All Posts by grimfall

I agree the only funny part was when they pronounced roflmao, otherwise I felt much more sorry for the people who took the time to make the video than anyone involved with or playing AoC.

Originally posted by Waterlily

Originally posted by Drafell

Everquest helped to pioneer a whole new era in online gaming.

I remember playing when it first came out. Sure, there were some annoying issues, and features that may be considered primitive by today's standards, yet it was still the first popular 3D MMO out there, and king of the hill until WoW came along.

 

Everquest didn't pioneer anything. SoE like to pretend they did.

UO was the FIRST mmo to hit 100k+ subs before anyone even heard of EQ.

The classes and stats from EQ are all copied from the DnD handbook and almost nothing was original.

AC launched right after EQ and was in many ways more advanced than EQ.

Because SoE tells you EQ pioneered MMO, doesn't make it true.

 

UO pioneering MMO, I'll buy that, but EQ?....no.

How do you arbitrarily pick 100K subs as the magic number to be a pioneer?

UO wasn't the first graphical MMO, that was Meridian 59

UO wasn't 3D or 1st person.

The Ultima lore and gameplay freely took things from D&D too.

AC launched about 8 months after EQ, if memory serves, and looked and played like ass.

EQ was the first one that was noticed by 'mainstream media', and spawned it's share of urban legends.

EQ was called, Evercrack, not UO

EQ's currency was once considered the 8th most stable currency in the world.

EQ was the game copied by Blizzard and Mythic. No one copies UO.  That game would be called 'More Ass'.

Originally posted by Reborn17

Originally posted by Reklaw

Originally posted by Reborn17

The author of this article is just like the vast majority of game developers out there, arrogant dinosaurs with neither creativity or a true love of gaming, let alone its players, and worst of all not tech savy.There are SO many technolologies out there that not only cut costs, but development times for projects much more complex than creating a game, even an mmo, by 70-80% for a few thousand dollars, many of which are used by the military and multinational telecommunication corporations but are available to anyone. Some of the biggest timesavers are actually free! Everyday there is some new technology coming out that lowers the cost and development time to create software because its such a concern and limiting factor as to what people can do. I'll be glad when dinosaurs of his ilk are extinct in the gaming industry or at least stop telling everybody "less time = less quality".  Even if this is how it was, its not the way it is anymore. 

 

 

Thanks for sharing this, if more people feel the way you do then this community is in more trouble then i orignaly thought.

I must admit i really LOL when i read it, as it's really amazing to see people actualy think the way you just explained. And even more funnyer you dareto call them arrogant, hehe i feel some people use words and have no clue what they mean.

 

Correction, mainstream publishers and developers, the rest stands as I wrote it. Ever heard of programs like Fujaba, eye-sys, Vue 6, Videotrace, Voodoo, Subversion or the Project Offset Engine ( made by 1 man  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkoi6WCCJHY already being used by a small indie called red 5 for an mmo ) which all cut development time and/or dollars by huge amounts so yeah, the belief that it is ok to release underdeveloped, re-hashed, cookie cutter mmos, claim the old paradigms are written in stone, and claim they don't need any ideas is arrogant, paving the way for indies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqNFXPMH_gQ Maybe even for asinine asshats like you Reklaw :)

Umm.... Red 5 Studios is not exactly a 'small indie' company.  They already have some sort of publishing relationship with Webzen, they have offices in two countries and are currently hiring 10 people (that's about $2 million in salaries and benefits over the next three years).

'Obviously its become much more expensive to develop a core gamer MMO these days. The amount of content, coupled with next-gen graphics, is just brutal. We've made a huge investment in tools and studio infrastructure to help us with that, but it's still daunting.'  Mark Kern, President and CEO of Red 5 Studios.

The games that they talk at that developers conference on your link are flash based and 2D games... Are WoW and AoC flashed based or 2D?  I forget, but I am sure they must be.

Just do some simple math before you start getting on with stuff you don't seem to understand.

If you have a 10 man team (which is far too small to make a AAA MMO title) in place for 5 years, that's approximately $2.25 million in salaries.  Then throw in another $1 million for benefits.

You need office space and electricity, for your small team, that's about $180K

Some of these employees may need PC's, scanners, printers, office supplies, art supplies. $55K

Then you need one server to host your MMO, $50K.

If you create your own software and use shareware, and do this all in 5 years, which of course is impossible,  your budget for your MMO is $3,535,000.  

Now you have to advertise it and distribute it.

The best example of a true Indie MMO development is Fallen Earth and though the game looks better than it did 2 years ago, when you compare it to AoC it's like compaing a Pinto to a Porsche.

Originally posted by Meatimus

Forums are crowded with people that dislike the game, dispite that fact, the game does not need saving. Im not a fanboi, I've had my differences with Funcom.. but the game is doing quite well and has an even more promising future. Most people that flame it, have barely played it.

