They have videos and screenshots out for Age of Empires "Online".

First off It's NOT an mmo!

Secondly, the game looks like trash compared to what Age of Empires was, AMAZING. I can't believe they butchered Age of Empires into some kiddy-Hello Kitty Online title just to get into the "MMO" market with a description that is completely false.

How much money did it cost to develope DAOC, EQ, Utilima Online, SWG, or Shadowbane? No where NEAR as much as all these new high priced MMOs are going to cost.

It does NOT take BIG $$$ to make a good mmo, it takes developers who give a damn about the genre, and not being forced to work under a douchebag of a Publisher who demands X & Y.

Here's what we know so far:

-The Warhammer 40k lead developer, himself, said he was trying to "attract" World of Warcraft players stating: "It won't be a heavy transition, if you like WoW you'll love Warhammer 40k" (ok, i paraphrased but it's still correct!)

-The game is going for an over-the-shoulder tab targeting system with skills & auto attacks that look like you're actually pulling the trigger on that MG, or swinging the sword yourself (just a fancier tab-targeting & button mashing system like in WoW....nicer animations & weapon effects is all).

-Vehicles look terribly unconnected to the world they're supposed to be interacting with. Watch that gameplay teaser video, notice how the walker is essentially disconnecte from the world? It's just a poor animation with no interaction at all!

-From everything we've been given so far, granted we haven't played it yet, points us to a reskinned WoW with Warhammer 40k lore (KIND OF LIKE RIFT, but with Rifty-Lore :)! ).

Quite simply, you are NOT a Warhammer 40k fan whatsoever if you plan to play this game simply becuase it has Warhammer 40k elements, that's not only the stupidest reason, but the WRONG reason!! They're butchering our lore to make a buck, and you plan to support them doing it? Go away >:E!

One imagines how people can be blindly lead like this.

Rift == WoW with mature graphics....that's IT. There's nothing new, it's as easy as WoW, and has no end game point other than raiding.

Congratulations, you've found WoW 2.0, it's not the new "Big Hit" MMO. {mod edit} Pathic >:(, here's hoping some indie company comes up with something good. Maybe we'll be surprised and Mythic announces DAOC 2 around Q4. Or.....ArcheAge brings us out of this "Dark Age" of horrible copycats of WoW.

/sigh

-mmoVet

Again, yet another column of Richard's that is off the mark by leagues. I "agree" to some standpoint that the market will "shift & grow". However, these new MMO "fads" such as "Free To Play" (which are NOT free, and are in most cases more EXPENSIVE to play) or "Browser Based" are only signs that the market is trying to experiment with what an MMO actually is, or can be.

By no means will F2P or Browser Based gaming dominate, or control, the MMO market in the ANYWHERE near future. People have seen that F2P, quite simply, is a marketing ploy to get even MORE money for advantages that you'd normally get in a $15/mo game. Granted, these "PayToWin" games are for the casual gamer, so a "Normal" (note: Non-Hardcore) gamer shouldn't even be attempting this kind of MMO as it'll cost them 3x more than a $15/mo game for almost the same benefits. Being a "Casual" gamer isn't necesarrily a bad thing, but if you don't plan to invest any sort of time into a game to begin with don't expect it to shine more than a polished turd. Just sayin...

With that said, what I DO foresee is the paypment types changing in the near future from a strict $15/mo ONLY plan, to $15/mo "normal" subscription & a bunch of time based "purchase now" plans for people who work for a living and can't justifty $15/mo for a game they can only play for 1-2hrs a day, if that.

I still don't understand why MMORPG allows Richard to make these blogs as MOST of them are downright enflamatory, and in most cases insulting. For instance the following quote from Richard's post above:

"Well, they're entitled to their opinion, however narrow it might be." 

He literally is saying anyone who casts a generic, EXPERIENCED, perspect of what an MMO can (or should be) are narrow minded or plain ignorant. This is ALL because they have a differing opinion than HIM. This is TROLLING & insulting. Does he own stock in MMORPG.com or something?

-mmoVet

[any mispellings are due in part to the fact that it's the internet, not serious business]

So let me get this straight, first it was "Free to Play" that would take over the market (which it hasn't and is steadily dropping from the scene), and now it's "Browser Based" MMO's that will take over the market?

Give me a fat BREAK. Browser based MMO's, if you could call them that, can barely shake a stick much less a profit margin at main stream MMO's. Why do people think that going BACKWARDS is the best business plan to break "out of the mold" rather than actually being INNOVATIVE? Hiding on a platform no one gives two craps about won't help your business. It's called taking the road less traveled, it doesn't mean you're going to get there faster.

