E3: Introduction To DC Universe Online
MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh is in attendance at this year's E3 where she had the opportunity to be introduced for the first time to SOE's upcoming MMORPG based on the characters of DC comics, DC Universe Online.
Jim Lee, the Executive Creative Director of SoE's recently announced MMORPG DC Universe Online started his presentation at the historic Shrine Theater in Los Angeles by repeating the Jack Palance feat of doing one-handed push-ups on stage to the laughter and applause of a full house of media representatives and analysts. The renowned comic book artist is no stranger to the world of MMORPGs. He informed the packed Shrine Theater in Los Angeles today, July 15th, 2008 that he is an avid gamer and played EverQuest from the day it launched and made the level cap of 50 that summer.
By way of presenting his MMORPG gamer creds, Lee boasted, “I was the first. Not the second, not the third, but the first Paladin on my server to get Fiery Avenger after a miserable 20 hour camp in the plane of Sky.”
Jim waxed eloquent over the beauty of the Gotham skyline and the ability to walk the same streets Batman walked. To be a super hero standing besides the likes of Green Lantern or Wonder Woman, or a villain helping to orchestrate a mass breakout of the inmates of Arkham Asylum, “that would have made my twelve year old brain explode,” he said as he spoke nostalgically about his longtime love of games and comic books.
Imagine being able to play a super hero character of your own making and assist Nightwing or Green Arrow in a mission. Or maybe you would prefer to concoct a scheme with Lex Luthor to undermine that do-gooder spandex wearing Superman? Oppose or support Brainiac's robot army? This will be your choice when SoE's DC Universe Online launches.
This game is being designed on both the PS3 and the PC platforms and will allow both console and PC gamers to interact in the same world. Creative Director, Chris Cao was on hand at the SoE meeting room to talk about the game and not giving away much. Jim Lee directs the art and look of the game and a yet un-named writer ensures proper continuity between the comic book world and that of DC Universe Online. Players will see many favorite villains and heroes in game: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Super Girl, and more, Lex Luthor, Braniac, The Joker, Penguin, you will find them all. Including various Robins. Wait... how will that work?
“Luckily,” said Cao, “we don't have to deal with it. They <DC & Warner Brothers> have that worked out. We have a great writer – as famous in the comic book industry as Jim Lee – that's writing our story, but this is early days yet.”
Well, obviously the various Robins – Tim Drake, Dick Grayson and Jason Todd will not be in the same mission or time/space, allowed Cao, but yes, we saw Nightwing in the game trailer and we will see Robin in his trademark “elf” outfit and speculated on playing out the Death of Superman.
“That's still to be worked out, but yes, comic book story lines might be worked into the game time line.”
When asked about the information already out, such as the physics of the game where you could be frozen as a block of ice, Chris laughed, “Yes, that's totally something else. You're basically stunned but your team mates can pick you up and throw you at the villains.”
There will be factions in game, but whether they will be the Justice Society of America, The Guardians of the Universe, H.I.V.E. or the Secret Society of Super Villains have yet to be revealed.
Yes, it's early days but we are already promised lots of customization in terms of costume and powers, but mostly teasers since SoE is preparing a presentation and hands-on play at Comic Con in San Diego only two weekends away.
“We call it a hybrid between a traditional MMO and an action console game. But instead of just listening to me talk, come to Comic Con,” said Cao. “Play the game and see for yourself.”
DC Universe Online has a myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/dcuo, and from what little we have seen from the trailer, under the direction of Jim Lee, it is your favorite comic book heroes and villains of the DC world come alive and we soon will be able to live out our childhood fantasies and be a hero (or villain) alongside them.
You can also watch a trailer for DC Universe Online here.
Sounds promising. I hope they can pull off everything they're promising here. Also, the only website they have is a myspace one?
SOE looks to future as they try to forget the past. Its not going to be all that easy.
i was always more of a marvel guy, but if i can be a batman type, that would own. Not sure what else to think about this until we see more info and an actual website.
As a big superhero fan, I'm a little surprised at my utter lack of interest in this project.
Maybe it's the console aspect, or maybe it's the involvement of SOE. Maybe because I prefer Marvel (though I certainly don't dislike DC).
Probably a combination of all the above.
I agree it's probably a combination of SOE's 'touch of death' involvement, console aspect, and also the fact that there's already a really decent Super Hero MMO out there already.
im just glad that SOE has their filthy paws all over DC and not Marvel.
If Smed has anything to say there it's going to be an item shop / instance galore job.
"Rent a Batman."
"Your very own Gotham."
"Be THE hero."
Lol.
Yeah I got mixed emotions here too. I love Jim Lee's art, and always have, but.... SOEvil? Should I jump on board right away or wait till the NGE comes out?
