I haven't quite made it to the PvP portion of the game, but I've done my share of dueling (sp?) and it's been fun enuff.

I'm surprised to see my 'toon hold her own against 'toons that are 2 or even 3 levels above her, though in the end she still loses of course. It seems to be based on what skills you have and how you use them, instead of directly related to what level you are, which is a nice change of pace.

From what I've read it seems that my 'toon will eventually move to a different area, where the game will pretty much be PvP focused, as opposed to the area she's presently in, which is primarily quest-based.

---

I really dislike the click-to-move thing, have been using WASD instead. I wish it had mouse-look/movement instead, but who knows, maybe they'll make a change down the line.

---

Well, with a little digging through the config menus, I found the setting I was looking for. ARGO does offer mouse-look/movement as I've grown accustomed to in other games.

The most recent update (build 52) broke things for me, on my Windows 7 64-bit machine.

The version of Hackshield that was distributed with the latest update wouldn't allow things to work properly unless a did a 'Run as Administrator', which I don't like. With a bit of Googling I was able to find an alternate build of HShield that allowed things to work again, without running as admin.

Once that problem was resolved, and I got to the character-select screen, I discovered that my 'toon was invisible. Only her shadow was present. When I selected my inivisble 'toon and chose to enter the game, I was presented with an error message and then crash-to-desktop.

From the Launcher I went to options and rolled the version back to 45, cleared cache, and saved the config. This caused the client to (re)upgrade itself from build 45.

Upon completion, once I returned to the character-select screen, my 'toon was no longer invisible, and I was pleased to see I could enter the game without problem this time around, :)

Assuming some file or group of files was corrupt, and allowing things to (re)upgrade re-downloaded those files.

My 'toon has reach level 10, and her and her pet are doing well adventuring. I missed an event last night, as I was AFK. It started while I was away from the 'puter, and noticed it coming to an end as I returned. I'm hoping for another one tonight, that I can take part in.

I haven't been involved in any grouping yet, and have only quickly glanced at the Guild window, but it's only a matter of time before I start activly seeking out a guild to join.

The storyline is fairly in-depth, even though the translations are a bit laughable from time to time.

I've browsed the Cash-Shop, and I didn't really see anything that was game-breaking, which is good. I normally stay away from the cash-shops, but I'm glad to see that there's nothing overwhelmingly out-of-balance available for purchase.

I really feel this game could go far. I think we just need more folks to download it and give it a try. Compared to the other MMOs out there (free and pay alike) it's certainly a step in the right direction.

I've created a couple other 'toons, just to see how far I could take the character creation, and man you can seriously tweak the appearance of your 'toons on this game. I almost wish I would have taken a little more time with my main, as I know I could have gotten her to look way-hot, LOL, :)

I started playing ARGO Online about a week ago, and I’m hooked.

So far I've gone with a Floresslah Shaman as my first toon, already earned my first pet.

Having a lot of fun running quests and exploring. The interface takes a little getting used to, but you can adjusting the key-binds as needed.

I really dislike the click-to-move thing, have been using WASD instead. I wish it had mouse-look/movement instead, but who knows, maybe they'll make a change down the line.

The character creation is seriously intense, you can spend a _LOT_ of time customizing your toon's appearance, which I really like in an MMORPG.

Can't wait to hook up with some in-game groups, maybe find a guild to join. Get into some PvP.

Haven't even given a look at the in-game store yet.

The game really looks promising.

A little history first;
- Been playing RPGs since the days of pen'n'paper DnD
- Been playing online RPGs since the days of MUDs

Was a long-time SWG player, until NGE hit (started in Beta, and suffered through the horrible launch they had).

Have been a long-time EVE player, but will be letting my sub' expire within the next billing cycle, as I basically never play any more. It's a game that requires a lot of time, that I just do not have anymore.

So, here I am... In this kinda' slump... An MMO-purgatory, if you will. Not really liking any of the new pay-MMOs, have tried a __lot__ of f2p MMOs, and not impressed there either.

The next one on the list to try was this one called Vindictus. What the heck.. It's f2p. Downloaded and got it installed.

