Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Spluff]

I'd say it's more dark bragging (in the vein of dark matter). We know it's out there, and that it exists, but if we come into contact with it, shit will hit the fan.

[sbakerj]

Gaming commandment #1: There shalt not be an ultimate weapon. High powered weapons are okay. A weapon that allows you to kill everything on a map is not.

Gaming commandment #2: Thou shalt not force your players to buy the game for installation, then force your player to pay to play the game they just installed. Seriously, if you pay $60 for a game, you shouldn't have to pay $15 a month for continued play. At least offer some type of "$200, lifetime membership" thingy.

[Narr]

MMOs seem that way on paper, but honestly, you can't expect them to make money, continue development for the games, AND maintain multiple multiples of servers without the monthly fee.

I do think the idea of making people pay for it initially and then charging them a fee on top of it is pretty stupid, though.  Free to download and install, pay to play?  Makes sense to me, at least.

[est]

I am hoping that at some point we'll get to that stage, Narr.  I think that for a while there when they were first tanking vs WoW Sony were allowing people to download EQ2 for free, then sign up for a couple months free trial to boot.  It would have been a good model for them if EQ2 wasn't such an utter piece of shit, which leads me to my next "gaming sin" ...

"Cutting edge" graphics are not a substitute for interesting artwork (EQ2) or game-play (too many games to mention).  I downloaded the EQ2 trial to see if the in-game feel was as bad as what was indicated by their screenshots.  It was.  They were pushing the uncanny valley (or whatever it is called) in regard to the quality of the graphics.  They were very good in some areas, but seriously lacking in others.

For example, if I remember correctly they had realtime lighting & shadows, large textures, fairly high polygon models, nice-looking water, etc.  However, you couldn't turn anti-aliasing on with some features like the lighting and shadows.  As a result the shadows all looked shit.  You could turn the lighting on, but all the shadows looked super-crisp and unrealistic.  That plus the uninspired artwork and HQ plasticky textures made everything look like action figurines come to life, which was really fucking creepy.  In addition, the animations for everything looked jerky and shithouse.

By contrast take a look at WoW.  Cartoony characters and tech that doesn't need a supercomputer to drive.  It has typically excellent Blizzard artwork and focuses on the fun aspect of the game.  For the most part they succeed and as such people flock to it.

[Surgoshan]

That's like comparing Spirits Within to The Incredibles; the results are the same. 

[Siert]

Free to download and install, pay to play?  Makes sense to me, at least.

It is noted here that this is where gold farmers / adverts get their way in, for free. Although due to warcracks popularity it was hard to go five minutes with "Buy gold at xxxgold.com 5000 gold for $200".

I think some companies force you to buy the game to lower the amount of gold spammers but its a tough road to travel, punish legit players with spam or with a lighter wallet.

[snalin]

People have already been through grinding. This is evil. And boring.

But one thing I really hate is things not beeing properly done. If you're going to ass something to a game, think it through, and do it properly. Half-finished parts is always sad. Like Morrowind's shadows. That was awfull. And maps that's designed a bit too fast. Some levels on RTS-games have forests around the map. But if you played for a long time, and chopped through a bit of the forest, there was nothing beyond it. They hadn't even bothered to fill the whole map with trees, there were this sandy, empty, boring area behind it.

Another thing; if you need a tutorial, it needs to be good. And underestimating the players intelligence is bad. I remember the first time I played Age Of Empires II, the tutorial part tells you how to select and move a unit three times. In a row. You introduce every aspect of the game in one five-minute level. This means 35 minutes of (pretty much boring) tutorials that you have to play through to actually be able to play the game properly. Which is bad. A tutorial should last for maximum five minutes, and if the game is really complicated, the complicated things should be gradually introduced.

[sbakerj]

Even worse: the 10 hours of gameplay that had you walking- not running, flying, or transporting- to all ends of the map to deliver a package to Mr. X so he can deem you worthy to take on the next quest.