All Posts by MChavez

I don't know which group of players are more annoying: Vanguard or SWG. Why do you all constantly reward failure? Vanguard had the potential to be the best fantasy MMO out there and it was ruined by inept developers and an equally inept publisher. Is it the games that you are addicted to or do you enjoy being abused by developers?

Vanguard is a failure. SWG is a failure. What does it say about you that you can't find anything better to play besides these two games? If this is indeed the case, I really do believe you need to shut off your computers and go find something else to do.

This is a matter of principle. Sure, you can respond and say that there are things you personally like about these two games. But, in the end, you are missing the big picture. That picture is that you shouldn't be rewarding developers and publishers for releasing games before they are ready to be release. You shouldn't be rewarding developers and publishers for putting out rubbish for games. SOE simply doesn' t know how to develop and support games. Their bottom-line is all they are concerned about it and it shows with the quality of the games they produce. They got lucky ONE TIME with EQ1 and are to be commended for jumpstarting this genre of games. But, they have dropped the ball consistently (including the horrible release of EQ2), and you all want to continue to reward them. WHY?

It bothers me to no end when sincere people come here looking for a new game to play and you VG players are always to eager to lead these people down your bumpy & weed infested yellow brick road. Do any of you even understand what went down a year ago? If you had any moral clarity, you would spend your dollars elsewhere and simply let this game (along with SWG) die.

Just. Let. It. Die. Already.

People who are critical of this genre, me being one of them, have played the games and have been around since the late 90s to know what we want and don't want out of a game. However, yes, we will always be the vocal minority. For every one of us, there are at least 100 gamers who are new to the genre or simply enjoy what the genre has to offer. I think a vast majority of those players really don't care as much as we do. They see these MMOs as the games that they are and play them as the games that they are. Meanwhile, the rest of us are clamoring for something more than a game. At least, I surely am! :)

Out of all the fantasy based MMOs out today, Vanguard would be the one that I would most likely return to if I wanted to play that kind of game. No other world compares to the vastness and openness of VG, but with the original developers gone and all of the empty promises, I just can't see myself returning. What is the point? To go back and simply get depressed over the vast amounts of lost potential? VG could have been the greatest fantasy MMO ever created.

Many people think that CU/NGE killed SWG. But many of the original reviews of the game criticized it for not being too Star Wars-like. I'm one of those fans that was turned off immensely by the repetitious mission runs and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Is this what SWG is all about? Going out to some random point in the Tatooine desert and killing the same Imperial base over and over again? Not to mention what a beast SWG was to run on a typical PC back then, both of these factors were a major turn off to SWG. I appreciate the sandbox aspect, but SOE should have included more robust missions for people who wanted to be part of a Star Wars "adventure" and not merely exist in a world where they can collect resources to build stuff. Another big turn off was the lack of vehicles when the game first came out. And, when they finally included them, they handled very poorly.

If SOE had focused on one or two worlds (rather than nine in the beginning) and truly fleshed them out, the game would have done better. Nobody was asking to meet Han Solo or Darth Vader within the first five minutes of the game. They just wanted it to feel more Star Wars-like. Nobody ever mistaked the KOTOR games for another universe even though the time-line took place centuries before the Star Wars films.

If SOE didn't come out with a system intensive game (and they seem to have not learned their lesson when they first released EQ2 and subsequently Vanguard), it would have appealed to more people.

If SOE didn't create a game where in the beginning all you were able to do in regards to combat was to go out and kill lizards, it would have done better.

If SOE had created a rich questing environment along with the sandbox aspects, this game would have done much better.

If SOE had managed vehicles and spaceships upon release, this game would have done much better. Even now with Lightspeed, controlling spaceships is laughable.

