All Posts by Arudanel

Honestly it's a buzz word that developers love to use to hype themselves up. Wow, EQ2, Vanguard were refinements of EQ1, which was a refinement of Muds. I'm not even sure there's ever been a truly next gen game, as each 'gen' just adds a few things, tweaks a few things, and calls it next gen.

REALITY CHECK 2 moron. Houses HAVE been in since launch. I was in beta, and I was there when they finished them. Guild houses were not. Player houses, yes. Whoever told you they were taxis is a liar, flying mount coding was also in beta. Aradune himself often travelled on a dragon in beta. The quests and such to get them was not in until this last year, but the game has had the capability from launch. And B- it was NOT SOE's fault. Deal with it loser. Brad might have been a great game designer, but a great manager, hardly. MS gave him millions. He blew it all, and STILL was neither on time, or on budget. SOE bailed his sorry a$$ out, and he failed again. SOE gave him millions more, and plenty of time. IE 'when it's done'. HE is the one who ran out of money, due to incompitence, and failed the community he had lied to from the start. Face it pal, SOE is hardly the good guys, but on this one, they're innocent. They went far and above what any sane corperation would have to save Vanguard. Personally I'd have simply chucked the whole mess like MS and washed my hands of it soon as I got a look at Brad's "Management" skills. The entire mess was Sigil's fault. You're too stupid to see that, then not my problem. The only fanboi here is you. Any intelligent person who could read would have seen the mess Brad made of everything and would have the IQ to actually comprehend who screwed up here. You, apparently, do not. Bye bye Idiot.

Originally posted by Vincenz

Originally posted by warzone100

Originally posted by Vincenz

 

Originally posted by SonofSeth

 

If they took Warhammer IP and turned it into Warcraft with such succes

 

...wait, what???

Warcraft was based off of Warhammer.

um...no.  Was it similar?  Sure.  Was it possibly a complete rip off?  maybe.  Was it the Warhammer IP?  absolutely not.

All of this is ancient history though, and totally beside the point. What the OP said is that they should take Star Trek, and 'Blizzardize' it like they did to Warhammer, and make a 'trek MMO'. that's it, and I'd have to agree. I'd love to see a Blizzard skill-based game. Could they do it? Sure. WOW is item-based because they went with the tried and true EQ model, that's all. Hardly anything new, but they polished it up better than any company before, that's what they do. They take old ideas, and make them right.

12 quests- 2 for each faction. 12 heads=2 heads for each faction. I'd say it definately is co-incidence. They just made 2 of each.

LOL! That soon? I think 2015 is optimistic, one thing he's never done is rush a game. When a console title like Revolution is 2-3 years in the making..I'd hate to imagine his progress with an MMO...

I'd rather he do a new IP for his game. I got complete faith in Sid, I even loved Civcity Rome. But as for Paramount's ability to shut up and not force him to make WOW with Phasers, not so much.

He basically got shafted in the SWG mess because the higher ups saw WOW and said 'Your game is too different. Make it liek WOW.' and Lucas kept saying 'You can't do that, or that, or that.' SWG was basically a game that could have been great had A-SOE been happy with a quarter to a half million players. That's still good, by even today's standards. and B- LA had let him set it in a better timeline, instead of ramming the Original Trilogy down his throat. On top of that, the bad release, to co-incide with one of the films (I forget, the new Trilogy wasn't that memorable) with it's huge pile of bugs and unfinished content (Space). And then the mismanagement, which Raph had nothing to do with, all along. SOE says pull this, it's too complex, he has to pull it. Think of it this way. Not only did he catch crap from all the players like he was Satan himself, he had to gut his baby because of idiot suits and 'player polls' where they didn't even poll players. He's hardly a gaming god IMO.. I wasn't a fan of any of his games really. But he doesn't deserve the flak he's catching because of SOE and LA.

I'd have to say Starcraft. First off- the codename. Hydra..as in lisk. Second, the timing. We got War3. then Frozen throne. Then WOW. Now SC2. Third- they have a LOT of high-quality Starcraft models already made, they just need to re-rig them for a new engine. ie: Starcraft:Ghost. It won't be WOW2. Not with an expansion not even out yet, etc. If it was Wow2 they'd have kept it alot quieter to prevent people from abandoning the current WOW. It's possible it could be Diablo3, but with the Burning Legion in Azeroth, and all that, they got a mortals vs Hell game out now. Why compete with your own IP.

