Originally posted by xion12121

Originally posted by mrroboto40

Originally posted by peteski123

27,000 players banned for botting, thats £270,000 a month in revenue lost..  Now show me proof of that bans???

hmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

Don't be an idiot.

  What you have to keep in mind here is that they might not actually be banning anything. This could be just PR spin to retain current subscribers.

Right.  This is the real issue.  They are releasing a lot of PR, but they were saying good things about banning bots during the first month as well.  However, I saw no action that actually supported their PR releases.

For now this is all just a bunch of numbers that I care nothing about.  What I need is to see video of typical bost-infested areas, taken over the course of a few days, that's NOT taken by anyone who is working with NC Soft.  The bottom line is that I simply don't trust them.

I spent so-called "closed beta" and head start dealing with the bots (and reporting them).  I reported bots in Live (a number of which were the same bots from head start) every day for the first week until my ability to submit petitions mysteriously broke (the support ticket for which was "elevated to a senior GM" and then flatly ignored up to the point that I canceled my account). I saw the same bots that I reported every fracking day continue wide out in the open, ostensibly 24hrs a day, flat out ignored by NC Soft all while NC posted anti-bot PR on the web.

If NC Soft wants my money again they will apologize to me for... ahem... losing my support ticket and then they'll SHOW me that there's actual substance behind their words.  Otherwise they can stuff their empty PR straight up their turkey.

I agree.  The example that immediately came to mind when I saw the OP's article was AoC.  That MMO received glowing reviews for Tortage, but very few (if any?) gave anything more than a few sentences regarding the real game beyond the introduction.

It's all about time.  Ideally a MMO review should be broken into segments that cover the first three months.  There would be a "Lunch Review" of the first two or three days, and then three more reviews written:  Part 1 being written after the first month, Part 2 after the second, and, of course, Part 3 after the third month.  Perhaps these monthly segments could also cover issues brought up in the forums.  Forum comments are usually exaggerated and a review would be a good place to balance the reality versus the emotionally charged forum posts.

Who's going to give it that much time though?  For that matter, who's still going to care about the reviews at that point?  I would really like to see how such an approach to MMO reviews would be received.

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Mysk

Originally posted by Mystik86

I've been into the WoD stuff for a VERY LONG TIME and I can tell you that if the game does see the light of the moon it will be the single greatest offering to the horror/RP/vampire-vs-werewolf community ever...

 

That's assuming that they build it correctly, but you're forgetting something called "DDO".  For many years I made your comment but in regards to fantasy MMOs, saying that if anyone ever made a Dungeons & Dragons MMO then that would be it.  Most epic MMO ever.

Well, you know that went.

Don't get me wrong.  I love WoD and vampires and werewolves and horror and... the whole shabang.  While I have more respect for CCP than I'll ever likely have for Turbine, that's not saying that I have any form of explicit trust that they - or anyone - will actually do the IP justice.

I'd cross my fingers and hope for the best, but I need them to be snarky on the forums.

EDIT:  As far as a Twilight MMO is concerned, sure, let them have it. I really don't care.  It would keep those types out of the WoD IP where they would almost certainly whine about how the vampires are too mean, not romantic enough, and otherwise not like edward.  As far as I'm concerned it would do everyone a service.

 

I just don't trust that a vampire mmo would work unless it was more along the lines of an Underworld style (doesn't have to have werewolves just the style) world where it's more about the conflict.

I suppose what I'm saying is that mmo's don't seem to me to be very good at generating atmosphere. It's hard to be scary with people dueling in the tombs and people dancing on top of the bushes.

Celerity + The Hammer onna bush.  If you're going to do a masquerade violation, may as well do it with flair. :D

Originally posted by Mystik86

I've been into the WoD stuff for a VERY LONG TIME and I can tell you that if the game does see the light of the moon it will be the single greatest offering to the horror/RP/vampire-vs-werewolf community ever...

That's assuming that they build it correctly, but you're forgetting something called "DDO".  For many years I made your comment but in regards to fantasy MMOs, saying that if anyone ever made a Dungeons & Dragons MMO then that would be it.  Most epic MMO ever.

Well, you know that went.

Don't get me wrong.  I love WoD and vampires and werewolves and horror and... the whole shabang.  While I have more respect for CCP than I'll ever likely have for Turbine, that's not saying that I have any form of explicit trust that they - or anyone - will actually do the IP justice.

I'd cross my fingers and hope for the best, but I need them to be snarky on the forums.

