Originally posted by andorov

Time to bust out that critical thinking cap.

Western audiences by in large pay for the development and innovation of products. (this includes software, books, drugs, you name it) By the time a game gets to China, it has been thoroughly developed, tested and deemed profitable in western nations. Then it is milked in foreign markets.

If China was so profitable, why don't companies initially launch their products in China? -_-

 

That's very true. When Burning Crusade came out, China got it for free in their internet cafes. They paid nothing for the game. That's why the box sales were 3 or 4 million - not 12 million.

I wonder how much they do actually make off the Asian customers. Isn't it something like 4-5 cents per hour they play? That could add up though to huge numbers. But I wonder if the internet cafe takes a portion of that few cents an hour?

Originally posted by Goronian

 

 

EDIT: I guess it needs a litle rephrasing at this point.
"Why do people, who prefer to play solo choose MMOs in the first place? What drives them in?"

Hiya,

I love to solo because it is too stressful to have to log out suddenly if I'm in a pug/group. Real life comes first and when my daughter, husband, elderly pets, elderly parents and in-laws need me- I log out instantly.

I play MMO's because I like an evolving world. I get new areas and quests every few months in my MMO to keep things exciting:)

Originally posted by Ramonski7

Originally posted by greed0104

Originally posted by Zorndorf

For example , take this guy ...
 

He THINKS his opinion is worth something against the fact WOW has a yearly revenu of 1.2 billion dollars...

Now what are his arguments?

- Community: Piss poor argument and nothing to do with the game itself

I think community has a lot to do with a game, if the community is real bad, it might discourage me from playing. Not having anything to do with game mechanics, that's a given. But the question was "Why do you Hate WoW". So I'd say that reason is pretty valid.

 

Faulting WoW for it's community has got to be THE weakest excuse I have ever heard for this game. That's like saying Chicago or New York City suck because all the people there are crazed lunatics........oh yeah like you can vouch for the ENTIRE community....way to go.

 

Come on guys at least try to look like you have blood flowing to that frontal lobe.......

That frontal lobe is what made me check "unsubscribe" twice:) I tried several servers and they all were pretty much the same: full of N + F  words, butt sex and ghetto talk.  I don't understand why you think it is lame to quit a game because the player base is so rude and low-class. 

A game is not  worth playing if you gotta turn off all the chats within 5 minutes of logging in. It could be the best frigging game in the world but it isn't worth squat if the Devs don't keep the riffraff out.

Love the game but the community is SO FREAKING bad that I can't play the game. Why play a game that you have to turn off ALL the chats?

If they made a server for 25+ or 30+ yr old folks, I'd go back with the next expansion. But that's not gonna happen LOL!

For world graphics, I'd say LoTRO is the best.

For character models though, I'd put Aion at the top:)

I never liked AoC's world or Vanguard's worlds- just my personal taste.

Congrats:) Beta's are cool! Don't get to attached to your toons because they get wiped:)

I value all of those things you listed but I'd have to say that I want an evolving world more than anything.

I want new content constantly. My first MMO was ASherone's Call and Turbine spoiled me freaking rotten in AC with monthly updates and I loved that. I NEED to know there's new things coming every couple months to be happy. It gives me something to look forward to. And I like to know the Devs care enough about us to give us goodies and new content every few weeks.

2nd- Graphics

3rd- Quests- tons of solo quests specifically

4th- Community

M2c,

Lori

Beaker!! Play ANY game!! Try them all and call one your home for a while.

Don't go back to watching TV every night because your brain will turn into mush!! TElevision = death of brain cells!!

And this concludes  your daily Public Service Announcement:)

Originally posted by ozy1

To me this just say we are desperate.

Not really . LoTRO has package deals and most game sites list it as the #2 or #3 MMO in the US for 2 straight yrs.

Originally posted by Quirhid

This thread was inspired by those numerous ignorant people who don't seem to understand exactly what is lag - and more importantly what isn't.

I'll keep this short. Lag is a delay or packet loss between you (client) and the server. Issues with framerates or slow local application response is not considered lag. I cannot stress this enough: Low frame rate does not equal lag! That just means you're running the game at too high settings or your computer just can't handle the load.

Consider yourself educated. Do not ever tell someone to lower their graphics settings when they say they're experiencing lag. I don't want to see such a thing in these forums again!

 

I'm sure most of you readers do know the difference but this is for those who don't.

:)

When you are King of the World, you can redefine lag to mean ONLY what YOU want it to.

Until then, the rest of us sane people will use the word "Lag" accordingly as defined by Webster: a slowing down, sluggishness, a falling behind, etc.

P.S.

Maybe they make Anger management  medicine? Just a  thought.
 

Originally posted by solareus

REad the review and count how many times the review states  something is "standard." 

 

"The environments themselves can be quite spectacular. Aion definitely features a high fantasy setting with a very magical world, and there are plenty of unique and stunning places to explore."

really ?

 

 

 

LOL! I saw that screen shot and thought," WTH ! The graphics look TERRIBLE!!  It looks like the grass in my 1999 MMO!!".

You better hope the Republican party doesn't die out:) The VAST majority of our military is Republican- like 80+%.  Same statistic holds true with the police forces in this country.

If you got your wish and the Republican party fizzled out, who do you suppose would protect your sorry asses ??

Tom,

Google "Old Timers Guild". I was in their guild in loTRO during the Beta and it's for folks that are...older:) They have chapters in many games and it'd be nice for you to find folks to play with in many different games.

