I don't know if you can send items across factions, if that's what you're asking.  Which is sort of frustrating.  You might be able to, but you can't normally /who the opposite faction.  There are some items that are class and side specific, but those are clearly labelled.  Once you equip something (and in some cases pickup) it becomes bound to your character, so you can only really reuse bound gear with your companions.

You could get any mmo to run through bootcamp, but that does require having a functioning copy of Windows.

As for MMOs that have mac native clients, some people mentioned Ryzom.  I know for sure that one's in the app store, and it's free (mostly... sort of like an extended client).  Though if you like quests and "themeparks" (I hate that term), it might not be up your alley.  It does have some pretty decent crafting and ability creation though.

EvE also has a native client that runs pretty well.  I've enjoyed it, but PvE isn't really that interesting.  Market PvP is fun (buying low and selling high), but can feel like a second job if you get really into it.

WoW also has a native client that works pretty well, but you expressed disinterest in it (I agree, I havea  sub, but play it mainly for d istraction when I don't want to reboot into Windows to play a quick dungeon).  It does run pretty well and looks good (for WoW).

I never had much luck with the Warhammer OSX client; perfomance was poor.  But I never tried to optomize it when I could just run it in Windows much easier.  The Fallen Earth client uses some sort of Wine magic, and I've never had any luck getting it to work, but you might!

Good luck!

I was a bit lost in the "story" in the preview there, but translated stuff is a bit tough to follow anyway.

But sweet lord that game looks pretty.  Maybe I'll have a PC that can run it by the time it comes out, I'd like to give it a try.

<p>For the sake of science, I hope they don't find midichlorians along with the higgs-boson!  Great story though.  Gotta love Gizmodo!</p>

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Originally posted by Zaush

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Originally posted by Normike
Not only are most sci fi mmos low budget to begin with, I wouldn't even really call Star Wars hard sci-fi. It's more magic, swords, fantasy prince/princesses, and dark lords than even some fantasy mmos. Or is it just me?

 
No Star Wars has been established as a Sci Fantasy setting, and not hard Sci Fi such as Dune etc.

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1.) Dune is not hard science fiction. Clarke wrote hard science fiction. Dune doesn't care about scientific accuracy or technologies (other than making sure it's known that only the navigators can pilot ships in FTL travel, but it doesn't really care why!).

2.) As many other people have said, most SciFi mmos are free to play.

3.) I'm curious how this company calculates their metrics for popularity. Sub numbers don't work as f2p doesn't have sub numbers (and we all know number of accounts means nothing... unless this is the metric they used and all of their "data" are useless). I'm always weary about "point estimates" and private "research" groups that force you to buy their reports. Who wants to get data from a for-profit?

I'm not a big fan of FPS games, but I guess it comes down to what you want.  Skyrim has great single player that will last for quite a few hours (I beleive they tout over 300 hours, but it can go up exponentally with good mods).  MW3 I'm sure has a 3-5 hour single player campgain and good multiplayer.  So if you want face-paced pvp, I'd go with MW3.  A decent single player story with solid sand-box elements go Skyrim.  It's worth to note that Skyrim on the PC is a far better buy than on a console (unless your PC can't run it, like mine!), so if you're going for the console it'll have a few bugs and no mods (if mods were a deciding factor).

It highly depends on the rest of your hardware.  30 fps isn't bad for an older machine.  Also, fraps will lower your fps (it used to anyway).

I don't know how it is on the PC, but for the PS3 I paid for the GL DLC wtih straight up cash.  It was $9.99, so I spent $9.99.  No coins or anything.  They might not offer this on the PC, as everything in the PSN Store can be purchased for a cash amount (much better than XBox Live points, or coins in some random amount).  

On a side note, someone above mentioned leaving the console on overnight causing problems.  That won't happen with any new 360 or PS3.  With the slimmed down models they've cut a lot of the heat generation, and the newer 360s have had the heatsink mount and soldiering replaced with higher quality stuff (therefore it doesn't happen).  If you still have an old 360, you're right, it can redring if you heat and cool it constantly and quickly (causes microfractures in the soldiering).

