Game Companies are Morons. by FREMDFIRMA

I used to play Final Fantasy games, but after FFX became so linear (though it DID have a good story), and they came out with an MMORPG, I kind of stopped.

However, I'm often guilty of buying derivative games just for the nostalgia factor (see Zelda and Diablo). And I'm not fully immune to MMORPGs, though I knew from the beginning that they were a bad idea.

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Monday, June 4, 2012 7:06 AM

STORYMARK

Quote:
Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

Or, yanno, the problem *COULD* be something else...

Maybe, just maybe, a little innovation is in order, instead of milking to complete and total destruction whilst death-marching programmers, a'la Electronic Arts, hmmm?

-Frem

I see this complaint from people related to movies, as well. Problem is - there's not much logic to it. People, when it comes to entertainment, don't tend to want to try the new. There are non-sequel games all the time, same as movies. Some are even rather innovative. And they almost always flop - because the consumers don't want to risk their money on something untried - and so they buy what is familliar. And that being the case, it leaves the companies with little incentive to be original.

Don't get me wrong - Im not saying its okay for them to be derivitive over and over - just that the customers (as a group) are just as guilty, if not moreso. You can complain about Halo 4 - but Id bet you almost anything that it sells several magnitudes more than any original property released next year (and very likely more than several of them combined).

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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Monday, June 4, 2012 2:20 PM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

South Park: The Stick of Truth got some coverage at E3 along with all the sequel games. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty stoked for that.

What reason had proved best ceased to look absurd to the eye, which shows how idle it is to think anything ridiculous except what is wrong.

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Monday, June 4, 2012 3:23 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
I see this complaint from people related to movies, as well. Problem is - there's not much logic to it. People, when it comes to entertainment, don't tend to want to try the new.

Why not ?

Okay, think what one will, but since I buy a lot of games and anime from second-third line retailers and they often offer bundle deals, many times to fill out an order I will take a chance on some unknown show or game, throw it in to bulk out the order and snag the extra discount...
And you know what ?
While the occasional shelf-filler does slip through, and most fall into the passable category, cause Sturgeons Law really does apply to prettymuch everything....

A very disproprtionate number of those give-it-a-shot games and shows ARE THE BEST ONES I OWN.
That's actually how I find a lot of these rare, underappreciated gems.
Of course, sure I see your point about the average consumer gobbling up the shovelware just cause the name on it, the same way you could stamp a brand name on a pile of dried cow poop and get money for it, but that only works for so long before even the dumbest customer base starts catching wise.
And it has the potentional to really massively offend your customer base too - I note how the article seems to work its way AROUND mentioning that Electronic Arts is the most hated company in america, as if they had no impact on their game sales, eh ?

Anyhows, there's folks who makes games to make money, which is where shovelware comes from, and there's folks who make GAMES - Rockstar is kinda okay about this, although on the decline, Blue-Byte (now ubi-soft) used to be, but fell to the mythical siren song of game breaking DRM and greed, and Interplay even on their worst day was a cut above because of it, hell so was Activision WAY back when.
And wow, wouldn't ya know it, those who made GAMES out of love for the notion, the medium, often made more money than those with explicit profit margins, funny how that works, innit ?
Maybe, just maybe, cause they understand what gamers WANT, hmm ?

Mind, I am not really disagreein with you, just pointing out that there's always a market for the innovative, for the awesome, even if it's not just-stamp-the-logo-on-it safe margin shovelware.
HEY GAME COMPANIES - HERE I AM, FISTFULL OF MONEY IN HAND, AND NOTHING TO SPEND IT ON!
There's a very exploitable market (albiet a niche, though a well-payin one) which most companies have blinded themselves to by getting so distant from their market mentally - Wargaming.net has made some good chunk of cash off me with World of Tanks because it totally appeals to me, whereas other MMO/FPS games have not.

Quote:
South Park: The Stick of Truth got some coverage at E3 along with all the sequel games. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty stoked for that.

I'd be a little more stoked about the chair leg of truth, myself.

Man, a Transmetropolitan tie-in game would just be so damn awesome, and the modern GTA engine could so do it, I think...

-Frem

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012 10:37 AM

From mid-2002 to late 2007(?), I probably spent half my waking time
in EverQuest. If other games were better, I did not care, 'cause of the
huge learning curve. I stuck with what I knew.

Last March, I went back to EQ. End of April, Sony Online Entertainment
got hacked, compromising players' private info & credit cards. We
couldn't play while Sony "investigated" this. The News was unflattering
to Sony management, hinting that they never even tried to protect our
data.
In any case, I decided to not trust Sony evermore.

Later, I spent several days checking out EVE. Hated it.

Last night, I looked quite a while for What to play now, focused on
play at home alone stuff. Player recommended are Dragon Age Origins
& Baldur's Gate 2. Both of those are tooo grim for me now, and all
the screen shots are Dark! I like to go to the deserts, grasslands,
scattered forests, and play in the Sunlight!!

I've gotten soft and should play something suitable for kids under 13.

So ... back to shopping the MMPOGs. WoW is the one most often recom-
mended by other players.

Help Me, Please!!

=========================
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. ~Charles R Swindoll

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012 10:49 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

You might like Wow. It is bright and mostly light-hearted and easy to learn.