Also the issue of Middleware being so heavily used now. PhysX, Speedtree, etc all have their own legal issues, as to why they couldn't ever be given away. And then, as others have said, since alot of engines are re-used, the hacking risks of releasing their server code to the public... I don't even want to think about this scenario. Not good. Way I see it, is that the money you pay is a lease on the software, nothing more. I really see no issue with this, as most games that are old I no longer even look at. It would be nice for E&B to open it's doors again, or even Motor City Online. But it won't happen, any more than a Pre-NGE server. Why would a company provide competition for iself, at no charge? ;)

Sorry for the wall of text..any idea why my new paragraphs just aren't taking? I put in spaces, paragraphs, etc,a nd jsut get a huge wall of text that reads like the Vietnam Memorial. LOL

I have to say, I'm with OP on this one. Some settings translate well to MMO format. Conan, for example. Decades of lore- a whole world of adventure, war and chaos everywhere. Sure you can't be Conan, but there's hundreds of other comics set in that same world, with various other characters. The setting wasn't all Conan basically. AND the great idea to set it in the 'That is another story' time always hinted at in the books, comics, and yes even the films. The story that was never told in much detail, if at all- Conan as king of a troubled land. Others however-Star Wars came to mind. I never once felt 'immersed' in SWG. Sorry, not even pre-NGE, or even PRE-CU. Not once. And NGE made it worse- I nearly wet myself laughing when Han was ferrying noobs to Eisley.. all I could think of is 'No wonder the moron never got Jabba paid, he spent all that time running newbies back and forth'. What a STUPID idea. Problem with these settings, is they are all about one small cast of characters. Sure there's the EU and stuff in SWG's case- but let's face it. Films are the only real 'official' Canon in Star Wars, George can (and often has) overwritten, blasted away, or outright reinvented anything he didn't write himself at any time-which is only fair. Like it or not, it's his world. Setting it during the movies means we KNOW who will kill the Emperor, who will save Vader from the Dark Side, who will blow up the death star. The story's done, and in print. Like it or not, in those worlds, you're bit players. you will never ever be the big hero. You won't even be a bit player. Just an extra walking around in the scenery. And for a game that charges you 15 bucks a month for the privilege, being so limited is just downright rediculous. Lord of the Rings, we KNOW who the hero is. It's Frodo, Gandalf, Samwise... the player isn't even the Innkeeper that helps them on the quest. You're more like the drunk dude in the corner talking loudly about nothing to his friends while the whole fate of the world slips past you, unnoticed. Now, a MMO set in that world would be great, and it is good. But with all the heroes taken, and they don't let you play the nobodies, then what's left? A good timeline is either before, or after the movies/books setting. After could even work. You have the leftover bandits, humans who followed sauron, etc alls till around. The world could be in rebuilding. Frodo's home in the shire, giving out Hobbit newbie quests, legolas is back home, and so on. Their stories would be finished, and now it's time for new heroes and champions, and that's where the players come in. I do have to say though, that the Lore can be a strong point-when done right. Any good MMO has good lore to it, or it'll never feel like a world. The issue is that with liscenced games, you have people who know jack about games, and likely never played one, saying what can and can't be done. And they rarely 'get it'. At least Age of Conan is set in the right timeline- a new age, so to speak. If only SWG and LOTRO had been as well, they could have been great games. As it is, they are good games, but won't get much past that. I even worry about longevity in LOTRO. How much new features can they add, honestly? How much will be allowed,before the liscencors say 'Nope. No more.' and then the game is just dead in the water, floating with no updates, till it's canned. If they're generous, with materials from Silmarillion and all, it could be a decade or more, and could last a long long time. But if they're not, the game could be over before it's done, with no new content ever coming. :(

I'm with you. What's with parents suing Rockstar over GTA.. ummm...read the warning on the box. Debbie does Dallas and Rambo III together don't have that many freakin advisories on them! Any parent who's kids are playing that got no one to blame but themselves. The game says M on it, what more they want? And this MMO addiction stuff too. All my friends have moved overseas or to other states. (I live in a crappy, small town.) Before MMOs, hanging with my old buddies consisted of a phone call, and an insane bill at the end of the month. Now We go and chill in an MMO. As for local friends, we still hang out and such. There is 24 hours a day, and I only sleep 6 on a good day... that leaves 18 hours of boredom. Even if I worked 12 hours daily, I'd be left with 6 hours to kill... I mean come on. What else is there to do? Ski? Mountain climb? hang gliding? I did all that when I was younger, I'm too damn old for that crap now. LOL. And TV..don't get me started there... So yes I play alot of MMOs. Is that Joe Piccolo from Florida's problem? or Sam Schmuck from Seattle? Nope. It's my problem, and if it becomes a problem, I'll see a shrink like anyone with a problem does. Uncle Sam and company can go worry about rapists and serial killers and pervs, and let gamers alone to worry about their own issues thank you very much. We're wasting enough time and cash on stupid laws as it is. As for the gaming companies, frankly I'd be pissed if I paid my monthly fee, and they said I'd spent 27 minutes too long running a friend in Wailing Caverns, so my account was suspended for the week so I could go play outside. I'm in MAINE people..you know what it looks like outside right now? Cold, white, and wet.

