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Champions Online: Combat Interview
MMORPG.com's Jon Wood recently caught up with Champions Online Lead Designer Bill Roper to talk about the combat system in Cryptic's upcoming super-hero game.
| MMORPG.com: | Can you give us a quick overview of how combat works in Champions Online? |
| Bill Roper: | Combat is designed to be very action-oriented while maintaining a tactical edge. Players can use a run-and-gun style to not only gain the best positioning in a fight, but also avoid certain kinds of powerful attacks from villains. Certain powers drain endurance while others build it back, and every power set has a special endurance-building mechanic that can be combined with other sets to allow for unique character builds and combat styles. |
| MMORPG.com: | How does Champion Online combat differ from City of Heroes combat? |
| Bill Roper: | City of Heroes is very modal while Champions online is more fluid. Also, because of how the endurance models interact, characters can really actually help their teammates play more effectively by how their powers intertwine. Champions is also much more focused on providing the kind of action-packed battles you see in four-color comics. |
| MMORPG.com: | It has been mentioned previously that Champions combat will have more going on in terms of the environments: parts of buildings being blown off, ripping chunks out of the ground, etc. Can you go into more detail about how interactive the environments will be in terms of combat? |
| Bill Roper: | The environment is specific in terms of what we allow players to interact with or destroy. An example of this would bethe varying types of items that a character can pick up and throw depending on how strong they are. This ranges from small things like blocks of concrete or street-signs up to cars, busses, tanks, and more. We've also put in puzzle and trap elements into certain special areas that are based on interacting with the environment. The actions of heroes can also visibly change areas of the world, such as cleaning up the streets of certain gangs in the Westside section of Millennium City. |
;) | |
| MMORPG.com: | It has been mentioned before that you are trying to avoid the "static" forms of combat found in some other MMOs. Can you tell us how you define "static" and how Champions combat will differ from that norm? |
| Bill Roper: | Static combat is when you select a single target, and then primarily stand still while you fight them. With Champions, we want players to be moving - to be changing their tactics based on the type of villain they're fighting. This is accomplished not only through the varying powers that players can choose for themselves, but also with the powers that the villains use. It behooves a player to pay attention to what his enemy does so devastating attacks can be blocked, dodged, or interrupted! |
| MMORPG.com: | The Champions Combat system has been described as "Immediate and intuitive", can you tell us what exactly that means? Should we expect "twitch" style combat? |
| Bill Roper: | The combat is less "twitch"-based and more fluid. Battles in comics are fast-paced and filled with exciting maneuvers and flashy powers. But at the same time, there is a strategy behind the assault - finding a weakness to exploit, using the powers of a single hero or a super team in unique combination, and of course, keeping on the move. Combat in Champions Online follows these tenets. You can try and stand toe-to-toe with a villain, but you're going to do much better if you use tactics both offensively and defensively. |
| MMORPG.com: | There is some fear from PC MMO gamers that combat will be "button mashing" and "dumbed down" to fit the Xbox platform. How do you respond to this, and will there be marked differences in the combat found in each version of the game? |
| Bill Roper: | While we have worked very hard to make the combat in the game easy to perform, it is certainly not designed to be simplistic. This is important for PC gamers as well as players on a console platform. We do make sure to design with the interface differences between PC and console in mind, but our solutions must be elegant and intuitive as opposed to moving to simple button mashing. Our current changes to the powers system and combat are a great example of this. We felt that combat had indeed become too reliant on repetitively using a single power. This was tied directly into the endurance model, or how characters gain the energy that fuels their powers. So our powers lead was tasked with finding a solution that would move players off of needing to overuse this power so much while also keeping combat simple and fun. After a lot of thought and some trial implementation, we've found a solution that we, and our testers, like very much. The powers chosen by a player now often guide the flow of combat as different things are important to different power sets. For example, someone who is focusing on fire powers gains endurance by setting things ablaze - both enemies and the environment. So the tactics of this character will involve immolation and the duration of those effects. That hero would also probably prefer playing against enemies who are already ablaze, or in areas where open flame exists as a part of the world. And while a character can still use his most basic power to build up endurance, none of the methods above depend on it. |
Sounds interesting. While I like the mention of the ability to throw environmental objects - bricks, cars, tanks, there was a definite omission on what level of the environment will be interactable.
