My lifetime sub has already paid off and then some! Cant complain when it comes to how much I couldve been paying for LOTRO on a month to month basis + expansions. Im a happy camper! Turbine has proven to be a upstanding developer in the MMO industry compared to a lot of others out there with super hype and nothing to show for it. This game will be the stepping stone to their next title that will hopefully get back to basics of AC1!

Grats Thomas on a outstanding suggestions and review list of improvements for CO. But heres the thing, if they are copy pasta`ing COX to CO why even play it when the features you want are already in their first title?

You would think that CO would be a break away from the features of Cryptics first incarnation and more towards the future of what can be in MMOS. To me you sorta except the fact that CO is more so, or exactly like COX? Why bother?

If we as a player and customer base want change and want originality why do we keep paying for games that basically are the same as the last ones we played?

The common MMO player will say "well, thats the way it is". But, it doesnt have to be if we stop paying for games that basically take on the exact same characteristics of the last game we played, with little to no real difference in mechanics and systems.

Time to stop "settling" for mediocre MMOS and demand that the developers of the industry start spending more time creating something for the future and stop worrying bout making enough money to own a 100 acre circular driveway plastered with Mercedes as driveway ornaments!

Say it with me......."HELL NO, NOT IN MY MMO!"

You forgot to mention the $500,000+ vacation and extravagant parties those executives have had after receiving our bailout money, but that's a story for another thread.

 

Your a gentleman and a scholar!  And No, I didnt forget, nor did the millions of other Americans who paid for it! Our day is coming where our constitution and American way of life will be restored as our forefathers intended it to be! Prepare for civil war my friend its on the way, but thats another thread entirely!

Anywho, hope you caught my drift on how I think possibly MMO comps are "teaming" up with big corps to split the bill sorta speak. I still could be wrong on my theory as I dont have solid and complete insight on this part of the industry at hand. Still, a pretty good theory considering!

Heres how I see it with the merger of EA and Mythic.

Say I had a pretty successful MMO company which took me years and years of money and development to create maybe 2-3 really good MMOs. I would be ecstatic! But looking at all that cash coming in and having my greed factor into play that I need 3 summer vacation homes, a circular driveway and a couple of Mercedes as driveway ornaments, what can I do?

Dilema, do I get the 3 summer vacation homes in Bermuda and the driveway ornaments for my new 100 acre circular driveway or sink even more money in topping my last MMO for sake of keeping my good name and long lasting career as a MMO developer?

"OR" do I sell out to a company like EA and have them foot the bill, still get paid, and own those 3 summer vacation homes in Bermuda with a 100 acre circular driveway at the expense of EA while cranking out mediocre MMOs that I dont have to worry bout whether they succeed or fail cause Im not worried bout losing my job, just those under me?

Welcome to EA-Mythic!!!!

I could be wrong but this tells me its possible in this day and age. Hell, look at AIG, and all the other big corps who`ve not only been bailed out but the "executives" got to keep their jobs along with those nice fat bonus incentives!

Speak of the devil.....Below me is a ad for Battle Forge, I guess i dont need to say whose name is tied to that do I? lol.

The game is getting a face lift from a lot of blogging I read. Besides a name change new scenery, textures, and a lot fo overhaul of systems.

The reviewer also forgot to mention that Requiems Item Mall is one of the cheapest in the F2P market atm. You get a lot of bang for your buck, and theres not a lot of fluff involved or gimmicks to make you pay anything. Maybe the reviewer shouldve mentioned that tid bit?

Nonetheless, the game will be better than ever IF the code monkeys get it all worked out before the slated release of the facelift.

Overall, the game isnt bad and serves as a decent game for those who may not have time to invest in learning a ton of fluff to play; Great time waster!

LMFAO! This post went south of heaven fast didnt it? Geesh, for those who dont know...ITS JUST A GAME!! A GAME!! ITS NOT REAL!! ITS A GAME!!! Lol, morons, I swear...

Originally posted by MudHekket

Originally posted by wolffin

Well I can say that I play one MMO that has trully been inovative and that is Eve-Online. I would love to see this type of innovation applied to a fantasy MMORPG.

 

Oh yes!  Or any other genre!  There is way too much sameness in MMORPGs.  I don't blame the companies - they are just trying to make a buck.  But I wish I had more options!

