My ISP was so bad about their downtimes I actually started keeping track in an excel spread sheet of times dates etc that the outages were occuring. It got so bad that they'd just start emailing people that they were doing downtime weekly to repair or replace systems, i marked all of this down as well and noted exact time of loss of service. After several weeks of this AND getting a bill from my company who would refuse to send out techs to fix the lines until several hours after an outage would start I took it up with them directly.

I took my spreadsheet electronically and print out to their customer service office. Requested to speak with the manager and/or the owner (its a pretty small isp). Sat down with the guy and went over numbers and their lack of a change management process and had them basically end up giving me about 3 months free service and helping them draft a change management process so that they would reduce the hours of downtime for actually fixing/replacing gear to late hours (off hours etc) and mimizing downtime to the average users. Also had my modem replaced about 3 times now due to lighting strikes due to the bad grounding they never installed. So all in all, everyone can make a little change but you have to stay on 'em and be on your game, dot all your i's and cross all your t's. Take it to the man, or else threaten to take it to the local newspaper and tv station to make sure they get bad press...that worked extremely well....

5 characters x 15 bucks x 12 months = $900    (x5)  $4500  ==  Amount SOE made off of me until NGE

5 characters x  00 bucks x 12 months = $000    (x5)  $0000 ==  Amount SOE made off of me after leaving due to NGE...

2 characters x $29.95 X 12 months = $718.80   (x2)  $1437.60  == Amount SOE made off of me while playing EQ2 until 1st big expansion

2 charcters x  $00.00  X 12 months = $000.00   (x2)  $0000.00   ==  Amount SOE made off of me after the 1st big expansion

Burn me once shame on me   (SWG)

Brun me twice shame on you   (EQ2)

You won't burn me a 3rd time.    (Unannounced SOE 4th MMORPG)

LOL, Wow, great article. As a lead designer/programmer on an MMORPG i'd have to agree on several fronts. I especially liked you're little tidbit of fast, cheap, good, pick 2...that fit's us to a T..we've been set on making it as cheap as possible and as good as possible and we've been sorely behind schedule from day one...fast we ain't... :)

Bugs are horrible and some like the one i'm working on right now are just impossible it seems to figure out...3 weeks now i've been working on this client problem where ui portions don't show up for certain people, keeping them from launching the alpha client but yet every time I and several others have no problems whatsoever and the dxdiag files just don't explain it, nothing does...yet...we'll tackle it eventually but jeez it just drives you nuts trying to figure them out sometimes...gimme the easy stuff like fix a quest giver.. :D

Good Read/Article...look forward to more Lum

I know

I thought this article was going to be about Indie games under the radar as well, as in "in development" but very few whispers about it....guess I was wrong....all the games on the list are pretty good though I've played all of them except for FFXI but my neighbor's kid plays it to death and has for years so I know there's people playing it...just not me...course I didn't like any of there other games either, just not my type of game...

I remember SWG on its launch day, I had gone to compusa here locally and was so excited about it, I had been reading all the news about it but hadn't been in beta and was just giddy to death about it, as soon as I got my hands on that box I even grabbed the help book and ran home as soon as I could to install it.  It seemed like the install took forever and ever and ever to go through.. I finally got it installed and saw that last little bit that said experience the greatest adventure ever your own.. then it jumped to a registration window...and that's where I got stuck....for a day...

The next day, after work I was so disappointed I tried again to get onto it, woah I got registered...yeah....then I click play and ...there goes the downloading new updates window.....for hours................ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Thankfully it coming up on a weekend and I played like 72hrs straight once i got in...lol...

I am a new player, as a newbie I read every step of the tutorial and quests and it helped out quite a bit. I didn't get to start FE until the retail version came out at my local Gamestop. I didn't get to go thru the new tutorial yet only the one with the atv..so it would be helpful probably for me to restart a new character and go thru it again so i can learn how to get a horse and get a free horse since right now i'm horseless still at level 7. also learning a bit about the other crafts like mutations which i have no clue on and some of the other stuff would greatly help I think the avg newbie player just coming in. Although for me I did learn quite a bit on my own and everyone was very helpful in help chat. Learning about the nodes an all that would be really useful as well and how you get the ability to harvest them specificially.

Just my thoughts as a newbie...still enjoying FE...

