Originally posted by madeux

I'm fine with those who prefer to group... it's the one who hate solo players that boggle my mind.

I hate soloers if there is a few 100 online and no-one wants to group because they are all soloing... In normal doses they are no problem whatsoever but when the percentage of soloers go over a certain number will it be almost impossible to find a group for me. And while I don't mind soloing at times myself all the best times I had in a MMO have been with other people, not by myself.
 

But it is clear that games should focus more on one of the things or the other, to try to make the group and soloing equally happy is almost impossible.

Originally posted by Jowen

At last years fanfest CCP mentioned that they would be adding voice filters in Incarna so you could alter your voice, even to sound like the opposite gender.

I like this, and will most certainly use it because me avatar is female and I want her to speak accordingly. This does not mean I have secret wish of being female, but simply, that I enjoy the immersing into the life of my avatar while at the same time keep a strict separation between me and my avatar.

Do you guys foresee some problems, when it becomes more natural for people to alter the voice as games implements easy access to such features, and it is no longer only done by true oddballs?

This is both the coolest and creepiest thing I have heard in a long time....
 

Originally posted by GetViolated

 I play video games to escape from reality. Now, I have many friends and I go out and do things with them all the time as a group. When I play an MMO, I don't want to be forced to play with other people because I'd rather have my alone time where I can just space out and occasionally group. 

Grouping should only be an afterthought in a MMO and soloing should be put first.

Also, I hate being forced to group because most players are horrible at the game or are just plain stupid. 

Some games caters a lot for Soloers like Guildwars, other caters to group players.
 

That soloing should be put first is your opinion, I think the opposite. If everyone is soloing can´t I find my group. All coins have 2 side and it is good that some game focus more on soloers and others on groups, I would prefer if the games focus more on one or another.

But it sounds a little like you think that you and people who likes to solo are more important than us that like to group and that just isn't true, all players should be important but different games should focus on different players. Grouping shouldn't be an afterthought in games for groups, there should soloing be optional.

I think the big problem here is that most games try to be like Wow and make all players happy, be they solo players, group players, PVP players or PvE players and while Wow seems to have pulled it off ok it still is a compromise and compromises makes no-one truly happy. We need more games aiming for specific types of players and that that.

I Think there is room enough for both Guildwars and FFXI and games like them.

Originally posted by kzaske

You may want to check out Guild Wars, it is heavly instanced (which I like), but it is b2p.  There is a forum for it here that discusses issues with that game, but as you can see below, I love it.  I am not saying it is perfect, and it may not be for you.

There is no crafting and it is not a sandbox so expect it to be story-lined.

It is not a FPS game however. 
 

OP: Darkfall is the only out there now and it is P2P. Sorry, nothing exist right now andI doubt we will see one soon because almost every F2P game is asian and asians don't seems to like MMOFPS.

There is the possibility that Jeff Strains (Diablo, Warcraft 3, Guildwars) Zombie MMO might be a MMOFPS but it won't be fantasy (unless you call zombies fantasy of course). It wont be out for years anyways.

I would love a MMO without any magic whatsoever. That would of course force the developer to make a more dynamic and realistic combat system.  Maybe a historical MMO or just a low fantasy one.

I think it would be a bad idea to remove healers from all MMOs but for a few it is good. I would also like to have a game focused more on stealth, traps and intelligence and less on regular DPS.

Theif online or something like that.

I think todays MMOs goes more and more on just DPs while still using the old tank and spank AI, not really a good thing. Better AI, more choices for combat styles and more realistic combats. More doesn't mean 100% realism of course, that is both impossible and boring but 20% instead of 0 would be nice.

And with no healers I also means no pots. That forces you to not get injured or face the consequences.

Originally posted by Mysk 

 

That's assuming that they build it correctly, but you're forgetting something called "DDO".  For many years I made your comment but in regards to fantasy MMOs, saying that if anyone ever made a Dungeons & Dragons MMO then that would be it.  Most epic MMO ever.

