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Darkfall Editorial: Most Anticipated Games: Where Are They Now?
In this week's list, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood takes a look at past and present winners of MMORPG.com's Most Anticipated Game awards to see if, in hindsight, those much looked for games lived up to the hype.
By Jon Wood on May 20, 2009
Every year, usually sometime between Christmas and New Year, video game sites hand out their hardware. Every site does it different, and we at MMORPG.com has traditionally held two levels of awards. Our editorial awards are chosen by the staff, while the Reader's Choice awards are based on popular vote. More recently, we moved to solely Reader's Choice awards, with our own nominations.
Since 2005, MMORPG.com has given out a number of awards in many different categories. While most of those categories reflect on the year that was, one category consistently looks forward: The Most Anticipated Game.
A number of different games have taken home MMORPG.com's Most Anticipated award, but today we take a look back to see what became of those games when they stopped being anticipated and move into the "launched" category?
2005
Reader's Choice Awards: In 2005, the Reader's Choice awards allowed users to choose from any game that was officially listed at the time as being "in development," some of which even today have yet to be released.
When all of the votes were finally cast, less than 3% separated the top five vote-getters. The four runners up were: Vanguard, RF Online, Star Trek Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea. As interesting as they may be, however, their stories are for another article.
The 2005 Reader's Choice Award for Most Anticipated Game went to Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online.
;)
Launched on February 28th of 2006, DDO attempted to adapt the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, much-loved by pen and paper player worldwide, into an MMO.
Draped in the still shiny new coating of the franchise's newest setting, Eberron, Turbine's original vision of the game attempted to re-create the Dungeon aspects of the beloved intellectual property (IP) by encouraging groups of players to come together to make their way through many different instanced dungeons by solving puzzles. Notably, the game employed a twitch combat system to advance to the game's level cap of 10. Lending credence to the game were the voice talents of the late, great creators of the original Dungeons and Dragons IP Dave Arenson and Gary Gygax who served appropriately in the role of the game's Dungeon Master.
The Result
While interest in the game was high leading up to its launch, it wasn't the hit game that voters had predicted. Players were put off by the game's heavy use of instanced dungeons, the virtual inability to progress through the game without a group, and the lack of open, explorable gameplay areas.
Seeing a problem, the Turbine team dedicated to DDO moved quickly to address player concerns, adding in a solo level of difficulty, explorable areas and more so that the game available today is quite different from the original launch product.
Since DDO's launch, Turbine's developers have added eight, soon to be nine modules (major updates) free of charge to their audience as well as a number of updates. Changes to the game include, but are not limited to: improvements to the solo game, the addition of a new playable race (the Drow), level cap increase, an explorable open world, PvP elements, an auction house, Dragonmarks, a customizable interface, a crafting system, a new class (Monk), DirectX 10 support and more.
Editorial Awards Awards: In 2005, the opinions of the MMORPG.com editorial staff differed from those of their readers as the journalists behind the site awarded the Most Anticipated Game honors to Funcom's Age of Conan.
;)
The reason for the choice, according to the article's author was that Age of Conan had finally solved the tedium of the first few levels of an MMO by couching it inside of a single player experience. This, the editors thought, would allow players to, "take part in a story where you are the hero, build a character, develop an attachment and then enter the real world. It is not unlike growing-up, which is precisely what you're character is doing."
The one thing that the editors pointed out as a mark against the upcoming game was the fact that Funcom might not meet its 2006 launch date. Funcom launched Age of Conan on May 20th of 2008.
Conan, of course, would go on to win again later.
Interesting Fact:
In the short history of MMORPG.com awards, neither the Reader's Choice nor Editorial award winners for Most Anticipated Game has ever gone on to win a Game of the Year, Best Game, Best New Game or Favorite Game award in the next year.
Kudos on good article.
Realistic and eye opening (for some) ... its time to wake up and smell the roses.
MMO development was a disaster , well almost ever since it started
Indeed a good read,I wonder how it would have looked from say 2000-2004.
Ok that is pre-wow but I just wonder how the hype factor between mmo release's has changed,alot of new players and alot of devs rushing out title's to grab some of the market.
The hype machine is alive and well and I think starts to dig the grave for unreleased mmo's,anyway lets hope the trend changes and 1 of the title's this year manage's to live upto it,I guess in the near future MO and Aion are next in the firing line..
Good reading, and also good to see what was hot then, and what has happened to the games by now ;)
Personally, I've followed the hype twice (AoC and WAR), and I was greatly disappointed, and I was not the only one. Perhaps the hype around games makes the preassure on the developers too big that they release their games way too early..?
