Originally posted by Swanea

Looking different with races/items that give no bonuses, I think, are perfect for any game.

 

 

I see a lot of people making this same point, but I don't agree.  It's all horse armor to me.  Withholding content that would have otherwise been included in the regular monthly fee, simply to sell it separately is enough reason for me not to play a game.  It doesn't matter to me whether or not it gives anyone a competitive advantage.  these games are generally about the acquisition of loot and character customization, charging extra for these things is BS.  Western MMO players have generally been against RMT, and have spoken clearly with their subscription dollars on the subject.  If we decide now that it's OK to withhold some loot and sell it to us for a few bucks more, then we may as well all just get prepared to pay 30 bucks a month for the exact same amount of content we now get for 15. 

Originally posted by MikeB

Handled responsibly would you be willing to play Star Wars: The Old Republic with the inclusion of microtransactions, either as the sole method of payment or as a supplement/alternative to a paid subscription option? Let us know in the comments below!

Nope.  I am willing to pay a flat up-front fee of up to 15 bucks a month.  I simply refuse to play any game that tries to nickle and dime me.  I will not play an game with an open ended monthly fee, and I won't play a game where other players have an advantage or just get cooler stuff than me because they are willing to pay more per month than I am.  I love Star Wars, and i have been anxiously awaiting this game, but I won't even try it out if they employ micro-transactions of any kind.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by Salvatoris

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by Blackwell99

Originally posted by Larry2298

 

Does it mean that the monthly price is over charge atm or Funcom planning to reduce the monthly fee as well?

 

 

It means AoC is on "the fast track" to F2P.

Hello Kitty

Goodbye Conan-lol

 

Right...

And so is EvE Online? www.direct2drive.com/d2dturns5

Whatever mate, this is one website with a special deal that is all.

 

The difference is that it's true about AOC.  I hate Eve, ask any eve fanboy and they can back me up on that.  Still, I can see that it is growing while AOC is losing subs, and it's already at a rate too low to justify much future development.  I expect the game to be exploring alternate payment methods within the year. 

 

That may happen and is beside the point that a singular website is offering a deal for $5 for the game themselves has no relation to the game going F2P the two are unrelated and your point is backed up by other things not deal related. Not saying your wrong just that your impression is different to guy quoted who thinks this because of a deal seperate from FC.

I agree.  The special five dollar pricing doesn't mean the game is on it's way to closing down.  I do think, on a related note, that both of the games we are discussing suffer from slow sales.  I think that is why they were chosen for the special pricing over other games that are selling better at full price.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by Blackwell99

Originally posted by Larry2298

 

Does it mean that the monthly price is over charge atm or Funcom planning to reduce the monthly fee as well?

 

 

It means AoC is on "the fast track" to F2P.

Hello Kitty

Goodbye Conan-lol

 

Right...

And so is EvE Online? www.direct2drive.com/d2dturns5

Whatever mate, this is one website with a special deal that is all.

The difference is that it's true about AOC.  I hate Eve, ask any eve fanboy and they can back me up on that.  Still, I can see that it is growing while AOC is losing subs, and it's already at a rate too low to justify much future development.  I expect the game to be exploring alternate payment methods within the year. 

This game will have to be pretty bad not to be better than Eve.  I like some aspects of Eve, but it is the most boring game I have ever had the misfortune of subscribing to.  Gameplay is just a big snoozefest.  I have heard a lot of people say you don't play Eve, you watch it.  I think that pretty much sums it up.  For a more in-depth and totally accurate review, follow the link in my sig. ;)

Originally posted by Lansid

lol that's what I thought, everyone bitching about "clones" but can't say which ones ARE clones, or why.

Does it occur to you that no one wants to answer your question because they don't think it needs an answer?  It's like asking people to give examples of the grass being green.  It's so obvious to the rest of us that we don't feel like getting in to a debate with you over it.

Originally posted by drbaltazar

Originally posted by Salvatoris

My comment was referencing the fact that some people, through either ignorance or stupidity, think that the common features of MMOs (or RPGs in general) were created by Blizzard and first appeared in WoW.  WoW was EQ2 before EQ2 was.  A clone of a clone is still a copy of the original. ;)

mm everquest  was made in the 199x 

everquest2 was made what 2004 same time as wow 

who copied who you think

eq2 copied everquest1 

wow copied everquest 1

dont believe this? go try eq1 you ll change fast the graphic are same you go in eq1 and you  feel like your in wow

but eq1 was released what 5 -6 years before 

hell some former eq1 dev went to blizzard to dev wow lol

That was my point too... although I was incorrect in thinking WoW launch before EQ2, rather than in the same month.  I was playing SWG and didn't play either of them at launch.  I think EQ was different enough from UO that people weren't calling it a clone, even though it was aiming at the same customer base, and inspired by it's success.  When EQ was a big hit, Bliz decided to get in the game with an almost carbon copy of the game.  Since it was a huge success, everyone decided to get their own MMO in production, copying the same features from EQ that WoW did.  The only thing new WoW brought to the table was mainstream commercial success.  If there was anything from WoW people wanted to copy, that was it... and so far they have all failed in that respect.

My comment was referencing the fact that some people, through either ignorance or stupidity, think that the common features of MMOs (or RPGs in general) were created by Blizzard and first appeared in WoW.  WoW was EQ2 before EQ2 was.  A clone of a clone is still a copy of the original. ;)

I lost a triple master to the CU, but I was still pretty happy with master pike / master armorsmith... What really killed me was seeing that full template translate to cl60 with the NGE.  I tried a few times to go back to the game, but I can't make peace with the fact that all my homies were 90 and I couldn't do any of the same content as them.

