Originally posted by Master10K

Huh? So first I hear about World of Darkness being developed by a skeleton crew and now I hear that it is in fact being given the love and care it deserves, with some small parts of the game being playable.

I'll be excercising cautious optimism on this title, whilst I wait for some gameplay footage this year.

This is what I thougth as well. After all the noise and the round of layoffs last year, I thought they stated they had reduced the WoD team significantly. Maybe I'm just remembering it wrong. Good for them if they can put out a solid game though.

edit: It must have been this I was thinking of: http://www.ccpgames.com/en/public-relations/press-releases/article/2990/ccp-focuses-on-the-eve-universe. At the same time, there are WoD job postings on the CCP Game site so that might count for something...

Originally posted by mikahr

Originally posted by Robsolf

Yes, you can still preorder the game, and yes, you will get EGA, and you will get it based on a first come, first served basis.

"Have you EVER missed half of the movie just because someone bought ticket before you?"

So what you're saying is that since I didn't get in on the first day, all my characters start at level 25? 

INTERESTING.

See?  I can be coy, too.

Be whatever you like, but your analogy is total opposite of what is happening in SWTOR atm :)

You can order your movie ticket year in advance, but if at the time of start of movie they are still selling tickets for that same movie and time - you get in just like anyone else. Next time find more valid analogy ;)

In all fairness, you can actually pick, from a list of well defined times, which viewing of the movie you would like to attend should the first showing be sold out. Analogies are great becuase, in no time, we'll be arguing about Episodes 1-3 versus 4-6 and have completely forgotten this whole queue v. staggering discussion.

Episodes 1-3 ftw btw. :P

Originally posted by Puremallace

Isn't this more of a psychological blow to the game though

 

http://www.swtor.com/server-status

 

^ anyone expected that with what VGChartz was showing not counting digital?

Yeah, I don't know really. I'm sort of on the fence whether its a good thing or not. I have that luxury though as I haven't preorder and this, am not really affected. That said, people have short memories. I imagine, once the game is actually 'launched' people won't really remember the staggering thing or will at least have determined it wasn't that big a deal since they would then be playing. I'm no fortune teller though. For now, it's just a matter of getting out the popcorn and seeing where the story goes...

The main difference that I notice is that we are seeing people complaining about waiting for email rather then complaining about crashing servers, zones, login servers, etc. Otherwise, people are still waiting to play, so sure, if you just take that commonality, they aren't so different I suppose. There may (or may not) be performance issues of course, but the 'staggering' topic has seemingly saturated community conversation on this game.

To answer the OP, and hopefully not get too caught up in comparisons, I'll still play WoW for a number of reasons, but there is nothing to say I won't switch to SW:ToR later on.

  One reason for sticking with WoW, in the short term, is a matter of history. Very few MMO launches seem to go smoothly. It seems to be that the more hype we see, the rockier the first month or two turns out. This is purely anecdotal of course so i hope the early adopters have a smooth experience. Personally, I don't really feel any pride with being a "day 1" player, so I'm fine waiting a few months to see how things develop.

  Another reason is performance. In beta, the game was playable and I was able to manage in flash points, but I'd be hesitant to go into any sort of competitive scenario (such as pvp). I'm chalking this up to having been a beta build and maybe there is extra logging/debugging/etc that contributed to my systems performance. Again, this is another case where I am fine waiting a while after release, or even for a trial down the road, to see if my system is cool with it (or maybe I will have upgraded by then, who knows?).

  Otherwise, the game is certainly fun. I can't deny that. One problem I had, running the trooper story for example, is that it seemed every other trooper there was also the last surviving member of Havoc Squad. Or every Sith Warrior was the prodigal initiate of what-his-name, soon to be enforcer of darth whoever. The story lines were great if I were the only person in the game world, but they were too specific for my tastes in an MMO setting. Might be silly to many, but it was just something that bugged me. 

  One thing, that is not a game mechanic or feature, is the people I play with. Only one, that I know of, is planning to leave WoW for SW:ToR. Really, I enjoy playing with these people and that is another thing that will keep me in WoW for the time being. Otherwise, I have EvE for my sci-fi fix. Now if wife, income, and free time would permit, I'd be in SW:ToR in no time so don't mistake me for a hater. ;)

Originally posted by tawess

Don't go pulling the NGE card unless you actually know what you are talking about.

agreed.

Not to mention the volume of info being provided so people know what is coming. I don't recall the pre-CU/pre-NGE players having such luxuries.

This, so far (and as a vanilla, and current, wow player as well) looks like the game progressing down the path it has been headed. As tawess pointed out though, I'll have to reserve further judgement for when I can actually test it out.

Now, if you'll excuse me I need to log on to my Master Ranger/Rifleman...oh, son of a.....

Originally posted by Falcomith

If I am understanding correctly, you read it as each character will be its own, but will have a legacy name, or like a club name.  That I like. The posting from bioware is not descriptive enough about the legacy last name. Majority on the SWTOR forums is also looking at "last name" as family name. Perhaps the legacy last name is another way of describing an organization name....I hope.

