Unsubscribed.

As long as a MMO has enough content and activities to keep me busy while the developers work on new content, then I don't see a problem. The worst thing for me is to hit a level cap or a similar junction in a game only to find that there's nothing else to do, or forthcoming..

Would be nice, but I really can't see them designing a crafter class. This is going to be an action/adventure RPG stylee thing. It's not gonna be SWG2, we're not gonna get our lovely sandboxy crafting back.

Practically speaking, can you imagine them having to write and design a complete storyline for crafters?

"Go now! Build be 4,000 blaster barrels! The future of the Republic depends on you!" - Ok, that's actually practical in a way, but not exactly heroic. ;)

I've just cancelled my Aion sub. Was fun to try for a little while, but here's my opinion, for what it's worth to you:

It's a prettier version of WoW, with less features.

Grind up to max level solely for the purpose of PvPing as an end game.

Graphics are great, itemization is lacking, as is choice. Actually, real choice is near non-existant.

Quests are the same old bag (which is fine), then you realise that both sides are identical. Same quests and areas (if the text and colours aren't quite the same), so no real difference in sides.

Crafting is cute, but drab. No real options for roleplayers. Not likely to ever be any either.

My opinion is of course biased because I enjoy some facets of a game more than others, so me and Aion with it's PvP focus was never gonna work out. But it was fun to try for a few weeks, there's just not enough to keep my interest.

Oh, and it's still awfully crashy for many users, myself included. Seems to be those with high end systems, lots of RAM, and wireless connections have an awful time with lag, rubber-banding, and crashing in capital cities or the Abyss.

Might be the game for you though, so give it a shot if you like. It's not a poor game by any stretch.

With regards to NC Soft's level of support...

I think the lack of service NC Soft's part has definitely been glossed over in this review. Not that it's necessary to be overly negative, but NC Soft has more or less been an 'empty uniform', at least in my experience as an EU player.

Barely a single response from NC staff on the official forum, because apparently, "they can't log in to their own forums" - for a few days I could believe that, but 3 weeks after release? Yeah.. right.

Not a single response from NC about the rubber-banding issues for wireless users, and nothing on the infamous Crysystem.dll crashes..

I'm still getting the same gold spam whispers from the same people three weeks into the game. So I suspect the gold sellers are simply deleting and re-making characters to continue.

Maybe not the best customer service, but I think it's high time us gamers got down off our high horses, dropped the uppity attitudes and stopped treating developers like they continuously owe us something.

Shit happens, they were overwhelmed by demand. That's a good thing, just unfortunate for those that couldn't get one. But all this 'uproar on the forums'.. I dunno.. it's not like anyone lost a testicle.. *shrugs*

Originally posted by Vynt

I actually liked the graphics. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the game, and the story that began with the tutorial. Overall though, I just didn't really like the game as a MMO.

 

I think the game would have made an excellent single player game, focusing on the story to extend your life (you're a dying clone), sort of laid out like Mass Effect.  As a MMO, it just lacked that "something" that wanted me to keep playing, to advance to compete with other people.

I didn't really have any expectations of the game, but still a bit down that I couldn't enjoy the game more. I tried on several occaisions over the last month, to no avail.

This and a bunch of other posts here pretty much sum it up for me too, and I've officially been in closed beta around 3 months.

Sorry to say though, while the premise and setting are nice; the graphics and everything else are just mediocre. It's all half-assed '-ish'; graphics are okish, ideas okish, crafting not badish, etc etc.. I won't bother going into technicalities, or post a whine, everything that needs to be said has been.

The interest just evaporates slowly each time you login. Been in CB around 3 months. Probably logged in about a dozen times. Just not much there to keep me interested.

In my personal opinion, I don't see this game surviving for longer than a year. At best. I think it will just get forgotten and swollowed up by the great pit of MMO despair.

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Originally posted by Yamota

It's a war, not a boxing match. Do you think wars like the Iraqi war or Vietnam wars were evenly matched?

That being said, cheating sucks. But I blame AV for not being able to fix these exploits ~6 months after release.

It seems rather naive of them to allow skilling up by hitting friends. Did no one think of it when they designed the game?

Blaming the designers for errors or omissions in their game design is fine. Darkfall doesn't sound like a game I would want to play. But as someone else said, taking responsibility for one's own actions is in real short supply these days. Simply just blaming the devs for loopholes, and doing things, 'just because you can' is one reason why RP-PVP servers don't work for crap. Most of the pvp has zero story involved, just people attacking others because they can.