Good Article!
Lets hope future games do better than some of thier predecessors.
Just goes to show, making MMORPG's is hard, and few (if any) have met the expectations since WOW launched so many years ago. The bar is just too high perhaps?
Good article.
Looking at the "winners" from each year and how they turned out it just reinforced a belief that I already held: MMO Awards mean/predict nothing. I've played all the winners (and the runners up if they've launched) and all of them were "incomplete" with respect to my preferences in some major way. Sure, I understand that no game can be all things to everyone, but noone of them had enough of "it" to keep me playing more than a few months. It's not a matter of "you only played a few months you didn't experience everything!". In the first two weeks playing roughly 5 hours a day during the week and 6+ on Sat/Sun you get a good sense of what a game is about.
But, what can you say. "Settling" is the way of the day and as the majority tows that line, well. *shrug*
WoW never set the bar. It leeched off already provem MMO's gameplay taking the elements many had requested in other games and put them in their own. World of Warcraft is one of the reasons WAR flopped as it was spewed from the tongue of Mark Jacobs that part of the design of WAR was to try and draw in WoW subscribers ie the scenario fiasco.. The games with staying power have been out for ages, EQ, DAOC, LOTRO, COH, COV and thats really about it oh yeah EVE. I waited rougly 2 years for the game to save all WAR just to cancel my account after the free month because it provided me nothing of what i wanted in an MMO. I'm still playing DAOC. Why? There isn't nothing better out or coming out anytime soon. Truth be told all of the big hitters as listed in the opening thread were flops. Yes they have made improvments but first impressions are win or lose anymore because us gamers simply wont put up with unfinished games anymore. Not at this point in MMO gaming history.
I know what i want in a game. A game like Dark Age of Camelot thats brought up to date with the same RVR combat mechanics that currently exists. graphics, an AH system , more housing and all would be good. Yeah DAOC 2.0. You listening Mr. Jacobs.
Short version:
Winning Most Anticipated Game = Kiss of Death.
Three years of hoping for greatness and recieving sub-par junk doesn't bode well for 2009's winner...
Looks like the award pretty much has the lead touch. While some of these games still could be winners it will be a long while before that happens.
I do agree that DAoC had better RvR than War does. Not sure why Mythic deviated from a successful design. Maybe they will eventually get the message.
A long string of failures brings us to the present. No wonder I am so bored and cynical these days.
I think some of the upcoming games are incorporating elements that many mmo players have rejected in previous examples listed in this article, but because some companies have deep pockets or a popular intellectual property, they feel they can pour money into a game's fancy graphics and dazzle us with high production values. Well, game design will always trump a pretty presentation, despite all the fancy graphical effects, atleast in the long run.
The other mistake I see being made is the hybridization of mmo's and single player games. Ofcourse there is a cross over market, as many people play a multitude of games across multiple genres. But many people play mmo's for very specific reasons, just as people who play single player games also have specific expectations. By catering to one group, you usually end up alienating the other.
Then there is the other hurdle, which follows my previous point. Many of the single player crowd WILL NOT pay a monthly sub. For whatever reason, they can not justify a $15 a month sub. So game companies institute the cash shops, alienating their mmo base further.
In essence, it seems that game companies have become so intent on growing their player base that they have forgotten how to keep the base they already had. The most egregious example of this that comes to my mind is SWG's NGE, but there are sadly many more examples of mmo companies abandoning their current player base for imaginary players that never materialize.
And finally and perhaps most profoundly, Blaaaa bla bla blaaa bla bla bla blaaaa. Because this shit has all been stated before by many people around here who are more intelligent and eloquent than myself, and yet nothing changes.
I take exception to:
"It is far too soon to tell what the future holds for Darkfall, but its development and release has captured the attention, both positive and negative, of many MMO fans."
The game has been out 12 weeks..! Has 9k players with nearly 50% retainment rate. Darkfall is an utter flop. It's time MMORPG starts to stand up for it's community members (user base) and stop fronting cupcakes to these Developers. Have a backbone for once and just call out these half-wit deveopers. We demand more from you MMORPG.com. Or at least expect you to be honest with us and yourself.
This publication/website has lost a lot of respect over the last few months. With shoddy reviews and biased reporting.
I can but help seeing all these so-called MMO gurus in their board meetings trying to hype their teams on these wonderful ideas they have for the games mentioned above. Based on recent releases it seems they have no clue, or have lost any clue, on a "successful vision" in making an MMO. That, or they're trying to stay too middle ground in design. I'd like to be a version of the Scottish guy in this video(tv commercial) but instead in those design meetings.
