All Posts by Lunar_Knight

Oh...wait CodeMasters! You got something on your face...let help you get it off...wait a minute, it's just the words "Dragon" and "Empires"...huhh, suddenly I feel compelled to never believe anything you say and to avoid a MMO you develop in-house like the plague.

Odd...I wonder what's up with that.

I think it should be a law in the game industry to put the word "Estimated" before all release dates, unless the game is ON it's way to the manufacturer as the release date is being posted.

I say this not for myself, I already know how it works when companies give players a release date that's set in the near future. The Carrot (release date) is just out of reach so the Horse (gamers/fans) keep following it and following it as the Rider (devs) keep pushing it forward until everyone arrives at the destination...1-3 years later then the Carrot was first offered! This way the Horse won't lose interest midway and the Rider has a chance to cover up any major detours with the extra time.

The fact that most of us don't even really believe the release dates we hear anymore, or take them with quite a bit more then a grain of salt, tells you that we know better now and you should too. It's all good and well to polish your game so it isn't a sub par piece o' ****(and that's great if that's what your actually doing), but come on, it's this type of marketing that just ends up casting your company in a bad light.

This isn't a "I hate Funcom or Conan" post. I'm actually looking forward to the game. I'd just like to see companies in general be more responsible with what they tell their fans (who some might be our future game devs) that look up to them.

Nice article.

Nostalgia is a very tricky, and some would say fickle, thing to work with. Sometimes it clicks with people and some times it doesn't.

I started playing on the Classic Dark Age of Camelot servers with, admittedly, too high of expectations that it would be just like the good old days. While not having ToA expansion did indeed help, too many other things had changed and I couldn't make myself like the changes.

From what I've heard from others Everquest had a similar problem. It was a lot like the old, but not enough. It didn't feel like you were back in 2001 playing old school Elf crack.

If you want to give your old player base a nostalgia shock, I suggest saving the game exactly like how it is on launch and bring it back after a few years (fatal or really crappy glitches aside). More then likely, these developers have no need or want otherwise to keep the game in it's completely original form.
I'd go back and play original versions of any of these:

Dark Age of Camelot
Asheron's Call
Everquest
PlanetSide
Star Wars Galaxies

...I'm sure the list has a few more, but I got to head out. Peace!

Originally posted by Flummoxed

 

Yet how does all this apply to mmogs?  How can an indie / noir / pulp mmog ever make it?

 

Have you ever heard of Multiverse ? If anything, it's at least one avenue of approach to it. I'm sure we'll start seeing elements of the industry splinter off and create more freeware tools for these kind of games.

I liked the article. I now have a reason to hope for a brighter future for this form of media.

Originally posted by SaintViktor

For a game that supposedly has 9 mill plus playing they sure keep on promoting this thing like it is brand new. Though, you have to give them credit, they market their games better than anyone else. Probably the #1 reason why they have so many playing this game.

(BTW, Props on the Marty Fledman avatar!)

I guess I miss the exclusiveness that MMOs used to have. Now just about anyone plays MMOs because of WoW. It's lost it's kind of underground gamer feel completely now.

We need more niche games.

Originally posted by Oyjord

 

Originally posted by Lunar_Knight

And it' s because of this unprecedented popularity and advertising that I can go up to 90% of Warcraft players and say "So you ever play Everquest?" and have them respond "What's Everquest?".

I have yet to find a Warcraft player in real life that has even heard of Dark Age of Camelot or Asheron's Call.

I love being an MMORPG Snob.

 

You're not an MMO snob, you just don't have any friends or know anyone.  I play WoW, and I played damn near every MMO since UO.  So yes, I know EQ.  I hated it, but I know it.  And most everyone *I* know who plays WoW played UO, DAoC, AO, EQ, you name it.

 

Get off your not-so-high horse and move along, cowpoke, nothing to see here.

Rather then me turning this into "Whose E-PENZ is bigger?" by way of listing all the MMOs I have played, and I have played a lot, I'd like to referrer you too the part of my post that says " 90% ".

And the fact that your STILL playing WOW after you have tried all these other games just goes to show that the large part of MMO players will play just about anything.

When I wrote "I love being an MMORPG Snob" I was saying in a joking manner that I prefer higher quality games. However, if you wish to defend the 7-11 of MMOs far be it from me to stop you. I'm just tired of the ignorant player base this game has created.

EDIT: Before I get flamed by the legions of WoW fan boys who I know must be rushing to defend this game at this very moment...I just wanted to say to the above posters: 1) Learn to take a joke, 2) Your game is not that great and if it hadn't been for good ol' Elf crack YOUR GAME wouldn't have had a model for which to be built upon,  and 3) ...ehh, whats the point.. you've already drank of the special "kool-aid" anyway...

And it' s because of this unprecedented popularity and advertising that I can go up to 90% of Warcraft players and say "So you ever play Everquest?" and have them respond "What's Everquest?".

I have yet to find a Warcraft player in real life that has even heard of Dark Age of Camelot or Asheron's Call.

I love being an MMORPG Snob.

I personally think spawning monsters at x,y cords for no apparent reason is getting VERY old and should only be used as little as possible. Developers really need to open up their games and create seamless, zoneless worlds. If wolves aren't regularly purged from the near by mountains, they might move into the near by foothills and activate new quests in surrounding settlements to get rid of them. Certain mobs move out from their dens/lairs at night to hunt or drink from a near by creek. I just hate seeing people sit at EXACTLY the same spot waiting for Mob 1 to spawn at X 23, Y145. I mean even if their freakin' rabbits, have them hop around at least a small area and hide in some thick foliage when they see an adventurer.

