Give independent developers $1 million and they have a better chance of not only making a better game in every way, but one that's unique and fun too, even if they accidentally wasted 50% of the money on failed prototypes until they came up with an MMO that worked (is fun and succesful).
Funny guy who has no idea how much these things cost + rose tinted glasses for indie game companies.
For a million you'll have some arcade thing or some browser game.
If you can garantuee so many things, well then I suggest you go do it right now and get yourself a job at some amazing game developer.
Don't get me wrong, I respect indie developers tremendously, but theres no way they can make a large scale production with that little money.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Stop making excuses for them... it does not mean there shouldn't be innovation. It has to be in a smaller scale (you won't see revolution) but there are million ways to make it different without risking it. What we see now is just budget being used for too many things at once. They want to have everything in this game; thus there is nothing special about this game. It'll surely have everything, but it's the same shit we've played time and time again in a different setting, if they don't change their priorities.
You might not like it, but a fully voiced, branching storyline is the major innovation of this game and it IS and remains, a major innovation.
No matter whether you like that or not.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
..... I don't see why ANYONE needs $150 million for an MMORPG unless it's almost all going towards marketting.
I guarantee half the people in this forum, even if they have no idea about game developing, programming, or business could develop the same game for less than 1% of the cost ($1.5 million). ...
1.5 million dollars would hardly staff a team of 50 (making 30k each) for a year of development and you can not create a brand new MMO within 1 year no matter how hard your team slaves away on it.
The bigger the budget the more likely it is that there will be wasted funds but I will not agree that you can create a game like WoW, Aion, WAR, EVE, SWG, or any of the upcoming MMO's with 1.5 million dollars.
Whats worse is they are not being unique with their game. Talent tree? Class and level system? It cost them 150 million for this?
So by unique, they shouldn't use anything from any previous game. No keyboard or mouse input. Characters can't move around in the game world. Presenting the game on a video screen can't be done, so how about using an audio output or printing to a printer. This is just stupid games are built from previously learned lessons for the most part.
So by unique, they shouldn't use anything from any previous game. No keyboard or mouse input. Characters can't move around in the game world. Presenting the game on a video screen can't be done, so how about using an audio output or printing to a printer. This is just stupid games are built from previously learned lessons for the most part.
Way to miss the point, but okay.
Using LOL is like saying "my argument sucks but I still want to disagree".
I would like some hard evidence of there actually being a $150 million budget. I've yet to be convinced. My estimate is around $80 million with a maximum of $5 million going to voice acting.
Give independent developers $1 million and they have a better chance of not only making a better game in every way, but one that's unique and fun too, even if they accidentally wasted 50% of the money on failed prototypes until they came up with an MMO that worked (is fun and succesful).
I don't see why ANYONE needs $150 million for an MMORPG unless it's almost all going towards marketting.
I guarantee half the people in this forum, even if they have no idea about game developing, programming, or business could develop the same game for less than 1% of the cost ($1.5 million).
I honestly want to know where the $150 million goes to. Do they hire 100 computer geeks who do nothing but watch porn while playing WoW 7.9 out of 8 hours a day?
And I don't care what anyone here says. Programmers are a joke. They are payed all this money to be lazy and slack off, doing little work. I'd know, because my entire family are programmers. In fact, my older brother had to stop working because in ONE day he finished 3 weeks worth of work, just doing his job normally. But we have to work inefficiently and be lazy. Why? Because if programmers actually programmed during their work hours, things would be developed so quickly they would run out of things to do and would end up no longer having a job.
Or maybe I'm wrong... and the majority of programmers do work very hard, long hours, and do the best they can. If that's true, then the majority of programmers just plain suck at programming and don't know what they're doing. This...I believe...
Wow... just... wow...
OK, I won't even begin to comment on your totally off-base view of programmers in general (and I have a pretty good position to comment, being the VP of Product Management for a (non-gaming) software company myself). All I can say is that you should walk a mile in their shoes before passing such harsh judgement. From my experience, most developers are underpaid and overworked, especially when it comes to crunch time, with very little upside (i.e. stock options) beyond their salaries...
