All Posts by Samuraisword

Are you going to use the Unity server for a fresh launch to attract new players and past players like myself who would come back given a new fresh server to start on?

Also the mere fact that when they announced they were going to climb in bed with SOE, many players who were looking forward to the game decided not to bother. That significant decline in initial subscribers hurt since all those potential customers have not bothered to try the game.

Originally posted by zaxxon23

Originally posted by Samuraisword

SOE was losing money thru it's station exchange because of chargebacks and fraudulent use of stolen credit cards. Since SOE was charging a percentage of each sale and processing the sales between players they were taking a hit when the charges were rejected or reversed by the banks.

This is why SOE hired an outside firm to hanlde their RMT and microtransaction sales for EQ2 amd the upcoming game The Agency.

Chargebacks and fraudulent use of credit cards is a problem every business and every industry must deal with.  It is most certainly not correlated to the RMT market.  I certainly hope you're not trying to present it as such.

I am correlating it to the RMT market to a much higher degree. Ask anyone who has sold virtual game items including SOE. Paypal is scam central when it comes to RMT sales. Lots of shady people are involved with RMT.

Originally posted by Consequence

I played and loved much of EQ and yep, EQ was the 1 that started it all....

All the grinding, all the camping, all the timesinks, all the work with little play, the 4+ hour raids full of lag, the generic craft skills that produce items nobody wants by the time your high enough to make them, the acceptance of dueling as a form of pvp, the generic class system, the everybody who plays "X" class looks alike system.

Yep, pretty much everything bad about MMos came from EQ. Everything these boards are flooded with complaints about. They all originated with EQ.

Crafting was generic which produced items nobody wanted? These links from EQTraders show otherwise:

The fact that it was a major grind and time sink to max you skills guaranteed that the better items would be in high demand because most players(such as yourself) lacked the will to put forth the effort to accomplish the goal. I was a Grandmaster Tailor, the first on my server and one of only a few for YEARS. Tailoring was one of the most difficult and tedious tradeskills to master, at least back in the day pre Luclin, and I enjoyed the entire process because I knew all the hard work would pay off in the end and it did big time. I was famous as a crafter. Everyone came to me for the best tailoring items. I enjoyed taking worthy apprentices under my wing, mentoring them and showing them the ropes, as well as the social interaction of building relationships thru trade.

Crafting in WoW for example is a joke, because it is so easy to max your skills that EVERYONE is a master crafter. What is the point in being one of the many? The market becomes saturated and there is no feeling of accomplishment.

The grinding, timesinks and camping that enhanced becoming a Master Crafter were serving the same purpose for leveling and maxing your adventuring skills, the purpose of meaningful achievement and feeling of accomplishment. I don't find that with simplistic games like LoTRO and WoW. I repeat: I enjoy the so-called work of grinding and timesinks if they serve a purpose and they do. It's about the journey.

If you wanted PvP you could play on a PvP server. Nuff said on that.

I agree raiding sucks. I don't raid. I mostly solo. The beauty of classic EQ pre Planes of Power though was that all 3 playstyles: soloing, grouping, raiding, were inclusive and viable and there was enough content and goals to satisfy everyone. That all changed after Planes of Power when SOE ruined the game by focusing on raiding to the detriment of soloing and small groups.

There was a good variety of physical customization at character creation and lots of armor and clothing choices, you could even dye items. Sure some people of the same class looked similar because of the focus on best items but that is to be expected in an item centirc game.

Generic classes? Hardly. Each class had some valuable skills that were exclusive to that class. There were also meaningful racial qualities and faction advantages/disadvantages which unfortunately you don't see in many newer MMOGs. Classic EQ was a hybrid system with preset skills per class that still needed to be used in order to max out.

I  prefer an opportunity cost skill based game with limited skill points to train only a portion of overall available skills that then need to be used to max out, with no preset classes, and levels only to indicate relative character strength for the purpose of PvE and PvP mob comparisons, but classic EQ's hybrid system was pretty good.

Originally posted by altairzq

Originally posted by Celestis1000

To the carebear OP.   THere are 928392832 mmorpgs on the market that are just like EQ, i dont' see what you have to complain about. If anything there is a severe shortage of hardcore PVP mmorpgs.

You should be in World of Warcraft right now raiding, that is what you people do best.

 

Obviously you didn't play on a red EQ server.

Exactly. Celestis is clearly uninformed. The team PvP server was mad fun.

Choosing SOE aka Platform Publishing as a partner was the nail in the coffin. Everything that followed was just icing on the cake.

All SOE games get counted multiple times because of station pass as far as subscriptions. Sometimes Bruce can narrow it down based on periodic public information, box sales, or inside information, but basically all SOE game subscriber numbers are inflated and SOE likes it that way and is secretive about how few the actual active players are for each game since it would be more evidence proving their games suck.

