Originally posted by Comaf

Actually shocked people still play this game.  I would have assumed that a teen-aged gamer would be married and settled down by now ;p

What is it, 12 million currently playing?

WoW attracts new players and is accessible to new players, something your beloved DAoC failed completely at. Most of the remaining DAoC players are likely 25+.

Originally posted by Onigod

ill say it again WoW is not a game.. cus it is to easy to easy for everyone.

hink of this for a while. have your ever seen any raid or instance fail becouse the mobs are to tough in the current WoW? no becouse every raid finishes and losing is imposible even if half of the team leaves or afks you can still easily manage to get to the end and claim the possible reward. wich is how they keep people addicted that piece of loot they might get and really need at the end of a long raid keeps them doing the same thing the same raid over and over and over

Thats a lie, probably from a player who never played Cata...WOTLK was quite easy, but top-end Cata is much tougher.

Ever tried top Catacombs raids? Really tough some of them, if 1 guy dies or one of the healers or tanks is not on his or her game, you'll probably wipe.

ZHC's are tough as well. I'd LOVE to see you complete a ZHC with 2-3 players (half AFK you claim? riiiight).

Ignore this troll.

TSW for many reasons, interresting game setting with huge potential, compelling factions (better than the usual "we hate you because your skin is green" bolox we usually get), real world settings and not least 3 faction pvp.

Sadly this is toted every year and every year we get the same promises of amazing "next gen" mmorpg's but what we actually get is a mixture of wow clones, broken releases, unimaginitive use of classic IP's and general dross.

Of all those games in the list, only The Secret World sparks any interrest for me, the rest are all flops in the making, SWTOR being the biggest of them all, will possibly be the single biggest large IP flop of the year.

Simple answer, it's unlikely.

So sick of this argument, especially as it's the wrong argument. I do wonder how many players who spout NGE and CU as the demise of SWG actually played the game? I'm thinking very few.

SWG was broken, horribly broken at release, half the classes were unplayble....let me say that again, not a bit buggy, not in need of some tweaking, their core mechanics were simply broken. For some of those classes they never got properly fixed right up to the time they were removed from the game. For others, they got nerfed and buffed over and over with no logic.

Furthermore, the demise of SWG began with the Jedi grind, this turned once bustling cantinas and expaditionary groups into macro fanatics. Walk into a cantina early in the game, it was PACKED with people and was buzzing with activity (this at the time was the first mmo i had played where social interraction was far and away higher up the agenda than killing and grinding), once the Jedi grind began, all you'd see was AFK macro bots macroing their way through the professions to unlock Jedi. This decimated the community, ripped it's heart out as players, entertainers, crafters and combatants alike scrambled to wield the big shiny.

This is one unspoken reason why SWG hasn't bounced back, they gutted the community (or the community gutted itself, it's arguable) which never recovered. This happened a while before the term NGE was ever uttered.

Originally posted by Grickshaft

DUNE. 

 Sandbox? :)

Originally posted by Clattuc

Originally posted by Neiko

Originally posted by VaultFairy

Isn't the point of a Beta Test is to test the game out for errors and bugs before the game gets a full release? Don't understand how people try to play a beta as if it was a full release version.

QFT. People don't understand what betas really are.

And many people who say this kind of thing don't understand what alphas really are.

So true ;)

In a closed beta you bring up the basically working game for a server's worth of players who log in, play, and help you shake bugs out and give feedback on gameplay.  Closed betas give results like "this instance is bugged" or "crafting is too slow" or "level 20 gives the wrong skill" etc etc.

Late closed betas/early open betas, yes, but often there are many stages of closed betas which are far more basic.

If you cannot bring up the servers at all, or keep them from crashing in 15 minutes - if 80% of your CBT invitees can't even get past authentication - if getting to level 10 to find those level 10 bugs is completely out of the question, and your community manager is tweeting one multi-hour apology after another all day and night - then you were not ready for a beta, closed or otherwise.

This is precisely what many betas start out as. Just because you think open beta = beta, you seem to be oblivious to how many closed betas operate.

If the game barely loads and barely stays up, you are alpha testing, no matter what name you give it on the website.

