of Europe, February 21st 2012 is written 21022012, or backwards 21022012. Yeah it's a Palindrom. ;)

Also April 24th is 24042012, there seems to be something there.  Anyway they love to make numbers mean something.  The ARG's are incredible. 

See all you doomsayers in game a month after release.  Don't worry we won't quote your predictions of fail and rub them in your face.  We leave that to the trolls.

Originally posted by DaSpack

Certainly seems like it. They are kicking everything off by letting gamingpress gobble up on TSW this weekend and the next. Week after that. It's blowout of all this info. This is a little more than 2 months before the indicated launchdate the 24th of April.

Plenty of time for pre-orders, beta events, etc.

Well this game is almost made for the vast majority of posters here.  If it wasn't for so much Funcom hate (say it was a new company developing this) it would be RIDICULOUSLY over hyped.  This is a case where I think Funcom's reputation will actually help them temper the hype.

So the floodgates will open on the 21st!  Can't wait.

Originally posted by kishe

original dota was created by private person...he should join the fray and sue both for copyright infrigement 

Well he is heading up the DOTA 2 project for Valve sooo

Well personally on both of these launches I had an absolute blast, and got more than my moneys worth in the first month of play.  Yes it was broken and PR was horrible, but in the end they delivered fun addictive games.

TSW is a different dev team, led by a guy who has produced 2 console games which require extreme levels of polish.  AoC was not just a new game but a new engine.  TSW is using that same engine.

Also if you look up beta reports the game engine appears to be pretty rock solid allowing 30+ hours of continuous no crash gameplay.

I will be all over this sweetly designed game from day 1 and I will preorder the second it is available to support the ideas that they are putting forward.

Originally posted by mmoDAD

I thought WoW's subscription loss would be much greater since last November due to the launch of SWTOR.

Well like 90% of WoW's subs are in regions where SWTOR is not yet available.  You will see a bigger drop in subs from Rift opening in China than SWTOR launching NA and Europe.

This is Blizzard.  You shouldn't have to say delayed because until they give a firm date to retailers there are going to be delays.

For this game we have already late 2011, Q1 2012, now Q2 2012.  That isn't too bad for Blizzard so I almost expect another delay.  Early Q3 is optimistic.

I hope they take that time to de-WoW this game.

So it's not really a 'starter' area, but it is where you start the game.  Any city capital in Final Fantasy XI.  They were magical to me, huge with a great scale to the character.  There were all kinds of branches off that led to areas where you would just get mauled, and the best part is there were characters of all shapes and sizes running around.  The first character I ran into was a level 60 Dragoon looking extremely awesome and they became a friend for the few years I played.  It felt like a real bustling city, and because it wasn't a linear grind themepark I revisited the city throughout the years I played.  I would constantly return, and explore things that I was unable to before.

This is my ideal MMO setup.  Real city hubs that all levels frequent, and you constantly return to.  There wasn't one area in this game that I felt like once I had grinded through it I would never return to.  It was more like a real world laid out to explore and travel and not a straight line.

Originally posted by itgrowls

So here's my question, did they fix the gear treadmill thing? You know where early on they promised that there wouldn't be a gear treadmill then they admited they would be putting one into the weapons? Just curious because that is a major turn off for me even tho i liked the premise of this game.

 

With what's happening with these companies lately, gotta say definitely won't be pre-ordering anything for a long long time. "the mmo that shall not be named" was such a bad launch the companies that rush these games out need to realize by players making the right choice and waiting, that we aren't going to pay enormous fees for the special collectors edition if the game isn't 1: feature complete AT LAUNCH and 2: bug free AT LAUNCH there's a reason why companies use multiple betas after the alpha in testing and it's to catch every bug before launch. Apparently someone lost the memo at these companies because here lately they've been letting the playerbase down.

I say wait for a while after launch see how it goes, if the players are happy then try out the game.

 

In The Secret World armor does not have stats.  It is all purely cosmetic so you can look however you want.  Stats are on weapons and other trinket type things.  There will be a grind if you are trying to unlock all 500 skills, but you can advance towards a deck and in a specific way to become a stronger character faster.