No mention was made if buildings will suffer damage, or other environmental changes based on combat.
I think this will be one of the few suprises we have this year for MMOs. I been impressed with what we have seen so far and I think many will come play Champions Online at release.
I hope he's right, the combat he describes sounds more exciting then the videos they have previously shown did. Another major concern I have is that the game will feel to spread out where the game world feels like a bunch of zones. While a game like CoH was a bunch of zones, you still felt you were part of a giant city. The videos and info I've seen for CO, makes it look like a game like EQ2 or DDO where you just zone hop all around.
Hopefully time will tell a good story for this game, despite all the beta leakers crying doooooom (what else is new?). For a game that is due out in April, I feel like there isn't much info known about the title.
I think that people are going to be very disappointed with this game. I'm of the opinion that DC Universe Online will be a much better game as far as gameplay, polish, and care.
Cryptic tends to lean to heavily on mathmatics based snooze fests, and I don't think that CO will be any different.
god i hate the look of cell shading.
to Bill Roper I will ask, does this super cool combat you speak of exist in the game right now? Or is it the ideal you are striving for?
Show us a video of it.
I think that people are going to be very disappointed with this game. I'm of the opinion that DC Universe Online will be a much better game as far as gameplay, polish, and care.
Cryptic tends to lean to heavily on mathmatics based snooze fests, and I don't think that CO will be any different.
I thought the exact opposite. From what I have seen DC looks like its gonna be a snooze fest.
I think that people are going to be very disappointed with this game. I'm of the opinion that DC Universe Online will be a much better game as far as gameplay, polish, and care.
Cryptic tends to lean to heavily on mathmatics based snooze fests, and I don't think that CO will be any different.
Not so sure that DC will be better, having been a huge EQ1 fan, after SOE took over it became very boring. Also tried EQ2 and Vanguard, and felt the same about those 2 games. If they run it properly, it has a good chance to succeed. However, if they run it the way they normally run games it will be a fail.
That was a great interview. I like the looks of the game, but I have been hesitant on what their idea of 'action oriented' combat was. He asked the right questions and pressed the point when the answers were a little vague.
Sounds like a good game. I think the gameplay in this game will be much better than that of DCUO, but neither is out yet so who knows?
I have been really looking forward to this game, but ever sence I learned it is being made for the Xbox and the PC... And the response to will combat be dumbed down did not make me feel any better.
I have moved from the buy it as soon as it comes out camp, to the wait and see camp.
As for DC... It is being made by SOE. They can mess up anything. I started in the wait and see camp with that one.
I really hope 2009 is a better MMO year then 2008 was, but so far it is looking kinda grim.
SOE isn't developing DCUO. They are publishing the game. The dev team is very solid and they have tons of awesome concept art and in game art. I've experienced both games in action and I stand firm on my previous statements.
Once some more time has past I'll be able to eleborate on my opinion, but until then... we'll all just have to wait and see.
I think that you guys should seriously take a look at some of the decent combat vids for DCUO. The PvP vid where a super speeder is running up the side of a building is freaking awesome.
Think about the circumstances surounding CO.
It was slated to be Marvel Universe Online, but Marvel pulled out, 2k Games dropped it, and now Atari has it.
Meanwhile, DCUO has been chugging along steadily the whole time with the same vision in mind, and it shows.
Cryptic has had to scrap work to start over because of the IP change, and they are steadily trying to beat the clock to reach their set release date.
It's never a good idea to throw polish, balance, and gameplay in the back seat so that a game can release on time.
I've seen the vids of the girl with the swords running around in a terrible fashion and performing moves that seem very stiff too, so DCUO hasn't impressed me yet. DC's graphics are better I'll admit, but the animation has a long way to go.