EDIT:  As far as a Twilight MMO is concerned, sure, let them have it. I really don't care.  It would keep those types out of the WoD IP where they would almost certainly whine about how the vampires are too mean, not romantic enough, and otherwise not like edward.  It would do everyone a service.

Yeah.  Horizons.

www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setview/features/gameID/17/loadFeature/957

^ The comments should be fun, too.

vnboards.ign.com/ac2_general_board/b5427/70642079/p1/

Meaningless PR piece is meaningless.

The problem is that they blatantly ignore the blatantly obvious bots that operate in blatantly obvious locations.

Yes, it would be a bad thing if they let the bots exist in locations that aren't obvious. Obviously you miss the obvious if that's the first retort that you jumped to.

Meh.  Meh is meh.

This amounts to a slap on wrist and a pat on the head.  When they actually start doing their jobs - or hiring more people so that they have the time to do their jobs - then I'll maybe consider resubbing.

To future flame responses: lol @ your nerd rage.  This post isn't directed at anyone, so if YOU take offense, then YOU clearly need to untie your ego from your MMO.  Also, I won't be back to read your reply anyway, ergo your reply, much like your nerd rage, is meaningless.

Thanks for reading. ^_~

Originally posted by Scyris

You forgot the extremly generic story that was ripped right out of lord of the rings, and follows thru it for most of the game (Minus the ring). Not to mention out of all the rpg's I have played no rpg has been as predictable story wise in terms of what will happen next than Dragon Age is. Every prediction I have made as I played the game turned out to be right, which sadly is worth negative points if I was to review the game.

Agreed.  Not only that but the characters are incredibly cliche.

It's funny that you mention Lord of The Rings.  This was one of my earliest / immediate impressions of the game.  The Warden camp reminded me so much of the console-based LoTR games that I actually laughed a bit out loud at the game as I played through it..

Cute fanboy flamming me for not remembering the name of the area. You're so cool, fanboy, whoever you turn out to be.

Anyway, year, I pretty much agree with all of your points.  Cliche characters, cliche story, and has been pointed out, absolutely nothing new about the combat.

Dragon Age = NWN2 mod.

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Originally posted by WSIMike

The "politically correct" way to put it would be "their enemies", but his/her is fine, too.

"Their" is grammatically incorrect. It implies more than one person. His or her is awkward, but correct.

Not necessarily.  It works both ways.  For more information see: www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/their.html

The only real differences that I see in these screens is the addition of shadows and water reflections.  It's all just camera position and lighting.

I recall that the original video released for their "new graphics engine" looked better than this.

ho-hum.

Fascinating.  Good find OP.

Originally posted by talismen351

Originally posted by hades302

Originally posted by talismen351

I as many others was not too impressed to see that after bying the game...there was 'premium content' which would force me to couph up another 20-40 bucks. I can understand this content being added later for players to buy...as a mini-expansion. But to seriously have it available to buy on the first day of release is a pathetic money grab. Saying they essencially held back some content of the the game, while developing it to add this extra content. This tells the customer...$60 isn't enouph for the full game, $100 is more worth it.

 

I find it pathetic when posters flat out lie to try and justify their position. The total cost of  premium content is $7.00 US, and that is for the Warden's Keep. The Stone Prisoner and Blood Dragon Armor are included with every new retail purchase, no additional charge.

 

Also, the reason that 'The Stone Prisoner' and 'The Warden's Keep' are available at launch is because EA delayed the PC release to that of the consoles.If the PC version was released earlier this year as intended by Bioware, then everyone would be paying for $15 US for the 'The Stone Prisoner' instead of having it included in the retail price of the  game.

 

Downright lie?

The stone prisoner costs 1200 points

the Wardens Keep costs 560 points.

That is 1760 points = $7.00 for 560 points and $20.00 for 1600 points. So that equals $27.00. I bought retail purchase and did NOT get 'Stone prisoner'. But I did get a code for the dragon armor...which I used and never recieved the armor or quest on how to get the armor.

I am not lying to justify anything...no more than I feel you are lying to justify your position.

Also if you are gonna tell me they are charging  for extra content because it was delayed...that is total crap. There is no reason at all why PC users should be charged. If these two quests are included in the console versions, then they should be free to download f or the PC version.

 Look for the card that has Mass Effect 2 on one side and a big rock dude on the other.  It will look like one of those advertisement inserts that are always placed in the box.  That will have your codes on it, one on each side, for blood dragon armor and the golem.