First thing I noticed, is the graphics are pretty nice.

The character customization wasn't great. Not enough options to really fine-tune your 'toon, but nice models. Enough options to at least shake it up a bit.

Get into game, and wow - the graphics are real nice. On-par with some pay-titles. Most certainly better than most of the f2p titles, for sure. Characters are nice to look at, especially the higher-level ones I saw running around in very epic-looking armor and outfits. The world in-general looking pretty detailed.

Took me a little bit to get used to the action-orientated combat system, timing combos and dodging properly, and what-not. But much more enjoyable than the standard "action bar" full of skills as is the case in most MMOs.

Been playing for a couple days now, and am having a good time.

Don't have a real sense of the in-game community yet, but I did jump into a couple groups for a some of my stories, and we had fun clobbering baddies together.

I like how you can run the same story with different goals, or at harder levels. Makes things a bit more interesting than the way your basic MMO works (go here, kill those guys, bring this back, here's your pay).

Wondering if there's any good guilds in-game that might be looking for a new member? I've got a family and a real-life that totally comes first. So I'm usually only able to get in front my workstation a couple hours at night (EST) if at all. I'm a fairly casual gamer now-a-days, compared to my pre-marriage/pre-kids days, LOL. It'd be nice to get in with a good group to have some fun with when I'm in-game.

Cheers!

So I've been playing Vindictus the past couple nights, and I'm having a pretty good time at it.

It's a different type of MMORPG than I've played before. Combat is much more action-orientated. My 'toon has basically two weapon attacks (left-mouse, right-mouse). But you can hit-off different combos.

So left-mouse/right-mouse does one combo
left-mouse/left-mouse/right-mouse does another
left-mouse/left-mouse/left-mouse/right-mouse does a third
left-mouse/left-mouse/left-mouse/left-mouse/right-mouse does the fourth

I can kick stuff, R-key

And I've got a "secondary weapon". F-key to enter "aim-mode" and fire-away.

I've got a recovery spell (hold-right-click).

Then I've got a couple spells (1-key and 2-key [big fire on 2, I likey 2]), and my heal potion on my last key, and that's it so far.

There's also the Spacebar to dodge/jump out of the way of attacks. Which actually _does_ allow you to dodge attacks when done at the right time, surprisingly.

And if I'm running (hold shift while moving) for a while, my 'toon builds up some kinda magic energy, and if I right-click _BLAM_ it fires off. Good for entering an area full of baddies I've noticed, :)

And oddly enough, I really like it.

I notice what I'm doing a lot more than in the regular old "action bar" full of skills. Trying to time the click/click/click so I can hit the specific combo that I want.

The character customization isn't great. But the graphics are real nice for a f2p game. And the characters look nice. Especially the higher-level ones I saw running around, some of the armor is pretty epic looking.

Don't have a good sense of the community yet, but did jump into a couple groups for a couple of my "story lines" (not called missions in this one, I guess), and we had fun whomping on baddies together.

I think I might have found a new home to hold me over until the next Rift beta, and until Rift goes live. And even a nice game to flip to whenever I need a break from whatever other game I might also be playing.

So... Vindictus... Gets a good score from me, at least, :)

Cheers!

I had heard about Aika before, but the locked gender-specific builds turned me off. I like building a bad-arse female Warrior-type 'toon from time to time.

But I did _not_ know about Dynasty Warriors or S4 League. Both look pretty good.

Being I'm basically in the midst of an MMO-purgatory myself, looks like I just found two new games to try out, :)

Tnks!

Oh... I like this idea.

Firstly, it would instantly give Trion a third character-class to offer player-base. And then they could split that up even further.

There are multiple types of rifts in Rift. Death rift, Water rift, Light Rift, and so on and so on.

Allow players to choose one of these rift-related classes. They proceed to create their baddie character and then plop them down on the other side of those Rifts. Your a Death-rift type baddie, living on the other side of those Death rifts. It's your job to work at not only leveling your character, but also opening of the tears so that you can jump through a rift and invade.