Well, you know that went.

Don't get me wrong.  I love WoD and vampires and werewolves and horror and... the whole shabang.  While I have more respect for CCP than I'll ever likely have for Turbine, that's not saying that I have any form of explicit trust that they - or anyone - will actually do the IP justice.

I'd cross my fingers and hope for the best, but I need them to be snarky on the forums.

 

EDIT:  As far as a Twilight MMO is concerned, sure, let them have it. I really don't care.  It would keep those types out of the WoD IP where they would almost certainly whine about how the vampires are too mean, not romantic enough, and otherwise not like edward.  It would do everyone a service.

 

Since White wolf themselves are now a part of CCP they should be able to do the game justice. The whole idea of a MMO made together by a computer game and a pen and paper game company is interesting in itself.
 

Originally posted by Ruyn

Since it is blatantly obvious that Darkfall is currently the best MMO on the market, what are you doing to communicate to some of the bigger companies in the the Genre to make their own games better to be able to compete with Darkfall's features?

That is just an opinion. DF is an interesting game because it doesn't follow the regular Wow/EQ based model most MMO uses but the game also have it's share of problems. It do seems to fix some of them with time but I am not convinced that it is the best game just because of that. Any game anyone like best is the best game for them, unless you uses a system that counts things like polygon count and other things that can be measured fairly.
 

Other companies shouldn't copy darkfall or any other game for that matter, that is what darkfall itself did best. The companies should try to create a unique game.

Lol, well some bug was bound to be good for the players... But if they find out it will be fixed fast.

But you can't see the trial in Xfire, the game have dropped below AoC now. Not that Xfire statistics means that much of course but a trial like this should raise the numbers, not lower them. Does it feels like it is more players now than a month ago for you guys? 

The rule have been: If Strain makes it I buy it since the first Diablo game.

And I have wondered why no-one made a zombie MMO before, well I will gladly buy it on preorder, Strain is the best programmer (by far) in the MMO genre and zombies are always fun :D 

Originally posted by Tarka

I agree that WoW has had a positive impact on the MMO genre simply because it raised the bar of the level of quality that the majority desire.  After all, the majority IS the playerbase of WoW.  For example a good quest system, easy to use and customisable interface, a good background story, an acceptable system of progression and character customisation that is easy to get into, varied classes, graphics that are easy on the eyes AND the pc. 

A good background story?? Compared to what, Doom?
 

Sorry but the background story is not Wows strongest point. Wows strongest point is the polish Blizzard put into it, the lore is worse than almost every fantasy book out there (but I am not saying that to bash Wow, most MMOs have pathetic story, LOTRO and Guildwars are the exceptions but Tolkien was a genius and Arenanet is using a rather good author for it's lore, he wrote the classic FR novel "Curse of the azure bonds").

But I still think Wows influence on the genre was negative. It wasn't Wows fault in itself but the problem was that it got so much bigger than the other that it made any suits want a piece of it and forces it's owns devs to make a game just like that. It totally killed the innovation of MMOs for 5 years, only now are we seeing that some new thinking games are on the way.

I think that the genre in itself would earn most if there is 3 big games splitting on most of the subs instead of one, it stops people from thinking that a MMO must be a certain way to get players. 

Wow did have good influence on the genre too, like adding a lot of new players.

Originally posted by Abloec

You really believe that the 50 bucks or whatever for the DD is a large sum of cash, hell if the OP is anything like most people he probably eats out or gets fast food every once in awhile, instead of doing that save the cash buy some pasta or something that you can make from the store and in probably a month you will have the money to buy MO.

Like I have said before if your on the fence about the game, wait till game is released or NDA is lifted, so the people that say this will be a bad game and the people that say this will be a good game can give proof. There are plenty of people out there that will shit on a games name because they say for example love darkfall and don't want a similar better game being released god knows why but anyway until there is actual proof to backup claims don't trust what people say.

