I am cautiously hopeful about Neverwinter. Of all the games now in development (including GW2), NW is the ONLY game on the horizon that follows the basic structural format of my favorite online game ever: Guild Wars 1. For that reason, Neverwinter tops the list of Games I Want to Play.
What Neverwinter has going for it:
(1) An interesting and rich IP. (2) The option for player-made content. (3) The ability to use henchmen (as in GW1), so player groups of various sizes can still play without being forced to LFG (the BANE of most MMOs, imo).
To me, Neverwinter sounds like it has the potential to be what I wish DDO had been. DDO absolutely sucks; it's a poorly made, ugly, clunky game, and based on STO I'd say I think Cryptic can come up with something substantially better than DDO.
But will it be better than GW1? That's hard to say, but probably not. GW1 had excellent artists and writers working on it (something Cryptic is not exactly known for). However, there are at least some ways I already know NW will be better than GW1: (1) the option to create content and (2) a smaller base group size (5 vs the unwieldy 8 used for most of GW1).
My chief reservation about Neverwinter is, of course, that Cryptic is making it, and STO was such a disappointment. Even so, if the game is a CORPG that's anywhere near the quality of GW1 (a rather old game, now), I'll definitely be playing it.
I am cautiously hopeful about Neverwinter. Of all the games now in development (including GW2), NW is the ONLY game on the horizon that follows the basic structural format of my favorite online game ever: Guild Wars 1. For that reason, Neverwinter tops the list of Games I Want to Play.
What Neverwinter has going for it:
(1) An interesting and rich IP.
(2) The option for player-made content.
(3) The ability to use henchmen (as in GW1), so player groups of various sizes can still play without being forced to LFG (the BANE of most MMOs, imo).
To me, Neverwinter sounds like it has the potential to be what I wish DDO had been. DDO absolutely sucks; it's a poorly made, ugly, clunky game, and based on STO I'd say I think Cryptic can come up with something substantially better than DDO.
But will it be better than GW1? That's hard to say, but probably not. GW1 had excellent artists and writers working on it (something Cryptic is not exactly known for). However, there are at least some ways I already know NW will be better than GW1: (1) the option to create content and (2) a smaller base group size (5 vs the unwieldy 8 used for most of GW1).
My chief reservation about Neverwinter is, of course, that Cryptic is making it, and STO was such a disappointment. Even so, if the game is a CORPG that's anywhere near the quality of GW1 (a rather old game, now), I'll definitely be playing it.
Comparing ArenaNet to Cryptic is a difficult thing to do...
Mmm...no. I wish I could say otherwise, because Neverwinter does sound like it could be fun, but I approach anything Cryptic with great caution. City of Heroes wasn't the Cryptic you guys know today. You guys keep mentioning CoX as Cryptic and forget that a lot of the people who worked on it ~stayed behind~ when Cryptic broke off to do it's own thing. They did so because ~they~ had a different vision for the game, and so they went off on their own to create that vision...
...which failed. Terribly.
Champions is actually a pretty good game now, and while I don't know anything about STO, people say the same. But it may never recover (in the West, at least) from the stigma, which is Cryptic's own fault for releasing very incomplete games. I'm actually glad I got a lifetime to Champions, because now that it's a good game, I can play as a VIP for free and get paid an allowance every month to spend in the cash shop, but it's not a game I would have paid a sub for. And with F2P titles on the way like Kingdom Under Fire, Dragon Nest, etc., I don't see Champs rising to the top of the pack anytime soon.
Anyway, back to the original point. No matter my interest in Neverwinter, I won't touch it for 6 months minimum, a year more likely. I don't trust Cryptic's idea of 'polish' and I'd rather wait for the inevitable droves of patches before playing. That way my view of the game isn't jaded before it has a chance to even be playable.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Since I like STO, I would be inclined to give Neverwinter a try even though I'm not that interested in that gender. I like how Crytic has thought outside the box on STO (Foundry, Tv type missions, NPC trainable Bridge crews, etc.) and their dedication on improving and adding content to their games. No other MMO game I've played has done that so fast.