Trion could even implement something like this slowly, and in stages, over time. Say, introduce one new rift-related class every 6 months or so. Start out with the "shiniest" class, and eventually work up to the Death-rift class (they seem to be the nastiest anyways).

The possibilities would be almost unlimited.

And just think of how much more interesting the PvP world would be! Instead of two "good guy" classes duking it out, they'd open up doors to all types of different encounters, :)

EDIT:
You know what, since the OP mentioned he hasn't been involved in the beta yet, I'm going to quote his idea over on the BETA forums of Rift, with a link to this thread, :)

Now that was an excellent time! This Beta event went smoother, and felt more polished, than most games do at launch, and some even months after launch!

So first thing's first, Kudos to Trion and the dev-team for making Rift into something to look forward to already, at least for me!

Let me say, I tried everything but the dungeons and PvP (this being my first Rift beta event, I didn't even reach lvl 20 before end), and I only had one problem. I got stuck between two rocks, on my way back to my body. I jumped wrong or something, and landed perfectly in between two rocks and was completely stuck. I had to "Return to Graveyard". I ran every quest I was given, helped out with every Rift I could get to in time, played around with soul stones (those little things you equip? maybe not stones?). You name it. And only the stuck-between-2-rocks problem happened to me.

I did not experience any crash-to-desktop, no problems with lag (except for one water Rift that easily had 50+ people helping out), only a couple disconnects (no way to determine if it was server-side or my ISP though, so...). Like I said, polished... Very polished for a Beta event.

And now.... Dum dum dum dum.... The list...

Just a few items I personally would like to see done differently. Not a game-breaker for me though.

- Slight more freedom when designing your character. I'd like to be able to be a big fattie, or a stickpole, if I feel like. The facial customizations were pretty good, but besides height selections there was no way to make your character's body your own

- Do-away with the must-target-to-attack. I feel target-lock is important for things such as spells, ranged attacks, and so you don't lose focus of your intended target. However, when you're engaged you can't fight back until you target-lock.

If you're being hit by multiple attackers sometimes you don't always get the target you intend to on the first try, or even the second try. Also, you already have the requirement of "face your enemy".

I think better, would be, if you're in range, and facing your enemy then you should be able to land a hit. Especially if you've got 2 or 3 enemies in front of you. There's no way that if you swing a sword or an axe, in the direction of three foes standing right in front of you that you can't land a hit on more than one.

Especially when you're in a huge foothold defense, or Rift event, and there's like 50 baddies surrounding you and your group. Maybe it's just me, but seriously, you can't accurately target the baddie you want in that type of situation.

And even more importantly, in PvP situations. There's going to be times that you'll be engaged by multiple attackers. If your attack is within range, and you're facing in the right direction you'll be pretty upset if you can't land a hit fast enough to defend yourself just because you hit [TAB] one too many times in the excitement of it all.

It makes the combat system a lot more open feeling, and not so single-threaded, and adds a bit of realism, even if it's just a touch.

- Some clothing accessories, such as backpacks. I mean, I'm a big ol' stomping warrior, carrying all this stuff in these invisible bags? At least give my model a backpack, :)

- A "Styles" or "Wardrobe" tab. The equipment is nice enough to look at, and all. But sometimes I'll keep a piece of equipment over another just because I like the way it looks. Maybe it's just me being an RP geek, but I like to tweak my character's appearance and a Styles tab, that allows you to "wear" anything you've got the ability to "equip", would allow you to show-to-the world the appearance you prefer, while still using-in-battle the equipment that will help you the most.

- Lower requirement for mounts... I'm on the fence about this... I mean, at level 20 you've instantly got access to two different types of mounts. The cheap ones, and the pricey ones. Why not make the cheap ones usable to say level 10's or 12's, and then the pricier ones at level 20? Again, it's me being an RP geek. It's not like mounts make travel that much quicker, but they help. But the more important part is the role-playing aspect, I think.