Deja vu. Big IP, grand plans, not much talk, then big release, people jump in, get bored after a month, devs make changes that don't help, more people leave, then massive changes, almost everyone leaves, those who remain (as well as SOE) wonder why nobody likes their game, and it eventually becomes Station Pass fodder. Been there, done that. The fact that Chris Cao is heading this up, or even involved, means that the players' idea of fun is whatever the hell he TELLS you it is, and your own ideas suck. And the fact that it's being written for the PS3 automatically assumes a depth of gameplay equivalent to a nosepicking competition.
It's such a shame really, I love the DC universe, and to see Nightwing, Batman and Robin be put in the hands of SOE it scares me to the core. (I would mention The Question, but I don't know if he will even be present in the game)
If Jim Lee is no newb to MMORPG's, hasn't he kept much contact on SOE's recent developments? Hasn't he heard about SOE's "management" of not just SWG, but also VG, MxO, EQ2? Oh well, its such a shame really because I was really looking forward to this game, I don't know if I'll pick it up now though. Did anyone see in the trailer the actual player made models? They looked like crap, like little bastardized clones of flash with guns and Power Ranger colors (the guns was the only thing that looked good imo) If that's what I have to look forward to my own superhero looking like, forget it, I think I'll wait for Champions Online.
This sounds very nice, i did like coh/cox fior a time until it seemed very very repetative, i hope for it to be different in thta aspect, looking forward to trying it anyhow, has there been any indication if this will be under the station pass or not?
I'm just kinda stunned that in the next few years, the Comic genre is going to be flooded. Champions, DCU, and (I'd think they would) a CoH expantion/sequal.
Maybe Marvel saying "forget this" wasn't such a bad idea.
Anyway... the character models look like a Lee/Timm hybrid, that doesn't quite work. SoE running the show leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I've always said "I'll never buy a SoE box w/in the first year ever again". And I'm a huge fan of DC. Champions Online is going to have to suck balls for me to jump ship.
Seriously,
I hated SOE's guts what they did to SWG with the NGE update!
But blaming SOE for Matrix Online's failure, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes failure? That goes WAY far people! Because if SOE didn't took them over, both of these games would have been long dead few months after their initial launch! R.I.P.!
And you all call SOE a doomsday company, only because of the NGE? Seriously! Grow up and move on! I know I did.
EverQuest I is still running. 10 years after release it's still running people! They still have enough subscriptions to keep it going.
EverQuest II is doing fine too (I know I still love the game). In fact, it's one of the best MMO's out there atm. Problem is that SOE always sucked in proper PR, especially here in Europe (non-existent!!). Otherwise they would have had double the subscriptions they have now. But still it's 300k people subscribed to this game. Not bad!
Because you all seem to forget that there are other MMO Companies out there that screw up too!
Auto Assault?
Asheron's Call 2?
Matrix Online (before SOE picked it up!!)
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (before SOE picked it up!!)
Tabula Rasa?
Gods and Heroes (in fact the whole Company Perpetual Entertainment was a big joke, as they tried to screw up a HUGE IP like Star Trek Online as well!!)
Hellgate: London (now R.I.P. as Flagship Studios closed it's doors without warning to either employees nor their Hellgate: London fans that stood by them since the failure launch all the way up till now!!)
Age of Conan (and basically Anarchy Online as well... as how long did it take for Failcom...ehh Funcom to fix that game after the worst launch of all time??) ?
So before you burn SOE at the stake. Let's just wait what get's delivered and see. And yes, I'm not to eager about the Console Aspect either.
But just wait and see.
Whoopie freeking woo. This looks bad, as in game function, set up and support from SOE. To bad, there is alot of potential there.
Funny how all of a sudden comic book hero games are all the rage. Personally, I just don't see what the hype is about, City of Heros was a good game, but it certainly only kept my attention for about 2 months, far less than any other game I have played. I don't think these new ones will be any different.
All I can say is ho hum.
Ummm, SOE is the reason that Vanguard is still going, and quite nicely I might add. But then again, please don't believe me because you might pick up the game. 8P
Graphics look good, but the animations are horrible...but since the game is still in early development, I'll reserve judgment. Then again, with SOE at the helm, I should probably wait a couple years to play it since they'll overhaul the game design a few dozen times during that span.
I want this game to be good right out of the gate, not a year after release when it finally becomes the game it should have been.
Geez, I am really tired of the ant-SOE whine whine whine. SOE isnt the only MMO company to have made bad decisions!
After my interest in Champions cooled a lot down, when I heared it was more an action FPS like game, I hope this will continue classic MMORPG virtues. I definitely put it on my watch list.
VERY VERY well said! I fully agree.
Hate to burst your bubble, but I do remember a thread a long time ago that said that it would be very action paced (more FPS style) than classical RPG MMO. This was SOE saying this btw. So I guess you're stuck. I can't remember the thread since it was a good 6+ months ago when I read it. I think it was posted here in the Pub, but I can't remember for sure.
