All Posts by Tweakee

Well, the poll is inaccurate to an extent, since people are more likely to choose to respond if they have a negative opinion, and the community here is both more hardcore than the average player (and thus more likely to grow bored quickly) and FAR more negative than the average player (just look around these forums for evidence of that).

That said, AoC has had a dismal launch, and appears to be a seriously flawed game. It's a shame, since I really liked the style, presentation, and basic combat gameplay. I was hopeful the game would be great, and I'd be very happy if Funcom turns things around in the near future, but I wasn't willing to bet my own money on that. :)

Why not try it out? I have little doubt I'll get my money's worth for the free month. It's a game, not a car - if it sucks, I'm out a few bucks. I accept that terrifying risk! :)

And it's not a choice between WoW and AoC for me. WoW is a non-issue. When I cancelled my WoW account a while back, I couldn't even be bothered to log in for the last 2 weeks it was active - now that was some wasted money!

Posts like this one reek of fanaticism. The claims of trying to help people ring false, as there are hundreds of games (and movies, DVDs, music CDs, etc) released every year that don't have FUD attached to them for little reason. After all, what reason is there to care how someone spends some of their extra money, unless you're worried how it will affect the competing product that you're attached to?

Any MMO with a hard cap on character advancement (LEVELS) is going to fail at holding long-term interest. Levels are a poor concept for games that are intended to be open-ended. The main reason we see levelling systems over and over in MMOs is not because they are the ideal (or even a good) solution, but because they are an easy and familiar one.

If you have a game that you want people to play indefinitely, it is foolish to build in an element that directly tells them, "You're finished here." Obviously games can overcome that negative, but as competition increases and the genre matures, I expect a larger number of people will fail to be satisfied with with severely limited advancement in the end-game. EQ and WoW may have thrived with minor equipment upgrades, levelling alts, and churning the same content w/o variety for months on end, but only the most hardcore addicts will never tire of such monotony.

If a high quality game should ever also manage to match the pace of character advancement to the pace of content creation (ie the vast majority of players never feel like they've hit a limit to progression), that game will recieve unprecedented goodwill and positive reviews.

I just hope that game comes out soon. :)

I play WoW for about 1-2 months a year, which gives me enough time to burn through the minimal content Blizzard adds that appeals to me (Raids and Arena are duds to me).

I'll likely try AoC and Warhammer, and if either can hold my attention for an extended time, I'll definitely leave WoW on the shelf. WotLK looks like a snoozefest to me, with nothing really new or exciting to offer (a new alt class! Woo-freakin-hoo!). I can't imagine WotLK making me reactivate WoW for more than 1 month, and if other games (MMOs or otherwise) have my attention when WoW expands, I can easily see myself passing on more of the same from Warcraft...

8 raids at launch... wow, that's a lot. As someone with no interest in raiding, that's a negative for AoC. Why should I care if raiders have a ton to do? Because all of the time spent on that content is wasted time (to me). Warcraft gets about $15 a year from me, mainly because the amount of content for solo & small-group play is so limited (including expansions) that it can be pretty much exhausted in one month.

Now Conan with 8 raids at launch (of course we'll see if 8 actually make it) and a PvP system that sounds a lot like raiding (large group-oriented, I mean). I know I'll be trying the game, but at this point I couldn't even guess if I'll be playing for 1 month or 12. It makes me wonder if AoC will be able to capture a casual audience in any significant way. I don't schedule my life around games, I schedule games around my life (ie I play when I have free time and am bored, not 'when my guild tells me to play'). Anecdotal evidence indicates there are significantly more people that treat games as a diversion than those who treat them as a job/commitment. All census numbers from various sources about WoW have shown that non-raiders outnumber (serious/devoted/committed) raiders overwhelmingly. So my hope is that the Conan developers haven't focused too heavily on the small hardcore niche at the expense of the wider audience at-large.

Of course, it's also possible that they've managed to find a way to make large-group-oriented gameplay not require rescheduling your life to feel like you're getting any enjoyment out of it... but I'm not holding my breath on that one. :)

This is an extremely useful thread - I've already found 3 people to Block so I never have to hear from them again (hint: people who would likely name their firstborn "IhateSOE"). Don't forget your tinfoil hats whenever you post about how games you know nothing about will suck and fail!

GnH is a smaller title, so launch will be critical. If it launches to good reviews and word-of-mouth, it should do well. If it has initial problems, we'll probably never hear from it again.

Most MMOs treat crafting like a checkbox to tick off - resulting in boring gameplay and largely useless crafted items. I wish MORE MMOs would just leave out features rather than release them as conceptually and mechanically broken messes.

I really like the idea of crafting. Star Wars Galaxies had a very fun and deep crafting system, but most other games have reduced crafting to "sit around clicking one button and watching a progress meter". WoW and others have added "grind thousands of enemies to get rare recipes (or the cash to buy them with)" as their so-called enhanced gameplay.

