aah, that clarifies it. Now even i understand you :)

I agree. You can get a good machine for around 1000$ that will do the job. You can always add another Gfx card or a BR player later on, as well as more HD space.

And now tell us, why you need a 270$ case, a blue ray player and SLI MoBo with only one GFX card...

I don't mind monthly fees. It's worth it to me and I believe that it is a legitimate way to support the continuous development and support of a MMO.

GW is using a different model, which is also successfull. Great!

Spend money on stuff that's worth it to you and stop demanding that companies change the way they do business. It ain't gonna happen.

btw, why did you get AOC if you don't want to pay a monthly fee? I assume you are - for one reason or another - disappointed with your purchase, which in turn led you to rant a little about evil game companies charging for their services. But anyway. Pay what you can afford and enjoy it.

What else is there in WoW...?

Boy have you opened Pandora's Box with that question Why don't you download the Trial and see for yourself? There is PvP. There is exploration. There is a community.... and yes, questing, grinding and crafting. The only way to find out if you like it, is to try it yourself, though. Everyone here will give you a different answer.

As for Warhammer - You said you didn't have a very good comp, and even though I don't know the SysReqs, I would assume that this would be a problem.

Hi,

my 2 cts, if you want to hear them. I've been building new rigs for the last few weeks (months... actually :( ) on ibuypower and compusa. Obviously reading up on the components, as well.

I'm afraid if you want to get a com that can run current games adequately, you will probably have to spend a little more than $600.

As stated above, there are a few things to consider:

- CPU : the intel 8400 c2d is good value for money and a good cpu (the 8300 and 8200 are a little cheaper and ok as well) 200$

- Gfx : really the 8800GT is the way to go. (if you buy a decent MB, it makes for a great SLI solution as well) 180$

-Power: 600+ If you get a decent brand, can be a big plus reliability wise. from 50$

- 2GB Ram is ok. 4 is better (if you don't have a 64 bit system you will only be able to utilize ca. 3GB) 4GB at about 70$

- Motherboard: If you are considering upgrading to SLI at some point, get a board with 2x16 PCIe slots. Those start at around 150$ from a good brand like ASUS. Other boards can be obtained at under 100$

So those components will already set you back 600$. If you can scavange other components from your old comp, you may be able to get a decent machine for under 700$.

Hope this helps.

Hey! You have some good ideas and I especially like the idea of the player base actually developing their planets.

However,  when you started enumerating your ideas, the first point made me cringe already:

- Players can have 7 characters per account.

How can you at this point already specify a detail such as this? The same goes for some other things you stated. Don't get me wrong! You apparently have programming experience, but I think you will quickly find that execution is a smaller part of the overall project than you seem to assume.

My advice would be to try and get some sw development and project management experience. MMOs are very time and money intensive for a reason!

But to answer you question: Yes, I would try that game. Waiting for a good SciFi MMORPG for a while now. Don't like Eve or TR. Actually, Anarchy Online 2 would be my favourite :)

Best of luck!

Mythos online is in closed beta but if you go to their forums and ask nicely for a beta friend invite, I'm sure it won't take long to get one.

Great game. If you've heard of Fate you pretty much know what you're getting into.

Anarchy Online is free if you stick to the classic version which includes the addon Notum Wars. Only when you upgrade to Shadowlands, Alien Invasion, etc. do you have to pay subscription fees.

One of my all-time favourite games, but you should be prepared to face a steep learning curve. It can be a little daunting in the beginning.

Best of luck

“Instead of creating a new character and starting off on a chain of quests that you can accomplish with one hand tied behind your back, how about creating a new character and immediately going off to the nearby dungeon or fortress or battlefield or whatever and joining in a fight?” suggests JB.

“It’s an open raid. There are no groupings, no official raid leaders, etc. There is a goal, however. It can be capture a bridge, or defeat the boss, or rescue the captive, or any other simple goal that everyone playing the game can understand.”

JB sees this working very well with a skill based system, where players become better at healing by healing, or DPS by DPSing, etc. “[Everyone] gains experience according to their actions. Damaging monsters, healing friends, disarming monsters, sneaking forward undetected, etc.”

It does sound interesting, but... hang on a minute. Isn't that exactly how Planetside works? Really, this is true for any multiplayer shooter, but Planetside also happens to be an MMO.

1. As soon as you start, you can jump right into the midst of battle, possibly after checking out the training missions and earning some qualification points.
2. When you arrive on the battlefield you soon find out what the current objective is: Hold the base, capture a bridge or tower, delay the enemy, etc. You can go maverick and try and wage your own little guerilla war or join squads or platoons.
3. The game is almost entirely skill based as higher level players mostly have a greater choice of nastiness at their disposal. The better you are -healing, killing, repairing, deploying, etc, - the more points you acquire, etc.

So in essence I think the idea, albeit a very good one, is far from revolutionary. It merely hasn't been applied to the pointy-eared fantasy realm of angry swedish hair-dressers (that's elves to you), yet.

A very good article! It sums up nicely the predicament developers and subseqently gamers find themselves in and is one of the reasons new MMORPGs all seem so very "samey".

With budgets for AAA titles exploding and MMOs being even more expensive to produce and maintain, games have to be mass-marketable to be financially successful. In order to satisfy the more hardcore gamers, you must include heavy grinding and PvP. For the more care-bear oriented, RP-Servers, crafting and much social interaction is required. And of course, everything in between. The result is a potentially well executed and poilished, but essentially unremarkable game - another WoW clone, some might say.

This theme continues in the story line. It all comes down to spending the buck in the most efficient way. Sure you could devote many developer hours to one-time events, but only a few players actually get to experience it. I would even suggest that this creates more animosity among the players left out as it does goodwill among the participants.

I remember a very heated forum discussion when  the Gates of AQ (WoW) were opened by a guild sometime after midnight. For those unfamiliar, this is a so-called world event and can only happen once per server. Prerequisites have to be met and plenty of farming is required to perform this feat. The players of this server were positively outraged that a guild had simply opened the gates without announcing it first, so that people could witness this event. I can see why.

I think however, that there a some simple things that can heighten the players sense of importance in a game. Visual recognition of a player's deeds perhaps, like medals, statues or titles. Maybe a special dye set for the player's armour or a street or landmark named after him or her. For sure, these things still won't reach every single player but there is a lot of reputable stuff to go around. Spellborn was (not sure if that's still in the cards) striving towards that by making the first time some goal was achieved a server wide event. Rewarding the guild or group involved with some - mostly cosmetic but very visible - server-wide recognition. It's amazing what players will do to distinguish themselves, even if these goodies do not confer skill boni or special powers.

To the MMODAD above me: I prefer my games to be just that: games. I don't need real life to dictate what should or should not be done in a game. However, i do appreciate your paragraph about the charismatic general. Having played Planetside for some time, this phenomenon was very visible with some faction leaders being able to coordinate a planetwide attack and being well liked and admired for it.

Maybe in the future, some sort of MMO 2.0 will also help. With user developed content becoming available all the time the world might become so huge that it's simply not possible to "do" every dungeon or quest. Thus, every hero's career would be slightly differnent with different achievements and a unique story to be told.