Well put! EVE-Online is a pretty innovative game and I would agree to the prospect of seeing this type of gameplay put into a fantasy setting. As long as theres no more Orcs, and Elves!

[rant]  They call it fanatsy, but the only fantasy they seem to refer to all the time is Orcs and Elves. Im sorta burned out on that concept. I want to see new races, and lore made in games. Example AION seems ot hit this on the nose to me. While not totally innovative the fantasy setting is pretty cool! Now if everyone else would put the Orcs and Elves to rest and think of new characters to forge and stories to tell, it would be truly called "fantasy unlimited"! [/rant]

MikeB thats how you write a review my friend! Kudos, and I hope this is a formula you do not stray from as most reviewers have!

Only problem I had with your review was the less than honest quibble about the look, or graphics. Stellus hit it on the nose, this game looks pretty amazing for as old as it is, and it looks even better than some of the newer games already out! If I said anyhting positive about TCOS it would be the combat and the Graphics for sure!

Personally though, I think with all that Spellborn Int has gone through with this game, and Acclaim picking up the title as P2P, its just not gonna fly. To little to lat imo. This game will survive though if they decide to either lower the monthly fee by half, or spin to a F2P. Right now though, no one wants to pay for a beta, and this is what the game feels like all the way around! Hopefully in time that will change, but till then no one will flock to pay the $15 a month fee, when they could be paying for a number of better designed games for that price. Only thing I see going for the game is the client is free, but thats just not enough imo at this point.

Originally posted by Eindrachen

To those who think these articles are "blaming" the MMO players... yes and no.  The author is passing along the sentiments of MMO industry folks.  Most of them are passing judgement.

But that's okay, because in truth, we are to blame.

Let's examine the reality of the situation a moment.  We have millions playing MMOs these days.  Aside from WOW, we probably have at least 2-4 million MMO gamers worldwide in most of the other top-tier games.

How many of them are actual geeks/nerds?  How many of these millions do you think have even read any fantasy fiction, including Tolkien?  How many of them made better than a B- in English (or the literary equivalent) in high school?

Most of you people on this website are very silly.  You crawl into this aquarium, see all the other fish and the water and the little castle, and you think, "My God!  The world is made for us!  How can it be any different?"

All this article is doing is taking off the fishbowl and examining the truth.  The truth is that most people do not give a rat's rectum about lore, storytelling, or character development.  Role-players are routinely marginalized and harrassed in every game out there.  Christ, half of Darkfall is already like that, and the game hasn't even been out more than a year or two.

The cruel, hard, unforgiving truth about questing is that those who want dynamic and interesting quests seem to be in the minority.  Try going to 10 official MMO game forums and demanding less raiding, less grinding, and more story-based questing.  Not only will you get flamed by half the community at that forum, you'll get either stoney silence or beat-around-the-bush platitudes that basicaly say, "No, we are not going to waste time on something that we see no clear majority wanting in the game."

MMORPG.com may have 10,000 people in favor of better stories and lore and quests.

That's still a minority in a single game with even just 100,000 players.  And of the 10,000 people noted above, how many of them even play the same games?

This isn't to say we shouldn't demand better.  Oh, no.  But some of you are trying to lay the entire burden of blame upon the MMO company.  What idiocy.  That's like saying it is McDonald's fault that you choose to eat there instead of either eating at a healthier place, or just making your own lunch.

We need to pick a better fight.  We aren't going to win against financial security for programmers and whatnot in the middle of a recession.  So we need to target something else.  My suggestion would be the rest of the MMO community, the folks who don't yet appreciate game settings for what they can be.  As for how to get them interested, there's only one actual method I know of - get them interested in fiction of the correct genre.

The article is spot on.  And should be a wake-up call to the entire community: get organized and stop the in-fighting, or look forward to a future full of suck and fail.

After all, the more we fight each other, the more companies like Blizzard smile and wring their hands as they get ready to count more easy money made off of suckers who could have better games if only they knew better...

Im definitely partying with you cowboy! Nice write up!

Originally posted by Kordesh

 In other words "thank you MMO community for being min/maxing failbags who only care about hitting the level cap and then complaining why there's no content". Seriously, the first time I heard of a mod designed specifically to skip quest text, my faith in humanity, if I had any left, would have died just a bit more. 

