Originally posted by Tolerance You may be surprised to find this out but Dwarves, Elves, Dragons, Pixies, Trolls, and such, predate the birth of Tolkien by more than a few years.
I never said Tolkien made them up. I said J.R.R. Tolkien was the one soley responsible for popularizing worldwide, northern and western European myths, superstitions, and legends. Before Tolkien came along, those northern and western European myths, superstitions, and legends, were in the conciousness of adults worldwide extreemly little, to none at all.
Also, it was the northern and western Europeans who got and grossly changed the ideas of Dwarves, Elkves, DRagons, etc.... from the southern and eastern Europeans. For example, compare the Elves of Santa's Elves, The Keebler Elves, to the current idea of Elves. Elves used to be 1 foot high, all living in trees, and not using bows and arrows. Elves, Gnomes, and Dwarves, were all thought of as the same things. Until the northern, and western, Europeans took those tales, and changed them.
There really is no definition of Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, etc... etc... It is all based on whatever the current popular public perception is of them. 4,000+ years ago in southern and eastern Europe the popular public perception was different. Then 2,000+ years ago in northern and western Europe the popular public perception changed. Even right now, in EQ2, the popular public perception of Orcs is different.
Dwarves, Elves, etc... all existed in real life. They were used as descriptions of people. An Elf was a synonym for a Pretty Boy. Check out the book "Gorkey Park" (which the classic movie is based on). When the Russian cop is in the bar, and he sees the bartender's wife, he calls her a Gnome. Not as an insult, but as a description the same way you would call someone lanky, stout, bulky, a hunk, big boned, etc... Was she really a Gnome? Yes and no. Same thing when the cop later on talks about how he met an ogre. "The Ogre was large, and muscular, with a feroucios look". He is using the original definition of a Gnome, not the current popular perception of a Gnome. Truth got turned into myth, myth got turned into legend, legend got turned into superstition.
Ever heard the saying "Knock on wood" of coarse we all have... Know what it means? Probably not... Back in the Medieval times the peasants and such lived in wooden shacks, they had big wooden tables they would eat on, wooden chairs, ect... They believed when bad things would happen after they boasted about themselves or their situation that little Gnomes living in their wooden furniture and home would bring this bad luck upon them. So they began to "Knock on wood" during their current boast so the Gnomes could not hear what was being said over the knocking. So that became their way to be able to say "I haven't been sick in a whole year!" without the bad luck getting them. Nowadays everyone boasts then knocks on wood afterwards, it's all good, but makes no sense at all.
This little tidbit was brought to you by me, for no other reason but me being bored!
KC2283,
Thank you! I like finding about archaic history!
(Note: Were Gnomes part of the whole Tolkien theme or not really? Was wondering that when I read the post about Dragons and such predating Tolkien)
Yes there are Gnomes in Tolkien's books also. The Silmarilian (Written around 1918???), Book of Lost Tales 1, Book of Lost Tales 2, and many other books of his, have many stories about Gnomes, even a very famous Gnome. Probably the best ever story about Gnomes ever written, just as good as the Lord of the Rings books which are about Hobbits. If it ever got made into a movie it would be just as intresting, maybe even better because it is a very brutal, very violent, very sexual, story. With many underlying, and overlying themes. (Oedipus Rex complex, other complexes LOL!) I would not be surprised if George Lucas got the idea for the romance between Luke and Leia from Tolkien. As well as the Anakin/Shimi theme from Tolkien.
The main Gnome character is definatly not perfect LOL! The badguy who the Gnome does battle with, is the teacher of the main badguy in Lord of the Rings. It also touches on the major theme of the recent movie "The Hulk" by Ang Lee... about how the actions of the father has bearing on the future life of his son.
________________________________ Warrior of Passion
AC2 is a fantastic game. I don't really care what some guy that never played it says.
Turbine/Microsoft made one very big mistake with AC2 though: They released it 18 months too soon. It was not finished. Like Anarchy Online was not finished when that was released. Same goes for (but far from to the same extent) DAoC. I do believe that AC2 has a future however.
As it is now I'd guess that AC2 has about 5-15k subscriber. This will not ensure the future of the game but I think a lot more will come. Players left the game because it wasn't finished. It still isn't but I have a damn hard time finding a better game out there. And old friends are coming back.
The only new game coming up that can compete with AC2 is WoW. Every EQ player I know are about to leave due to the fact that it has been tweaked a lot to accomodate new subscribers. Those players doesn't even consider playing EQ2. They are considering AC2 however.