As Chris Rock said, "You can drive a car with your feet; that don't make it a good f*ckin' idea!" - Same goes for 'bloodwalls'.

Originally posted by junzo316

Are we actually promoting an article on MMORPG that condones a bannable offense?  Ummmm, just wow.....

Gotta agree with the dude above.. Kudos to Syndicate's 'uberness', organisational skills are hard to come by. If this is the kind of gaming that makes them happy, great. But why the heck is this an article? The only thing I read there as being positive was the work that goes into organising stuff.

C'mon, editors, doesn't this whole piece really scrape the borders of integrity? MMORPG.com, while remaining neutral in all things, should surely be working toward promoting MMO gaming from a positive angle? This whole article just smacks of all the things already described in earlier responses. AFK 'bloodwalls'?!?! Seriously.. even I know what one of those is, and I'm a bleedin' roleplayer fer fug's sake!

Or is the highlighting of bloodwalls (skilling up your character by hitting afk guildmembers) some sort of journalistic strategy to turn people away from Darkfall? Ooohh.. conspiracies! /sarcasm

Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero

The image for this article on the mmorpg.com homepage is epic.

It is. But you know what's funny also? I betcha rabid 'hardcore' pvpers look just like those kids (and the rest of us), only sans naff green tabards and latex dildos.

This one's too good...

Ok, so you gave up possible RL sex to play WoW??

I mean this in the best possible way, man, but are you freakin' retarded?!?

Girlfriends beat games, any time, every time.

If you'd seriously rather play WoW than be with your girl, then either you have priority issues, or she's not the one for you. Just look at it from her point of view. She comes over to be with you, and you ignore her in favour of a computer game. If you don't see a problem, you might wanna unplug...

Otherwise, send her my way. I'd happily spend time with your girlfriend while you play WoW. ;)

I won't go as far as saying anything about WAR's future, but with this merge, I can definitely understand why GW is so damn reluctant to put their franchises into outside hands. Everytime they break into stuff like MMOs, they get plagued by bad/dodgy news. WAR, after all, wasn't the first attempt at a Warhammer Fantasy MMO...

Wow.. that's a fantastic write-up, Dana. I couldn't agree more with its entirety.

I think the socialisation you mentioned is what ultimately kept me playing SWG for 4 years (something I have still never managed to acheive in any one of a dozen MMOs I have played since it went down the crapper).

The socialisation in SWG enabled me to create something with other players. Roleplay, cities, the game aside, I built friendships, and we all built community. And that kept me coming back every single evening.

Socialisation in SWG was often forced, or at least mildly co-erced, and while some might have argued about not wanting to be forced into socialisation, I think, as Dana has stated/implied, socialising helps to build communities, and the glue that binds it all together, turning an evening's button-mashing into an enriching social experience. Having to visit entertainers and medics to heal mental and physical wounds; travelling the multitude of player cities (all crafted) for the right store for that particular item (again, all made by the players); etc, etc, etc... It was all circular, binding, and only served to heighten the experience and the immersion. Even the asshats.

Is socialising needed? No. You could be a hermit if you want, but why would you want to live half-naked in the woods, having to catch fish with your barehands every day, when you could become part of a community and enrich your existence? Hell, you can drive a car with your feet, but that don't make it a good idea! (Chris Rock)

I think Dana has really hit the nail on the head with this one. Modern MMOs just lack the social aspects; the reason to keep coming back, even when the content has dried up. Back in the old days of SWG there was very little to almost zero content. And it was a few years before they introduced anything really tangible. But it didn't matter, because people were building communities together, physical or otherwise, whether crafting, social or even for pvp. Players didn't just click a button and get insta-ported to a pre-set, unchanging battlefield. They made bases just so that they could fight over them (and for faction benefits). Player communities constructed cities and outposts in defensible positions.. I could go on...

AoC has these great-looking player towns, but what use are they socially? Absolutely zero. There aren't even chairs to sit on.

Anyways.. great post, Dana, thanks for the read.

Pity (for me) that it's a pvp game. It looks totally kick-ass so far..

I'll be giving TOR a shot, no doubt. But this story thing does worry me too.

Some of you might understand this when I say you know how it can be the first couple weeks with a new game? The staying up till ungodly hours because the game is so much bloody fun, learning the ins and outs.. work or not, you might easily be able to spend 40 hours a week playing.

And that's where this story thing comes in. Even if every class has, say, 200 hours or so of content, that's gonna end up being what? 2-3 months of playing, at best?

