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General: Editor's Week in Review - WAR, TR, EVE
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
In this new column, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood sums up his thoughts on some of the happenings around the world of MMOs in the past week. This week, he talks about Warhammer Online's release date being pushed back, Tabula Rasa and EVE Online.
Well, it’s Saturday. That means that it falls on me to sit down and start a new weekly tradition here at MMORPG.com, the Editor’s Round-Up. In this new column feature, I’m going to look at one or more of the week’s top stories and do something I don’t often get to do: give my two cents.
We decided to add this column last week, and so I’ve spent the week trying to decide what major stories would pop out at me and make good fodder for the first edition of a column. I wasn’t having a lot of luck… That is, until Thursday night.
Read it all here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Pretty much sums it up...
- WAR being delayed is a good thing for polish.
- TR has not had too much success.
- More EVE clones please, however i'd prefer more SWG pre cu clones.
Hey Jon Wood do you happen to listen to weekend round up with Dianne Reem of NPR.
Any way
A skill based fantasy sandbox MMO might be what the the MMO gaming community really needs to break the stagnant repeditive nature of MMOs today.
Kudos sir
Asheron's Call, Champions Online, Dark Age of Camelot, EVE Online, EverQuest, Lineage 2, Star Wars Galaxies and World of Warcraft.Waiting for SWTOR
Arn't we all fedup of fantasy? Bring on Modern Day or Sci fi
I agree with the Eve clones,statement.But the Ideal just does not seem to fly with most the current
developers that be.Maybe if we wish real hard someone will make a mmo to fit each and every one of us
as individual's.Or maybe we can just make are own Games.Or maybe ah,you know ah once in band camp"
Yea its a snipe but it seems every one wants there own thing. just got carried away
Unfortunately, I think one of the things that's hanging up an "eve clone" might be that everyone is aiming for WOW's level of subscriber base -- and a sandbox game that requires you to *think* and *plan* is not going to attract the same volume of subscription (regardless of loyalty).
It's the same impetus that caused SOE to do the bloody knife job on SWG. They wanted to nerf the game so it would appeal to a broader audience.
*sigh*
Shava
shva shakti and shandar liik in Eve
Ashtara on Chilastra once upon a time...
I wonder why there aren't a lot more "Eve-Clones" on the market today? I've enjoyed the two I've played, SWG Pre-CU and Eve. It's nice to be able to do something else profession-wise and keep your same character.
I suppose most game makers these days want people to play a role from beginning to end and level up, but the problem is once you're done with that role what else is there to do? Wow, for example all you can do after hitting max level is PVP and it's not that great in wow, maybe DAoC it is but not wow. Also, in wow after you hit max you are pretty much done so you start a new character and max it out, all the while loosing your identity of your original character to a certain degree, your guild will know you but not many others.
I know a lot of people don't like sandbox games, but there are a lot of us who do like them. Sure there are games that a sandbox environment won't work, but it would be nice to see more games where it could work be made to work implemented.
I Reject your Reality and Substitute it with My Own!
They need to realize that imitating wow won't get people to quit it. Why quit something you like to start anew in a clone of it? They need to capitalize on the ~other~ parts of the market. There's still millions to billions of people out there y'know.
Anyway.
Give me a good cyberpunk, cyberpunk/fantasy (like shadowrun) or modern 'fantasy/horror' MMO please. I guess The Secret World and WoD Online are my hopes but they're far away still.
HERE HERE!
This is just a thought, but...I think some people can't get the idea of Orcs and Elves out of their heads when they hear the word "fantasy". I think a better way of describing the difference between fantasy and sci fi would be that fantasy is any kind of abstract fiction taking place before modern era level society and sci fi as modern and post modern abstract fiction.
I just hate people automatically assuming Tolkien fiction IS fantasy. I believe it's merely a part of it.
Asheron's Call, for me, would be one such example of completely non-Tolkien fantasy.
.....................................
...but time flows like a river...
...and history repeats...
-Leader of "The Fighting Irish" in DAoC on Hib/Kay-
I agree about WAR needs to be good out of the box and possibly great so extra time is wonderful. I want the game to succeed greatly
TR is something that felt like a dressed up Planetside (just how I felt in the game though not necessarily how it played) so was hard to swallow though there could be advancements in the future that bring me to want to give it another try.
Eve clones would be nice. I would like to see and system that offers what FFXI does as well with classes. I would like to see a Pokemon-type persistent world. I think it would be great to see a dual game that has a Persistent world (or preferably worlds) that has the RPG game but also an Action Adventure FPS type game as well that both affected each other. There is too many ideas but FFXI obviously still has people and has a class/profession system that was my favorite especially unlocking certain jobs.