Someone else mentioned it being pay-to-win.  At least as of right now it's no.  No weapns or "uber" armor in the store.  No long xp grinds with xp pots in the store.  Right now, it's just some costumes, tickets for the vault, tickets to draw money from your overflow (if you're free to play), and extra bag space (some might consider this necessacary, but so far it's not been a problem for me).  I'm sure they'll keep adding powers and characters (for legends pvp, etc) and costumes to the store.  Aside from that, other than adding quests and stuff, I don't really see what else would be in there.  And as long as the price on the DLCs stays low, it's not that bad of a deal.  9.99 every few months to get some new content or new powers isn't all that bad for a game that is fun.

Now, it's not going to scratch the same itch as WoW or a good number of other PC mmos.  But it plays like an action game that has some RPG elements in a comic book universe.

All in all, I'm happy with my $10 spent (Downloaded it for free, plus bought the GL pack, becuse who doesn't want to be a lantern?... now if only I could be a Red Lantern and vomit up red burning goo on people, I'd be set).

Even LotRO, who is know for having successful lanches, had a bit of trouble on the first day of F2P (well, and their new expac had a fair share of bugs).

They switched to the "megaservers" and the login servers probably weren't ready for the influx of free players.

Considering they offer quite a bit of game for free, I think it's a great deal, moreso for a casual player than a hardcore raider.  I just wish there was a way to unlock the gold cap permanently, then I'd never need a sub!

BTW, I played for a number of hours today on the PS3 and had one login queue and one server crash.  All in all, it wasn't that bad at all!

The hardest hurdle you're going to have to overcome is the "mac compatible" requirement.  There are few "good" games that work on Macs (but you can bootcamp Windows and run in natively in windows).  Ones that I know of (other than CoH) are EvE and WoW.  Other than that, I don't know of any/many.

If you're looking for a game that is similar to EQ, I think Vanguard is the closest, although it isn't mac compatible.  It's a lot better than it used to be, but the population is still a bit low.  

Currently Playing:

Not much, but I've recently discovered the wonder and fun that is Blood Bowl, but you have to be a table-top and turn based strategy fan to like it.  Think Football and Rugby mixed with Chess.

I'm also updating FF14 right now just to see how good the changes are, plus it's free to play still.

I'm looking forward to TOR.  I wasn't until I saw that smugglers can be healers/debuffers, and the healing gameplay looked sorta fun.  I'm sick of just heal-spamming as a support character (CoX had some great 'healer' classes like bubble defenders), so GW2 also looks like it could be pretty rad.

Originally posted by blackcat35

Based on Cost-Benefit analysis, its much safer to adventure with a group than solo.  One reason is you don't have to work as hard to kill mobs, you don't have to do all the work, and your chances of dying are less because your not the only target.  Grouping also gives you individually more killing power.  Mmorpgs were designed to be a social grouping event, and it works in your favor to group in mmorpgs to take advantage of leveling faster in groups.  Bad groups can hurt your progression, so it behooves any adventurer to not get sucked into groups that suck.  There are usually tell-tale signs of bad groups.  Groups that split up and fight individually in a dungeon when they aren't solo-experts is one sign.   Healers who forget to heal until after the fight is over is a sure way to get people killed.

Your experience points per minute ratio depends dramatically on how successful you are on missions and killing.  This can dramatically increase when in good groups.

Math is an important part of how successful your adventuring really is.  Number crunching helps the end result. Is it better to wield a a +1 flaming longsword that does 1D6 of flame + 1D8 of dmg +1 dmg for enhancement or a +4 longsword that does 4+1D8? considering the fact that the +4 longsword also has a +4 to hit ratio vs the +1 that only gets +1, it hits 15% more often, making that 1D8+4 dmg happen 15% more likely and probably more worthwhile consistant damage over time. Being able to compare and determine what is better can not only be done thru math, but thru experience by using both weapons. Trial and errior and trying to determine the best path is possible, even if you don't see the math behind the scenes. Some games don't show you the math, but by looking at the end results (are you hitting more often, killing faster), you can determine the optimal DPS route.
 