Yeah, very well put and i have to say even if SOE is
evil and all according to everyone. I think maybe this will be a turning point for them to really prove themselves good. We never know. Still, i do think they will have a good support of fan base since they are using DC super heroes and all. I can see that is a good base for opening up to new players for the game. Once the word gets out and they attract some core fans of comics they might just hit it big and do good with it.
Yeah, very well put and i have to say even if SOE is
evil and all according to everyone. I think maybe this will be a turning point for them to really prove themselves good. We never know. Still, i do think they will have a good support of fan base since they are using DC super heroes and all. I can see that is a good base for opening up to new players for the game. Once the word gets out and they attract some core fans of comics they might just hit it big and do good with it.
you forgot to add ea-games shutting down earth and beyond, sims online and starting an ultima-x that turned vaporware.
Two reasons this game will not live up to the hype for PC MMO'ers (the only kind at this point):
PC players will be turned off by simplicity of a console port
The comic book stories they talk about being 'live' will never happen.
SWG, EQ2, Matrix and especially CoX promised live events, dynamic content and evolving storylines. The closest any of them delivered were static raids by Tusken in SWG and once in a year events from CoX. Nothing else.
Same old hype and same old drivel from SOE. Given the fact that the PS3 has a crappy online interface, struggling sales and no market research proving any of the PS3 owners will actually subscribe to an MMO, we PC players will get the sloppy seconds of a failed console game.
I prefer comic and sci-fi to fantasy, but I will not touch this with a ten foot pole.
I think you make an interesting point here. I honestly never understood the whole "bringing MMO's to consle" sales pitch. IMHO I think consoles are the most horrible port to bring MMO's to. They're simply not adequately built for them, consoles as far as I've seen only excell at stand alone games, because that's what the majority of the games are, so in essence, the internet/mmo aspect of the console is made as an afterthough. Really the only console so far that I've seen, that has done a good job of bringing an online interface is Xbox, no surprise there though, since we are talking about Windows/Bill Gates, it's something that has been a part of their business and have experience in for many many years.
And Sony?... well exactly, what about Sony? We've all seen how well they did in the PS2 with their internet interface (or lack thereof) when FFXI came out for the PS2.
Computers on the other hand, once the birth of the internet began, grew and excelled to where it made them the perfect port for MMO games and I really hate to see online games be brought down due to consoles (anyone that has played FFXI will know what I'm talking about since there has been a huge debate as to why that game is being held back due to PS2 players)
Solomon Grundy wishes SOE wasn't behind this game!!!
You have that backwards. Jim has been close friends with Brad Mcquaid since the late 90s. He did the EQ comic for Brad as far back as 2001. In fact along with Curt Shilling were the most 2 visible early celebrity proponents of MMO
So Jim's involvement with SOE goes back to the late 90s. Jim also was close to Mcquaid when he moved to Sigil during the development of Vanguard.
But that's the old school ass-kicker in me talking. Most of you guys probably started playing MMOs in 2006 and never heard of anything before WOW. Maybe 2-3 smart dudes among the 1000 noobs who read this article actually "got" that FA reference by the writer
In truth Lee is overrated. He's got an unparalleled mastery of proportions but his drawing is one-dimensional. His storywork sucks. His dialogue is laughable and there's 0 evidence he's qualified to be a creative director for an MMO. HOWEVER there is one hope... it's that in a world were everything is dominated by WOW, and you cannot get a game into development which doesn't begin and end with World of Warcraft as a reference, Jim Lee is an OLD SCHOOL MMOer. Back in the day of MUDs/EQ each game had a different flavor, were HARDER and much more intelligent than MMOs today. DCU online is the one game that has a chance to do something different solely based on Jim's expertise with the genre. as opposed to ANOTHER WOW clone.
SOE ruins everything it touches, its the exact opposite of the midus touch. ill never play anything by them again.
In keeping with the theme of this thread:
You had me at hello...then you lost me with SOE.
And, as a long time comic book nerd, I wish I could be excited about this game. But the fact is I'm a little nervous. I've always been a bigger Marvel fan, but I do love DC as well. I just can't imagine that any mmo, especially one that's being developed for console play, will live up at all to the great memories I have of the DC universe. Call me a pessimist, but it seems to me like I won't be able to help but be let down when 70 years of comic history is crammed down into a button masher. Add to it the fact it's being run by SOE and will therefore probably be released half finished and bugged as hell, and a sense of impending doom washes over me. Hell, I don't know if any developer could make a good DC mmo that would live up to my admittedly lofty expectations.
I'm not trying to convince anyone not to play this, and in fact it may be a very well developed mmo upon its release, but for my own sanity I don't think I'll be going anywhere near it. Whatever, just my two cents.
It was rumoured that SOE got the DCUO licence as a consolation for also taking on MxO off Warner Bros.