/shrug, Cryptic is already for sale so change will come in a form or shape anyway. the STO,CO and NWO (neverwinter online..not new world order... ) IP licence alone is enough to guarantee it will stay alive for a good while to come. CO adn STO asfar im aware make profit these days (tho still paying off dev cost ofc) so no reason to close NW is likely to draw a large public if they can manage to make the player creation system robust enough and take care to make the game more then a simple dungeon crawler. there -must- be systems in place to make roleplay a strong smoot wroking playstyle as that is NW's biggest gamers public.
Based on STO, the NWN game should be launch ready about a year and a half after launch. STO will be the way it should have been after season 5 in or around October this year. Complete with a starfleet academy noob zone on earth and starting from level one for Klingons on Q'nos or how ever you spell it. Actually well done missions as in the episodes of late complete with VO and choice. Along with a more FPS type of ground combat. So STO with almost 4 years of development could finally be called a MORPG.
Criptic has learned a lot about the Foundery and UGC with STO. But it is still just a shell of what should be available in NWN. Actually creating content with your own VO work for others to play in a D&D settng sounds fun for what it will be. It won't be a MMO but just a multiplayer game and like GW1, played solo with henchmen. So I will give it a shot well after it launches. Just because of the setting and my favorite writter being involved, RA Salvatorie. And as far as their last chance? I doubt it with the new PW backing them up and wanting a way into the west market. So I could see something else being planned because of PW.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them? R.A.Salvatore
I see a lot of "doom and gloom" here, and I can't say it's not warranted. CoX games were pretty fun until the enhancement nerf, past that, I felt like an overglorified water boy than a superhero.
CO just didn't have that "superhero" feel to it, when 3 green mobs wiped the floor with me. I then logged out. I don't mind tough fights, but for this to happen at level 25 of 50... ugh. I logged out and haven't played again.
Never tried STO. Wasn't my bag, and I factually failed to se how they could make the IP interesting. Good call on my part. I've seen the Foundry - good concept, but it's basically an alpha of an idea, with tons of user content which is frankly... not too good.
THAT being said - Neverwinter is a change from their previous operating basis. They are limiting class options to the base classes, races, etc. needed to get it started. I like this - 15 classes, 12 races etc. requires too much for the launch of a Co-Op Multiplayer game (a polished one, that is). Additionally, they're not balancing for PVP, which takes a LOT of strain off of development - it's all PVE.
Finally, and I think the most brilliant part, is that they are tapping the old NWN custom content people for their Foundry testing in NWO. That alone should generate content which is much more interesting (and have that content available by launch), making the game a bit more fleshed out and mcuh more interesting.
JE stated the jury is still out on remotely hosted content. I'll chalk this up to vague promises which won't be fulfilled - until I see it in-game.
This is a chance on their part. If they alienate the market they have tapped (a rather demanding crew, by the way, with all the peristent world and module creation crew in the mix, not to mention all the players from NWN1 and 2). However, if they do tap this crew correctly...
Let's just say I have a LOT of friends who still play NWN1 persistent worlds today on a regular basis. A quick count on Gamespy last night showed about 4K players - and on a PW I ran for several years, we had about 14,000 unique accounts (i.e. accounts not tied to more than one public CDKey) log in over the period of three years.
Last chance? Not sure at all. That's totally up to Perfect World, really, and any other response is pure speculation or rabble-rousing. A good chance? Only if they really change their previous design procedure and give the basics neccessary to make it a good game in the eyes of a very particular (and quite devote) crowd .
It's not Crytics last chance but rather a good chance for Perfect World to mix things up as they have a reputation these days for a certain style of game, one that many in the west don't much care for. Cryptic may not be very well respected but they have a great flair for style when it comes to making games and often produce feature others don't, take The Foundry in STO and Mission Architecture in City of Heroes where the playerbase can create their own missions.
Perfect World have the cash and however much some people don't like their games, they do create large and mostly complete ones. Now they have Cryptic to add innovation, and can crack the whip to make them release higher quality complete games.
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
Cryptic, specifically JE, has never seen a class role without nerfing the hell out of everything that makes those classes fun within the first 3 patches after release.
Is there any reason to believe Cryptic will let defender roles actually behave like they do in 4.0? Leaders do reasonable damage -and- provide healing/buffs? Controllers do any ST or AOE damage shy of death by mosquito bites? Strikers, of course, will have the disadvantage of being glass cannons, but since they'll kill everything in one shot (maybe 3-5 shots for raid bosses), no one will ever notice. Welcome to Neverwinter: World of Strikers.