I agree, but what can ya do? You give them books, and give them books, and all they do is eat the pages!

Wow Jon, "Epic Fail" with another  "non-innovative", far from "polished", "theme park" article!  Your no "WoW Killer" by any means Jon! Your a day late and a dollar short coming up with this. When was the "launch date" for this article? I suspect you were in over your head with promises of a article that shouldve been released about 3 years ago! This article delivers nothing but rehashed news, I consider it "vaporware" at this point! You used to be on time with the trendy articles Jon, but its obvious that you're just not "hardcore" anymore Jon! There, I said it! Now Ill probably get "flamed" from all the "fanbois" who ride the preverbial coat tail of success you have swindled so many subscribers out of!  I suggest if you do anymore of these, try to make sure you release the articles in the middle of a trendy word spree, and not at the end of its life stage!!!

LOL, Great article Jon, but was a bit "little to late" dont ya think? Who says "fanboi" anymore? We now call `em "teabaggers" Jon. But thats what I love about you, youre attention to detail! lol!

Originally posted by alextodo

 

QFT ! Go Bushy Go ! Stick it to the MAN.

:P Hey Spoons! You up this early? Come on man, I made a new toon in Aion and enjoying the crap out of it! Lets go play!! lol!

crap, forgot... my new toon is named "Kaiju" Im a ass-asin! Fun stuff! PM me, Im heading in game now!!!

I want to throw my 2 runes in on this as well. 1: This is a pretty damn good F2P game, BUT, You better wait till its actually finished, or the devs know what it is they are actually doing! So many changes since CB it scares anyone form plunking down monies to buy anything that can be changed on the drop of a hat!

I sorta ridiculed RuneWaker there, but the fact is this is all Frogsters fault! This game had a vision that RuneWaker wanted to see through before opening the "Cash Cow Shop"! Frogster wanted to make the monies as fast as possible by having RuneWaker change the design of the game midstream so that Frogster could score huge monies by destroying the core gameplay that was in CB! Frogster is underhanded, and "allegedly" with a CEO who is known for "bribing" reviewers in the past to sell copies, doesnt surprise me in the least! The GM crew is horrid on the USA side! Actually the whole damn company on the US side is the worst Ive seen in a long time for a F2P!

The game is worth playing for free imo. But only if you didnt get pigeonholed into playing on the US side after spending money on diamonds that cannot be switched to the EU servers! Frogster has a lot of us gamers in their hands basically as a lot fo us have spent tons of money, and then watched how they underhandedly renamed CS items, or descriptions so vague that once you bought em, your stuck with them! To the worst customer service, that do not tolerate even the slightest negativity in the forums or face a 2 month ban! When I say slight negativity, I had been banned there for over 2.5 months cause some of the GM team responsible for naming specific items would NOT rename them after I had told them it was a deceptive! Thats all it took, and I was toast! Didnt matter if I had spent $200 in over the course of 5 months playing! I was gone! It was only then a larger group finally came forward and complained and then, and only then when faced with the threat of lawsuit form hundreds of players, they change them, to be less "ambiguous".

Rumor has it RuneWaker is just itching to get out this hell contract with Frogster USA, as they want to see a more responsible, less corruptive, intelligent, fair, and non-abusive to paying customers!! The US side of Frogster is the worse! They had a chance to partner with a reputable publisher to share the costs to bring this game to NA, but instead got greedy, and used unprofessional, unskilled players from the EU side ( who are currently based in the US) to GM the game, and put one of the best spin doctors in the gaming industry at the helm( CEO ) of a already sinking ship!! The EU side isnt much better, but at least they have a qualified GM team, customer service, and have more sales on CS items than us NA players care to admit!!

Best thing is to stay the hell away from the NA version, and play the EU Global one, till Frogster US dies (which shouldnt be long, unless they change their underhanded tactics), and RuneWaker is more selective about who publishes this game for the NA side next time around!!!

Gamer beware!

sorry for bad grammar, and such, in a hurry so bare with it!

Ok, Im back to add to this dead topic cause I am now trying out AION on one of the Chinese free trial servers atm. This is a observation, some speculation, to contrast against other games I have played before, and nothing more.