I am a sucker for character customization and the game didn't allow the sort of customization I enjoy.

I played Champions online, which is now free I believe. I found the customization much better there, but I don't know if you like superhero games.

I am looking forward to The Secret World to be released in July. But it will likely be too dark and adult themed for your enjoyment.

Frem and I played World of Tanks, but I suspect you want to do more than hunt and kill tanks.

--Anthony

Note to Self:
Raptor - women who want to control their reproductive processes are sluts.
Wulf - Niki is a stupid fucking bitch who should hurry up and die.
Never forget what these men are.
“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.” -Thomas Szasz

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012 12:01 PM

Yeah, I've mentioned WoW to Oonj. It's REALLY bright and colourful, and the controls are easy to pick up. I'm not sure she'd like some of the recent changes to the world though, and Battle.net isn't as trustworthy as it used to be.

If she were more into the dark and horror themed RPGs I'd suggest Diablo 3, since it's free to play and she wouldn't have to enter a credit card on Battle.net for that, so her credit card information would be safe. But, Diablo 3 is kind of gruesome.

I did mention Lord of the Rings Online, I played that for about a month while they still charged a subscription, and now that they don't it would probably be a good option.

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012 12:30 PM

LOTRO. I'm reading a review; I prefer its artwork to most I've seen.
Since I am set to try it soon as I can get setup there, question:
Can I (as free player) learn trade skills?

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012 12:39 PM

Looks to me like you can, yeah. The only thing I can see that costs anything is there's a store for in-game items, but any money you want to put into the game is optional. Apparently the store is also balanced fairly well, since I'm not seeing people complaining about using the store making players overpowered.

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012 12:51 PM

I was actually really excited reading about LOTRO that apparently characters can learn to play musical instruments and compose melodies in game? The only other game that I'd seen do something like that was Mabinogi, which is another game I'd like to get back into, but it has a pretty complicated leveling and gameplay system and not something I'd recommend for someone who doesn't want a steep learning curve.

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012 2:49 PM

Hey Frem,

I don't think the big game console releases are going by the wayside anytime soon, but unfortunately with all the mergers of companies and Publishers like EA taking away a lot of the creativity from the artists, I think we will continue to see a shrinking base of 60-70 dollar games and most of them will be sequels or spin-offs of well known games. When there are so many other options for cheaper games out there, many people aren't willing to take the risk that their hard earned dollars might buy an untried POS, especially in this economy.

It worked for Madden and every other sports franchise they re-release every year since back in the Genesis/SNES days... why not do it for other genres as well? Particularly when you've got budgets in the 10's of millions of dollars.

If you want innovation today, you have to look to the Indie market. At the very least, you have to look at places like the XBox Arcade marketplace. That's just the way the market is going today. There's no way that a company is going to spend 40 million dollars on an untested idea. There's too much risk involved and they'd be ripe for a hostile takeover when that game only made 5 million dollars on the back end.

3 of my favorite games I've played in the last few years were all XBox Arcade releases and only cost 10 to 15 bucks a piece. Castle Crashers, Torchlight and Shadow Complex. Sure, none of these three games were exactly "new" experiences at the core, but the abilities the XBox 360's hardware offered the developers allowed them to do some really awesome things with the games.

Castle Crashers....

The comedy and overall weirdness of this game just makes it compelling. You haven't lived until you've witnessed a doe-eyed deer propel himself across the screen like a rocket by shitting himself when the Big Bad Cat Monster is thumping around in the forest.

You can play with 4 people at home, or join up with other people online to fight bad guys.

Highly Recommended For: People who enjoyed games like Final Fight on the Arcade, or River City Ransom on the NES. The experience progression and the seemingly endless unlockables will keep you playing for a long time. I play this one through about once a year and I'm still unlocking new characters and items.

Torchlight....

No comedy here, I'm afraid. Just a no-nonsense level-grinding dungeon crawler with some of the best graphics I've ever seen in the genre. Beautiful music and special effects surround the experience.

Beating the game on "Easy" mode straight through will only take you about 4-5 hours probably, but unlocking all of the best things can easily take up to 300 hours or more. I couldn't even tell you how many hours I've dumped into this game and I don't have close to everything yet. When you beat the actual game, you can further explore the never-ending "Shadow-Tower" which pits enemies at your exact level on each floor you progress down. If you want to find the most impressive gear, this is how you go about it.

I have one character at level 100, and the experience points show that you can just continue right on to level 101 if you wanted to. I've never seen that in a game before. I actually have no idea how high you can max out your character.

But if you want to "retire" a character, you can put all the good gear and items in the "shared" chest for a new character and just keep one great item in their inventory. When you retire a character, you can never play it again, but it will remain in your character selection screen as an unplayable "ghost-trophy". More importantly, not only will the new character you create right after retiring a character start with some cool items and better baseline stats, but the "heirloom item" you selected will be available to your new player with increased attributes, lower level and stat requirements to equip, and the name of your retired character in the name of the item.

Highly Recommended For: People who love dungeon crawlers like Diablo, Baulder's Gate, and Bard's Tale on the XBox 360.

Shadow Complex....

