A new job... That explains a few things...

Congratulations, Sanya. You'll be missed!

While I stronly disagree with the way the OP made his statement, hidden inside his post *is* a valid point.

Due to the fact the "casuals" far outnumber the "hardcore" the hardcore need the casuals far more then the casuals need them because it's the influx of money from the casuals that really keep the game afload. Not only are there more of them but they also play less, eating up less resources on the side of the MMO company. In that regard, it's only smart to cater a bit more to the casuals with "welfare" epics and the likes and hardcore players shouldn't moan about it that much.

Nice writeup. I also can't help but think there's a bunch of hidden jabs at Mark Jacob.

Lovely column. Did Mythic make you this cynical about the game industry or was the damage already done when being an EQ guide? :D

Edit: Wait. I read Tweety. Never mind :p

Originally posted by JYCowboy

Great read,

I look forward to your take on the Marketing dept. for a MMO.

That'll probably involve a lot of blood, guts and violence ;)

Originally posted by Sanya

@Bel: hahahahahahahahahaha

I tell people that your sins follow you forever on the internet, and here you are proving it!

I don't regret most of those. Some were me being young and ignorant. Some were me being drunk and maudlin. All of them were funny at the time. Thanks for dredging them up for me, I lost the originals years ago.

I love them, whatever they are. It does explain why only your first rant shows up on eatingbees tho. Glad to have helped :D

Originally posted by Coldren

I've been following Sanya ever since I joined DAoC at launch.. Wasn't around for her EQ years, but still a big fan. For those who liked it, might I recommend her other sites/blogs/fun factories:

http://www.examiner.com/x-5353-MMORPG-Examiner
http://eatingbees.brokentoys.org
 

QFT!

Here's her EQ rants btw. A worthy read as well. 18+ required :p

web.archive.org/web/20051217102848/http://tweety.bowlofmice.com/

Originally posted by jat5560

Originally posted by Andrus73

Originally posted by jat5560

Originally posted by miagisan

because the skill training is time based as opposed to grind based, so why should you be able to train 3 toons and never log into 2 of them.

I disagree that the other 2 toons should be trainable at the same time, just makes for ghost training 3 toons rather than actively training 1

 

You dont have to log into ANY of your toons for them to advance.  I could buy a new account, select my skills and only log on when eve mon tells me im ready for a new skill.

Why do we have 3 toons if we can only train 1 of them at any given time?

My 3 toons are all individuals, are you saying that for some unknown reason that when toon 1 is studing that toon 2 is in a comma?

Why do people make 3 toons on WoW, WAR or any other game when they can only level one at a time?  The fact that EvE is time based and doesn't actaully make you do anything to level the one character that is training doesn't change the fact that games only allow you to train/level one character at a time.
 

Why do you guys feel the need to compare this with other games?  Trust me..I understand that point, I just disagree with it.   From a role-playing point of view - it makes zero sense.
 

Lets not compare then.

It is that way because the Eve designers decided not to implement it.

There, all explained for you. I'll leave the obviousness of such a design up to yourself to figure out ;)

Originally posted by Wizardry

I wish to give my take on there combat system in hopes,they may one day improve it or outright change it.

First of all ,i have no problem with any sort of idea as long as it is challenging and i feel like i have control over the combat.The way Atlantica plays out it was more like luck based than anything challenging or turn based.I think the reason is because you are controlling too many players and your fighting more than one.It ends up not a real turn base system either because you have a time limit[can't remember what it was ]havn't played it in quite awhile,but i think it was around 20 secs but felt more like 15 secs.

There is too much guess work when deciding how much damage you need to deliver to kill a mob and whi is going to attack your guys,it was all a guessing game with not a lot of time for planning.All i ended up doing was button mashing or using the higher skills when they came up,because they meant auto more damage ,not much thinking there.

Over all the combat system is too easy and does not really play like a skillfull turn based system.The old system where by you have a group that fights one strong mob and you have a tank and control hate ,the healer controls there healing,the DD players know how to play there role and the whole combat goes down a ton more challenging and skillfull AND ORGANIZED.

IMO most every game has a LONG road to climb before they make a good challenging combat system.

It's 30 seconds with 9 mercs.

Either way, ttry PvPing. It takes a lot of skill and fast thinking to win and not just random hitting of abilities.

Ofcourse PvE is diffferent (Tho trying your best always works better then "random" button mashing) but in which MMO isn't that the case? :)

Overal I am really enjoying it. It cought me completely off guard too as I expected Korean Grind Fest 2956297654. Instead I got something that I've beeen playing extensively for longer then I play most P2P mmo's.

Monster info has free stages. basic info, Location info and Item info. Each stage has to be shared individually.

Basic info gives you a combat bonus.

Location info can be handy.

Item info gives you 1 extra item when you loot

(so if you would've found 2x Ashen Crystal without monster info, you'll now find 3 instead)

Sharing info (and most other Will related stuff) has a Will cost which is ddependent on level. The higher your level, the less Will you use. Now it might be 97% but at level 43 it dropped to 59%. The drop is aprox. a percent per level.

Originally posted by Reborn17

Is it that WoW is seen as the standard of MMOs and not just a style? Cuz when I look at WAR's graphics, UI, gameplay and archetypes I see what appears to be surveys', focus groups' and corporate groupthink's answer to "How can we have 10 million subscribers like WoW" . Sort've a "tweaked" WoW. If you don't think its a clone, in what ways is it fundamentally different?

*EDIT- to better gauge some of the results, if you voted "No, absolutely not", could you post if  WoW was you're first mmo experience.

