2011 could be a very good year for MMOs. I'm really looking forward to GW 2. I'm also hoping Earthrise will be out and good. I'm not really interested in SW:TOR to be honest.

Originally posted by Nipashnaka

 

---

Originally posted by Ceridith

I don't think anyone is trying to imply that game developers necessarily owe consumers anything, or that they should be altruistic.
Rather, what some people, at least what I am, complaining about it the nose-dive in quality and development priorities, which is obviously driven by the industry being taken over by business men who only care about profit.

---

Let me ask you this:

Imagine you had $50 million dollars to invest in a game. But, if the game tanked you were in the poor-house and would go deep in debt and were done ever investing again. Would you make an innovative game that may or may not be financially successful, or would you make a theme-park game whose feature set was driven by careful market analysis which (you felt) gave you the best chance of a return on your investment?

That would be sound logic, if the theme-park MMOs were financially booming. The only one recently to really make a Boom was WoW, the rest have been following that logic, but failing to produce that same boom. I wouldn't say there haven't been any financially viable theme-parks lately, but they haven't been anywhere near what they were initially aiming for. At this point, I would develop a unique and innovative MMO just to stand out in a crowd of clones.

Originally posted by Mystict4orce

I am what most would call a “WoW Hater”. But there is something I must confess, that I am sure other people that dislike WoW, also share in common. And that is, “The reason I hate WoW is because it’s the top MMORPG in the west.” Yes seems strange to hate a product simply because its (Too) good. But I also hate Nike, Halo1-Reach, Iphone, all for that very same reason. Well you may be stumbled by my logic, but just think about it. All of the most popular products in history also had hatred for similar reasons. It’s an psychological and sociological issue, within the MMORPG community. We play in a genre, which has a history, for bad performance, and major flawed releases. Don’t the you all agree, that it may be time to drop the natural hatred we have for (Too) good MMORPG products like WoW, and began to support such products?

You all just got trolled.

Originally posted by nickster29

I am sorry, but this whole "omg, they are just greedy!!!!!1111!111!!" is the lament of someone who does not understand the purpose of a business.

 

A business is to make money.  Making a quality product is just a means to an end.  If people are willing to pay $25 (which I am not) for some glittery unicorn with wings, then who the hell wouldn't sell it?

Agree. I dislike companies doing things that I deem "greedy", such as charging a monthly fee and having an item shop for the same game. I refuse to play such games and don't give the company my money. But I no long blame the company for doing it, I blame the hoards of idiots that actually pay for the item shop crap, which makes such tactics a good business move to begin with.

Originally posted by i00x00i

Originally posted by colddog04

If I like the game and am enjoying it immensely, no amount of money is too much. (well, within reason. $15/month is within reason)

 

I'm sure that the jellybean company I buy my jellybeans from is making a profit off of me. Shame on them! They are greedy jellybean people and I refuse to pay that much!

 

I'm going to go buy those jellybeans over there instead. They cost less money. Hmm... lets see what they taste like... Eww! This jellybean doesn't taste like popcorn!

 

Maybe I should pay a little extra to get what I want after all.

That's exactly the mentality that allows greedy corporations like Blizzard to get away with overcharging for pixels. Congratulations sir you helped provide that jelly bean companies CEO with another lamborghini to store on his 3 story yacht parked under his boathouse mansion. It all boils down to the simple fact that it's just unneccesary (in regards to major gaming companies only, I understand the little guy charging a monthly fee just to help mantain). What Arena Net is doing is simply just honest. And thats exactly the way that it should be.

Your way of thinking does no more than allow these companies like Blizzard to use you for as much money as they can. Your really ok with that?

Edit: Grammar

People like you crack me up. You automatically villify anyone for being successful or wealthy. Every average person complains about CEO's taking big bonuses and making lots of money, but any average person, put in that position, would do the exact same thing. They are only evil because they are making the money instead of you.

By the way, do you have any idea how expensive it is to run WoW? WoW has a ridiculous number of servers, databases, and IT people needed just to keep the game running. They also employ a lot of developers, sound artists, graphic artists, etc etc to keep making new content. On top of that, they have to pay to keep facilities running, HR, accountants, etc etc.

If they make a product that millions of people think is good enough to pay $15 a month for, then good for them. If you don't think it is worth that much, or you think they are being greedy, then don't pay them and don't play it. That is how capitalism works. If enough people deem it overpriced, they will have to lower their prices. They aren't going to cut back fees and lose tons of money just to be a "good guy".

So, I've been informed by friends that still play WoW that my WoW account is logged in and playing. This is the second time this has happened in 6 months. I don't play WoW any more and haven't for 2 years, I don't log in to my Battle.net account, I don't have malware on my computer, and I don't fall for the phishing emails. This literally just happens with no interaction on my part.

So what is going on over at Blizzard? Am I some isolated case or is this common? This never happened before the switch over to Battle.net. It's pretty annoying too, because I have to waste time getting the account back...

/endrant

"This game is not being made for kids... It's being made for adults, because they have more money for us to milk dry."

