I know... mind-boggling isn't it??

Originally posted by Joiry

Carolyn, are you sure Drogus is the name of the Ice Dragon?  Jeff Grubb is clearly heard calling the Ice Dragon "Jormag" in a video interview during GamesCon with mmorpgitalia.  Link is here, about 1:11 in.  In fact, four of the five elder dragons names are known, and none of those four are Drogus.  So, perhaps Drogus is the last dragon, the Sea Dragon?

That, and getting Zhaitan wrong, kinda detracts from the article.

One of the challenges of interviewing on the convention floor is how easy it is to mis-speak / mis-hear / miss on the taking of notes and mythological Names are the toughest.  I do what fact checks I can from official sites / information and will say this.  "Sorry - My bad."

Originally posted by nekollx

Originally posted by Bob_Blawblaw

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

"They pulled a joke on Saturday, announcing a big reveal then flashing up "Darth Binks" to stunned silence and a smattering of laughter. "I think we failed on humor," said Bioware Producer, Jake Neri. "Wait, what did you think?" asked Lucas Arts Public Relations Manager, Adam Kahn. Well, I was laughing so hard, I forgot to take a picture of the "reveal." Darth Binks was not shown again on Sunday, but from my reaction and the bits of laughter they had heard from the crowd, they thought the joke a success. Yes, with this many dedicated Star Wars fans, canon humor is a little tough."

I don't think that canon humor is tough at all. There was a time that I would have laughed at such a thing. Considering what MMO game companies do today that makes most people say or think "WTF" and that Bioware is known for not revealing much if any information about their games, it doesn't surprise me at all that the vast majority of that audience was silent. They thought it was a serious revel and obviously didn't approve.

If Bioware maintains to skimp on information releases (which is their modus operandi), giving a good feel for what is actual information, then they should probably back off trying such humor. By such humor I mean grabbing polarizing figures such as Jar Jar and making such a joke. I doubt much of the audience for this game likes Jar Jar, which would give base to the reaction they experienced.

 

Keen observation Khal, and it shows exactly the fact that BioWare/LEC don't really know their audience. I mean C'mon, this was PAX. It's a Con. It's a place for hard cores to gather. These are the people who know about the NGE have seen these kind of blunders in other MMOs that would make them believe that maybe yes, perhaps LEC/BioWare have actually put a Gungan Sith Lord in the game because frankly, stuff like this doesn't surprise people anymore (SWG Cupid Ewoks anyone?). They don't TRUST LucasArts. For LEC not to be sensitive to that is not really surprising, but shows bad judgement on their part.

True enough, the average SW fan (non-Con going, Cosplay wearing) might think this is funny, as they are perhaps a bit more trusting of the IP holder.

To be fair i TOTALLY want to play Gungan Sith Lord (and a Gorn Federation MEdical Officier in ST:O)

Off Topic but I can't resist...  - What about Ferenghi Science Officer in ST:O?  :P

From my friend's cell phone:

Darth Binks for your viewing pleasure.

Cheers!

Carolyn

Originally posted by nekollx

Wow Matt realy has bad Foot in mouth doesnt he...or the editor transcribed wrong. I can see it now...

 

"Matt said we get 5 base Architect slots and buy 3 more. So why do i only have 3 and had to pay 20 bucks for 5 more! RAGEQUIT"

Indeed.  I double checked my notes from Comic Con + my notes/article from the Mission Architect then contacted Matt Miller for verification.  You get 3 base Story Arcs that can be published, each with 5 mission capability then have to pay for up to 5 more.  That was added in issue #15.

EQ tried offering a premium MMO Server service a while ago and it actually lasted some time.  It had different & more quest content, more GMS on staff, and had special deals for members of the server attending the Fan Faires.  It ultimately went away but I enjoyed it while it lasted.

