i think if anyone thinks blizzard has lost its fire or ran out of ideas, they simply arent paying attention.

if blizzard has done anything, its that theyve proved when it counts, they know how to show up and get serious when they need to.  they have more capital to work with, and bigger dev teams than any other game company in history. 

i think theyre just keeping quiet, holding back and waiting. 

remember blizzcon is coming.  we have no idea what theyre going to show in the next expansion, and we really have no idea what else they have in development.

to count them out, is silly.  they know how to compete harder than any other company in the industry.

my favorite part was where the author got away with "i didnt check this content out myself, but i read on the forums....."

really?!?!?!?? are you cereal?  im so jelly mr. professional mmorpg writer.  for reals

while i will play both, because im a gamer and thats how i roll.....

I'd pick Guild Wars 2 over SWTOR because Eric Flannum is one of the best gameplay designers alive.

eve combat is nothing like x3.

if you liked x3, check out black prophecy

no i mean it was a video stream where you could watch what was inside the game from the website.

not the streaming client.

i know it was there at launch.  just wondering if they took it down or why.

i swear i used to check this out from time to time.

did they remove it?

does a bear poop in the woods?

this has been verified by several people.

all you need to do to transfer is this...

if you dont have a guild there already, contact one via the forums, talk to the about joining.

then submit a ticket, tell the gm your guild is on (for sake of discussion) wolfsbane, tell them the guild, and they will transfer your toon there.  locked from transfers or not.

seems busier than ever on wolfsbane.  everyone in my guild is having a great time and were not even a progression guild.

Originally posted by popinjay

No new battlegrounds. Nothing to make it meaningful.

Some classes got nerf. Some got buff.

But nothing new about the PvP, still pretty flat.

LFG tool is kinda broken, but no one admits it yet. Cross server feature isn't added yet, but it probably will be in before the year is out because people still complain about long wait times (2hrs).

yes, as i said.  people that only queue for one role have problems.

talk to someone that can queue as healer/damage/tank and you'll get a very different answer.

the mistake a lot of people make with the lfg tool is just insisting on one role.

get multiple roles, then queue for everything, you can find a group using that tool in no time.

people that insist on damage tend to say its a terrible tool.  but thats because so many people have a tough time getting their head around one of the key principles of the game.  that you can and should change your character around at will for the most part.

copy pasta of the live update i posted over on hardocp's forums...

planetside keynote notes:

- forge light engine

- no instancing, open world combat

- new territory control and conquest mode. (every square inch of the map is contestable).

- owning a territory gains you, your squad, and your side resources. these can be used to upgrade weapons, armor, and vehicles in the game.

- they are hoping to use resources for a sandbox style of gameplay. he didnt really elaborate on that though

- planetside 2 introduces classes into planetside. each class will have its own upgrade path.

- introduces a certification tree for each class. this will be an offline, time based skill system just like in eve online (they even mentioned it was like eve's skill system).

if they filed for arbitration they arent suing.  arbitration isnt the same thing as suing.

arbitration basically means (for those that dont know this), there is a disagreement that one of the two parties doesnt feel can be resolved on its own and said party wants a third party to moderation a discussion to resolve that issue. 

Originally posted by Aarinak

I am liking ANet more and more the more I hear about them. They better not disappoint!

 

you didnt like them when they were called "Blizzard North"?

Originally posted by CujoSWAoA

Originally posted by cerebrix

DO NOT WANT

 

not from an indie developer.  no way.  this game needs real financing from a real company that can afford to shoulder the financial challenges developing, launching, supporting, and maintaining a successful mmorpg.

 

an indie developer just cant handle the task.  we've seen it how many times?

 

the last thing i want is firefly online to be only about as good as darkfail and mortal online.  AT BEST.

I'd prefer that a group of Browncoats make the game myself, rather than Sony Online Entertainment or Biowizzard.

you have no idea the electric bill alone for a server farm and oc-45 required for just 1 server.  let alone the cost to lease said oc-45 and the bandwidth costs tied to that.  not to mention the redundency needed there.  the support staff for said connection alone.   not to mention the regular server support staff, and we havent even touched end user support.  we also havent even touched development, marketting, administration, legal (yes, you need lawyers.   good ones, several of them).

mmo's require MUCH more than you could possibly imagine behind the scenes.