A lot of AC2's players will try WoW but eventually some will return. I know I'll try out WoW when it comes. I will also keep my AC2 account because I expect WoW to suffer from the same problems as every other newly released MMORPGs.
AC2 has a "Red Dot" server. Every player can kill each other. So if you find the usual hunting and questing boring you can start hunting your fellow adventurers! Sooo cool :-)
AC2 has a "Red Dot" server. Every player can kill each other. So if you find the usual hunting and questing boring you can start hunting your fellow adventurers! Sooo cool :-)
This confuses me. If everyone can, and more than likely will kill each other if they are not in the same alliegance or are friends personally, how does anyone do anything but solo? Let's say I make a char on Darktide and head to the Arwic vault to get some levels, hoping to find someone there to fellow with--and instead of fellowing with me, they kill me? Maybe that's just not how it works, but I don't know what else to think.
Vendor buy us all a decent MMORPG bank guards recdu recsu
Vendor buy us all a decent MMORPG bank guards recdu recsu
On the red dot server you depend very much on allegiances. There are good ones that only kill their enemies and people that attack them and there are evil ones that kill every "red dot" (player) they see.
So in your case some would kill you at the Arwic vault and some would talk for example ask if you come in peace and team up with you. It all depends on who you meet.
It can be very frustrating at first. It requires a special breed ;-)
Tolkien began with the intention of writing children's stories and fairy tales (not epic trilogies). As a result there is a much different flavor in The Hobbit as opposed to LoTR. It was designed to be a children's book. As a result, you read that Bilbo became lost trying to escape from Goblins (rather than Orcs). Goblins were used because people of the time could identify with goblins through folklore (just as they were familiar with the idea of gnomes). In his early writings and "lost tale" material he called the Noldor (elves with an affinity for building and craft...Fingolfin, Feanor, Galadriel, Glorfindel, etc... ) gnomes so readers would have a vantage point in folklore to place them. Galadriel is a Noldor, ie originally what was termed a gnome, as she is the daughter of Finarfin and went into exile along with Feanor and the other Noldor. Sorry, Galadriel is no 3' high gal with a white curly beard who makes toys...
However, as the story progressed and there was interest on the part of adults for his stories, he ceased to call them gnomes and referred to them as elves, Noldor. In the same light, he stopped calling the villains Goblins and developed the name Orcs to make them an original race, native to his Middle Earth. In fact, he didn;t even bother to include the word "goblin" when he made the index for LoTR.
Aslo, Tolkien was not quite as original as you think. As you stated, much of his work cane from mythology, mainly Norse. In fact The Eldar Eddas contain many similarities to Tolkien's work. Here are some examples:
1. Let's start with the author of The Eldar Eddas: a priest named...Saemund the Wise. Hmm, who does that sound like LOL?
2. The opening: called...Voluspa, Prohecy of the Vala...here a volva chants about the cosmos from creation to the destruction...sound a bit similar to the great music of the vala to Illuvatar before the creation of the world?
3. Yggdrasil, the One Tree: not to be confused with the two trees of Valinor
4. Vanir-Aesir: these were the greater and lesser gods similar to the Valar-Maiar
5. Gandalf: called Gandalf in the Elder Eddas heh
6. Middle Earth: literal translation of the mortal realm of Midgard
7. Rings of Power: the dwarves for constantly forging Rings of Power for the gods. There was one that cursed the bearer, one that duplicated itself into 9 rings every ninth day, etc...
8. Dietrich and Laurin: Dietrich won a ring from the dwarf Laurin, who ruled a magnificent underground kingdom, by winning a riddle game (test of wits) as well as a magic cape which granted the wielder...what else...invisibility!
------------------------------------------
The point: Tolkien wasn't original and MMORPG are really copies or recreations of traditional folklore and myth, not the works of one man.
Ok, I have been trying to decide whether to save my money for EQII come November or to try another game. I played Lineage 2 and City of Heroes and got discouraged very quickly, L2 has some big problems with it's combat system and CoH was great just not appealing to my fantasy drivin mind. So, I think "hmmm maybe Asherons Call 2 will be some fun for a while, meet some new people, have some adventures, heck if I like it enough maybe ill stay and not go to EQII"
So thats what I did. It has been roughly 9 months to a year since i have logged in to my account and surprisingly I still had all my characters on the Coldeve server, just no one else was logged in. Am I doomed to play on an empty server?? The only reason I did come back was for the KvK/PvP. How does it work on the carebear severs? :-) Only in designated areas or what???
I am unsure about AC2's future but I don't mind forking over 50 bucks for some entertainment till the big boy comes out.
