Originally posted by Trueth
Silius broke this game years ago when he was chasing the WoW model. Let Vangaurd go......it is a dead game

amen

I would add that fixing bugs in a live-world is a hard task which in some cases may bring new issues or new bugs so, another reason to omit those low-priority bugs or just leave their solution for a later major update which can be tested with more resources.

Very nice reading, thanks for the article.

Originally posted by 7star

[...] Maybe that is worth more than $60 on another level. But D3 has affected how I feel about all Blizzard games now. 

Now is on its way the Kungfu Panda teaser :D

1. Where is the PVP?

2. Aunction House intermitently down :S

3. Developers asleep? Seems they need things to be broken a lot of hours before realizing it.

4. Legendary? Months ago Blizzard announced  would solve the legendary items issue where it has no logical sense blue items like a crosbow doing double damage than legendary bows (WindForce), etc. Where is the legendary part? :S

4. And the worse, Blizzard touched items already dropped by reducing Speed attack bonus. Some days before I precisely spent most of my money on a new weapon which went from a 23% to 11% speed attack bouns. After the change it became even worse than my previous weapon.

5. Still the reminds of the Error 37, It was a pain (specially in European servers) where you couldn't access game in random days (even weeks after the launch).

6. What is the sense to keep playing after lvl 60? Grind fest and repetitiveeeeeeeeeeee repeating of act1, then act2, then act3 and then back to act1/act2 cause of act3 is impossible and not progressive at all. I am starting to hate followers and repetitive jokes...

Have to say, in general, Diablo3 needs a boost. I would love to see the Diablo 2 level up system implemented (before expansion) where it took 1 year to see someone reaching lvl 99...

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

Having to be online to play single player just gets more awesome sauce by the day.

It has a sense as long as you want to prevent cheating.

Regarding the Europe servers messed up again, it is a shame specially for a company like Blizzard.

Originally posted by Shealladh

Originally posted by Mundus

Having latency issues in a goddamned single player game ... that's a really a whole new "quality" of gaming. Thumbs up Blizzard!

Lol, maybe they got bought out by UbiSoft or EA. As far as I'm concerned, blizzard can go to hell and freeze before getting my $. On my BAN list and never buy anything related to them.

I am a fan of D2, but this shit, is well, shit.

Rather spend my $60 on a few blowjobs and not get error 37's.

Hey, you are a truly kiddy troll. I bet you didn't even purchased the game.

Originally posted by mCalvert

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by DarkPony

Originally posted by TheDor

And why is a game that is clearly not an MMO getting an in-depth multi week review on MMORPG? Have we run out of things to talk about that actually are MMO related?

 

Like Mike pointed out it has at least "crappy launch days" in common with mmorpgs. Lolz.

Also I think it was Suzie or Bill that said that even when Diablo III isn't technically a mmorpg, it has many things in common (apart from the massively bit) and the target groups overlap for a great deal too.

 

This and the fact that majority readers asked for it to be covered. Plus, at BlizzCon, Wyatt basically said "It's an MMO in our eyes, but we're not calling it that officially." Yes, it's missing a shared world, but given the always-on (except when it's down, lolz) nature of the title and its social aspects, is it really that much of a stretch?

Its not massive, thus its not an mmo. 4 players in one instance is not massive.

There are aspects like auction house which are massive.

About price, take in mind you don't have monthly fees.

Diablo3 is just cool and fun! Great game!

Thanks for beta key Rodge! Really appreciated.

If I can have a beta-key also I would be thankfull.

Originally posted by rounner

C# is a precompiler/ expert for c++ and is not a Java derivative unless you want to debate the origins of object oriented code. If you dont understand that I dont really know why you'd have the confidence to make claims about its appropriateness for games. Claiming games are still mostly written in c is ludicrous. Some people may choose c because they are trying to work with legacy engines that are in c and dont know how to integrate it into managed code.

Relevant for videogame industry engines are all written in C++ (Unreal, BigWorld, HeroEngine..). If a videogame engine isn't written in C++ it is just not professional. C#, Python, LUA... are in this case just "tools" (like the HSL for HeroEngine) which allows the engine user to "mod" his game.

Somehitng calling my attention (in this and other forums) is how most people discourage about HeroEngine without giving any reason or argument.

For programming learnig, don't waste your time and go for the game-dev industry standard: C++ , where rest of languages like LUA, Python, C# are used for marginal purposes, scripting, etc.

I found a tutorials series of interest: http://devmaster.net/posts/introduction-to-c-with-game-development-part-1-intro

http://gamedev.net is also a place to check frequently.

Really thanks for the article. It is huge the ammount of work behind any videogame development, specially if talking about an MMORPG.

Can't wait to try the game!

I don't take serious any "free" game.

An mmorpg going free model looks like using the last card in hand to save the project.

To me graphics looks cool and WOW demonstrates it is not a problem for inmersion. In fact, those photorealistic I have played have a poor inmersion (like Earthrise).

Offtopic: about the factions, what would be your preferred system? a player-driven one (based in guilds)?

key available?

Very probably, Diablo 3.

Originally posted by EvilMacroer

Originally posted by Larsa

 

---

Originally posted by Wraithone
... If a games dynamics are so mind boggling boring that people turn to macro's ...

---

People do not turn to macros because they find something boring, they turn to macros to be "better" than other players.

- Running isn't boring when you want to run to some place, but some people just run for days against a wall because they think they're "better" when they're doing that.

- Jumping isn't boring when you need to jump over something, but some people jump for days into the air over and over again because they think they're "better" when they're doing that.

- Swimming isn't boring when you need to get to that island or need to cross that river, but some people swim for days against a cliff because they think they're "better" when they're doing that.

Well, being the player in question, I can tell you that you are spouting complete bullshit.

