Originally posted by Consuetudo

The first factor either consciously or subconsciously weighed when deciding what MMORPG to play is which one features the most players. The inherent attraction to the genre, as specified in the very name of it, is the fact of a vast amount of players in a virtual world: a feature fundamentally desired by people playing these games. Whether as a solo, more casual player, or as a grouped, more party-oriented player, it follows that the game which appears the most fundamentally attractive is the MMORPG that is the most massively multiplayer. 

I think this is more opinion than fact.  My first factor is whether I find it fun to play.  I prefer low populations.  I like the feel of desolation in a game where I could be the only one there.  Seeing people then becomes interesting to me.

there is a "black screen" bug that prevents many people from even trying it.  If you cant load the game, you cant test it.  I've tried all the options players have suggested but it is still not able to start.  no errors, it just leaves you on a black screen when you select enter game.  2 different machines (one XP, and other is win7.)  Funcom really has limited the game to only certain specs like they did with conan.  they don't want all people to play, just certain people.  That will be a game killer if they dont open up their options a bit.  (the reason I mentioned conan is because any of my friends that bought it, returned it again because it just didn't work on their machines, so we just move on to other games.)

Originally posted by Zadista

blah blah whine whine

TL;DR

What, are you like 5?

Except that they did change it. The premise is the same, but they took everything that made D2 amazing out. There is no character customization anymore. 

Blizzard has never done character customization.  (significantly, I mean) Even with WoW, the choices were very few and everyone looks like everyone else.  City of Heroes, Aion, now that's character customization.  Blizzard has never put effort into this, so I'm not surprised Diablo 3 still doesn't include it.

the individual issues highlighted in SOPA are only there to confuse the public.  This bill is actually about the corporate takeover of the world governments.  the US govt is bought and paid for by the entertainment industry.  Hollywood calls the shots folks and this is their flagship.

After playing many many other offerings these past few years, I wouldn't play WoW again even if it was F2P.  It's just old news, primitive graphics, and monotonous gameplay. yawn. move along already Blizzard.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

I find it a very boring, highly repetitive game.  If I was generous I would give it a 4 maybe.  Personally I can't believe people waste their time on a game like this.

 

I agree.  It's basically just the arena pvp part of a real MMO.  the only people I know that play this are below the age of 20.  Kids like that sort of thing.  What REALLY freaked me out was their rule about quitting.  If/when you want to stop playing, you get your account suspended for a day.  IN what kind of world is this a good business model and why do players put up with that rule?

I'm surprised MMORPG missed the boat here.  It's like they're still asleep.  Do they even watch for this game?

well I went to the support forums first.  that's where I found the orphaned posts.  they don't seem to be addressing new user login problems, or server down posts.

Originally posted by psyknx

I tried to like this game but the controls put me off. To bad, was really looking forward to this game.

Same here.  I was disenchanted to find out it is s 2D sidescroller.  It seems like a 3D environment but if you can't turn around or look to the sides, it's a sidescroller.  Was really hard to get out of the game. the menu's don't work while in the tutorial.  Not much actually does.  You're forced to finish or try to exit out, either way, you're at their mercy unless you end task it if you want out.

This is probably premature but this game does not seem to run or allow logins.  I checked their forums and servers are not available and forums posts from 2 days ago are left unanswered.  DOA.

I've always suspected blizzard of working with the chinese gold farmers to increase revenue.  This is clearly another such venture.  Hey it makes money, they don't care how they get it.  Blizzard made the first stupid move by forcing your username to be your email address, what a bad move.  that gave the hackers and farmers a BIG head start at cracking accounts.  But like I said, I think they're working *with* them and not against them.

and it was said before but bears repeating... gold farmers will out-camp the normal players that just want to have fun.

The only way I will play Diablo is locally or on my own network.  I never had an interest to play on battle.net and I never will.  It was more of a poor man's rinkidink MMO, but the fun in diablo was local play, not online.

many parts of Aion are incredibly asian, like the character movements and player customization as well as many of the voiceovers and sound effects.  The NPC's have pretty good spoken english and quest dialogs but the concepts they convey are definitely asian and not western.  (honor, family, clan based thought)  

Let's get back to the movement.  Stances and movement are not natural to western culture, at all.  The men stand gay and make movements akin to a proud asshole shogun posing like a statue.  the female animations for just standing, blushing, looking around, running, talking, screaming... all asian influenced.  A running female does not flail arms and run with knees together in western culture.  Looks like an anime japanese schoolgirl

the music is very good and creates a great feeling for immersion.  The music does not seem to make any cultural statements other than it's own.