Wrong again, some alphas are little more than testing the most basic game mechanics such as moving, sometimes not even in the game world but as part of a construct. One part of beta testing involves testing the game on multiple gaming configurations, often problems cannot be found until a certain driver or gaming system/platform has encountered it.

Anyway, I hope they get things ironed out, because I miss my Blademaster!  If they don't get ironed out, I won't be shocked if Hanbitsoft pulls the plug.

Many betas wipe characters daily, oh, wait, your used to open betas which are often essentially free-play. Ok then, enjoy your BM...

While this article is well written, it doesn't really tell the reader much about the game itself, just the authors thoughts on his experience.

The story reminds me of my first time in EvE back in beta, seems nothing much has changed in the hi-sec space and im sure almost all players can be reminded of their first days in EvE from this article.

Problem with this game is after a few years most have have literally seen it all and done it all, there is nothing else to do. This is why vets often leave and never return, you reach a point at which it ceases to be any more than logging in to change a skill train or check the market. While this is testiment to CCP and the community in EvE that it can keep players enthralled for such a long time, it is just not a game i enjoyed returning too.

Take a break for a few years, come back and my beloved corp is now gone, the 100+ players i knew and played with daily are all gone to a man/woman never to return. This was my experience and it's long gone now. Trying to start again without those who made the game what it was for me, it's just too much to face.

Originally posted by Swollen_Beef

It seems that we desire both an ability to both group and solo whenever we want. However, the past set of games (Muds up through DAOC) pushed grouping as the way to develop the community. But it seems people want more instant gratification while being able to solo their way through a game, yet complain when the community degrades into anal [ability] trolling and chuck norris jokes. 

We all know that forced grouping as was in DAOC or EQ was what created most of the community. By the time you reached end game, most people had an idea of who you were and your ability to play the class. 

But it seems that we cant have both a solo mechanic and a close knit community at the same time. 

Also to blame, PUGs. How many times have you stood in line for tree/house gobs, or *insert dungeon here* only to be told no due to lacking a spell, ability, or you deviated from the cookie cutter spec?

Is it possible to have both the ability to solo when you want, promote grouping (with random people, not just friends/guild), and avoiding players from demanding a resume in order to join a group?

Not sure what point you are tryiong to make here....

DAoC was very elitist at times, if you weren't the right class or spec, you wouldn't get a group, remember Hibernians sat around at Innis waiting for a group invite for days on end?

DAoC's BEST community WAS the solo community, it was through in-game and forums that stealthers and soloers competed and thats where most of the infamy in DAoC came from, that or the name of "insert current fotm setup" guild group rolling others abusing the latest bugs, fotm setups and radar.

DAoC groups were almost always PUG's or guild groups, there was rarely anything else. You were the right fotm class and fotm spec for the latest fotm set-up, or you had a guild to group with, or you were forced to sit and wait for a fail PUG to accept your gimped char or solo.

Originally posted by Elikal

The answer was relatively elegantly given from ArenaNets' Community Manager Regina Buenaobra, when she was asked whether mixes like Sylvan Engeneers or such would not make a strange mix:

"Players in general are exceptional and unusual figures, heroes who stand out among their people. Just as there are asura warriors and norn necromancers, it's not unheard of for an inquisitive, mechanically-inclined sylvari to become an engineer."

THIS. I wish some Biblical Miracle would write that sentence in flaming script on the walls of Bioware. THIS is why there should be a Chiss Jedi or a Twilek BH or ANY mix the player can make. The PLAYER is a HERO! Isn't that what Bioware always emphasizes? And if the player is a hero, why should he not be something else that the many other stereotypical Jedi, BH or Smugglers? The player is the hero, he is per se an unusual character. And he IS an individual. Heck, there were Hutt Jedi! Not that I want to play one, but everything is possible and isn't it "your story"?

 

I think it's just another sign that ANet is ahead of Bioware in innovation and design. Wish Bioware devs werent so goddamn stubborn about "their vision" of things.

 While i don't dismiss your sentiment, your argument is slightly flawed. There was only ever ONE Hutt Jedi in lore, Beldorion. Name me a single Hutt bounty hunter? I can't think of any.

