It was fun playing with so many people, got a chance to see what more than thumping could be.

Originally posted by DaSpack

Having said that I would suggest you guys to turn on Subscription though as DLC#6 is coming out this month.. you might aswell get the sub so DLC#6 comes to you for free AND you get veteran perks/point and items for free.

Am in AoC at moment now, but keep my TSW sub running for this reason. will go back when DLC#6 is in.

Not everyone wants to pay for something they don't enjoy, we're not all made of money, or a sucker.

The email isn't very clear, once you speak with customer service they clear up what they meant to imply, but still Funcom should get someone better trained in communications.  

The email as it stands is confusing, implies you were paying for time, when they apparently gave us some free time, and it expired without being used so they wanted to invite us back to try with some free paid time.  Then there were those of us not elligible for the free time, but got lumped in because at some point we too, paid for the subscription so they sent us a welcome back but forgot to really explain it, in the email.

Seriously, you're going to cry because you didn't read the rules of the contest?

It was pretty clear when you quickly look at it where you have to live to be elligible. You're right MMORPG.com has lots of contests, they're a global website (like any site these days is), but that doesn't mean they have to cover the overhead of running contests globally, different countries have different rules for such things, not only the cost of shipping.

While it would be nice if they offered a substitute, they don't have to either - what they had was physical boxes to ship out, hence the limitation of the contest entrants.

Sorry you weren't elligible, but doesn't make you look like the underdog coming here to get burned and flamed in an attempt to drag MMORPG down.

That much money....
Someone should make a WoW killer.  But not just a killer, the grind their teeth on the curb kind of killer. It's had it's time, it's killed it's fair share of other games, social lives and marriages.  Time to let something progressive step into the limelight...

Realistically tho, a real winner should have:
- PvP in Realms, with some ladder match style arena stuff
- Progressive open world stuff:
    - Personal story, factional story, guild story
    - PvP realm building, draw in a reason to have healers, crafters and the like, let them have castles - if they build them
    - Group events, raid events, and everybody and their dog needed events
        - If an event is done to blow up cityhall, blow it up, let the players rebuild it, make it theirs.
- Housing; personal, guild and factional
    - Trophies & Deco from the above events, craftable, and buyable stuff
- Ground stuff, Sky/Water (Above and below)/Space stuff
- Mounts & vehicles (larger vehicles you can deco)
- Pets
- Mini games
- Crafting should mean something, best of the best raids are nice, but best of the best crafters should be able to build the uber stuff
- Customization for characters, pets, mounts, housing - and uniforms/banners customizable for guilds - let the players that want to spend 9hrs designing their character do so.
- Really make the various level perks count, Beta tester should mean something, lifetime subscriber, collectors edition etc - keep it progressive, not a 1 time thing.  Maybe things more than trinkets; lifetime sub, priority login, free to play there's a queue you cheap bastard
- Corpse runs, don't make it hurt so bad, but make them part of the game
- Accolades, achievements all over
- Ingame news available for those wanting cues, clues and woos.
- App interfaces for players and their guild
- Link ingame guild chat with an external app/IM program
- Sync it with all the popular social media
- Make the website informative, useful and progressive
- Have a game store, sell swag, don't let said swag impact playability in the game ie no godswords.  Do more than just ingame gear, sell out of game merchandise
- Annual convention with hot stuff, awards, what's coming, all that stuff that used to allow players to connect with the designers.
- Use pop culture, myths, rumors, unnuendos all over
- Double the versions; family play servers, adult servers
- Customer service that cares, use the phone, ingame tickets, live webchats and forums
- If a customer is banned for life, ban the address, the email and the billing account.
- Keep the numbers real


But above all, don't roll it early, don't roll it half done, don't roll it without listening to your audience, and do some marketing/advertising - don't rely on word of mouth and a few spam banners.

Then buy a royalty from Blizzard and put 10 million murloc heads on pikes for newbie target practice

So someone has to point out it really hasn't been a decade yet, still 2 more years left ;)

Lets just hope some MMO out there has a smoother launch, so far there hasn't really been one...

Originally posted by AdamTM

You don't know what grind means do you.

Most trekkies don't know what a grind is unless they make their Andorian virtually do it in the game.

Wait, they're only adding HK-51 now?

Wasn't he already supposed to be ingame and just really really really REALLY rare and hard to find/assemble?

Hrmmm - looks like they took a queue from their predecessor when SOE admitted they didn't put Jedi into SWG right away because they didn't think anyone would get that far (or want it).

Originally posted by Opapanax

I will definately take the free 1200 points. A nice present for current subscribers...

Actually having just done this, you don't.

If you were not on during the celebration weekend - you don' get it.  It's a miscommunication on the announcement and is only intended for new trial accounts that tried out the Celebration weekend, or new Trials now trying things as well.

Wife and I tried things out, did 30, no pop, did 10 more, still no pop, did some research found very little so dropped a petition

Some snips but the just of the conversation here:

[*Novadraxx|Game Master]: After reviewing your account information I am sorry but I am afraid you are not eligible for this reward, this is granted to players who complete these missions from accounts with celebration or trial keys.

