Does not really matter how many changes to the game they make, the community still is the  worst I have seen in any game.   Until they clean up the community, new players will general find an extremely hostile unfriendly environment. 

As to cheating, only a naive posters says there is not any.  Cheats are still there for those that want to avail themselves of them. 

I thought it was a good article.  Personally I think the entire controversey is trivial.  I have my doubts with the game just entering closed beta that this game will release in February.  What is the big deal about getting in beta early?  My guess is the game is still quite buggy. 

I think the criticism of the writer is absurd.  Seems that some of you just want to troll instead of read the article.

Originally posted by Evasia

Its just a  GAME, nuff said.

Talk about being naive, that statement could be used as a definition.  No MMO is just a game, The persistence of the world and it's avatar's makes that statement ridiculous.  Wake up to reality.

First off, Everquest is NOT the grandfather of MMO games, Ultima online is. 

Secondly, time for SOE to stop the paid expansions for this outdated game and just release free ones.  It would actually increase the playerbase.  SOE has to have the genre's worst marketing department.  I think a room full of monkies would do a better job.

The problem lies with the inability of many of the fps players to realize the persistence of the avatar in an online world dictates a different behavior.  A MMO is on no longer just a game it becomes a living world where the avatar establishes a prescence that follows them throughout their existence. 

Some rebel at this situation and react by attempting to ruin the experience of others.  They soon find themselves ostracized and react negatively by attempting to demean the genre instead of trying to understand it.

Until NCSoft gets serious about the cheaters and botters this game will remain another second rate game.  No amount of upgrades will fix the underlying problem that their client is far to open to the lowlifes.

Oh and Ravenos, the only troll here is you, ignoring the real facts.  Aion has more bots now then all the games out there combined.  Fixing the problem is going to be no easy task.  There are no quick fixes for Lum, I wish him the best.  It remains to be seen if NCSoft gives him the resources to be successful.

Great resume, first he screwed up Dark Age of Camelot, then he messed up War.  On to Jumpgate.  I just don't understand why this industry does not learn, a history of bad decisions does not portend good ones in the future.

Originally posted by Gyrus

Originally posted by Ozmodan

 Only a clueless poster condones cheating in any shape or form.  The only thing I get from your comments is that your mores are warped which unfortunately is quite common in the younger generation.  Maybe you should readdress them.

So, your argument comes down to "You're stupid and selfish and too young to comment."?

Well, speaking for myself - my first computer was a ZX81- I am hardly from the younger generation.

Other than that, how does calling people 'stupid' help to address the issue of gold farming?

How does calling gold farmers (and the people who use their services) 'cheaters' and / or 'liars' address the issue?

How does attacking a person based on their generation help?

 

The fact is none of it does.

And this is where you, and the MMO companies fail.  This is why you fail.  This is why gold farming continues.

Because rather than look at the actual problem, you get all emotive about it and basically chuck a tantrum based on your personal feelings on the issue.  If you think this approach works I encourage you to find a gold farmer in game or even find a gold farming site and email them your personal and moral view of the world and the way it should be.

And that solves exactly - nothing.

 

If you are serious about actually solving the 'problem' then dump all the emotional stuff and address the issue at hand.

Look at all the options open and consider which ones have been tried and which haven't.

Look at which ones have worked and which haven't.

 

To me, I see gold farming as a business - so to deal with it look at how to make that business less profitable.
But apparently, people (and MMO companies) would rather just continue on the tired old treadmill of 'banning' them.
I hasn't worked and it doesn't work - but hey - bashing your head against a wall is fun so why try a different approach?

 

You just don't get it do you?  The rules of the game are stated up front, violating them is cheating.  Advocates that say buying gold is ok are just saying is cheating is ok.  It is clearly ok to call a cheater's mores warped.  Cheating is NEVER OK.  There is nothing real world about a game, it is just a game played for fun to challenge your skills verses others.  I don't care how old you are, cheating is cheating.  Why play a game when you think the rules don't apply?  What is the point of having rules then?

Originally posted by Gyrus

Originally posted by girlgeek

Originally posted by Gyrus

Excuse me?

But since when is Goldfarming a crime?

In what countries and under what laws?

Edit:  Breaching a contract (EULA / ToS) is not actually a crime - it is a beach of contract.

 

Okay, fair enough. It's a "breach of contract" that they can SUE you for. Just as some companies HAVE sued individuals that made a botting program to run in their game. Same sort of thing. To me....breaching an agreement that YOU MADE, BY CHOICE, at the very LEAST calls your character into question, and at the most....is, as you call it, breach of contract.