Originally posted by Bountytaker

Apparently I can't warn the devs  about a website promoting a hack of th game.  It's against the EULA for mmorpg.com.  So, I guess the game will just has to suffer with the cheat.  Sorry MC folks.  You'll have to just know that its out there, it works, and its screwing with your rep.  Hope that's enough.

 

Way to go, mmorpg.com mods.  You saved this game from....something.  Congrats.

That'd be frustrating, but look at it from another point of view.  If you posted it to the forum then you're spreading knowledge about the exploit.  Try sending the information through a PM.

Originally posted by Dana

Originally posted by Mysk

Originally posted by Dana

I'll toss this in once since it's come up.

 We have zero idea what's on the page as far as ads go beyond what we see visiting the site like the rest of you.

 

Well boss I don't actually care, but I'd like to point out:

• Large featured story on DA
• The article brings up "what MMOs can learn from DA", which is quite a convenient segue for Bioware to hype SW TOR's primary bullet point.
• Every slide on the front page has "brought to you by DA", except for the DA slide itself, of course.
• There's a DA give away

Purely by coincidence, and thus not in the button list, but still having a psychological effect was the DA-related comic that I saw on loading the front page.  Collectively it was DA overload.

Now maybe you don't know anything more about it than we do, and I'm generally inclined to believe that you don't on a professional level, but you do have to admit that it's a perfect storm of coincidence.

With that said I don't personally care if it is all arranged or not.  I find their (apparent) attempt to connect DA's success with SW TOR quite frankly amusing.

 

Yes, it's a lot of Dragon Age at the same time, but there's a less sinister reason for it all...

The game launched this week. Naturally, that's when they're doing major advertising. It's also a logical time to call the makers of a single player game and talk to them. ;)

 

Absolutely.  Also, I just realized that my "well boss" line came across in text much ruder than I intended it to, so I'd like to apologize for that.

The timing of everything makes sense either way, but this way I get to enjoy conspiracy theories. ;D

Originally posted by Horkathane

Originally posted by Mysk

Originally posted by Dana

I'll toss this in once since it's come up.

 We have zero idea what's on the page as far as ads go beyond what we see visiting the site like the rest of you.

 

Well boss I don't actually care, but I'd like to point out:

• Large featured story on DA
• The article brings up "what MMOs can learn from DA", which is quite a convenient segue for Bioware to hype SW TOR's primary bullet point.
• Every slide on the front page has "brought to you by DA", except for the DA slide itself, of course.
• There's a DA give away

Purely by coincidence, and thus not in the button list, but still having a psychological effect was the DA-related comic that I saw on loading the front page.  Collectively it was DA overload.

Now maybe you don't know anything more about it than we do, and I'm generally inclined to believe that you don't on a professional level, but you do have to admit that it's a perfect storm of coincidence.

With that said I don't personally care if it is all arranged or not.  I find their (apparent) attempt to connect DA's success with SW TOR quite frankly amusing.

If SW TOR is anything like DA then:

• your NPC henchmen will randomly stop what they're doing and proceed to do nothing
• They will randomly stop following you, forcing you to manually tell them where to go
• the healers will rush face first into the front lines to attack at melee distance with their ranged weapon
• rogue-types will never, ever try to get behind a mob. You must do that for them. On every. Single. #$%ing. Mob.
• Ranged weapon classes will flat-out refuse to use their ranged weapons and will instead rush in to melee (unless you remove their melee weapons - yeah, Liliana is now a duel-wielding rogue.)
• You will need to baby sit them during any challenging fight because of the above issues
• and, in short, the scripts (or instructions) that you set up for them will - for all appearances - randomly turn off for no ryme or reason.
• Mobs will rush your main character at the beginning of every fight regardless of the proximity or attacks from your henchmen until you run around for a few seconds so that your henchmen can build up hate.
• You will be forced to watch (or otherwise try to skip through as quickly as possible) some long dialogue scene in order to repeat the same boss fight for the 10th time due to the above issues.
• ...and countless other Bioware quirks.

Bioware is as cliche as anime.  The bad guy is always obvious.  The betrayals are always obvious.  The plot points are always the same.  The same character archetypes are always used.  The only thing that we're missing is the blue spikey hair.

Good thing I like anime then.

All your bullet points are user error lol! 

- Forget you put them on Hold

- Dont know how to use part hold or the tactical interface

- Does not know how to operate ranged character Behaviors in the Tactical menu

-Does not know how to deploy a strategic group

Sorry sir, you are the problem. This game takes skill, L2P

If only it were as simple as yourself then there would be no bugs and no patches.  We can dream.

Originally posted by Dana

I'll toss this in once since it's come up.