Lol, often is fast food actually cheaper than cooking a good meal at home. Not something new either, in Pompeii and Herculeum had only rich people kitchens, the poor had to go to the pizzeria.
 

Still, 50 bucks is nothing to me but I still prefer to test a MMO before purchasing it. I will wait until I have a free trial to decide. I think the pay for beta system sucks, beta testing should be about fixing bugs and making the game better, not something you just do to have fun. I think that you get the wrong people when you use this system. Not that Star vault is the only one doing this, Mythic did the same and Cryptic also.

I think that the betas is more about marketing and less about making the games ready for launch today, maybe it somewhat explains why MMOs are so bug ridden at launch.

Originally posted by cyandk

No way in hell... EQII is on its "last breath".

No, it's not. It have about the same number of players now as when I started a few years ago. But that number is possibly 200K or so, it is far from number 2. It might be lower also, it seems like it have more than AoC and WAR when you play it however.
 

The largest games besides Wow is Aion, Guildwars, Eve and LOTRO.

Aion is probably largest but it is hard to be sure.  On Xfire is Aion on 8 and GW on 12 but it isn't that good to compare numbers between games.

EQ2 is probably somewhere between 8 and 10 on the western MMO list.

I don't see any big change in the top list either until TOR, WoDO and GW2 hits the store, and Blizzard next game but it will probably take some years. The new Final fantasy game might also become popular, hard to say yet, it depends a lot on how the console players will like it.

Originally posted by Drachasor

The more I play the more the Tank-Healer-DPS system kills immersion for me.  It's so artificial since there is no logical reason why any monster should attack the tank (a guy who can't do decent damage), when the real threats can die in one or two hits (and that's because the game mechanics are like that...a better game would have different mechanics).  PvP in such games always demonstrates how idiotic a mechanic this is and how all the NPCs must be complete morons even when they are supposed to be smart.  It isn't like there aren't other systems to go with, but everyone wants to copy EQ and WoW so that's pretty much all we get.  Lame.  Worse still, these games basically never require quick-thinking in the combat system...largely you are just doing the same thing over and over and over in a pretty boring way.  I want some more chaos in combat, because a little bit of chaos forces you to be on your toes and thinking quickly, and that's what I enjoy most  (nothing kills immersion like a fight with the big bad that's about as interesting and requires about as much thought as taking out the garbage).

You do have some point there, MMO combat do need a lot of improvement.
 

Guildwars 2 and TOR might change that if one of them gets huge (The original Guildwars uses another system also but it isn't a traditional MMO).

Well, the crappy written MMO quests is the thing that usually kills the immersion for me in any game.

How many reasons to kill 10 rats are there? With very few exceptions does the quests feels like they have been written by 14 year old schoolkids on a rpg session. It makes Eragon seems like a masterpiece.

The public chat channels are annoying too, they should at least do like in old Lineage and don't give the lower levels access to them, a noob help channel is enough at least.

The guildchat however is a must in most games because it is very hard to plan anything otherwise. I guess a message board in the guildhouse could work to some degree. Or maybe some one use magical device that opens the guildchat for a few minutes.

Originally posted by Dotnet

 Other than Aion and Darkfall? I have no interest in playing Darkfall and already play Aion CN need something to do until Aion comes out in September. Have tried Age of Conan before as well.

Thanks

It all depends on what you call graphics.
 

Artstyle is something that is hard to label as good or bad since it is based on personal taste.

There are some very demanding game that have high polygon count and many effects, AoC and Aion is probably the ones that look best but Vanguard and LOTRO is also in the club.

Ugh, just saw the date, *sigh* I guess I necroposted this one.
 

Originally posted by Thillian

BG2 was linear.

If you liked BG2, I don't think you would enjoy Planescape Torment.

Planescape Torment is closer to the Baldur's Gate 1, not really in the exploration element, but in the way it is done and in the overall feeling.

