Originally posted by Amana

Fixed the EU link.

Wherver you fixed it, it's not showing in the main post. ;)

Originally posted by King_Kumquat

I wonder if SOE will sell the engine? Or use it in a more effective matter?

I mean if anything they "should" be the top company in the business in regards for having tested what works and what doesn't work in MMORPG design.

 

They should, except for one glaring flaw: they never, ever learn from their mistakes.

What goes around comes around.

1-3: Can't argue. All valid points.

4: It really is all about the money and you're exceptionally naive - or disturbingly gullable - if you believe otherwise. In your case, I expect you're just deliberately side-stepping the real issue so you've something trashy to add to the list; in either case, I'm unimpressed. Sure, the developers and designers almost definitely put their hearts and souls into a game but that doesn't mean squat once the Suits get their grubby mitts all over things. The single greatest frustration of any game developer I know, or have worked with, is when the "money men" start to throw their weight around and cause things to be pushed forward too fast, require stupid additions that take time away from the more important aspects because "market research says X, Y and Z" (when such research is obviously flawed) or force an early release because they're bored of waiting and are impatient for their ROIs (not realising that they're lowering said returns by pushing out an incomplete and/or bug-ridden game and alienating their customers - and possibly even their staff).

5: I've yet to find a studio - or, more generally, a studio, producer or distributer - that I've "written off" that has done anything worth going back to them for. Limiting the 'bullet point' to only studios is distinctly narrow-minded, in fact, as they're only ever a small part of the various reasons people write them off, anyway. Of the list I keep, SoE, EA and Funcom are at the top (in that order) and, since they were placed there, have done nothing to deserve being taken back off and, arguably, have just re-inforced their being there, since.

Your previous "top developer mistakes" article was a good read; this one's not worth the time you spent on it. Meh!

Nothing we didn't know already. Meh. :P

In response to his third last line: I want DUST not to suck by only being on console, so I can play it on my PC with a decent control system and -proper- FPS reaction times. :P

'cause it doesn't matter how many times my brother or cousin have me playing various console FPSs: they all suck, horribly, compared to their PC equivalents (if they have one). :| (I'll stick to using my consoles for platformers, arcade games, Rock Band and the like ;P)

I hope so, too. However, the lack of decent market seeding of "basic stuff" like faction ammo still makes it a bit naff. Hopefully, Habakuk does actually get around to updating the scripts, this weekend.

They really do need to impliment real consequences on TQ for people that get banned on Sisi, though. Even with the new perma-ban rules, people are going to go out of their way to be disruptive; but eh.. the players, at least, are used to the douche-bags there, already. :P

This article wasn't really worth the time taken to read it: missed out far too many games, given it's meant to be about crafting systems, not the games overall. As mentioned by another poster, neither Horizons/Istaria nor ATITD are there - this boggles me, as they blow EQ2's crafting away without even having to try. Definitely looks much more like a "crafting systems based only on games I've played and liked or currently remember, off the top of my head" list than anything else. Unimpressed, even if I do agree with the #1 spot.

The distinct and utter lack of research that seems to be evident, here, is abysmal. Step it up Bill; as a lead writer, we expect better of you.

...or they'll just mark the PayPal transaction as something other than "WoW Gold" and PayPal won't know any different. :P

This'll only really stop the idiot gold-sellers, not the professionals. Same ol', same ol'. :)

Heh. New feat of strength, gained during this event, is "Tripping the Rift". ;)

Originally posted by wlvnspectre

Translated:

FU Solo players

FU Small Corps

FU Carebares

FU Players that base themselves in Hi Sec

FU Casual Mission Runners

FU Miners

FU Couriers

Oh yeah... this will do wonders for most of the player base...

Translated? Hardly. Here's a better one: It's a game that rewards group play - get over it.

Solo players - need to group up with others; no surprise.

Small corps - need to band together to combat a threat that's bigger than "just a small corp," obviously; no surprise.

Carebears - need to step up or shut up. EVE is not a happy-shiny have-some-candy game.

Hi-Sec players - are in no way restricted from getting involved; they'll just need to group up to do it, if they're small-scale.

Casual Mission Runners - will keep on running casual missions and just avoid hotspot areas (as always) and are in no way restricted from getting involved if they really want to; they'll just need to group up to do it (seeing a running theme, here, yet?)

Miners - will keep on mining and avoiding hotspot areas (as always).

Couriers - will keep on couriering and avoiding hotspot areas (as always).

So, really... what's the big deal? If you don't want to get involved, don't get involved. Sancha are big-league. If you're not big-league, either band together or stay the hell outta the way. It's a nasty big universe and it's the way it works. Don't like it? Tough shit and welcome to EVE.

Seriously. Stop trying to play a group-oriented game solo and maybe you'll start having more fun?

I see a lot of people arguing for the decision on what the children see and do resting on the parents' shoulders and, in theory, I agree entirely. In practice, however, that would require all parents to be responsible and mature - and, at that point, things pretty much fall over.

