All Posts by TeflonEddie

This game just topped my wish list. :)

I'm a reformed addict.

Previous weekday (Monday-Friday) was:

Up at 5am to get ready for work, go to work, home by ~5pm.
Eat, then raid from around 6pm 'til 11pm.

Then I used to play 8-10 hours per day at weekends too.

All-in-all, I used to play around 40 hours a week, this was on WoW when I was in an progress-whore end-game raiding guild that was farming Black Temple and pretty much required similar dedication from all of it's 60+ members.

Clichéd as it sounds, I few months ago I had an epiphany and decided to get a ilfe.

Now I restrict my gaming to weekends and rarely top 15 hours a week max, but I had to quit WoW for two reasons; it's not as casual friendly as it likes to make out, and I don't trust myself not to slip into old behavioural patterns.

Now I'm looking around for a different game that suits my playtime/playstyle (not having a great deal of success at the moment, but that's:)

As a side comment to the people saying that gaming is "just another sport" and decrying the use of the term "addictive", stop deluding yourselves. Gaming IS addictive, IS NOT a Sport, and it IS harmful in excess, (as most things are).

That's strange. I can't seem to find the word "y" in my dictionary.

 

Again, it pleases me to know that laziness is becoming the standard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav

 Innit.

 I wonder.. does America have Chavs?

http://www.blizzard.com/press/070111.shtml

In Jan 2008, WOW has ~4.5M users in US + Europe. Here is the link:

http://digg.com/pc_games/World_of_Warcraft_Hits_10_Million_Subscribers_2

I would not call an INCREASE of 1M users in a year "huge drops in the Western population".

In Jan 2007, WOW has ~3.5M users in US + Europe. Here is the link:

Key point between those two timeframes: What competition was there?

2008 will (hopefully b'jeezus) see the release of not one, but TWO huge new MMO's, WAR and AoC and those two titles are almost guaranteed to eat into the WoW playerbase, as will the "niche" titles that are also scheduled to be released this year. Every MMO player you speak to is waiting for the release of something.

Will the new MMO's kill WoW? .. of course not; it's a proven truth that uber MMO's don't die quickly, they just decline slowly 'til they become unprofitable and are eventually shut down. I'm continually amazed that UO is still going despite being dated in virtually every aspect, but it's a clear indication that (once the development costs are recuperated) it really doesn't take millions of subscriptions to keep an established MMO running.

Will 2008 kill WoW for me? .. Yes, simply. I'm tired of WoW, my accounts are all currently cancelled. That's not meant as an insult to the game, it's a personal thing .. WoW IS a great game and did a lot for the genre (some good, some bad) .. I just feel I've "completed" the game as much as I care to and am ready to move on to something different.

Why I think WoW was so successful:

They implemented facets of the most popular playstyles; PVP, PVE, Crafting, Resourcing .. the polished them up and then dumbed 'em down to the level that they would be accessible to new MMO players. This was helped by the credibility of the company behind the game, as well as the (in the beginning at least) visually appealing and colourful graphics. A lack of serious competition helped things along.

Simple answer: Right product at the right time.

 

I agree! That is the point I have been making the whole time!

The soldiers, who are trained to fight, used the weapons and supplies made by craftsmen, who are trained to craft.

And thus the cycle of warfare and production is complete - warriors war, craftsmen craft, and they rely on each other in these pursuits.

Except in WAR, we are all warriors (elite ones, at that, usually, not just grunts, as another poster mentioned), not common folk - those are the NPCs.

The type of crafting I wanted to see in this game, or at least a system that resembled crafting, was one where NPCs did all the actual crafting, but you, the player, brought them the reagents needed from plundered loot (war time, they are low on supplies, etc.). So, instead of gathering them from resource nodes, you would collect them off of corpses and such, or in some other way that does not have us clicking on a chunk of ore and then watching our character swing a pick for a few seconds.