Fuck, I can't believe I've written this much about SWG. In all honesty, it was a failure from the beginning. I had drooled over this game months before it came out. I thought it was going to be "it" as far as MMOs were concerned. I even though I would probably spend the rest of my MMO life in the Star Wars universe. But, unfortunately, the game basically sucked from the get go. The reviewers knew it and so did many players who tried the game but didn't stick around. Seriously, all you people hoping for something to happen to SWG should just give up and HOPE/PRAY that another developer comes along and gets it right. I think having a sandbox Star Wars universe is the way to go. However, being such a popular IP, you have to give players real adventures/quests to accomplish. I believe a good MMO can provide everything to all players. SWG simply utterly failed.

All of these current fantasy based MMOs suck, including EQ2. Seriously, what is so fun about being put into a "world" only to perform wilderness genocide against boring creatures that just stand around and do nothing? My idea of a fantasy MMO is not one that has animals littered about across the land simply because the developers were too stupid and couldn't figure out a better way to provide content.

Who cares if the dungeon is instanced or not? It is just like the outside except now we're taken into an FPS designed dungeon level with narrow corridors and adjoining rooms with creatures and humanoids who do nothing but stand around until they are ready to be attacked.

Mostly all MMOs suck these days because they are nothing more than Disneyland with weapons. Here is your +10 sword of mannequin destruction. Go forth and kill creatures who have no purpose other than to hang around a particular area, die, and then respawn.

Who cares about housing if it is not an integral part of the world? At the very least, this is one of the few things Vanguard got right.

Who cares about questing when really all questing does is try (and horribly fails) at disguising the fact that you're grinding? Putting same half baked storyline on top of a "go kill X orcs" quest is not a quest.

The sad thing is that I'm sure WAR and AoC will follow the same lame formulas. I hate this genre of gaming with a passion yet it is the only genre of gaming I really care to participate in. Can't we have a real player world like in Eve Online? It would be so cool if developers created mostly empty lands and told the players to go out, take over and control the land, build farms and villages, create equipment from gathering resources and make all players totally dependent on each other. As a result, there will be player created content in the form of alliances, wars, politics and cooperation. In Eve, PvPers cannot simply go to NPC #38384 and buy a new ship. They rely on the miners and industrialist to create what they need in order to PvP AND PvE. It doesn't matter how uber you are, you still need to rely on the carebear who never leaves high security space and simply mines all day long. I am so sick of developers thinking they need to provide all the content. I do not like this form of control. Give us the tools like in Eve or Second Life and let us create our own adventures.

Yay. So I can now yawn in the dark.

Eve definitely isn't for the weak at heart. And, I mean that in the most non-insulting way possible. I used to hate FFA PvP or any PvP for that matter. Being a vet of MMOs, I would always try out PvP servers until I got ganked and then pretty much ran away with my tail between my legs.

When I first got into Eve, I almost did the same thing after my fifth straight death from gate-camping pirates in low sec. I started to get that "it's not fair" feeling in my gut but I knew Eve was hardcore and I had to learn not to take getting killed and, more importantly getting ganked, so personally. I don't mind getting kicked squarely in the balls time and time again if it makes me a better, smarter, leaner, faster player. And Eve has definitely done this to me.

Honestly, I do believe one can exist in Eve and 95% of the time stay out of PvP combat. The overblown Jihadswarm of late invading high sec space is completely overblown and I bet one hears more stories about such events happening as opposed to meeting actual players who have been ganked. Following a few simple rules and tips, one should be able to exist largely untouched in the vast universe of Eve. A simple rule is don't fly with anything you can't afford to replace. Follow this rule and losing ships become a non-issue.

I personally want the developers to keep Eve as is. There is no other MMO with such cut-throat and pure evil ganking like Eve. We need at least one game that satisfies this need. There is no other game like Eve with it's completely player-run economy. No other game has the kind of industrial crafting system that actually has an impact on the game. Believe me, if ganking was a real issue, the economy of Eve would suffer greatly.

The truth of the matter is that this kind of game play works for the majority of Eve players. The subscriber base keeps on growing and shows no signs of slowing down. I don't think the developer will suffer much if people quit because of game mechanics. Eve does not pretend to be an "every mans" game. This is a simple fact. Eve is as real as it gets and no other MMO compares. Just like the real world, there are some mean assholes who would not hesitate to cut you open if left alone with them in a dark alley. Eve is fantasy and it is to be expected that people want to explore their darker sides...and get in a good freaking laugh whenever they gank or pod kill somebody. Shit happens.