Far too many parents, these days, have absolutely no intention of ever taking any blame for anything they might possibly be responsible for (whether relating to their children or not) and don't, in general, give a damn what their kids are doing or playing, so long as they keep quiet and out of their space. The number of parents I've seen (and know) that don't even know what sites their kids visit regularly (or don't care), is downright appauling. The fact that most kids don't want their parents knowing what they're doing online (because they probably shouldn't be doing it :P) just compounds the issue.

I sometimes find myself idly pondering how the numbers of "parents who don't care" compare to "accidental and unwanted pregnancies," though... but I'm cynical, like that. :P

Zombies? Aweso-- wait... console? Meh. I don't care who their staff are or who they used to work for... if they're developing an MMO purely for consoles, I'm not even remotely interested. Same way my enthusiasm evaporated for DUST, when I found that it was consoles-only.

Heck, FFXIV didn't get any breaks despite its social nature! (and arguably because of it.) And at least I can't finish these "not cutting edge video games" in less than 8-16 hours and wonder why the heck I shelled out my money, in the first place.

I suspect they just want to develop a zombie game for a console since it'll make development easier for them. Cloaking it within a faulty comparison of "GameType A feels better than any completely-different-GameType B" is just downright weak and deserves little more than a "duh!", by way of response.

At any rate, after this little blurb of his, I'll just have to take a very dim view of Foge... since he's really not one to be talking about games falling short under close scrutiny. (disclaimer: IMO. :P) People in glass houses and all that.

Originally posted by japitad

His big a$$ got stuck in the portal!!  :)

Heh! Just as well he's breaking the portal apart, then. =)

Looks kinda fun and I enjoyed Borderlands. Fingers crossed as to how this turns out.

It's definitely a whole lot of time-killing fun - enough for me to fix it so I can play via US-VPN from the EU... but release-worthy? Not even remotely so.

Between "game-hosting mega-lag" (and it's notable that I lag -much- less than a lot of my US/Canadian friends, even through a VPN), the slew of existing bugs (a lot of which have been around since early CB) and the fact that 2 characters are still un-selectable, this is definitely still a beta and will be for quite some time.

But hey... it's Nexon: as always, you take your chances and be happy with what little amusing worth you can glean from their games before the RMT-spammers drive you insane (they've been there for most of beta, as is always the case with this company).

And if you're a completionist that doesn't like grinding? Steer well clear. The "special items" needed to complete some instance point rewards are horrendous when it comes to random drop rates. I've run one of the earliest instances over 200 times and still never had one of the items drop, to max out the rating (gained many levels in the process, admittedly). >_<

@Shinzou: I haven't *ever* been able to access the auction house or item shop. Ever ever. Even when I logged into my account directly via an actual US computer (so there was no VPN), it still bugged out. The "no AH" annoys me way more than the item shop, though -- as I have no intention of ever using the latter. :)

But hey - even after all my complaints? Still fun for a good ol' monster smash. YMMV. Try it and see. :P

The Barrens has always had clustered quests, that you could do as you travelled around areas within the zone. The only difference, recently, is that you've had Blizzard's built-in quest helper with its little indicator zones to help you do them in the groups they were provided. That they've tweaked the drop rates and a few quests, a little bit, really doesn't change the zone, at all: it's still huge, dull and filled with idiots.

The "quest about the dead orc" (Mankrik's wife) is a lore quest and is an introduction to the dangers in the southern parts of The Barrens. Oh, and you can do that one while you're doing the various raptor quests, in the area (amongst others, like heading to Camp Taurajo), so it's not at all out of the way unless you're completely disorganised, clueless, not paying attention to your quest helper or a mixture of all the above.

And lastly, Stonetalon is a significantly worse area when it comes to quest-spread, Sun Rock Retreat aside, with quest-givers being thrown all the way from the Barrens' zone-line, to little pockets all over place, including in the goblin area with one little NPC hidden up in the south hills, for example, with no breadcrumb quest to tell you he's there. That you prefer it to The Barrens - and for the reasons given - I have to say that what little credibility you had left after the GearScore comment is now solidly non-existant.

Y'know... the entire article makes me wonder if you were, actually, quite serious about the pride in your GearScore; which would sum your score, the article and GearScore itself up quite nicely: they're all tripe.

The guy's response in the cartoon definitely epitomises most management, these days; especially in development companies. They really just do not understand even the simplest of technological issues and, in most cases, don't care to learn (which is the biggest problem, in my opinion). Heck, the majority that I have the consistent misfortune of having to deal with think that being able to modify numbers in an Excel spreadsheet makes them "high tech and developer-savvy." Ugh!

Of course, MMO gamers are more than accustomed to the people in charge of developers' money not having a blazing clue about how things actually work. Aren't we? :P

As for the game name, I agree whole-heartedly with Ozmodan: name 'em! So that other people know they have to be wary of wasting their money - especially since a lot of stores refuse to accept PC game returns, these days.

Meh! Pointless article is pointless.

$100 for a dodgy looking, colour-pulsing mouse with a WoW logo? Hah! Not bloody likely.

Originally posted by Stradden

Instead, you had to light yourself on fire and jump up and down over it.

Stradden +1. Said what I was thinking but better. Heh! :>

Cheers for the gPotato heads-up, Ozmodan. Saved me wasting my time, clicking through links. ;)