This combat system sounds very promising. I recently allowed my subscription to run out on City of Heroes because they very intentionally turned the PvP game into a movement suppressed button mashing contest. All the fast-paced, 3D travel powers were switched off or completely suppressed in the pvp zones. Also, the unique power sets like holds, slows, buffs and heals were all nailed with nerfs and something called diminshing returns. This just made the game really boring, slow, over-simplified and frustrating for me.
The system being worked on by Cryptic for Champions sounds like exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Also, the variety of villain tactics, and the way powers interact with environment, sound like a fresh twist. I'm really looking forward to this.
As for comments on DC online, some of the exact same jack-asses that ruined the StarWars title have been working on it, so anyone who tells you that SOE devs haven't been working on it is full of it. Imagine someone posting B.S. on forums to try to market an SOE game. Damn guys, get a new marketting strategy.
P.S. Just so you know the guy plugging the SOE game is full of crap, here's some factual information:
"DCUO is being developed by the SOE Austin studio team." There efforts are being led by "Chris Cao." Anyone who has had any history with the StarWars game will remember Cao's involvement with destroying that game and openly insulting its players for not thanking him for the destruction. Information about the DC game that isn't wrong or deceptive can be found here: http://www.onrpg.com/MMO/DC-Universe-Online.
Age of Conan also had tons of "awesome concept art and in game art". Bottom line is, DCUO's combat so far looks no different then an 80's arcade game like a Double Dragon. Mash 4 buttons brainlessly til enemy dies, rince repeat.
SOE is the developer of this game, it's being developed at their Austin studio. As long as John Smedley is involved in anything with DCUO, you'll see things like that giant Metropolis mall you see in the newer screenshots likely wind up being a giant mall zone you can enter to make "super, fun, and exciting Microtransactions."
Were do you get this info? I was under the idea(from interviews) they were ready for launch but were doing to spend the extra months this year to polish, balance and add gameplay.
I just think there are far too many super hero type MMOs about to get pushed out and they are going to kill one another; similarly to how all the pirate MMOs did last year.
Were do you get this info? I was under the idea(from interviews) they were ready for launch but were doing to spend the extra months this year to polish, balance and add gameplay.
Your information (from interviews) is correct Spacebot. This guy's info is bad. SOE Austin is in fact developing DC universe, and it's some of the same crew that wrecked the StarWars IP. Also, the development team for DC has had turnover already pre-release.
Cryptic's team has been working steadily on the one IP, Champions, for a long time, and have for months now mainly been focused on increasing polish and "fun." They had talks with Marvel years ago for a new superhero game, but that didn't materialize. When those talks fell through, they began work on Champions, and have stuck with the one IP all throughout. They did not switch game designs mid-development at all, like the other poster suggests. SOE has done that, however, with StarWars; and NCsoft did this with Tabula Rasa. Both of those games were disasters as a result. Cryptic hasn't done it, at all. Actually the other guy's post comes across as very misleading.
Cryptic has dev barbeques where they play and play a certain section of the game. If it's not hugely entertaining for everyone on the team, they make all the necessary adjustments, and then move on to another game section.
I can't predict exactly how good this game is going to be, but the development process up to this point has been excellent, and very consistent. The other poster is either talking about things he has no knowledge of or is doing some marketting disinformation for SOE.
Well if SOE does to the super hero genre what they did to StarWars, DC online will be a nightmare (makes me glad to be a Marvel fan lol).
City of Heroes has suffered from repetative gameplay that has been addressed somewhat, but not a ton; and they just brought in a very controversial unwanted entire game revamp that has a lot of current players bailing out.
In light of the popularity of super hero films, and the struggles of SOE and NCsoft, if Champions is polished and the business model is consumer friendly, I think it could do very well. I'm optimistic at this point, but time will tell.
I was in the Alpha and now the beta for CO. I know exactly what I'm talking about, but am unable to disclose because of the NDA, but you're welcome to fanboi it up and preach on about something you have absolutely no understanding of outside some media spun hype interviews.