CoH/V was fun for a while because of its novelty. CO was a flop because it was COHv2 instead of an actual Champions experience and alienated numbers of Champions fans. STO is just the same engine in space--hurray! And yes, I've bought, played, and been burned by all three.
I have some hope for Neverwinter simply because I hope WOTC will keep them from completely hosing the title, but realistically, what has JE-led Cryptic produced best in the last decade? Lots of hype, very poor delivery.
My big hope for Neverwinter is user-created content. Hopefully the Foundry provides the tools for truly innovative gameplay where quests/content can be focused on varying gameplay styles where controllers, defenders, and leaders can focus on their class/role's strengths instead of the target-damage-kill-next style of gameplay that makes damage/Strikers king and defines almost every current MMO on the market.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy. ______________________________ "This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
The Cryptic engine is actually pretty amazing,whatever the haters think, and capable of a ton of stuff.
Sure, they may have let the dollar signs take over recently, and it is fashionable for the 'cool kids' to hate on them, but I think they deserve some level of respect for what they have achieved in the past from a technical stand point.
I wont play their games now because of the PW connection, but their technology and game design approach is more then sound. They just got ugly greedy, and now will be even worse with their new paymasters.
The mmo landscape does not need another highly instanced, fractured world with load screens up the wazzoo. If that's what they have planned, then I don't hold out much hope for them
I think one of STO's biggest detractors is the fact that there are just too many damned loading screens. Who wants to be reminded every twenty feet that you are playing a game in a little tiny itsy bitsy room. The game feels claustrophobic, which is utterly ridiculous considering the vastness of space. They didn't even set the game in the correct time line in my opinion.
Now having said the negative, there are some positives. I LOVE that they added The Foundry. That is HUGE. I LOVE that they have redesigned ground combat. That is HUGE. And I love the episodic content and remastering of missions, which is GREAT. They do have a microtransaction store, but utilize it correctly for the most part by selling fluff.
So Cryptic is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I don't like their game engine if it makes these little fractured worlds with tons of load screens. On the other hand, they are dedicated, tenacious, and very hard workers. I guess I'm still trying to figure them out.
I see a lot of "doom and gloom" here, and I can't say it's not warranted. CoX games were pretty fun until the enhancement nerf, past that, I felt like an overglorified water boy than a superhero.
CO just didn't have that "superhero" feel to it, when 3 green mobs wiped the floor with me. I then logged out. I don't mind tough fights, but for this to happen at level 25 of 50... ugh. I logged out and haven't played again.
Never tried STO. Wasn't my bag, and I factually failed to se how they could make the IP interesting. Good call on my part. I've seen the Foundry - good concept, but it's basically an alpha of an idea, with tons of user content which is frankly... not too good.
THAT being said - Neverwinter is a change from their previous operating basis. They are limiting class options to the base classes, races, etc. needed to get it started. I like this - 15 classes, 12 races etc. requires too much for the launch of a Co-Op Multiplayer game (a polished one, that is). Additionally, they're not balancing for PVP, which takes a LOT of strain off of development - it's all PVE.
Finally, and I think the most brilliant part, is that they are tapping the old NWN custom content people for their Foundry testing in NWO. That alone should generate content which is much more interesting (and have that content available by launch), making the game a bit more fleshed out and mcuh more interesting.
JE stated the jury is still out on remotely hosted content. I'll chalk this up to vague promises which won't be fulfilled - until I see it in-game.
This is a chance on their part. If they alienate the market they have tapped (a rather demanding crew, by the way, with all the peristent world and module creation crew in the mix, not to mention all the players from NWN1 and 2). However, if they do tap this crew correctly...
Let's just say I have a LOT of friends who still play NWN1 persistent worlds today on a regular basis. A quick count on Gamespy last night showed about 4K players - and on a PW I ran for several years, we had about 14,000 unique accounts (i.e. accounts not tied to more than one public CDKey) log in over the period of three years.
Last chance? Not sure at all. That's totally up to Perfect World, really, and any other response is pure speculation or rabble-rousing. A good chance? Only if they really change their previous design procedure and give the basics neccessary to make it a good game in the eyes of a very particular (and quite devote) crowd .
If you couldn't fight 3 green mobs, you were doing something wrong. One of the main problems with CO (and their was many) was that it was too easy-with only a handful of missions not easy to solo. I'd love NWN to live up to it's potential (as I'm a d&d and nwn fan) but unless Cryptic scrapped their tired engine and policies, and bring to the table some new ideas-this will be another disappointment.