But on to my main point - you think a AAA title can be made by people who know very little about programming for as little as $1.5m? Let's do some VERY basic math here:
Let's say you only need 10 developers to build a AAA title (which is a joke... probably an order of magnitude off... ). Pay each of them a $50k salary (a bit on the low end really in today's market), and that alone gets you to $500k per year. How long does it take to build a AAA title? Well let's just pretend that you can do it in 3 years (which again is a joke... probably more like 5-6 years with 100 people working on it...) So now, just in developer salaries alone, you've burned through your entire $1.5m.
What about QA? What about marketing? What about the office manager? What about capital expenditures (capex) on the actual machines your developers are using to write the code? What about the capex costs of the servers to host your game? What about keeping the lights on, and office space, and... etc...?
And what about the myriads of examples of low-budget MMO's that have failed miserably in recent years, even though they probably had 10-20x the budget you're talking about here?
Seriously... I haven't posted to MMORPG in almost a year (as I prefer to stay out of most threads unless I can actually contribute something sensible). But I just couldn't sit idly by on this one...
Originally posted by Angelof2070 Originally posted by Hrothmund I would like some hard evidence of there actually being a $150 million budget. I've yet to be convinced. My estimate is around $80 million with a maximum of $5 million going to voice acting.
Give independent developers $1 million and they have a better chance of not only making a better game in every way, but one that's unique and fun too, even if they accidentally wasted 50% of the money on failed prototypes until they came up with an MMO that worked (is fun and succesful).
I don't see why ANYONE needs $150 million for an MMORPG unless it's almost all going towards marketting. I guarantee half the people in this forum, even if they have no idea about game developing, programming, or business could develop the same game for less than 1% of the cost ($1.5 million).
I honestly want to know where the $150 million goes to. Do they hire 100 computer geeks who do nothing but watch porn while playing WoW 7.9 out of 8 hours a day?
And I don't care what anyone here says. Programmers are a joke. They are payed all this money to be lazy and slack off, doing little work. I'd know, because my entire family are programmers. In fact, my older brother had to stop working because in ONE day he finished 3 weeks worth of work, just doing his job normally. But we have to work inefficiently and be lazy. Why? Because if programmers actually programmed during their work hours, things would be developed so quickly they would run out of things to do and would end up no longer having a job.
Or maybe I'm wrong... and the majority of programmers do work very hard, long hours, and do the best they can. If that's true, then the majority of programmers just plain suck at programming and don't know what they're doing. This...I believe...
You guys know that the game engine they bought cost more then 90mill or so from hero engine. I guess even a 50mill epic game title like this should suffice, I mean basically they got all the easy game mechanics and building handed to them with this engine, it should be a pretty solid game by time it is done no matter the cost.
For future reference now that bioware owns the engine rights they can now build any mmo they want after this, so it all trickles down for them just by doing this project.
For future reference now that bioware owns the engine rights they can now build any mmo they want after this, so it all trickles down for them just by doing this project.
Careful - that's Cryptic kind of thinking, there.
And, yes, there are a ton of lousy programmers out there.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
For future reference now that bioware owns the engine rights they can now build any mmo they want after this, so it all trickles down for them just by doing this project.
Careful - that's Cryptic kind of thinking, there.
And, yes, there are a ton of lousy programmers out there.
I was referencing the idea that the initial investment move was something they discussed about building future mmo titles anyway. They went into this thinking lets save time money and buy a new engine that we can use for later also. The hero engine is fantastic for building an mmo, have you seen that in work OMG for a DEV it is like heaven. Go google the hero engine and watch the video demos. No wonder they spent nearly 100mill on it to get full rights and all the service tech support.
I was referencing the idea that the initial investment move was something they discussed about building future mmo titles anyway. They went into this thinking lets save time money and buy a new engine that we can use for later also. The hero engine is fantastic for building an mmo, have you seen that in work OMG for a DEV it is like heaven. Go google the hero engine and watch the video demos. No wonder they spent nearly 100mill on it to get full rights and all the service tech support.
I stand by the warning about Cryptic philosophy.
