I'd buy it just for nostalgia.  I'd love to have the original EQ with all the original zones and mobs up through Velious.  I would get a kick out of exploring Sol A or Misty Thicket, heading to the Overthere or riding the boat from Freeport to Butcherblock.

It'll never happen, but it's fun to think about.

Mythic has always held my respect as one of the finest development houses in any gaming genre, so when they announced that they were taking over the Warhammer MMO I was thrilled.  Here's a little historical perspective that I think gets lost in the discussion of the current game:

• In 2004, a highly anticipated Warhammer MMO that was being developed by Climax and was to be published by Sega was unceremoniously canceled, leaving many disappointed
• Mythic had just rolled out the popular Catacombs expansion for Dark Age of Camelot and was announcing the Darkness Rising expansion
• Mythic's next big product was an exciting Roman-themed game called Imperator that had generated a huge buzz.
• Mythic was an independent software house at the time

At E3 2005, Mythic announced that they were picking up the mantle of the Warhammer franchise and everyone thought they would have three hits on their hands.  I was among them.  I was a DAoC player and loved the endgame RVR.  Like many, the allure of WOW drew me away, but it never had (and still doesn't have) the pure RVR experience that DAoC offered.

In the year following the announcement, Mythic announced that Imperator was no longer under development.  Valid reasons were given, but for the most part it seems that the company shifted its resources to focus on the WAR franchise offering as its next marquee product.  Then came the EA purchase, which I thought did not portend good things.  EA has an ABYSMAL track record with MMOs, starting all the way back with Motor City Online.  They failed with MCO, Majestic and the Sims Online and killed Earth & Beyond and at least two UO sequels.  When they purchased Mythic, EA effectively doubled their number of MMO titles by adding DAoC to UO, both of which are showing their age and are holding subscribers largely out of nostalgia.  Despite their past successes, neither title is an upwardly bound MMO.  DAoC, for example, has had one expansion since the acquisition.

Still, I was hopeful for the game because the Mythic staff was still the Mythic staff and nobody has better experience with providing a compelling player vs player experience that isn't merely an all out gankfest.  I was certain that Mythic could do with WAR what they had done with DAoC.

Still, I was cautious.  I waited about two weeks to check the buzz and what I heard was largely positive, so I dropped $50 and started playing.  My experience is so much like others on this board that it almost doesn't bear repeating, but I will.

For the first 10-15 levels I was having a ball.  T1 RVR was fun, PVE was progressive and the PQs were amazingly enjoyable when others joined in.  Scenarios were less so for me because of long wait times and what seemed to be stacked opponents, but I still understood the aim.  However, even early on I noticed some troubling trends.  Some PQs were remote and finding public groups was hard if not impossible.  The PQ rewards were nice, but really weren't worth the effort.  When I ventured to the city I found a lot of inactive vendors who could do nothing but dye.  The mail system was atrociously slow ("just a lot of users" I optimistically told myself) and the auction house was flat out broken.  Not that it mattered, because the economy was barely realized.  Few lower level items sold and gold was plentiful, even if there was little to spend it upon.

Gold whisperers were EVERYWHERE.  I diligently reported every last one of them, but continued to get tells because the /ignore didn't work.  A simple fix like barring newly rolled characters from whispering was not implemented although Mythic did seem to do a good job of banning those accounts.  I started crafting and found it to be almost useless.  Crafting was in beta stage at best and even the top level crafted items were not in any real demand.  Travel between world areas felt tacked on...a cut screen rather than an immersive trip a la WOW's flight system or even DAoC's horse routes where the rider actually traveled through the world and saw what was really going on around him.

The worst part was the RVR.  Class balance was far out of whack and battles often became exercises in futility.  Healing classes were woefully underrepresented, at least on my server, and everyone seemed to be going for maximum DPS.  In the few big battles I joined, lag was evident.  Not crippling, but definitely hampering.  I could continue, but I think you all have heard this before.

In my opinion, WAR has EA's fingerprints all over it.  I can see exactly where they were headed but the final product has all the feel of slashed budgets and aggressive deadlines.  Suits at EA who seem to consider the tweaks that differentiate Madden 2008 from Madden 2007 exactly the same as the effort to develop a massive online virtual world certainly decended upon Reston and told Jacobs and his team to cut this class or delay this feature or just give us a product by this date.  I'm no game developer, but I know an unfinished product when I play it.

The game is not compelling to me and I am not going to pay $15/month in the hopes that it will get better.  I still have confidence in the team and Mythic (EA not so much), so I hope the game can be rescued.  Jacobs' recent post makes me think they are doing everything they can, but I'll have to be from Missouri on this one.  Show me the improvement and I'll be back.

