There have been a lot of changes to many titles (for example a lot of games have gone to free to play)

It really seems that since so many games have gone to some kind of free to play item mall model that a better discription is needed for the list. DDO is listed as "TBA"....DDO is a free to play, item mall, subscription based game. The old format worked really well 3 years ago. A new format is needed now.

The difference in classes in this setting is supposed to be about how one uses the skills, not the skills themselves. So of course, bounty hunters and gunslingers have the same tools and skill sets. How they choose to use them is what makes them good or bad.

The difference in the game design is in the interactive story line. Omitting that and pretending it isn't part of your on going character creation is missing a key element of SWTOR.

This game won't before everyone. But I have faith millions will enjoy it.

Originally posted by shakermaker0

this isn't a review.

 

I'd have to agree. But I'd also like to point out that most games after Huge content patches are best reviewed by players who have never played them before. This title was broke on release. If there is someone at MMORPG that hasn't ever played this game and isn't afraid of a ......different UI have them write a fresh perspective review. This article is tainted with the old feelings of dissapointment and dislikes from a failed launch.

Originally posted by SBFord

Actually no decision has been made. We genuinely want to know. And if you read the last paragraph, these games probably won't be placed in the games list or even heavily covered. An occasional mention is what we're talking about, particularly with games that have co-op or multiplayer options or are tied into MMOs such as Kingdoms of Amalur.

 

Well since the RPG is makeing a comeback, why not have a spinoff site? A site with seperate Games list and articles? **The** same look, feel, and lay out just dedicated to all the other PC titles out there.  Less clutter, all the info. 

I do agree 100% that RPG titles influence MMOs. But it would seem that a lot of the people that use this site would rather not have the extra info. And I'd have to agree, the game list for instance is already long enough. A seperate site would be ideal.

Originally posted by SBFord

It's actually not something to "move on" from. While it's true that overall stocks plunged 3%, MMO players are affected by the dive in a very tangible way when the publishers take a hit. Many people have no money in the stock market and might or might not bother paying attention to the global economy. But they WILL take notice if their favorite games don't get published. :)

The most anticipated games  to be released any time soon are in NO threat of being shelfed. 3% this time of year doesn't mean much I'd guess. 4th quarter results would seem like a much better time to care about market ups and downs. I'll bet if you did a  5 year history you'd see they dip this time every year? Think of it like Basket Ball, it really doesn't mean much if one team is ahead by 8 points in the 3rd quarter. Now if they are in the last 2 minutes of the game...............

Anyways, this could all be some super sneaky way to drive stock prices down ,so they can swoop in and buy them cheap, before the record numbers that will be set by this christmas season MMO sales drive the stock prices back up. They buy low now, sell high later. Freaking Wall Street Traders, Jacking the prices in the REAL LIFE AH! 

Stock market TROLLS!

Show some self control and you won't be the suckers feeding the money machines for these tittles. WoWs glowy mount, for $25 US, comes to mind. The monthly subscription is $10 less @ $15 a month (if you pay 1 month at a time). Why anyone would pay $25 US is beyond me, but Blizzard made millions off that horse. Some people on my server bought several, one for each character. I have read reports saying they sold 80,000 in the first 4 hours. 2 million dollars in 4 hours. With profits like that it's only a logical step to move towards micro transactions.  Old link to follow:

http://www.1up.com/news/fancy-horse-blizzard-2-million

The terms F2P and/or Subscription based, aren't really acurate. If you asked most people they would say that WoW is a subscrition based game, and DDO is a F2P model. In fact WoW and DDO are indeed, both  subscription based and Item mall games. WoW will continue to offer items for sale, DDO will continue to offer Subscriptions. They have slightly different versions, but both offer subscriptions and items/services for sale. 

These type models are here to stay until they figure out some way to make even more monies.

Speaking of more monies: See also Blizzards next attempt to make even more money. The RL dollar AH. They make money when you post. They make money when you sell. They make money when you cash out. There is a really good chance that this will catch on. The major up side to this is that it will likely lower the demand from the player base for 3rd party sites selling, hacking and exploiting the game and markets.

The reason for the big bugets is to try to get a bigger slice of the MMO pie.

As long as there is money to be made.........other companies will attempt to "GET SOME".