Also - it seems unlikely that the entire cost of the Hero engine would be apllied to the SWTOR budget, if the engine will be used for future projects.
I have, actually seen a youtube video on the Hero engine, BTW. I did not notice any glaring shortcomings.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
You guys know that the game engine they bought cost more then 90mill or so from hero engine. I guess even a 50mill epic game title like this should suffice, I mean basically they got all the easy game mechanics and building handed to them with this engine, it should be a pretty solid game by time it is done no matter the cost.
For future reference now that bioware owns the engine rights they can now build any mmo they want after this, so it all trickles down for them just by doing this project.
More random numbers? That's simply ridiculous.
Paying more for a game engine (that wasn't even finished when they bought it, they had to finish it themselves) than almost any mmo costs???
/facepalm
The hero engine was also licensed (the finished version) to a whole number of smaller projects and mmo's, so there's simply no way.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
TOR is one of the few games i give a chance to make real money.
Even if it is only a RPG like DA:O i would play it for some time.
Fear is that it will have a much to easy Gameplay for a somewhat experienced player - to kill masses of mobs doesnt make me feel like a Hero it makes me feel the game is far to easy as i have done nothing exceptional and show no excellence!
But a really good Story would still keep me pleased...
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
You guys know that the game engine they bought cost more then 90mill or so from hero engine. I guess even a 50mill epic game title like this should suffice, I mean basically they got all the easy game mechanics and building handed to them with this engine, it should be a pretty solid game by time it is done no matter the cost.
For future reference now that bioware owns the engine rights they can now build any mmo they want after this, so it all trickles down for them just by doing this project.
Wow. Not even close. Next time google how much the Hero engine cost before you make stuff up. Also, BioWare doesn't own the rights. Simutronics owns the rights. BioWare bought the license to be able to use it for one game. If they want to make another game with the Hero engine they will have to buy another license. C'mon man. What in the world?
You guys know that the game engine they bought cost more then 90mill or so from hero engine. I guess even a 50mill epic game title like this should suffice, I mean basically they got all the easy game mechanics and building handed to them with this engine, it should be a pretty solid game by time it is done no matter the cost.
For future reference now that bioware owns the engine rights they can now build any mmo they want after this, so it all trickles down for them just by doing this project.
again with the ignorant talk, the hero engine costs between 300k and 1 mill depending on whether you want to share your profit or not and the kind of distrubution licence, I am guessing EA doesnt want to share and will distribute worldwide that means it will cost about a mill, contact the company if you want to check prices options, the email is on their site
They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.Malcolm X
You guys know that the game engine they bought cost more then 90mill or so from hero engine. I guess even a 50mill epic game title like this should suffice, I mean basically they got all the easy game mechanics and building handed to them with this engine, it should be a pretty solid game by time it is done no matter the cost.
For future reference now that bioware owns the engine rights they can now build any mmo they want after this, so it all trickles down for them just by doing this project.
Sorry mate, but that is total bullshit. The Hero Engine definitely did not cost them 90$ million.
Bioware will not repeat cryptics mistakes of making an "mmo" (as cryptic see it) in under 3 years, just because they have a new game engine does not mean they will rush through games in the future. Swtor looks like a great game that most (if not everyone) in this thread would like to play and the developers want all of the star wars fans to be happy, if a company wants to make a good game dont give them a hard time for spending so much money even if most of it is on marketing or a game engine.
Edit: I made an account just so I could comment on this guy that thinks he can make a game with $1.5 million :P.
SW:TOR, imo, can not cost 150 million to make. To date they have shown absolutely nothing that would suggest that this game requires a much longer budget than your average MMORPG. In fact, from what they have shown it would seem the game is somewhat lacking.
(stiff/akward combat animation, lackluster character models... only thing that seems to be coming along is the world enviroment)
It's of course just my opinion but I was really happy when SW:TOR was announced, however, the more they release info on this game the less interested I seem to become.
So true mate, so very, depressingly true...