Think, Jimmy!
Erowid420: I see nothing wrong with the quote, infact it's accurate. The game made an impact both positive and negative on the community, at least it's not all been positioned as positive spin.
If you feel you want to make a deeper mark then step up and offer your services
LOL. This ain't the New York Times, pal. (Much to their credit.)
All you have to do is ask yourself ,how many bigtime developers are there in the mMORPG industry?Not many at all,before Blizzard and WOW even they were a low budget operation ,actually losing money.
The ONLY bigtime MMORPG developer was SOE,this is why you get half finished half ass effort put into MMO's.Sorry Square Enix has actually been a giant for some time as they turned their operation around way back in the FF7 days,thanx in part to SOE's Playstation.Maybe one day Microsoft will outsource a MMORPG with an unlimited budget and give us something amazing,we can only dream i guess.
Epic games is a giant when you consider they have decent cash flow,they have arguably the best gaming engine on the planet and have created a pretty good series in the Unrealtournament lineup,all this done with a paltry 70+ employees.IMO EPIC would be a great addition to the MMORPG industry,but as of now they just don't have the interest to expand in that direction,they are forever upgrading their Unreal engine.
So until we see some more giants enter the realm,you can expect some half ass projects,that never reach their full potential.I guess Bethesda has been around awhile and they claim to be spending tons on their next MMO,so perhaps some expectation could be garnered in that direction.Many are waiting for Square Enix to come out with a new MMO and of course Blizzard has their flock of sheep,that expect Blizzard to make something happen.The rest of the developers are groups of employees that were former employees of other orgs and a dabble of others ,so i would not have any great expectations right now.
I don't get hyped by anything or have high expectations,i just wait and see the final product that comes out.Just because some website hypes up a game ,it means nothing to me,i don't let others influence me at all,i make my own decisions.Then what criteria will be shown here?sucess based solely on subscriptions?this means nothing to the individual,unless yo uare a follower and play games just because the masses are.
Speak for yourself.
And Darkfall trolls have yet another article to make their way into. Just shut up and let the game die if you think it fails so hard, shouldn't be hard to not care about the game if you hate it.
Interesting read, although it's a pretty "what if" question is games had been more succesful released with the content released post-release. The question might be pretty much "no", as players will find flaws and bash through them, and as the developers would have no idea of what the community wants (which happens if you release the game), they wouldn't add the same content. Now releasing a game with tons of bugs and mechanics that don't work as they were supposed in the plans, that's a lack of QA.
I just have the feeling that MMOs should stop charging people for retail cost AND monthly fees and decide to go for one of either ways - expansions every 3 or 6 months with a retail price with new content or monthly fees with no retail price. This, when combined with the lack of trials when a game is released, makes a huge amount of people to pay the retail price while emotionally carried by the hype for the new game and then not re-sub it. It just feels like an evil short-term money maker, MMOs should be more open in this sense, could even go SoE's station thing way.
When I visited the site pre-WoW, according to my memory, there wasn't a hype machin. This site wasn't wildly popular like it is now. People seemed to be just fans of the genre instead of rabid fanbois of a certain game.
Now, it just seems like we get these rabid fanbois that refuse to see reason, or have an agenda. The first game I noticed this was D&L then Vanguard, then it was every game. Everything was pointing towards disasters, but the fanbois violently defended the games. I don't know what makes a fanboi. I'm curious, because too many of them take it as a personal assault if you don't love their game.
For some reason fanbois also think that players from other games come in and bash the game. Nope, doesn't happen fanbois. Maybe some fanbois from the past disasters(vanguard, D&L, AOC) can come tell us why they feel this way.
I think we should see an editorial on the rise of these rabid fanbois, and what is the motivating force behind it.
/puts on robe and wizard hat
What's wrong with the MMO industry is the same thing that's wrong with everything in the entertainment industry. Society is changing, and it'll take a few years before advertisers, developers, investors, and "thinkers" catch up to it and figure out how to sell to the new "masses". Look at the state of the world. Things are a shade different now, than they were 12-13 years ago. Rome wasn't built in a day, but it's decline was slow too.
Totally correct, fanbios are spawned from a dilussional hope of a product meeting their core needs. If you poke at the game in any negative way they respond in the way they classically do. You are effectively stabbing them in person hence the venom. If you ask me the fanbois crowd are a sign that the MMO arena has hugh potential. Annoying as they are....
The world has changed and people are waking up and expect and require different things (Globally not just games), corporate machines need to catchup to make those dollars they are so hungry for.