DO NOT WANT

not from an indie developer.  no way.  this game needs real financing from a real company that can afford to shoulder the financial challenges developing, launching, supporting, and maintaining a successful mmorpg.

an indie developer just cant handle the task.  we've seen it how many times?

the last thing i want is firefly online to be only about as good as darkfail and mortal online.  AT BEST.

Originally posted by TUX426

This is so sad...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWb3cxA4g_U&feature=player_embedded

someone needs to send that to smed.

im serious.

while it hasnt been my game for a very, very long time.  i can appreciate the connections people make with each other in that game.  especially in the rp community.  the rp community there is one of the best ive ever seen in any game.

i think the real issue here, as someone mentioned, while they might make roughly a million a month on the game.  you also have to remember that they have to share that with lucasarts.  while nobody in public probably knows the over under on that deal.  if its something crazy like 50/50.....  well, 500k  a month barely pays to keep the game running and the devs in pay, benefits, insurance, workman's comp etc...

whats sad about this whole thing, is this.

and i know you guys dont want to hear this now.

but if they had just frakking rolled back to pre nge, they would have seen a serious jump in subscriptions.

its a sad day for me.  i thought koster's original design was genius.  i mean look at my sig for god sakes.  its likely that we'll never see an mmo of this scale with raph's name on it ever again.  

Originally posted by kishe

They were going to upgrade AO to use AoC's graphic engine but I guess the project was dropped since.

 

they are still working on it.  they decided to port to the dreamworld engine which set them way back.  now, dreamworld powers TSW, AOC, and soon, AO (hopefully).

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

Originally posted by quasar941

 

---

Originally posted by Wharg0ul
Sadly, it's kinda too late at this point. Have you even tried to play AO lately?? Go ahead.....try to stand there trading shots with a mob for 5 minutes without freaking out from boredom.
AO needs more than an engine upgrade. It needs a proper sequel, with a complete combat revamp.

---

 

Amen. I'd love to see an updated version of the game with the same depth as the first. Sadly, FC has already said there would not be a sequel to AO, so there's not much chance of it ever happening. Still, one can dream...

 and ya know what allways RULED about AO??? All the game's mechanics, from ressurection to teleportation, to PVP restricted zones, were given an explaination and had lore built up around them.

Yes, you were playing a game....but it didn't feel like an artificial game.

No one even bothers with this level of immersion anymore (with the possible exception of Fallen Earth)...they just expect us to accept the artificial game mechanics as a given.

 

And yeah....I know they said they never would.....but I'll never give up hope!

all of that lore and reasoning was entirely ragnar tornquists work.  which is why im so excited about the secret world.

Originally posted by MMO.Maverick

Originally posted by cerebrix

 any problems funcom has ever experienced with a game, was solely because of one man.  Gaute Godager.

 Gaute Godager was solely responsible for anything bad that happened at ao's launch, or shadowlands.  Gaute Godager was solely responsible for anything bad that happened in AOC.

 Gaute was forced out.  Left the gaming industry forever over it.

He left the game industry completely? Wow, didn't know that. I only know Gaute from AoC and I don't know if all the blame can be put on his shoulders, sounds a bit too easy to me, but he certainly had an influence on the game design and the way how AoC was presented (and hyped). Who knows what the game would've been if he had gotten an extra year to finish the game in the way he wanted, it could've maybe been a PvPer's ultimate dream. We'll never know.

 

Tornquist is a totally different person, and for the kind of game TSW is with the kind of setting and lore it has, I think he's the ideal figure for it.

aoc was entirely his design.  based on his design document, he also managed the production as well as the production team.  just as he did with shadowlands in ao.

he started out with a lot of promise, but it really seems like hes just another designer with good ideas, but no plan to execute them to fruition.