Until then I'm just disappointed, and I'm upset that Imperator got the axe to clear the way for this.

I tend to agree.  I have never been sold on HJ, even after an eye-popping demo at E3 2005.  A lot of people were seduced by a very nice set of landscapes and character models, but I have never felt that the game would be one to inspire allegiance.  Engines and models do not a game make.

A sad day indeed.  God bless Laura's family and those who knew her.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

What I find interesting is that anyone would be surprised or upset that Wikipedia is full of lies, mistruths, or slanted commentary.  Such treatment is not exclusive to AoC.  Take a moment to peruse the Derek Smart article for a prime example of what a mess Wikipedia is.

Wikipedia is a crock of doodoo that has manifested itself as the defacto internet authority on everything.  Goes to show you what juicing Google searches can do for you.

Originally posted by xxgolddragon

Please get laid thats all I'm going to say and stop worrying about such useless bull shit.

"It's just lke when Blizzard says "10 million online!" when at least half of them are chinese gold farmers. "

Absolutely right.  It's nitpicking to suggest that not all the active accounts are individual players.  250,000 (or whatever number) active accounts is a significant revenue stream and represents a genuine interest in the game regardless.  People wouldn't have multiple accounts or farm gold if there weren't a significant number of people who actively play.

I tip my hat to EVE and CCP.  It's one of a few MMOs I can think of whose player base has steadily increased over the years.

Your point about the 250,000 figure not representing that many individual players is likely true, but to term the statement as a "blatant lie" is awfully harsh.  I consider it good marketing.

5) The Matrix Online - Wholly unsatisfying game experience.  This ain't the one.

4) Star Wars Galaxies - Textbook example of how to take a highly anticipated franchise and fail.

3) Auto Assault - A car wreck of a game that was a bad idea from the beginning.

2) Dark and Light - Gosh, I wanted this game to succeed!  If only the developers had wanted the same thing.

1) Realms of Torment / Mourning / Age of Mourning / Mourning Online - Downright fraud.

Other disappointments:

Age of Conan - I bought a new computer to play this one and it still ran terribly.  Will probably go down as one of the biggest stumbles in MMO history.

Neocron - Loved it for a month, but content is almost nonexistent, as is the player base.

D&D Online - Tried so hard to like this game, but the sheer repetitiousness and the complete lack of single player content drove me away (I know they've since added solo stuff, but it wasn't there at first)

Runescape is number 2 from a population standpoint.  This page lists Habbo Hotel as #2, but that's not a traditional MMO.   The list is from June and likely hasn't changed much.

Blizzard proved that the MMO player base is expandable, but I still think there are only so many MMO players out there.  The limiting factor is time.  As much time as it takes to develop a character, level it, etc., most people don't have time to play more than one game. 

A game like Auto Assault has a much tougher time now than it would have say 3 years ago, mainly because of the competition.  I honestly thought AA would distinguish itself because of its unusual premise, but I guess people really aren't tired of sword & sorcery games.

I don't know how AA recovers.  I mean it, I really don't see how it bounces back after such a poor launch.  I hope it does.  I would enjoy playing if there were some people to play with, but that's just not the case.

Ya know, I had a lot of fun playing this game.  It was fast paced and well thought out.  There were a few drawbacks, but in general it was/is a solid title.  However, I just canceled my account after two months, and there's really only one reason:  Lack of players.

Even at the low levels I never saw more than 10 or so other players (I played Bio on Apoc) and at the mid 30s, I could play for 5 hours and see nary a soul in towns or in the wasteland.  I can't really say what is wrong with the game, but there's just something missing and no other players is a big part of it.

I don't mind soloing, but I like to have some contact with others.  I joined a guild, but there were never more than 4 of us on at a time.  I logged in for one last time yesterday and did a /who * * *, and it showed 47 people in all of Biomek on that server.  That means 200 at best on the entire server.  Between the 4 servers, I think NetDevil is lucky to see 1000 players.

I went back to EQ at the behest of some friends and playerd on the Combine server.  The first night there were 300 players in Nektulos, 500 in GFay.  EC maintains 200+ on average.  I am having a ball and it reminds me that the "massive multiplayer" part of MMORPG is essential.  No one wants to feel like he's the only player in a huge world.

I tip my hat to NetDevil and NCSoft, because the game they delivered is a good one, but it just didn't resonate with the players.  I can't say whether they'll fold or be able to scrap out a niche following like EVE, but I won't be playing. 

So long, Auto Assault.  It was fun while it lasted.