Originally posted by Mahlo

I wouldn't say it feels much like AO. The only comparison I can see is that AO is an eight year old game and FE looks like one. And AO with it's lag and aged engine plays better than FE.

Do I really need to find screenshots of AO and FE? Or any 8 year old game? :P

To me it's like the americans are trying to get away from the old yoke of England.

Relettering the language, renaming sports, driving on the oposite side of the road as the English... And much much more to "get away" from old England.

And yet, the americans refuse to modernize their measurements to what most of the modern world uses, and instead they guard their ancient non logical measurement system like it was the holy grail. Despite that it's a system they got from the English.

As for me? I use both... Like americans, I remove the u's when I feel lazy. When I'm feeling good, and remember my studies(I could have been a english teacher with my long forgotten education), I go back to the good old correct english.

Been in a bit of a lazy spell lately, like last 10 years, and now my written english is like my written norwegian... Dialect/Accented.

Originally posted by iamspamicus

It's not really like AO at all. it feels  more like  a Fallout mmo.

You will have to expand on what you enjoyed about AO for us to  tell you if it can compare in other areas.

I would have said "Wasteland MMO"....

A friggin to the men!

Sandbox ain't free whack-a-mole... It's a world, where you can be or do anything, and the world doesnt revolve around combat, but the people inhabiting that world, be it the fisherman, the poet, the ministrel the uncle Ben farmer and yes the triggerhappy soldier/goon.

I'd rather have Jordans 600+ pages books than the Hollywood cutdown special....

Ever read a Clive Cussler book? Ever watched one of the hollywood movies based on his books? One is 600 pages of pure goodness, the other is actiony balloney barely resembling the book... Yet, the movies got fans that call his books drowsy...

Lemme go out on a limb here...

Space opera with swords!

Am I right? Am I? Oooh I am?

Originally posted by apocalance

1) Microtransactions enable us to have a larger development team

Potentially more funding for a relatively easy time investment

2) Microtransactions are mostly aesthetic (costume pieces, pets, etc.)

Nothing new here really. You can purchase cosmetic or vanity items from the shop using real money. So, if you absolutely MUST HAVE the purple haircut of butchery, feel free to drop down $5 or w/e it costs. Does that make you better than anyone? No. Does it mean you have $5 and decided you wanted to blow it on a purely cosmetic item? Yes. OP? No.

3) If a microtransaction does have any sort of in game effect, then it can be also be earned in game.
As long as it's not top level gear, this is fine with me. Although I'd like to see a decrease from the standard $15/month charge with such an item mall.

Just my 2¢.

1. In F2P games, somewhere like 1-5% of the playerbase pay the bill for the rest of the players. In a P2P game with Microtransactions, how many players are scared away by subscription AND Microtransactions? Would 1-5% of the playerbase make up for the thousands of players NOT paying 15$ a month? Oh, and it's VERY rare that any developer pushes most revenue into developement... So even if they make 1000-100.000$ extra a month from microtransactions, the odds for seeing even one more dev working on the game are minimal(Personally, you have bigger chance of being eaten by a shark while flying a plane).

2.  1 part of the playerbase, mainly RP'ers get the short end of the stick. They HAVE to pay extra for the game, while the PvE content grinders or the PvP monkeys, all who only care for stats, couldnt care less that the playerbase they love to rag and hate on actually pays for their fun. Can you imagine the shitstorm if it was the PvP monkeys that had to pay for the others fun? Or the PvE content grinders? Supporting any microtransaction form when you're not even part of the playerbase that has to pay extra for their gameplay... Well, thats like supporthing Apartheid while you're safely squared away where it wont affect you say, like Uzbekistan. Makes me wish there would be a microtransaction/F2P that had the others pay....

3. Experience shows that IF microtransaction items has an effect on gameplay (for the usually non affected per #2) it's not available for non paying. If it were, they wouldnt be paying now would they? And lowering monthly fee would never happend, because that would lowering the safe income to swap it with a not so safe income.

15$ a month from 100.000 players "swing" less than 5-20$ a month from 1000-10.000 players. This you can find by looking at F2P companies and P2P companies. A F2P dev team is usually smaller than a P2P(And it really shows in patches. Less patches, less bugfixes, less added content, not counting additions to the microtransaction store).

Thats my 2€ (Woulda been 2¢ but my playstyle has me paying your bills too).

If it was hardcore PvP, there would be consequenses for being a killer... But there ain't.

So it's not hardcore PvP, it's Anarchy PvP.

I don't PvP.

I'm not much for the "two" choices we have today:

1. Arena
2. Total Anarchy

You could say that I value my immersion, and having PvP be arena'ish doestn bring immersion, and total anarchy doesnt either.