Thus far, DCUO looks somewhat appealing to me, but it looks a long way from polished / finished. Also, the entire slant of the MMORPG article is how cool it would be to play along side the established characters. Yes, it would... some of the time. But players don't always want to be Robin - sometimes they want to be Batman (or beat the snot out of Batman, for that matter).
Also, there hasn't been a good description of how players build characters. All in all, it's very early days for DCUO.
Even though I am usually a firm beleiver in the "Give each game its own fair chance" rule...I'm afraid I for one am also going to have to go with the popular consent here.... SOE MMO's are a tried and failed product all around. The companies history is just too blemished now to give any title that even has thier logo on it a fair shot...its just not worth wasting the time...even if it starts out as a good title.
Although again...this is my bias'd opinion of SOE:
SOE is historically known for its blunders. SOE is historically known for running a decent title into the ground. SOE has a history of ignoring all/most of the player feedback. To me...SOE is the worst type of publisher, they are a bottom dollar company that doesn't care about the so called "content" they slam around their game engine so long as its a shiny title that appeals to a crowd or already has a fan base. They have no desire to make a good and lasting game that will provide many hours of real entertainment and joy for people...and that should be the number one priority IMO. They are banking on the retail sales and the 1-3 months of subscription fees they will collect from DC fans before they flee in shock and dismay. In the end...another SOE station pass garbage game they can write off as being "successful" because sooooooo many people of course are "Playing/Subscribed" the game (because they have a station pass, not becuase they are active).
The worst part...regardless of how bad they do...or how they botch a game...or how they ignore and treat their player base like garbage...they will NEVER APOLOGIZE....never say they are SORRY....and never correct their mistakes...regardless of how obvious it is to the rest of the world. Seriously...SOE has burned the bridge...with extreme predijuced.
I feel truly sorry for anyone looking forward to this game because they are a fan of DC comics. Truly...my heart felt and sincere sympathies....because you will be witness to watching it get butchered. If you are a SW and a DC fan...well...really...there's nothing I can say to those people...they already know...or at least will find out.
"the next hero...is you". ::rolls her eyes:: DCU looks terrible, sounds terrible and most likely will suck so bad simply because SOE is in charge - not even going to give it a second look.
Unfortunately, I find myself at the opposite side of the fence. I wish they'd done Marvel rather than DC. I don't much care if they screw up Spidey, but fucking up Batman is sacriligious.
You know what? Why hasnt anyone resurrected the old MicroProse series of X-COM UFO Defense as a MMO? That game is still one of my favorites and if youve played it youll know its almost a MMO without the M!
Someone get Mythic on the phone and lets get this gem from the past resurrected again! Maybe even see a new and improved X-COM offline game! Oh hell, maybe it could be both!
Might have been interested, but it is from SOE, so I won't touch it.
greetz
SOE screwed up alot more games then SWG. Think EQ, and Planetside. I hear people complain all the time about what SOE did to those 2 games, and SWG:NGE. Also SOE is notorious for keeping games on life support with rarely any updates or events, what good is that? And how much fun can you have in a game that the company that owns it, wont even bother keeping it updated. Also, people who havent even played these games dont like SOE just because of the bad reputation it has. Its a company's reputation that makes them either good or bad. And face it, SOE has the most shitty reputation in the MMOG industry
EDIT: also i feel pretty much like everyone else, except its a shame that its DC and not Marvel who is getting their game developed by SOE. I'm going to be at the comic-con in a little over a week, ill try to play it and report back here with some info.
Holy crow, if you people are not going to touch this mmo because how they ''screwed'' people, what mmo are you going to play then, every mmo maker has screwed there customers, most even worse than soe, so i hope you stand on the grounds and not play any mmo, if your that much of a freedom fighter for people getting screwed in mmos. And for some reason i dont think any of you have the balls to do that, i bet most of you are playing an mmo, and theres these disgruntled people that look at you the same way you look at people playing soe games.
name three and list what they did that was worse then SOE. And make sure what they did affected a large playerbade also, considering what SOE has done.
name three and list what they did that was worse then SOE. And make sure what they did affected a large playerbade also, considering what SOE has done.
Blizard-the burning crusade, made every endgame player worthl;ess and bzasically start raiding from scratch
ea-games..shut down every mmo company they bought ditched the game, farked the playerbase moved the dev s to stupid games on consoles. (I pray for mythic that they dont get bones)
Eve- werent one of the gm's caught cheating or some crap, and when trinity came out if you rebooted your computer after installation you could not reboot yer puter because it erased the boot.ini file
and theres one more where the name of the game escapes me now, but they changed the market and crafting andhalf the playerbase left
Dark and light- this game robbed peopleof money , made the game half finishd on release, and stole a game engine.