Crafting can make a game more fun. But it can also make a game less fun (WoW forces a player to craft some of their own items if they want specific/optimal gear, making them take part in a crushingly dull part of the game). If crafting is a dull face-off with a progress bar, it hurts the game further by diverting resources that could have been used on the parts of the game the creators actually cared about.

Every feature requires time to implement (even half-assed crafting implementations). I have no problem with a developer skipping a feature that plenty of other companies have done far worse with: wasting their time and ours with a shoddy implementation.

I'll be trying GnH, if the game they deliver is fun and rewarding, I'll keep playing - if not, I won't. No list of checked-off features will make that decision for me.

I actually have no features, but 5 basic concepts that current MMOs are amazingly screwing up. :)

1) FUN GAMEPLAY. It should be obvious, but is rarely mentioned. No current MMO that I've played has this, most have gameplay that seems an afterthought built around the hamster wheel. An MMO should have gameplay that would make a fun game even if you were playing for no rewards.

2) UNIQUE CHARACTERS. I want to look different than the guy or girl next to me. I want to have different abilities, and a different status in the world. Players all having the same body with 12 different heads is crap. Everyone in my class having the same skills is crap. Everyone getting the same reaction from NPCs in the world is crap.

3) CHOICES THAT MATTER. There are limits to how much you can affect an online world, but there's no excuse for how lazy current game developers have been. How can you immerse yourself in the role of a hero (or villain, etc) if the game is built like a theme park of attractions?

4) NO END GAME. Gameplay should not suddenly change. Character building should not end If items can be upgraded forever, why do characters have to hit a wall, other than poor design? If the game becomes a bait and switch experience when you hit the highest content, the game is broken.

5) MEANINGFUL PLAYER COMPETITION. This doesn't have to be PvP, and definitely is not "gank random people for kicks". But it must have a meaningful impact on the world, not be a tacked-on sideshow.

(Can you tell I'm not currently playing an MMO?) :)

I wouldn't worry about feelings of boredom with the current crop of MMOs - they are, by and large, boring. We've been looking at the same game in different wrappers for many years now, so the more you've played, the quicker the new clone will wear on you.

The biggest problem is that core gameplay of all these games is based on a poor design. "Press 1, press 2, press 3, repeat" was weak when it was first attempted, and remains uninspired and dull now. If your gameplay would be a disaster in a single-player game, you should not build an MMO around it either.

Add in that players often lack any real ways to look or feel unique (armor sets and rigid classes take care of that), and cannot affect the game-world in any meaningful way, and you're left with big chat rooms and flashy images, with bad games wrapped around them.

I am confident that we will eventually see some MMOs that are built first on fun and rewarding gameplay, but for now I'd suggest movies, TV, music and other genres of games are far more likely to satisfy and excite. For now, leave the hamster wheels to the hamsters. :)

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Originally posted by Rinic
They forced an early Vanguard release, causing the game to fail.

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False.

By all accounts, Sigil ran out of money, which forced an early release, which caused the game to fail.

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Chances are they're going to force The Agency out before it's finished.

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Baseless speculation.

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They say they're only going to be publishing POTBS, but that's what they said about Vanguard as well.

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Which was true, until Sigil went belly-up.

You imply that they were lying, which is false and misleading.

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Look forward to 75% of the staff being fired like Vanguard and SOE aquiring POTBS as well.

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The alternative was Sigil going bankrupt, 100% of the staff being fired, and the game servers shutting down.

You imply that this was all part of some diabolical plan, but I doubt that SOE intended for Vanguard to fail so badly that they'd have to step in and pay more money to keep it from folding entirely.
 

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So has SOE been doing anything good? No, not a thing.

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And they never can, if all their actions are filtered through false information and baseless speculation.

The reason for boredom in LotR is twofold:

1) The game does nothing new. This is fine while your character is levelling up, exploring, doing quests, etc. But once you get near the "endgame", the sameness really jumps up in your face. It becomes impossible to ignore how little innovation LotRO attempts over EQ, DAoC, EQ2, WoW, etc.

2) LotRO's endgame is EXTREMELY poor, even taking into account how new the game is. When the levelling up ends, an MMO needs to have fun gameplay and a continued sense of accomplishment, and LotRO fails at both.

The final world zone (Angmar) is horrifically badly designed, with enemies spaced like pylons to make horse travel insanely irritating, including tons of archers. These enemies become elite later on, making ungrouped travel very difficult. Note that I'm not talking about areas with enemies guarding important locations, but rather -everywhere-, which is annoying gameplay, and immersion-breaking as well (why would orcs space out 1 every 20 feet across an entire desert?) "Solo" quests are also interspersed in areas with elite monsters, and a death anywhere in the massive north and eastern areas of the zone results in a respawn in the far south and another annoying horse ride.

Deeds are a bore, and provide little feeling of advancement. Legendary traits and epic quests often involve mindlessly grinding hundreds of enemies for often unremarkable rewards. Crafting is tedious (click and watch a progress bar) and provides largely useless results. PVP seems tacked on.