Originally posted by gjsfaun

I'm replying to the orignal article, haven't read the 80+ posts.

I started long before there were graphics - text based games.  I loved the grind, I hated the grind, then everquest invited me to alpha their game.  I declined - I was too immersed in my text based game.  That lasted 9 years.

Since then, I've tried every major (and many minor) MMOs (MMORPGs, MRPGs, whatever) that has been released.  At times I wanted a free-form sandbox game, skill based.  At times, I found defined roles very fun.  Most of the time, I would subscribe just long enough to try and figure out the mechanics - what makes this game unique, what makes it tick, what new innovations does this game bring to the market.  Even today I'll pay the 50 bucks and a free month to see what's new in the industry.  That's not what I really want though - it's just what attracts me to each new game.

How do I pick my MMO?  People.  Friends.  Community. 

I really liked many games, and I really quite them all because I couldn't find people to play with. 

Everquest - reached level 36+ as a gnome cleric, lost several levels trying to solo because I couldn't find anyone to play with regularly.  Quit.

Repeat this with many games, even when they got rid of loss of levels.  Joined several major guilds, same deal.  If nobody plays when you play, if nobody is willing to help out or group for whatever reason (like, they are all 80th level and you're level 10...). 

Community, grouping makes a game.  I hate WoW, but I'd play it if I had people to help and group with.  I'd even play Aion, or Champions, or Fallen Earth.  Just need people to play with.

My initial attraction is "what's new, innovative, challenging, different".  I adore skill based games, and I hate them because I can't find a community.  I hate class based games, but there is more community, just not one that I've found that I can play with on a regular basis.

Champions Online really opened my eyes.  Aion, which I originally hated, has a better atmosphere than Chamions, which I would normally love.  All because of the people, and ability to group.  Everquest 2 still pulls at me because of the sense of foced grouping and ability to find people to play with - I just can't find them.  Repeat this over and over again between different games.

I'm still looking for something to play.  Maybe I'll give WoW a try again.  Maybe EQ2.  Maybe EQ1 on a mac just for the heck of it!  Maybe AC.  Maybe I'll try a new Asian MMO - I'm looking for one thing and I can't find it - community, people to play with and enjoy a few hours together.

What attracts me?  Innovation. Change. Systems.  What keeps me?  Community and people.

I agree whole-heartedly with you, in fact its one of the reasons i'm thinking about just stopping my sub on Champions in the next couple of days....just because its a single player game with multiple players walking around inside of it..NO ONE groups that I can tell...most of the time they won't even talk they just zoom by you on their way.....I play Wow, with a small family group, fallen earth solo and champion online solo and i'm not above level 10 on either of those....if you need someone to group up with your're welcome to join our family guild on wow we're on most nights and weekends for few hours and have alts and mains leveling between 1-80...i personally don't even have an 80 my highest is 73 on it right now...we're very casual...and all of us are working adults so only have that window after supper and bedtime to play...

If you wana try out those other 2, I go by Agamemnon on both so give me a holler, like I said i'm soloing mostly because not many people will talk with you let alone group on champions, and FE i'm just having fun learning not even to 10 yet...having fun in it though but i'm now finding it difficult to solo as a medic type build...

As a suggestion, to be counted in the list of ideas, I'd rate and do rate games on the way I play them. I pretty much play every P2P game that comes along and give it its free month, not many make it past that month but some do and then they get a full 3 months further view, sometimes up to 5+yrs if it really gets me. Anyway, I'd like to post these  thoughts on my own internal review and usually what I put out to others if I were to rate it.

1=i would take it out back for target practice, while 10=Glory to thy name you are the 2nd coming

1. Gameplay- Is it fun, what was my fun factor, how long did It take to get bored, did grinding start right away, was in difficult or hard to level, was there a new twist on mechanics that made it interesting. Twists to guild tools, UI differences good/bad. Is there more then one race to play, a few classes, many skills, FPS? Is there interesting things to do other then combat pve/pvp? is there a crafting system, how deep is the crafting system, how weak? (Rate 1-10)

2. Sound-Does the sound jive with the world, is it just a compilation of crap standard music, do sounds happen when they should (i.e. animations sequences)., Does it sound choreographed, does the sound help me immerse myself into the world and really get into it and lose tract of hours.  (Rate 1-10)

