Profile: bsmith239
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| Username | bsmith239  |
| Real Name | |
| Rank | Advanced Member |
| Joined | February 29, 2008 |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 24 |
| Location | College Station, TX, United States |
| Last Visit | July 12, 2008 |
| Post Count | 110 |
| Biography | |
| Quote |
5 Most Recent Threads by bsmith239 [more...]
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Are MMOs in trouble??? on 7/10/08 @ 5:05PM
Viewed 176 times, replied 6 times, last post was 7/10/08 -
I think we are seeing how not to handle an MMO (Funcom). on 7/10/08 @ 3:58PM
Viewed 661 times, replied 19 times, last post was 7/11/08 -
And the 38 Studios MMO will be.... on 5/13/08 @ 8:58PM
Viewed 191 times, replied 4 times, last post was 5/13/08 -
Which MMO are you "dying" for info on the most? on 5/13/08 @ 8:26PM
Viewed 802 times, replied 31 times, last post was 5/16/08 -
Need help optimizing my system for this game! on 5/13/08 @ 7:44PM
Viewed 342 times, replied 14 times, last post was 5/13/08
Latest Blog Entry - Is a story that important to an mmog?
From my blog The MMO Experiance [bsmith239]
My question is simple, is a constant story important to an mmo? It seems easy to gravitate towards saying "yes a story is needed to grab a players attention from level one and keep them on the right direction until they reach the level cap" and a lot of mmos have developed this approach. The problem I see with this is it gives the player a false sense of FINISHING the game. A person thinks, "whelp the story is over guess thats it" and religates him/herself to raiding, pvping and then quitting the game for lack of "content". Or they start pushing the devs for more "end game content" which is really a myth in mmos anyways. I was playing the free trail of EVE the other day and I had an epiphany of sorts and this is what came pouring out of my mind
First off, what if an MMO had no real involved story but your own UNTIL you reached cap? Think of the whole leveling up system is your "training" for the epic battles to come your way once you max out. Hell the game would be designed around its endgame content from the get go. For example you could spend 3 months leveling to 50 on your toon only to have a whole story driven campaign waiting for you t that could take you another 3 months to complete. This campaign could include questing, raiding and pvping and would tie those three things together. A player could choose how they wanted to help in the struggle at level cap. Now, you might say this is just sort of putting a mask over the problem of 'end game content', and once people flew through the end game campaign there would be nothing to do but raid and PvP. But a company could continually pump out end game content if they did not worry about adding new content for lower level players. Of coarse this would mean that the leveling from 1 to whatever would have to be extremely polished from the beginning which in turn would mean that a company would need to actually finish the game prior to launch but its totally doable. If company's didn't realease games that where unfinished at the lower level stand point they could put all effort into expanding game systems and adding "elder game" (which is a better term) content after release. Now I am not saying that there would be no direction at the beginning of this fictional mmo. What I mean is that the NPCs and other players around you would be pushing you to excel at your training so you can succeed in your battles ahead at cap. It would really give the since that you are leveling (training) for a reason and give you something to look forward to.
Another look at it, which is more like EVE, is there could be no story at all except the one you make for yourself. Yeah there would be quests in the world but its up to the player to do them and if you dont want to and just want to farm and craft all day you could do that all the way to max level. If someone wants to get into politics let them do that too. These games are supposed to be ROLE PLAYING GAMES. They are supposed to allow you play the role you want to in a virtual world. But it seems to me that these days you are playing the role the game developers want you to in there games. But that is a discussion for another time.
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- MMO’s Created By Evil Capitalist
Originally posted by Aka-Shadows
It’s Not Just Funcom.
It’s Sony,Blizzard etc.
Every time I load a MMO’
And let’s get this straight im talking about mmo’s
I Feel Like a Bot. It’s all repetitive….see it like this.
If you walked into a room and saw a total stranger poking a wall repeatedly.
What would you think?
When I play these new mmo’s not even that every mmo I have played.
It makes me feel stupid.
If these gaming company’s wanted more then just mere money.
Why would they make games like this.