I find it hard to believe they will stay with "the next hero..is you" for long in the game. This is the same company they felt everyone wanted to be Luke and Han in SWG instead of haveing there own story. After all it is always so "Iconic" to be just like Superman and Batman :P
I find it hard to believe they will stay with "the next hero..is you" for long in the game. This is the same company they felt everyone wanted to be Luke and Han in SWG instead of haveing there own story. After all it is always so "Iconic" to be just like Superman and Batman :P
That just shows that SOE people have no idea whatsoever what makes a MMORPG.
Their heads are so firmly stuck in that "console single-player" paradigm they are completely unable to think outside it.
Ofc they think "everybody wants to be THE hero." That's the way they've been brought up. And that's why they'll go the way of the dinosaurs.
Funcom failed mostly due to this - but at least they had the sense not to promise everybody and his dog that they'll all be Conans.
Good riddance. I just hope the industry will finally stop putting SOE in the top tier of MMO developers. It's getting really pathetic - like watching the sports media pump up some poor old punch-drunk boxing champion of 10 years ago just to squeeze out a grubby buck in a match he's bound to get killed in.
Blizard-the burning crusade, made every endgame player worthl;ess and bzasically start raiding from scratch
No. Not from scratch, they started from 60. 10 extra levels and a whole new world to explore is hardly seen as something "bad".
ea-games..shut down every mmo company they bought ditched the game, farked the playerbase moved the dev s to stupid games on consoles. (I pray for mythic that they dont get bones)
links? names? anything? They bought mythic out, and mythic is creating WAR. And DAOC is still running
Eve- werent one of the gm's caught cheating or some crap, and when trinity came out if you rebooted your computer after installation you could not reboot yer puter because it erased the boot.ini file
yes a GM helped out one of the corps in the game. Not sure what the punishment was so i wont comment on that. The crashing was fixed.
and theres one more where the name of the game escapes me now, but they changed the market and crafting andhalf the playerbase left
hmm i dont recognize a game like that atm.
Dark and light- this game robbed peopleof money , made the game half finishd on release, and stole a game engine.
an indy company's first and last mistake.
well you listed one company that could possible come close to being as bad as SOE, and thats the creators of D&L. The rest werent as game breaking as what SOE did, what you listed are things that were fixed and dealt with. SOE however did not "deal with" or "fix" anything, They broke their games. SOE did something that will make a some/alot of its playerbase leave. Last i checked WoW's expansion didnt make people leave, and people left D&L before their free month was up.
I think you are misinformed when it comes to the live events in those games. I cannot speak for SWG, but I know CoX has had at least a few live events that were somewhat interesting. I don't remember the specifics, as I only heard of them through friends playing.
The matrix online has TONS of live events. In fact, before Monolith was taken over by SOE there was a dedicated Live events team. That was before I started to play, so I don't know much about that. What I do know is that there are currently live events run by the Head GM's and developers in game. They play key characters such as Morpheus and others and help to advance the storyline.
And at the SOE bashing. I really have NO problem with SOE. They fucked up EQ and SWG, yeah I understand. SWG was doomed from the beginning. Sure Pre-Cu was unique, fun to many, but their subscriber numbers was not where they wanted it to be for the biggest IP in the world. In fact, SOE has done a lot of good stuff for MxO. The problem is: they stopped. The game has so much potential, but there just isn't enough support for it.
As others have said, SOE has done good with a lot of games. Vanguard, EQ2, Matrix Online, etc.
Back on topic :D Im really excited to see what happens with this project, as im a HUGE DC fan. More specifically, a Batman/Joker fan. And yes, im seeing the dark knight tonight.
I kind of like the art style, I see a few "ugh" moments. Like the giantic size of batman, and the style of nightwing, but I really like what they did with the joker. Hopefully they can do something good.
as much as i like the dc universe comics the fact its soe behind the game it really does nt inspire me with much confidence . i suppose theres always a slim chance that they learned from thier past mistakes . somehow i doubt it though .
out of interest are dc comics owned by sony now ? i dont keep up with whats happening in comics these days because they ve become way too overpriced .
i ll probeberly try the game if theres a free trial or i can get a buddy key but i would nt buy an soe game again without trying it first .i brought vanguard and got my fingers burnt . once bitten twice shy .
I'm not a blind SOE hater. In fact, I've never played SWG or MxO.
However, I tried really hard to like EQ2, both at launch and after the revamp. Oh, and again at the launch of Faydwer. I still think it's a tedious, shallow game with lackluster classes and a poor balance between solo and group play.
And I don't think EQ1 has fared so well under their continued guidance. Some things are better than they used to be, yes. But some things are a lot worse.
Vanguard is better than it was at release in the same way that dying by lethal injection is better than being burned at the stake -- not quite as painful, but you'd still rather be doing something else.
Oh, and let's talk about Legends of Norrath while we're at it. Worst customer support of any game I have ever played. And that is saying a lot.