Even in a post apocalytic world there would be rules and laws, and dire consequenses for being a random murderer... Until  "murder" comes with consequenses, and faction PvP gets meaningfull consequenses..... Well, won't find me fighting.

I hope they lose the IP, I really do. And that the code made so far gets the ET Cartridge treatment. Nothing worth salvaging from the code, nothing.

Originally posted by Sauranan

What part of ruined from the getgo are you having trouble with. 

This game was broken long before NGE.  The Devs were consistently unable to fix one area of the game without breaking something else.  I particularly remember pets spawning right on top of me after one "patch".

I am not the only one who has theorized that the database design was faulty.  My guess is that someone, probably Koster, advocated the use of an unproven technology on the basis that it would speed up development.

Why would you blame Sony and find Koster blameless?

 

Actually, the "database" was a business decision.

SOE had a deal with Oracle(I believe it was), and despite that their database was not suited for gaming, the suits made sure that it was used. And since the deal was a bad one, SWG could only use limited database space, since if they went over, with even 1 KB in database size, SOE would have to upgrade the database package.

So, Raph was not to blame for SOE using a database not suitable for gaming, nor the issues that came from that, and that they had to cut alot of the game that used the database extensively. The blame lies solely on the suites..aka Smedley and his goons.

Lets hope its some of the toilet boys that had to go, and not some of the few skilled devs they have.

Tho, I'd have hoped Smeddlers name was on the list of people to let go, but I have a feeling he snaked himself out of the choppingblock again, like he always do... In smeddlers world, shit always end up on the lower ranked, and not the man himself.

After SWG, I'm very iffy about focus groups.

Using fanboys only or using people who barely knew what a PC was to get the feedback they wanted.

Instead of getting good feedback, they only got the feedback they wanted, the feedback that agreed always to their actions.

I dun trust focus groups any more, because of the ability to pick and choose only participants that fit the devs scheme.

Tho I have to admit, I was invited to participate in the focus group that OK'ed the NGE. But to participate, I would have had to pay dearly to get there, since SOE who claimed in their invitation "All expenses paid", suddenly realised that I was european...

But my invite came after I had been a good lil fanboi for a while on their forums... Well, that and I was part in a guild that did get dev attention and was used as a posterboy(guild) in SOE fan faires and gatherings.

I didn't know Sandbox was all about PvP and nuffen else...

Sets a new low?

Read the question again please.

What he says, is that CO would survive and make money if they manage to keep a bit below 100k. Anything above breaking point is a success.

Originally posted by Darkholme

Originally posted by green13

3) If a microtransaction does have any sort of in game effect, then it can be also be earned in game.

That right there is key, and if micro-transactions are included in an MMOG this is how it should be done... Still, not terribly thrilled with it, but it's better than it could have been, and it's certainly not a deal-breaker IMO.

 

It is a Dealbreaker for the playerbase the microtransactions target.

Just because you're not part of that playerbase, doesnt mean that it is not a dealbreaker.

This thread makes me wonder...

Should Non-RP'ers have access to all the customization as a RP'er?

Do they deserve being able to customize the look of their character as much as a RP'er? Do they deserve access to "social" tabs and clothing?

It's the RP'ers "domain", with making their roleplaying characters look the way they need to, and wear the clothing/armor they need to. Nothing of such means anything to a Non-RP'er, since their game is all about stats and better stats. Non RP gear and characters shouldnt need more than 1 face, 1 hairdo, 1 colour etc. Their gear only needs stats and levels, not any visual differences.

But hey, I bet that if devs made it so only RP'ers got access to the good looking stuff and the customization, the rest of the playerbase would scream their lungs out and detest RP'ers even more.

None of the above, since your "type of play" only included 1 type of play really... The Combat Wombat Whack-a-mole type gameplay.

And ya know, I dun want to play a game thats all about combat, be it grouped or not. Playing whack-a-mole gets very boring even before you've passed level "3" in any game, and all you have left to play for is the shinies and baubles that "you gotta have"... like pokemon...Gotta have em all.

I ain't into that kinda game.

Originally posted by unimatrix8

And it was also shorter than the regular lightsabers. The point is George Lucas is willing to work with people as long as they dont change up his universe to some extreme extent. Hell if that were to happen we would have Jedi riding space dragons and stuff, lol

And we had that, in the time around when Lucas did the Holiday Special and the Ewok movies...

Jedi riding space dragons... There were even glowbat whips kind of things...

So you can say that at some period in Star Wars history, GL was high as a kite when signing off and passing things used in "his" lore and name.

Fallout was a rip off of Wasteland....