Read it all here.
Hey Jon, thank you for the great write up!
I agree, we do need more Eve clones in the market place. That is why I'm hoping that Darkfall can eventually get out the gate. As I mentioned in another thread, Eve has cloning and insurance so you really never "risk it all" when you die. But in Darkfall, they have yet to announce a safety net for your gear and time spent in the game. All we know so far is that it is going to be full loot. While it sounds fun in the very short term, I don't know how it will survive long term success like Eve.
I agree with you on "re-structuring" too. They go spending $800 million to buy some companies and then turn around fire a bunch of people. Something just doesn't sound to ethical about that to me but that is the way of business in America today. Times have changed. It used to be employees take care of business so businesses can take care of their employees and people would work 30-40 years for the same company. Now, it is just a dog eat dog work force with nearly every state being a "right to work" state where they can fire people at will without reason.
oh well, better end that rant....
Again, thank you much for an excellent right up and some good food for thought.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
I think it's funny, everyone reflecting to WoW all the time. Too really say something about a game don't equalize it with a different game. True, most people play WoW but that should have some reason. At a sidenote, please people that didn't played WoW or whatsoever don't critize it. I've seen someone saying here "You get max level and then you start a new char", think about end-game content and pvp-items to get.
Back on-topic, nicely written column. The real big game that should start competeting WoW is WAR. Therefore a polish time and 1 quarter rescheduled launch time is in my opinion a good idea. You can't launch something that's not completely finished. I'm really interested in WAR and hopefully I can see the game while playing in open beta.
Also, I hope too see some reviews about TR. It looks like a fun game to me with a different style of playing like normaly MMOs. Though the launch date has only been 2 days away and you can't get a good view about the game. I'm looking forward to the first review of this game.
You will not shake us off,
above or below..
Here's my 2 cents.
Sad you failed to even report the Friday Update for Age of Conan on Friday yet again, half this year it usually turns up on a Monday. (News guy can't be away every weekend) Not to mention the game has more than half a dozen different worthy news articles that were released before this week ended that went unchecked. Including a VERY detailed monthly newsletter that came out Friday about the same time you ate your breakfast (due to time difference) - plenty of time to report it.
DUDE, Jon doesn't have to report anything AoC here on MMORPG.com You have the market corned. Why does he want to stomp on a parade that you work well? When it isn't broke, don't fix it!
LOL
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
DUDE, Jon doesn't have to report anything AoC here on MMORPG.com You have the market corned. Why does he want to stomp on a parade that you work well? When it isn't broke, don't fix it!
LOL
I was thinking more from mmorpg.com / staff perspective. I enjoyed reading Jon's comments from the GC in Leipzig about the game in the whole blog thing. Fair is fair though in reporting the important stuff. SOme Fridays I've sat there waiting/hoping for the update official post here but it doesn't happen for 36 hrs after - hey I just like to discuss what comes out when it comes out
If it helps to discuss new news, I gave a bit of stinging review of the IGN review from earlier that you posted. You can jump back over there and we can have a few rounds about the latest "exclusive interview".
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
good article mate. Indeed i am glad to see after 2-3 years when i was thinkin at it you came to the same conclusion:) A fantasy mmog with the eve features, will bring a lot on the mmorpg market. Imagine you dont have to grind for lvl, only for cash, imagine that you and the people are in control of the economy of the game,imagine that a 1 week character could be usefull in pvp, imagine conquareable teritories? and many good stuff that are in EVE, could be incredibile in a fantasy mmog, but most of the Devs think they gona succed on making what Blizzard did, but they dont understand....Wow toke everything good from other games and asamble it very well in a one package, some things like pvp and graphics still sucks, but it a good game, because it very polished, but high end content it bleah...They made it with the idea to sell to everybody, and when you do that, you cannot have a really good mmorpg. Eve at this moment is the only mmorpg on the market that evolves with every year instead of dying, tho lately some flaws in the gameplay, are making a few of veterans to venture elsewhere, because of ganking and blobs...50.000 players on one server? Imagine that:)
Have a good day
Lets see what the World Of Darkness-Mmo will be like..hope its Eve in fantasy-setting..
If we're missing something, that's not cool. I'll pass this info along the line to our News guy. Not having Clan of Conan up this week is my bad. I've been covering News while Keith is in Iceland at EVE Fanfest and I must have checked the site for news before it went up. I'll try to get it up here before lunch.
On another note, thanks to everyone for the feedback on this column, I really appreciate it.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
That pretty much sums it up for me. Personally I am not much interested in War, just does not have that much different than what is currently out there and Mythic is well known for their inability to balance classes.