I'm thankful that games like Tabula Rasa and Age of Conan are finally enacting random mob attacks on towns. Fighting for a town is a whole lot more fun then fighting for XP.

Actually it makes perfect sense. What are you going to do when the economy is slow and you can't find a steady job...?

Play video games, obiviously.

Hehehehe...but seriously, this is good news for the new incoming talent to the industry (such as myself). Maybe we'll only have to battle each other to near death for jobs in the game industry.

Asheron's Call did it...and they did it well. Every month a new content patch was downloaded and advanced a world spanning story line that most all players could become a part of in one way or another. Heck, they even changed the landscape to match the changing seasons in time with the real world (towns would be covered in snow in the winter, trees would change color in the fall).

I remember logging in one day and entering a town that had been completely burned down the night before. It was apart of some story arc involving elemental demons, but I was just so shocked that they had freaking smoked a whole town just to advance the story. It made me wonder, "What's gonna happen next?"

In most games, I know whats gonna happen next... well, at least till some yearly expansion comes out that I have to shell extra money out for.  When I read a book, I don't know whats going to happen in the next chapter, and real life is never a for sure thing either, so I don't understand  why developers will make games that have more predictablity then a 9-5 job and call them fun.

We need a sandbox, we need dynamic world-evolving content, we need a fresh new tack on fantasy-based fiction.

We need change.

Originally posted by uttaus

Hey Jon Wood do you happen to listen to weekend round up with Dianne Reem of NPR.

Any way

A skill based fantasy  sandbox MMO might be what the the MMO gaming community really needs to break the stagnant repeditive nature of MMOs today.

 

Kudos sir

 

HERE HERE!

This is just a thought, but...I think some people can't get the idea of Orcs and Elves out of their heads when they hear the word "fantasy". I think a better way of describing the difference between fantasy and sci fi would be that fantasy is any kind of abstract fiction taking place before modern era level society and sci fi as modern and post modern abstract fiction.

I just hate people automatically assuming Tolkien fiction IS fantasy. I believe it's merely a part of it.

Asheron's Call, for me, would be one such example of completely non-Tolkien fantasy.

I haven't posted in a while. Mostly because I've just not had anything new to say in a long time, I'm just one of the many guys sitting around waiting for something new and actually engaging to play.

I'd like to call on all developers to stop setting "tentative" release dates. We're not stupid. Most of us have been around the block long enough to realize these bogus release dates are just there to maintain the HYPE level long enough to set it back again..and again...until your actually ready to release the game.

How many times FUNCOM, have you set back the date? How MUCH longer do you plan on playing the HYPE game?

Your credibility has been reduced to nothing in my eyes. I WILL NOT BUY YOUR GAME ON LAUNCH. You'll have to prove to me through the people that are going to play it that it is worth buying now, because I (and I'm sure others as well) no longer trust you.

I'd play it.

When they say "Lego Universe" I have to wonder what kind of a setting or backdrop the world is going to have.

In the article you said:

The announcement of Funcom's Two Worlds (a game that supposes

...might want to fix that!

 

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Originally posted by gobla

But mainly it's about getting away from the whole 'fighting the bad guys and saving the world' kind of thing. Because IMHO it doesn't work for MMOs.

WOO! We killed the dark emperor! Finally the land is saved, ow crap. He just respawned..... YAY! We saved the land again! All rejoice, evil has been banished. Dang, respawn again......

I mean don't you find it incredibly anti-climatic to turn in 6 heads of that orc general when you do a group quest? Or how every single day that young girl's heirloom gets stolen.... 50 times....

Seriously, MMOs aren't made for the Heroic storyline and quest stuff. That's why PvP is so popular. You're a real hero there. Your actions mean something. You're not just generic_player_538 finishing generic_quest_803. If you save the day then it's because you really did something.

 

 

That problem arises from the fact that most MMOs are static. Nothing ever changes until the next expansion comes out.

Why more developers don't put dynamic content into their MMOs is beyond me. In my honest opinion, the best way to keep players in a game is to give them something that will continually engage their interest. A storyline that is actively involving the players and changes the characteristics (destroyed castles and towns, unearthed tombs and caves, new creatures and NPCs) of the game would do just that.

Imagine...if you will...logging into the game where only yesterday you were doing some trading in town to find the same town burned to a crisp! You rummage through the ruins of buildings and find some strange items that launch a world wide quest to find the invaders responsible for the attack. Imagine being recognized for your efforts in the quest later and having a permanent monument built to recognize your heroism.

That’s just the tip of the ice berg, this idea could be expanded to include Dev-controlled armies that the Players must organize a counter move against in order to protect themselves or even the interaction with different time periods within the same game to change certain aspects of the present and future. THAT idea would even allow you to blend genres (Sci Fi, Western, Fantasy etc.).

Take thy head out of ye box, O developers of little faith! Expand thy thinking, create dynamic content, be ye not afraid of "genre clashing". Thy players WILL reward ye!

Asheron's Call had it right. No zone walls period. You could just login in and pick any direction you wanted to go and just explore for hours. I loved how if you ran long enough you'd slowly enter different climate zones (deserts, forests, snowy mountains, ocean beaches).

So many people haven't had a chance to really get to experience that. I defiantly suffer from Wanderlust.

An interesting thought...what if they make a Diablo RTS and/or a Starcraft RPG?

You know you'd still play it!

Just kidding, Blizzard is going to make a Starcraft game at some point in time...now or later. It's like having  a gold mine right next to your Town Center and never sending any Peasants (or Peons) to mine it!

They sure did a good job butchering his last name.

It sure does give me the distinct impression that the people writing the article have no idea what they are even writing about.

"By jove, it's seems there IS something to these Internet Video Games! Blimey, we better write a bloody article about it before the yankees at CNN.COM do!"