I'm reminded of two quotes:
"Nothing is ever as bad as you fear or as good as you hope" - The Church
and
"Seldom in history has the majority been right" - Robert Heinlein
What's even more interesting is the current state of those games.
While I'm not going to say Turbine doesn't have issues with their production they have done an excellent job with Dungeons & Dragons Online. This was one of those games which didn't feel right in any regards. While the directed experiance was excellent, the excessive instancing and character development was not nearly as good as it should have been.
Returning to DDO a little over a year after its launch I was extremely surprised and impressed. And today it's a game that is one of those Gem's we all long to find in the MMO realm. Playing DDO in it's current state, and with its flaws, is akin to discovering EVE Online before it was becoming popular.
All Turbine needs to do is find a way to deliver DDO without the out of pocket expense that's a barrier to many. Removing that monthly cost and enhancing it through an RMT function that doesn't impact gameplay would elevate this game to a point that everyone visiting this site would eventually be playing it, and proud to play it they would be.
If you've not played DDO in over a year I highly recomend checking out the Free Trial, but be sure to download the highRes package!
While I agree that Mythic and Mark Jacobs specifically looked at Wow and tried to take things from it technically (as well as Wow's customers), that's in no way Wow's fault.
Wow is a game. It has it's own audience long before WAR came along and doesn't try and steal other MMO's base. How can a game be responsible for a whole other game flopping around with poor direction? It can't, because it's just a game. Neither are Wow's designers to blame.. are you suggesting that they should have made Wow a little less popular so no one would want to copy it?
Saying Wow is one of the reasons for Mark Jacob's bad decisions with WAR is like blaming Pamela Anderson for the severe scarring of a homely girl's lips and tatas after her father pushed her into having plastic surgery so she'd be more popular like Pam.
Warhammer has been out has been out for 38 weeks and is substantially under a 50% retention rate.
Would you call Warhammer a failure? Plenty wouldn't. But by your criteria its far worse of a failure than Darkfall, so you probably should revise that.
Neither AOC or Warhammer are good games, and their declining populations show it. But Darkfall barely qualifies as a MMORPG. It has probably at most 15k active subscribers (being generous) two months after launch. It is like a very unprofessional private UO server with a very flaky development team. ... again, very similar to what you would expect if you played a private UO server. The GMs are also active players, who act on behalf of their clans to stop invaders using GM powers. People who want to play Darkfall, can't even buy it at the store. The official website still has a place where you can register for the 'beta' etc etc etc. As bad as AOC is, it at least feels like it is a real MMORPG, Darkfall feels like some kid through it together in his garage.
Again, it's like a poorly run private UO server that just happens to charge $15/month.
Mythic and Mark Jacobs are the only one responsible for WAR flop.Kaplan & Team + Blizzard marketing did a great job.They knew what was needed and missing at that particular time .Casual gamers/hardcore raiders dreamed it,Blizzard made it and they won....home run
As I said, I wouldn't be defending Darkfall at all. That's not my place.
I'm looking at the standards he set as determining what a "flop" is, and I'm wondering if he's using that across the board as a measuring stick. If he is, he's including quite a few games with that. Not just WAR and AoC.
It seemed rather narrow to me as a defining mark.
I noticed that all the games except DDO launched way too early here.
And the editors and voters could not know that the companies would mess up the release that much, the key to success is releasing a product that is actually finished from the start, the consumers don't want a half done buggy thing that should have stayed another year in development. I am sure that VG, AoC and WAR would have done better if they fixed the problems with the games before release.
As for DDO, I think the choice of world lost a lot of subs to it, Forgotten realms, Dragon lance or even Ravenloft would have done better. But what really stole subs from it was Guildwars, even though the games are different most people who don't mind instances prefer the better programmed game without monthly fees.
Well, the rest of the game devs didn't say stuff like Barnett before launch.
Still, I wouldn't consider it a total failure but Mythic did a bad job of making fans of the original IP happy, they strayed to close to Wow and the people who likes Wow are playing Wow, while the people who likes Warhammer got upset because that the game is too far from the RPG and tabletop.
Mythic could have done a lot better, if they had mixed DaoC with WFRPG we would have gotten an awesome game, now it is just ok.
Why does it always seem the people who hate fanbois have more passion for hating them then the fans have for thier game?? Seems dilusional. My personal opinion is that people always like to hear about themselves being right, so you sit on either side of the fence.......you love or hate a game, that way when you defend or attack each other you have people backing you up. In a way youve made a little community you can relate to for guidence........so sad.