I happen to be someone who loves math. I enjoy the number crunching. So deciphering the code is fun for me. I enjoy talking about the above scenerio. Call me twisted. ;0

This response actually emodies what I was going to talk about in response.  As many have said, games are programmed, therefore they have maths in them.  But, in a long line of RPG tradition (and game tradition), those maths aren't hidden very well.  Think about any RPG, and there is a ton of maths.  Not just algebra as someone said, there's also a tad bit of statistics.

Heck in Warhammer (tabletop game), people have been using their Math-hammer skills for decades to design the most effective army lists to take advantage of chance and statistics that are built into the game system itself.  After all, because most games aren't played directly against a human (and even ones that are), there are synthetic rules built in.

I can see the point that, for some, the numbers aren't hidden enough.  But like the quoted poster, I enjoy crunching them and trying to find the most efficent and effective combinations.  

I can't speak much for AoC as I've never levelled a character up past level 50 or so (although I gave the f2p a test run and it seemed to offer a pretty good amount of stuff, plus I don't believe you have to unlock zones like you would in LotRO).

The "end game" in LotRO could be just raids (and i guess that's the top tier, but I don't have the time to raid, so...), but there are also skirmishes, 3-mans and 6-mans that can all be run at level 65.  Many of the instances in the game can be scaled to your level, and all the skirmishes (think there's about 10 or so, maybe a few more) can be scaled to level 65 (75 in a few days when Rise of Isengard comes out).  But if you don't want to just raid, there is smaller, I guess less challenging content, that can still be pretty tough if you're not decked out in uber raid gear.  Skirmishes are a ton of fun to me (can be done with solo to raid numbers), and are a bit easygoing, which is something i feel to be a benefit.

There are some "grinds" like maxing out your Legendary Items or getting really solid gear, but most gear outside of raid gear can be acquired through skirmish marks (which you get by doing skirmishes) and marks that drop in skirmishes and instances (or raids).

I've had a ton of fun in LotRO, but I really prefer the class system in the game, and really like the classes over what I've found in AoC (again, haven't played at max level, so take that for what it's worth).  It also helps that I'm in a really social and helpful Kinship in LotRO, so that's really the reason I've been staying, as I dont' mind playing solo, but I'd at least like people to talk to, or help out when I need it, and my kin is awesome at doing that.  If you're interested in LotRO and are looking for a social/levelling guild, let me know and I can get you into mine. :)  We're the Guardians of the Stone Council (on Brandywine).

Originally posted by sanman7890

Originally posted by chrisleko

1.)  It's spelled Hermeneutics (I think it was correct in the article, just messed up in the title)

2.)  I don't really see any hermeneutics in your article, just a summary of the opening areas.  Where is your analysis of quest text or visual imagery? (Sorry to be critical)

 

Ooops that slipped past editing!

And you should be critical if I'm going to put the word in the title!  In all honesty the idea was much better than the end result after seeing what I had to work with in-game.  Looking at the quest text didn't really ispire any sort of hardcore analysis (for me at least).  It was so enormously straight forward that I decided not to do a shoddy job of it in that area (as if I put down some quest quotes and tried to get philosophical, well, it'd just look stupid imo).  

On the other hand the only sort of interesting imagery I noticed in the area I quested along before I wrote this was the architecture at both starting locations, however, that didn't really relate to the goal of analying Blizzard's creative process and growth from vanilla/BC to WotLK and Cata.  Mayhap it was a doomed effort because, in hindsight, their presentation of the story elements did become much more theatrical and impressive in the last two expansions comparatively, and having played much more now than since I wrote the piece that is painfully obvious.  And if it is painfully obvious to me then it was probably even more so to long-time players.

In short I didn't find much material to get deep with.  Blame it on me or the content, I'm still not sure honestly.

Lastly I suppose it depends on your take on hermeneutics.  If you take it to mean the more historical manner of it with relation to art and linguistics or as a more generalized study of interpretation I'm not sure, I'm guessing the former though from your 2)?