I will say this, I am becoming very addicted to the game! Yes, nothing so far "revolutionary" ( w/e that means ), but its the small things that make the game fun, and appealing to the eyes. I do feel Im playing Guild Wars in the starter areas but with a little more freedom. Yes, It is a bit linear in the beginning areas but as Im progressing its starting to open up a bit.

Quests are quests what can I say, but finding a "rolled scroll" which connects a bit more on the personal storyline of AION was a treat imo! Doesnt seem like these drop to often at all! I was fortunate enough to get one off one of the "mobs" close to the "pond" (sorry forgot the mobs name,and exact location, or did I?) This rolled scroll provided a glimpse into a personal struggle for love with a leader of the bandits for the Asmodians. All I can say atm about that. But the story was sorta good and interesting so it made the simple little quest fun. As for some of the other quests, general run of the mill, but some have slight twists. One in particular involved me finding a mushroom that I needed to take to a witch in order for her to release a spell on the Bandit Leaders daughter Rae. I set out to find this shroom. I opened up options and enabled all mob names, thinking I might spot it a bit faster. But no dice, this was something I had to keep a eye out for, and think a bit about. So being a Indiana Moral Mushroom Hunter Extraordinaire, I remembered that shrooms grow close to trees. Not far from the witches place I spotted one right next to a ( guess? thats right ) tree. I picked it, and "PooF" I turned into a frog! The effects wore off quick and was part of the storyline. Once I talked to the witch again, and she found that I had indeed got the shroom, but that I wasnt overcome by its effects long! This was where the storyline for my character, and a gorgeous cut scene (which theres plenty in game, and is a nice touch) began! I wont spoil it, but it was rather neat to see the Abyss at such a low level for the first time! Otherwise, dont get to excited about the quests at lower levels, they are just there to get you through the story, and get you more prepared for whats to come.

Drops,Loots. Pretty basic stuff really. Trash can be turned in for some nice cash, so dont leave them behind! Theres a variety of drops from gears, to useful rune type gems/crystals that when placed in the upper slots of your profile near your weapons, you can turn this feature on/off at whim to gain bonuses to your weapons damage. It does run out quickly so it has to be turned off once the fight is over, or suffer wasting those! I use em, and it does help with bigger mobs that may take a bit longer to get down. Something of a boost, and they come in all sorts of damage sizes as I can tell so far.

The gears in the game, if you stay in the beginning areas long enough, do drop on specific mobs at times, and are worth farming a bit for. I have picked up some really nice low grade green gears, along with some decent quest gear that specifically fits my characters class and stats. The gears and weapons have slots to place rune type stones in to enhance them. Theres also a NPC vendor who sells small tool bags that transform junk gears into upgrade stones for +`ing out any gear,weap you might have. Prices for these seem to be a tad bit steep but understandable.

Theres a lot Im not going to be able to cover, especially the flying as I am not high enough for that part, or the crafting unfortunitely. But so far, the game seems really solid, polished. Im in Indiana playing on a Chinese server getting in 140FPS non crowded towns, to 75FPS crowded, all full tilt graphics cranked on a 8800GT! The lag can cause a bit of problems, but the huge list of servers, and switchable channels makes the game a lot less irritating when finding a sweet spot that isnt crowded. When the player base there is at normal levels to medium, I do not feel the lag whatsoever! I guess that Crytek engine ( though a older version of it ) compliments the game fully! Its a lush beautiful landscape of mobs and animations that will make anyone stop and look twice. Remember, lag isnta big deal to me as I understand Im playing from Indiana to China! I can only imagine this game being lagless in my region, and somewhat lagless when full scale battles happens. Cant elaborate on the full scale battles yet, but I assume when I do play in my region, it should be somewhat comfortable. As for China, I will expect huge lag for full scale battles when, or if I do get to that stage before the trial runs out in a few days!

I started noticing smaller things I wouldnt have before, like mobs chasing other mobs and eating them! I stood in the middle of a pond for a moment and my character began to try and catch fish with his bare hands! A friend of mine said he saw a spider spinning its web in a tree, and mobs chasing fireflies! Its these smaller touches that make the game more life like and less mechanical at times. The only draw back from the animations, to me, is that some are uninterrupted! You have to let them play out at times or you may think your lagging, or its a glitch. I noticed when my character gets tired from low HP, he huffs and puffs. I them hit the sit down button so he can recoup, and the animation takes a couple of seconds for him to fully sit. This doesnt really bother me as it looks, and feels more natural as apposed to the sudden break in animations, or the lack of, Im used to when doing specific things. At first it seems a bit irritating but getting used to it will make you appreciate the detail in animations they have put in.