I think I actually spent way more time reading and theorycrafting about MMOs than playing them
Stop making excuses for them... it does not mean there shouldn't be innovation. It has to be in a smaller scale (you won't see revolution) but there are million ways to make it different without risking it. What we see now is just budget being used for too many things at once. They want to have everything in this game; thus there is nothing special about this game. It'll surely have everything, but it's the same shit we've played time and time again in a different setting, if they don't change their priorities.
You might not like it, but a fully voiced, branching storyline is the major innovation of this game and it IS and remains, a major innovation.
No matter whether you like that or not.
Whoa I think I just got a Deja-vu thing going on...where have I seen a branching and rich storyline else...OH wait! it was this singleplayer game called almost any rpg singleplayer game!
Now thats an innovation I want for 15043413586gazillion dollars!
stupid answer to stupid post...and dont give me that crap that it is the first MMO with it...it is a lie and MMO players dont give a %$&^ anyways...
I think I actually spent way more time reading and theorycrafting about MMOs than playing them
Whoa I think I just got a Deja-vu thing going on...where have I seen a branching and rich storyline else...OH wait! it was this singleplayer game called almost any rpg singleplayer game!
Now thats an innovation I want for 15043413586gazillion dollars!
stupid answer to stupid post...and dont give me that crap that it is the first MMO with it...it is a lie and MMO players dont give a %$&^ anyways...
Gimme an example of an mmo with full voice acting and branching storylines. Oh right, you can't.
in·no·va·tion play_w2("I0153200") (n-vshn)
n.
1. The act of introducing something new.
2. Something newly introduced.
Newly introduced in mmo genre = innovation.
"MMO players don't give a shit", you're just pulling that out of your arse, the official website has gotten 610000+ registered members on the premise of a story driven experience.
The story parts in the newest WOTLK expansion in WoW were the most applauded parts of the expansion by players and critics alike.
The story parts in FFXI were seen as the best parts of that game.
Guild Wars was applauded for it's storyline.
And basically every game that actually took the effort to provide some depth to it's setting has been applauded for it.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Gimme an example of an mmo with full voice acting and branching storylines. Oh right, you can't.
in·no·va·tion play_w2("I0153200") (n-vshn)
n.
1. The act of introducing something new.
2. Something newly introduced.
Aion also introduced flying. Was it ever more than a gimmick? Nope.
Sure you can "innovate" by making the yellow exclamation marks green or something. Shit like that is just excuse of "innovation" though. What we have seen is nothing but a bunch of gimmicks and if this game wants to succeed, something better needs to be introduced.
Using LOL is like saying "my argument sucks but I still want to disagree".
Gimme an example of an mmo with full voice acting and branching storylines. Oh right, you can't.
in·no·va·tion play_w2("I0153200") (n-vshn)
n.
1. The act of introducing something new.
2. Something newly introduced.
Aion also introduced flying. Was it ever more than a gimmick? Nope.
Sure you can "innovate" by making the yellow exclamation marks green or something. Shit like that is just excuse of "innovation" though. What we have seen is nothing but a bunch of gimmicks and if this game wants to succeed, something better needs to be introduced.
Aion wasn't by far the first to introduce flying (even not of that kind), and equating a mechanic that can only be used in an extremely limited amount of places in the game and is essentially swimming in the air with a flapping wing animation to an element that permeates the entire game in an all-encompassing way is ridiculous.
I thought you of all people, as a FF fan, would recognise the importance of storyline and world depth.
And don't start over with the 'they won't have anything else' crap again, they will.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Comments
Funny guy who has no idea how much these things cost + rose tinted glasses for indie game companies.
For a million you'll have some arcade thing or some browser game.
If you can garantuee so many things, well then I suggest you go do it right now and get yourself a job at some amazing game developer.
Don't get me wrong, I respect indie developers tremendously, but theres no way they can make a large scale production with that little money.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
You might not like it, but a fully voiced, branching storyline is the major innovation of this game and it IS and remains, a major innovation.
No matter whether you like that or not.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
1.5 million dollars would hardly staff a team of 50 (making 30k each) for a year of development and you can not create a brand new MMO within 1 year no matter how hard your team slaves away on it.