So more like a 'psuedo-guild' of just your own toons or yours and other people who choose the same surname? Only other thing I could see from a dev/mod was in regards to displaying the last name:

If the idea is to build a "family" of characters, what is more unrealistic: they all have the same last name, or one family is comprised of many races?

The way I am reading this, all your characters would have the same last name if they are in the legacy whereas, if I were on the same server, I would have a different last name that my characters would share. I don't see this as being too much of an issue even for role players who can certainly get pretty creative when working with that...or just go with the less creative 'i was adopted'  story...

Originally posted by Kaerigan

I'm pretty sure it's not in beta any longer... and anyone can sign up here: http://www.glitch.com/join/

bah...now I have no reason not to try it.....There goes even more of the free time I don't have :P

For anyone not checking out the site, I thought the wording in the following FAQ was pretty encouraging as it relates to pay-to-win and such:

How much does it cost?

Looks kind of neat.

Not sure if it's really something that suits my taste, but reading their site, I like their approach and I could see myself warming up to it :P. Is it strictly browser based or is there a standalone game client as well? The idea of extending the game via APIs (I'm assuming that means players extending gameplay) is something I thought was pretty cool from their "About" page. 

Originally posted by Nerf09

Originally posted by Uhwop 

Of all the things I read on this site, that people will write, pot addict has got to be about the dumbest.

Take pot from a pothead and they go bezerk.

I think there is a pretty good video that quantifies levels of addiction and where pot fits in: http://youtu.be/dWQM6sOsd5k

Back on topic though; Another issue that factors into this is the ever shifting definition of sandbox. I consider EvE to be a sandbox, but I imagine you couldn't throw a rock around here without hitting someone who believes it isn't. People are looking for different things and that is evident in this thread. I mean, if it were strictly about freedom to do whatever we should all be subbed to Second Life right?

Originally posted by Moaky07

The one company known for sandbox MMO play, CCP, just dumped 20% of their workforce. This is the same company that was working on World of Darkness....if it was wanted so badly, then IMO you folks should of been subbing to EVE. I mean would 1 sub of hurt ya that much? You dont like ships....fine....support any sandbox

That neglects a great deal of recent occurances that lead up to the company refocusing and shifting/reducing staff....EvE, as CCP will proudly proclaim given the chance, has grown year after year so there is certainly sandbox support there. That said, all teh support in the world won't stop someone from making poor choices if they are determined to. imo, working on two new titles while trying to maintain EvE was probably a bit of an overextension for CCP and that cannot be blamed on "sandbox enthusiasts".

The general idea of getting together to support a title is a pretty neat concept, but getting consensus on something like that should be entertaining on its own ;)

Originally posted by Hazelle

If CCP wants my future business they need to grant me the same consideration they are giving people that do not play eve online.

So as long as they turn off your SP gain for 4 months (or whatever the actual trigger for the deal is) you'd be fine paying the promotional rate for 1 month? I mean, if you want the same deal the former players are getting, lets go all the way with it...

Really, of all the legitimate mechanics related complaints people could have coupled with the ability to play via PLEX, this seems like an arbitrary place to draw a line in the sand. I mean, since non-players cannot earn in game currency, then they can't really 'play for free' so there is a subscriber reward right there. :)

More power to you though. Each person has a different trigger and it seems the company found yours...Good luck in whatever game or endeavor you end up persuing.

Originally posted by brutality123

Players asking for other ways to obtain CS pets rather then pay real cash were in fact asking for them to be in game rewards for completing either a hard quest, a drop from a boss or a reward for a deed. Not to be able to buy them from someone who paid real cash from them. Spin from the company trying to make this palatable to the player base.   They did it for us.. LOL

How many guild leaders will buy them as rewards for their members I wonder.

That's a nice thought, but if the route to obtain were such an issue, Alliance pets (Argent Tounament) which are otherwise not obtainable by Horde, would not sell so well on the Horde Auction House. I'm sure there is a group of people that have particulars as to how a pet should be obtained, but that's as anecdotal as as the example I provided and certainly not a metric of the player base. I'd go so far as to bet that the current player base, riding their sparkle-ponies and winged guardians, won't bat much of an eyelash on this one...

That said though, is gold much of a factor any more? With the ability to do 25 dailies paying around 10-16g each plus the gold rewards for random dungeons (something like 80g if I recall), it seems gold is easy enough to make anymore. It isn't like classic when people were saving up for epic mounts and such. 

Don't get me wrong, overall I am not a fan of the pet shop, but really, I can't think of a way that it really affects me other then identifying players with different priorities regarding their disposable income. I suppose there is the fact I can't obtain a few of the pets but I never really remember to have a vanity pet out anyhow.

Regardless of motivation, what makes this worse about this then the non-tradeable pets? That is a legitmate question and not some rhetorical or set-up of any kind. My opinion is naturally based on my play style, so I'm certainly limited there. To summarize how I see it: I don't see this as any further down the 'slippery slope' toward pay-to-win and think that, if something is introduced in the pet shop, making it tradeable is preferred to making it completely exclusive. 