- Maybe this is already in the game, but I couldn't figure it out. The ability to create little scripts or macros. Nothing you can loop endlessly of course, that's where you get the botters. But having the ability to string a handful of commands together, opens up more RP capabilities.
Something like a Greet macro "/wave ; /clap ; /say Hello! Haven't seen you in ages, my friend!"
Or maybe a Taunt macro "/shakefist $TARGET ; /yell You'll not defeat us, you vile beast! ; /yell ATTACK!"

Yes, I know... I'm an RP geek... I can't help it... Have been for decades... But trust me, it's fun! And with little capabilities such as being able to write simple macros like that, it makes RP alot more fun, :)

- Maybe there just wasn't enough for a proper judgment, but how about some sexier physiques... For both male and female characters. And how about some nice hair-styles, especially for the ladies. I heard a few female characters complain about hair-styles.

- Player housing, player cities even? Okay.. This is always a hot topic. First, you don't want your in-game world to start lagging (aka SWG of yesteryear) just because your players setup housing. But you also don't want each house an individual instance, because then there's no sense of community (LoTRO has the absolute worst implementation of player housing, in my opinion).

There's got to be a happy medium someplace. Maybe small, reserved areas in the open-world? Maybe an instanced area for neighborhoods? Maybe an entirely separate shard for _just_ player communities? I'm not sure what it is, but then again I'm not a game developer, :). I know I'd love to be able to log off one night, sitting in my home, only to find a Rift event right outside my door the next day when I log back in. That would just be an RPers dream, :)

Well, that's about all I can think of for now... I'll update this post as I think of more to comment/suggest/talk about.

Again, kudos Trion for making Beta 5 so enjoyable to this RIFT-newcomer!

Well, here I am, second batch of feedback for this Beta event.

Shortly after my previous post, I left the starter area, going back in time, and am now having a lot more fun than I was during my level 1-7 progression.

I realize now, that that one static Rift I discussed in my last post was basically there to start off the real story-arc, sending my toon back into the past, so that I could assist with saving my own future.

The real world is much larger.... MUCH larger, than the starter area was. There's a lot more to do, and a lot more players to play alongside with.

The location of Rift events seems to be a mixture of static spots as well as random spots. Last night I was involved in countless Rift events. Some opened over and over again in the same locations, while others seemed completely random. I'm getting a grasp of the whole dependency on the population level, if only a bit.

I've now earned my third soul, have acquired some half-way acceptable gear (between rewards from quests and loot-drops), and am having fun with the population. There's always chat happening, there's always people to fight alongside with, and for Beta man is this world populated! I love it!

I'm really enjoying the whole Public Group thing. You see a Rift off in the distance, you run to get to it, and as you close in you get the ability to "Join Public Group". It's just an excellent idea!! And it works great, at least seems to so far.

I've taken up a couple crafting skills, Hunting and Foraging. So far I'm not doing anything with the items I earn from skinning and gutting animals besides selling them to the local vendors. If nothing, it's a good way at making extra currency. I've been able to afford to train all the skills available from my Warrior trainer, as well as keep my batch of healing potions supplied.

What I haven't figured out yet, is two things. 1) Will I ever get a different/more pets (or will I continue to just have what appears to be a type of tiger-looking pet). 2) Is this world a persistent world, where I will eventually see things such as player-owned housing and cities.

I can't tell yet, on both points. I'm too busy having fun in-game to take the time to ask a buttload of questions. Once the Beta event is done with, I'll obviously hit the forums big time, and start digging for the information I'm in search of.

The one thing I still don't enjoy is the whole "must target-lock to attack". I feel this is pretty week. Again, I feel if you swing in the appropriate direction, and are within distance of your attack range, then you should be able to land a hit. When you're engaged by a mob, you've got to get him targetted before you can start fighting back. I'm hoping the devs take this into consideration, and make changes to this part of the combat system.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to the time left in this Beta event, and find myself already looking forward to the next one.

So far, job well-done Trion folks! Job well-done!

A few details first;

Created my toon on the PvE-RP server, Faeblight

Went with a Bahmi, Defiant, Warrior, male, and went with Beastmaster as my first soul, later opening Champion to along with my build.