The bigger the budget the more likely it is that there will be wasted funds but I will not agree that you can create a game like WoW, Aion, WAR, EVE, SWG, or any of the upcoming MMO's with 1.5 million dollars.
That idea is simply ridiculous.
Cryptic does it ;-p
Get a life you freaking Gamer.....no no, you don't understand, I'm a Gamer, I have many lives!!
So by unique, they shouldn't use anything from any previous game. No keyboard or mouse input. Characters can't move around in the game world. Presenting the game on a video screen can't be done, so how about using an audio output or printing to a printer. This is just stupid games are built from previously learned lessons for the most part.
Way to miss the point, but okay.
Wow... just... wow...
OK, I won't even begin to comment on your totally off-base view of programmers in general (and I have a pretty good position to comment, being the VP of Product Management for a (non-gaming) software company myself). All I can say is that you should walk a mile in their shoes before passing such harsh judgement. From my experience, most developers are underpaid and overworked, especially when it comes to crunch time, with very little upside (i.e. stock options) beyond their salaries...
But on to my main point - you think a AAA title can be made by people who know very little about programming for as little as $1.5m? Let's do some VERY basic math here:
Let's say you only need 10 developers to build a AAA title (which is a joke... probably an order of magnitude off... ). Pay each of them a $50k salary (a bit on the low end really in today's market), and that alone gets you to $500k per year. How long does it take to build a AAA title? Well let's just pretend that you can do it in 3 years (which again is a joke... probably more like 5-6 years with 100 people working on it...) So now, just in developer salaries alone, you've burned through your entire $1.5m.
What about QA? What about marketing? What about the office manager? What about capital expenditures (capex) on the actual machines your developers are using to write the code? What about the capex costs of the servers to host your game? What about keeping the lights on, and office space, and... etc...?
And what about the myriads of examples of low-budget MMO's that have failed miserably in recent years, even though they probably had 10-20x the budget you're talking about here?
Seriously... I haven't posted to MMORPG in almost a year (as I prefer to stay out of most threads unless I can actually contribute something sensible). But I just couldn't sit idly by on this one...
I don't see why ANYONE needs $150 million for an MMORPG unless it's almost all going towards marketting.
I guarantee half the people in this forum, even if they have no idea about game developing, programming, or business could develop the same game for less than 1% of the cost ($1.5 million).
I honestly want to know where the $150 million goes to. Do they hire 100 computer geeks who do nothing but watch porn while playing WoW 7.9 out of 8 hours a day?
And I don't care what anyone here says. Programmers are a joke. They are payed all this money to be lazy and slack off, doing little work. I'd know, because my entire family are programmers. In fact, my older brother had to stop working because in ONE day he finished 3 weeks worth of work, just doing his job normally. But we have to work inefficiently and be lazy. Why? Because if programmers actually programmed during their work hours, things would be developed so quickly they would run out of things to do and would end up no longer having a job.
Or maybe I'm wrong... and the majority of programmers do work very hard, long hours, and do the best they can. If that's true, then the majority of programmers just plain suck at programming and don't know what they're doing. This...I believe...
Picard is facepalming at warp speed.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
You guys know that the game engine they bought cost more then 90mill or so from hero engine. I guess even a 50mill epic game title like this should suffice, I mean basically they got all the easy game mechanics and building handed to them with this engine, it should be a pretty solid game by time it is done no matter the cost.
For future reference now that bioware owns the engine rights they can now build any mmo they want after this, so it all trickles down for them just by doing this project.
Careful - that's Cryptic kind of thinking, there.
And, yes, there are a ton of lousy programmers out there.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
I was referencing the idea that the initial investment move was something they discussed about building future mmo titles anyway. They went into this thinking lets save time money and buy a new engine that we can use for later also. The hero engine is fantastic for building an mmo, have you seen that in work OMG for a DEV it is like heaven. Go google the hero engine and watch the video demos. No wonder they spent nearly 100mill on it to get full rights and all the service tech support.
I stand by the warning about Cryptic philosophy.
Also - it seems unlikely that the entire cost of the Hero engine would be apllied to the SWTOR budget, if the engine will be used for future projects.