I love how all the nooblets throw around the phrase "wow clone" like wow wasn't an EQ clone to begin with.  :p

But even in Eve capital ships, you still play as if it were a fighter... just a super slow one.  No crew and no ability to explore your ship.  Like you were saying in your previous post.  I want a game where I am a pilot, not a ship.  Unfortunately, neither Eve or JGE are that game.

Originally posted by Kungaloosh1

People that burn through content faster than it can be produced are the bane of every mmo. If a producer is worth his salary, they will ignore these vile creatures and put out content at a pace that allows for quality.

In other words, if you buy a game, play it day and night and reach max level in quick order you only have yourself to blame for your boredom.

I disagree.  I think they just need to make sure that top level players have a compelling reason to keep playing between new content additions.  I prefer that be done through good, meaningful endgame PvP, but there are also a lot of things they can do for the PvE crowd.  A good player driven economy, with a deep crafting system, player housing and cites... sandbox elements in general will add the the endgame playability of a PvE game.  I think that while turbine tries in that department, they tend to underestimate the importance of those types of features.  While they have housing, it's those lame instanced neighborhoods.  It's not the instancing of the player housing that's off-putting, but the fact that the instances are identical.  I was pretty happy with the c rafting system overall, but when I played, I felt like it lacked depth. 

Originally posted by grandpagamer

If you like lore and exploration its a good game. If you like the ability to solo and group when you feel like it, its a good game. If you enjoy good, realistic graphics, its a good game. PVP is available but I cannot speak of it as I do not play LOTRO for PVP.  But if one does not like anything I mentioned then i guess its not a good game.

The problem is that there is no one willing to group for quests they have already done.  It was fine when I leveled up and the game was brand new, but now, unless you have a guild full of really patient people with lots of alts, you are pretty much limited to the solo content to get you leveled up.

Originally posted by Lathander81

Originally posted by Illyssia

 The unforgivable aspect to the launch are the server queues. This is very bad from NCSoft.

 

Unforgiveable? please what game (that has done well) has not had ques?

Just in the last few years, I played WAR, AOC and LOTRO on launch day without EVER having to queue to log in.  You can argue the success of any of those games, but they all had very high initial sales, with plenty of people logging in on day one, no waiting.
 

Originally posted by Frostbite05

This really is a premium game. Doesn't have a huge population but its a safe haven for most tolken fans and to be honest its a great pve game.

The issue is that once you run through all the content, with no compelling PvP, there isn't much to do endgame.  I agree that it's an excellent PvE game, graphics are great and turbine really does a good job of adding features that the players want.....  It's just not possible to turn out PvE content as fast as it can be consumed.  I think this game has as much subscription values as a lot of MMOs, but that isn't really saying much.  I think subscription MMOs should be on more a sliding scale.  They don't all have the same subscription value, but the industry slavishly sticks to the $15.00 a month standard fee.  There is a lot of room between 14.99 and free to play, it's a shame that more developers don't try to find a price-point somewhere in the middle.

I certainly hope this doesn't happen.  Microsoft is notorious for shelving game franchises they own but don't want to make new games for, simply to avoid the competition that those games might bring if released by someone else.  They bought the Mechwarrior rights and after releasing the game that was already in production, dumbed the game down to be mechassault and made it xbox exclusive... then they let one of the best PC game franchises of all time sit and collect dust for most of a decade.   If there is a single game publisher with less scruples and business ethics than EA, it's Microsoft.  :(

Originally posted by Berikai

Lotro was the smoothest launch I've seen,I had no problems at all.

I agree with you on that one.  I got in to the LOTRO beta about 6 months b4 launch and it was already running smoother than a lot of the live games at the time.  I would also add that despite what people think of the game, WAR had a really solid launch as well.

I think they will keep the game running for a while... they spent too much making it to give up on this soon.  But I do believe they have pretty much given up on it ever being a success.  I am still playing since launch and enjoying the game as it is now.  It is a much better game that it was a year ago, but I don't see it getting any better than it is now. 

They appear to be in full on maintenance mode now.  No new content is even being teased at this point.  They are trying to spin it as a focus on balance and squashing bugs... but we have all heard time and again that content and balance come from two different groups.  MMOs survive by offering us an ever shinier carrot.  They alway dangle some new content out in front of you to keep people on the fence from canceling their sub.  I believe if they had any new content in the works, they would be trying to tempt us with it.  For the first time since launch, there is absolutely no new content being shown as coming soon, or even coming eventually.  The closest thing to new content being teased is the tier 4 armor redesigns, which really only amounts to shifting pieces around between sets with nothing actually being new.

As much as I enjoy the game, I won't keep running through the same content forever.  The only thing keeping from looking for a new game now is that there aren't any coming out I am interested in.  :(

My bad.. I misread the post I quoted somehow as saying WAR and AOC rather than WoW.  You'll Notice I specified AAA MMOs that came out in the last few years.  I heard WoW had a pretty rough launch, but I wasn't there for it.  It's just about the only MMO I never played. 

Originally posted by Robdc84

 this game rocks, people have there pick of games now days, but this game is more polished then WAR or WoW was at launch.

That is nonsense.  This game is a turd compared to either of those... Neither had significant performance issues or bugs at launch.  FE manages to both look and run like shit somehow, and I have top end machine.  I was pretty excited about this game, until I played it.  In terms of performance, even Vanguard launched in better shape than this.  This is certainly an indie game, and it manages to look several years old while still chugging along at a terrible framerate.  I'm sure some people are going to find things to like about it, but you are just spewing lies to say that any of the AAA games to come out in the last few years was in worse shape than this.  That is simply untrue.