This sounds like I hate the game, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, until about level 40. That's when I realized how little lay ahead that combined building towards something (greater power, in-game fortunes, or even just a cooler-looking outfit) and -fun-.

And to pretend that this issue is about people who "rush to the end" is foolish. The game isn't particularly hard. I worked >40 hours a week, went out with friends, watched sports, etc, and still had little problem nearing level 50. I was in the open beta, which made it 15 levels faster, and love to quest and played a healer, so exp and levels came quite easily. When I stopped playing, my quest log was near-empty except for some tedious Angmar quests.

As the game goes on, this issue will loom for more and more players, and I don't see an easy solution. Hopefully Turbine is already aware of this and working on major revisions to alleviate a situation that most players will encounter at some point: the game feels over at (or before) level 50.

F*** THE CHILDREN

Umm, no, wrong connotation.

IGNORE THE CHILDREN.

Excellent.

I want to play games, watch movies, listen to music, that are made for an adult audience. I want enough freedom of expression that games exist that make me think "Oh, that goes too far for my tastes." Boobs aren't that. Heck, sexual scenes on par with R-rated movies wouldn't be too far for me. NaughtySheMale425 following me around and nakedly humping my leg constantly would be over the line. I mean sure, once or twice would be great, but CONSTANTLY? Nah, that'd be too much. Just let people's wallets decide, not some loudmouth Big Brother group's view of what is "acceptable".

But that means NEVER considering "the children"! We have games that consider "the children"... they're called KID'S GAMES!

If you're a parent, your kids are your problem. You wanted to have sex, now deal with the result. If I have to sacrifice my entertainment for your kids, the least you could do is pay me babysitting money. We are not a village. I'll do my part by not giving your kids candy or running them over with my car, you do your part by actually paying attention to them and what they do.

If the systems in place make it too easy for kids to experience adult content, ATTACK THE SYSTEMS and leave the adult content alone.

If you're just too lazy to pay attention to your kids and want all entertainment neutered so no kids or adults can ever see anything remotely mature, then do us all a favor and give your kids to someone who gives a damn. And get yourself sterilized while you're at it. Sadly, I had to take a test to drive a car but anyone who can locate Naughtyland on a map can have kids.

Lastly,

I HATE YOUR CHILDREN.

No, wait, that's not right.

I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN!

Yeah, that's better.

So PotBS will be losing a small number of potential customers who fall into the following categories (one or more):

1) People who will be scarred for life if the game does not turn out well.
2) People who compare a failed attempt to improve a game to actions of pure evil or terrorism.
3) People who continually post lies as fact and refuse to read or just ignore facts that harm their viewpoint.
4) People who twist even positive actions (SOE ---rescued--- Vanguard, not destroyed it!) into some great act of evil.
5) People who honestly believe a handful of people on a forum represent a massive customer base that should be favored over retaining ownership of the IP or the customer base of EVERYONE WHO WALKS INTO A STORE.
6) People who seem otherwise like fine human beings, but for some reason, have no problem with lumping themselves in with, and standing beside the people in groups 1-5. If you are a person in group #6, please reexamine, set down the kool-aid, and rejoin the rest of us on the slightly less crazy side of the fence. :)

It seems to me that losing most of those people is an argument FOR signing with SOE, not an argument against it. A community without people who treat game companies as gods and devils, and let games embitter them for years, is a community I'm more likely to enjoy.

Can we get Conan and Warhammer over to SOE too?

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will not play it, POTBS dug its own grave.

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With who? A handful of people still obsessed with events that happened years ago to a game that was mediocre to begin with? I'm not sure any developer even WANTS customers who will treat their mistakes and failures like atrocities and war crimes.

The game looks interesting, and if further news and info keeps my opinion positive, I'll likely give it a try. However, the game being on store shelves was the only way I'd ever try it, so in my case, signing with SOE dug them out of their grave, so to speak. :)

Anyone who finds themselves grouped with some of the anti-SOE people posting here should view this as a wake-up call to reexamine whether that's a group they really want to be a part of.

The sheer bile and venom that can be sprayed at anyone connected to SOE in any way is just sad. Pairing that with the disconnect with reality that has been shown here makes it disturbing.

If not for SOE, Vanguard would have either never made it to release, or have already had its servers shut down by now. But somehow its failure is SOE's fault.

VERY FEW publishers will allow independent developers keep their IP. Heck, many have little interest in working with independent developers at all. But of course since it's SOE, PotBS should either be relegated to a tiny niche market of direct-download, or should become the property of another "good" publisher.

And woe betide those who ignore the LEGIONS of SOE-haters, for their game cannot sell!

Grow up.

SOE screwed up Star Wars (Galaxies). Bummer. It happens.

If you don't want to spend money on another SOE-developed game, that's understandable. If you don't want to spend money on games developed by other people and distributed by SOE, well that's actually fairly silly, but whatever. If you want to lash out, freak out, and otherwise out yourself as a lunatic by calling any game touched by SOE a failure and anyone dealing with SOE evil... well, expect to called on it.