 

WAR is as much a WOW clone as WOW is an EQ clone.

Sure, they use the same basic concept (just like almost any MMO out there) but that doesn't make it a WOW clone just because WOW seems to be THE game to play.

Originally posted by hubertgrove

The same style, polish, content and ingenuity of WoW plus landscapes at least ten times larger than the current zones, some dungeons instanced and some not (or at least, only the end boss instanced), player cities, player housing and player shops plus player crafted and made transport? Can you imagine that? Blizzard would have the GDP of Holland by Launch Date +1, I'd bet.

They wouldn't get much at all. Sandboxes aren't quite as popular as some might think.

Just look at Eve. Sure, it has a nice bunch of subscribers but nowhere near WoW's numbers :)

Looks interesting. Shame Monte Cristo is a pants developer.

Originally posted by Douhk

That looked quite good.

I thought the part with the sorceress and the SW was hilarious though... when she blew the SW a kiss I lol'd. I thought it was going to get into some serious action.

EDIT: I was upset that I didn't get to see any Witch Hunters in action, that would have probably been kickass guessing how good they made the SW look. I loved the squig herder... made him look like a fun class to play in the game even though I don't think that would be an in-game ability lol.

Actually...

It is

Squig Battle Armour :)

Originally posted by sabutai22

Originally posted by onlinenow25

FACT - You have done no research on the game.

FACT - You know nothing about marketing.

 

First of all you do not know me, so assuming you "think i do not know" is just naive. Second, give a talented group of programmers, artist and musicians 20+ million to make an MMO title and they will deliver perfection! Mythic is only trying to get a "bite" of WOW player base in order to make cash, period!

 

Hi Mark Jacobs! I didn't know you posted under a fake name to burn your own game. ;)

Originally posted by sabutai22

Its not a matter of WAR this and WoW that, its a matter of FACT's:

FACT - Vast majority of players are tired of the same level based grind fest, kill X and rinse repeat Y amount of times before you may proceed.

FACT - The majority of WoW player base WILL NOT leave their fully developed characters just to start another level based grind all over again.

FACT - WAR lacks innovation and creativity, the vast majority of players want something new, not the same fantasy setting killing animals for X amount of times just to advance in levels.

FACT - The MMO market is starting to realize the lack of innovation and creativity and some of the new upcoming titles are proof, This will make WAR and any other WoW cookie-cut level based clone a short lived shelf life!

Im sure all the Warhammer fanbui's will enjoy the game, but to fill your mind with pure fantasies about how WAR is the next WoW killer is not only ridiculous but naive. Although i applaud your "faith" the fact of the matter is, WAR wil not make much of a dent in an already dull and boaring genre that the fantasy MMO has become!

 

 

This is merely for my own amusement so ignore at will ;)

FACT - The same thing was said before WoW and yet WoW has about 10.5m more subs then the biggest before them.

FACT - That might very well be true. An MMO doesn't need WoW numbers to be succesfull however.

FACT - WAR lacks neither. I invite you to play it and find out for yourself. It's not the reinvention of the wheel but that won't happen anyway. With any MMO.

FACT - The MMO market is sick and tired of half finished products. WAR doesn't seem to be. How sick it is of  the same fantasy grind remains to be seen. If it was, WOW wouldn't have 11 mil subs :)

I'm not saying WAR is the answer to all our prayers. It isn't. But this is just silly trolling. Then again, I'm sure you knew that when you made that post ;)

Originally posted by Illius

Originally posted by Solude

Get over it.  Those that make these mistakes probably speak english as a second or third language.  I'd bet their french, german, korean... is better than yours 

 

English is my third language.  Though I do tend to make mistakes now and again I take every effort to fix it.  I learned it properly and I'd at least expect others of the same situation to do so.  However for those living overseas in countries where English is not the first or even second language I can somewhat understand.

I fully agree. (It's my second language tho. Not my 3rd).

Small grammar or spelling mistakes... *shrug* but to mess up basic stuff like their and they're is just beyond sloppy. Especially if english is your first language.

Originally posted by Order66

We really need an independent mmorpg forum that is not paid by companies like Mythic and Funcom. Where we can discuss games with the censorship that you find here..

This forum is not independent and I think people forget that. This is all about the almighty $

 

What's stopping you?

Go out and build one :)

Haven't rad all replies so mine might be redunent. Sorry if that's the case :)

First all, nice article. I agree completely with your sentiments about the expectations of the average gamer.

One of the forum posters here has the sig "Nerf Paper, Scissors are fine" - Rock.

Which I think aptly describe most of us.

Anyway, I do worry a lot for the pulling out of the classes.

Mostly because this game is based around racial pairings.

Orcs vs Dwarfs will be fine. They both lost their melee dps so we have balance there (Tho 2 gobs and only 1 orc career?)

Dark Elves vs High Elves and Empire vs Chaos will suffer tho, because those pairings are unbalanced and require assistence from other realms. Lower levels wil be more difficult because of it.

Mostly it seems the DE that gets shafted. Empire still has Altdorf to draw people to their pairing. The DE's however...

Either way. A bold move and I really hope it works out for them.

(I agree with pulling the cities btw. no bad word from me on that front)

What a bullshit article.

Space on the internet isn't public, it's privately owned.

Go start your own little space on internet if you can't deal with the rules enforced by the site of your choice.

Besides that, seeing the flame infested (%$%@ the internet has become (and is more and more becomming) I'd say most sites could use stickter policies instead of less.

It's not like humanity handles percieved anonimity well :)