On the red dot server you depend very much on allegiances. There are good ones that only kill their enemies and people that attack them and there are evil ones that kill every "red dot" (player) they see.
So in your case some would kill you at the Arwic vault and some would talk for example ask if you come in peace and team up with you. It all depends on who you meet.
It can be very frustrating at first. It requires a special breed ;-)
Ok so I am wondering if I should start somewhere else, forget about my level 50 and just start new. First I want to know some numbers, some real ones, not rounded up if ya know what I mean! On Darktide how many average people are logged in peek hours? Also I would really like to know about the PvP status on the 2 Carebear servers, is it decent or non existant?
And what is this game feature that they have not put in?
xplororor:
I was waiting for you to ask heheh. Before AC2 came out, and while it was in beta, and during the first 4 months it was out, and even in the 2 page magazine coverstory on it, AC2 advertised a game feature no other MMORPG ever had, nor was planning. (Not even the rest of the new 4th generation MMORPGs are planning it!) -
NPCs coming along, destroying towns, and players rebuilding the towns, defending the towns from getting destroyed again by NPCs. Heck, if AC2 ever get around to putting this in, I would even support it even more than you. I would personally find a way to advertise AC2's uniqueness among the sea of over-saturated Fantasy-Themed MMORPGs
Xplororor you were not lieing, I played AC2 right at release, they spoke about great creatures attacking the towns, the players are called to band together to defend against the disasters, then to choose which towns get rebuilt... None of that happened, I did enjoy the game but all the promises were never fullfilled. I think if the devs followed through with their promisses the game would be much more succesful.
Whats funny is the closest thing that I have ever experienced to this AC2 promise of creatures attacking, and players rebuilding occured in AC1 with the Bronze Golems. These monsterous Bronze Golems would spawn throughout some of the major towns such as Qualubr' Shoushi, ect... These golems were powerful and would kill most solo midlevel characters, pummel low levs and were even a challenge for the higher levels. This went on numerous times a day for a whole month, Large trophies could be found on the golems giving large exp rewards.
Now this only undertakes the first part of the whole "Creature vs Player" concept where the town is involved which is the attacking part, it still doesn't cover the destruction or rebuilding of the town. I'm sure other games have done this as well but thats the closest they have ever gotten.
________________________________ Warrior of Passion
Originally posted by xplororor I am "looking out for people so they do not waste their irreplaceable time" by making sure they know the full truth. For example take you. You have played AC2, you KNOW about the dismally low amounts of players AC2 has. You are in a position to make a fully informed decision to play AC2. If you decide to continue subscribing to AC2 for another year, and it later gets shut down, you have nothing to complain about, since you decided to invest your time. You have accepted all the risks.
There's no real reason to look out for people too much. I mean, what were they going to do with that time anyway? Watch reruns of crappy sitcoms? They'd already committed that time to doing something non-productive in deciding to check out a game to start with. What's wrong with letting people find out the full truth themselves, and letting them interpret the truth for themselves? It's not like the low numbers are a secret.
Time playing a game is not time "invested". It is time that is wasted by the mere fact that you are playing a game instead of doing something to improve yourself or the world you live in. Wasting time isn't necessarily a bad thing. We all need down time. But you can't really pretend that people are losing anything if they decide to play a little AC2.
I saw how low the server populations were when I played a free trial of AC2 recently, prior to the new advertising campaign, and it didn't really adversely affect my play. I found lots to do by myself, and I even found other people to fellowship with. Frankly, I haven't found high server populations in other games to be very good predictors of whether or not it was a game worth my time. And if they shut down the game, there's nothing lost. I'll just go play something else. No big deal.
~*~ neschria
... This is where I draw the line: __________________.
Unfortunately both Coldeve (KvK) and Darktide (PvP) suffers from the lack of players. On the positive side this means you can level up much easier since you'll be all alone on Osteth. People are starting to join though.
I can't give you precise numbers. Instead check out http://www.fallenkingdoms.com/. They have a script telling how many is online on each server all the time. I have noticed the populations rising lately.
AC2 is a fantastic game. I don't really care what some guy that never played it says.
I fully agree. I never go by anything someone says if they NEVER ever played a game.
Turbine/Microsoft made one very big mistake with AC2 though: They released it 18 months too soon. It was not finished. Like Anarchy Online was not finished when that was released. Same goes for (but far from to the same extent) DAoC. I do believe that AC2 has a future however.
You are very right. Every single player in AC2 beta said the exact same thing. IMHO AC2 was released 6 months too early. But MicroSoft is fully to blame for all the mistakes made with AC2, not Turbine.