If people want to see totally new and great games more risks need to be taking (preferably by big companies...we all know why..cough...DO...cough) at least they had the balls to do somthing different. Devs need to drop the whole.....this is how you make a MMORPG pamphlet theyve all been given and re-think the whole genre.
I think the real question is What is going wrong and why isn't it glaringly obvious? All these hyped games don't really deliver what the players are clamoring for. In the case of AoC and WAR maybe it really is the whole hype/release too early issue. After seeing what LOTRO has done since launch, much better game now. What AoC is planning for this month, actually looks like the most needed changes. DDO made a ton of changes and is still alive and kicking. Even WAR is making changes and improving the game.
I just have to wonder what the problem is, or is this just a result of general human disgruntlement. No matter what is done, or made or given, people will ALWAYS find something to gripe about.
Although....playing WAR...a certain "something" was missing. Playing AoC that certain "something went missing about halfway to the level cap". In EQ2, "something" is missing. LOTRO at launch, "something" was missing(but is now miraculously there). Just wish I could define what that "something" is.
Exactly, release way too early for their own good.
Seeing the numbers of players base swell when they are hyping up the game, the devs have a wrong impression to release the game now and hope to carry on with the rest of the games, thinking the player base will stay and give them enough time to finish.
Another flaw they make is trying to complete with WoW. Thinking if they release early than they will capture those players away from WoW coming x-pac.
Etc etc etc.... just wrong decisions after decisions that all these companies have made. And it will continue to haunt them for the rest of the game life span.
On a side note, players always say WoW just take the best out of other games and put it together and its actually nothing new. If that's so, than it must be a really very simple plan! Since you just need to copy and paste.
But how come till now, none other company can do it?
Wood's article summs up pretty subjectively what happend the past years at the genre.
I never saw Vanguard Saga of Heroes in a more distinctive position, even though imho it would deserve one.
anyway
right now i am all dfo. Still, what lures at the end of the tunnel? remains to be seen!
Frankly, bad designs are bad designs regardless of the hype. I think that us players are giving way too much benefit-of-doubt for the game designers by saying that their game would have been ground-breaking would they have spent some more time internally developing it. After all, the success isn't measured by the internal development back-slapping but by the gaming community. The games mentioned here that have amended the situation from the dreadful launch are not changing their course due to lack of pre-launch polish but due to lack of pre-launch thought. The hyped ideas weren't just fun no matter how much touted. Certainly, adding features that players are missing is nice and dandy but doesn't that just mean that the game developers themselves have ran out of ideas already ages ago when the "hyped" features of today's MMO market are the same you could see on MUDs at early 90s.
The gamers step into virgin worlds armed solely by their preconceived ideas as of what would be fun to them. If the game fails to deliver on those fronts the game is a failure. Most can cope with bumpy launch if what they find underneath the purely technical issues is worth investing in. I think that WoW's launch (or EVE's) is a paramount evidence on this: no-one can say that the game's launch was particularily classy with crashing servers days-in-days-out but the core game-mechanics were fun and allowed you to enjoy from the first quest onwards. It might be popular to say that WoW is merely a copycat of the grand ideas of its predecessors but would that be the case also DDO, AoC, WAR and Darkfall would have been successful to the same measure as people could have endured the choppy ride for they knew what a gem they had. History tells a different story. At times it feels that gaming industry as a whole is entering the same era of sequels as the movie industry has been for a few decades where risk is too costly for anyone to take. Waiting for the HBO of MMOs.
For me that "something" is a genuine, tactile, grab you out of your socks and shake you sense of being able to create something of my own, grow it and have the potential for it to matter in the world. Examples:
EvE: Corporations and their ability to stake out territory, gather resources, manufacture, form alliance, wars
DAoC: RvR. Now, I'm not talking about the PvP aspect as so many do when they say RvR. I mean the concepts of having a homeland, having areas to struggle over, having meaningful reasons to do so.
Asheron's Call: The main, monthly advanced story line; Having dev controlled NPCs of note (in the lore) show up in towns and interact with players (port to Teth from Bael'zaron anyone? Better bring your wings!)
SWG: A make sense crafting, CREATION ability. Devs focus so much on combat and tearing things/people down and not near enough on a deeply thought out player world building mechanics.
Horizons: Tying this in to the creation aspects of SWG just to add the concept of having destroyed areas and allows players to reclaim and rebuild them. Again, also vesting players in the game world.
I'm not worried about combat. Combat is leaps and bounds ahead of all other aspects in the MMOs being made by all houses (the big boys and the indies) today. But combat "because I can" does not create a long lasting, get me invested to care, cause me to fork over money to you for years, clincher.