I can honestly say I've experienced all of the current content in AoC up until yesturdays patch that opened up Tier2 raiding. I did get my feet wet in the content, and it seems like BRC will be my new home for some time to come.

 

 

Well, it's too late to fix this of course, but if you've played all the content in an MMO in roughly a month, then the first thing they should have fixed is the levelling curve.   Shadowbane, a true PVP game, had a similar (even shorter maybe) levelling curve, but it was always intended to be a PVP experience.  If Funcom has put as much time into the PVE game as the various screenshots I see suggest, they've screwed up by spending 85% of their development time on something that in the long run takes 5% of the gamer's time.

That being said...

1. They need to fix the various bugs that exist

2. They need to further optimize it so people with the recomended hardware specs can play all game play types (including sieging) at very good FPS rates.

3.  They need to consolidate some zones.

4. They need to ignore the 'don't nerf my class' goons, and make sure the classes are balanced for PVP and PVE 1 - 80.

Originally posted by xephonics

I tried it for the first time like 2 weeks ago.  Uninstalled it within 2 hrs lol.

 

Was too dated for me to even play.  I guess I would have been able to bear it ~5-7 yrs ago, but not now.  It was painful to even look at.

 

I know that is to be expected, I'm just stating my thoughts :P

Too bad they don't have things like screenshots to show you the game before you take the time to download it...

That being said, some areas look nicer than others, and typically the newer (and high level) ones look the best, but there are some decent looking graphics in the new dragon starting area.

To the OP, your post made me laugh. Maybe you should play UO if you want a comparison of what was on offer when EQ was released.

I would guess from the Bioware MMO you'll get

Distinct Races

Distinct classes that fit into one of the four standard roles

Beautiful, well imagined environments

Class, race or class and race based character defining quests that allow you choose the type of character you want to play by your actions, which are interwoven with events for other people's quests so that you have a meaningful reason to group.

I look at that chart and see a stock that has had its value raise 225% since February...

During the same period, Vivendi has lost stock price. (Down about 25% from November until now).

Therefore I expect SOE to be running WoW by the end of the year.

You can make some cool monsters.  I think I've made about 50.

You can also make AD&D monsters, which is fun. I've made a pretty good Hook Horrer and Beholder so far.

My guess is that Spore will dominate the single player gaming world for the next three years.  The only problem is that I don't forsee it having expansion capability like The Sims, though I am sure they will think of something (non-ogranic life forms, or just more parts and units ect).

Guintu,

Let me take away the analogy, because you didn't grasp it.

Just because you violate the EULA in one game and don't get caught, doesn't give you the right to violate it in some other game, with no fear of reprocussion.

The analogy wasn't the severity of the crime, it was the context in which it was committed.

Comprende?

***************************

De Valos's original post was pretty obvious. 

You may want to stop PVPing, and you definetly want to stop PVPing in any game that allows looting.

If the courts continue in the trend that say that player accounts and the characters within are property of the player and not the publisher, then when you harm another character, you're actually harming the account owner. Which would leave you open, at least in a society of litigants like the US to suit from that player you harmed.

You say 'well, the terms of use protect me from that', which they would have, if the courts were upholding the terms of use, which they don't seem to be.

It seems you won't be able to have your cake (buying and selling player accounts) and eat it too (playing PVP and building up your account value at the expense of other players), for very long.

Originally posted by Guintu

Originally posted by Itirel

 

Originally posted by Guintu

Originally posted by Itirel

Originally posted by Guintu

Ok so their banning people for using an exploit in the game?  Their not botting, their not hacking, their using an exploit in the game itself.  Instead of banning people shouldn't they fix the exploit?  I mean I've played games with exploits before like SOH where you can play parts of mission to gain tons of XP then exit the mission and start again.   In 2moons their was an exploit that you could stand in one place in a cave and kill tons of monsters and not get hurt yourself.  An exploit is the devs problem and if a player uses it to benifit them then the dev should fix it.

Isn't using exploits considered cheating? Which is punishable by banning? The same as buying gold in other games? Sure, they need to fix it, but the person that discovers it needs to report it, not abuse it.

Edit: grammar.

I agree its bad judgement to use exploits but I mentioned 2 games and exploits in them. The devs just fixed them and didn't ban people.  People who buying gold, hacking and botting aren't exploits in the game.  If Funcom know about the exploit then they should fix it as quick as they can, treat it like a software company treats vulnerabilities in their software.  Sure most people are going to see expoits and use them, most of those people wouldn't bot or hack because they don't think they're going to get in trouble for using an exploit in the game.  They just figure in the next update i'll be fixed and they won't be able to use it anymore.  I'm guessing Funcom didn't know about the exploit before the game went live?  If they did thats even worse.  The exploit should have been found and fixed in the beta process, if it was from a new update after the game went live then I don't know what to say. 

 

I hear you, but at the very least, if not banned, the in-game gold / items / levels that were gained as a result of the exploit needs to be removed / deleted / cleared.