As it is now I'd guess that AC2 has about 5-15k subscriber. This will not ensure the future of the game but I think a lot more will come. Players left the game because it wasn't finished. It still isn't but I have a damn hard time finding a better game out there. And old friends are coming back.
"This will not ensure the future of the game....". Thank you for being a realistic fan of AC2.
The only new game coming up that can compete with AC2 is WoW. Every EQ player I know are about to leave due to the fact that it has been tweaked a lot to accomodate new subscribers. Those players doesn't even consider playing EQ2. They are considering AC2 however.
WoW is targeting Blizzard fans. It is a HUGE untapped market of millions of gamers. EQ2 is being targeted at EQ fans, as well as former EQ fans. Though some EQ fans and players claim they will not check out EQ2... heheh... watch as EQ2 breaks 100,000 accounts heheh.
A lot of AC2's players will try WoW but eventually some will return. I know I'll try out WoW when it comes. I will also keep my AC2 account because I expect WoW to suffer from the same problems as every other newly released MMORPGs.
WoW is being made by Blizzard. It is their first ever MMORPG. Blizzard is notorious for making their games as best as they can. Will it have bugs? Yes. Will it have a launch as bad as AO, WW2 Online, and AC2? Absolutly no.
AC2 has a "Red Dot" server. Every player can kill each other. So if you find the usual hunting and questing boring you can start hunting your fellow adventurers! Sooo cool :-)
Non-Consentual PvP has long ago been proven a failure from a buisness P.O.V. Other MMORPGs have learned this lesson from UO. UO finally learned this lesson from itself. PvP done right means consentual PvP.
Also a pure PvP server does not pay for itself. PvM is the biggest market. PvP is the next biggest market. Then there is the Dabbler Market which is big enough to bring in money. A pure PvP server only targets 1 of those 3 markets. And completly ignores the Dabbler Market. Games like DAoC, SWG, and AO have successfully targeted all 3 nitch gamer markets.
Originally posted by Andropina On the red dot server you depend very much on allegiances. There are good ones that only kill their enemies and people that attack them and there are evil ones that kill every "red dot" (player) they see. So in your case some would kill you at the Arwic vault and some would talk for example ask if you come in peace and team up with you. It all depends on who you meet. It can be very frustrating at first. It requires a special breed ;-)
Nope. Check out the notes at Raphs site about the aftermath of UO after they had FFA (Free For All) PvP aka Non-Consentual PvP. You cannot use such a game feature successfully. Ask if you come in peace?!? You will always be at the mercy of higher level players, griefers, kill stealers, etc....
It requires powergamers with no life who can level up super-quick,, not a "special breed". Gamers who do not have as much free time to play will always be on the losing end.
KC2283 asked "Were Gnomes part of the Tolkien theme?" aka were Gnomes featured anywhere in Tolkien's stories? He did not ask if Gnomes were in 1 of Tolkien's books called "Lord of the Rings". (Tolkien's publisher split it into 3 books.). And I specifically mentioned the title of the books Tolkien wrote that featured Gnomes.
Tolkien began with the intention of writing children's stories and fairy tales (not epic trilogies).
You are very missinformed. Tolkien's first book was "The Silmarilian". And it most definatly was not intended to be a children's book. Tolkien wrote an entire book of essays, and his thoughts, about this missinformation. Read up on his book called "Tree and Leaf".
As a result there is a much different flavor in The Hobbit as opposed to LoTR. It was designed to be a children's book. As a result, you read that Bilbo became lost trying to escape from Goblins (rather than Orcs). Goblins were used because people of the time could identify with goblins through folklore (just as they were familiar with the idea of gnomes).
Yes, Tolkien first ment for the Hobbit to be a book for children. Though it did have many underlying adult themes. Which is why after it became super successful, he was easily able to re-write it for a more "adult" audiance.
In his early writings and "lost tale" material he called the Noldor (elves with an affinity for building and craft...Fingolfin, Feanor, Galadriel, Glorfindel, etc... ) gnomes so readers would have a vantage point in folklore to place them. Galadriel is a Noldor, ie originally what was termed a gnome, as she is the daughter of Finarfin and went into exile along with Feanor and the other Noldor. Sorry, Galadriel is no 3' high gal with a white curly beard who makes toys...
Incorrect. You have not read all of Tolkien's books recently. You are mixing up a lot of the names. The Noldor are a type of Elves. There are 3 subspecies of Elves, further split into even more subspecies. Gnomes are distinctly different from Elves. When the Gnome hero visits the Elven king who has a cave city, in "Book of Lost Tales 1", "Book of Lost Tales 2", Tolkien specifically mentions Gnomes and Elves are different. That is why the Elven king makes fun of him, the Elven prince makes fun of him (the Gnome later kills the Elf prince heheh.).