Interviewing devs on the floor of Comic Con is tough and the panel host had done a darn good job wringing all he could out of them just prior.  The problem really, with a game at this stage of development is there isn't much to release.  As Dallas said to me, they don't want to talk about things that they themselves haven't decided upon.  Rather than subject readers to line after line of "We are not talking about that yet."  I left that all out and summarized the real information I gathered.

No. of classes... maybe 2 more... 10... 20... Skill development?  Tree?  Is there a Jedi class?  A Sith class or are they earned?  Completely mum.  I thought that the possibilithy of "grey" Jedi was interesting.  But... chance of flipping over like Anakin?  Sorry.  Can't say.

I have to respect the wish not to be saying 3 months down the road having said they are doing "A B C" at an interview, that they are not doing "A B C" but "C D E" because "things change" - some Devs in the past have done that.  I would see the answers change from convention to convention - not to mention the one time information given at PAX was different than information being given out at Munich during the same week...

We did have a bit of exchange about philosophy, the psychology of close combat and how exciting the project was.  :)

Thanks, Inktomi.  I have to admit, I very much wanted to like it. The graphics are soft as a baby's bottom but looks pretty and the cutscenes are quite beautiful, however the nifty machines (luuurved the mechanical squirrel in WoW) doesn't quite make up for the lacks.

It's about measurables.  In single person RPGs, you've got a static story line to follow - even if there are different paths through it.  The measurable is the point in that storyline.  In MMOs, you have a wide variety of choices and the measurable is your level and class.

For example:  In RPGs, arriving at a certain city measures how far you've gotten in a game.  In MMOs, you have several dozen cities to visit and that feat does not measure your advancement.

Originally posted by Dana

Again, when I wrote about "historical MMOs" I wasn't talking about historical reenactments. I was talking about games set in a historical period, but that are first and foremost entertainment.

No one is annoyed that Gladiator took history and turned it on its ear.

No one gets mad when Hibernia takes Albion castles in DAoC.

You can make a game with historical context that allows just as much freedom to players as any regular MMO.

Agreed.  Besides when talking about fantasy or mythological elements.... once upon a time in history... the world was thought to be flat.  St. George killed a dragon.  Fact or Myth?  Dinosaurs were considered a myth once upon a time.... and the Kraken (giant squid) thought a myth as well.

Oh yes... magic.  Voodoo.  Real or make believe?  Ghosts?  They are all aspects of life today as well as of our past - in the broadest sense.  A game set in a historical period in any culture / land would be remiss if the people's believes of the time were not included.

This accounts for the Ghost ships in Pirates of the Burning Sea and Voodoo in Pirates of the Caribbean Online.

As any adult watching kids play Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Wii can testify... what kids find fun and what adults find fun... are on two complete ends of the spectrum.

Reviews are always one person's opinion, and I typically test on more than just my niece and nephew, as they've been testing games with me since they were 3 and 4, and are wa-ay above the curve of other youngsters their age.

The turns are quick if you are playing against adults actually, but how the combat plays out, like Wizard 101 is what attracts kids.  It's the same reason a child will watch the same movie over and over until you can hear the songs in your sleep, and the attaction of "99 bottles of beer on the wall."

Originally posted by Dana

 

True, but it wouldn't be very appealing to me to fight the Battle of Waterloo or the engagement at Trafalgar over and over and over. And I'm a veteran and a European History major.

Course, on the other side, it'd help some of the kids playing MMOs in history class. Well, maybe, maybe not.

 

Well again, I was thinking historical more in terms of settings then events. The players make the events and conduct the adventures. It's not like the Battle of Waterloo would be happening every night at nine ;)

Now, if the Battle of Waterloo were end game and it got scheduled like the way PotBS schedules their port battles... that's a possibility...  Not every night at nine, but every week at nine?  ;)

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

True, but it wouldn't be very appealing to me to fight the Battle of Waterloo or the engagement at Trafalgar over and over and over. And I'm a veteran and a European History major.