So while I'm not a rabid enemy of SOE, they have yet to prove to me that they can make an MMO I want to play. I really don't think DCU is going to be any different.
Blizard-the burning crusade, made every endgame player worthl;ess and bzasically start raiding from scratch
No. Not from scratch, they started from 60. 10 extra levels and a whole new world to explore is hardly seen as something "bad".
ea-games..shut down every mmo company they bought ditched the game, farked the playerbase moved the dev s to stupid games on consoles. (I pray for mythic that they dont get bones)
links? names? anything? They bought mythic out, and mythic is creating WAR. And DAOC is still running
Eve- werent one of the gm's caught cheating or some crap, and when trinity came out if you rebooted your computer after installation you could not reboot yer puter because it erased the boot.ini file
yes a GM helped out one of the corps in the game. Not sure what the punishment was so i wont comment on that. The crashing was fixed.
and theres one more where the name of the game escapes me now, but they changed the market and crafting andhalf the playerbase left
hmm i dont recognize a game like that atm.
Dark and light- this game robbed peopleof money , made the game half finishd on release, and stole a game engine.
an indy company's first and last mistake.
well you listed one company that could possible come close to being as bad as SOE, and thats the creators of D&L. The rest werent as game breaking as what SOE did, what you listed are things that were fixed and dealt with. SOE however did not "deal with" or "fix" anything, They broke their games. SOE did something that will make a some/alot of its playerbase leave. Last i checked WoW's expansion didnt make people leave, and people left D&L before their free month was up.
Look up ea-games list of cancelled mmo's and company's they bought and dismantled i cant believe you have not heard of any w/o doing research lol.
Seriously,
What you think Age of Conan is huh? More button mashing isn't possible then that game. It was build solely for the XBOX360 release this autumn! Period! And we all PC players have been sacked in all the PR Hype around Age of Conan.
Almost none of the OVERHYPED and advertised features in Age of Conan work or are just not there at all! Not to mention that stats, skills and feats are still completely messed up more then a month after release!
Age of Conan is a failure. And only thing Failcom is going for, is trying to suck in people from the XBOX360 and get a load of boxsale cash there too, so they can cover their development costs a bit.
And when we are so busy with Failcom, lets talk about their customer suport (both out of game as ingame)! OH YEAH! There is NONE! So we are already done talking about that.
And name a company worse then SOE? Well that's absolutely really simple to mention: Electronic Arts. So we are quick on that one too.
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes was developed by Sigil. leaded by Brad McQuad. A so called legend in MMO history.
Matrix Online was developed by Monolith (under the flag of Warner Bros. Time Warner is the biggest empire in the world atm mind you.)
Tabula Rasa developed by NCSoft and was leaded by Richard Garriott. Another so called legend in MMO history.
Tabula Rasa an okay game? After level30 it's finished. Happy grinding to level50 without new abilities, no more progress!! The whole game is just like Age of Conan. OVERHYPED and didn't deliver up to it's promisses! Altho Age of Conan was even far worse.
Cheers
Unfortunate. :( Dont they know the fast way is the way of the dark side? ... oh my...
I hope it doesnt come out like it. Where have the good old days of turn based combat gone, when combat was more like chess and less like Super Mario on LSD? Somehow more and more just want to focus on the action hyper hyper CS kids these days, and IMVPO such a road doesnt pay off. Those hyper hyper kids play CS for free and wont pay any subscription based MMO. Where along the line did we loose the good old school D&D style combat? :(
Blizzard - TBC : So what, it was more of the same, it wasnt a bad expansion.
EA : AFAIK they never closed down an mmo. Ultima Online is still running, there were many mistakes made, but UO is still an ok game.
DAoC, well since EA bought Mythic, it hasnt gotten worse. They are even releasing Origins, a promising new server.
Now if you would talk about the game companies that they bought and ruined, then you may have a point, but that is not what we are talking about here.
EVE Online : Yes, some employees from CCP misbehaved, CCP learned from that and they installed a counsil of players. But they did not ruin their game. On the contrary, EvE Online is the ONLY Sandbox MMORPG that I know of that stayed true to it's ideals. People that play EvE online KNOW they can keep playing the game for years to come, and that the game will improve and expand, but will stay recognisable to the veterans. There are loads of veterans playing since beta that are still playing now.
Sure there are some bad developers, however, SOE lied to our face, screwed us over and hoped we ( the vets ) would leave the game and be replaced by "better" customers that wanted WoW in the Star Wars universe.
Not even EA has done this to me.
So, no I will never touch another SOE game again, unless perhaps if they completely restore SWG to pre CU-NGE and fix the problems it had at the time.
And it is not only about principles, it is also about the risk I would take if I invest in an SOE mmorpg, because you never know when they will completely change the game and then I will have lost my emotional and time investment again.