All in all this was my perspective of the game at beginning levels. Being under the teens at the moment feels a bit linear but its opening up a bit more with each push to a new area I discover. Also they had implemented XP for just about everything in game, so you gain it whether you find a new town, harvest materials, combat, questing and so on. Im sorta hoping the pace stays the same with the NA version coming as the Chinese version seems to be getting away more from the grind aspect they have grown accustomed to. The pace with the new XP gains has been nice so far. I tend to stay a bit longer in areas till I have explored or figured out a few things. What I dont like about other games is the sudden need to keep me in these areas longer than I generally do, and I do stay longer than most players! So far the game feels good on the pace, so Im hoping it stays that way when this game hits NA soon.

Conclusion, the only gripe(s) I have with the game is that some of the landscape textures, though stunning, give off to much of a faux surface. When at a distance you see a small hill, you really see the cuts, and the dips in it. But closer inspection reveals its just a very, very, detailed texture covering a flat surface made to look like a hill! Not all are this way, but some are, and it ruins the illusion for me at times when I venture in those directions wanting a closer look at things. Grass is another pet peeve of mine too! While some areas look gorgeous from a medium, to large distance, the closer you get, the more your reminded your playing a game! But, its not game breaking to me, just slightly disappointing they didnt go the distance with these areas like they did with the mobs, and other props in the environment. Maybe that will change when the game is released here in NA.

I assume the end game PvP will be based closely around Guild Wars formula, which suits me. But thats assumption, as I said the game feels like Guild Wars a lot, but with more freedom, and different aspects. So far, Im enjoying the game, and cant wait for it to hit soon. If the retail box is priced right ( Chinese get this client for free! That would sell me for sure if we got the same thing. Not holding breath! ), and the monthly fee is at, or preferably under $15, Ill be supporting it till something more revolutionary comes out. But that could be a very, very, long time!

Originally posted by Andersioh

I know it's a bit off-topic, cause it isn't a tv-show, but I would absolutely love a Monkey Island mmo...

Huge bosses full of craziness, trying to find the legendary monkey island a crazyness all around LOL. :-D

Now this man has a REAL idea! I forgot all about this series! I loved the first and second Moneky Islands! Yes with this brand fo humor and puzzle solving, a social MMO it would make, to some extent! But yeah I would love to hear how that could come to play if anyone would touch that genre!

Hell if were going to go Moneky Island why not Disk World while were at it, or a damn good Monty Python Holy Grail Comedy MMO!?!?!

Originally posted by Retrad

THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDERCATS!

THUNDER CATS ARE GO!

Personally, VOLTRON! or the older G-FORCE I would think might make for a good MMO from a guild perspective, but you would have a crapload of Voltrons running around trying to fight each other over who was gonna save the universe!

Jon hit it on the nose with He-Man, but to be honest itll still be your average fantasy MMO with the same mechanics used in all fantasy MMOs. Therefore your basically paying for the skins of He-Man/She-Ra.

MMOs could, and still can use the tired concept of Orcs and Elves, its just the mechanics of it are so norm that it tends to get boring anymore. I always hated grind type games that had no, or limited quests. Then when I got more quests than I could deal with type game, it turned into more of a chore to do the quests than to sit and crack open mob skulls one after another. I dont know maybe Im getting to old for gaming.

To me it doesnt matter what type of setting a MMO uses anymore, its about expanding on ideas, or creating new ways to play that interest me. I cant be bothered to pay for anymore games that offer the same mechanics as the last game I played. If we are gonna discuss anything that would make a good MMO, lets discuss mechanics, ideas on how gameplay can be more innovative and stop putting skins on the same game over and over.

Originally posted by No.6

Originally posted by AmbushMartyr

Ok so basically whats shes saying in a underlying tone that Turbine is over subscribing servers, and dont have anyone working on real server optimizations from within the code anymore because its obvious that part of the code is "good enough" so no real need to keep up on that part anymore, 

 

That's silly.  There is no single more important aspect to a MMO than its servers; if they don't work, there's no game any more, and unavailability is a good way to get people to try and get hooked on your competition.