Before getting into that, let me first make something clear:

The GM in question issued a warning to me immediately. With an explanation that if I did it again, I would be banned for a few days, possibly forever, depending on the infraction. Seemed to be the standard approach.

The reason for some of the more problematic comments the GM made stemmed from a conversation I had with the GM a few days earlier regarding a stuck situation, where it seems she recognised my name from Darkfall, and knew the guild I was in there. I have no clue who the GM is though - and would not have expected any leniency. I suspect he/she was trying to give the OP a chance to administer justice internally first. But he/she did issue the warning within 10 minutes after the incident, regardless.

With that out of the way let me describe my infraction and motivations:

In Xsyon you can scavenge for stuff, and it is a skill that you can improve. It consists of moving from spot to spot(you can do it everywhere) to dig the ground. In terms of keypresses its: Hold W/A/S/D for 4-6 secs, press whatever key you have assigned the skill to on your hotbar, wait 6 secs for result. Repeat.

I was doing that for while, a lot of the time watching some movie or series - because lets face it; doing the above does not constitute much entertainment.

And at some some point the programmer in me kicked in and said: "All these keypresses can be automated". So I did. I was still sitting there, watching the tvseries or movie, but now I just had to monitor the status of my character and adjust the movement. Much less efficient, but also lot less mindnumbing.

When I was busted for doing this, I had the game running at work, screen moved out of the way so all that was visible was the lower part allowing me to monitor the energy and food status of my character. Chat not being visible - so I was not seeing either the OP or the GM trying to contact me.

So when I moved the screen back in to see if I were where I thought I was - I wasn't - and I figured I had been moved by a GM - which a quick check of my email confirmed.

Thats more or less how it went down.

To return to the claims made in the quote above: No, I was not macroing to feel "better". I was macroing to make my computer make the keypresses for me - keypresses that I would have made regardless. I would have been better of in terms of skills by doing them myself, but chose the other approach to increase my enjoyment of the game - and because the task of automating it represented a more engaging exercise (albeit an extremely simple one). The time spent on making and adjusting it, combined with the lack of efficiency, definately meant that my gains were less than they would have been, had I just kept doing it manually - but I had more fun. Based on the combined effeciency I would even argue that whether I violated the ToS becomes a rather philosophical discussion.

(ToS rule 5.3:    Use of third party software that would give you or anyone else an advantage of any form.)

I have been upfront about my approach now, so will leave that decision up to the reader and can appreciate an opinion either way. Which is also why it did not give me cause to take up that point with the GMs. :)

There are probably people that fit into the description in the quote above. But mostly you will find that people that macro do it:

1) This is the main reason: Because you can. If an action increases your ability and that action can be automated easily and by its level of entertainment invites it, why would you not do it? (Apart from the ToS saying you are not allowed to, of course.)

2) To avoid carpal tunnel syndrome. if the interface or the gamedesign requires a lot of mousemoving and clicking to do menial and repetetive tasks, this becomes a real issue and a macro alleviates it. I crafted like a madman in Xsyon yesterday - and had I not had the experience being debated in this thread, I would probably have looked at automating a lot of that mousemoving and clicking. Because my hand and wrist was complaining. The same small movements over and over and over and over. You have to select every ingredient and tool for every single item you craft - even if you craft the same one 500 times in a row and have it all in your backpack. 

 Let me end of on where I stand in general on the issue:

Can't remember where I saw the quote, but I think it applies: "If your business idea cannot survive a macro, you don't really have a business idea".

I have no philosophical objection to macroing. As long as it does not enable you to perform actions you could not do yourself and does not exploit bugs, I have no objections with how you interact with the game. You pay for the game and your playtime. You decide how to utilise that time. I have a big objection to gameplay mechanics that encourages it though.

I think the OP is completely wrong on macroing destroying the games he mentioned. Quite the contrary. It kept them alive. It keeps players logged on that would otherwise not bother due to the gameplay aspects that required mindnumbing and repetetive tasks to progress the most efficient way. Which in many cases meant they were there to interact with if a more engaging gameplay aspect presented itself. It kept players competive, that either didn't have the time or the ability to suffer through mindnumbingly boring actions. When skills levels become a measure of who can endure unengaging work-like actions the most, it is a problem for the game. Not the players seeking to lessen that pain.

The moment a task is macroed, the answer should not be to punish those who are doing it, but to either facilitate it for all players, or come up with a game mechanic that rewards those who don't. Darkfall took a step in the right direction when they upped the reward for hitting npcs/mobs, fx (wasn't enough, but it was the right idea). A task that invites and facilitates macroing is a sign of unengaging gameplay mechanics that is perceived as work rather than entertainment.  It detaches the player from the game, instead of pulling them in.

In the case at hand: Reward the player for scavenging in a way that he could not do blindfolded or train a very smart dog to do. Engage him and reward him for being engaged. And either remove or significantly lower the reward for doing it in a repetetive and unengaging way.

Don't install the MMO variant of DRMs that basically just increases the attractiveness of macros and makes playing more miserable for those who don't.

 

That being said, my macroing days in Xsyon are over. I see a lot of (severely unpolished and unfinished) potential in the game and would like to be along for the ride for now. I won't have issues with other people macroing and I won't have issues with other people reporting them.

But if it starts becoming a huge issue, I will have my doubts about the games future - not because of the macroers - but because of the warning sign about the game mechanics that it is.

Always glad to read cheaters leaving the game. Go for a chinese grind game!

Originally posted by xiiH4v0kiix

It was 12.5 mil, but now I highly doubt it's that high... Everything is DEAD. All the servers are always empty, I can never find people except for it org, etc... It's all dead. Ever since cata and rift, a lot of people have left, so how many subs does WoW CURRENTLY have?

 Troll.