Yeah I have to go with SOE as the house I run from at the slightest reason. It's easy and fun to hate on Blizz, and I do, daily, but I'm still looking forward to see what their next MMO will be. One name that surprises me that hasn't come up directly is EA, but that may be just my old UO hate coming to the surface.

Originally posted by Hammertime1

I can't beleive that they left out AC2 from that list!

David Bowman killed that game in an incredibly short time...

I was thinking the same, although I never got past beta.

 This was my fourth MMO and the first that has closed. SB had problems but it was a fun game and the closest I have gotten to an UO type of game, pre-trammel. I left after my guild split when the servers changed but I went back several times. I still haven't found a race to match the Irekei in any other game. I know I don't currently support SB but I'm sorry to see it go. Thanks

How do you write a story about UO's history without going through tram, possibly the biggest mistake made in an MMO. It's an advertisment and MMORPG should be ashamed of themselves.

'Blizzard has built an elaborate seamless world...' I think we've all been in enough seams to know this as a lie. And it was used as a verb, leveling, in this country at least.

Be nice to see slicers, smugglers and bounty hunters ( who actually slice, smuggle and hunt ) as well as jedis and siths. If anyone can do SW justice it's Bioware but after 2007-2008 betas and launches   I'll wait til I get more info to get all excited, this time.

Originally posted by zymurgeist

If they think there are any flies on Bobby Kotick they're kidding themselves. What that guy did with slacktivision is nothing short of amazing. That company was circling the drain when he came on board. He's pretty much the ultimate suit though. He'll kill a game in a heartbeat if it's losing money and he's big into sequels and expansions. Not much of a risk taker unless he can see a clear profit. I'm hoping he can do something to bring Sierra back. They used to make some damn good games but lately it's been pretty thin.

As for WoW, I can see them charging more for character transfers and the like but not the monthly subscription, unless Wrath adds much more than expected, but I'm sure Blizz is holding back a big surprise or two.

Originally posted by ssnautilus

One thing that scares me in that article is that CoH/CoV was mentioned TWICE as an example! That is not a very inspiring example.

And yes - the article summary does give away the fact that PotBS is quite unfinished - even on some basic conecpts. Didn't the Devs visualize all of these simple possibilities in the CONCEPT stage and then proceed from there? - I mean did the Devs never play the ORIGINAL Pirates! game? Did that original C=64 game not utilize all the mentioned concepts (except housing perhaps) around 25 years ago on a 64 KB RAM and 0.985MHz (PAL) processor machine?!!

And that game has been re-released a dozen times over the years already - its a perfect basic formula - the format was already developed - all Devs had to do was implement it. And after YEARS of development with latest Gigahertz machines and possibly millions in cost - even the basic foundations are not implemented?!! Terrible misuse of seed money and time I'd say.

Well thats now done - cannot be undone - Now please do something about the lag in towns!

And the font size, I don't wear or need glasses but the font is so small that it's hard t tell a r from an a, except in the chatbox. It's not a resolution problem, I only use 1280 x 1024. And while we are at it, it needs to be made clear which doors we can enter while in town. Mousing over every door you pass becomes pretty mundane after a players first walk through town.

Originally posted by greymann

 

Originally posted by Grakel

 

Originally posted by cerebrix

dont give fox any attention.  their staff is incompotent, they dont know what they are talking about on any topic, including the time of day.

 

the best way to handle fox, is to stop paying attention.  when we do that, their advertisers, stop paying...

Idiots stay in office because people stop paying attention to them.

 

We all know who backs FOX and their opinions on video games. If you don't know who I'm talking about then you haven't been paying attention. The simple truth is, in anything new ( yes I know it's been over 10 years now), a large group of people are interested, especially one that involves children, the older generations will see it as the cause of any problem. It's not new and from looking at our history we can see that until the generation that grew up with this new tech comes into power and/or something else comes along,  MMOGs and video games in general will continue to be seen as a problem. Until the system changes do not expect a change, as always.

 

 

Cool.  So one day video game violence will go through the roof!   Yeah I could deal with more parental neglect as long as we aren't over-protective anymore once gen-x'ers come to power.

Parental neglect has always existed. There is no way to fix it, at least not one that doesn't take away the rights of every parent. The ratings systems are in place for a reason, whatever the medium. But they are only effective if the parents pay attention to what their children are watching and playing. Yes it's an old line but we all know it's true, no one else can do that job. As for violence, movies, TV and video games are all violent and many are not meant to be seen or played until a certain age. There are penalties for letting children into R rated movies and for letting them buy M and AO rated games. But again, children find ways of getting ahold of them and unless the parents are actively involved in the children's lives we have no way of protecting them from any of it.

Originally posted by cerebrix

dont give fox any attention.  their staff is incompotent, they dont know what they are talking about on any topic, including the time of day.

 

the best way to handle fox, is to stop paying attention.  when we do that, their advertisers, stop paying...

We all know who backs FOX and their opinions on video games. If you don't know who I'm talking about then you haven't been paying attention. The simple truth is, in anything new ( yes I know it's been over 10 years now), a large group of people are interested, especially one that involves children, the older generations will see it as the cause of any problem. It's not new and from looking at our history we can see that until the generation that grew up with this new tech comes into power and/or something else comes along,  MMOGs and video games in general will continue to be seen as a problem. Until the system changes do not expect a change, as always.

I like the seasonal quests, besides Brewfest. Looking forward to Hallow's End and Father Christmas.

But I have a problem with the line ' ... keeping this game fun' We all know there are several things wrong with WoW that can be changed to make it more fun, for example quests. If WoW stole a bit more from Warhammer and started using their questing ideas then they'd be keeping the game fun.