The character creation was pretty nice. I like that I wasn't limited to cardboard cutouts, so that everyone looks the same. I felt that I had just enough freedom to make my toon my own. I would have enjoyed a little more freedom with the body (aka, make a real thin toon, or a big ol' fatty toon... give him skinny legs with a big broad chest, and so on...)

The play isn't much different than most hack'n'slash MMOs... You've gotta face your enemy, you've gotta manage your cool downs and energy, etc. What I didn't like was that I __had__ to have something targeted to even swing my sword. I can understand targeting for the purpose of not losing focus on your intended target. But if you are engaged, you can't fight back until you target your attacker. I feel that's a mistake. I think you should be able to attack without have a target so that you are able to inflict some type of damage whilest you attempt to target your attacker.

Overall, things work well and look nice. The combat commands are straight forward, and work as expected. The pet controls work well, which is a pleasant surprise. Some games that have pets don't give you good pet abilities. I'm able to send out my pet to attack, then call him back leading the baddie back to my locale.

So far there's nothing overly exciting about my experience yet, I've worked to level 7 so far. It's no more strong or weak than any other fantasy-based MMO I've done a 1-to-7 level in.

I did get to see a Rift open up across the way while hanging out in one of the encampments, which was pretty cool. I thought to myself, whoa... That was entirely random, didn't expect that.

However, about 20 minutes later, a Rift opened up in the same exact place. And then again today, while writing this, twice more, in the same exact place. So now I'm thinking to myself... Hmm.. not so random I guess? Especially since it's opening up over and over again in the same locale?

Anyways, to summarize so far.

Client runs well, no lag, no crash-to-desktop, and I've got all the video settings pumped up pretty high.
Game play is as expected, and works the way I'm used to most ground-based MMOs working.
I like the multiple soul thing, makes me feel I'll be able to experience many different play styles with just one toon
Pet system working well, with what I've experienced so far
Things are nice too look at, nice graphics and models.

Having fun with things over all... Just my 2cents for now... This is a Beta after all, so the more feedback the better, :)

Cheers!

I've been gone from EVE for a little while now, but I recall how laggy systems would get during large-scale events.   How's the lag experience when these Incursion situations are underway?

Is this occurring in every system, high-sec, low-sec, and null-sec alike?  Even in the Concord-protected high-sec areas?

If so, you got to wonder, why Concord isn't jumping into the fight, to help push back the invasion, eh?  :)  :)

-

Dan'

Just today, or is this an everyday thing?

Personally, I preferred it on the side, since I use a WS monitor.  At the bottom will just cut my top-to-bottom screen space.

I think, make it moveable, that'll be a little more win.

So, it seems SOE made a few change the past few days.

Some I like, some not so much.

The new Welcome screen. Not bad. It's not as cluttered as the previous version. My boys know to just click on the big globe in the middle to get to the game. But now there's the option to go right to one of your homes, or bring out one of your rides or pets as well. The Games button gets you to a more organized list of things to do.

Now, on the other hand, once you get to your pet window and select a pet, your not pushed back out to the game world. You're now pushed into your "pet maintenance" mode. Some might like this, my boys seem to like it so that's a good thing. I don't like it. When i select my pet, I want to instantly return to the action, not have to fumble around closing out of "pet maintenance" mode.

The house selection is improved. I like being brought to a separate window to select which of my houses I want to visit, instead of the little scroll-bar you used to get present with. It also makes it easier for my boys to select a house, as sometimes they have problems with the little scroll bar.

The thing I'd love to see is is better map system. Where you could scroll in closer/further on the large map area. It'd be nice to be able to take detailed screenshots of where I am when I find something interesting, like an Exploration coin.

Maybe in a future update, who knows, :)

Odd...

My 2 boys and I play Free Realms together all the time, and we don't experience bandwidth issues. Three PCs all connected to Free Realms from the same home-network, via a cable-powered ISP.

We also do NetFlix, You Tube, Hulu, and countless other streaming media sources on the Media Center, all while they play. Never have any problems.