Hah, I read the title and thought "wow, they plan to have the most players or the largest battles? I wonder how they can make that claim..." Then, as I read the article, it either means the largest game world (by virtue of all the planets and such) or the most microtransactions based on the "thousands" comments. Just an example of how each person can read the same words differently I suppose :P

That said, if they have thousands of in-game items ready to go for Dust, why did NeX only have a handful?! (not a serious question btw).

I suppose, if they are going to add to the pet store, at least they are making it tradeable. While this certainly opens up the idea of legit gold purchasing (whether you consider that good or bad is up to you) there are are also other uses. I know my guild currently has various contests and gives away TCG loot. I could see this being a contest prize as well. I'm sure there will be other creative uses as well though I certainly expect it will be primarily a vehicle for acquiring gold for those people who have the cash to burn.

Ultimately, for those who disagree with the pet store, but have stuck with the game thus far, is this where you draw the line? If so, seems a bit odd since one of the complaints about the pet store was that it added content that was not otherwise available in game. This is not to rule out other legitimate concerns. I just see it as addressing what was, for me, one of the main sticking points in my distaste for the pet shop :P

Originally posted by Kyleran

LOL, I think there should have been a few more categories past 42+....   

Yeah. The poll could have at least had a "get off my lawn!" option after 42.

Originally posted by Pest138

Never say never but SOE sure seems to go out of their way to make their customers angry, or make odd changes that nobody understands.

Pretty much same as this. Otherwise, maybe a bit leery of Cryptic.

With SOE, it seems they have developed a pattern of doing things that I generally disagree with and as such, my expectations of their future choices make it hard to get into their products. 

Cryptic on the other hand, I think they are a bit more predictable and I'm just not a fan of what they've been putting out. Personal tastes and all, but based on that, I don't generally get too hyped about any projects they have going at any given time.

Originally posted by BadSpock

That's exactly what I'm saying and why I believe there is credibility to the rumor.

Gaming-only hardware is a dying business. Sony loses money on PS3 hardware like crazy and I bet Microsoft either loses or breaks even too on 360 especially now with discounts.

They make money on software i.e. games.

No point in making an upgradable hardware platform console - just make it a windows 8 PC you plug into your tv and use a controller or keyboard/mouse or connect.

So like I said, no more Xbox versus PC for Windows games - just WIndows 8 games that run on whatever hardware you have either it's a win 8 pc or some new console... which is pretty much just a win 8 pc you cna't upgrade lol

It's an entertaining debate. Year after year we hear that the PC is a dying gaming platform and someone predicting the end is nigh. Now this rumor which flies in the exact opposite direction.

As to "hardware lock-in", I imagine the companies are not banking so much on huge profits from hardware sales, but instead all those XBox Live subs, points purchases, service fees, etc....Not to say they couldn't offer the same services to PC users, but I wonder how the psychology of "I already spent $$$ on this, might as well use those other features that cost $$$" work.

At any rate, I'd have to agree with earlier comments about compatibility. The Xbox is a constant (or near constant) set of configurations that developers can rely on. Move to a PC, which is intended to be "plug and play" and support a pretty wide array of configurations, and you no longer have your "known" configurations. So how do you account for all this besides adding some form of virtualization/hypervisor into the mix to abstract the PCs actual devices (not just the OS  HAL)? Once that virtualization/hypervisor in place on a PC, I give it a matter of hours until we see a decent emulator and much easier copying/distribution of games. 

So I suppose you not only have the hardware concerns, but you essentially remove some of the hassle around piracy (or legit backup of course) as well.

This is just a "off the top of my head" response to the conversation so far though. Despite some opinions, I believe MS has some smart people and, if this is in the plans, then I'm sure they have a laundry list of concerns to address that I haven't even considered :P.

Originally posted by robert4818

Originally posted by Kyleran

RL games like softball have no such expectation or design for PVP, so this analogy really falls apart IMO.

Then again, RL (and many PVP GAMES) incorporate rules that, while breakable, are designed to punish you for doing things like that.  

Clearly, the MMO "RL" (tm), is a sandbox where there is some level of fear of repurcussion from other players. So, while there are not inherent mechanics that stop a 'griefer' from ruining a game, there are social norms that are generally accepted and too much deviation can have negative results. Naturally fear is not the only reason someone might 'follow the rules', but it made my sandbox catagorization sound better ;)

Now, into the realm of virtaul worlds and you have different norms. Choosing to adhere to or defy social norms is more of a viable option and there isn't really any persistent impact as a result of that choice. Make a mess of things? Reroll. Plan to make a mess of things? Roll a throw-away character. Personally, it's a love/hate relationship. While it can be frustrating to run into these individuals in the course of my travels, I wonder how boring it would get without them. I mean, what would we have to talk about in this thread? (j/k)

At any rate, speaking to the quoted part, just about any analogy can be picked apart and ruled invalid. I pretty mich did that to my own opening analogy. It's easy to get caught on the semantics rather then the intent. Rather then saying "PvP", you could just say "competitive group activities" and cover video game PvP as well as softball, baseball, etc. But hen there would be something wrong with that too I suppose....