Profile: Sinistrad
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• • Asheron's Call: Alive and Well

  • How about this:

    1. A skill based game where levels aren't everything, just an "edge" (i.e. you can easily kill someone/something 50 levels higher than you if you know what it's weaknesses are and have the proper skills to exploit them)

    2. TRULY explore! No choke points (lookin' at you WoW), zone boundaries, artificial barriers, or any kind of obvious demarcation to say "This area is for level 20-40 characters, while this area is for 40-60"

    3. A deep, interesting skill based system with "trained" and "specialized" skills picked by the player.

    4. Complete character freedom.

    5. A fun and interesrting "crafting" system which allows for fantastically powerful gear created from basic loot, as well as truly epic quest rewards.

    6. No "raids": Depending on the levels of the players involved, you can either take on most content with a small group or even solo.

    7. Player skill means something in PvP, and is not overcomplicated by hundreds of overcomplicated spell/abilities.

    8. Player skill in PvE: You can take on dozens of monsters at once IF you know what you are doing and prepare properly. It is truly hectic, but fun!

    9. Yes, if you WANT to, you can bot. I generally don't.

    10. One of the most developed and detailed stories in any game, ever; nearly ten years of a new, free patch and story update every month. Books of lore and NPC's with stories literally saturate the game world.

     

  • Posted: 8/07/08 4:10 AM
    Asheron's Call
• • IP's I'm suprised haven't been turned into MMOPRG's - yet.

  • Screw IP. Give me an original setting that can stand on it's own.

    EverQuest, Asheron's Call, EVE... these are truly unique settings, and are/were successful games.

    Even WoW was built on an IP. Even though it was Blizzard's OWN IP, the WarCraft series was a well established IP before it became an MMO. Same with Ultima Online.

    I much prefer the dev's to not have even the slightest notion lurking in their subconscious that, "Oh, well this IP is bulletproof, so I think we can ship this pile of crap and just patch the hell out of it!"

    MMO's based on an IP generally, I said GENERALLY (i.e. not always, so don't go giving counter examples. I KNOW they exist), tend to be the more cookie cutter games like LoTRO, WoW, EQ2, etcetera. Even if they "innovate" in one or two areas, largely they tend to be pretty run of the mill.

    You also have to understand that all of this is coming from someone who's perspective is that of one who has been playing online multiplayer RPG's since the time of MUD's. I played EQ, and AC back when they were brand new games, after I was done with the MUD. The big three were AC, EQ, and UO. They, all three, were very different games. Now, 90% of all the MMO's have branched off the EQ paradigm (including WoW) while, for the most part, "taxonomic" derivatives of the other two have largely avoided the spotlight with a few rare exceptions. As such, the safe bet is the following:

    -1. Pick a good IP. "zOmg! Let's make a Castlevania MMO!" (Random, I know. Hehe)

    -2. Pick a well-tested design, because the people who OWN that IP, EXPECT a successful game! "zOmg! Let's make it like WoW, except we'll add in [Concept, X, Y, and Z]"

    -3. Market the differences with trumpets, fanfare, subliminal messaging, and moonverstising.

    -4. Ship a barely playable product which fans of said IP will snatch up, and hopefully tolerate long enough for you to:

    ---A: Patch it in to a decent game.

    ---B: Patch it in to oblivion.

    ---C: Not bother patching, they made enough money selling boxes.

     

  • Posted: 8/07/08 3:53 AM
    General Discussion
• • You critic the game, you get ban, simple as that.

  • Originally posted by Jokerkaaos
    

    I've been watching those forums (I love a good train wreck...) and I was struck by the decision to appoint various players as moderators. In fact, it ALWAYS astounds me when a company does this.

    A company running a multi-multi-million-dollar enterprise should take pains to make sure that their Public Faces (forum moderators, tech support personnel, etc.) are of the highest quality. They should use letter-perfect English in print and should be able to maintain a top-notch level of professionalism in all circumstances.

    I encounter this in my work all the time - more "technically-minded" people (engineers, etc.) tend to have a certain disdain for the more liberal-arts educated. In short, they think writing and communicating are for English-major girls and they find customers to be nuisances.

    In gaming, this typically manifests intself on the official forums. Devs think they know how to manage customer communication because they are smart and know the game. When they find out they don't know the first thing about dealing with customers, they either clam up or hire/appoint some intern or a bunch of "community leaders" to do this job for them.

    This is a HUGE mistake, but I see it constantly. Any company with an investment of this size, dealing with millions of fickle customers in a highly competitive, highly public, highly-internet-discussed industry is harming themselves immeasurably by delegating the critical duties of communication and customer service to amateurs and fans on power trips.

     

    The above post == "win";

    

  • Posted: 7/24/08 8:13 AM
    Age of Conan
• • Worst 5 MMORPGs

  • 1. LOTRO - Literally played for one day.

    2. Horizons - They actually renamed it, "Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted" haha!

    3. AC 2 - An insult to AC fans everywhere.

    4. Lineage II - If I want a grind fest, there are plenty of free ones, thanks.

    5. Final Fantasy XI - Grind Fest EQ style. I quit at level 13

     

    Honorable mention: WoW

    "Congratulations, you are now level 70! Now that you are done grinding quests for XP, it's time to grind them for GOLD! Yay! Oh and by the way, you'll need to raid three times a week, grind PvP for days, grind arena for days, grind faction for a Netherdrake, grind faction for crafting, grind monsters for crafting, all just to even begin to compete with the people who play this game for 50+ hours a week. You better get to work, yes work!"

  • Posted: 7/24/08 7:32 AM
    General Discussion
• • Is it possible to revamp EvE's skill-system into a third-person view game?

  • Don't forget Asheron's Call.

    It wasn't the most successful game, but for a brief time it was one of the "Big Three." Back then, EQ was king with a whopping 200k subscribers, wow! (Yeah, sarcasm)

    The skill system was very sophisticated, with lots of options. Basically at character creation you used a point buy system to set things like your base stats, then a separate pool of points to set skills to trained, or specialized -- specializing a skill cost a lot of points.

    When you kill monsters you gain experience, which you then choose to apply to any skill. This is the main method to increase your skills. Also, whenever you use a skill, it gains a small amount of experience. This is more to augment your combat experience, and not a way to increase your skills in and of itself.

    Trained skills, if I remember, did not passively increase. Specialized skills gained a 5 point bonus, meaning the cost to increase them was as if it were five points lower. This may not sound so great, but at higher levels five points can make a huge difference. Those same five points might cost you a few billion XP if you are nearing the skill cap ;)

    I once made a character named "Angry Wife" on the PvP server (Darktide). I specialized her in cooking, and thrown weapons. I stocked her up on dinner plates, and ran around accusing female characters of being "that harlot" and male characters of being "pigs," while flinging various dishes at them. I know, horribly sexist of me, right?

    Ahh, those were the days!

    I just wanted to give an example other than EVE. AC was a successful game, even if time was not kind to it! I feel like a lot of people here have no experience outside the more recent games. EVE and AC, though not perfect, are evidence that somewhere out there in the hazy cloud of possibilities there lies a game which can be different and successful!

  • Posted: 7/24/08 7:16 AM
    General Discussion