By far, the best online downloadable game I've ever played. I wasn't even aware that it was an off-shoot of Orson Scott Card's Empire until I read the behind the scenes info on it. What a great cross-genre compliment to a great story.

Recommend Highly For: Fans of Metroid, "Metroidvania" games and Cave Story.

None of these games are, or ever were more than 15 dollars plus tax to play. There's just no way that a major studio could make these types of games on the cheap. True... Chair is a subsidiary of Epic Games, but Shadow Complex was just a minor project for them that didn't entail the tens of millions of dollars up-front costs because that model wouldn't have made any money in the end for this type of game.

Sure, they're no "Fallout 3", but some of us are happy with that. I spend too much time playing these games now as it is, and they're nowhere near as in-depth as the Fallout or Skyrim type games are today.

Considering the DVD drive hasn't worked on my XBox for about 8 months, it's really a thrill that I can download a great game for a really cheap price that will keep me entertained for countless hours on end.

Quote:
Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

Idiots.

http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/video-game-industry-dying-1755
30304.html
Quote:
E3 is usually the videogame industry's big party of the year — a chance to celebrate its strengths and showcase the titles it expects to drive sales forward for the rest of the year.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3But as the game makers gather for this year's event, a cloud hangs over the soiree. Retail sales are down 27 percent compared to this time in 2011. Mobile devices are stealing the spotlight from traditional consoles. And naysayers are openly questioning the long-term viability of the console industry.

Or, yanno, the problem *COULD* be something else...
Quote:
Microsoft will showcase "Halo 4" at this year's show — the beginning of a new trilogy for its most popular franchise — while Sony will showcase "PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale," a "Super Smash Bros"-like game featuring some of the best-known characters exclusive to the platform.

Third-party publishers are also hoping to take advantage of the large installed base of systems to showcase some of their biggest franchises. Ubisoft will center its focus on action games "Assassin's Creed III" and "Far Cry 3." Electronic Arts will showcase a new "Medal of Honor" game and graphical wunderkind "Crysis 3."

Most investors will be focused on Activision Blizzard, though. The company will give its first in-depth look at "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" at the show (likely at the start of Microsoft's press conference), which has already exceeded the early pre-order levels of its predecessors, thanks in part to its near-future setting.

Activision will also show off the next installment in its "Skylanders" series, which combines real-world toys with a videogame and was one of the 2011 holiday period's biggest surprise hits. (Collectors are paying up to $1,200 for rare figurines from the game on eBay.)

The biggest title on tap for next year, however, won't be at this year's E3 — and its publisher likely won't discuss it. "Grand Theft Auto V" is the game that could end "Call of Duty's" reign as the industry's top seller, but developer Rockstar Games traditionally shuns E3.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Sequelitis
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Shovelware

Maybe, just maybe, a little innovation is in order, instead of milking to complete and total destruction whilst death-marching programmers, a'la Electronic Arts, hmmm?

-Frem

Hey Oonjerah,

I can't EVER play an MMO because I'd do nothing else after I picked it up.

If you're looking for a new MMO though, I'd keep your eye out for the Elder Scrolls MMO coming out in the near future.

I couldn't bring myself to even try Skyrim, but Oblivion was amazing in my opinion. From what I hear, they're bringing all of the worlds of previous console based Elder Scrolls games and putting them all into a MMO setting. GI just had a 10 page article on it, and it sounds unbelievable.

To me, the idea of taking a ridiculously fleshed out series and thrusting you in the past before any of the games take place is unrepresented. All of the mythology of the console games they claim will remain intact, and rather than the fate of the world lying just in one hero's hands it is at the hands of millions.

They even removed the NPC romance/marriage things, since this is a "social event". Since they made a point of talking about that idea, that makes me believe that they will have online courtship and marriages happening throughout the land as time progresses.

I know I'd love the game, but I just can't immerse myself in a world like that.

This MMO doesn't come out until 2013, but my prediction now is that unless WoW makes some AMAZING strides by then, it will be all but extinct once people jump on board this new freight train.

Quote:
Originally posted by Oonjerah:
From mid-2002 to late 2007(?), I probably spent half my waking time
in EverQuest. If other games were better, I did not care, 'cause of the
huge learning curve. I stuck with what I knew.

Last March, I went back to EQ. End of April, Sony Online Entertainment
got hacked, compromising players' private info & credit cards. We
couldn't play while Sony "investigated" this. The News was unflattering
to Sony management, hinting that they never even tried to protect our
data.
In any case, I decided to not trust Sony evermore.

Later, I spent several days checking out EVE. Hated it.

Last night, I looked quite a while for What to play now, focused on
play at home alone stuff. Player recommended are Dragon Age Origins
& Baldur's Gate 2. Both of those are tooo grim for me now, and all
the screen shots are Dark! I like to go to the deserts, grasslands,
scattered forests, and play in the Sunlight!!

I've gotten soft and should play something suitable for kids under 13.

So ... back to shopping the MMPOGs. WoW is the one most often recom-
mended by other players.

Help Me, Please!!

=========================
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. ~Charles R Swindoll

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012 4:06 PM

I've heard people say Skyrim is beautiful, but I've been getting the impression it'll doesn't hold the interest for long.