I can't see where it's a problem with Free Realms... :/

I'm a geek. Always have been. I've been playing MMOs for years, some casually, some hardcore. But, having twins five years ago changed everything, not surprisingly. I wouldn't trade it for anything, and getting me away from my MMO-ways was a good thing, in all honesty.

Over the years, they've always enjoyed sitting on my lap, watching me play whatever PC game I was playing. The Sims titles, MMO-trials (I don't really sub to anything now-a-days), countless F2P style MMOs, single-player RPGs, RTS-style games (they like watching me play Demigod alot).

They always want to play with me, to-which I usually end up closing the game and finding something else for us to do, as most of the games I play are tougher than a 5-yr old can handle.

We've had a lifetime membership to JumpStart since they we're three, and I've got an avatar in that game so the three of us can play together. I have to admit though, JumpStart is not the type of game I can stomach for long. It's not-surprisingly too child-focused for an almost-40 dad, LOL. It's a great game for kids though, and my boys enjoy it.

Anyways, about 8 months ago I tried out Free Realms. I tried it more for myself, as it seemed like it could be a nice F2P MMO I could play casually. As I played, though, I saw that it might also be a game my boys (still 4 at the time) could handle. So I installed it on each of their PCs (of course, the sons of a geek have their own PCs already, LOL) and I helped them get their avatars setup.

Each of them needed almost no help in getting into the game play. They already knew the basic concept of "killing bad guys" from watching me play the various games they've watched me play, and they already had the basic movement skills from JumpStart. They enjoyed, very much, the other aspects of Free Realms. The various occupations your avatar can be, which gives them many different things to try out. I mean, seriously, the Adventurer alone, where-in you gain levels for pretty much just running around to every nook-and-cranny of the world will even keep you busy, LOL.

After a couple months, I broke down and purchased lifetime memberships for all three of our accounts. And I have to say, it was money well spent. They absolutely love having a house they can decorate anyway they want. The were overjoyed with the fact that they can have a pet to play with. And the fact that they can ride a dinosaur and a hoverboard has them smiling ear-to-ear.

It's an absolute joy to watch them sit across from each other, and hear them talk about grouping with each other to go kill bad guys, or helping each other find a certain race-track that they especially prefer, or listening to them get excited about the free item they just got from the Login screen. They especially like to visit "daddy's house", because I go out of my way to make sure it's wild and crazy, so they'll have fun running around looking at things.

We each have our favorite occupation. One of them just loves the race-car title, and he's pretty good at it too, having reached level 12 on that job. One of them loves just being an Adventurer. Running around every where with his pet pooch, even getting his character into spots I never thought of trying to run my character too, LOL. I, being the old MMO-warhorse from yester-year, enjoy the Warrior role, but also like running around as the Adventurer.

But what I enjoy most, is the sense of teamwork, patience, and money it's given both of them. They work together a lot when they play. Helping one another find certain areas on the map. Helping one another "kill bad guys" when they group together. Patience, not surprising, especially since one of them likes the Race Car job. It's tough to win in those races. I'll admit, I suck at the Race Car job. But my boy who loves that job is quite good, and it took quite a bit of patience to get that way. And being a little hyper, him learning patience was a total bonus for mom and dad, LOL.

Then there's the sense of money. They know, that if their coins are at Zero, they can't buy anything from the coin-shop. They've learned that they need to go earn coins if they want to buy something. And they've also learned that they need to save their coins if they want to buy the cool stuff for their house, or new weapons, or new clothes for their pets or themselves. I enjoy hearing them talk about "saving up my coins to buy (insert item here)...". It amazes me that at 5yrs old, they have grasped that concept already.

Hell, I barely remember being 5yrs old, but I can guarantee I wasn't grasping the concept of saving money yet. I'll bet I as out back digging a hole, or eating a mud pie, or burning ants with a magnifying glass, LOL!!!