Devs today must be populated by idiots?

Wow, it's rare that I'm taken back by the words of someone in direct control over an MMO (either good or bad). In this case, I was positively taken back by this statement:

"If you want a model to follow, and you are not Blizzard, you outta pay attention to people like CCP and EVE Online. It's the only game of its kind anywhere. Analyze what the players want," he said. What he is certain they don't want is linearity in a game. "EQ II has been largely linear in the past. That is going to change.

"There is not a lack of ideas," he said, "pick a small market, do something new. People need to get off this 'I'm going to remake WoW,' or 'I'm going to remake EverQuest' and expect different results. Players already have EverQuest and EverQuest II and WoW, so make something else. It's the publishers fault; people need to take smaller initial bites and see what works and doesn't work." 

                         -Dave Georgeson

The Lead Designer of SWTOR should take lessons from Georgeson, this man knows what the industry is in dire need of. Now, as for EQII I can't attest to the new "future" they have planned for it. However, with this man at the helm it seems very positive.

Sorry, but this game is a travesty. It shouldn't even be allowed to be called anything more than a failed AoC/AsianGrinder. It's what Age of Conan is, but without the good combat system & the amazing graphics.

There ya go, time to move along to better games now.

Originally posted by nariusseldon

LOL .. and the OP haven't even mentioned those who need to defend the DEFINITION of MMOs. I can hear the qq-ing now ...

"sob sob sob .. WOW is NOT a MMO because of feature x. The world MUST listen to me. All the players, all the reviewers, all the game developers in the world are WRONG. I am RIGHT. It must be renamed to a CORPG or i will SUE THEM .. i say SUE THEM for false advertising!!!!"

 

Although I hate what WoW, and what WoW is, with a passion. Along with the fact that it corrupts the CRAP out of the industry with money leading them into more and more dumbed down genertic games. I still cannot call WoW a non-MMO. It quite simply has "enough" open world content & features to be called an MMO.

GuildWars is a little iffy on that as it was 99% instanced.

HOWEVER, what most anyone agrees on, that has even a quarter of a braincell, is that MANY games now are being advertised as MMOs when they easily ARE NOT. A couple examples:

Huxley "Online"

Global Agenda "Online"

World of Tanks "Online" <===I actually like this one, but it's a Cod5 for tanks...not an MMO even fi you add in the "Chess like" world domination map thingymajigger

etc...

=)

Originally posted by elocke

So, I'm a complete newb to DaoC.  I'm enjoying it for the most part, it has a nice feel to it, even though the UI, movement and combat are outdated.  That being said, the game so far is only fun if I play a melee class.  

Casting a spell at a mob that suddenly is in your face and you literally cannot cast any more spells due to interrupts...I dont understand how casters are supposed to even level up in this game without a group?  I understand it's trying to be realistic, but it comes at the price of having fun or progressing as a caster.

If they ever make a DaoC 2 they had better make casters akin to games like Vanguard, squishy but still able to cast a spell since it's their ONLY attack.

Also, what is it with old MMOs and lack of tooltips when hovering over spell/combat/skill descriptions?  Guess I'm spoiled by modern MMO conventions.  Still, I'm not above appreciating games that have come before.  I AM having a ton of fun with the Armsman class and using Pikes.

Becuase you're in the lower levels. Later on, possibly in the mid-levels, you'll find that casting while being hit isn't all that difficult if you spam it enough. It's done this way because casters are REALLY strong past the low level range, and if they weren't interrupted when hit in melee they'd be the Alpha class of the game. Hell, at lvl 50 I had a capped casting speed & capped dex Eldritch that would literally take almost a quarter of a second to cast hit high end nukes. I'd two to three shot other casters in under a second in RvR.

I will admit however, they need to appropriate help the lower-end leveling out with some sort of merc system like EQ has done, as the /free 20s has ruined the game. Worst, decision, EVER.

Originally posted by rottN

do you know what this is ?

its a clone of this

No, picture A is NOT a clone of picture B. It's called evolution, NOT "cloning". Cloning would have A) looking like picture B) just with a different paintjob or different metal type for the wheels.

:)

Originally posted by DeathTouch

Originally posted by xBludx

I don't use the term "wow-clone" but I think it's a valid question and we don't need to call everyone who calls a game a "wow-clone" stupid. They will just call you stupid, and then we will all be back in kindergarten again.