There also likely won't be much of a quest grind since you can only have 3 active quests at once.  I would imagine it would make players pay more attention to quests and have some fun.

On launch MMO's of course if you want to avoid bugs, initial rush server que's, over crowded early game areas then you should definitely wait a month and let everything settle.

Personally launch day is the most fun day I have had in almost every MMO out there and I am a launch addict.  Something about it just really gets me.  Especially in a game like this with ARG quests built in.  I want to be there with the first wave that figures these things out, and not just a google for answer. 

Guess we will know in the coming weeks.  If they are on target for April they should have pre order info coming in soon as well as more beta information and other under the cover game systems coming out.

I can't express how much I love this system.  It is a perfect design for a skill based system with no classes to give direction and rewards and simulate classes.  Ragnar and I see eye to eye on most of his design decisions.  Really shaping up to be a dream game on paper.  I just wish I could pre order it now.

Originally posted by nomss

I only gave TOR as an example to clarify my question.

Are we able to adjust our deck during fights?

 

Got ya.  There are definitely perks and drawbacks to both systems.  I think it is editable any time you are out of combat last I checked.  So not during fights. 

I know there are some simple skins, but I mean like full on environment shifts like a dessert with cliffs and brambles and model changes not just 2d graphic changes.  Why not other mirrored maps altogether?  Just already bored of maps, but I do easily bore of maps from playing too many FPS's and I do want too much I am sure.

Originally posted by AdamTM

Its both a cool and worriesome decission.

 

The fun comes from experimentation, but it can get confusing with 400+ skills to find the right synergies. 

But i think it might hinder the experimentation. 

Well its not mendatory i guess :/

I think it could add a little addictive 'collect them all' system, and since armor doesn't have stats it will be all for looks.  I doubt the deck setups will be the be all end all when it comes to that style of play, but more of a launching platform to get started and further enhance.  With only 10 available per char and 500 skills that leaves a lot of experimentation room.

Originally posted by nomss

So we have 14 active abilities unlike in TOR where we have 30+?

Read again, we only have 7 active abilities and 7 passive abilities on our loadout at any time.  Think more like Guild Wars where you can collect 500 skills, but alter your loadout with 7 active/7 passive when out of combat.  You can adjust them on the fly like if a boss wipes your party you can try altering skills, add more off heals, etc.

... and seriously do we need to compare these games?  They are almost nothing alike.  If you love SWTOR with 30+ skills (of which less than 7 are usually frequently used by most classes) then that is awesome.  I personally like the ability to have 500 skills and customize my character how I want instead of having the exact same setup as almost every other player who plays my class.

Nice!  I recently jumped into this game not a big fan of micro management heavy RTS games, and I have fallen in love with MOBA style gaming.  It is everything I love from RTS games and FPS games combined.

My only problem is that I feel pretty overwhelmed.  I know LoL is the best of the best right now, but part of me just wants to wait for DOTA 2 to launch to dive into that game from the start.  LoL is decently newbie friendly, but I still feel overwhelmed.

Also what is with the lack of maps?  I know balance is hard, but 75+ champs and only 3 maps?  They could at least reskin and change environments with mirrored maps or something.  As a new player (25 ish hours now) I am already bored of the maps.

I still very much enjoy the game, but I find myself not fully committing and kind of waiting for DOTA 2.

Blizzard DOTA looks like something I will completely avoid.

Awesome!  This is a kind of system I had as a part of base design of any sandbox mmo I could dream up.  It reminds me of the FFXI job system, but feeds from such a free form sandboxey style of advancement.

Complete a set, get a 'Job' armor, and you can unlock all of them.  Starting with 10 per society makes 30 decks just at launch, and you could have 60 within a couple expansions.  These give something to work towards, and direction in a directionless system.  Collect them all, go for key ones, and infinite expandabality due to simply needing new armor sets. 

This game is really shaping up like a dream and I can't wait to see its implementation.

I think this time is when many, like me, will have a 50 and be bored of the shallow end game RNG grind and end their subs.  There is always a falloff at the 1-2 month point.  At this point it may start picking up again.

I had fun, was worth the box price, but honestly I beat the game and I am moving on.  Simple as that.