Gods and Hero's just shows that some people should not be in the MMO business, the game had failure written all over it. Pretty risky to introduce a game with no trade skills, and no auction house or method of trading. This does not bode well for Startrek Online either, especially with the nutcases on their staff announcing they are not making this for trekkies. Abandoning the lore just leaves you with another space game.
As to Tabula Rasa, it just seems to me to be another me too game with a few innovations. Pretty much got the opinion the game is not ready yet from reading the forums. They are trying to muddle the rigid class system with their cloning, but it is still a class system no matter how you spin it.
I agree with you on Eve, every time I see another game that has classes I shudder, why are so many developers so determined to pigeon hole us into a specific function. I can do anything I want in Eve, sure it is a harsh environment, you just have to learn that flying the biggest baddest ship is not very smart unless you have sufficient funding behind you.
Many of the posters here cannot understand why SOE gets so much angst from the NGE change in SWG. Well all you have to do is study what they did. They took a skill based system which was a decent sandbox game and made it a rigid class system. SOE refuses to change that, even when that skill system was what made SWG the sandbox game many of us loved. As long as they have a rigid skill system that game will remain devoid of players, it just offers nothing interesting except to let some kids play with their jedi swords. Sure they have admitted their mistake, yet they admantly refuse to correct it.
That is one thing that defines a good MMO company from a bad one. The ability to recognize that a mistake has been made and correct it. Very few have demonstrated that ability.
Let's look at some of the major mistakes in this genre. UO in their Age of Shadows release tried to make the game more EQ like, they had already lost many fans due to their introducing Trammel, but adding fancy weapons/armor completely changed the game. If people wanted to play EQ, they would play it, why copy something your playerbase is not interested in?
Turbine and their creation AC II. People really like AC, it was close to being a skill based sandbox game, yet they felt the need to copy EQ and bring out something the fanbase did not want. Needless to say people voted with their feet.
Mythic had a decent game with DAoC, yet they introduced with the trials of Atlantis ways with which the power gamers could lord it over the rest of the players in pvp. Constant complaints just drew minor changes from a staff the could not see the writing on the wall. I can remember a group of hib players holding our entire frontier in thrall because we just could not counter them, even throwing 5 or 6 times their number at them. Years later, after everyone had left, they finally introduced classic servers.
Already discussed SOE and SWG, nothing more needs to be said. I will fault SOE for EQ II though, they introduced a half finished game with system requirement far in excess of what was available at the time and then wondered why WOW left them in the dust. While they fixed most of the problems, they have a very hard time getting new players to try it.
So far Blizzard is about the only major MMO company without a major mistake. Wow is definitely not for everyone and many are getting tired of the constant raiding, but the game is still going quite strong.
There is some hope down the line, there are some skill based system in development. Whether we will every get the chance to play them is yet to be known, but the big titles are staying with the rigid class system which many of us dispise. Here is hoping for a little guy to come along and change that.
I just want to step in here and say that When that "not for trekkies" comment was made, it was made in the context of saying that the game was being made not just for trekkies, but for MMO fans as well. He was trying to say that they weren't going to rely on the Star Trek license, but instead were going to try to make a solid MMO that used the Star Trek IP.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Lol, it is amazing he didn't mention Hellgate:London releasing... It just shows the power of corporate hype machine. If you don't advertise the so-called info sites won't even acknowledge you exist. Thank god that word-of-mouth still works as a viable information source...
Hellgate was such a disapointment that it can't even get some bad rep.
That is because Hellgate London is as much of an MMORPG as D2. It really isn't one.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
You are correct about the Startrek comment, I did make my own interpretation about it. When you leave the ship bridge out of the game, you pretty much eliminate a lot of the Startrek lore to start with. Having federation only characters also pretty much eliminates the pvp aspect, which is a hot spot with many posters on this forum. Anyways there is a big dispute between fans of the series and this team of developers about the preliminary design of the game.
So while the comment was not quoted entirely, you can make you own judgement about the meaning behind it. So I am guilty of interpretation. BTW, SWG has bridges on their bigger ships and you can have multiple people actively flying and fighting the ship. So it is a proven aspect that other MMO players enjoy.
Anyone can make a space game, but making a game where people have set expectations is not an easy task. I just hope that the dev team realizes that the starship bridge is a major necessity for this game and that games without pvp also fall under a lot of criticism.
As to Hellgate, most of the initial reviews are pretty mediocre. While the game has some MMO aspects it is really more of an FPS. The cadre of restrictions on the non subscription players also ;put this game on a very tenuous line to success. Pretty stiff fee for a game that offers far less content than most MMO's.