I think that what people who don't like wow and so-called wow clones are really against are games that include some of these things:

• tab targeting
• rotations (press 1, press 2, press 3 - rinse repeat)
• gathering and kill quests (kill 10 x, etc.)
• etc.

I think there is a significant populaton of players who want something different, perhaps what they perceive as more challenging.

Please understand that my bottom line is that a game is a game and if you have fun with it, that's a good thing. I don't care if you have fun with wow, rift, warhammer, chess, or pinochle. It's all good and there's no need to insult people for what they like to do.

Just consider other viewpoints and try to see what they are getting at is all. Even if they insult you, it doesn't profit you to ignore any relevant points they might have or to insult them back.

Again, OP has a valid question. Thanks for raising it!

I believe Eve has all of that. Does it make it a WoW clone as well?

The only difference with the 123 rinse/repeat is the fact the weapons will auto fire once ingaged. but you still have to hit 123 again on the next mob.

Eve only uses ONE of the dfining characteristics of a WoW-Clone, and since it only uses one it can be attributed to just a standard feature of an MMO. That one feature is over-use of instancing.

If you actually think about it, each "DeadSpace" area in a system in Eve is an instance. It's rather funny to point this out, but you can actually have 10 deadspaces directly ontop of each other, but the ACTUAL warp in gate to get to the deadspace will be in different locations.

You can also think of each system in eve as an Instanced "node". It's not considered a zone because zones take up far too many resources to maintain without any players in them. Instancing the galaxy in this manner has allowed EVE to skyrocket it's "single server" idea to the 70k range. Very smart indeed :).

A "WoW-Clone" is defined as the following by the MMO Community:

-Terrible Graphics to cater to the "lowest common denominator" of players.

-The only real way to level, or advance, in the game is by Questing. (Questing is unintellectual gameplay, go here...kill 10 things, come back, XP!)

-The game uses "childish" Art-Styles to get what they need done, to which they call "Stylized". (SWTOR comes to mind)

-Over-Use of instancing in their game world. (GW doesn't count as they HAD to do that for server upkeep concerns)

-The game uses the very over-used, very boring, very OVER copied, Tank/Healer/Dps class system. People are tired of this especially and want more innovation. (SWG's class system was the "most" innovative that has come down the pipe in recent years. Where did all the innovation go?)

If a game has 3 or more of the above the game can be considered a WoW-Clone. WoW has been considered not the "best" MMO to come out in years, but the "Starter" MMO to come out. Sure they have 10million players, but about 99.99% of that playerbase are NEW to the mmo industry of games. Most of the MMO community prior to WoW's release (the ones that played UO, EQ, SWG etc) have been jumping around MMO's trying to find that "one" MMO to hold them since their old, true, MMO died in some form or another to them.

Unfortunately, the lack of innovation can be attributed to WoW's success, and money grubbing Publishers see that success but don't tie in the fact that WoW is, in fact, it's own Niche of gameplay. It is NOT, by ANY standards, the end all be all of MMOs, or the "Standard" setter. That's why those of us who saw it, face palmed SO HARD when the SWTOR main dev said in an interview that he measures EVERY MMO by WoW's standards & practices of game features etc. When a game developer doesn't do what WoW did, he shakes his head and says something to the letter of "Why did you do this?". Although SWTOR has already been labeled a confirmed WoW-Clone, I doubt many people will care as my friends want to "try" it just because it is StarWars, which is a TERRIBLE reason to play anything that's been butchered that badly.

Originally posted by Erstok

Call around, and so forth. Research and ask the companies yourself about there deals and bandwidth.

Call around to your future neighbors, or to people you MAYBE know in the area who have FIOS. Calling the companies themselves is quite possibly the worst thing you can do (it's what they have a website for). The companies will just give you the "Oh we don't block anything" line, but then you end up finding out it's the otherway around (speaking about Comcast here, their support LIES through their teeth about that one).

Let's just say that I wished I had FIOS in my area (Booo South Carolina being behind the times...) as I'm tired of spotty internet connection issues with Atlantic Broadband. :c

Originally posted by ArcAngel3

Follow up thread to this one: The only thing SOE ever did wrong with this game was the NGE right? 

I've come across the notion that SOE's reputation suffers largely from the negative feedback of disgruntled SWG players.  It's as though players of this game are uniquely unreasonable, resentful, critical etc..  If this is the case then players of their other titles must be relatively happy.  The basic idea is that SOE really makes good games and treats customers well, but a vocal minority of SWG players paint a very unrealistic picture of them.  Is this true?  I dunno, you tell me.  SWG is the only SOE game I've ever played.