Also Tom, I upgraded my PC a really cheap way. I bought a Dell Optilpex GX 280 on Ebay . It can be had now for $150-200. I put in a new video card and another gig of RAM and play LoTRO in Very High settings at 60 fps wild/30 fps city. It's a very good older PC. It only cost me $300 total. It was the cheapest way I could find to run LOTRO better.

Good luck and keep on gaming:) It sure beats watching TV every night:)

Lori

Excellent list Dana!

Very well rounded and done with an open mind! Agree with LoTRO and GW especially:) Penguin and Wizards surprised the heck outta me but then I thought to myself," What the heck, just cus it's a kiddie MMO doesn't make it NOT a valid MMO. They are real MMO's and have just as much entertainment value as the adult MMO's do".

I'm also gonna send links to those two kiddie MMO's to my sister who has a 10 year old son, so thanks for the heads up.

You chose 10 excellent "Mainstream" games and I commend you for it! My first thought when I clicked on the link was the list was going to be a "Kiss the PvPers Butt" kinda list and was really surprised! Not that your a butt-kisser per se! That's just what I expected the list to be like on this very vocal site:)

Originally posted by mrw0lf

 

 

i think the interwebs would have exploded from troll if he included wither WAR or AoC in the list. A fair few cities would have been taken out from combusted nerdrage aswell, it just wouldn't have been worth it.

LMAO!

A failed MMO would be one that was NOT profitable and they closed down ALL the servers. None on your list fits that criteria.

WoW's success was an aberration. An anomaly. A freak show that will probably never be duplicated.

Because Blizzard did something REALLY unusual and made a game for the "Masses" with their lowbie PC's. Every game since WoW has had higher PC requirements or freaking extremely high requirements.

Low PC requirements =  Mainstream game that millions can play in the US.

High PC requirements= Niche game that can only get a few 100 thousands in the US.

It's THAT simple. I'm not slamming WoW. It's a brilliantly made game. But, the other games aren't failures because they aren't really  competing with WoW. If they were competing with WoW, they'd have made a game that required in a PC:

Pentium 1.3 ghz CPU and 512 mb Ram and 32 mb Video card:)

WoW's PC requirements means it has "MILLIONS of potential customers"

LoTRO's, Wars and AoC's requirements mean they have " a few HUNDRED thousand potential customers".

Just my 2 cents,

Lori

Originally posted by lotroblogger

One of my gripes with LOTRO is that the graphics in the starting areas, while good, are not near as fantastic as the areas a bit further into the game. For instance, check out this screenshot from Eregion...

http://www.lotroblogger.com/?p=179

I wish new players could experience some of the more fantastic areas before forming their opinion of the game. Those starter areas are nice, but the vistas later on are downright breathtaking.

Agree:)

The Man starter area I would give a Visual grade of "D:"

The Character models I would give a "C-"

But, the rest of the world is stunning! I would give the rest of the game world a "A+++++".

IMO Warhammer could never be as successful as WoW because it has MUCH higher system requirements. Too many ppl have mediocre computers and people won't play games that they lag in.

For instance,my old PC ran WoW like a dream. I bought LoTRO and I got 25 fps and really bad lag. I bought another PC in early 07 and upgraded the video card and RAM. Then I played in max settings at 60-70 fps in LoTRO. 

A year and  a half later, I tried War and AoC. To my dismay, I got 16-24 fps and hellish lag playing in the lowest settings!! I wasn't ready to buy another whole PC and upgrade everything again to SEE if I liked  AoC or War. I gave up after a week of lagginess and never subbed after the free periods.

Originally posted by Gameloading

 

Actually there have been quite a few asian mmorpgs that have been open about their subscribtion numbers. Lineage and Lineage 2 for instance has been hovering around the 1 million mark for some time now. Square Enix mentioned Final Fantasy XI has around 600k subscribers last year.

How many subscribers does Lotro actually have?

No one knows for sure because Turbine keeps mum. The CEO of Codemasters ( their European LoTRO distributor) said in a 2007 interview for a magazine that LOTRO's sales had been great. He said " they had 300k in box sales in Europe and  double that in the US"

So we could assume they had 900k boxes sold back when  it launched. How many they retained, only they know. That's a great launch though nonetheless.

OP.

I agree with you. I think LoTRO is the best PvE game on the market in almost every way: graphics, quests, content updates and community.

I think these might have hindered LoTRO's appeal to the masses:

1. Not enough marketing and advertising (Non-web)

2. Graphic requirements are MUCH higher than WoW's requirements. People can play WoW with no lag but if they lag in LoTRO, they tend to quit. I've done it myself with other games :) I tried Vanguard and AoC and stuttered too much with my non-epic PC and quit. So, my opinion is that NO game with higher-end PC requirements will get millions of subs- EVER. I'm not saying I wish LoTRO's graphics were on par with WoW! I freakin love that world on maxed settings and wouldn't want them to change a thing!!

3. Initial impressions. The game world is stunningly beautiful ....... BUT the characters are amazingly bland and boring. Too many people look alike.  First impression for combat is "clunky and slow". I got used to it after a month but that was my first impression.

4. The community is quiet. Some people like to play these games to gab and LoTRO is a quieter game.( It's not a population thing because my server is jam packed and it's still quiet.)

LoTRO's numbers are fine here in the US and Europe I think. They are probably in the top 3 or 4 games played in the US. Just don't compare the sub numbers of #1 game ( with millions of folks) to the sub numbers of #2, #3 and #4!  #1 is a freak of nature LOL!

They just had some crazy number of folks make LOTRO accounts in Asia when they opened the beta- like 2.7 million signed up last week !  So it's doing fine overall:)

And that's my 2 cents:)

Lori