Not disagreeing with your point, i agree games like this are more fun if you can play the race and the class you want to play without having to compromise becuase the dev's restrict class choice. I also agree with the MUD approach that you can have any race playing any class, but certain races are better suited to those classes and some others are not. Case in point for mmorpg's, half ogre mages, elf champions and furbolg bards/animists in DAoC to name a few.

Originally posted by syrusmag3

I have't heard much about this game and i am looking for a new game cause i am tired of the same old fantsy setting and every new game that comes out.

 

 

so my questions are

 

how is the population

how is the gameplay

how is the game peroid

Well, it's not the usual fantasy setting, that being said as a post-apocalyptic setting, it's very bland and has no original thought. The game simply is not as good as Fallout 2, let alone Fallout 3.

Population is small but dedicated, friendly and helpful.

Gameplay is buggy, repetitive, skilless and boring.

Despite this, it's not a bad game, problem is, it's not a good game either. Very little content, terrible pvp, among the worst in the mmo universe currently.

Crafting sucks, it's a terrible grind and it's the usual crap we see in every other fantasy mmo. Making a bike and a car is fun for a while, but it gets boring and dull in a heartbeat. Don't believe those who say it's great.....SWG was great crafting, EvE is great crafting, this is a grind and the same grind every other bland mmo uses, pure and simple.

There are some nice hidden bits which kept me playing for a few months, but once you hit the faction wheel it becomes clear that there is actually little content worth mentioning, no real point to the game at all and subsequently little to keep people playing.

The skill system isn't too bad either and exploration is one the games main entertainments.

Originally posted by toodlepip123

Didn't know very old mythology based storylines had japanese anime style characters.

 

Ahh well, good luck to them.

 It is a bit odd, it looks and seemingly plays like Aion.

Once again a company has opted for two faction pvp.....why? Have they not learnt from all the abject failures of the past that two faction pvp is either confined to battlegrounds or dominated in open world by the faction with the most players.

The other oddity is the name, "Troy" makes you think of the movie and the greek invasion of Troy...this is NOT the case and it's baffling. It's a fight between damned Greeks and Trojans somewhere called "Autis" (a kind of limbo continent).....my greek history is not great and im a pretty average mythology buff but i have never heard, nor can find any reference to thie "Autis" the game is set in..as far as i can gather it has no historical accuracy (or mythological accuracy if you like), isn't set in Troy at all and beyond featuring Trojans as one of the two pvp factions, seems to have jack-all to do with Troy and bastardises the Greek gods mythology by making up stuff to fit their game.

Maybe im wrong, but this is how it seems to me.

I'd like to know exactly what people want instead of the raid dungeons, gear grinds etc? It's very easy to slag a games design, but no-one ever offers a workable alternative.

Endgame is only ever going to be anything different from one day to the next if it's pvp, pve will always be repetitive until the game companies manage to come up with billions of alternative quests, exploration, achievement systems to cater to everyone and keep them playing. It's just not realistic.

Alternatives tried include the episode content style patches (such as STO), but these are played to death in a week and the baying crowds left demanding more, more, more! No way can any company produce weekly content patches that take a week to play through.

Then we get the in-game events where GM's take control of high level mobs, or they produce random invasions....DAoC tried this many years ago, it was a lot of fun first time, but after that it became an inconvenience more than anything else. Rift claimed to have invented this very, very old and flawed concept...they didn't and there is a reason no other mmo uses it....it's a flawed system that relies on the players wanting to become involved, often players just want to chill out, chat or craft, they DON'T like being forced to become involved these days.

DaoC's rvr was brilliant, 3 factions fighting over a dynamic world for control and supremecy. Why will this never happen again? Gamers have changed, the phrase "realm pride" is long gone, players are far more concerned with their own personal gain than the good of their realm. Think many would sit repairing a relic keep door for hours on end after defending it for several hours? No way, and whay would they when there are so many other fun alternatives in other mmo's.

TSW is the one im watching and have been for a while now.

DAoC is pretty much dead nowadays, there are still players playing, but 3k max. Warhammer is the same which pretty much sums up the mmo market. MMO gamers in general seem more interrested in pve than group pvp.

There are no really good modern group open world pvp games now, they are all zerg fests or mindless button mashing.