Have they been really different in their handling of games like Vanguard, EQ, EQII, Matrix online etc.?  Are those players generally pleased with the way their games have been managed, and how they have been treated as customers? Feel free to comment on other titles, I just listed a few that came to mind.

-Matrix Online : They essentially bought the game, and then dropped ALL support for it essentially. They planned numerous "Entire Revamps" for the game, but only half assed it every...single...time. Eventually, they cut ALL major support and the game suffered into oblivion.

-EqII, they've been milking this since it failed to attract REAL popularity. Initially the game was supposed to have NOTHING to do with Everquest, but they changed the name & numerous art stages in order to connect back towards the EQ1 fanbase for more $$$ (developer interview is where this is from, post launch).

-Vanguard was simply saved from the graces of God due to a stupid Publisher who put to much expectations on his developement team, and set too many lofty goals. This is the ONLY title SOE actually saved from destruction.

-EQ, essentially this game has been SOE's flagship for more than 10years now. It is because of EQ that they are now the MMO mainstream giant (however undeserved they may be) in today's MMO world. Unfortunately though, the game has suffered from a MASSIVE lack of vision from the development team, and has been slapped around with so many gimic filled expansions it has bastardized the game into near-exstinction. Despite this, hardcore fans who keep being let down by newer iterations of the Modern MMO continue to come back to this bastion of what it MEANS to play a D&D-ish MMO.

-There are MANY other games they support now, but most are almost as bad as Matrix, or are going by that path.

Originally posted by WhiteLantern

Originally posted by TribeofOne

nothing "groundbreaking" about DCUO.  another fail game by a fail developer.  DCUO loses any appeal it does have very fast as evidenced by its already declining population. 

Interesting speculation. I was queued last night for the first time since launch week. Declining indeed.

Age of Conan had queues at launch up to an hour long, after some of the servers kept crashing due to influx of population. Do NOT judge the game based on population until 3months after launch. After 3months, people generally have had enough time to see 80% of the game at launch.

Originally posted by djnexus

"Multi-Account Boxing is NOT an anti-social behavior if you're only boxing 2 to 4 characters that are under your control. It is the people that box 5 to 6 accounts that are anti-social"

Wrong you are, thats still 2 to 4 real people your shutting out who could join your grp to have fun with. Boxing also takes away from the immersion of games. Would you run 2 to 4 chars. In a D&D campaign sitting around with your friends? It takes away from game world immersion. What ever happened to 1 player 1 charecter. Why all the super twitch gaming. You are still alienating yourself in ways.

I'm not alienating myself whatsoever. I'm still actively seeking people to fill up w/e spots I don't with my own characters. At the end of the day it's my time & money being invested into Everquest, not yours. If I so wish to box 3-4 toons because groups are fairly rough to form up in the early days too, I will. Am I judging you for NOT multi-boxing? No, I'm not...it's your choice not to.

I play with a LARGE group of people on a normal basis, and I help people on a frequent basis. So much, in fact, I found myself last week not progressing in my current game because I kept helping people in lower levels.

Your arguement is flawed and illogical, and it edges on insultation & ambiguity. Please keep this out of my thread :D!

Thanks,

Faded

Originally posted by TruthXHurts

Let's see how your boxes like my monk trains. CHOOO CHOOO!

Trains aren't allowed on PVE "bluebie" servers, especially this timelocked progression one. So have fun being banned my friend :).

Despite Everquest's age, it's still superior to most "Modernized" MMO's today. The problem being, that most of the newer sweeping changes they did to EQ1 REALLY killed it's appeal for many.

This is why the time-locked Progression server is VERY popular. Additionally, to the guy who thinks the augments will be in you're mistaken. 99.8% of the things that was not in during THAT timeperiod (e.g: launchday = no expansions) will NOT be there. The developers already have gone to EXTREME lengths to remove things that didn't exist during that time period. This includes quests, items, augments, Station Cash items (like mounts, stat augmenting potions etc etc).

The developers are ACTUALLY listening to the community this time around. So please, for the love of god stop spewing the same bullshit rumor that it's not going to be anywhere NEAR 1999, it actually will be CLOSE but not 100%, 100% would be impossible.

I for one cannot wait, also...why the multiple threads on this subject? There's already like 3 REALLY big threads.

I agree with the OP, the game is "ground breaking". I saw my best friend throw his collector's edition box at his tile floor last night. Needless to say, he's paying someone another $150 to replace a couple pieces of broken tile.

:)