But then I'm still playing swtor, even though beyond the bioware dialogue trees it's probably not that worth it. so I guess I shouldn't talk.

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012 8:43 PM

Quote 6ix: "I can't EVER play an MMO because I'd do nothing else after I picked it up."

Isn't that kinda the point? To go Live in a different world for a (very long) while?
I seek nothing less than Total Immersion!

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Thursday, June 14, 2012 2:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Oonjerah:
Quote 6ix: "I can't EVER play an MMO because I'd do nothing else after I picked it up."

Isn't that kinda the point? To go Live in a different world for a (very long) while?
I seek nothing less than Total Immersion!

Dude... I'm totally sure that IS the point..!!!!!!

That's why I can have no part of it. Might as well stick an IV in me and plug me into the Matrix if I started that shit.

I'm just saying to you that if you're looking for that kind of thing, I'd be very surprised if the Elder Scrolls world disappointing, let alone single-handedly thrown Blizzards WoW's severed head in the bed of the sleeping WoW's creator's bed, a'la The Godfather, when it invites those MMO "old schooler's" to paddle their way out of the kiddie pool and join the Next Generation.

Oblivion ate up hundreds of hours of my time, and could have easily eaten up more had my "Box" not stopped reading DVDs. I won't even play Skyrim because I hear that it has so much content you might as well be playing a never-ending MMO.

Put the two, and all of the previous lore of the Elder Scrolls series into a MMO and I'd be lost for life.

Ben Stein didn't call it "Evercrack" for no reason when his dick for brains kid spent 24/7 on it.

I'm only happy today to realize that I became an adult before MMO's were "the rage" with kids.

Had I been "Super Mario Bros. 3" age today, I'd die alone... renting a shitty studio apartment, plugged into the fantasy world as many hours as my paycheck would allow.

"Death to the Demoness Allegrah Gellar!!!!!!"

I knew what I was doing at my job, and I got Six-Sigma'd....

There are over 10 million idiots working Government jobs who I could run circles around.

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Thursday, June 14, 2012 6:37 PM

Quote:
let alone single-handedly thrown Blizzards WoW's severed head in the bed of the sleeping WoW's creator's bed

Every new MMO tries to say this, and it never happens... I dunno, Jack, I wouldn't hold your breath. an MMORPG is like black hole. As more get sucked in, the gravity becomes stronger. If anyone escapes, they gravitate back because all their friends are still there. And when one controls most of the market, it snowballs. Seen it again and again.

At this point the only thing that could stop WoW is if they had some kind of serious disruption of service.

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Friday, June 15, 2012 1:54 PM

Eventually somebody has to dethrone WoW. Since I've never played it before, I can't say for sure, but just by looking at stills the graphics have never really improved at all with the expansions.

Consider "Tera Online" just recently released...

This looks WAY more impressive to me than WoW does today. I even looked up the requirements to play it and the minimum PC requirements pretty much blow away my most advanced PC which has a motherboard that's about 3 years old.

I'd think that Elder Scrolls Online would be foolish to launch a new MMO that wasn't at least as graphically impressive as Tera Online.

Both the fantasy worlds of Elder Scrolls and Warcraft found their origin in 1994 on the PC, so the history of both franchises hold no draw over the other one. The single player Warcraft games, though they were some of my favorite games to play on the PC when I was young come nowhere near the mind numbingly immerse worlds that the Elder Scrolls world had created in Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim.

In the end, it all comes down to how well they deliver on their promises, but it sounds to me that MANY of the elements of the single-player world will transition well to an MMO environment (though there are some elements that needed to be curbed or completely abandoned because they would not work on such a different platform), and that many of these elements will revolutionize how people view MMOs in the future. The really cool thing is that they seem to be putting all of the different lands of that world together on the map, tying in all of the past console games together.

There's a lot to say about loyalty to a product and the ease of staying where all of your friends are.... but just ask MySpace about how they're doing now that almost everyone I know besides me has a FaceBook account.

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Quote:
let alone single-handedly thrown Blizzards WoW's severed head in the bed of the sleeping WoW's creator's bed

Every new MMO tries to say this, and it never happens... I dunno, Jack, I wouldn't hold your breath. an MMORPG is like black hole. As more get sucked in, the gravity becomes stronger. If anyone escapes, they gravitate back because all their friends are still there. And when one controls most of the market, it snowballs. Seen it again and again.

At this point the only thing that could stop WoW is if they had some kind of serious disruption of service.

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Friday, June 15, 2012 2:49 PM

Jack: You realize that WOW keeps it's system requirements low so more people can play it? They're not TRYING to push the graphics edge.

There were three WoW topplers that were released this year, none of them did it. Every year there's a whole bunch that say they're going to, and they never do.

The gambler's fallacy is to expect a different outcome when the opposite outcome has happened repeatedly in the past and expecting that the NEXT game is BOUND to change the fortunes. No, what you have here is historical precedence.

So far the reasons you've listed that this game will topple WoW is that 1) it has better graphics (which isn't the point), and 2) the main draw is important to specific group of fans, not the mainstream.

Not to say don't play, you should, and I hope you enjoy it. You probably won't be disappointed. But toppling WoW? It's extremely unlikely.