Also, being a douchebag doesn't lend credibility to your arguments it just makes you look like an ass.
Anyway, thanks for reminding me why I stopped frequenting these boards.
It a damn shame that the MMORPG.com community used to be a lot more civil and cohesive than it is now. Once MMORPGs became mainstream the community took a nose dive. Now the decent people have been swept away by the mass of mindless sheep, like ArcAngel3, that believe all the media hype and actually defend companies for screwing their player bases over and releasing unfinished games as retail products.
I'm sure instead of stepping back and analyzing your behavior you'll look for some way to spout off with some angry, angsty, bullshit pertaining to my post. Just know that I couldn't care any less about your opinion or stance on anything. I'm done with this thread and I hope that if I have the misfortune of participating in a thread that you are apart of in the future that you will have grown up and formulated a manner to interact with other people in manner conducive to flowering discussion, but I won't be holding my breath.
Peace.
Not so sure that DC will be better, having been a huge EQ1 fan, after SOE took over it became very boring. Also tried EQ2 and Vanguard, and felt the same about those 2 games. If they run it properly, it has a good chance to succeed. However, if they run it the way they normally run games it will be a fail.
I haven't ben a fan of SOE's MMOs either, but DCUO is being made by the Sony game division, which has had far better results. Granted they haven't been in charge of making a MMO before, but that might acytually be a good thing.
Lol, all I did was correct your disinformation. You said SOE is not developing DC online. You're wrong. They are. So you're either mistaken, or spreading disinformation.
You also said the Cryptic has changed the I.P. in the middle of their development. You're also wrong about that. Not only is SOE developing the DC game, but it's some of the same people that butchered the StarWars IP. That's simple facts.
Your response is to call me a douchebag lol, and accuse me of some kind of angry, angsty post. I think you need to take a step back and look at who is sharing false information (that everyone can easily verify) and who is being angry and insulting.
If you want to share disinformation that is easily disputed, don't be surprised when someone calls you on it. Also, don't be surprised if they take a frustrated tone, like I did, and probably will again if you spread more b.s. There's a very low tolerance for SOE crap among MMO gamers these days. I was much kinder in my comments than most would be.
Not so sure that DC will be better, having been a huge EQ1 fan, after SOE took over it became very boring. Also tried EQ2 and Vanguard, and felt the same about those 2 games. If they run it properly, it has a good chance to succeed. However, if they run it the way they normally run games it will be a fail.
I haven't ben a fan of SOE's MMOs either, but DCUO is being made by the Sony game division, which has had far better results. Granted they haven't been in charge of making a MMO before, but that might acytually be a good thing.
Like i said, the guy in charge of DC was moved from StarWars Galaxies. He mutilated that game and alienated the players. His name's Chis Cao. Feel free to confirm this independently if you like. He also brought some of the devs from the StarWars team with him. This is not some new group of people; they just shuffled the deck and moved the StarWars guys over to DC online. After what they did to StarWars, I wouldn't play this game if they paid me.
I couldn't help myself but post in this thread. "Action packed" aspect of the combat is artificial. In other words, animations look amazing, but all you do is press one button and auto attack does the rest, you just enjoy the visuals. There are powers that you execute in between the auto attack sequence, and the longer you hold that attack button, the more it charges and more powerfull it is. This was a nice touch no doubt.
However, the biggest let down as far as CO combat goes are controls. To put it bluntly, it's made for kids on XBox 360. They have this non-sense "auto facing", which simply breaks the game for me. What it does is when you target somebody, your character will automatically face in that direction, and you can't do a thing about it. Well, that's not so bad you say, but, they take it to a whole new level. You will ALWAYS face your target, no matter what your positioning and camera angle is.
Say you target somebody that's in FRONT of you, obviously, you will face front, and camera will be behind your back. Now if you run past your target so that your target is now behind you, your toon will automatically turn around to face your target (but your camera angle stays the same, thus you will be facing the camera), and you will be literally running BACKWARDS and shooting through your camera into your target which is not displayed anywhere on your screen. Even WOW required you to make an effort and face your enemey before you can send a fireball their way, but in CO this is done for you automatically.