I could get mad at every time I've gotten ganked. But, I don't take it personally. I've made a small revenge list and will devote part of my Eve career hunting these people down. If you turn it into a game, getting ganked doesn't seem so bad.

As far as content. The players make up the content. Mission running is simply there for the non-PvP times. Eve is a PvP game. If you aren't fighting other players, you're either doing one of several specific tasks. Players think for themselves and are not led around by graphical menus disguised as "NPCs" with little exclamation marks on top of their heads ever-present to lead the carebear player by the hand. Been there, done that. Snorefest, indeed!

Currently going through withdrawal from Eve with this long patch down time. I swear, it's like after playing Eve, all other MMOs just don't compare. I can't even compel myself to go  play another MMO until Eve comes back up because...well...the genre totally sucks except for Eve.

I, too, am eagerly awaiting more information for Worlds of Darkness. I can't imagine what they intend to do with that IP. Nothing short of genius, I'm sure.

I feel dumb for suggesting Eve and not looking at your sig. :)

Vanguard does not have a complex crafting system. It does make the player click far too many buttons just to create an item. Most VG players think the crafting is complex because through the crafting process, you have chances of complications being produced...which just make crafting items all that more a pain in the ass.

If you want deep crafting, I definitely suggest Eve-Online. While your ship is your character (that will change this fall), and the Eve universe is no-holds barred PvP, you can still craft w/o taking part in PvP battles. You can join an Industrial Corp. and craft for them. They usually supply the materials needed and will probably pay you on a weekly basis to craft items for them. With one server hosting up to 50K players at any given time, you will definitely have a market to sell your items to. In Eve, nothing is supplied by the developers. Everything has to be made. Those PvPers who get their ships blasted to oblivion on a daily basis rely on the crafters and miners to gather up materials and produce new ships, ammo, ship mods, etc etc (so many item types to list). You can definitely make a name for yourself here as a crafter.

If you want a fantasy setting, Saga of Ryzom also has a deep crafting system. This system allows you to combine materials in a myriad of ways to create items. There is no one way to go about crafting in this game. However, the game is up in the air with current developer not supporting it and not taking payments. Nobody knows if this game will last for much longer. It is a shame too. One of the last sandbox fantasy MMOs out there and most people would rather play WoW or Vanguard. Bah.

Edit: By the way, there is a 14 day free trial of Eve on their web site. If you are a Steam user, you can download a 21 day free trial from them. In either case, plenty of time to see if the game is right for you.

While Vanguard might be a crappy game, lovely graphics which are ten times better than WoW are one good thing I could say about this game. To me, it just seems the OP didn' t know how to configure his graphics properly. I almost spit my milk through my nose when I read that after getting in game, to the OP, the graphics looked like Second Life.

I say let them raise the monthly fee to whatever they want. People are willing to pay substantially more than they're used to if they think they are getting a quality product in the end. However, I do think right now would be a bad time to raise any price considering the massive success and staying power of WoW. If Funcom does't raise it's monthly fee and EA does, I think EA would lose out because most people have way too many choices and would probably opt out of paying more for WAR.

If they were smart, they'd offer something like a one week trial. Get people hooked and they'll rationalize in their mind that it is worth it to them to go out and buy the game and then willingly pay the higher monthly cost. Do it the other way around and not offer a trial and I think most people would be less inclined to spend $50+ on an unproven game. Even with the 30 days of free time, I have personally played so many MMOs that I am very hesitant to go out and buy a brand new MMO title for $50 w/o knowing for sure if I am going to still be playing it after the 30 free days are up.

I miss E&B. Shutting it down was probably one of the most stupid moves ever done by EA.

"Oh, look, our subscriber numbers haven't beat EQ. The game sucks. Shut it down!"

Morons...