Great Band. They are playing in Philadelphia 4/25 if anyone is interested, think I will go.

My favorite song is Planet Claire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EPP3gkh_00&feature=related

Originally posted by Talinguard

 

 

Why do they have to pay banks millions per month?

I thought about this one and I just left it alone, but since you asked I'm curious too.....

This is why SOE hired an outside firm to hanlde their RMT and microtransaction sales for EQ2 amd the upcoming game The Agency.

The first MMOG theory doesn't hold true for me either. My first MMOG was Realm Online and even though it was fun little 2D game in 1998, it was simple compared to classic EQ.

Classic EQ was great because of all the mechanics and features of the game, some I mentioned, others like real weight capacity that another poster listed. These little things that make the game world more realistic make a huge difference to me. I am old school, I figure out ways to overcome obstacles and appreciate their significance to the overall quality of the game, not whine about them as inconveniences like so many newer gamers who don't focus on the journey.

Classic EQ was great, the period the OP describes from launch til Planes of Power. SOE ruined the game after Brad quit and focused on raiding and forced grouping after that.

The classic EQ world was more dangerous, exciting , and fun. There were no stupid minimaps showing you exactly where to go, no idiotic floating icons above questgivers heads, a real meaningful death penalty that made you actually fear dying and respect the environment, realistic travel times with porting limited to two classes so the world remained large, meaningful differences between the races and classes and their abilities which fostered grouping and cooperation, a slow and lengthy leveling process which increased the longevity and interest in the game and it's various regions, real faction results for attacking various NPCs which made you consider what you killed.

I really miss quality quests with key word responses which required a player to actually read and think about what the questgiver was saying and explore the lands and learn the lore and problemsolve to finish the quest. Anyone who ever performed the Langseax quest in Halas knows how great some of the classic EQ quests were. You just don't see real quests like that in the newer MMOGs because they make everything so simple  for every idiot to complete and most players don't even bother reading what the NPC says because they can just follow the arrow to the  next NPC with a question mark above their head. Pathetic.

I didn't realize how goofy Jesse Ventura is until now. Nuts.

Originally posted by Cabe2323

Easier way is to make money no drop.  Use money to pay for repair bills and items from vendors.  But use a barter system to trade items instead.  You could even configure an "Auction House" to be an advertisement for certain items wanted and items offered that way you can "purchase" something by offering the item wanted.  It helps to build community as well since you then need to work with others to find the items you need and work out multiple person trades. 

While it isn't as convienent as using cash it would sure kill the gold farming business.  The reason it doesn't get done though is because companies like Blizzard don't want to stop it.  They "get rid" of just enough accounts to keep their regular customers happy but they aren't going to massively ban farming accounts. 

Come on who honestly believes that World of Warcraft (4 years after release) is still a top 10 selling game because new regular customers are coming into the game.  What keeps them happilly selling copies are the gold farming companies.   That is who is buying copies every month.

The problem with a strictly barter system is that items flow from the top of the pyramid down and advanced characters who are trading the highest quality items only need other highest quality items and fewer and fewer of them. The barter system doesn't allow non raiding characters the ability to trade for raid drops for instance, because they have nothing to offer advanced characters besides coin. As long as every item has a level/skill user limit to prevent twinking, you should be able to trade for it.

Runesacpe has  designed  a new system which has pretty much shut down gold sellers. Their new system only allows trades to function if both parties are offering item and or coin of similar value, there is no gifting allowed and trade between the same characters are limited to once every fifteen minutes.

The best sites for news and original articles are Tentonhammer or Warcry. MMORPG.com only pastes news articles from press releases or other sites. The only original journalism displayed here are opinions and reviews which don't require any actual investigative research. Dana Massey and others who could write and research left for lack of pay.

As usual the employees and fans of games that are failing want to refute the truth. All numbers are relative to each other so no favoritism is being shown.

Good work Bruce.

Originally posted by Sinnahis

 

Originally posted by Samuraisword

I won't be playing WAR because it is very structured like WoW. I want more of a sandbox game.

If you view the developers game discussion videos, they explain in painful detail about the tiered zones and how you advance from zone 1 to zone 2 etc. in a linear fashion, very much how WoW does this with their quest system. While I can appreciate the simplicity of such a design for most casual gamers, I want a game which allows me much more freedom and promotes intelligent decison making and exploration as part of that freedom.

I also won't be playing WAR because the developers have chosen to bastardize the game by selling ingame items and advantages as part of their preoder and collectors edition incentive. This is a disturbing trend which destroys the concept of a fair and level playing field. I refuse to pay more or pay early in order to not be at a disadvantage playing the game when it launches. It's one thing to start a game after launch and be expected to invest more time to catch up, but entirely unfair to start at a disadvantage because the developers are selling out like gold farmers and item shop games.