Originally posted by elfofthedead

Originally posted by Elikal

Originally posted by Sovrath

well, I suppose I'll comment:

(deleted to save room)

 Yea comic con was not all the cool 20 years ago or even 10. you take the good with that bad, if want big budget movies to show there new trailor, then maybe you shit throught a Glee panel. so to you mister Garret Fuller i say STOP HATEN !!

Did you mean to say " then maybe you >Shit< throught Glee"?

If eveyrone there did that I think they would take the hint and stop forcing GLEE upon poeple.

If you didin't mean to say it, then I thank you for the typo, it made me chuckle.

Originally posted by Tardcore

Just another example of a once small knit hobbyist community being gobbled up, exploited, and shat out by crass commercialism.

Well put Tardcore.

Comicon has become mainstream. It is now less about the art and expression, and more just about marketing.

It's been a long time coming, but MMORPG.com's Lori May has been spending a lot of time inside of Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV.

Read all of Lori May's Final Fantasy XIV Review.

Or don't read the full review and trust that the look on this avatars face is a plea to  be released from the boredome that is FFXIV.

Seriously though, I think this title forgot the first rule for games (any game really)

1. Must be fun to play.

It has awesome graphics, but it is not fun to play. For me the best part of this game will always be pregame test App they released. After the game was actually released, it became all to clear that this game wasn't ready to be released. Swing and a miss.

I liked the review, was well written and I agree with most of what was stated. On the subject of the community though I have to disagree. The community does have it's min maxers. As a whole though I'd have to say that those min maxers are just a big a gift as a curse. Take World of Warcraft, try to ask a serious question in trade or general chat and get a logical response........won't happen. The advice channel (on the server I played on anyways) would almost always get sound advice.......That might not seem like a HUGE deal, but for new players comeing into a game with such a steep learning curve, those min maxers can sure help. Over all I think the community is good, sure they have some rude people but nothing compared to games like WoW. The reviewer is correct though, play what you like. If you've never played D&D or D&D Online though, a cookie cuttuer spec/build might be a good idea until you have a better understanding of the game and what is or isnt' needed.

Originally posted by waynejr2

Originally posted by Xero_Chance

How is this NOT a WoW clone?

 Seriously, who cares if it's a clone of anything be it wow or EQ.  Afterall WOW is an EQ clone!

I agree, who cares who ripps off what from what game.......if you enjoy it play it, if not - DON'T.

WoW isn't an EQ clone really imho. WoW does/did take ideas from EQ but WoW steales it's ideas from everybody. Phanatsy books, other games, pick a media WoW has likely sampled it. WoW rips off everybody. If they are a clone they are a Frankenstien of Clones (See also Thaddius- for Frankenstien ripp off =-p).

 

 

To say a game will be like EQ is rather vague. EQ is different things to different people depending when they played.  Players who stopped playing after PoP was released remember a very different game than the current version of EQ played today.

Originally posted by Swanea

If WoW is so easy, by all means, anyone here, go ahead and link me your #1 arena team in your battlegroup, or show my your armory to your character having killed the LK on heroic.

 

Exactly.  This game has challenges.  This game can be hard.  You choose to ignore that and twist the game to fit how you want it to be.

 

It is made to be easy to get into, and for the most part, easy to play because that's what opened the game up to 11 million more people.  Instead of a game with 500,000 hardcore EQ people who loved camping a spawn for 72 hours, you have people facebooking WoW and such.

9.2 IS pretty high, but meh, I don't think their is any game close.

You're doing the same. It's what everybody does. You see the features or aspects that appeal to you and express why you think it's good or bad.

In wow anyone can reach level cap.  You might ask how is that a bad thing?  The first Naxx had less than 1% of WoWs population raid in there.  All those people sololing to level cap means they don't know how to function in 5 man instances ....not to mention raids. EQ might not have near the population of wow but a random level cap player in EQ is far more likely to be a skilled player who knows his or her class well than the random level cap wow player.

I'll put it this way..........If you really like raiding then the only achieve that will matter and your biggest challenge will be finding 30-40 people who don't absolutely suck that have similar play times. Then pray that random drama doesn't destroy your guild.

WoW is aimed at the casual gamer now. Hard Core raiders will get bored really fast. Over all though I don't see how you can give an Expansion a 9.2 rating when most of the content is modeled after Lord of the Rings Online.