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Friday, June 15, 2012 2:56 PM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

With all respect to Wow, history also shows us that nothing lasts forever. Someday, inevitably, Wow will shrink to nothing and something else will rise to prominence.

--Anthony

Note to Self:
Raptor - women who want to control their reproductive processes are sluts.
Wulf - Niki is a stupid fucking bitch who should hurry up and die.
Never forget what these men are.
“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.” -Thomas Szasz

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Friday, June 15, 2012 3:29 PM

True, WOW will eventually peter out as Blizzard starts getting tired of providing the servers and making expansions for it. And if they screw up the service in some way, people will cancel or leave.

But so far as I can see no one is going to be able to kill WoW except for Blizzard itself.

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Friday, June 15, 2012 3:34 PM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Quote:
But so far as I can see no one is going to be able to kill WoW except for Blizzard itself.

Hello,

Most giants kill themselves, true. I remember many financial giants who dominated an industry- and secure in that dominance- allowed it to fade away, only noticing once it was too late.

--Anthony

Note to Self:
Raptor - women who want to control their reproductive processes are sluts.
Wulf - Niki is a stupid fucking bitch who should hurry up and die.
Never forget what these men are.
“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.” -Thomas Szasz

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Friday, June 15, 2012 3:36 PM

Hehe....

You misunderstand.... I don't play WoW, I won't play Tera, and I SURELY will never play Elder Scrolls.

Any one of those three activities could consume my life. Don't even get me started on how much time and energy I can spend playing Yahoo Spades when I'm playing with 3 people who know WTF they're doing.....

All I'm saying is WoW was born from a children's bedtime story, while Elder Scrolls is born of a legacy of history that would be worthy of being crowned the equivilant of "The Harry Potter" of RPG's. If they could somehow make that translate to MMO, WoW will be MySpace in 2 years and Elder Scrolls will be the new FaceBook.

I've been known to be wrong before though. I really thought that Spike TV was on to something when they ressurected Ren and Stimpy and made a new Basketball game that involved Trampolines back in 2003-2004....

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Jack: You realize that WOW keeps it's system requirements low so more people can play it? They're not TRYING to push the graphics edge.

There were three WoW topplers that were released this year, none of them did it. Every year there's a whole bunch that say they're going to, and they never do.

The gambler's fallacy is to expect a different outcome when the opposite outcome has happened repeatedly in the past and expecting that the NEXT game is BOUND to change the fortunes. No, what you have here is historical precedence.

So far the reasons you've listed that this game will topple WoW is that 1) it has better graphics (which isn't the point), and 2) the main draw is important to specific group of fans, not the mainstream.

Not to say don't play, you should, and I hope you enjoy it. You probably won't be disappointed. But toppling WoW? It's extremely unlikely.

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Friday, June 15, 2012 4:49 PM

Quote:

All I'm saying is WoW was born from a children's bedtime story, while Elder Scrolls is born of a legacy of history that would be worthy of being crowned the equivilant of "The Harry Potter" of RPG's. If they could somehow make that translate to MMO, WoW will be MySpace in 2 years and Elder Scrolls will be the new FaceBook.

That's subjective and speculative though. It's not a guarantee even if what you say about the quality of Elder Scrolls is a widely agreed upon fact.

If something IS going to be a WOW killer, we won't know until it kills it. And Blizzard is probably the most likely candidate. That's all I'm saying here.

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Friday, June 15, 2012 4:54 PM

TRUE

True....

I'll give you that Byte... My argument, even with videos was only a conclusory argument, and not a conclusive argument.

At this point, before the game comes out, that's the best that anybody could ever hope to throw at you from either side.

BTW.... Had I thrown a conclusory argument on my behalf to lower my taxes, they would have turned around and shoved it right up my ass. That didn't happen. As it was, things went rather splendidly today.

I have no stock in WoW or the competition, nor will I EVER engage in that sort of game.

There's just something about me that constantly roots for the underdog....

WoW had its place and time....

It's over....

If Elder Scrolls Online doesn't dethrone it, maybe Tera will surprise me....?

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Quote:

All I'm saying is WoW was born from a children's bedtime story, while Elder Scrolls is born of a legacy of history that would be worthy of being crowned the equivilant of "The Harry Potter" of RPG's. If they could somehow make that translate to MMO, WoW will be MySpace in 2 years and Elder Scrolls will be the new FaceBook.

That's subjective and speculative though. It's not a guarantee even if what you say about the quality of Elder Scrolls is a widely agreed upon fact.

If something IS going to be a WOW killer, we won't know until it kills it. And Blizzard is probably the most likely candidate. That's all I'm saying here.

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Friday, June 15, 2012 7:39 PM

Quote:
WoW had its place and time....

It's over....

See, on one hand, yes, it's a shambling zombie. The attempts to make the world darker and edgier in the previous expansion made it somewhat less appealing due to 1) destruction of environs and 2) the efforts of the player character never actually make the world better in the long term.

But 11 million people would disagree with that. It's not over until it's dead.

However, I understand your rooting for the underdog now, and in the spirit of that understanding, I will let that stand.

