Generally speaking, I don't agree with 'trolling' people who publish their real identities. They deserve respect for making their identities known - it requires a degree of courage.

However, I think with politicians it's a bit different - they invite debate!

Of course, journalists live in a sort of 'grey area'. I've never thought about it before, but I imagine journalists build up a professional way of analysing, communicating without offending unduly, and a sort of amour to go with it.

Originally posted by WhiteLantern

In before the "another TOR article!?!" and "OMG Pokket sux" crowds.

 

Nice overview, Pokket.

 

Pokket doesn't suck - it's only SWTOR that sucks somewhat.

I'm hoping she will review DUST when that comes out.

Originally posted by salenger

The likelyhood of this game being good is very slim, Its a console game...It will be limited in content and it has to compete with huge console FPS titles...I mean even an eve fan will probably buy this and spend 1 month or less playing it before it hits the shelf...It barely has any impact on the Eve universe whatsoever.  Sadly making this game a console only was imo a big mistake by CCP, cool idea but to market it as a part of the Eve world and have it on a console is really poor thinking, i dont have a PS3, most people i play Eve with do not as well, and i refuse to buy a console just to play an FPS game with a bunch of 13 year old PS3 gamers.   Im glad as well that this game will not impacy the Eve world much, fact is most FPS gamers on console are under 18...and thats just a bad idea if it actually mattered what they did involving EVE.

 

'Hold your fire' until lots of gameplay footage is released.

This game is quite original in concept, so all bets are off. We just don't know enough about it yet.

I'm looking forward to DUST because you should get instant gratification with the combat, and the satisfaction of long-term planning and specialising.

But I'll be waiting for lots of gameplay videos before I commit to buying a PS3 and paying for enhanced features etc.

Originally posted by jeremyjodes

Once blizzard goes beta the game is pretty much done. same when I was an early cataclysm tester. not much changed when it was released. patches fix the bugs but for the most part beta is what you will play at release.

Most companys now even blizzard are releasing and patching what should have been fixed in beta. TOR was the same. GW2 might be the only one that gets beta right. investors and cold sweats force developers to release to fast in my opinion.

 

 

That's because 'beta testing' isn't really beta testing. It's a marketing exercise - the beta testers who like it tell their friends. However, the catch is that material that's beta tested is a selection of the game (not higher levels etc).

These 'beta testing' periods seem to be more like an exercise in whipping up hype and marketing.

Even if beta testers suggest improvements, I would be surprised if they are implemented, even if they are good common sense ideas. That's what happened at beta testing for SWTOR.

Originally posted by Banquetto

I knew that I could come to the comments on this article, and see a whole bunch of people who have absolutely no idea how WoW came to make the billions of dollars it has made, but are instead completely convinced that it was all due to luck, advertising, Warcraft RTS fans, the phase of the moon, etc. etc.

 

No, I don't agree with you.

Back in the day, the talent trees were big and had some complexity. You could customise your character just how you liked it.

Some realms were different and very atmospheric. Duskwood and the Plaguelands, for example.

All this slowly started changing after Vanilla WoW.

After a point, all the weaknesses of WoW showed through. Particularly the "kill 20 beasts in a field" quests.

It is the perception of most that Blizzard have lost their way further with Pandas.

On a personal note, I had to change my characters name (after 3 years) because a computer program thought my name was controversial. Personally, I thought that Cracky was a good name for a mage.

The biggest negative wasn't mentioned in the article - it's the the "kill 20 beasts in a field" quests (that repeat everywhere).

I think the guy who wrote the article is being paid by Blizzard to help market WoW.

There was only one paragraph about end-game bosses that was genuinely negative.

Originally posted by Amjoco

Originally posted by Mors.Magne

A word of caution: beta testing these days seems more a marketing exercise.

What happened with SWTOR was that 1 million people 'beta tested' the first bit of content, which was really good. Then all the 'beta testers' recommended the game to their friends.

This hyped the game.

The problem is that SWTOR's longevity isn't good. We need to learn from SWTOR and be cautious about WoW.

This is an expansion, not an entire game like SWToR. WoW has the most content of any mmorpg.

 

I think it depends what you define as content. My biggest critisism of WoW is that much of it is "kill 20 beasts in a field" quests, over and over again.

I actually wouldn't mind this if the beasts didn't feel like the same beasts with different looking skins.

A word of caution: beta testing these days seems more a marketing exercise.

What happened with SWTOR was that 1 million people 'beta tested' the first bit of content, which was really good. Then all the 'beta testers' recommended the game to their friends.

This hyped the game.

The problem is that SWTOR's longevity isn't good. We need to learn from SWTOR and be cautious about WoW.

I'm waiting for DUST now. I trust CCP to have the right vision.

I don't agree with the author - It's not a pity that xXDeathXx are losing their industry. This is because you can't really develop an emotional attachment to this sort of activity.

I think this is the main weakness of Eve - it's all about war and industry.

If we could make space stations of designed beauty, perhaps an emotional attachment would be genuine.

One day, if a game like Eve (and soon DUST) could be combined with the creativity and individualism of Minecraft, that would be something.

Does Pay2Win give you real satisfaction when you win?

I'm interested to know because DUST will be "free to play" when that comes out.

Originally posted by NameWasTaken

I can bet you my left nut, that the name "Po" is going to be either locked out or taken by the time you log into the game. ;)

 

When I played WoW, I was a fire mage called Cracky. However, after a few years, Blizzard banned me from using that name.

Which is a shame, because with the right title I would have been called Salty Cracky.

 

Originally posted by Amjoco

Originally posted by Ceridith

Originally posted by Amjoco

Originally posted by Rekindle

The fact this game will have pandas will make it absoulte that I will never play again.   I always felt wow to be rather childish and cartoonish (I'd like to see the age demographics in this game).  I can put up with a little bit of childish things in this game but your Pokemon analogy does nothing for me other than want to facepalm.

 

If WoW is the flagship MMO in the modern era then the MMO is dead to me.

I'm not knocking you at all Rekindle. I have just been wondering for months now why Pandas have been the childish cutoff for players. The average age for WoW players is 27...or atleast it was a couple years ago. Why when there are gnomes and goblins its fine, but Pandas are so childish? I don't care if it's a lump of crap, a daffodil, or a stick figure, if the gameplay is fun who cares.

For me there's two main reasons.

First is because of the Kung-fu panda movie. Every time I see or hear about Pandaren, I'm reminded of this movie. Not to say it was a bad movie... but it was a pretty immature movie in it's own right, considering it is meant for kids.

Second is because anthromorphized pandas are by far, not a standard fantasy race. Gnomes, goblins, etc, are. Even tauren are, (minotaur), as are Draenei (Demon variant).

Your reasons are sound and I respect them. My belief though is it is a "Fantasy GAME".  Since we are able to transform a tauren into a minotaur with our imaginations can't we change a bear into a panda? Its a silly game and we all act so professional and critical about it that we have forgotten that.

 

For me, the problem is that the panda issue is irrelevant, yet this is the main focus for Blizzard.

The best part of WoW for me was Duskwood (I liked the spookiness). However, this was just a one-off.

I'm 'saving my fire' until DUST comes out: the 'free to play' idea sounds similar. However, with DUST your actions have an effect on a 'permanent universe'.

However, DUST doesn't come out until summer, and it could be really bad or really good.

Themepark games have reached the end of the line with WoW, Rift, and SWTOR.

Future themepark releases are going to really feel the pain.

The future is sandbox, like Minecraft. Minecraft is an amazing prototype.

We don't have nearly enough articles on SWTOR.

Moar SWTOR!

Christ, it's another SWTOR article. Is this the second one today or the third?