Profile: dekken
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• • I thought the game was just ok but now I'm level 20...

  • Originally posted by Gishgeron
    

     

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    I like WoW, but AoC isn't designed to be WoW. It's branching into new territory

     

     

      Now, before I say another word...let me say that, Dekken, I actually do not mean to target you in any way by using your post as a quote.  I just found that THIS sentiment followed well with what I am about to say.  With that in mind, I'm gonna mosey right along.

      I have seen most of these threads here...and throughout ALL of this "bash/love" madness I have yet to see you people actually address the game from a design point.  When I say "you people" I mean the haters.  I am actually getting irritated at the hate being focused on stupid minor choices regarding graphics and loading.  Even if you really hate loading, its not the most important part of a game.  Its just a means to an end.  The real meat of the matter is inside design path, and the dev team has made some design choices I feel are way more important here than their decision to make the game pretty (though, I rather wish they had spent more time on actual content than pretty...bar fights would have been cool).

      AoC IS designed to be WoW.  Its designed to be EXACTLY WoW with some better visuals and a few nifty combat tricks.  They have stated directly that raiding and raid gear are gonna be the "be all and all" for the games gear progression.  I don't care if we all love that stuff (I don't), but I really hate it when we speak about Conan as though it were actually DOING something new.  Its not, in any way, shape or form, doing one single thing different as far as actual gameplay design goes.  Its following the Blizzard theory of continuation by running us through the stupid raiding treadmill again. 

      I hate them for that...because I was really loving the ideal of a blood soaked world behind the Conan IP several years ago.  The only way to really get that NOW is to join a FFA PvP server...AND then get your face stomped in at equal level to some guy who has more time than you for raiding.  I thought we all decided that raiding to PvP was stupid when we had to do it in WoW...but I suppose you all forgot all about that when you received those neato combat ticks and pretty trees.

      Even through that though, I don't mind that some of ya like it.  I also don't think its going to FAIL based on my particular side against it.  I'm very glad it has the response it does...I suppose...and even more glad the the PvP servers are getting slammed.  Maybe they will take the BLOODY HINT and rethink this whole "Gosh, raiding in MMO's is the BESTEST EVA" bullcrap we've been force fed for a decade now.

    This is valid criticism, but I'm not at all sure it will play out this way. Granted, FC wants to siphon as many players away from WoW as it can, and there are bound to be certain similarities between the two. After all, WoW established something of an archetype as far as PvP/PvE hybrid gameplay goes.

    Whether AoC becomes what you fear it is, or something really new depends on what happens in the next year. I don't think that it will become a "raid to PvP" scenario, and I'll be disappointed if it does. However, it won't change the fact that AoC's combat mechanics are far, far more player-dependent than those in WoW. Over on the WoW forums, the "class balance" bawling that has been going on since 2004 can never go away, because WoW PvP is essentially a glorified dice game. In AoC, your personal skill comes much more into play.

  • Posted: 5/19/08 12:45 PM
    Age of Conan
• • POLL: Are you leaving a big MMO for AoC?

  • I play WoW, but unless AoC really drops the ball HARD, I foresee cancelling the WoW account within a few months. We'll see when the new wears off and I'm playing a levelled character.

  • Posted: 5/19/08 12:19 PM
    Age of Conan
• • I thought the game was just ok but now I'm level 20...

  • 
    WoW has millions of subscribers. So what? Britney Spears sells millions more copies of her garbage. Appeasing the lowest common denominator will give you numbers, but it's irrelevant to the discussion of quality.

    I played probably 10-15 hours over the weekend. I saw a couple of bugs. I was spawncamped once. I restarted my client once to resolve a graphics issue in the Acheronian ruins (sp?). I never had a load screen that lasted more than 10 seconds, and even though my computer is newer, it's not top of the line by any means. I had a f****ing blast the whole time, and am in awe of the quality of graphics/sound. I love the fact that every single new player isn't crammed into the same instance of Tortage. Nothing detracts from the feeling of immersion worse than 500 people stacked on the same NPC, randomly jumping up and down and yelling infantile garbage to anyone who will listen.

    Funcom made a good game. It's good to be critical, but be realistic about what you can expect. Some of you will bitch and moan until someone makes a game that gives you an orgasm and then cooks breakfast for you (and doesn't ask for cab fare). I suspect that when that game finally gets written, you'll start pissing about how it cooks your eggs.

    I like WoW, but AoC isn't designed to be WoW. It's branching into new territory, and as with anything that heads in a different direction, it will experience the odd hiccup on the road to the final goal. It's a solid game that looks great and is eminently playable and enjoyable within the framework it was designed in. If you like WoW better, Blizzard is happy to keep your subscription active. As for me, unless there's a dealbreaker somewhere down the road, I'll probably let my WoW subscription lapse within a couple of months. But it will take a lot to make me go back to grinding arena points.

     

  • Posted: 5/19/08 12:11 PM
    Age of Conan
• • I thought the game was just ok but now I'm level 20...

  • Originally posted by bjornarg
    

    Just wanted to say that I like the open seamless world of WOW, especially when flying around in epic flight form.

    And I like the sense of athmosphere and greatness when standing on a mountaintop in Hyboria, looking at other players from a distance far, far away.

    I like the arena battles and BGs of WOW, although I would wish there would be world-pvp. I have yet to test the PVP minigames of AoC.

    Also, I like the tense feeling of never knowing what to expect in the huge open landscapes of AoC. I only hope they do something about spawn-camping and quest-camping.

    Come to think of it, I also like apples and oranges.

    What was this thread about again?

    

    logged in to say this.

  • Posted: 5/19/08 11:52 AM
    Age of Conan
• • Why age of conan pvp design fails but why world pvp/open pvp DOESN'T fail !

  • I can find points of agreement with almost every single post in this thread. However, I lean most towards Sovrath's p.o.v.

    Conan lore is steeped in anarchist, anti-social behavior and mistrust of your fellow man :)

    If you want to go solo through life, you have a long row to hoe. You need allies until your strength reaches the point that no one can cross you. Will the player base be willing to do what it takes to make life miserable for those who want to disrupt the "way of life" in the game? This is supposed to be an MMO for adults - let's start acting like adults and bring actual maturity (not just tits and gore) to the experience.

     

    As to a risk/reward mechanic for pvp, would it be feasible to tie "illegal" behavior in with experience gain? In other words, if you engage other players at a spawn point/zone entrance, you get a non-removable debuff that removes your ability to gain xp, and stacks as you continue to grief at that place. At some point, you can actually remove xp and hence, levels.

     

    You could apply some other kind of debuff if the player you kill is more than 10 levels below you. Say, a slowing effect that makes you walk like you're in quicksand for 10 minutes. Something that makes griefing more annoying to the griefer than to the griefed.

     

    Is this kind of thing implementable?

  • Posted: 5/19/08 11:10 AM
    Age of Conan