Are they going to throw you in jail....no. Are they going to ban your IP?  They SHOULD. But...they will handle it however they choose, it's their financial interests they are defending.

I don't care if you disagree with me. You're welcome to do whatever you, with your own conscience (or lack thereof) want to do. But you cannot argue that this is not addressed in an agreement that gamers CHOOSE to "digitally sign" when they choose to play a game.

Couple of points on what you have said so far:
By the fact you start talking about "sue"ing I assume you are from the USA?
Well, I would love to the the games companies try this outside he US.  You do know (I hope) that the EULA is not absolute?  That in many countries it may not even be legal at all?  Even in the USA parts of it may not be valid from state to state?
In Commonweath Countries the EULA probably falls under a branch of Law called 'ticket case' which is a minefield.
In Australia the whole [I AGREE] button idea is also in doubt with at least one decision finding that clicking this did not equal and agreement a all.

For me, personally, it would be criminal. My word means something to me. Is it literally a "crime?" I can't, in all honesty, answer if it meets the criteria for being "criminal" in the truest sense of the word...probably not. Nonetheless....it's well within the rights of the developers to protect their intellectual property and financial gain via imposing penalties for breaking that agreement. And....SOME developers will do so. You do whatever you want. If you want to defend cheats and liars....feel free. Personally, I don't think I will.

It's got nothing to do with defending cheats and liars (and again, how are goldfarmers 'cheats and liars'?  They are honest about what they do) but more to do with finding a sensible approach.
As I say, they are a business, hitting them in the profit margin will be more effective than anything.

 Only a clueless poster condones cheating in any shape or form.  The only thing I get from your comments is that your mores are warped which unfortunately is quite common in the younger generation.  Maybe you should readdress them.

Dropping the Mothership ship change from the initial release sends the wrong message.  I am disappointed at CCP for doing this.  Motherships should be practically useless without a fleet around them.  I am also very disappointed with the reduction of sovereignty costs.  It should be very expensive to hold a star system and increase with the number held.  Current changes in Dominion will have very little effect on sovereignty in 0.0.

Guess we will have to wait and see if CCP develops any guts, certainly don't display any with this release.

Oh and there are no where near 30% of the playerbase that are that effected by the change, probably less than 10%.

Well I wish you luck Lum.  Seems a bit late for NCSoft to look at this matter.  All their games have been plagued by this problem for some time.   All of us have been posting about this since Aion was announced, yet they launched the game with very little thought to this problem.

Hopefully you can bring some sort of resolution to this that NCSoft has been unable to fix up to now.

First off leaving off the original Asherson's call and Dark Age of Camelot shows your complete lack of knowledge of the genre.  Both of those games established significant innovations that have been used widely through the industry. 

Putting Darkfall and Sims on the list is just silly, they neither added anything new or had any significant effect on the genre.  About the only thing Darkfall has been able to do is collect the worst collection of misfits to ever plague a MMO, they introduced nothing innovative at all with that game except the laughing stock that is Tasos.

The game is ok, the problem is the playerbase.  They drive new players away.  Probably the worst I have ever seen.  It seems that every asshat that has ever plagued a mmo has roosted on their servers.  True there are some nice players and guilds that try to help, but they are few and far between.

The problem with this industry as I see it, they continue to hire these idiots who have experience making bad games so what do they get, more bad games.  The last time any of these designers had an innovative idea was most certainly not in this century.

The only thing I see in this column is how to join the bad game designers.

Oh and if you don't have a smattering of programming knowledge and are not up on the current technology you are wasting your time because coming up with a brilliant idea without any idea if it can be implemented is just wasting your staffs time as they attempt to explain the why's and why not's.

In 6 months it will be another also ran for the NA version.  It just does not have the content to keep people playing and NCSoft is only making a half hearted attempt to control the bots.  This game will start to bleed players by January.

It does not affect gameplay so who cares.  Anyone whining about this needs to have their head examined. 

Only an idiot starts play on a pvp server for a game not known for it, then attempt to review the game from that perspective.  The review went downhill from there.

Snowboarding, that will be popular with the pre teens and that is about it.  Maybe they should do some market research first.

Warhammer just has so many basic design flaws, I just don't see them changing it enough to make it successful.

Mythic needs to look at what made them successful in the first place and put an upgraded DAoC out again.  The basic design of DAoC was fine until they started adding all the overpowering items and spells.

Why is it studios in this genre are so optimistic when it comes to release dates?  Especially since almost all of them end up pushing the release date back several months.  More like a June or July time frame.  They have a lot to do in this game yet. 

I will be shocked if it releases in February and if it does you can expect an unfinished product.