What can I do besides just following the story along? Unless some of the quests take a week or more to complete, I'm concerned there's never going to be enough content to keep you interested. And what happens once you've done it all? Just go try another class? Bit of raiding or pvp.. wait for the next expansion? Once my character has completed his/her final plot arc, it's going to become increasingly harder to make story progression. The Jedi free the republic (or whatever), from the nasty Sith types. Yay, much celebration! Then what? Next expansion has story arcs for saving the universe? Where do you go after that?

Stories are, in general, journies, with destinations. And there's a reasons even long-running series of stories come to an end. Eventually there isn't anything interesting to write about. No more progression left.

Also, on the note of stories; one of the reasons I fell in love with role-playing and MMOs is because I wanted to change the ending of the story. Personally, that's what I think MMOs should be about: choice. Choose your own adventure. If I want to go over here, cool. If I want to ignore the plot and go look at some clowns over there, sweet. I go do that. Lately, too many MMORPGs have been theme-parks. I can't go over there and poke the clowns because the ride has a safety bar that I can't remove. So I have to go where it leads me.

I'm not saying that TOR will like that analogy at all, but I am concerned there simply won't be enough choice (even multiple choice tends to take you to the same destination, to a degree). I'm also a little concerned that everyone will be the same. That I will either have to get on the same train ride as the rest of the smugglers, or stand at the platform with nothing to do, and only a vending machine for company.

At the end of the day though, these are just concerns for now. None of us here know enough to say one way or the other. So far, I like the look of TOR and will give it a shot, regardless.

Originally posted by Cristina1

Originally posted by bjgladitsch

 We are both honest upfront bout being married in RL and have even had dinner a few times with our respective RP partners whenever they are in town.   His rp partner and my rp partner even sent us anniversary cards for our RL anniversary.

 

 

 

now THAT is creepy and awkward. You have some underlining relaionship issues with your husband ther, even if you are not seeing it at the moment.

You're kidding, right? Just because they are mature enough to know what is game and what is real, and trust one another, and simply just enjoy fantasies, they have relationship issues? Sounds like they have as close to perfect a relationship as one could ask for. I for one would love to have a relationship like theirs, because anyone that says they don't have fantasies while their together with someone, is lying out their ass..

As for the people who say, 'don't look for sex or relationships in online games'? I'd partially agree. Meeting prospective partners online isn't the best way to get to know someone, but it does have some benefits. I was with someone for a few years that I'd met in SWG. It didn't work out in the end, but we were happy and it was a good experience.

I reckon people should just do what they like. If it makes them happy, aweseome. As long as you ain't hurting anybody, who gives a crap?

@Mvirata: there isn't a pure wizard class in LOTRO, because in the Tolkien lore there aren't really any wizards or sorcerers, save Gandalf, Saruman and a few others (5 or something?), and they aren't exactly regular folks like you or I are playing in-game. If I recall correctly, Gandalf isn't even a human. Nor a dwarf or an elf or a hobbit. Gandalf is a kind of Yoda, to use a comparable metaphor. Sure, you can play a Jedi, but you can't play a Yoda.

@the OP: I just returned to the Laurelin EU-RP server, after a year's absence, and it's still busy as heck. I've been logging in at various times the last couple weeks, and there's always people about. And I still see many of the old, large, guild names that were there when I played around release. So it's still alive and kicking. I can recommend re-subbing.

Staggering amount of judgemental folks in this thread..

Sav, if you can make it work and have a loving family, then you go right ahead matey. I'm not a parent, and don't ever plan on being one quite simply because I value my own personal time more than I would a child's; and of course that's not the right attitude to have. So, I gots nothing but respect for anyone who can make all this family stuff work and still have their own fun.

Keep on at it!

Fair enough.

Yeah, if I went to a party in New York, and most were Norse, or South African, or Martian, or whatever, I'd ask the host why. Sure, that'd be intriguing.

But this is the internet. I wonder if people had the ability/tech to travel to parties around the world in the blink of an eye, that you wouldn't see 15 Norwegians in a party of 20 as being strange...hmm.. So yeah, I think it's just coincidence. But then again, maybe there are a few rabid Norse fans out there.

"Juutilainen"? - Finnish, right?

What are you getting at, exactly? I don't understand why this is so important to you. This is starting to look like some 'Scandinavian Cold War', and I thought you Fins only poked at Swedes and Russians. - See? I can make national generalisations too. ;)

Seriously though, Juuti, why is this a thread-worthy topic? Weren't you in that other thread about AoC sieges, pulling out all the Norse folk?