[*Novadraxx|Game Master]: You were not eligible then either as you do not have celebration keys on your account. These rewards were not provided to ALL players of TSW, only those who were given access during the celebration weekend

To [Novadraxx]: Ahh, so it's -not- elligible for current subscribers at all?

[*Novadraxx|Game Master]: No I am sorry for the confusion

To [Novadraxx]: Ok, you guys should update your information at http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/sign_up_now_for_our_free_three_day_trial as it states we would get it

To [Novadraxx]: It's the verbiage around the "If you are already playing The Secret World, you are still eligible for Bonus Points if you did not earn them during the celebration weekend."

[*Novadraxx|Game Master]: I wil forward that, I understand how this has misled you and I am sorry.

 

For me it's three fold

1> Story - it's more than just hacking this orc, that goblin or 50 wolves.  Sure there's some of that with zombies and other things, but like other games there is a story to go with it, but unlike other games its reasonably fit into the story, not just an xp grab.  The overall stories so far have been pretty good, I feel like I'm tossed in the middle of a Haven episode mashed with a little Xfiles and a sticky spot on my shoe for Lovecraftian-eat-your-face.

2> Atmosphere - every time I turn around, I'm wowed, perhaps not entirely through 'just' visuals, but the audio (how many games actually let you know your walking in a sewer pipe, then gravel, then grass, then a wooden deck only to jump over a fence and into something thick and wet (not water like a sludge or slime), the story, the overall feel.  I try to ignore the ho-hum character generation and some of the animation quirks, but when your shadows move around you with the time of the day, and inside buildings through the windows - lots of effort many other games just gloss over.

3> "This Sandbox is not for kiddies"  - there is no golden mark on the map for you to follow, sure there's an arrow to take you the right area, but in a lot of cases there's no walk through and you need to use your brain, your worldly knowledge or barring that your search engine skills.  This will keep some of the script kiddie pwnzords away I hope. When you're leaping lasers, pulling lamp shades and smacking your miners helmet because the batteries ran out - we'll be there with others that want to be there in this genre and after the freebie periods those kiddie whiners won't.

Really there is another for me, my secret #4 - the fact my wife pulled this game out of the ether, I'd dismissed it for something more mainstream, and in the past 12 years this is the first time she was willing to play with or without me said something about how this game grabbed her and I needed to get a copy and have a deeper look, I'm glad I did.

Now if there were only housing....

Top 3 for me:

Horizons:Empire of Istaria / Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted / Istaria / Horizons - with all the issues they had just in developers, seriously.  Some mechanics were off the wall, harvesting 1 node area for the spawns in another to appear (linked).  Great story and by far more 'events' ingame than any other I've ever seen to date, but combat that simply couldn't work.  Unreal tournament engine wasn't made for 10s of thousands of people in single instance.  Open character classes, single server for all players, and dragons pretty much topped the list, shadowed by so much of the other fail it just couldn't ramp up. The capital city, 3 zones to get across and you would only meet other players, no NPCs except trainers and a merchant or three - and ALLLLLLLL those buildings, empty

Vanguard - riddled with issues, lies and mismanagement, the potential was there to be great, and still could be, but too few and to far between. Biggest mistake was when they simply started ignoring the community outright.

Dark and Light - from the beta, to the launch, to the billing fiascos. So much put into the game to be harrowed by a lifeless world and combat mechanics from hell.  So much was put into the game by the community, only to be taken advantage of.

Other mentions for me;
Dungeons and Dragons online - instances upon instances upon 30 more instances
Matrix Online - Rolling with an oops to wtf happened?
Auto Assault - *blink*
Tabula Rasa - *blinkblink*
Age of Conan - Butt sliders were never enough to recover the hype to launch.
Lord of the Rings - Slow to expand to a known universe so rich and possible, missed the mark

But the Grand Daddy of them all for me by far, -THE- largest fail would be SOE's Star Wars Galaxies.  
- Like ALL MMOs this had bumps in the beginning, but as a mostly open world and a true sandbox when it came to well, almost everything. But alas that golden gated paradise shrouding the hum of lightsabers - oh wait, no it didn't it had everything BUT lightsabers, and when people noticed eventually the Bantha poodoo hit the fan - so they admitted they didn't put in Jedi because they didn't think people would suspect, or achieve what they thought would be the path to success so quickly, and so they retro inserted it (they got good at that) so that people could become Jedi and suffer perma death (then they made it easier to get, then easier, then a time sink, then easier).  An open world that opened so many hearts, only for Sony to squat over that heart and take a long, lengthy polluted dump almost every quarter. Jump to lightspeed was a huge bonus for the game, not Eve, but bridging that gap for all pilots of Xwing vs Tie Fighter, and then the decorating - boy howdy. But alas the SOE spiral intervened; every month was a nerf to make things easier, then a combat upgrade, then more nerfs and additions, then another combat upgrade/revamp, then same old same old, then came this monster HUGE expansion pack aligned with episode 3, only to secretly have eaten cheese taco sundaes all weekend watching that movie, preparing for what was to come; because you see, the dump they took on their paying customer base was so massive, so putrid and vile that 7 years later it still reeks throughout the community and leaves this aura around SOE that no amount of Febreeze will ever hide.


