All Posts by thief425

Well, I will say that I started the beta intending not to like it.  However, AoC was such a major letdown as far as realized potential that I almost reactivated my WoW account.  I had seen some videos on betaleaks, and thought that WAR looked washed out and similar in style to cell-shading.  I suppose these videos were old, before the shadows were really fleshed out.

Anyway, I wanted to hate it.  I wanted to dismiss it as WoW 2.0, etc.  However, I have been surprised.  Normally, I prefer to PvE in games, but have found a new taste for it in WAR.  I think all of the classes are very distinct and individual (as long as you don't compare them to their cross-faction mirrors), and it was very difficult for me to narrow my choice down to a main for release.

The main thing that I love about the game is that you don't have to wait until end-game to start playing.  Yeah, I know you have to play to get to the end-game, blah blah...but what I mean is that the game starts at...mmm...let's say level 5.  I have, on a couple of alts, jumped into PvP at level 1 (the game gives you an artificial level boost to a competitive level of 8), and on others, I wait until level 5 or so, just to get a few abilities before jumping into the fray.

I've played minimum levels and nearly max level (Rank 32+), and the game feels the same to me as it does at level 5.  Well, by "same" I guess I should say that it is more intense, more involved, and there are more options at max level than at low level.  Chosen only have 4 abilities at level 5, so, working with 20 or more at level 32 is a lot more complex, but the essence and soul of the game are very similar.

For me, that's a good thing.  I'm tired of having to play games for a couple of months before I hit the meat and potatoes of the game.  I mean, look what Blizzard did with the XP curve and speed of levelling to rush people to 70.

So, Mythic changed my mind.  I approached the beta with very little interest, and negative expectations.  I was converted my first day.  It goes without saying that there are little things (I'd like to have more 2h Great Weapons available for my class, less disconnects, and classes that aren't bugged [Bright Wizard]) but I expect those things to flesh out over time.

"I am in the beta.  There is a beta."

That's all I can say about that.  What I can talk about is my recent experience with AoC.  Many people played it, and enjoyed it, as long as there was content.  I levelled slow, and took my time, experimenting with classes, so I hit the brick wall late in the game.  At level 63, I went from two or three levels a day to a level every day or two.  I picked up the last of my quests between 60 and 62, and when they were done, that was the end of the road until I hit 70.  What did I do for all of those levels?  Grind.  Hours and hours and hours of grinding.  At 70, I picked up a whole crapload of quests from Kheshatta, did the 5 that weren't bright, blood red, and guess what?  I'm back to grinding again. 

Well, not entirely.  I haven't logged in two weeks.  I can't say why, but let it suffice to say that I'm distracted.  I've found something much, much more enjoyable to do with my time.

What I learned from AoC is what I should've learned from Vanguard.  On paper, something can sound incredibly amazing, but when the developers fail to execute, and instead of cutting the content that isn't any good, they fast track broken and downright missing content into the game.  Developers either have too much pride to say what they have sucks, or they've oversold the hype, and are backed into a corner of failing to deliver, or losing 100 boatloads of cash.

I applaud this decision.  I can only speculate to say if it was the right one or not.  For the last year or so, I've looked forward to a Choppa.  I wanted to chop chop chop with a fun dual-wield melee class.  I'll have to learn to make do.  At first I considered cancelling my Collector's Edition pre-order (that rings in at about 100 bucks) because I felt the game was going to the crapper.  However, after much consideration, I recalled AoC's developers and the PR-approved lies they sold us in the last hours before launch.  Every answer to every question sounded like it had been parsed and double-parsed by PR and marketing.  They were sugary lies.  Instead of finishing the DX10 client, building tons of new quests for high-level content, and fixing classes like the Dark Templars (that have been broken in the exact same way since beta), the guys in Norway have been busy building a broken PvP system that is going to be yet another broken and poorly implemented (rushed) game mechanic (which is already evident on the test live forums).

So, coming from a fanboy that swallowed every bittersweet pill FC sold me, I have made too many excuses for the BS that SmilesCo put out there, with the expectations they have  that as long as you keep lying, and saying the fixes are coming next Wednesday, people will keep playing (and paying).

If cutting some content early keeps players from hitting the upper echelons of WAR only to find that the game falls into a black hole, then they should go for it.  However, Mythic has to deliver on their promise that it makes the game better.  Otherwise, it goes from being a faithful promise that builds trust between developer and player to a little white lie that keeps growing and growing until, ultimately, the game fails. 

Up to this point, we don't have developers that are involved in a discussion with their playerbase.  HappyInc promised to do that, and what they delivered is a poor CSR staff, and tons of feedback from players, but no responses from the devs.  They promised to deliver changes that the playerbase wanted, but instead, it's a one way street with communication.  Players give them TONS of insight and assistance on what needs to be fixed, but never get a reply, a response, or even acknowledgement that they can Eff-off.  I don't feel, with these honest but risky decisions, that Mythic is giving this brick wall approach to the developer/player conversation.  They're being forthright about what's going on during the development process, and I'm sure that it feels a little strange to us all.  We're all so used to being lied and marketed to, that it feels a little odd to get the honest inside scoop.