We (mom and dad) do buy the Station-Cash cards for them once in a while. Not very often though. 2 $10 cards a couple months ago, and 2 $10 cards just this weekend to go along with them turning 5. Out of all the presents they got from friends, family, and mom & dad, they were most excited about the $10 cards. They each bought something different with the SCs, one purchasing a spooky house, one purchasing a large wilds house, and both purchasing new rides, and some clothes for their characters and their pets (they each had SCs still saved from the last time they got cards).

I know, I'm sure there are those out there that are going to think I'm just the worst dad in the world. Letting his 5yr olds "veg in front of a computer all day". Which is far from the fact. They're allowed to play 45 minutes to 60 minutes a day, on school-days. And then, only if they finish home-work and baths in time. Otherwise no Free Realms (yes, all-day kindergarten and they get at least 45-minutes of homework each day already). On the weekends, only after dinner (once it's dark out, basically). During "sun-hours", we do stuff outside, or get our running around done.

I think the part I love most, is to see how excited they are when "daddy's guy" is in the game with them. They love playing chase, and trying to keep up with me. They love to get into a group and go kill bad guys. And they just love to see what crazy new stuff I've setup at my large wilds house for them to check out.

For the most part, we spend very little $$$ on Free Realms, past what I dished out for the lifetime memberships a few months ago. It keeps mom sane, because she has time to workout while the boys are playing where she can keep an eye on them. I enjoy it for the same reason, I can actually get a little barbell time again. Best of all, all three of us enjoy playing, me mostly because I get to watch them have a good time.

Is it a good thing? I don't know, but it works out well in our house, which has been pretty crazy since the twins got here 5 yrs ago. Will it work the same for everybody? No, probably not.

That's just my two-cents on Free Realms. Do with it as you will, :)

Cheers!

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Originally posted by kopema
...or else all you're doing is trying to polish a turd.

---

LOL! You just turned my whole day around!

I need to add that to my work signature, :)

I agree with the OP. You can't blame Blizzard for the epic-fail POS MMOs that other companies have released.

I tried WoW and didn't like it. But that's just me. I know a lot of people who do like it.

What the other companies producing these failed copycats need to realize is this;

If a person wants to play WoW, then they'll just play WoW. They're not going to play an obvious attempt at a 2nd-rate imitation. And, people that don't like WoW are certainly not going to play a copycat of WoW.

What other companies _should_ be doing (and some are finally getting a clue, maybe???) is they need to produce the "anti-WoW" to grab those that not only dislike WoW, but also those of us that have been waiting and wanting and searching for a new MMO we could call our own.

They need to start from a blank slate, and say "Okay, what would I want to play".

Now, if their plan eventually leads back to the answer of the question "Is this game like WoW?" being a Yes, they need to just stop. Put down the pen... Put down the ponter... Step away from the white-board. Forget about developing something new, and just go play WoW.

I mean, seriously, if I go to the store because I'm the mood for some Oreos, do I come home with Hydrox or some other generic knock-off?? Heck no! I come home with some flippin' Oreos! ;)

So why do gaming developers think that _anyone_ who already loves WoW would play a poor imitation, as well as anyone who hates WoW bother to play a WoW-copy?

ps: If you are a Hydrox lover, please don't bash me... You like what you like and that's all any of us can do. I like me some Oreos, :)

Wanted to give Taikodom a try, so a few nights ago I downloaded the installer, and finally got around to installing it earlier this morning.

When I launched the game my screen flickered and then nothing.

Tried again, same outcome.

Tried to hit their website again, to see what's what, and their website also gives me nothing. It's like they vanished.

I tried their parent company's website as well, www.hoplon.com, and it also does not come up. It's like someone just zapped them from existence.

I'm on a Time Warner Road Runner connection, in the western New York area. Is it just me, or is anyone else seeing the same thing?

Thanks! :)

This game sounds very intriguing, but am I reading this correctly where they are requiring people to pre-pay for a currently un-finished game just so you can help them with the Beta testing?

Isn't it enough that people are willing to help Beta test your product?

In this age of companies that come, promise the world, and fall to their knees all before their product hits the shelves, how many people are Okay with paying to Beta test an MMO now-a-days?

I, for one, am having trouble getting myself to step through the account creation on their website, but maybe it's just me, :/