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Friday, June 15, 2012 10:00 PM

Oonj stopped by to say, "Hi!"
*Oonj flings open the door, runs across the room waving at FFF.nuts
who are too preoccupied to know she is there, and out the other door
thinking, "Thank heaven my mandatory 15 minute break per day is almost
over!" Her mouse hovers over the Game icon!*

=========================
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. ~Charles R Swindoll

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Sunday, June 17, 2012 7:31 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

So Oonj, what did you decide to start playing? Why did you decide to finish with Everquest?

I can't really play things like that, its probably a good thing because if I could I would and it would eat a _lot of my time, so its probably better that I can't. Because they do look fun.

I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.

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Monday, June 18, 2012 9:37 PM

I stopped EverQuest, because its owner, Sony Online Entertainment
could not protect my personal data.

I'm now trying out Lord of the Rings Online. It's a bit too structured
for me - as with a text adventure. May review it if I have time.

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012 3:57 AM

Structured? Oh. Hmm. You're probably not going to like most of the MMORPGs out there then.

In that case, if you decide to not play LOTRO further, I might recommend some kind of open sandbox game, like minecraft.

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Thursday, June 28, 2012 6:18 AM

MALACHITE

Quote:
Originally posted by Oonjerah:
Quote 6ix: "I can't EVER play an MMO because I'd do nothing else after I picked it up."

Isn't that kinda the point? To go Live in a different world for a (very long) while?
I seek nothing less than Total Immersion!

Have you guys read, "Ready Player One"? It is a futuristic sci fi novel featuring a total immersion virtual world, tons of 80's geek references and 2 solid Firefly references.

Six, thanks for the game recommendations. I will have to look into Torch.

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Saturday, November 17, 2012 10:42 PM

I looked at Skyrim on YouTube. It has the best artwork
I've seen in an RPG.

Truthfully, I find myself getting slow and rather soft
for the dark grimness of D&D games (Warning! Violence,
Blood, Gore!), but not quite ready for G rating.

Still, I must know: Does Skyrim hold one's interest?

======================

An Old Bat's gotta know her limitations. ~Oonj

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Wednesday, May 3, 2017 1:27 AM

I can't say enuf good stuff about LotRO.
Graphics: awesome.
Huge world: Low-slow me, I don't expect to ever see a third of it.
A wide variety of things to do both in the game & right next door to it.
Only 4 races to choose, but a fair range of classes.
I lied. They added a 5th race Beorning a couple years ago.
I ignore it as being unattractive & pointless.

Still, I took a couple of months off it to check out Blizzard's WoW.
Half of it; I only did the southern part. Cartoonish compared to LotRO,
& it never quite held my interest. But the worst of it was: Had to
stay in town or find lowland, watery green areas to play. Most of
the other landscape had enough red hues to give me a headache.
If you like grotesque, WoW has a fair share of it: One of the races
you can play is Zombie. ... The Panda is very nice, tho.

Lotro Lately: Problem: who the heck is running it now & supposed
to get paid? Turbine or Daybreak? I resent double billing.

... oooOO}{OOooo ...

The meaning of life. Now all I want is the funnest game.
Bein' olde & retired, play til my eyeballs glaze over.

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Thursday, May 4, 2017 11:44 AM

I'm glad one of them worked out for you. I thought LOTRO might suit you since it sounded like you enjoyed Everquest. I liked it too, though I made the mistake of trying to play the high level PvP area as a warg when I started out since I like wolves... And I'm bad at PvP. But it was still fun while I was into it.

Too bad about the double billing though. Not really sure what some good options for you might be now. I've been playing Guild Wars 2, no subscription cost there I think, and I really like how it progresses both a world story and a personal story. Maybe that might be a good option? Although that one is getting older now too, there might be newer ones.

Everquest next was canceled unfortunately. Elder Scrolls Online is still around as far as I know, that might be another high fantasy option. I've heard some things about Ark: Survival of the Fittest, it's almost like minecraft but with a lot of people interacting with each other and trying to tame dinosaurs. I hear wild stories about the server wide battles and communities from Eve Online, though that's more Sci-Fi. There's also always Skyrim. And Runescape is still around, that's another long runner but I guess they've found ways to keep it from getting stale even if the graphics are outdated.

Final Fantasy 14 Reborn is also a newer one I've played, very pretty, but I found aspects of it frustrating. It locks you into the starter areas and you can't really leave them until you're level twenty, and each area only has a few classes that start there. Aside from how the starting areas look (also very pretty), they're also almost carbon copies of each other story wise. And once you hit Level 20, the game forces you into Pick Up Groups to do anything, which I found awful. I just want to play the game, I don't want other people yelling at me about my DPS or heals because I'm new at it, or dropping me because they find out I'm new. I also don't really like the skimpy outfits, but at least they're skimpy on both genders, and I can see how that would appeal to some people.

And yeah, WoW's cartoony graphics. Back at the time we were discussing this they were still all right, but now they really have dated. And oh man, the storytelling is just bad. Really just awful, it's like an eleven year old writing fanfic. Suddenly villains, incredibly short sighted decisions just for the sake of keeping a weak factional conflict going, killing off or replacing the horde warchief every couple years for no particular reason.

Still play it though because I know friends on there, so I think my predictions in this thread bore out pretty well. Next expansion I think WoW will shut down though. They don't really have anywhere else to go, they've used up just about all the villains, and now Blizzard has Overwatch as their replacement money maker, they're going to want to focus on that and milk it dry while they get their next blockbuster in line.