Originally posted by Catamount

Originally posted by Gabby-air

So I was browsing through newegg when I suddenly saw a section with these things called netttops? Curious, I went on to see what exactly they were and to my surprise these seem like portable computers with a dirt cheap price.  Now I was wondering what exactly are the limitations of these things? I was actually looking into buying a netbook for my nephew who only needs a computer for things like facebook, flash games and youtube and maybe some school stuff like microsoft word and what not. So ye bascially are these things really as great as they sound? Also, do you just plug the hdmi cable into the box and let your TV be the screen.

 

Here's a link to the one I saw: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119026

Well that's only a barebones computer. It has no CPU, RAM or hard drive (you haev to buy those yourself).

A fully system of this type would cost a little more.

It has a CPU, the Atom is embedded. It does not have a hard drive, ram, or an operating system though.

I build my own nettop a few months back. Dual core atom, 2gb ram, 160gb hard drive for about $215. I've tried out a number of different OSes on it and they all seem to run pretty well.

The advantage of the net top is it's fairly low cost and low power consumption. If you are looking for the best bang for your buck, for about $100 more than a nettop(excluding the OS price if you want Windows), you can build an AMD Athlon II x4 quad core machine with 2gb of ram and 160gb hard drive for about $300. Your looking at a quad core running at 2.5-2.9 ghz. Much, much more performance for just a little bit more money.

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

If there is a God, and the universe is just an mmo made by Him, then I would like to formally request a server wipe.

No way, I just want god to put a Celestial Steed in the cash shop.

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

Originally posted by SabbathSMC

interesting, i figure in another 20 years we will be able to basicly live in these worlds with northing more than mind control. They are already testing on games that are controled with nothing but mind control. Imagine being able to create a world with only the use of thoughts. I just hope i live long enough and can keep  my hearth healthy so i can pass the stress test to be able to play in these life like worlds that will be coming to us in the next 20 years.

And in the 1950's, they swore in 50 years ( 2000 ) we'd all be flying our jetcars to work while our houses maintained themselves. Guess what?

You didn't get your jetcar yet? Dude where have you been, these things rock!

I see the connection. When I pray (post on forums) to the Gods (Development team), I get absolutely no response, just like in our world!

Otherwise, no, they aren't much alike. Developers (usually, barring procedurally generated objects/terrain) design and implement each individual aspect of the world they are making for a specific purpose. They don't release a bunch of atoms with a set of physical laws in a simulation and wait a few billion years for their game to form on it's own.

Meh... I really liked the low level cap and extremely fast leveling in the original Guild Wars. The fun was playing the game, not grinding up levels. I'm not thrilled with this new direction.

I really wish Netdevil would actually work on Jumpgate Evolution... Seems like development on that game has completely stopped...

Originally posted by jusomdude

How many MMOs have you played where the game was truly balanced?

I'm guessing your answer is 0.

I know I havn't yet played one, and I've played a ton of them.

 

Whether the game be skill based, or class based, there is always some skill/class/ability is considered more OP than the other.

 

That's just the nature of these types of games. The more options you have, the more imbalance there is.

Add in things like progression and balance is the last thing that describes the game.

I agree to an extent. So, knowing that, an MMO should never exaccerbate the problem by creating situations where perfect balance is a necessity cough wowarenas cough.

For the most part, I agree with you. The only thing I COMPLETELY disagree with you on is getting rid of the AH. Go play Guild Wars and tell me how awesome it is without an AH. Selling loot is a huge pain in the butt, and a big hassle if selling stuff doesn't tickle your fancy. An AH doesn't kill an economy, it just makes moving goods easier.

You know it's funny, I made a really similar post about 2009. I was really excited about Earthrise and Jumpgate Evolution, which were both scheduled to come out that year. Neither one has release yet, halfway through 2010. I played Eve for about a month, but beyond that I haven't touched an MMO since probably the end of 2008. Pretty sad. This genre is in dire need of something good.

I am looking forward to GW 2, and even though TOR doesn't completely fit my style, the complete lack of anything worth anything has me looking forward to that now too. But I'm not even holding my breath for a 2011 release from either of them, seeing as how every MMO I've watched gets delayed into eternity.

Now? I thought they started embracing it when Champions Online came out??

Originally posted by madeux

Sure it's a trailor and not gameplay... But it does a lot to show the world that we're about to throw ourselves into.  It shows the depth, the story.  It shows, most importantly, exactly what i wanted to see!  I cannot wait for this game!

The trailor was cool, but trailors show absolutely nothing about the actual game. I thought the trailor for WAR was pretty awesome too, and we know how that turned out.

The NGE.

Originally posted by kaiser3282

Originally posted by Rhoklaw

I know when the videos for Elementalist spells came out, people noticed that during the Watery Trident spell, both Elementalistists were standing in water. So, with intuitive reasoning, some questioned whether standing in water was necessary to cast that spell. Well, according to the official website, this just may be the case.

"Search your surroundings for powerful environmental weapons. In the hands of a skilled elementalist, a simple boulder can be turned into a meteor storm. Save the day by taking control of a siege weapon on the battlefield!"

Now, I'm not sure how to read that statement, but using a boulder from the surrounding area  to cast meteor storm might just add a whole new element to gameplay.