If this one single thing was fixed (aka removing auto facing in it's current forum), the game wouldn't feel so cheap and shallow.
Oh yay, yet another heroes vs villians game. Sorry but I don't support this idea as I don't think this genre is very successful, I mean just look at City of Heroes/Villians, no one cares about it really. Anyways, just wanted to give my view on these upcoming games and say that this genre is a waste of time, thanks for reading.
Yeah, like the thousands of people playing City of Heroes/Villains and the thousands more waiting for either of the upcoming superhero games.
Translating your dislike for something into a generalization doesn't make you look smarter or justifies your point of view; it's the other way around, kid.
Arc...dude, you are playing fast and loose with your facts. The only people left over from SWG besides Chris Chao who wasnt the cause of SWG ills in the first place are two texture artist and the netcode guy, everyone else is from Old Cryptic, Some Blizzard people, The original Matrix team before the SOE buyout or FASA Interactive. DCUO is using SWG old Austin Offices, as most of the current SWG team has been relocated back to San Diego. I know this because a good part of the devlopment team lives in my sub division. I'll also say anyone who is hating on DCUO simply because it's under the SOE flag are being very Myopic. SOE has gone through a major refit...I think folks are going to be surprised at what they will be bringing us in the future
Some interesting sounding mechanics in the article. The idea of a fire-based character gaining power being around fire sounds nice on paper, but will there be situations where "normal" Foxbat-like characters can gain tactical advantages like that?
Or will their mechancs be that normal don't gain any tactical advatnage but they also don't have any disadvantages (Like a Fire character in an icy enviroment)
I only want to respond to a bit from this post because there's subjects that have been bothering me for about a month now. I don't think "the community" took a nose-dive because some mysterious "new people" are bad apples and showed up to insult the rightful O.G.'s of the mmo world. From my view, it's these same "vets" that are spewing much of the garbage. They call out anybody with a differing opinion and question his e-peen and his gaming resume`. In my eyes, they pretty much treat new people and "vets" about the same. [not very well] It's these same "veteran players" who show up and weep in nearly every thread I read over how "SoE killed SWG"! As if SoE kicked somebody's mom. How many years ago was it, anyway? Yes, apparently, they took a good game and made it crappy. That sucks. It's dead now. [Can't you continue to grieve in-private?] Find a new game, or find something else to do. The crying in random threads isn't going to fix SWG. Nothing will. What SWG was, is long dead now. Don't punish the entire internet for the sins of a few.
And to the people who have to once a week post their fond memories of EQ1 in a thread that has nothing to do with EQ... We get it. It was "your first". There's never anything like your first. No matter what game comes out, made by any developer, on any budget, it's not going to compare to the fun you had back when you had no idea what you were doing and made friends in-game so you can learn the ropes. You're not going to get the magic back in some new game. If you want EQ for crying out loud just go back and play it! Lamenting on the boards about "hopefully this new game will be the one that restores my mmo innocence" is pointless. Because then in another three months you've gotta do it all over again for the next 1337 new game with "specialized pvp sandbox capabilities and important-yet-complex crafting lewt". This is the stuff that seems stupid, to me. And I wanted to point it out just once, before I went back to mostly lurking. I feel better now. That's all that matters.
Arc...dude, you are playing fast and loose with your facts. The only people left over from SWG besides Chris Chao who wasnt the cause of SWG ills in the first place are two texture artist and the netcode guy, everyone else is from Old Cryptic, Some Blizzard people, The original Matrix team before the SOE buyout or FASA Interactive. DCUO is using SWG old Austin Offices, as most of the current SWG team has been relocated back to San Diego. I know this because a good part of the devlopment team lives in my sub division. I'll also say anyone who is hating on DCUO simply because it's under the SOE flag are being very Myopic. SOE has gone through a major refit...I think folks are going to be surprised at what they will be bringing us in the future
Not to mention he has no clue that this game used to be Marvel Universe Online and thinks that the Champions IP was Cryptics first choice.