In the end I had to pull back from the quest text analysis (because it was so vacuous) and work a more general approach in regards to story presentation, which is kinda lame. :(

I appreciate you taking the time to respond.  Spelling can be a pain, so I just wanted to let you know about the title (I guess it came out a little jerklish, so sorry about that).

As per my number 2, I was regarding to the more modern qualitative usage of hermeneutics (an analysis of the “text” whatever that actually means) as a way to analyze the visuals or "text" (i.e. meaning) behind the text.  Most hermeneutical research I’ve read uses the text to spark an interaction between the reader (or viewer of the ‘text’) and what the text is trying to get across.  I actually think a great point to make (if a rather academic one) is that the vacuous nature of the quest text speaks volumes about the content of the game. 

I think given some time you could do a pretty good analysis of the story presentation, because it’s a MMORPG, many of the story elements are presented through more than just quest text.  When I read the title I was excited because I’m a bit sick of reading the same old forums posts and articles, and I thought someone might take a unique perspective on what quest texts really are implying or saying (as you said, they are rather vacuous and bland; which, again, might be something in itself). 

I respect you for doing something new, though, I was just hoping for something with a bit more depth (which is tough, both from what I know about the game and from what I know about other games).  Keep up the good ideas for articles though!

1.)  It's spelled Hermeneutics (I think it was correct in the article, just messed up in the title)

2.)  I don't really see any hermeneutics in your article, just a summary of the opening areas.  Where is your analysis of quest text or visual imagery? (Sorry to be critical)

Originally posted by gekkothegrey

Originally posted by Golelorn

The pathetic part is SOE has failed to communicate anything to its subscribers. Par for the course. The level of SOE's ineptitude when it comes to customer service never surprises me.

 You got that right. I love EQ2 so much but I am sorry even Blizzard support blows SOE away they simply do not care.

...if their servers and internet is down, how are they going to communicate to their subscribers?

Boss: "Quick, send an e-mail out to our subscribers telling them our internet is down"

Employee: "But sir, our internet is down"

Boss: "I don't care! Make it happen!"

The update looks pretty good.  F2P was the best thing to happen to DDO.  Without the extra income, they never could have afforded the development for these updates.  Pet classes (especially Druid) will be great.  The artificer sounds really interesting and I might check it out when it's released.  Plus, a crafting system finally?!?! Sounds good to me!  I always liked this game, and it might get some more of my time (especially since my TP from LotRO can be used for DDO, I think).

The mechanics of most MMORPGs are pretty simple to grasp.  I don't think there's an "idiots guide" for playing MMOs though.  I'd recommend her reading the game manual, and reading the tooltips.  What mechanics are you having difficulties explaining to her?

I'm not normally awed by video games (books sometimes get me.. Cuse you George R.R. Martin!).  But I'll never forget the first time I loaded up Unreal on my computer.  Aside from many of the other FPS games I've played (Spear of Destiny, Doom, Quake), Unreal was one of the first games that tried to get it "right".  Plus, at the time, it looked really realllllyyy good.  

I had a similar feeling when I loaded up Halflife for the first time.  Aside from the opening credits being right out of any hollywood blockbuster movie (still think they're brilliant), the AI for the enemy soliders (the human ones) was downright brilliant.  Hate to say it, but a few times they even outflanked/outsmarted me!  One would distract me with cover fire, and another would sneak up behind me and kill me!

I never really had that feeling in a MMO, or, for that matter, most of my Console Games (though Mass Effect 1 and 2 were great).

I do have great memories of figuring out some of the rather... esoteric ... puzzles in the old Adventure games (favorites are Space Quest and Monkey Island).

***Edit***

I can't beleive I forgot Deus Ex.  I'll never forget how awed I was when I realized I could sneak around, find alternate paths, or go in guns blazing.  The maps were so huge and had so many different layers.  Plus, it actually had a pretty darn good plot.  Such a shame that the sequel was so dissapointing.

Originally posted by Neiko

That's a little.... pricier than I expected.

Agreed.  I don't complain about vanity items in cash shops often, but 15$ for a pair of pants seems a bit extreme to me.