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Friday, May 26, 2017 11:20 PM

Byte, you're the one who convinced me to try LotRO.
And I've been meaning to thank you for it.
A high quality game.

All the RPGs I've tried have a grind to them: If you want
to level up, you will grind mobs; you will grind quests.

The game has to be great enuf that the grind doesn't get you down.

But it's MMO, right? You can talk to other players, join a
Kinship ... make friends. So, I do that, & I like it.

But I don't join groups to raid dungeons or any other challenge.
Why not? My connection's too slow; I'm olde & slow to the point
of clumsy. ... So I just solo along, do my grinds and chat a bit.

... oooOO}{OOooo ...

The meaning of life: Have some work you like & have some fun you like.
Make friends, too.

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Saturday, May 27, 2017 1:44 AM

6STRINGJOKER

I'm glad you're enjoying it O. I have made it a point to stay far, far away from MMO's myself. The idea of a game that never ends is not a good idea at all for me. I remember hearing an interview of Ben Stein back in the day calling EverQuest "EverCrack" and said that it was destroying his son's life. A bit melodramatic, maybe, but I could see me losing myself in an online world like that.

I don't play any games online besides the occasional match of Spades. If I want to play a two player shooter or something I meet up with my brother on occasion and play some good old Goldeneye. Sure, it's about 20 years old now, but there's something pretty awesome about playing it split screen on his 70" TV.

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Saturday, May 27, 2017 4:21 AM

Yesss.

Guessing, it may have been 2005 when I started in on EverQuest ...
It was the baddest, funnest game I'd ever tried. EverCrack was a
good nickname.

Prior to that, I'd spent some time playing The Realm online, which
may still be going... but very plain & simply done compared to EQ.
It was also tiny; you could explore the whole map in less than a week.
And before the Realm, several, stand alone, play at home, box games:
Wizardry I, Ultima I, A Bard's Tale, etc. I was hooked early on RPGs.

I gave EQ another go for a couple of months last winter. It was dated,
faded; sadly, the thrill was all gone.

... oooOO}{OOooo ...

I've given up looking for the meaning of life. Now all I want is a cookie.

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Friday, December 8, 2017 12:28 AM

The olde, original, earthly regions of EQ ... nice to visit,
but too slow to play there. To play now, I'd have to base my
Toons on the moon, & explore all new territories. I guess.
EQ is owned by Sony Online Entertainment. I'm not sure
who's managing the subscriptions now.

Lord of the Rings online. Best game I ever saw; absolutely
amazing in its quality!! That's where I'd like to be. Created
by Turbine.
Managing the subscriptions now: Standing Stone Games.
Price went from $29/quarter to $15/month. Plus they always
double-billed me. Cheaters!

I think now I want no MMO. RPG, stand alone, play at home. I've
been reading reviews, & intend to see them on YouTube. My
new game will have to be an olde one, since my OS is now obsolete.

Simulations, by their nature, are stand alone at home ... mostly.

... oooOO}{OOooo ...

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Friday, December 8, 2017 1:09 AM

My kid doesn't care much for video games, like me...but she loves to play Slime Rancher which is on Steam.

It sounded stupid to me and I blew it off for a couple months, but it's really relaxing and fun. There are people on there that recommended it to other people with depression, and I'd have to agree. One of the few just enjoyable games I've ever seen. No stress, just collecting and exploring, and finding hidden treasures. No killing, no timers.

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Friday, December 8, 2017 2:50 AM

My 1st MO-RPG (Multi-player Online Role Playing Game) was the Realm. 1997,
Sierra Entertainment ... guess I found it in 1999. Small, primitive. It's primarily
a chat room.

My next game was EverQuest, then Lord of the Rings online; somewhen along
the line, I played Worlds of WarCraft.

Pretty often, I saw a notice that my game was On Steam. I never knew what
that meant; so I visited the Steam site just now ... I still don't know what it
means. Except it looks like you can play just about any online game there.

It is a subscription site, yes?

... oooOO}{OOooo ...

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Friday, December 8, 2017 2:12 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Oonjerah:

It is a subscription site, yes?

We downloaded Steam when Firefly Online was going to be produced and then they had legal problems.

You just sign up for an account, and then if you want to purchase a game you can feed it a credit card or you can buy Steam gift cards and input code, and then just buy and download. Slime Rancher was $20 when we bought it. We also bought and played ABZU in about a day (controls are somewhat difficult to master, but the storyline was fun and the graphics were pretty good). And we have the game of Life from there too.

There are also free games to play.

Kiddo plays School of Dragons MMORPG (free, and you earn gems just for logging on every day) where you can farm animals and produce, buy dragon eggs and hatch, raise, pick names, change colors, and fly them. They have battles every even hour (and then when the time changes it's every odd hour) where you go and attack an invading ship and win prizes.

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Sunday, December 10, 2017 12:51 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Got the news yesterday that Ace Combat Infinity will be shutting its servers March 31, 2018. This is really the only online game I've ever played, and I've played it near-daily for almost four years now. I have several maxed-out aircraft, lots of top 20 tournament finishes, and have made a whole community of friends, even doing admin duty on the largest Ace Combat Infinity group on facebook, as well as coordinating online matches and setting up "rental" or "loaner" accounts for noobs so they can try out top-level superplanes in matches.