People yammer that it would take 1-2 years more development time to do all that well. Well, maybe that needs to be considered. It may even take a few companies going under because their "recoup our investment on box sales and a few months subscriptions" formula that seems the idea of the day in dev-land just doesn't pan out.
Everything about this game has sparked controversy, from a release that has phased in new players, to controversial reviews and the developer reactions to them, to the nature of the game itself. It is far too soon to tell what the future holds for Darkfall, but its development and release has captured the attention, both positive and negative, of many MMO fans.
This has to be one of the single best conclusions I have ever read. Mr Wood - for blatant fear of not upsetting one camp or another - has chosen the road of total neutrality and is sitting with his legs well and truly swinging on both sides of the fence. I read the article up until this point and saw some pretty well placed conclusions on each game. Would have been nice to see your thoughts on the game up until this point, rather than a level of cowardise :-P
That isn't a criticism. I can understand why you did but it's not what I wanted to see :-P
Are you serious? You're going to throw out his whole artical because he didn't take a stance on Darkfall?
I feel exacly the same.
These games aren't 100% finish at all at the release. This is so frustrating... On my PS3, whem I buy a game, this game is completed. why not MMO's???...
The conclusions reached with the other gameswere reached after looking at their performance over a much longer period of time. There ins't much to say about Darkfall yet that can be backed up with long term evidence other than what was said.
Same days I am accused of being biased, and some days I am accused of not being biased enough. Today was the latter, I supopose.
Its all about hype here... ...
Some people have no true intentions of even liking or even playing certain games but will hype and judge them anyway.. And then when it comes out (and even though they had no intentions of playing it anyway) they see it as a failure...
I just fail to see how someone who has only played games like LOTRO and EQ2 and WoW, can effectively enjoy a game like Darkfall.. 2 different styles of gameplay at work there..
Its obvious it wasn't made for everyone, so why does everyone get to call it a failure?
Thats like having a bunch of hip hop thugs calling metallica a failure because its rock music and they don't like it..
"Interesting Fact:
In the short history of MMORPG.com awards, neither the Reader's Choice nor Editorial award winners for Most Anticipated Game has ever gone on to win a Game of the Year, Best Game, Best New Game or Favorite Game award in the next year"
Why, this is the most simple and pure fact of games:
HYPE IS BAD.
DB
That's the issue of objectivity. Most people (fanbois and haters on the extreme of the scale) have absolutely no idea what objectivity means. They think in terms of "universal good" and "universal bad". A hater does not like a certain combat mechanism of a game - he goes out yelling and crying that it's "BAD", universally. People should finally understand what "apples and oranges" mean. But they need to grow up first, and it just won't happen to everyone. Ever.
DB
This is gaming bigotry at its finest. Why is it that Darkfallers seek to discredit the opinions of other players through their gaming history, as if playing a game like EQ2 or LOTRO permanently "taints" a person, so that they cannot possibly have a valid opinion on a game like DF. It's a pretty flimsy tactic, and a desperate one as well.
It is, in fact, possible for the same gamer to like both PvE and PvP focused MMOs (and RTS games, and FPS games, and sports sims, etc).
Darkfall players keep making the tired claim - "this game isn't for everybody", but still get annoyed and defensive when everybody who tries it doesn't like it. In my opinion, that overused phrase has become a dodge, meant to deflect criticism from the weaknesses and breaks in the game.
"This game isn't for everybody" was supposed to cover the harsh FFA PvP with full loot nature of the game, not the fact that DF is a paper-thin, out of tune, shallow "sandbox" MMO at the present time.
Very well said. All this old Games had more or less troubles with their release yet people stayed or came back. LotrO and Eve are pretty good examples how they turned things arround. Maybe it is all about this hyping, though I seriously doubt this, or it is more about: Less talking, more action .
Most Devs tend to talk a lot but do very little to get their MMO back on track. That's the key for a successful MMO, I guess, as long as they keep working on their game (patches, content etc) . Mythic only started to develop WAR because DAoC became less and less popular but instead to fix this game and to keep trying to get people interested again they decided to go for something new instead, of course it couldn't have all worked out...esp. not if they go with this kind of thinking at a new project.
Eve online however shows how it can work if a company won't give up...it is worth to follow an idea even if it's sometimes hard.
This is a new kind of mindset though it was always one way or another there...that people want right away to be successfully and at best remain successfully but that's not how life works, for your ideas and visions you still have to work and sometimes you have to go through hell and back till you see the day your ideas become real.