9.2?..........I think not.

WoW raiding  .........people didn't stand in fire = win

WoW raiding  ..........people DID   stand in fire= loss

either way......people yell in vent =p

Originally posted by Khrymson

Passwords are ones you input and create yourself.  If you're talking about the ID it gave it too you after you put the key in, if you click back on that page it will display it again.  It will also be in the main title bar of your temp log-in when you first start up POL.

Plus there was a huge warning that says write this down, very important to remember sign on that same page!

 

POL is very easy to navigate and work, if you read whats going on, but if you click rampantly through it as most do and never read anything then yeah it can be confusing.

Seems that Playonline has also had some issues with invalid registration codes. Even you read instructions and write down required information you will still be stuck if you're a lucky winner of an invalid registration code.

Originally posted by phitch

Question says it all.

If you don't think it was ripped off, why not?

You're asking if the WoW UI has been copied by another franchise. That is extremely ironic since almost every aspect of WoW has been copied/styled or just out right stolen from some other already well established source. 

I hope so!

I agree 100% with the Risk Factor, I know a lot of people say they hate it but exp debt keeps terrible players from reaching level cap. It sounds harsh but if you suck to bad I don't think you should be able to reach level cap.

EQ vs WoW :

In EQ you had to know your class, if you didn't everyone knew you didn't and no one would group with you. They wouldn't group with you because if you didn't do your job you'd cost them exp.  If you saw someone running with a person  who was known to get groups killed you'd send a friendly warning. Long story short if you're terrible you'd never reach level cap.

In WoW you only have to repair items. So no matter how terrible you are at your role in WoW  you can still get to level cap and still get raid spots even if you know nothing at all about your class.  Ever see a hunter in a complete tier set in WoW who refused to use ranged attacks? I have. 

Risk can equal better quality of player all round. I prefer exp debt to loss of actual items though.

Factions that actually effect where you can and can't go are nice to if the faction grind is well thought out. No one like to have to do the same quest 500 times.

Originally posted by Cpt_Picard

I am predicting that the larger part of the younger population will choose to be repulblic and will roll jedi since jedi are cool and most kids prefer to be good. As a result, the sith empire will be composed of maturer players and have a lower population.

This was quite apparent in WoW, pre BC. Every one rolled Human Paladins and NE hunters and the alliance on most realms had a higher population the horde.

Unless they add a sort of vigilante perspective to the sith (ie, a firm reason why their cause is just) the game will always have a serious faction balance issue...

I think the reason there were more Alliance than Horde Pre BC in WoW had more to do with looks than wanting to be good or bad. If you'll recall BC brought a much better looking female option to the Horde side with the introduction of the female Blood Elf. I personally don't play female avatars, that's not my cup of tea as it were, but many players do. And as you pointed out in your post most players picked Humans (paladins) and NE (hunters) the two best looking options for Alliance. I think I saw a poll once that showed that female dwarf priest was the least popular class/race/gender combo. Female dwarf = even uglier than a troll.

Having played both factions in WoW, I can say without a doubt that both factions had their fair share of immature people. I am predicting just like every other popular title out there that this game will have it's fair share also.  

The number of replies to this topic shows just how much of an issue this topic is with all gamers. In truth the gold sellers are a nessecary evil for some players. I personally have never, nor would I ever, buy gold or characters or items online, I feel that part of the fun( i use the word fun losely) in the game is achieving the goals for yourself. Some players do not have the time to dedicate to farming for mats and gold, hours on end, to make them eligble for end game raiding and content they need to stay competive and prepared for.  WoW is the best MMORPG while you lvl up in my opinion, once lvl cap is reached the game becomes redundant enough with out farming materials for 20 hours a weeks.

I have never used a gold selling service but I don't blame those who do. Blame the game design for making the need for such services in the first place. 5000g for a epic flying mount............Would the demand for gold selling services be as popular if epic flying training (and other items/skills) were only availiable by questing instead? Blizzard created the World of Warcraft. Blizzard also created the enviorment that selling gold in RL is profitable. Blizzard makes you sign a statement saying they own everything in the game including "your" character. That being the case they also own the blame for making the need for gold selling/buying since it is an ingame issue.