Greetz
Tjeez. John Smedly went finally on his knees last year and admitted they screwed up badly with the NGE update on SWG!
What more do you want? They already told us it is impossible to roll back to pre-CU / NGE. They prolly don't even have the original code anymore.
So get over it tjeez! I still play EverQuest2 since the beginning (made some pauses here and there to try out other MMO's, but always ended back up with EQ2 again) and it's a great game. They haven't done a NGE style update on this game and NEVER will!
SOE screwed you (me and many others) ONCE with SWG!
I lost count how many times Electronic Arts screwed us over with various games! So don't start me on that!
Cheers
Seriously,
What you think Age of Conan is huh? More button mashing isn't possible then that game. It was build solely for the XBOX360 release this autumn! Period! And we all PC players have been sacked in all the PR Hype around Age of Conan.
Almost none of the OVERHYPED and advertised features in Age of Conan work or are just not there at all! Not to mention that stats, skills and feats are still completely messed up more then a month after release!
Age of Conan is a failure. And only thing Failcom is going for, is trying to suck in people from the XBOX360 and get a load of boxsale cash there too, so they can cover their development costs a bit.
And when we are so busy with Failcom, lets talk about their customer suport (both out of game as ingame)! OH YEAH! There is NONE! So we are already done talking about that.
Lol im sensing a AOC troll in the area. YOU believed the hype and followed the game, i didnt and i enjoyed it while it lasted. Funcom is no where near as bad as SOE. And again, AOC was just released last month, i give it another month or 2 before real reviews come from the game.
And name a company worse then SOE? Well that's absolutely really simple to mention: Electronic Arts. So we are quick on that one too.
go ahead and name reasons.
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes was developed by Sigil. leaded by Brad McQuad. A so called legend in MMO history.
did i even say anything about VG?
Matrix Online was developed by Monolith (under the flag of Warner Bros. Time Warner is the biggest empire in the world atm mind you.)
yea, read the green text in the post you quoted.
Tabula Rasa developed by NCSoft and was leaded by Richard Garriott. Another so called legend in MMO history.
Tabula Rasa an okay game? After level30 it's finished. Happy grinding to level50 without new abilities, no more progress!! The whole game is just like Age of Conan. OVERHYPED and didn't deliver up to it's promisses! Altho Age of Conan was even far worse.
this is all based on your opinion.
Cheers
Seeing the Flash running up a building and Hal Jordan flying was "OMFG"! But then the backgrounds and sound effects remind me so much of CoX... I'm sticking by the possibility of being a hero or villain and fighting against or alongside some of the great super icons of American comics.
Commenting on the character animation, I do hope what we've seen is just the early stages of development...
The difference between you and a broken record is that a one point the broken record was good to listen to.
Except, you know, having the 2nd most succesful western MMO ever.
did i miss anything or did it say "YOU CAN BE YOUR OWN HERO" brings back memories. yet another lie by SOE.
yeah. In the SWG installation string of Screenshots, the last quote i think was "now its time to tell the greatest story ever told ........... yours". Atleast thats what the DC slogan reminded me of.
I like the concept, but I wish it were Marvel. I haven’t had too much luck with MMO'S that have been based off of movies. I hope SOE can live up to DC's standards and make a solid game.
I'm not so sure. PS3 sales look set to over take the Xbox360 in number of units sold in 2009. The PS3 is in a much better position than the Xbox360 when it comes to which next gen console is the best choice to develop a console MMO for. ALL PS3's are HDMI, and have a HDD as standard, and the PS3 has more computing power. SOE looks set to take advantage of this and be the first to make real head way in to the Western console MMO market, and claim a large chunk of the largely unclaimed console MMO pie.. Consoles in the next 5 years will see a MMO explosion. I won't be the least bit surprised to see Ac-Blizzard go that rout with a MMO too. Maybe even bring their King Kong of a MMO's to consoles.
I give up. You guys are just pathetic. If you want to waste your life bashing SOE till your last breath. Be my guest, but die already please! It's getting way too sad.
You know the reputation MMORPG.com has in the gaming world? Even all the way over here in Europe?
Being the pathetic gaming forum full of old SWG vets and other losers with a grudge spending all day bashing companies like SOE!
That's sad! And as long as losers like you keep posting here, MMORPG.com will keep having that bad reputation!
I too miss the good old days of SWG! I still long to the sandbox style game it was back then, with one of the best communities around.
But it's over! It's gone! Everything has it's end. So had SWG, just a bit sooner then we all wanted it to be! But that's life! It's a stupid fugin game for christ sake! And you losers act like it was THE apocalypse that struk the world!
Grow up! Have a candy! And move on!
lol you do realize i wasnt ONLY talking about SWG ....... and its really kind of sad, you only made 1 reply and that was it, not much of a debate, i guess you really had no info to back your response up. although i didnt mention anything about VG or AOC in my first post i still humored you. Cya later guillermo, im sure this will be a brighter place without you.