God the only good games are basically. NWN2,NWN,Mass Effect,,Fable. Fallout, fallout 2, arcania,
The reason why you feel like that is because nobody has the balls to do something special. It takes more money to make an MMO than a game like Mass Effect. So the risk is greater. Investors want to make money back so the games are all copies of WoW right now. WoW is the reason the MMO genre is stale. Like I said before until a company has the balls to make something new (taking a huge risk and the possability of losing not only their company but their careers) we are stuck with WoW and its clones.
- Posted: 7/12/08 9:55 PM
General Discussion
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- new Star Wars MMO takes next step
Sorry but if it is BioWare making the game it will not be sandbox. BioWare is a story telling rpg company and they are REALLY good at it. An MMO by them would be very much like LotRO but better. They have stated that they are using some well known standards but have some pretty revolutionary ideas. We shall see what that is. At the very least it should be a polished product because the MMO has been stated to have a 100 million dollar budget with EA putting up some money for it. Expect Mass Effect style NPC interaction, Kotor like environment, an ability to be both evil and good (Ie. their Paragon/renegade) system, the ability to finish quests multiple ways (same system as before) and expect jedi. I only hope they use the Mass Effect combat model though for ranged. I love that game
.- Posted: 7/12/08 9:50 PM
Star Wars Galaxies
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- Failcom... ANOTHER GAME?
Originally posted by Opticaleye
Im not sure what you guys expected here at launch.
Perfection?
Anyone who has played an mmo for the last 5 years KNOWS that the product in question is NEVER finished.I dont P2P for the game to be perfect i play it for ongoing content.
If i wanted a perfect game it certainly is not an online game.A perfect game is 1 that is offline and never crashes and does not (most of the time) require a internet connection.
I dont understand how you can expect at launch anything except a playable game at bare minimum.
What i find even more amusing is that now WarHammer online is expected to release with fewer features than what was being developed.I suppose that when they saw the sales total of 700k or so it turned into a panic to get it out.Who knows its not as if they will admit it.
As far as Conan is concerned FC has the background to make this a success.Its shown that with its other game AO it can do this.Already they are showing initiative with 1nce a week updates.
Im not a fanboi trust me there are things with AoC that i do not like.I think part of the problem is hype and expectation.
Warhammer will launch soon with fewer features than expected.I guess the same thing will happen then.I dont know but ive learned to lower my expectations at any mmo release.
Um sir I will point to LotRO as an example of a game that was very well launched. Proof that not all games are a buggy mess at launch.
- Posted: 7/12/08 9:38 PM
Age of Conan
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- I don't mean to be emo but....
To tell you the truth I had a lot of trouble finding myself too (24 years old). I struggled through college with it and always wondered why I felt the way I did. The thing that pulled me out of it was going to a Psychologist and getting help. I found a really good one that worked with students and he has really helped me turn my life around. I suggest looking into that or maybe just finding a counsilar to talk with.
Also life is tough and you will have to grow up and put up with shit from bosses. The key is to make sure you are getting paid enough for the shit you take. Thats why college is needed. So you get paid enough money for the job you do that any bs you get from superiors just bounces off.
- Posted: 7/12/08 9:34 PM
General Discussion
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- MMO’s Created By Evil Capitalist
Originally posted by Aka-Shadows
One fact is i'm not retarded. any kind of business is ran by some one high up. Owner ETC. Just like any other business.
And capitalism isn’t always a good thing. Greed, Power.
And Besides, That Wasn’t even the point.
THE POINT was to say
Do You Feel Fairly Treated as a player. I know I don’t
I edited my original post with this but to make it more visible
"You are probably the same type of person that views the oil companies as being evil just because the liberals say they are. Just because a game makes 65million does not mean that is all profit is some big wigs pocket. You have to add in development costs (30m), advertising (10mil), paying employees(10mil), and then boxing (3 mil) leaving like 7 million for this fictional game. That is not including taxes and what not left over. This big wigs the people are all up in arms about are just victims of Americans growing class envy. You want to be rich and make your own games.....then work your ass off because the only thing garrunteed in your life is death."
Do i feel I was treated fairly by funcom....NO!
But by Turbine, Bioware, Lucas Arts, ect...Yes I do.
Just because one company sucks doesn't mean capitalism is bad. Also capitalism has nothing to do with greed. Its a business model. Greed comes from evil people. The old saying "guns don't kill, people do" comes to mind.
- Posted: 7/12/08 9:25 PM
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