All Posts by CleffyII

I just got Dark Messiah too.  Damn the combat is so fun, like decapitation.  After several hours of gameplay I can 1 hit kill monsters repeatedly with a "Head Shot" using a Clever.  I don't think that would fit well in an mmo though.  If you noticed in the multi-player version, the combat is very choppy.  I think Age of Conan, Ragnarok Online 2, and Chronicles of Spellborn got it right to bring to the mmo realm.

The spec maps look horrible in EQ2, giving it that clay look since its an all around fill.  They used White Lights, what kind of noob uses white lights for a scene.  Allow me to explain the character texture painting process at SOE.  Pick color tan, shift-f5, enter.  OK done with the skin, now the hair.  Filter>Render>Fibers DONE.  Ohh and you cannot forget the different colored Burlap Sacks they call clothing with customization.

I think the station pass was a good idea, but without the functionality like picking and choosing games to get a discount on subscription.  Also they shouldn't keep credit cards on record.  You should have to retype it every time you want to renew so you don't get the typical SOE stuff like "I canceled my account but I still got charged again"

They are having temporary network issues as you can expect having an IP from Cogent.  Don't worry they are working on it.  They always fix such things in a timely manner and overcompensate for the downtime.

Im in the same position as you.  It might be that they have no US based servers.

Chaos

Loki

Iris

Sakray

1 Race

The XBox360 would have been more successful if they just made a USB controller and made games to run on Windows.

I doubt Gears of War will meet its price tag.  Only 8% of gamers use an XBox 360, thats the hardest core of gamers.  Really they are looking at 2 million potential customers and only about 600k buying the game.  So at $75 thats only 45 million.  Any amateur in price management wouldn't have gone above 20 million on this game.  Its also unnecessary on a single player / limited multiplayer FPS to really break the 2 million mark on budget.  Its thier own fault for wasting money.

Not one of those companies surpasses 20 million a year from mmo based revenue.  I would hardly call them the Big Dogs.  More like the poodles of mmo.  Blizzard, NCSoft, Webzen, Gravity, Wemade, HanbitSoft.  Those are the real big dogs with revenue above 40 million a year from mmo based revenue.

LOL thats funny.  Its really hard to get a few people to do something like this in-game.  Like I was trying to get a group of people to yell "FOR THE HORDE" and make a "HORDE LOVERS" guild in Ironforge, but I got so many flames.

Planeshift has a mac version.

That aside.  Linux is the future.  Both Microsoft and Apple scoffed at the Cell Processor.  But not linux.  It will be the downfall of the X86 base.

Want to pick up a 40 year old middle age single mother.  Go play some Yahoo games.  That is a treasure trove of desperate women.

being a merchant in the game is actually pretty well done, although getting a license can be a bit of an expendature.  The ships are pretty cool.  Like sometimes I would come off shore and start shooting at defenseless creatures.  Trading is very beneficial.  Before I left the game cause it was bland, I was doing trading runs.  I would buy the items at the trade depot that didn't require a license and would transport them to a harbor you couldn't teleport to.  I would make several times the items worth just for making that minor run.

Your list is stale.  Ragnarok Online 2!!!

Myth War.

There are hundreds of pet hot leveling kings.

I'm waiting to see how the game pans out.  I thought it was a little suspicious on how they had no full open beta test.  Only for XBox Live members.

Well you aren't really designing it to be a single player game.  Just not adding in the multiplayer functionality until later since it has many complications including that social aspect and balancing.

The best place to look for companies to pitch ideas to is to look for publishers since they typically want to get money from games without putting much work into it.  The key is not to make them think they are wasting thier time.  Things like emailing them a trailer, and having a website also boost chances they will meet with you.  Using middleware such as the widley used Unreal is a good way to show off a sample game because you can turn it into a profitable thing.  You won't have to pay as much to program your own engine.  However, you might wanna bring a laptop too because they might not have the necessary software.  Also dressing like a professional always looks good.  It says you are serious.

Actually getting to meet with a potential publisher can be quite a hastle I admit.  However, its not like they're is a mystical land they can just pluck good developers from.  They need some way to get ideas for games to make, and having a working playing game goes alot further then shooting them an email about your ideas.

---

Originally posted by Ackbar


I found intriguing what this analyst said: "The bulk of revenues are coming from ongoing subscription fees," he said. "A huge installed fan base is buying the expansion pack regardless of when it's released."

I guess they see us as sheep that will buy their product no matter what since were addicted. That sucks.

---

The forbes analyst sees you as sheep, not Blizzard.  Only a few companies would commit revenue suicide by announcing they could care less about thier players.

I think this may potentially be bad for Blizzard.  They are releasing closer to the Age of Conan release date and the Burning Crusade isn't close to the scope of it.

It can't be released before Unreal 2007.  It will probably be pushed back again.