Nice edit there Arc. Now, that you've edited your posts, you've taken out alot of the aggressive tone, but it still doesn't make the info correct.
CO was once upon a time Marvel Universe Online. Once again, Champions was not the original IP. I've been following the game very closely for quite sometime, although admittedly, I haven't paid much attention to the recent developments.
I know I said I was done here, and I apologize for the hostility. I'm going to try to just kill you people with kindness instead of fighting fire with fire.
What I find funny,... the people who bash a game because it is being made for the xbox.
The xbox is built for gaming! why should it not get an MMO developed for it?
Going to be dumbed down? Why? The xbox360 is more powerful then my current outdated PC, and I am fed up having to rebuild my computer everytime some ass developes what he calls the next great engine.
Funny, the next great engine looks, and feels just like the last 10 great new engiines, andall it did was make me buy a $200 video card and more ram so that I can actually run the new game that the engine was built on.
I think the morons developing these games need to steady their need for the newest technology and focus on learning how to make a game enjoyable for the masses.
If you look at the last several MMO's released, they all went from millions of copies sold, to hundreds of thousands subscribed. Why? because the games suck.
For those that claim they won't buy a game because it was dumbed down for the xbox, pull your heads out of your butts, the xbox is plenty strong enough to run the games, the xbox is capable of useing a keyboard too! OMG! A keyboard on the xbox? that is amazing! especially when there are a lot of people who downloaded the mods to let you use an xbox controller on your PC to play WoW.
If you can't wrap your brain around the idea of a cross platform game, then perhap you need to have your games dumbed down for playability.
I don't see Cryptic changing IP from Marvel to Champions as being a significant setback. You could take CO's core game and make it into DCUO or City of Heroes 2 with just some lore changes. You wouldn't have to start over from scratch, and Champions has plenty of lore to make what changes are needed easily accomplished.
And SOE Austin is developing DCUO, it takes a simple google search to find this out.
Anyways...I don't know if I'll bother with either. CO looks like a click to target game still, not a true action game. You can see people in the videos accidentally shooting at mobs off screen, and having to retarget mobs on screen to hit them. As for DCUO, I don't like SOE. They don't exactly have a history of releasing high quality games or treating their players well.
Nice rant, but you seem to miss the entire point. The vast majority of consoles don't have keyboards. If you are a developer making a MMO would you require a keyboard to play it, most certainly not. Why restrict your playerbase to a smaller audience. Then you have to look at pvp. A mouse driven interface gives distinct advantages of such. True, you can add them to the console too, but again it won't be required.
There are alot of issues that you seem to miss or gloss over. I would hesitate to play a game intended for both if the controls were dumbed down to a controller level.
Nice rant, but you seem to miss the entire point. The vast majority of consoles don't have keyboards. If you are a developer making a MMO would you require a keyboard to play it, most certainly not. Why restrict your playerbase to a smaller audience. Then you have to look at pvp. A mouse driven interface gives distinct advantages of such. True, you can add them to the console too, but again it won't be required.
There are alot of issues that you seem to miss or gloss over. I would hesitate to play a game intended for both if the controls were dumbed down to a controller level.
If you hesitate to embrace evolution you will remain in the shallow end of the gene pool.
Both the PS3 and the Xbox360 can utilize keyboard and mouse, in fact I have used the old USB keyboard from my PS2 on the xbox360.
Yes, there was a keyboard, with the analog thumbsticks built into a secondary piece that snaps onto the keyboard to use it as a controller/keyboard while you play. OMG! what will they think of next!
I used this keyboard for MMO's on the PS2 <eqoa, eqoa:frontiers, FFXI>, and for the my Xbox360 for FFXI.
The mouse has advantages over a controller? I would have to say that is a player opinion, not a fact. I know people that have disregarded their keyboard/mouse combo in the PC versions of counterstrike, COD4, and other FPS type games, and a couple of MMO's to use an xbox360 controller on their computer.