EDIT: i didnt know you knew what all of europe thought of this site, thats quite amazing if you ask me ....
lol you do realize i wasnt ONLY talking about SWG ....... and its really kind of sad, you only made 1 reply and that was it, not much of a debate, i guess you really had no info to back your response up. although i didnt mention anything about VG or AOC in my first post i still humored you. Cya later guillermo, im sure this will be a brighter place without you.
I quoted your first reply, doesnt mean I ignored your others ones ;)
I have posted about AoC several times here. I have played it since Early Access and over a month in total.
I can tell you at forehand that it will take Funcom a way lot longer then just 2-3 months to fix that game.
All I can say is that I wish I had seen Funcom's anual stakeholder reports before I bought the game. Would have saved me over 100 bucks and a month wasted investment in a MMO game character.
Electronic Arts is a horrible company, but that's basically no news as it's every other big Enterprise that grows too big, becomes extremely arrogant and stopped caring for their customer.
I never said SOE is holy. They aren't the perfect company either. But let's face it! No game company is!
Blizzard was always known for being an excellent company that cared a lot for their customers back in the old days. TILL they brought out World of Warcraft that brought them unexpected fortune. Now it's all arrogance, ignorance and $$$$$ signs in their eyes and just as bad as most other Game Company out there.
EDIT: Comment on your all of europe edit: People talk ingame you know and so they do on european game and regular game forums ;)
I am just getting tired that every time some news item, blog, chatlog, whatoever of SOE pops up here it's getting hijacked and jumped at by all the old SWG vets that still hold their eternal grudge against SOE.
It's getting old and goddarn tiresome!!
I bet it must be tiresome indeed if you have to go up against all the disgruntled ex-SoE players every time :p
edit : About AoC, sure the game has problems and was not finished, so if you don't like it, don't play it. However, so far they have not screwed people over by letting people play for 2 years and then totally changing the game beyond recognition.
Either way, I just want to warn people, if they want to invest in a game that may get changed beyond recognition in a hartbeat, they are free to do so.
I personally wont take the risk.
Greetz
And what MMO would that be? And how would you measure success?
Do you mean EQ? Well at some point that game was indeed succesful. ( 550k ), but that number steadily dropped when more competition surfaced, and now is at 175k, not bad.
However if you look at EvE Online, they come from 25k and currently have around 240k subs, so I would say that EvE Online is more successful or at least alot more future proof then EQ.
So if I would have to choose where to invest my time in, I would choose EvE Online.
And if you look at the current subs, then EvE Online is the second most successful western MMORPG ( besides Dofus ), and perhaps AoC, because I think their subs are still around 300k or maybe even higher.
Getting subscribers is not so hard, keeping them is what it is all about.
Greetz
Console means dumbed down fake MMO - period, end of story. Add in SoE and it is easy to see why nobody cares.
I think this game is going to have big problems because SOE and DC aren't going to collaborate well. SOE is a big company and big companies, when involving themselves in a project, have a tendency to insist on getting their way. But DC owns the IP for the setting and most likely won't like it if SOE makes demands DC thinks are unreasonable. What happens when the DC universe changes like they do another reboot or have another "mega-crossover involving everyone down to Luthor's 3rd cousin" saga? Will SOE take that into account or join in on this mammoth task of having the game keep up with the comic?
We have two opposing forces here. On one hand there's SOE that wants to make a game people will buy and subscribe to. On the other there is DC who wants to preserve their IP for continued comic sales. Unless one of the two rolls over and accepts the other's demands, I predict there will be some slammed board room doors and this game will suffer the same fate as Marvel Online. I don't want to bash anyone, but these are the realities of business.
Champions Online, however, will be better because Cryptic bought the IP for the Champions setting from Hero Games. These are two smaller companies who realize they have to play nice to make a profitable product. More importantly the next edition Champions and the Hero system will wipe the slate clean and will start from scratch. It won't have 70+ years of history to get right. If they decide to move Millennium City from the ruins of Detroit after Dr.Destroyer's attack to Boulder, CO after some supervillain with a sick sense of humor dropped an asteroid on it, Cryptic can do that.
What will happen to DCO if the comic has Darkside devastating half of Metrolopus?
Looks like there's good potential in this one. The video looks like the game isn't polished yet (obviously) and if actual combat is like what is seen in the video then it will be a nice change from other mmo's. Looking forward to trying this one out!
I think that it was a stroke of genius to have Jim Lee to the presentation instead of Smed. The further SOE can keep him off the soapbox for this MMO the better chance that its marketing will suceed.
Keep Smed in box with a case of Rogaine,.
i hope we can build our own heroes in this, like COX but that will probably change knowing SOE. I hope they do a good job and hope they dont ruin it like they did with SWG.