 

 

 

Part I? Fair Play and completely understandable, it's reasonably informed and if nothing else a rational feeling.

 

Part II? You are going to be playing consoles or nothing. AoC is offering mounts and items for pre-order and items for CE, Aion comes via NCSOFT so more than a little bit safe to assume they'll offer pre-order and CE items as well. Sure there are other MMOs coming and most (if not all) will offer incentives in the form of  items in Pre-orders and CEs.

Heres a fact (I do mean FACT), Any tester (and/or experienced gamer) I know will tell you flatly that knowing how a game plays, the quests, skills/powers/abilities/stats, class strengths, class weaknesses,  mobs, and maps will take you a good deal farther than some dinky pos item that MIGHT be useful for MAYBE 10 levels.  If you've gamed enough you'll know quickly how true it is, later on (what, like a month tops?) it won't matter in the least as twinking will usually come into play and the "ohemgee no faer itumz!" has become laughable at best.

 Wait... How long until you types start crying for tester nerfs? Let me assure you that without having been in CB or a leaked copy of the game then you WILL be behind the power curve, you WILL be on uneven footing, and no amount of IMAGINED pre-order/CE omfg imba/OP perks will change that (short of the omfgwtfbbq sword/axe/cudgel/feather duster of PWN... but they told me they were fresh out of stock when I called =/). So how long?

I'm to the point that I'd really like to trout the next person I see whining about Pre-order/CE's in the hopes they'll carry their reward back to their people and whine for a trouting nerf so I can has lulz.

 

P.S. For those unaware of what Trouting is...    

1. 1. Any of various freshwater or anadromous food and game fishes of the family Salmonidae, especially of the genera Salmo and Salvelinus, usually having a streamlined, speckled body with small scales.
   2. Any of various similar but unrelated fishes, such as the troutperch.

Trout, to trout, trouting : To take a fresh trout by the tail and beat one profusely about the head and shoulders with said fishes.

Beforewarned.. I played PnP when I was younger, I have my D20 2hnd dw mastery with ranger bonus profs and have been known to carp all over people. 

I agree that beta testers gain a huge advantage by gaining knowledge of game mechanics, mob locations and drops, and beneficial bugs which often go unreported so they can be exploited later. Most beta testers volunteer for selfish reasons, to gain this knowledge prior to release as a leveling advantage. That should not shock anyone or be a surprise. You get what you pay for.

I am way ahead of you about discrediting the practice of game developers relying on free labor to test the game and uncover bugs and make recommendations. This practice is why so many games are released in crappy condition. MMOGs should employ a large QA testing pool to ensure quality.  Paid employees are more likely to  take testing seriously and game developers can hire legions of college students for minimal pay.

The traditional weekend or week long open beta for stress testing is the only time developers should open up the game to the public prior to release. The stress test is usually a short period of time and also open to everyone so no real advantage can be gained over others.

Warhammer is a PvP RvR game. PvE is just for leveling. If you don't like PvP you will be wasting your time, which is more valuable than the cost of the game.

I won't be playing WAR because it is very structured like WoW. I want more of a sandbox game.

If you view the developers game discussion videos, they explain in painful detail about the tiered zones and how you advance from zone 1 to zone 2 etc. in a linear fashion, very much how WoW does this with their quest system. While I can appreciate the simplicity of such a design for most casual gamers, I want a game which allows me much more freedom and promotes intelligent decison making and exploration as part of that freedom.

I also won't be playing WAR because the developers have chosen to bastardize the game by selling ingame items and advantages as part of their preoder and collectors edition incentive. This is a disturbing trend which destroys the concept of a fair and level playing field. I refuse to pay more or pay early in order to not be at a disadvantage playing the game when it launches. It's one thing to start a game after launch and be expected to invest more time to catch up, but entirely unfair to start at a disadvantage because the developers are selling out like gold farmers and item shop games.

Developers should never offer ingame items or advantages as part of an incentive for preordering or buying collectors editions. They should only use external item incentives such as maps-posters-figurines-books etc. Developers that sell ingame items and advantages as part of a preorder or collectors edition are equal to the gold farmers and item shop games, they are corrupting the game.

It's paramount that MMOGs offer a fair and level playing field to all players regardless of when they start the game and how much they pay the developer. All ingame items should be earned thru ingame effort only. The only things that should separate a player's access to items and content is time invested and smart gameplay.

The people who defend this practice of enticing preorder and collectors edition sales by including ingame items and advantages suggest those rewards are not really advantageous and therefore not something to complain about. I always find this position amusing. So which is it? Are the rewards really advantageous, even just a little bit for a short period of time, thus destroying the basic tenet of a fair level playing field or are they truly not advantageous in the slightest degree and thus a ripoff of the people who pay extra for the collectors edition or early for a preorder? HMMM??