and WOW ripped off EQ, and a million other games that came before it. Though if you want to get technical, WOW is just a Warhammer MMO without the liscence, or the war since Warcraft copied the look of the Warhammer miniatures game years back. But I'm fairly sure I got a book from when I was a kid somewhere where it had green monsters under the bridge with big axes and hunched backs... so I think Warhammer ripped off the Grimm Brothers.... Face it, nothing is revolutionary. Or few things anyway. Doing things different just to be different, well that's how we got ET on the Atari.... I'd stop whining about nothing being totally new, and instead think what you like about these various games, and then try and find yourself one that combines those various things. If you're waiting for a totally new MMO, you'll likely to die of old age first to be honest. Maybe a new twist here and there, but that's hardly a revolution. More of an evolution. Not trying to bash you here, I know where you're coming from. I hate the level grind too. But what other options are there? If players don't progress somehow, they don't play. A skill based system? That could work well, if it's done right. But the cost of developing one that is done right, and then the headaches of explaining to gaming-illiterate CEOs and Investors why you're doing that, and not copying the biggest game there is... LOL. Fun times. Forget the big AAA titles if you want inovation, and watch those little korean games like Flyff, some of those are pretty odd, and look to be fairly fun. Investors aren't going to hand out 30 million and say 'Ok, now go try something weird, and see if it floats.' PS- Love the Dead Horse gif there. LOL

300 only? I'd suggest buying some RAM and motheboard. Get a quad-core ready intel board with the 775 socket. Personally I like the NVidia boards, but others have just headaches with them. Get motherboard and some compatible ram for now, and wait till you have more for a bigger upgrade later. Using a quad-core ready board, preferably with SLI, will give you space to grow later on without killing your budget now. Then you can re-use your existing CPU and video, and likely even the power supply for the time being, though that will have to go if you want to go SLI down the road.

Warhammer Online will have the Squig Herder class for the goblins (Squig or Squib? I always forget) Basically a pet breeder/warrior class. But you have to wait for it to launch first, or pray to whatever gods you beleive in for a beta invite. LOL

Just a matter of time. Wait for the next big western blockbuster flick to hit, once people are tired of the current films. Someone in Hollywood will think 'We done all the kids toys from the 80s..what else we got? Need an old idea, fast!' and someone will dust off an old Clint Eastwood movie or Bronson flick, and then everyone will be psyched for Westerns again. Then we'll get a MMO, because once millions of people are psyched about an idea, then the big corperate guys will all look and say 'Hey, we can charge these guys every MONTH for this game, for years!' I wouldn't hold my breath for a sandbox though, it has HUGE potential, but have to juggle the issues of alienating casual gamers with keeping the more hardcore interested in it. Maybe eliminate classes entirely, give everyone a basic combat box, and a noncombat box. and fork off that over time as the player advances. Who knows, but would have to come up with something that would appeal to the masses. With the cost of making these games now rapidly approaching the costs in Blockbuster films- to be realistic you got to think in terms of dollars. Even SOE or MS can only eat so much finantial loss before it has to jump ship itself. Making a game for the hardcore elite isn't really doable nowadays. Maybe with these lower-end free to play MMOs- hell get someone with a couple million to blow make a Western MMO with the model of the company as the government. Farmers, miners, all paid for their land rights to the government back then, buying the west bit by bit. Why not microtransact plots of land out to finance the game's continued existance and pay back creditors. Could have even more fun with the GMs appearing as the US Cavalry when they appear. LOL I can see it now- Players stuck in geometry all yelling for help. Over the horizon appears a lone horseman in Union Blue with his saber and trusty rifle at his side, and a cheer goes up 'The Cavalry's come for us! HOORAH!' lmao Sorry, had a cheesy spaghetti-western flashback for a second. Honestly, to make it more true to the genre, no blood. Instant T rating, marketing is happy, ESRB happy, I mean how often did Clint shoot at the badguy, and we gota huge fountain of blood as half his head disappeared? Heck, ketchup on the shirt was about it. Anyhow, that's my .32 on the subject, maybe some aspiring new dev with backing for a project and no idea will come across this thread, and we'll get a new MMO to go on. But someday, it'll happen, with everyone desperate for ideas in Hollywood and in the big game companies.