3. Video-Does it have stuttering, does it chunk my card and make it crawl in FPS, does it have to high requirements to be good for casual gamers or too low. Do I have to go spend money on upgrades to really play this properly, and is it worth it to do so. (Rate 1 - 10)

4. Quest System-Is it kill 10 rats and fetch quests repeated exponentially, is it realistic, does it make sense, does it change the world, does it do anything different to expand the genre. Is the quest system linear, open, no quests, few quests, significant quest story lines/arc that feed into an epic real quest line that shakes the foundations of the world on discovery?  (Rate 1-10)

5. Visually Appealing-Does the textures and background make sense for the world, is it appealing, does it flow properly or look patched and hacked together, are there seams ready to burst open. Does the overall art design follow the vision of the game and flow together right, to cartoony, too reaslistic, to over shaded.. (Rate 1 - 10)

6. Combat (PVE) -general feeling of combat is fun and immersive, does it give everyone soemthing to do to feel a part of a group, a party or effective as a solo player. Does it feel like i have to grind incessantly to reach end-game to compete or have fun. Is it a race or casual game where it occurs naturally.      (Rate 1 - 10)

7. Combat (PVP)-Balanced? Fair, Zerg Fest, ganksquads, FFA, does it fit the world, does it make sense, is it all instanced or world pvp, does it support other areas of the gameworld, does it only happen at end-game highest level, is it a race to the end game to compete?    (Rate 1 - 10)

8. Roleplay-Does the game support role play, is it immersive enough to encourage roleplay, does the community support roleplay, are there us and thems? Pickup roleplay groups? are there tools that assist roleplayers in doing what they like, is it an open enough world to facilitate events.   (Rate 1 - 10)

9. World/Environment-Overall world design makes sense, does the world look different then other games, is it a clone? Are there glitches? To much instancing, zoning, phasing, or to little?       (Rate  1 - 10)

10. Support-Community, forums, customer service ticket response, helpful forums or chat areas, trade and tech areas in chat, ingame voice support, in-game gm support, quickness of response time? Helpful community leaders, designated helpers? Asshats? Barrens Chats?      (Rate  1 - 10)

I take these 10, rate them and then add together and divide by 10 and there ya go you got your score and a pretty overall fair rating touching most elements of the game.  Granted many of these kinda of slide over each other but try to stay unbiased as possible while still getting the idea across of how you feel about a game to say guildies or what not and I have used that method before in the past.

I totally agree with the write up, but not so much the score...for me, I'd rate it at about an 8 to an 8.5 for me. I do run into major major lag in the cities, but its explainable and my fault do to having a 2yr old system. As a matter of fact I run FE on an HP dv9339US laptop running Vista with only 2 gb of ram and a GeForce Go 7600 series card and for me it runs just fine when i'm out in the boonies but once i get into town I want to die by stabbing myself repeatedly in my eyes with a spoon. I mean so bad it litterally takes me about 10 minutes to cross the street (roughtly 40-50 ft in game)....

again, this is explainable though due to my running this game on a 2yo laptop 2gb ram and vista but hey it runs...and it runs well when out of the cities...I love the crafting in this game, I have fun killing the combat system is tough using a laptop with no mouse but doable..the world looks awesome to me on full settings but due to the lag issues, I have to turn down all the levels to about 25% so it doesn't bog me down so much and I can play efficiently without dieing to lag....now i just die to those stupid ganking marauders... :D

I pretty much give most P2P games a fair shake of their 1st month. I don't play F2P games due to the quality and caliber inherit to them, that an the community associated with them. If after the 1st month of play I don't like what I see, I usually drop out on it and do not subscribe. Some retain me a little longer, making me interested in where the dev team is taking the game and will let me sub for another month..maybe even more. I've tried about 90% of the P2P mmo's that have come out starting back at EQ my first. 

Many did not make it past the 1st month, several did of that list  EQ, EQ2, Matrix Online, WoW, SWG, LOTRO, DDO, EVE, AOC. of these only a few made it past 3 months EQ, EQ2, WOW, SWG EVE...The rest either had something i didn't like about them or just bored me to tears after a point or were just plain crap towards end game. The game i subbed longest to was SWG however at around 5+ yrs thru all the NGE turmoil when my 300+ guild finally floundered and I finally gave up on it. I have tried resubbing to these few a few times but most can't get me to stay. (I only play wow cause my sister forces me to but I keep dropping it).