Yes the controls are horrible.  I'm not sure if I even completed the tutorial I was so lost.  the thing is, they don't show you how to control anything. (maybe you can't?)  they just said to left click on whatever, but the things weren't anywhere to be seen.  somehow after random clicking, something blew up and they said to target the next thing.  Now I'm ultra confused because still there's nothing to click or target or tab to.  It looked neat (despite being java) but was totally unplayable for me.  I lasted less than 5 minutes.

The game is very fluid from the start.  the somewhat linear fashion of the quests keep you busy and take you to the next step nicely.  the combat is very good.  that's probably the most important part of any game and Argo makes it fun to fight.  It does have some bugs here and there.  Most notably in the questing dialog system.  It's hard to tell if you're completing a quest and getting the reward or just looking at the reward you're gonna get later.  the quest dialog is way too complicated and there's too many things to click to get/complete quests.  (the back and forth banter is excessive and I eventually end up just clicking without reading.)  It also uses one of my personal pet peeves in Asian type games... they use "..." as dialog.  ellipses are NOT valid dialog, and neither is "!" as a response without some wording to precede it.  Also, the steampunk theme is done well bt I expected the nature side to be a bit more "natury" but it too is very much tech/steampunk.  Each opposing faction is not a lot different from the other.

Blizzard gave away half your account information when they required a battle.net login.  They enforce the usage of your (an) email address, which is public information.  That was the fail starts.  Before the change, nobody had my account name except me.  I used words you'd never find anywhere. it was secure.

My gmail account got hacked and they looked around but didn't lock me out.  the next day my warcraft acct got hacked and the hacks placed an authenticator on my account.  they had only had my account a few hours because I failed my login attempts and locked out my own account.  They sold lots of my inventories and left them standing by mailboxes.

Blizzard customer support unlocked the account, I bought 2 authenticators (for 2 accounts) then finally gave up on warcraft altogether and cancelled both accounts.  btw, they never returned any property or did anything more than unlock the account and upsell 2 authenticators.

I've been clean for over a year now and I'm a better person for it.

EQ had their NPC's like this too.  Fippy Darkpaw or something like that, would troll the front gates of Qeynos, killing any noob who was witihn aggro range.  There was also that barbarian bastard in Everfrost (I think that was the name).  Most players thought it was another player PK'ing illegally.  He was one of 2 brothers in the zone, he was the mean one.

Crab norris prevents botting in this area, and idlers.  Get familiar with any area before you go afk.

one more great point I wanted to also provide. in todays mmo's the impersonalization of the game has caused many players to take other players for granted.  They treat other players like NPC's.  In the older games, the idea of playing online with real people was still pretty cool and innovative.  You just knew every person was real, and treated them such.  In today's game, I get slammed with requests to "help me with this, and then that".  It's like they don't realize that I'm busy playing a game... the same damn one they are.  And usually if you don't help, it's ok, they move onto the next guy to help without getting bitter about it.  It's game mechanics and kids have learned to use it  (other people) just like any other tool.

damn that was accurate.  I've played both old and new and yes, it is completely accurate.  the immersion of being thrown to the wolves made the world seem alive and not just the sterile atmosphere that todays mmo's provide.  to run dungeons in WoW, you follow the same formula and directions that the 12 million people before you did. and don't vary it because it will probably not work.  the old games had enough bugs/problems/players that made the encounters somewhat random each time, even though they were more primitive.

I hated the grind EQ had, but if you made a friend there you had a friend for life.  In WoW, friends come and go, and they don't care anyway since you just filled their need for a short time and you're gone and probably forgotten.

It is already common knowledge that SOE is where games go to die.  Vanguard was already a hit before it released but news that SOE took over was a nail in it's coffin.  SWG was another addition to the SOE graveyard.  So other than EQ, any F2P model offered by SOE will be tainted with fail due to SOE's lack of life given to these games.