Now you have  a half-point in that like many services MMOs do 'oversell' in that they are not providing capacity for every single subscriber to be online at one time, but then you throw out your half-point by venturing into hyperbole.

Besides, if you had been looking, you would have noticed that lately Turbine was in fact advertising for a server programmer.  I know this because I was recently in the job hunt and almost applied, but MA is a bit more uprooting than I wanted to do at the moment.

Originally posted by Sanya

Next week, I’ve got some discussion with an actual server professional to share with you. Tune in then!

Oh, I can't wait to see who that might be... could it be her long-time friend and one-time Mythic server professional Lum?  What are the odds?

 

Wow, did someone hit you over the head with a hammer? Try to take my WHOLE post into context instead of a small section that can be interpreted into anything ya want. F`ing liberal tree huggers, give them books, and give them books, and all they do is eat the pages!

Ok so basically whats shes saying in a underlying tone that Turbine is over subscribing servers, and dont have anyone working on real server optimizations from within the code anymore because its obvious that part of the code is "good enough" so no real need to keep up on that part anymore, which in turn means more money in the pocket of the executives whom were former AIG employees that decied that profits is more important than keeping on at least 2 people to keep server code up to date and more improved after each new addition of content which is supposed to be their 1st priority with the game, and should be with all the millions of dollars theyre making off the game during a economnic crunch which I might add isnt hurting the gaming industry so much as its more or less a excuse to rocket sales even further than before by laying thousands of people who were working for less than meager wages to start with, bringing around the question does Turbine really do "care" about their game, and their customer base....(Takes a huge breath...wipes brow!)........right?

To me in a "128 bit Sanya encrypted nutshell" she is pretty much saying the exact same thing that the gamer she was ridiculing about the company not "caring" all because the gamer didnt break it down in a pie and relabeled it BS? Wow Sanya I sorta thought that when someone saves someone from having to hear someone talking BS and trying to make it look prettier than a pig with a silk purse on, was doing me, and a few billion intelligent people on the planet a favor....(take another huge breath)....right?

Now I see why Mythic picked you up, but you cant BS a BSer Sanya, but +1 to you for trying! Have a awesome "non-BS" day!

I wanted to apologize to the Op if I may have seem a bit harsh on their review.

I think you did a great job, but if you are going to write about a game I would suggest you add both the dark and light aspects instead of all grey areas. Once again you have nothing to apologize for it was just I felt you couldve put a little more details in your review. If anything its probably best to call it something else, like a first hand look report, instead of a review. I tend to be a stickler and a critic of reviewers myself as most just do not bother to bring anything neutral to their posts and is all based off opinions and little facts. But I do commend you for at least coming in here and giving us a first hand glimpse from a gamers POV on Aion, and for that I thank you!

Originally posted by FreedomBlade

Do we really need yet another point and clicky shitty MMO with nice graphics and wait for it ... flying !? Lets have a quick check list to see if the usual shite is in it:

- Instancing- Tick yep loads of sinstancing in this game

- Point and click combat - Tick yep the same old hot key button mashing cool down stuff here

- Kill X, deliver X Quests - Tick yep this game is full of quests that are exciting as this

- Level based system - Tick yep this game uses the same old grind of leveling

So yes this has all the usual stuff that make MMOs so dull.

Good luck with this game guys you must like being fed the same old shit all the time. Don't you think it is time MMOs moved on from this tired old formula? 

WoW! Sounds like you are making a new groundbreaking MMO that no one has ever dreamed of! Man I cant wait to try it out! Now, when did you say itll be out and when can we all try it? Oh, no MMO? So whats with the comments if you dont know yourself what makes for a new innovative gameplay? Can you elaborate on exactly what can be done than whats being done now? Im not talking about masking a system up to look like its revolutionary, I mean something that is truly different or hasnt been done! Wait, you cant think of anything that would be revolutionary atm? Well thats ok, keep pretending you know what your talking about, Im sure someone will buy into your hype about whats revolutionary and what isnt.

Until then Im going to play this game and enjoy some really nice polished gameplay while you keep searching, and being frustrated by nothing thats revolutionary out there. So spend what little time you have looking and dont bother playing anything you have described, cause if you do, Ill post it here so all can see how much a hypocrit you really are! Have a nice day!