All Posts by Drulisle

You know a game is on life support when the detractors have eaten all the fanbois.

Let me try to make it clearer for you. SWG would have stood alone as the worst launch in history if Funcom had not robbed them of that honor with the incredible depths to which AO sank. There are many gamers who still laugh, groan, gnash their teeth remembering those early days (no not days, months) of AO.

But it just reemphasizes the sad point about MMO gamers...reputation doesnt mean a thing... grease the wheels with enough hype and the lemmings will trample one another to be the first over the cliff.

Pre-order? Are you people really serious? Are you that new to MMO's or do you have that short a memory? This is the company that singlehandedly saved SWG from being the worst, most incompetent launch in MMO history. And it only took them a year after that to get AO into a playable state. While you are throwing your money away, can you throw some my way?

Actually, there should be a tunnel at the bottom of the cliff labeled "Escape hole back to WOW"

You got that half right...consoles are only good for people who do twitch gaming. And there is a reason there are no MMOFPS's. Not because there wouldnt be a TON of money for someone who could create one, but because of limitations on server tech. Server lag is the number one complaint about traditional MMORPG's these days...especially pvp games. Until server tech catches up, all you fps fanboiz can stop your dreamin about a true twitch MMO...not gonna happen for many years. And if you dont believe me...just wait and see what happens to AoC and the screams that come from that game.

MMO's DIE because of limitations with consoles?? I think you need to rethink the phrasing of that question...since when did MMO's ever care what consoles were or did?

It is 9:51 am EST (2:51 pm in London).

Eve has 23,296 podpilots online. Not exactly primetime.

To answer your question, Linna, no I have not played the game...but then nothing in my post referred to dissatisfaction with actual gameplay from hands on experience. There is enough of that already on these boards from the ever present "this game suxxors" posters. My point was (and is) that the decision to include avatar combat was a red flag for me as to how far the developers may be drifting towards the shoals of me-too mediocrity.

Now you ask, how does an add-on feature like swordfighting (even badly done) detract from the totally separate ship-to-ship gameplay. And the answer is resources, focus, commitment to your core game design. Let's take an example. From your own guild's website:

"I am posting this because of how ungodly easy it currently is to kill an SOL. I cannot count the number we have killed today in ridiculously lesser ships just to see if we could."

Your forum poster goes on to describe how he drove off a group of SOL's with what was effectively a 16 gun sloop. Now you can ask your naval historian husband how many times he can recall that's ever happening in the entire age of sail. Is this a balancing issue that will prolly be corrected? Of course. Is it a SERIOUS balancing issue that should have been corrected long before this and one which will prolly get this game dismissed by every grognard site as just another kiddie game designed by the clueless. Unfortunately, yes it is.

Now with those sorts of issues still remaining in what was billed as the core game, how important were the hundreds of man-hours devoted to design, artwork and coding of what even the fanbois admit is a substandard avatar combat feature? So you see, it is only a throw away feature if you are satisfied with where your core game is....otherwise, it is wasted opportunity.

Like they say, what's past is prologue. I for one dont like the way FLS was pushed off its gameplan and I will adopt a wait and see approach until it is a finished game with a defined community.

"And at leaste they have toons in game period.. because origionally they where not even going to have them at all like EVE... but they found out from game players that this is a BAD idea.. and the people who play EVE still to this day 6 years after release.. are still waiting for it...."

Well, some maybe....and when Eve does introduce "toons" later this year, it will be:

A) with superb graphics and animations

B) For social purposes only, not as a capitulation to the "I never got past Street Fighter II" crowd. Eve will always be a ship to ship combat game, with an accommodation for those who like to play with avatar paperdolls and housing decoration and/or have realistic person to person setting in which to just hang out.

I have followed PotBS for the last couple of years on their development boards and at one time was extremely excited about an independent developer that had the foresight and fortitude to target a niche market and go after it in an industry that was becoming more and more big boy/big bucks/pander-to-the-masses oriented every day. I truly hoped that they could pull it off, but realistically didnt give them much of a chance.

Then two things happened that quickly quenched my enthusiasm:

First: The only publisher they apparently could find was SOE and they obviously didnt have the backing to self-publish like CCP did. (For those with the knee-jerk response, that all SOE is involved with is marketing, you obviously dont understand the GOLDEN RULE of business: He who has the gold, rules. And if you dont think John Smedley has his zombie fingers around the throat of this title, you are deluding yourself.)

Then secondly, and as if to emphasize the "sell out" of the original vision, came the announcement that they were going to delay again to implement avatar combat. For those of us hoping for a 18th century strategic conquest game with tactical Age of Sail combat implementation, it was the end of a dream. Suddenly and without warning, goodbye Talonsoft, hello Blizzard...niche no more.

From my perspective, this game is now in the hands of whatever community develops for it after release. Clearly, it has the game design assets in place to return to the original vision. The only question for me is will the player community take it on that tack.

Until then, I will keep my $50 and stay with EVE, for unlike the Flying Lab folks, CCP has proven its ability and willingness to stay the course.

Hay Tom:

Good to know that there are others around who are older than dirt and dont think that graphical  MUDS began with UO. (Although these days the kiddies think history began with WOW.)

First thing...if you dont walk around with a skateboard permanently attached to your hip, and if your first instinct to someone referring to you as DUDE is to slap them senseless....RUN, do not walk, away from WOW. It is a well done game as far as the current spate of dumbed down RPGs goes, but the "community "will drive any person past 30 batty.

I have to second what several responders to you have already suggested. If you want the pretty graphics, easy casual leveling, well done quests that leave you with a feeling of immersion (in other words, the best of what WOW is), but with a community that has gottn past that difficult adolescent period, try LotRO. Beautifully done game.

But if you want a game that is truly different, one that challenges the intellect and requires you to make your own fun rather than being spoonfed to a maxed character...for heavens sake, give EVE a try.  Eve isnt for everyone..and may or may not be what you are looking for in entertainment, regardless of your state of maturity or social adaptation (although most skateboarders turn right around at the tutorial door)..but dont miss at least allowing yourself to be exposed to a game which truly stands apart in the genre.

And the good thing with the current state of the MMORPG market is that it is so competitive that you can try almost any game now for free. Best of luck to you in finding a new rpg home...wherever that might be.

To the OP:

The site you have come to and elected to post on is MMORPG.com...not MMOFPS.com.  You could try to Google the latter, but dont think you are going to find it. The reason is pretty simple...the technology just isnt there for a true "twitch" MMO. You need to wait 5-10 years for server tech to advance tenfold, then you can play Wing Commander Online.

I still dont understand this as a doable scam. If you try to sell a ship on the contract market or the regular market for that matter) doesnt it show up as what the ship is intrinsically? Surely the market mechanics dont show the personal name you give the ship, rather than what the 0011's say it is. Otherwise you would never know what you were buying.