I'll be sorry to see it go, but I've been expecting it for some time. Last year I had a choice of Xmas present from my wife: a new PS4, or a new camera. I went with the camera, a Nikon P900 with 83X optical zoom, and have been very happy with that decision. I spend much more time out in the world now, and the camera gives me a chance to be out among people without being *WITH* people, which plays perfectly with my Asperger's and my social anxiety. It's also given me several opportunities to embrace my love of photography and art and science. I scheduled a day off for the eclipse in August, and spent the day taking pictures of the Sun through a solar filter. My best shots include visible sunspots and sharp edges of the mountains on the Moon silhouetted against the disk of the Sun. I took over 1400 pictures that day alone. I've been playing with astrophotography, Moon shots, airshows, races, concerts, distant planets, downtown nightlife, protests, local scenery, pets, nature, and more. A few of my shots hang in local galleries, and I'm having quite a bit of fun.

This year, my wife offered me the same deal: PS4 or new camera. I'm going with the camera again, opting this time for a full-frame Nikon D600 that I picked up for a song. It should really open up the skies for me, especially when mounted to a nice telescope.

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Sunday, December 10, 2017 3:36 AM

Angry Kitty and collector of Fiestaware?? Is that you??

Wowza, good to see ya

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Sunday, December 10, 2017 5:56 AM

Faith and begorrah!!
Merry Christmas, Kwicko!!
... oooOO}{OOooo ...

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Monday, December 11, 2017 10:27 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Ho Ho Ho.
Nice to see you again, Kwicko.
Got too much on my plate, plus ever growing health issues to hang round here much anymore, alas.

For mine own I've mostly gone back to retro-gaming, cause that always-connected and having to have someone elses permission to play yer own damn single player game was the last damn straw for me, eff em, cause you KNOW that is eventually gonna get used to hold peoples paid for content hostage for more money, fuck that noise.

-Frem
I do not serve The Blind God.

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Monday, December 11, 2017 6:19 PM

Aww, everybody dropping by for the holidays? Where's Chrisisall??

Google those health problems, man. Don't wait for the docs, you'll be long gone by the time they figure anything out. Reading comments in forums has taught me more about my issues than the medical crimeunity.

Good to see you though.

Always happy to hear you are still kicking!

6ix says he's sober and has a job, btw. He's still desperately trying to find a clue though

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Monday, December 11, 2017 6:48 PM

KWICKO

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
Angry Kitty and collector of Fiestaware?? Is that you??

Wowza, good to see ya

Indeed it is. A couple years into a new gig, running a warehouse for General Mills (I'm in the all-natural Annie's division, where we're trying to change the corporate culture from the bottom-up, inside-out), shaming people less than half my age with my work ethic, and generally kicking ass and doing what they say can't be done, on the regular. It's how I roll. :)

I grew up around photography, and used to develop my own 35mm black and white pics, and took some photography courses in college, but that was back in the 80s. Nowadays, I still have a few film cameras, but film and processing are so expensive any more that I really never use them. I'm a pure digital boy now. I love that I can go out, shoot literally hundreds to thousands of shots in a day, download them all to my laptop, save the raw files to an external hard drive, wipe the SD card and reformat it, and I'm ready to go for the next assignment.

And now instead of working in a darkroom, I work (or play, rather) in Lightroom and Photoshop, digitally manipulating the images to maximize the good and minimize the bad. Before, my pictures tended to look a lot like snapshots; now they look like *photographs*.

It's a lifelong passion, rediscovered.

Here's a shot of the Moon. Bear in mind, this is not maximum zoom. :O

A bluejay in my back yard:

One of the first pics I took when I got the camera. The Stevie Ray Vaughan statue in Austin, with the full moon acting as a halo behind Stevie's head.

Just a little taste of what I've been up to.

Happy Holidays to all!

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Monday, December 11, 2017 8:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:
Ho Ho Ho.
Nice to see you again, Kwicko.
Got too much on my plate, plus ever growing health issues to hang round here much anymore, alas.

For mine own I've mostly gone back to retro-gaming, cause that always-connected and having to have someone elses permission to play yer own damn single player game was the last damn straw for me, eff em, cause you KNOW that is eventually gonna get used to hold peoples paid for content hostage for more money, fuck that noise.

-Frem
I do not serve The Blind God.

I am surprised & glad to see you, Frem.

Like you, I'm going back to stand-alone-at-home olde games.
I don't think my Windows7 can keep up with the new stuff anyways.

I'll try out Dragon Age Origins.

... oooOO}{OOooo ...

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Tuesday, December 12, 2017 3:38 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Oonjerah:

Like you, I'm going back to stand-alone-at-home olde games.
I don't think my Windows7 can keep up with the new stuff anyways.

I'm using 8.1, I didn't go to 10 either. I tried once and when my computer still was off and not doing anything 8 hours later I said hell with it...

If they dissolve the net neutrality thing I may be giving up internet anyway.

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Tuesday, December 12, 2017 7:52 PM