I could agree with that.  After they fix the exploit and see the people who were using it they send them an email saying we're going to take X amount of gold from you because you used it.  Or they should send a mass email out saying that anyone found using the exploit will have gold and items taken away from them.  Then just take the stuff but don't delete the account because of peoples stupidity, hackers, botters and gold farmers should be banned because they should know better but someone using an exploit doesn't think their going to get banned for doing it because so many other games have exploits and they haven't gotten banned from other games for using them.

There's a simple rule of thumb that most people should try to apply when it comes to any potential moral quandry:  Would you be ashamed to tell your grandmother about what you're doing?  If the answer is yes, don't do it.

*****************

Is there a way to snippet just part of someone's post?  I didn't really want all that other junk, just Guintu's.

It's really amazing to the people who try to hold the MMO developers and producers to ridiculous standards, but don't worry in the slightest about applying those same standards to themselves.

Here's an idea.  Apply to yourselves the same principles of conduct that you want the game companies to apply.

When you log in, you agree that you won't use exploits and hacks.  You also agree that if you use those, your account will be suspended or cancelled.

Then you start playing, someone tells you about an exploit, which you immediately begin to use, even though you know (or strongly suspect) that it is in violation of an agreement you just made 5 minutes ago.  You also know that in a competitive game this will give an advantage over other players who don't learn of or use the exploit.

Then the developer catches you and your friends and suspends/cancels your accounts.

Then you complain that the publisher is behaving unfairly or conducting bad customer service.

You agreed to the terms of use, then violated that agreement.  You tried to give yourself an unfair advantage over other players who paid just as much as you to play the game. You got caught.  Explain to me again how the Publisher is the party in the wrong here?  They're the ones who stood by their word, and are acting on behalf of their honest customers.

If you insist on cheating, play single player games.  No one is going to take Halo 3 away from you for applying a hack to make your guns hit harder.

That was not aimed at the OP.  I have no idea whether he cheated or not, but if there was a widely used exploit that helped earned gold, and his guild had a lot of gold... odds are someone out there was using that exploit.  Think of a guild like a corporation.  If you're the guild leader, you're responsible for the actions of everyone in your guild, like a CEO is.  If you've got morally bereft people in your guild, whose fault is that, Funcom's or yours?

It's a pity that you're getting a slow response on your request for re-instatment. It could be that they know you have ill-gotten gains, and their struggling to figure out what to do about it.

Originally posted by Baseline

 

Originally posted by Leemeg

So, should we trust you on your one-sided story?

What if you just left out that you actual did exploit some, and that resulted in that you lost all of your guild gold and city? Not saying that you did, but I have no way to knowing that, and its clear that someone bitchring about loosing the guild's gold like that, would never admit that they exploited. Take this up in the correct supply chain, i.e. send mail to Funcom, not whining on a 3rd party forum. I actual trust Funcom on these things. They got probably logs of all the action we do ingame.

If they unban you because it was a wrong doing, then I can feel a bit sorry for you, but if they do you would probably get the stuff back, and no harms done. I do also agrees on Funcom's policy that they freeze the accounts as fast as possible. If they don't, the exploited gold can be too far gone into the game that they can never track and purge it.

 

Are you Tahitoa, the Moderator from the AOC boards? Can't lock here can you?

 

I'm not trying to contact funcom or get unbanned here. I'm trying to let the community know that Funcom will easily screw over a ton of people pooling all of their hard work to one person to forward their guild.

 

Guilty before proven innocent indeed. And not even that. They PERMANENTLY suspended me, I'm gone, and my guild is now twiddling their thumbs unable to access our stored resources for tier 2 and unable to make anyone leader. Can't just disband and reform and throw out that city and work.

 

Seriously, the funcom General forums right now look just like SWG's after the NGE hit. 99% complaints of wrongdoing and bad business, 1% praise.

 

This game is going down the toilet. It's one thing when you ban one person here and there that actually is exploiting. It's another when you're banning the guild leaders of a top 3 guild on the server with the FURTHEST city progression because "they must be exploiting".

Sorry, OP, but you should really try to think things through.

Look at the facts.

1. Funcom found an exploit

2. The exploit was used to make gold (or make it easier to get)

3. You've collected gold from over 100 players and are one of the richest guilds in the entire game.

It's completely possible that you didn't personally do any exploit.  Odds are, however, that one of your guild members did, and you took advantage of that.  It may well have been unbeknownst to you, however you would still be reaping rewards from an exploit.

Follow the channels that Funcom established to get your account re-instated. It's the nature of MMO's that things like this happen occasionally.  Get over it.  And also, consider giving over your guild leadership to someone a little less exciteable.

I want to be very clear in admitting that I haven't played this game.

Wouldn't it be cool, though, if all the time and energy put into these Asian grindfest games were actually spent making content for good games?