The player base is what makes the game, when a developer fails to understand it, or ignores it, they are destined to dissappoint their shareholders.

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by Fed1

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by Fed1

Originally posted by RefMinor

 

 No one is claiming it is a completely random sample, however if you had read Rosha's post you would have seen that his argument was that only 4 out of 200 of his guild used XFire, my reply pointed out that 2% was a very healthy proportion for a sample of a large population.

Agree 2% is a large sample for large populations. However, his poll was not a random sample either. IE people using XFIRE in his guild are more likely to respond.

 

That is true, but he must have one bigg ass guild if 4 people is equal to the 0.005% I quoted :)

Not seeing the connection, What does one nonrandom set of data (his poll) have to do with another nonrandom set of data (XFIRE)? 

 

It was a throw away amusing remark as indicated by the smiley face at the end of the sentance.

Or it was simply to point out that not everyone uses Xfire, less than 2% of my guild does, not speaking for everyone but in our metrics we're playing and as you can see most of us don't bother with Xfire, tosses your metrics off.

So in a quick guild poll, 202 guildies responsed and only 4 of our people use Xfire - not a great representation, that's not even a "good" representation.

So personally I can't harken that Xfire is a be all end all of anything as more than half of those players spend their time pvping.

I think all the free play and such has impacted the servers, that and well, Xmas break is long over for some.

I'm on Vulkar highway and it's pretty common to see 3-4 instances of Fleet with over 3-400 peeps there.  Other planets aren't quite so high, but I've never seen below 50-60 anywhere I've been.  I'm Impside so that may be the difference, as I visited same server, Pub side and the fleet there had 23 people, no extra instances.  Ilum is now back to it's typical 100-150 imps running around, so if you've got a reb guild - bring it, you'll find lots of opponents (really that's the case anywhere)

I think the best example of this legislation would be if say Google turned off their entire service for 24 hours.

Wikipedia is doing it, but imagine the impact and outcry through the world if the most famous search engine stopped for a day.

I wonder if it's a limitation of the Jedi, failing in their teachings and such.

Currently I'm a level 31 Juggernaut.

I've died but once, through fault of the enviroment, not some mob - I was trying to take a short cut across the top of a waterfall and fell, sadly my mitigation did nothing for the fall and 6k damage later I needed to call in a med droid.

I'm only using Vette as a companion, not some healer.

Perhaps trust in my skills, my power in the darkside and remembering to upgrade my gear properly instead of 'settling' for the greens they hand out at quests.

There's always that option of grouping as well, flashpoints are far more fun seeing the responses others can have in addition to your own.

While WoW isn't my first MMO, it certainly won't be my last.



An avid fan of other Blizzard products I was drawn to the game primarily due to Orcs and Humans, "werk werk werk" - being able to play in a world I'd pvp matched in for years sounded like fun.



Nope it wasn't EQ, it was DAOC or others, it was WOW - arriving at a time when all that was Star Warsy changed, collapse and was corrupted.



Does WoW deserve hate?  Well, does any game?  Not really but it'll receive it regardless, it'll also protection from the fanbois.



I do like that any schmo can pick up a game card and play even with a pretty basic computer - a huge selling point for many players.



I do like that they do some mass marketing, as in using the TV where so many already have attention drawn to, others could learn well from this expensive, yet profitable tool.



The turning point for me was Cataclysm, and I'm surprised Adam Tingle missed this "Hate".  It's a great storyline, I get that - but a storyline worthy of a sequel, not an overhaul of every system including the story.



Blizzard failed to heed the history lesson from it's forefathers and was thus doomed to repeat it. By revamping the game from the ground up, brings it into the new era, it leaves behind the magic that made it what it was.



Sony has been by far the worst forefather for this with Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, Planetside and even The Matrix Online suffering all of this, and when the dust settles, 20 expansions later only Everquest will remain. Other major brands have suffered to some degree on this note; Ultima Online, Lineage, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes and even EVE - some are still there, but they have wobbled, now is the time for WoW to wobble.



And no amount of contracts will save them from such a loss.



My other hate is their lackadaisical stance on gold farming and account theft. They'd rather lock the account and force you to re-sub on another account (buying a new copy and an 'authenticator') then investigate and resolve.  Seems the smart thing to do would be to ban the credit card/address/email when you have confirmation, but when a large portion of your subscription base....  ah well, another rant for another day.

Farewell master of so many lost afternoons, evenings, overnights, weekends and all nighters.

The masterpiece you worked on suffered at the hands of the ignorant, but in the end successfully bridged gaps that not even politics or religion could so easily accomplish.  Truly an inspiration that brought life to the table, to the stories, to the big and little screens, to the backyard, to the imagination in many boys, girls, men and women of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Even if you cannot take credit for the works that succeeded you, your pioneering inspiration certainly paved the way for them.

Enjoy your peace whichever pantheon you chose to follow.