I think you need to look at the big picture, why would a developer continue to disregard a huge player base that the consoles represent. and I think this is something that developers are looking at now days, since several developers have discussed making an attempt to port their game to fit the console too.
I think that developers are scared to, and until someone does it with some success, the other will stay behind and watch and wait.
If you hesitate to embrace evolution you will remain in the shallow end of the gene pool.
Both the PS3 and the Xbox360 can utilize keyboard and mouse, in fact I have used the old USB keyboard from my PS2 on the xbox360.
Yes, there was a keyboard, with the analog thumbsticks built into a secondary piece that snaps onto the keyboard to use it as a controller/keyboard while you play. OMG! what will they think of next!
I used this keyboard for MMO's on the PS2 <eqoa, eqoa:frontiers, FFXI>, and for the my Xbox360 for FFXI.
The mouse has advantages over a controller? I would have to say that is a player opinion, not a fact. I know people that have disregarded their keyboard/mouse combo in the PC versions of counterstrike, COD4, and other FPS type games, and a couple of MMO's to use an xbox360 controller on their computer.
I think you need to look at the big picture, why would a developer continue to disregard a huge player base that the consoles represent. and I think this is something that developers are looking at now days, since several developers have discussed making an attempt to port their game to fit the console too.
I think that developers are scared to, and until someone does it with some success, the other will stay behind and watch and wait.
Earth to lordtwisted, did you even read what I said? From your reply, it is evident either you can't read or have a comprehension problem.
It does not matter if the consoles have keyboards or mice, the developers won't require them, they don't want to restrict the player pool. Taking that a step further they will dumb down the UI for use by controllers.
THAT is what makes a MMO undesirable, the dumbing down of the interface. Next time take a second to read.
Ozmodean you are obviously mistaken in assumeing that you are "the masses"
Ofcourse the masses couldn't want a simpilistic style MMO, thats why Blizzard failed so miserablly with World of Warcraft.
It's why the original mmo genre was pretty much PvP until the "other people" started playing and whined about getting killed all the time, so they dumbed down the games to PvE for them.
The evolution of the mmo is the de-evolution of the gere, come to terms with it.
MMO's will be on the consoles before this year is out, and they will be cross platform.
If evolution and mass marketing means "Dumbed down" to you. Then welcome to our world where it means fun for everyone, not just the people who give in and upgrade their computers every week so that they can get on the band wagon of hate mongering with the newest crap based MMO that comes out.
You want to talk about dumbing down MMO's? Lets talk about Vanguard, Warhammer, Ages of Conan, and the dozen other burned at release MMO's that have been developed in the last few years.
This day and age one of every 6 MMOs released end up with a suitable subscription base. and half of those this last year were Korean craptastic free base MMO's with the online stores to make profit for them. Or as I like to refer to them...garbage.
Perhaps if MMO's come to the console soon enough it will attract a good developer to build an MMO instead.
I agree. Oooh, great engine! Swell new graphics. Who cares, just make a good freaking game!
Well with WILD BILL HICKOK, Opps I mean Bill Roper involved lets hope this game does not go the way of Flagship studios ( Hellgate London). personally any game he is involvled in doesnt even get a lookin with my games selection.
Let hope he doesnt jinx this game
Tan
I didn't play Hellgate, but everything I read said it stunk to the high heavens.
I personally liked City of Heroes, and City of Villans, but the certainly lacked something, and I can not pin point what it was, but neither game held my attention for more then a few months.
Hopefully they have figured out a formula for addiction.
I have to agree about Roper, the industry rewards sub-par it seems. I was interested in this game to the point where it was as "Purchase on Release" game for me, but I won't buy anything Roper is involved in so it's moved to the "Oh Well" catergory.
I know, I know, "QQ MOAR" etc, but I refuse to buy anything Roper is involved with. The gaming industry as a whole tries to emulate Hollywood so much now days it trips over itself to get a "name," any name it would seem, to add credability to their project. I wish gamers were more aware, hell any consumers for that matter...