Well Bill you tend to have an optimisitc outlook and enthusiasm about these games that I can no longer feel. Not that there is anything wrong with that, because it is actually an admirable quality. But in this case, at least for me, I feel Cryptic is all out of second chances.
They decided to build their entire development process around a system that would put the bread back on the table the fastest, at the games quality, and gamers expense, and totally sodomized their integrity. I feel no one is to blame for their last two fiascos save themselves.
I also truly beleive that even if their last two bad experiances taught them something, no matter how hard they work on creating their Neverwinter game, it will still be a far lesser game than one that could be made by nearly any other MMO (or just game developer as hey are caling it an OMG) developer.
I couldn't agree more. I would add that I as a consumer I don't see any reason to give this studio another look. Why, because it's a D&D game? Nah, STO was the final straw for me and Cryptic Studios. First of all, Star Trek had just as much potential for a good game as a NW game and I think everyone knows how that turned out. I don't have faith in Cryptic and don't plan on purchasing another product from them, now or ever again.
Enjoyed COH, CO and STO is not the same game it was at release. It has improved by leaps and bounds and i had a blast playing it. So yeah looking forward to Neverwinter.
I have to disagree about the foundry, those kind of tools was great the first time it went out, because a lot of people tryed it and didn't know what to expect, and though they will be able to do a lot with it. But now pretty much everyone know they can't. You have to be close to a pro coder and have a small team to do anything good with those kind of tools. This is why imo it worked with NWN1 and failed with NWN2.
They need to put a far more accessible and easier way to make rping possible in games. Giving player the developer tools and tell them, "now your turn", won't make it anymore. You might get few good modules and stories and world, but that's it. And the amateur coders will rather make some emulated mmo than that.
Nha they really have to rethink their strategy here imo, this won't work.
$OE has had many failures and they're still around.
Shayde - SWG (dead) Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled - Some deluded SWG fanboi who pities me. I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too. 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Last chance ? Doubt it because as the people mentioned, people still buy SOE games no matter how craptastic they are. I do agree that there needs to be a big effort here to make Neverwinter the best it can be.
The mmo landscape does not need another highly instanced, fractured world with load screens up the wazzoo. If that's what they have planned, then I don't hold out much hope for them
I think one of STO's biggest detractors is the fact that there are just too many damned loading screens. Who wants to be reminded every twenty feet that you are playing a game in a little tiny itsy bitsy room. The game feels claustrophobic, which is utterly ridiculous considering the vastness of space. They didn't even set the game in the correct time line in my opinion.
Now having said the negative, there are some positives. I LOVE that they added The Foundry. That is HUGE. I LOVE that they have redesigned ground combat. That is HUGE. And I love the episodic content and remastering of missions, which is GREAT. They do have a microtransaction store, but utilize it correctly for the most part by selling fluff.
So Cryptic is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I don't like their game engine if it makes these little fractured worlds with tons of load screens. On the other hand, they are dedicated, tenacious, and very hard workers. I guess I'm still trying to figure them out.
Success or failure will be the only important measurement to many people. If the game is great, people will play it. I am willing to give it a try even though they really are a mixed bag.
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
MMORPG.com you really need to stop with this already IMO.
NW is NOT A MMORPG, NOT A MMO.
its a CORPG, or MORPG. its been said already by the developers that it is not a MMO.
This massive about of misinformation leads to vast disapointment.
I remember when I picked up GW1, after believing what review sites like this said when they claimed it also was a MMO which we all know it isnt. Just like Vendicus, and DDO, NW isnt a MMO but mearly a Multiplayers Onling RPG video game. Stop trying to make it something its not, and never meant to be.
Cryptic is out of chances it seems , reading most peoples opinions, including mine. It has more to do with their philosophy then their games. Their games are simple , predictible and uniform. If you want to know what any Cryptic game is like, play any Cryptic game once. The difference between titles really doesn't exsist , just the scenery. They will blatantly borrow from one game powers/missions/scenery etc.. and install it into the next and the one after that and so on. Coupled with story lines that are shallow, and C-Store , 24 month dev cycle . They've earned the reputation they now have as the shyster's of the gaming world. The C-Store will be instrumental in this business model, which will chase off a lot of NWN 1 people. So in fact Cryptic is ensuring it's failure.