I would find this much more satisfying as it would flow into the regular game, not be split into a separate game of gathering/crafting with its own separate grind - that is probably the main reason I dislike crafting. Not only do I find it to be boring and quite unsatisfying, since most of what you make while levelling it is worthless, but it ends up just being a separate, parallel grind to the rest of the game, where you make things just for the sake of skilling up. Crafting, in my view, should always be about making stuff with a purpose. A system where you are not bound to crafting yourself, but instead can have NPCs craft for you would skip this grind.

It seems the only element that you and I disagree on is who should perform the actual crafting. You favour NPCs, I favour dedicated PC's who enjoy crafting/economy and will increase the game's subscription numbers meaning more revnue for the game to spend on new content/hardware.

But not before 300 real warriors killed thousands and thousands of pretend-soldiers who normally spend the day baking cakes and darning socks.

With weapons made by crafters which were, also in the movie.

But you do fail to grasp it as you fail to grasp the direction of the developers - or you grasp it and choose to ignore it, take your pick. You are asking for a deep crafting system in a game that the developers have said from the beginning is about eternal war. They have not ever stated they want to show the home life of the characters, which is, at best, what crafting is. In everything they tell us the message is, "War, war, war."

Warfare needs weapons, someone needs to make them. I'm not expecting goblin bakers, but a dwarven warrior/smith would not be outside the scope of the lore.

Also, you are being rather glib when you call that my definition of the game, and then resort to some rather spurious conclusions based on it. War in this game is about more than just RvR - it is about waging war on all fronts, which includes the PvE aspect that ties into RvR.

Would not war on all fronts also include resource management/munitions supply?

Crafting ties into nothing - that is my point. It makes perfect sense in a game that is more of a simulation with no real theme or direction, but that is not what WAR is. It is not an open-ended game where you are plunked down and told, "Go do what you want." You are plunked down and told, "Go kill the enemy."

No problem with that, but where do you get the sword from to do that? Why not scavenge stuff from fallen enemies and use it to reinforce/craft more effective weapons?

Anyway, I understand people enjoy crafting, but opinions on how enjoyable it is do not matter here - not mine, not yours, not anyone's. All that matters is the type of game WAR is. Plenty of other games have crafting, so if it is a big enough deal to some players, they can play those ones. Games, unfortunately, will never cater to everyone, nor will those they cater to even be perfectly satisfied.

If the comment on page 1 of this thread (the  developers statement of intent in respect to the crafting system) is accurate, WAR WILL have crafting too. I'm hoping it's a good one.

Oh, as for satisfying item progression, I think WAR has the best one of all - slay a player character, loot them, then hack off the next head with a sword you won from killing the first guy. Or, also as good, raid a capital city and loot their treasure hoard, then use the enemy's weapons against them in the ultimate ironic twist.

Somehow, I doubt we'll see many elves wielding orc choppa's in action. Melting them down and using the metal to make a weapon that's fit for an elf, that I could envisage. Mind you, anything is better than the old WoW method of looting double-headed battleaxes from a dead big wolf.

You seem to have missed my point so I'll do it again... but I'll spell it out.. and color code it.

WAR - Spartans

Other MMOs - Arcadians:

Remind me, didn't those spartans all die in the end?

It is not about being narrow or broad, it is about being correct. You fail to grasp this simple concept - soldiers are soldiers, craftsmen are craftsmen. There is a war going on, and during a war a soldier does not go out and farm wheat and bake bread, he fights.

You can call that narrow, but it is fact. However, like I said, there will be some form of crafting to attempt to appease people who find it fun (how on earth collecting reagents and clicking an icon to put them together is fun is beyond me - I call it tedious and pointless), but do not expect it to be amazing. The fact that EA Mythic has barely even mentioned it all, ever, is a sign that it is not fundamental to the game. The selling points are RvR, public quests, and the Warhammer lore, and that is what will come through in the finished product.

As Paul Barnett said in a podcast, "Don't play our game if you want to make pants."

I think that is correct, anyway, and shows the general attitude toward crafting, and that is that their game is not at all about it.