It goes to show that not just anyone can make a successful mmo. So many average-failure type mmos out today the genre really needs good companies to make good games again. I wish I was playing a good mmo right now but unfortunately there is nothing to feel good about mmos today. Thank god for fps,rpg and rts games to keep me busy while someone decides to make a good mmo again.
Exactly rigth and what Ive been saying for years. The geniuse of WoW is that it does cater to hardcore and casual players equally well. Since launch I would say its been sliding even more to the casual player which is why its had such a lasting success. The industry seems to be trending toward these niche games now liek DF (whether it intended to be or not) with small devout player bases. Personal I dont see how any game that caters to only one type of player can be considered a sucess as this article clearly demonstrated. DDO had to do a major reorganization to include rogue players who didnt want mandatory grouping and a totally instanced world. WaR's PvE experince at launch was absolutely horrible and theyve had to do major tinkering to make what was billed as a pvp game more quester/raider friendly. AoC and LoTR?...beautifully renderred games bu they had to have had major reworking to try to include pvp players. I just wish all these companies hadnt spent so much time on graphics and had the polished gameplay, UI, and pvp that would be expectd from any console game.
Sad thing is... Most of these failures have become almost acceptable to the MMO community. I have lost count of how many times I have heard the terms; “bugs are part of launch", "give the game six to twelve months and it will become a good game”, "people just do not understand coding, you fix one thing, and you break another". We are quite literally paying for mediocrity and, we just keep subscribing to it. No one, myself included, steps up and says “Screw this, give us a good game in the first week of launch or I am out’.
The only hyped game in the past 10 years that I did not jump on the bandwagon for was DFO. I hated beta and unlike AOC, Vanguard, SWG, EQ2, DoAC, WH, (all of which I was in alpha/beta and thought they all sucked but still paid to play at launch) I was not going to do it with Darkfall. I have decided that I am not going to make excuses for inept developers and publishers anymore. Maybe it is because I am getting older, (35 in a few weeks) but I refuse to invest $60.00 - $100. (Collectors edition) for a game then pay $192.00 (15.99x12) so that I can get a game that I played in beta but with a few slight improvements.
I am very anxiously awaiting the release of SW:ToR and I am currently in the Global Agenda Alpha (By far the best alpha I have ever been in) and I hope to see solid launch for once. *fingers crossed*
I think this statement perfectly frames why many MMOs are so dismal. Bugs ARE a part of launch, it's a fact, if you've ever created a program / game / etc. on any level, you know this. It goes without saying that MMOs tend to be far more complex than other forms of games.
There has never been a bug free launch, no matter how much people's nostalgia says otherwise. Even blizzard had more than it's share of bugs, people simply just could tolerate it.
MMOs, though slowly, are very much improving. I'm not denying this is definitely a down year, but MMOs are launching bigger, better, and more or less with less bugs. However, the public's demands are escalating disproportionaly to what current developers can provide. The MMO community still demands to be an integral part in making these games, and yet we still cannot agree on: what makes a good game, how big should an MMO be at launch (how much should they bite off before it becomes too much), balance, economy, graphics, etc. It's no wonder that investors and developers alike are a little wary right now to 'break the mold'. The few that followed a successful formula got bashed (whether good games or not, people had 'already played that'.), the ones that decided to try something new also got bashed ('too kiddy, too different, not different enough, sucks, etc.) We have people complaining about Aion already, and it looks to be the best MMO out this year.
I think it's going to be difficult enough, nearly to the point of impossibility, to provide a 'good game at launch'; until we, as a community, are able to step back and let them develope. So much energy & resources is wasted on the hype machine, trying to control our outbursts, that it overwhelms most developers. The MMO is the only genre in which the players expects every game to be made 'for them', regardless of it's target audience. With most other games, you simply let it come out. try it, and either like it or not, it's as simply as that.
We need to get back to that if we want MMOs to thrive.
This is gaming bigotry at its finest. Why is it that Darkfallers seek to discredit the opinions of other players through their gaming history, as if playing a game like EQ2 or LOTRO permanently "taints" a person, so that they cannot possibly have a valid opinion on a game like DF. It's a pretty flimsy tactic, and a desperate one as well.
If you wanted to buy an xbox360 but wanted to get some opinions on it before you buy it, would you listen to the opinion of someone who has played PS3 only and who bashes the xbox just because of its brand name?
same theory applies..
If you do not like the genre, you really have no weight in rating the game or calling it a failure..
As for the rest of your "bigotry" rant.. umm..
Eh..
If you wanted to buy an xbox360 but wanted to get some opinions on it before you buy it, would you listen to the opinion of someone who has played PS3 only and who bashes the xbox just because of its brand name?
same theory applies..