DAoC was the best, still is the best by a mile, Warhammer was never much good, EvE and Planetside were decent stabs at something different in the open world pvp genre but nothing since then has been much cop.

On the horizon is Secret World, which claims 3 faction open world pvp and a few others which look promising (can't really ignore GW2), but after disappointments like DF and MO it's hard to get too excited until these are released and can be commented on. Global Agenda isn't too bad, but it's a FPS, not really an mmo.

It's a real catch 22.

Start the free trial.....why? The fact is, as pointed out in the same article no-one plays 1-49 anymore. So if you get the free trial you will be soloing and then facing sc'd twinks in the lower BG's.....zero fun and a HUGE pointless (and now severeley dated) grind.

This is why DAoC is in such a terrible state, it's ALWAYS been unfriendly to new players and as such, they rarely stay.

Plus im not sure how anything positive can be said about the current state of the game, 1 server with TOA, about 3k players playing a game abandoned by Mythic...oh, wait, Mythic no longer exists.

Yes, it WAS a great game but it's dead now, let it rest in peace. If it went F2P it'd explode in population, but it's just not worth a sub anymore.

Getting hung up on a companies previous performances isn't always logical. Consider Mythic, who produced the brilliant DAoC, by this logic their next game should have been good, but it wasn't, they went on to produce the mediocre flop Warhammer.

Any mmorpg these days is a lottery, personally i won't buy any mmo at release anymore, regardless of the company who makes it.  Free trial first, part with hard earned cash second, play WoW in the interrim.

Liking the cc idea :)

Played this game at release for a while and I really only have one question:

Have they fixed the lag?

Everything else i can live with, but trying to pvp when the game lags like mad is not a joyful experience.

Other than that, i wonder if they have optimised the game yet, it used to chug-up my PC something fierce, and I have a pretty good spec rig.

To my mind this is the fundimental thing any pvp game must get right asap or it's siomply not worth playing.

Originally posted by Torik

Originally posted by Ceridith\

So while nostalgia can influence one's perception, it doesn't dictate it. It also certainly doesn't make something that was genuinely bad seem amazing years after the fact. The reason why so many people praise the older games is because they were genuinely great in their core design, despite having superficial issues. The issue that many of us have with the newest MMOs is that on a superficial level they seem fine, but their core design is rotten.

The problem is that what you consider to have been great core design to others looked like a rotten core.

To me SWG was a broken game whose core systems were faulty from the start and it was imploding around itself.  The sandboxy feel was great, the crafting system had deep potential and player cities were a great concept.  Beyond that the game was rotting from the inside.

 SWG was indeed broken and buggy, half the classes were completely unplayable and the bugs used to drive me crazy. But you really talk yourself in a circle as SWG did have an amazing crafting system, a truly unique social system (Cantinas were just amazing) also player cities were simply brilliant. These were not good concepts, they were good game features. Crafting did not have deep potential, it was deep.

Many many people would happily put up with the broken facets of the game to enjoy the world SoE had created, myself included. Ok, the CU was a nightmare, but im talking original release SWG. This is the point, it was a semi-original game with many original features which for many people has never been equalled. Indeed these days, no one seems to even bother.

Originally posted by Wraithone

Originally posted by Xero_Chance

Some publishers need a swift kick in the ass by the media sometimes. I only wished that you actually listed culprits so they could be singled out and widely scorned. I know that doesn't sound very good from a media business standpoint, but for the sake of the entire industry somebody's got to be the whistle blower.

 

Naming and shaming tends to be bad for ones business model. ^^  Not to mention, that most of us that have been around for a long while, have our own personal list of those who merit being inducted into the MMO Hall of Shame. 

We could start, way back with the howls that resulted from the creation of Trammel in UO, the closing of Earth and Beyond (EA), the destruction of Asherons Call2 (Microsoft/Turbine), the tragic situation of Mythica(Microsoft), the endless, eternal shame of the NGE in SWG (SOE), right up to the rushed, half baked game that Final Fantasy 14 (SE) turned out to be.  But what would be the point? Just so long as players continue to fall for marketing hype, and shell out for half finished products, the trend will continue.