Course, on the other side, it'd help some of the kids playing MMOs in history class. Well, maybe, maybe not.

Oh, but the Napoleonic wars culminating in the Battle of Waterloo (end game) would rock!  Except... that we'd throw historical accuracy out the door and let the players battle it out for each battle ground... but we can't let the French have rifles and all Brit players would want to be a Green Jacket rather than Red Coat.  :P

It was a pity about Fury - during trials and hands-on demos, it played fantastic.  Graphics were top notch too.  The learning curve when you actually got into the game however, was really stupid - and they probably ran out of $$ to re-engineer it.  The beta testers told the Devs loudly and often that it was far too difficult to learn.

SEED - Great concept but just didn't have the $$ behind them.  Lag and server issues were the problem, not the game-play.  It was also... pretty buggy.

See disclaimer below.  ;)

I'm checking on the LagMeter download with Bigfoot.  It worked when I filed the report in February.

Cheers

Originally posted by Bruticus_XI

Good review, another "Kids" show that is just begging to be made into an MMO would be Avatar: The Last Airbender.

It's in development.  :)

Originally posted by rhinok

 While I agree with the overall review, it's not really a review so much as it's a summary.  The entire piece could have been gleaned from press releases. Where's the detail?

Also, mmorpg.com has a ranking system based on specific categories.  If you're going to give a game a score, it would be great to see how that score was achieved, based each category.  Otherwise, the rating seems arbitrary.  I want to see how you ranked each of the following categories and why:

• Graphics
• Sound
• Roleplaying
• Value
• Fun
• Community
• Performance/Lag
• Customer Service

You touched on some of these, but only at a high level and you didn't rank them.

~Ripper

Actually, as you may have noticed, MMORPG moved away from those categories to a 10 point score and a list of Pros and Cons for their reviews given that as a genre, MMOs have broadened considerably. 

I'm a mature MMO player who's "grown up" on EverQuest, DAoC, WoW and others - EQ2, Vanguard, LotRO, etc.  If you measure a browser-based, children's game on the same yardstick measuring those games, Fusion Fall would fall rather short. 

Gaming hardware was indeed collectively unimpressive this year.  In the previous CES and the one before, I had an opening and a closing "round-up" of various gaming hardware.  Not this year.  The Razer mouse did impress me as they have broken the wireless latency barrier and it's a dual mode mouse.  Wired as well as wireless.

I DON'T WANT TO WASTE YEARS OF MY LIFE PLAYING  A GAME THAT ALL OF A SUDDEN TURNS INTO ANOTHER GAME

That quote jumped out at me (it's in caps and red afterall...) and that seems to be a common complaint of SoE but didn't World of Warcraft do the same thing?  It's been a while since that happened, but I was on a business trip at the time and came back to a different game and whining guildmates.

MMMOGs are "living entities" in a sense and do evolve and change.  The EverQuest of 9 years ago isn't the EverQuest of today.  The same applies for Ultima Online (they have Elves!  Horror of horrors!) 

Of course the SWG NGE is the HUGE black mark on SoE's report card and they do have more games published and are hence a larger target.

The only constant is change.

Originally posted by Raenz

I'm torn on the whole G.I.R.L. initiative thing from SOE.  It's one thing to encourage women to get into the game industry, it's another to give them preferential treatment because of their gender.

dis·crim·i·na·tion 

 (d-skrm-nshn)

n.

3. Treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality or prejudice:

By that definition though, 90% of scholarships given out are discriminatory.  All scholarships have parameters and those are based on what that particular foundation / group providing the scholarship is trying to accomplish.  There are few scholarships that are provided for study in any field in the winner's school of choice and based on individual merit alone.

Take any of the sport scholarships.  Why football?  Why not tiddlywinks?  (as an extreme example)

When this first scholarship was announced, there were cries of "Why not MY college?" and "How come they are discriminating against foreign students?"  etc. etc.