I have, actually seen a youtube video on the Hero engine, BTW. I did not notice any glaring shortcomings.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
90 mill for a game engine?
So 60 mill left to get to the $150MM mark.
Still, not unrealistic.
More random numbers? That's simply ridiculous.
Paying more for a game engine (that wasn't even finished when they bought it, they had to finish it themselves) than almost any mmo costs???
/facepalm
The hero engine was also licensed (the finished version) to a whole number of smaller projects and mmo's, so there's simply no way.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
TOR is one of the few games i give a chance to make real money.
Even if it is only a RPG like DA:O i would play it for some time.
Fear is that it will have a much to easy Gameplay for a somewhat experienced player - to kill masses of mobs doesnt make me feel like a Hero it makes me feel the game is far to easy as i have done nothing exceptional and show no excellence!
But a really good Story would still keep me pleased...
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
Wow. Not even close. Next time google how much the Hero engine cost before you make stuff up. Also, BioWare doesn't own the rights. Simutronics owns the rights. BioWare bought the license to be able to use it for one game. If they want to make another game with the Hero engine they will have to buy another license. C'mon man. What in the world?
again with the ignorant talk, the hero engine costs between 300k and 1 mill depending on whether you want to share your profit or not and the kind of distrubution licence, I am guessing EA doesnt want to share and will distribute worldwide that means it will cost about a mill, contact the company if you want to check prices options, the email is on their site
They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.Malcolm X
They paid this guy 149 million dollars to say "May the force be with you", and then 1 million dollars on making the game.
I think it was worth it.
Sorry mate, but that is total bullshit. The Hero Engine definitely did not cost them 90$ million.
Bioware will not repeat cryptics mistakes of making an "mmo" (as cryptic see it) in under 3 years, just because they have a new game engine does not mean they will rush through games in the future. Swtor looks like a great game that most (if not everyone) in this thread would like to play and the developers want all of the star wars fans to be happy, if a company wants to make a good game dont give them a hard time for spending so much money even if most of it is on marketing or a game engine.
Edit: I made an account just so I could comment on this guy that thinks he can make a game with $1.5 million :P.
So true mate, so very, depressingly true...
I think I actually spent way more time reading and theorycrafting about MMOs than playing them
Whoa I think I just got a Deja-vu thing going on...where have I seen a branching and rich storyline else...OH wait! it was this singleplayer game called almost any rpg singleplayer game!
Now thats an innovation I want for 15043413586gazillion dollars!
stupid answer to stupid post...and dont give me that crap that it is the first MMO with it...it is a lie and MMO players dont give a %$&^ anyways...
I think I actually spent way more time reading and theorycrafting about MMOs than playing them
Gimme an example of an mmo with full voice acting and branching storylines. Oh right, you can't.
in·no·va·tion play_w2("I0153200") (
n
-v
sh
n)
n.
1. The act of introducing something new.
2. Something newly introduced.
Newly introduced in mmo genre = innovation.
"MMO players don't give a shit", you're just pulling that out of your arse, the official website has gotten 610000+ registered members on the premise of a story driven experience.
The story parts in the newest WOTLK expansion in WoW were the most applauded parts of the expansion by players and critics alike.
The story parts in FFXI were seen as the best parts of that game.
Guild Wars was applauded for it's storyline.
And basically every game that actually took the effort to provide some depth to it's setting has been applauded for it.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Aion also introduced flying. Was it ever more than a gimmick? Nope.
Sure you can "innovate" by making the yellow exclamation marks green or something. Shit like that is just excuse of "innovation" though. What we have seen is nothing but a bunch of gimmicks and if this game wants to succeed, something better needs to be introduced.
Aion wasn't by far the first to introduce flying (even not of that kind), and equating a mechanic that can only be used in an extremely limited amount of places in the game and is essentially swimming in the air with a flapping wing animation to an element that permeates the entire game in an all-encompassing way is ridiculous.
I thought you of all people, as a FF fan, would recognise the importance of storyline and world depth.
And don't start over with the 'they won't have anything else' crap again, they will.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!