I recently picked up both Fallen Earth and Champions Online nearly the same week and several weeks after they launched and got all those launch bugs out of the way....I don't know how i pick them but ...fallen earth is gonna make it....to at least 3 months and a 2nd look...champions online isn't going to make the grade...

1. Personally I'm a sci-fi nut, I enjoy fantasy but sci-fi is more my thing. (Look at past history w/ SWG)

2. Gameplay (skill based system over leveling), Open world (sandbox vs themepark) I love to explore the world even at the lowest levels, Quest system that makes sense and not endless kill 10 rats, PVP/PVE both good and not a FFA gankfest, I don't care for arena/BG's but I like open world PVP as long as its fair and not a zerg fest either which is just stupid.

3. Fun-I gotta be having fun and not feel like I'm grindingk, boredom is a sure shot to the unsub button. (i'm looking at you 8 time unsub wow!)

4.  Immersion=This ties into all of the first 3 especially #2 (open world). I have to feel like I matter, that I can explore the world and don't have to walk along a path or be lead by the nose thru a park, I want to have freedom to do what i want, to become a bandit to roleplay a pirate, to become a meglomaniac paladin who will stop at abosolutely nothing to vanquish evil even at the peril of his party, or to be that durnken dwarf axe swinger who ruffs it up in the local pub every nite. I HAVE TO LOSE MY SELF IN THE WORLD FOR HOURS and not realize it.

i'm loving it so far, although i play on a laptop and the lag kills me a lot more then anything else does. The crafting system I agree is nice and making lots of stuff is enjoyable, i do like to make a lot of everything i'm more of an explorer type overall though so making what i need like food (grilled chicken) and drugs as a medic to help me out and heal is a plus. I'm just lucky that my medic and crafting both require high intelligence to make good stuff and use higher level items.   I find now that i'm level 7 though I'm starting to have a hard time on some creatures so it may be time for me to start thinking more towards better gear.

I'm stopping on the way home from work at my local gamestop to get my copy of Fallen Earth which released today at gamestop...been following them for several years myself, keeping track of its development etc...and joined beta to test out the game and get a feel for it being a pseudo fallout mmo...and I was pleasantly surprised by it and the reason i'll be stopping by to pick it up tonight...

It's got its issue as does everygame but it looks like everything is getting fixed right away and things are moving along. What made me most interested in it of course was there 6 faction system, pvp and skill based system...as an indy game designer myself we started out looking at a very large faction system over 8 and have since scaled that back to 4 main faction however also being heavily pvp oriented and skill based...we're on a much more creative budget then these guys but this is the kinda success for an indy studio that we're hoping for...build small, build it right and keep building it and your customer just will be..

:D

Darin it, enjoyed the articles....good luck with the new game/job...best of wishes on it...

I agree w/ above totoally...Ideas are a dime a dozen..pretty much anything you can think of...has also been thought up by someone else....is the producing on the idea that has not happened in many cases...in allot of cases the idea will never get made because if you work for a big name then its too risky to do...or no one else has done it so its unknown how it will be received....ideas are good but like poster above said taking those and getting them produced into little games to start is the way to go if you really want to give it a shot...

The team method is great, there are indy teams looking for help constantly or you can form your own to work on one of your designs...you could try to build a board game to start (not many people have tried to do this, it is extremely hard)...you could try flash or iphone apps etc all of those are great and really coming up....i would not however recommend taking one of your designs andt trying to build an MMORPG out of it right out of the gate...mmo's are monsters unto themselves and (from experience) one of the hardest things you'll have to try to do in your life...there are so many factors in mmo's that really make them more difficult then other games, to make, imho...

All of the other methods for getting in, from mail clerk, customer svc, gm etc are all acceptable methods and schooling I don't think is as important anymore as it used to be even though there are degrees tailored to gaming...we have a guy on our team who's also a pysch major grad from Colorado...the important thing is can you produce, work well with others as in can you mesh as /with a team and produce something at the end that's fun to play....