If you do not like the genre, you really have no weight in rating the game or calling it a failure..
As for the rest of your "bigotry" rant.. umm..
Eh..
Obviously, given your analogy, you'd want the opinion of someone who has solid experience with both. There are plenty of those around. Additionally, contrary to popular stereotyping, a person enjoying a theme-park MMO does not preclude the possibility of that same person enjoying a sandbox-style one, any more than it prevents them from enjoying any other type of game or activity.
But to make the analogy more precise, it would be like saying anyone who has played a PS3 has zero credibility, no matter how much they've also played Xbox, or WII, or anything else ("anyone who's tainted themselves by playing a PS3 can't possibly understand or enjoy the Xbox - he's one of those PS3 people" ).
That's where most of the DF fanbois are quick to judge with kneejerk defensive reactions - they attribute a person's not liking DF to not liking or understanding that genre or style of MMO. In their minds, it's just not possible that those that don't like it - even those that like the genre - just think its a bad game.
If you wanted to buy an xbox360 but wanted to get some opinions on it before you buy it, would you listen to the opinion of someone who has played PS3 only and who bashes the xbox just because of its brand name?
same theory applies..
If you do not like the genre, you really have no weight in rating the game or calling it a failure..
As for the rest of your "bigotry" rant.. umm..
Eh..
Obviously, given your analogy, you'd want the opinion of someone who has solid experience with both. There are plenty of those around. Additionally, contrary to popular stereotyping, a person enjoying a theme-park MMO does not preclude the possibility of that same person enjoying a sandbox-style one, any more than it prevents them from enjoying any other type of game or activity.
But to make the analogy more precise, it would be like saying anyone who has played a PS3 has zero credibility, no matter how much they've also played Xbox, or WII, or anything else ("anyone who's tainted themselves by playing a PS3 can't possibly understand or enjoy the Xbox - he's one of those PS3 people" ).
That's where most of the DF fanbois are quick to judge with kneejerk defensive reactions - they attribute a person's not liking DF to not liking or understanding that genre or style of MMO. In their minds, it's just not possible that those that don't like it - even those that like the genre - just think its a bad game.
Sad to say, but MMORPG.com does not have plenty of the "both" crowd.. If that was the case, as someone said earlier the issue of objectivity wouldn't be an issue after all.. People want universal "good" and "bad". You are twisting my words (of course) to sound as if I am implying that I am a darkfall fan and think that people who don't like it should shut up. Yet, this is not my point and never was, I used it as an example. But we agree to disagree...
Damn you beat me!
So in a nutshell, if MMORPG fans pick a game and it wins the Most Anticipated Game, don’t play it.
Great article, Mr. Wood.
'Way too much neysayers posting, so here's some "anticipated MMOs" to ponder (since no one else mentioned them):
Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Star Trek Online.
Copernicus.
I think DDO laucnhed too early as well. Many complaints about the game after launch could have been predicted; many were addressed by the one-year anniversary (outdoor exploration, PVP, auction houses, level cap), but the things coming out with recent modules still feel like the plish going in for a game about to come out of beta. So either that's signs of a "re-launch" or a waste of resources.
I don't know why they picked Eberron, but it is the official D&D setting that annoys me the least, so thank heavens. Forgotten Realms relies too much on powerful NPCs, and I just find the setting cliched.
Anyway, I will say, warts and slow development and all, DDO is the only MMO that has held my interest. It is certainly worthwhile to take a free trial.
I think DDO laucnhed too early as well. Many complaints about the game after launch could have been predicted; many were addressed by the one-year anniversary (outdoor exploration, PVP, auction houses, level cap), but the things coming out with recent modules still feel like the plish going in for a game about to come out of beta. So either that's signs of a "re-launch" or a waste of resources.
I don't know why they picked Eberron, but it is the official D&D setting that annoys me the least, so thank heavens. Forgotten Realms relies too much on powerful NPCs, and I just find the setting cliched.
Anyway, I will say, warts and slow development and all, DDO is the only MMO that has held my interest. It is certainly worthwhile to take a free trial.
I would have rathered they go with Ravenloft for the setting. Barring that, Dark Sun. Is the game more solo-friendly? I did the trial a while back, and at the time, it seemed like I wasn't going to survive much without a group. Did that change, any?
It's MUCH easier to solo up through the mid-levels now. What's more, in Mod 9, everything except raids will scale the hit points of the monsters to the number of players in the instance. I tested this out out on the preview server and it seemed way too easy; but then I was using twinked gear and new the quests very well already.
That said, it is still way more fun with a good group.