Add to it a game engine more designed for consoles then PC's and you have games that are basically dated , before they've been released. This is the engine they've based their entire business model on as well, and really no market for , since M$ and $ony won't allow them access to. They are left struggling to adapt it to a rapidly evolving PC market and it's causing issues. DX 11 anyone ?
Comments
BTW, we still need a Neverwinter forum & game listing
I am cautiously hopeful about Neverwinter. Of all the games now in development (including GW2), NW is the ONLY game on the horizon that follows the basic structural format of my favorite online game ever: Guild Wars 1. For that reason, Neverwinter tops the list of Games I Want to Play.
What Neverwinter has going for it:
(1) An interesting and rich IP.
(2) The option for player-made content.
(3) The ability to use henchmen (as in GW1), so player groups of various sizes can still play without being forced to LFG (the BANE of most MMOs, imo).
To me, Neverwinter sounds like it has the potential to be what I wish DDO had been. DDO absolutely sucks; it's a poorly made, ugly, clunky game, and based on STO I'd say I think Cryptic can come up with something substantially better than DDO.
But will it be better than GW1? That's hard to say, but probably not. GW1 had excellent artists and writers working on it (something Cryptic is not exactly known for). However, there are at least some ways I already know NW will be better than GW1: (1) the option to create content and (2) a smaller base group size (5 vs the unwieldy 8 used for most of GW1).
My chief reservation about Neverwinter is, of course, that Cryptic is making it, and STO was such a disappointment. Even so, if the game is a CORPG that's anywhere near the quality of GW1 (a rather old game, now), I'll definitely be playing it.
Comparing ArenaNet to Cryptic is a difficult thing to do...
Star Trek was cryptics last chance.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I am not so optimistic. Cryptic don't seem to do quite enough in their games to make them great these days.
Mmm...no. I wish I could say otherwise, because Neverwinter does sound like it could be fun, but I approach anything Cryptic with great caution. City of Heroes wasn't the Cryptic you guys know today. You guys keep mentioning CoX as Cryptic and forget that a lot of the people who worked on it ~stayed behind~ when Cryptic broke off to do it's own thing. They did so because ~they~ had a different vision for the game, and so they went off on their own to create that vision...
...which failed. Terribly.
Champions is actually a pretty good game now, and while I don't know anything about STO, people say the same. But it may never recover (in the West, at least) from the stigma, which is Cryptic's own fault for releasing very incomplete games. I'm actually glad I got a lifetime to Champions, because now that it's a good game, I can play as a VIP for free and get paid an allowance every month to spend in the cash shop, but it's not a game I would have paid a sub for. And with F2P titles on the way like Kingdom Under Fire, Dragon Nest, etc., I don't see Champs rising to the top of the pack anytime soon.
Anyway, back to the original point. No matter my interest in Neverwinter, I won't touch it for 6 months minimum, a year more likely. I don't trust Cryptic's idea of 'polish' and I'd rather wait for the inevitable droves of patches before playing. That way my view of the game isn't jaded before it has a chance to even be playable.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Since I like STO, I would be inclined to give Neverwinter a try even though I'm not that interested in that gender. I like how Crytic has thought outside the box on STO (Foundry, Tv type missions, NPC trainable Bridge crews, etc.) and their dedication on improving and adding content to their games. No other MMO game I've played has done that so fast.
How does a site do articles on a MMO game in development and not add it to their list?
/shrug, Cryptic is already for sale so change will come in a form or shape anyway. the STO,CO and NWO (neverwinter online..not new world order... ) IP licence alone is enough to guarantee it will stay alive for a good while to come. CO adn STO asfar im aware make profit these days (tho still paying off dev cost ofc) so no reason to close NW is likely to draw a large public if they can manage to make the player creation system robust enough and take care to make the game more then a simple dungeon crawler. there -must- be systems in place to make roleplay a strong smoot wroking playstyle as that is NW's biggest gamers public.
Based on STO, the NWN game should be launch ready about a year and a half after launch. STO will be the way it should have been after season 5 in or around October this year. Complete with a starfleet academy noob zone on earth and starting from level one for Klingons on Q'nos or how ever you spell it. Actually well done missions as in the episodes of late complete with VO and choice. Along with a more FPS type of ground combat. So STO with almost 4 years of development could finally be called a MORPG.