You may consider the crafting aspect of games tedious and pointless, but yours is not the only opinion on the matter. Others, myself included, enjoy the achievement of chopping off the head of an enemy with a nice powerful weapon that we crafted ourselves.

I get that the game isn't designed to be a crafting game with added PvP .. but given the choice I'll take item-progression from crafting over item-progression from farming raid/boss mobs any day.

At the end of the day, item upgrades have to come from somewhere.

Originally posted by Sornin

 

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I gotta level a "WTF" at people who're saying that crafting isn't relevant in a "war-based" setting.

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Warriors do not craft, craftsmen do. You are confusing the conquest for resources with the crafting of said resources, which are two very different things.

In Warhammer we are the warriors, not the craftsmen. It makes little sense for a soldier to go mine some ore and then forge a sword - he is a soldier and not qualified to do that.

That being said, I am sure there will be crafting, but I am also quite sure it will not be very deep.

A decent crafting system adds a LOT of depth to a game and helps alleviate the "go kill boss X a dozen times 'til he eventually drops something you can use" element of modern MMO's.

I gotta level a "WTF" at people who're saying that crafting isn't relevant in a "war-based" setting.

Like opposing forces never raid one another for resources or look to gain technological advances in warfare.

I do agree that housing is a bit of a strange concept to grasp; I can't imagine too many front-line soldiers with castles, but I would like to see some instanced "barracks-style" housing where we can store excess stuff/trophies to impress visitors.

I made it to 50 with TR, and tbh I'm more or less inactive 'til more content comes out.

In regards to the whole customer service issue, it's taken a big nosedive since release. Gone are the days when GM's would be happily chatting in General while fixing people's bugged missions. Now you submit a bug report and wait 24 hours to be told that you should update your ticket with more information and they'll get back to you in-game.

Very annoying, but I've reasonable hopes for this game. If nothing else, it'll hopefully keep me occupied 'til something better comes along.

In re-gards to many of these post claim best pvp gear is from pvp, Wow can say the same can't it? (PS yes it can).  Does that mean its not a raid grind for pve gear (oh no it is, heck so is the pvp gear). If you look at what is being reported as their end game pve system it is 100% long ass raids, JUST LIKE WOW.

WoW can't really make the claim for equal progression, considering that you can essentially fail your way to most pieces of the S3 arena PVP gear and semi/AFK grind the enirety of the battle-ground honor rewards.

Bit different from repeatedly running raid dungeons for months to complete attunements and gear up for the next PVE level. Not to mention having to grind consumables and repair costs.

WoW approaches end-game from a "PVE = hardcore, PVP = casual" viewpoint; I'm very interested in seeing how other games cater for both tastes and what measure they can put in place to make ensure equal progression.

I'm going to approach this question with, (as is my wont, ) the entirely wrong viewpoint.

Instead of focusing on the specific franchise I'd like to see made into MMO format, I'll comment first on the specifics that I'd like to see:

1. One character per account, forcing players to really care about their virtual self.
2. Less focus on acquiring "uber" gear and more on enjoying playing the game.
3. A different approach to levelling; in essence making the "level grind" into an elongated character creation system where moral decisions made and quests/achievements completed improve/impair your character in a variety of ways.
4. Player driven economy making dedicated crafters both prized and useful (tied into 1 and 2)
5. Faction based PVP that has meaningful objectives/benefits with a third "non-combatant" faction for those who choose not to participate.
6. NO BLOODY RAIDS THAT LAST 4 HOURS AND ARE SCREWED UP WHEN THE TANK DISCONNECTS!
7. Player/Guild Owned Cities/Housing
8. Support for social gaming for those not looking to just kill stuff/people.
9. Hardcore RP servers with events that GMs actually participate in.
10. Casual/Hardcore friendly end-game.

As for settings.. I'd love another Star Wars/big budget sci fi MMO (Doom/Quake? universe), Fallout would also be great.