 We have zero idea what's on the page as far as ads go beyond what we see visiting the site like the rest of you.

Well boss I don't actually care, but I'd like to point out:

• Large featured story on DA
• The article brings up "what MMOs can learn from DA", which is quite a convenient segue for Bioware to hype SW TOR's primary bullet point.
• Every slide on the front page has "brought to you by DA", except for the DA slide itself, of course.
• There's a DA give away

Purely by coincidence, and thus not in the button list, but still having a psychological effect was the DA-related comic that I saw on loading the front page.  Collectively it was DA overload.

Now maybe you don't know anything more about it than we do, and I'm generally inclined to believe that you don't on a professional level, but you do have to admit that it's a perfect storm of coincidence.

With that said I don't personally care if it is all arranged or not.  I find their (apparent) attempt to connect DA's success with SW TOR quite frankly amusing.

If SW TOR is anything like DA then:

• your NPC henchmen will randomly stop what they're doing and proceed to do nothing
• They will randomly stop following you, forcing you to manually tell them where to go
• the healers will rush face first into the front lines to attack at melee distance with their ranged weapon
• rogue-types will never, ever try to get behind a mob. You must do that for them. On every. Single. #$%ing. Mob.
• Ranged weapon classes will flat-out refuse to use their ranged weapons and will instead rush in to melee (unless you remove their melee weapons - yeah, Liliana is now a duel-wielding rogue.)
• You will need to baby sit them during any challenging fight because of the above issues
• and, in short, the scripts (or instructions) that you set up for them will - for all appearances - randomly turn off for no ryme or reason.
• Mobs will rush your main character at the beginning of every fight regardless of the proximity or attacks from your henchmen until you run around for a few seconds so that your henchmen can build up hate.
• You will be forced to watch (or otherwise try to skip through as quickly as possible) some long dialogue scene in order to repeat the same boss fight for the 10th time due to the above issues.
• ...and countless other Bioware quirks.

Bioware is as cliche as anime.  The bad guy is always obvious.  The betrayals are always obvious.  The plot points are always the same.  The same character archetypes are always used.  The only thing that we're missing is the blue spikey hair.

Good thing I like anime then.

Is your game log in different from your NC Soft master account log in?  You should check your bank details just to be sure and check your master account details.  Surely couldn't hurt to play it safe in this situation.

Originally posted by pojung

Uninstalled.

 Oh, Snap!

Mine: Botorific

Originally posted by xersent

Aion Hands down , and you need to over look the Bots , all MMOs have them , and there not going anywhere , so just get used to them.

Yeah, every MMO has bots.

You could say that every house has bugs, too.  Don't bother to spray or clean, just get used to them.  You know what happens when you have that attitude?  Aion happens.

Sure every MMO has bots.  Aion just happens to be the greasy $2 bot motel of MMOs.  Some people, apparently such as yourself, are okay with that.

Originally posted by Torgozo

I played WAR last winter just as the subs were dropping because of Lich King.  I LOVED the game -- I played the tabletop version years ago, so the universe was awesome to be in -- but then something happened.  The game felt dead, like it had no soul.  I went to a few different games, Guild Wars, EQ2, then went back to WoW.

Played AION in the beta and was immediately smitten -- this is it, I thought, my new world to play in.  Got the wings, ascended and then...something happened.  The game just lost me.  I didn't feel immersed at all.  It was just a very, pretty game.  Again, it was like the game had no soul.

Now Aion is live and WAR has a new patch that seems to have fixed a lot and I'm weirdly getting pulled in two directions, thinking I might want to go back to one or the other.  I've got a great WoW guild but the game just feels like McDonald's of video games.  I'd love to play something that feels like I'm really a part of something people care about.

Thoughts?

I haven't played WAR so I can't comment on that.  As far as Aion is concerned, I canceled my sub yesterday due to the infestation of bots. They're forming guilds and operate indiscriminately.

So the question becomes, are you okay with a very large bot population and with seeing this (click image @ left) in every town?  There's typically 1 to 3 of them and they'll position their bots next to the location that you port in and, of course, next to the populated Broker (aka "auction house") area.

Sure. I got curious over all the talk about something so I checked it out.  It turned out to be a very moving story that kept me awake.  Like the one that you mentioned, the erotic scenes were completely arbitrary.  I guess some folks get off on that?  It's a damn shame, because it could be main stream.

Oh well.  Such as is.

After being surprised at the quality of the story I decided to check a second and it was laughable, so I haven't tried any of the others.