BG1 nor Planescape Torment was made by Bioware, they were both made by Black Isle - people that went to Troika mostly and Obsidian.

"Baldur's Gate is a computer role-playing game in a high fantasy setting, developed by BioWare and released in 1998 by Interplay Entertainment."
 

It is Icewind dale 1 & 2 + torment that Black isle did, the Icewind dale games was made with Bioware GFX engine without rights to do so and is why Black isle lost the publishing rights to Neverwinter nights a month before release.

Originally posted by spades07

Just out of curiousity of replies on this. Would you play a class with only 4 abilities? I mean the standard mmo classes have Alot of abilities, but would you play one with only a few? Or are there any circumstances you would?

Hmm, I guess I would if they are good enough. Like disarming traps, pick locks, knife fighting and stealth. But the abilities should be broad and useful, most MMO abilities are not that diverse.
 

Guildwars proved that you can play a game with few abilities in use even if you can change your 8 abilities for free in any town.

But I prefer a class with some static abilities and some that you pick yourself (from a long list and not just a limited skill tree).

Say 4 class abilities and 4 or 6 that you pick yourself to make your character different. It is hard to balance that good and the class abilities should be better than one you pick yourself but this works great in most pen and paper games. 

Internet always brings out the worst aspect of people.

But the OP is right, there are a bit too many people who can't be wrong here even if proven so, and their favorite game is a lot better than all other MMOs even if most of them are rather similar. There are differences of course but MMOs is a lot closer to eachother than most other genres so the idea that one game is awesome and the rest sucks seems a bit far fetch to me.

A few MMOs are very different like UO and I can understand if someone like something a lot better that are like that but Wow, Aion, EQ1 & 2, AoC, LOTRO and the rest are rather similar.

Originally posted by raystantz

You didn't specify what kind of progression system it was now did you? You progress in Halo by gaining rankings. Thats why people continue to play it. You progress in DF by gaining skills.. and kills.. thats why you continue to play it. See the similarities there? Obviously this site has it categorized as a MMORPG.. but in my personal opinion.. its missing nearly all the "RPG" traits. But thats my personal opinion. It doesn't feel like an MMORPG to me.. it feels like a first person shooter. If you've ever gotten into a "mana missile" war (this is all anyone uses that I have seen) with a bunch of people in Darkfall it feels and plays like "OMG ROCKETS" mode in a FPS. If you melee someone it feels like a counterstrike knife fight. They could flesh the game out alot and it would be alot better.. fix the terrible animations, replace the terrible sounds, and put something in the game to do besides gank. And give a reason for it. At least MO has animal taming.

Please, most MMOs have a rather thin RPG feeling over them, you can either accept a quest or not and all conversations in almost every MMO is one way. In some MMOs like AoC can you actually talk with npcs but what you say matters little.
 

MMOs are a lot closer to action games like "Diablo" and "Dungeon siege" than RPG games like "Neverwinter nights" and Champions of Krynn (most of you don't remember it but it was the top RPG game of it's time).

The closest to a true RPG MMO out there is probably Guildwars that actually feels somewhat like a RPG game.

This doesn't mean that you can't RPG between players of course but you can actually do that in all online games if you feel for it. True RPGs need a interactive story and choices. TOR and Guildwars 2 will have those things, or at least it seems like that but your argument is somewhat thin here.

Originally posted by tro44_1

NO

It is a Darkfail Clone. It will suck.

Cant Balance out Massive FPS

and MO is a FPS.

No, it is a UO clone and it is impossible to know if it will suck yet, particularly if you are not in the beta.
 

Of course it is possible to balance a massive FPS game, it is just really hard.

To qoute the Edda: "Don't praise a meal before you have eaten it". The same goes for complaining about it. Just because you didn't like DF doesn't mean you wont like this even though it is very possibly that you wont. Relax and post stuff like this after the release.

OP: Except the full loot and aiming for bows your feature list sounds like Vanguard...