Criptic has learned a lot about the Foundery and UGC with STO. But it is still just a shell of what should be available in NWN. Actually creating content with your own VO work for others to play in a D&D settng sounds fun for what it will be. It won't be a MMO but just a multiplayer game and like GW1, played solo with henchmen. So I will give it a shot well after it launches. Just because of the setting and my favorite writter being involved, RA Salvatorie. And as far as their last chance? I doubt it with the new PW backing them up and wanting a way into the west market. So I could see something else being planned because of PW.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore
I see a lot of "doom and gloom" here, and I can't say it's not warranted. CoX games were pretty fun until the enhancement nerf, past that, I felt like an overglorified water boy than a superhero.
CO just didn't have that "superhero" feel to it, when 3 green mobs wiped the floor with me. I then logged out. I don't mind tough fights, but for this to happen at level 25 of 50... ugh. I logged out and haven't played again.
Never tried STO. Wasn't my bag, and I factually failed to se how they could make the IP interesting. Good call on my part. I've seen the Foundry - good concept, but it's basically an alpha of an idea, with tons of user content which is frankly... not too good.
THAT being said - Neverwinter is a change from their previous operating basis. They are limiting class options to the base classes, races, etc. needed to get it started. I like this - 15 classes, 12 races etc. requires too much for the launch of a Co-Op Multiplayer game (a polished one, that is). Additionally, they're not balancing for PVP, which takes a LOT of strain off of development - it's all PVE.
Finally, and I think the most brilliant part, is that they are tapping the old NWN custom content people for their Foundry testing in NWO. That alone should generate content which is much more interesting (and have that content available by launch), making the game a bit more fleshed out and mcuh more interesting.
JE stated the jury is still out on remotely hosted content. I'll chalk this up to vague promises which won't be fulfilled - until I see it in-game.
This is a chance on their part. If they alienate the market they have tapped (a rather demanding crew, by the way, with all the peristent world and module creation crew in the mix, not to mention all the players from NWN1 and 2). However, if they do tap this crew correctly...
Let's just say I have a LOT of friends who still play NWN1 persistent worlds today on a regular basis. A quick count on Gamespy last night showed about 4K players - and on a PW I ran for several years, we had about 14,000 unique accounts (i.e. accounts not tied to more than one public CDKey) log in over the period of three years.
Last chance? Not sure at all. That's totally up to Perfect World, really, and any other response is pure speculation or rabble-rousing. A good chance? Only if they really change their previous design procedure and give the basics neccessary to make it a good game in the eyes of a very particular (and quite devote) crowd .
Well, the MA killed CoH as far as I am concerned.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
Cryptic, specifically JE, has never seen a class role without nerfing the hell out of everything that makes those classes fun within the first 3 patches after release.
Is there any reason to believe Cryptic will let defender roles actually behave like they do in 4.0? Leaders do reasonable damage -and- provide healing/buffs? Controllers do any ST or AOE damage shy of death by mosquito bites? Strikers, of course, will have the disadvantage of being glass cannons, but since they'll kill everything in one shot (maybe 3-5 shots for raid bosses), no one will ever notice. Welcome to Neverwinter: World of Strikers.
CoH/V was fun for a while because of its novelty. CO was a flop because it was COHv2 instead of an actual Champions experience and alienated numbers of Champions fans. STO is just the same engine in space--hurray! And yes, I've bought, played, and been burned by all three.
I have some hope for Neverwinter simply because I hope WOTC will keep them from completely hosing the title, but realistically, what has JE-led Cryptic produced best in the last decade? Lots of hype, very poor delivery.
My big hope for Neverwinter is user-created content. Hopefully the Foundry provides the tools for truly innovative gameplay where quests/content can be focused on varying gameplay styles where controllers, defenders, and leaders can focus on their class/role's strengths instead of the target-damage-kill-next style of gameplay that makes damage/Strikers king and defines almost every current MMO on the market.
I'm confused. Why is a co-op RPG featured here?
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy.
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The Cryptic engine is actually pretty amazing,whatever the haters think, and capable of a ton of stuff.
Sure, they may have let the dollar signs take over recently, and it is fashionable for the 'cool kids' to hate on them, but I think they deserve some level of respect for what they have achieved in the past from a technical stand point.