My advice...start small, work your way up...add to your portfolio...start on the ground floor...join indy teams and your local gaming communities (GDA's) etc...eventually you'll be able to try out some of those ideas in that notebook of yours..some may work out..others may not ...but at least you still shot for stars...

If you're more into 2D games then pick up some cheap trials for builders like rpgmaker whatever version...

If you're shooting more for 3d then go download some engines and play around from torque to realmcrafter to unity c4d v3d or even multiverse are free or have trials that you can play with and most provide tools etc to toy around with in your basement on a windows or linux box...

If you're interested in hardware and software as well as getting into programming itself then i'd go the Multiverse route since its completely free until you statr charging money...go build out a linux server, load the mv server on it, go start building a new world...anyone can now a days...thats the beauty of the new tech these days its easier to get into...but hard to master... :D

as stated in the article, its not easy it takes drive and determination you have to be in it 150%...if you wanna see your vision of a game come to fruition...books, schooling all counts too but its not the be all to getting in ...i think its desire...

Never again will I pay to play a beta...I'll wait and see how this train wreck works out after few months and see whether or not it floats or everyone leaves after the 1st month....

From everything I've read, here and there, the powers is a real issue and not up to par with the Real Champions game and Hero System...

So its a wait and see for me......besides, I'll probably get into STO beta anyway so no need to pay for it...

Originally posted by greed0104

Originally posted by Mordacai

Originally posted by greed0104

Speaking of DnL. They are back at it again. talesofkalenor.com/

Taken from the message board at DnL original site (surprised it's still active)

 

This is an incorrect and misleading post, btw....Tales of Kalenor is not being developed by the same people that "attempted" to create DNL...it's just people/fans of ..how to word this...fans of how they wanted DNL to be, creating the Tales of Kalenor mmo...not at all associated with NPCube, NP3 or any of the companies that were involved with the making/breaking of DNL...just some motivated people with an engine and time/money to invest in themselves.....actually if you looked into it, they look farther along then what DNL did ....so go volunteer to give them a hand if you like the "idea" of DNL...

As I said it was taken directly from the message board.

"Dark and Light is not coming back anytime soon, well atleast not with the same content.

Few people from the old DnL Staff have started a new MMORPG project called Tales of Kalenor (Working title), Currently recruiting volunteers for the development in the name of good-old-times, But this time, you define the game. Check the forums."

The idea of DnL is long gone. And if people from the DnL staff are working on it. I don't see it being any better. Just my opinion. I however could be wrong. Either way I'm not touching it.

 

It took me a while to find the actual post you're referencing...link would've helped....but apparently you're quoting Dajesse, who is a user on that message board(god knows why its still up and operating), who has 4 posts total with an account created  (oct 08) after DNL closed its doors and shut their servers down (july 08).

That's a stretch at best with accuracte information about it...the best I can think of is that he's calling "Few people from old DnL. Staff have started a new MMORPG project"  as one erroneous sentence but should be read as two sentences

I can specifically confirm/say since I'm assisting them on the ToK project that Fjalar (the lead) worked part time as a forum mod/GM for a few months for AD (The GM/Story provisioning support company that also moderated the boards but had no control over any aspect of the game development of DnL) .

I know of NO developer of DnL that is involved in the TOK project in anyway, shape or form. Just want to make sure that's clear as the post you're referencing is in itself, english illiterate and incorrect. Besides, they're using an entirely different engine to boot as well as mostly stocked with old player (DnL) volunteers.

hehe , me as well....but then again...Dana's posts are always controversial and run about 100+ posts replies most times...which is usually some good conversation...look forward to reading his upsets next week.... :D

/crackswhip  -  back to work slave...

Originally posted by greed0104

Speaking of DnL. They are back at it again. talesofkalenor.com/

Taken from the message board at DnL original site (surprised it's still active)

This is an incorrect and misleading post, btw....Tales of Kalenor is not being developed by the same people that "attempted" to create DNL...it's just people/fans of ..how to word this...fans of how they wanted DNL to be, creating the Tales of Kalenor mmo...not at all associated with NPCube, NP3 or any of the companies that were involved with the making/breaking of DNL...just some motivated people with an engine and time/money to invest in themselves.....actually if you looked into it, they look farther along then what DNL did ....so go volunteer to give them a hand if you like the "idea" of DNL...