Let's all have faith, at least until launch.  If it's bad, it won't take long for us to see it.  But, if it's good, we'll know that right away as well.

I wish this wasn't so long, but I had to find a way to say what needed to be said without saying anything more than,

"I'm in the beta.  There is a beta"

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Originally posted by greymann

 

Originally posted by thief425

/yawn.  yadda yadda yadda yadda....

 

Meh, you'll be back with expansion.  It took me about a year to get bored of wow but only 2 hours with AoC.  Playing AoC actually got me back into wow.  Thanks funcom.  As far as the population goes... you've got to be really thick to believe it's going to be any better in AoC.  You'll have the same rude humans there as anywhere in society--kids and all.  Have fun with your pipe dream while it lasts but I doubt you even believe your own remarks since no one knows how AoC will go at this point.

I rename you qwief425 because all you are is a lot of hot stinky air.

Like I said before...you guys can have all of that.  As for me, Blizzard just doesn't bring anything to the table that I expect out of a modern gaming company.  I don't feel like being a Skinner-box rat anymore, and to each his own.

As far as my "singular experience" that was so generalized, I've played on 3 different servers, on both faction sides, and I dare anyone to argue that there hasn't been a degradation of the population over the last two years.  The more Blizzard spends on marketing, the more exploiters, BG afk'ers, gankers, and griefers that swarm in like roaches.  The entire game is now being "balanced" for arena, without regard as to what it does to PvE, World PvP, or the standard battlegrounds.  Why do pallies get "turn evil" in the middle of Season 3?  Why revamp the Shaman's Ghost Wolf?  Why change the way that health and mana drinks work?  Why give ALL mages Ice Block?  Why the sudden overabundance of diminishing returns?  The answer to each question is Arena.  I don't have to swallow the Kool-Aid if I don't want to.

I read the original article to see if Blizzard actually had tripped and fallen in some creativity juice, but, once again, they fail to deliver.  It's the same old raid template with different bosses and a different irrelevant and boring storyline that has nothing to do with anything else.  Enjoy it.  You'll get to run it 300 times before you get that "Sacred Sword of the Took Forever to Get This".  If you're curious when WotLK is coming out, wait until Mythic announces the release date for Warhammer, and subtract one week.  Blizzard can't afford to have its target market see something else, so they'll have to try to suck you in with a new xpack.

/yawn.  Did anyone actually read Blizzard's bloated, incongruent ramblings about what this place does?  Once again, Blizzard delivers random content with some free-association storyline.  You guys can have it for all I care, Funcom's release is not even close to Vanguard, and unless you're in Beta as of yesterday, and breaking your NDA, there's no way that you can make that comparison.  If you're making your "Vanguardian" doomspeech based on anything more than 3 days old, you're information is outdated, and not to be taken as fact.  If you're making those assertions based off of something you read, second-hand, from some other beta leaker, then you need to check your sources, because you don't know what you're talking about.

Anyway, I hope WoWers stay in WoW, just like I hope prisoners stay in prison.  It's better that you're over there and contained, than spewing up my game with your "OMGWTFWOWROXXORZBBQPWNSALLNUBSCOPTR" bullcrap.  I spent 3.5 years playing the game, and am really glad that I've moved on.  The community is mostly rude and asinine, and the "story" blizzard is telling has no relation to itself any more.  It's like they release content that is in direct opposition to any content before it, and rather than fix it to be a story/world with continuity, they just pretend like it doesn't happen...

Move along folks, nothing to see here, level up super fast so you don't realize that even after the coming of the burning legions, MC and BWL are down there with their same tired content, as if nothing ever happened.

flame on if you wish, it's what I expect, but I don't really care.  Insult a blizzard superfan and they scream at you, it must be all the pent up aggression from boring gameplay....

That's nice.  You can also pay File Planet 15 dollars to get in, or you can register for one of 50 contests where the winners aren't announced in a timely fashion, in order to drive more traffic to the site for as long as possible, or you can just keep your tech tester account until you've paid every other site that's out there for a chance to get in to the party, only to find out that they haven't sent your invitation until the last minute, even thought they've probably known for weeks that you would have a reserved seat at the party. 

Seriously though, MMORPG was on top of their game for their giveaways, and were WAAAAY more on point than any other giveaway, thanks to them, I'm in closed beta now, but at least I knew what I was subscribing for, as opposed to being led around with a carrot for all those other chumps.  Really, this criticism is directed at FC for playing their tech testers like suckers, because they knew we wanted upgraded to CB, and would do anything to get in there.  Even if it meant overwhelming their partner sites with refresh spams and screwing some otherwise loyal fans out of slots.  I know I ended up with 3 CB keys before it was all said and done...overkill much?  Would've been more fair to just tell the TT's that we'd get upgraded from the beginning, that way more people could've participated in the various betas.