I wont play their games now because of the PW connection, but their technology and game design approach is more then sound. They just got ugly greedy, and now will be even worse with their new paymasters.
The mmo landscape does not need another highly instanced, fractured world with load screens up the wazzoo. If that's what they have planned, then I don't hold out much hope for them
I think one of STO's biggest detractors is the fact that there are just too many damned loading screens. Who wants to be reminded every twenty feet that you are playing a game in a little tiny itsy bitsy room. The game feels claustrophobic, which is utterly ridiculous considering the vastness of space. They didn't even set the game in the correct time line in my opinion.
Now having said the negative, there are some positives. I LOVE that they added The Foundry. That is HUGE. I LOVE that they have redesigned ground combat. That is HUGE. And I love the episodic content and remastering of missions, which is GREAT. They do have a microtransaction store, but utilize it correctly for the most part by selling fluff.
So Cryptic is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I don't like their game engine if it makes these little fractured worlds with tons of load screens. On the other hand, they are dedicated, tenacious, and very hard workers. I guess I'm still trying to figure them out.
If you couldn't fight 3 green mobs, you were doing something wrong. One of the main problems with CO (and their was many) was that it was too easy-with only a handful of missions not easy to solo. I'd love NWN to live up to it's potential (as I'm a d&d and nwn fan) but unless Cryptic scrapped their tired engine and policies, and bring to the table some new ideas-this will be another disappointment.
I couldn't agree more. I would add that I as a consumer I don't see any reason to give this studio another look. Why, because it's a D&D game? Nah, STO was the final straw for me and Cryptic Studios. First of all, Star Trek had just as much potential for a good game as a NW game and I think everyone knows how that turned out. I don't have faith in Cryptic and don't plan on purchasing another product from them, now or ever again.
Enjoyed COH, CO and STO is not the same game it was at release. It has improved by leaps and bounds and i had a blast playing it. So yeah looking forward to Neverwinter.
I have to disagree about the foundry, those kind of tools was great the first time it went out, because a lot of people tryed it and didn't know what to expect, and though they will be able to do a lot with it. But now pretty much everyone know they can't. You have to be close to a pro coder and have a small team to do anything good with those kind of tools. This is why imo it worked with NWN1 and failed with NWN2.
They need to put a far more accessible and easier way to make rping possible in games. Giving player the developer tools and tell them, "now your turn", won't make it anymore. You might get few good modules and stories and world, but that's it. And the amateur coders will rather make some emulated mmo than that.
Nha they really have to rethink their strategy here imo, this won't work.
$OE has had many failures and they're still around.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Last chance ? Doubt it because as the people mentioned, people still buy SOE games no matter how craptastic they are. I do agree that there needs to be a big effort here to make Neverwinter the best it can be.
Success or failure will be the only important measurement to many people. If the game is great, people will play it. I am willing to give it a try even though they really are a mixed bag.
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LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
MMORPG.com you really need to stop with this already IMO.
NW is NOT A MMORPG, NOT A MMO.
its a CORPG, or MORPG. its been said already by the developers that it is not a MMO.
This massive about of misinformation leads to vast disapointment.
I remember when I picked up GW1, after believing what review sites like this said when they claimed it also was a MMO which we all know it isnt. Just like Vendicus, and DDO, NW isnt a MMO but mearly a Multiplayers Onling RPG video game. Stop trying to make it something its not, and never meant to be.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Cryptic is out of chances it seems , reading most peoples opinions, including mine. It has more to do with their philosophy then their games. Their games are simple , predictible and uniform. If you want to know what any Cryptic game is like, play any Cryptic game once. The difference between titles really doesn't exsist , just the scenery. They will blatantly borrow from one game powers/missions/scenery etc.. and install it into the next and the one after that and so on. Coupled with story lines that are shallow, and C-Store , 24 month dev cycle . They've earned the reputation they now have as the shyster's of the gaming world. The C-Store will be instrumental in this business model, which will chase off a lot of NWN 1 people. So in fact Cryptic is ensuring it's failure.
Add to it a game engine more designed for consoles then PC's and you have games that are basically dated , before they've been released. This is the engine they've based their entire business model on as well, and really no market for , since M$ and $ony won't allow them access to. They are left struggling to adapt it to a rapidly evolving PC market and it's causing issues. DX 11 anyone ?