However, as the story progressed and there was interest on the part of adults for his stories, he ceased to call them gnomes and referred to them as elves, Noldor. In the same light, he stopped calling the villains Goblins and developed the name Orcs to make them an original race, native to his Middle Earth. In fact, he didn;t even bother to include the word "goblin" when he made the index for LoTR.
Re-read the Lord of the Rings books. Tolkien still has Goblins in them. At the battle of Helms Deep, and in the 3rd book, the enemy armies are made up of Goblins, Wild Men (a type of old Human) (Aragorn even tries to parlay with them), Orcs, Uruk-Hai (Greater Orcs), Trolls. Goblins in Tolkiens world are a species related to Orcs. And he keeps on mentioning Goblins in his early works, as well as later works, as well as in the LotR books.
Aslo, Tolkien was not quite as original as you think. As you stated, much of his work cane from mythology, mainly Norse. In fact The Eldar Eddas contain many similarities to Tolkien's work. Here are some examples:
We are in full agreement. Like I said, Tolkien's claim to fame is being the guy who popularized worldwide European myths, stories, legends, and superstitions. He did not make them up. Though he was the originator of Hobbits and Halflings.
Two best server is darktide pvp rules fully pvp world nowhere save
You can do all things you can do on carebear server but extra is pvp always danger go anti clans good ones or go rpk clans bad ones they kill on sight.
Darktide is completedly different from carebear server but if you dont care to be killed by other player and try lvl so you can have your revenge its great fun.
RED DOT rules
Fights take place in cragstone or millstone arwic linvak tukal arramora chaos dungeon or loft dungeon everywhere you have fights always be on alert becouse enemy can be near,pvp heaven AC2 DARKTIDE go play there
Originally posted by xplororor Non-Consentual PvP has long ago been proven a failure from a buisness P.O.V. Other MMORPGs have learned this lesson from UO. UO finally learned this lesson from itself. PvP done right means consentual PvP.
It's not Non-Consentual since you actually created a character on the PvP server. But you are probably right since these servers have quite few players. But killing intelligent opponents appeals a lot more to me than killing script based opponents. I just mentioned Darktide and Coldeve since I hope more will start there in case they decide to sign up.
Originally posted by xplororor Non-Consentual PvP has long ago been proven a failure from a buisness P.O.V. Other MMORPGs have learned this lesson from UO. UO finally learned this lesson from itself. PvP done right means consentual PvP.
It's not Non-Consentual since you actually created a character on the PvP server. But you are probably right since these servers have quite few players. But killing intelligent opponents appeals a lot more to me than killing script based opponents. I just mentioned Darktide and Coldeve since I hope more will start there in case they decide to sign up.
That arguement has been tried by supporters of FFA PvP. And you are right. The thing that shoots that argument down though are the game Developers theirselves, and the Moneymen. A brand new server for a modern MMORPG costs roughly $100,000.oo (USA). Then there is the monthly costs for upkeep, electricity, and maintance, backups, etc... The most cost effecient MMORPGs have PvM, PvP, and Dabblers on every single server. It is like a car that has 4WD, 2WD, an automatic, and stick shift(or steering wheel shifting like race cars have.). Because it is more universal, it cuts costs because there will be a consumer it caters too.
A pure FFA PvP server is like a car that is stick shift only. It caters only to 1 market. And it gets worse... FFA PvP does not in practice work for the majority of players who like, love, and enjoy, PvP!
For example you can be a level 100 player with the best armor and weapons in the game. You will still easily be defeated. All anyone has to do is wait for your health to get low from either fighting monsters, or other players. Then they step in and in a few shots kill you.
Or as one guild in UO did, on purpose have every member make low level characters, log them in, keep fighting the strongest enemy and whittle his health down. Then log on their main characters and kill him. His health will be too low, or he will have run out of health/mana potions.
Everytime anyone logs on, they face getting absolutly nothing done because they can get chainkilled. You even face never leveling up, or higher level players with no life can even make it so only they reach high level.
I'm still playing and enjoying the free trial, up to lvl 13 or so and haveing a great time, just canceled my swg account! yay! lol so anything is probly gonna be good for a while lol. But this game seems great so far
AC2 is indeed making a comeback. Congrats to Turbine for taking the game out of the gutter and putting it up there among the MMORPG elite, with many more good things to come (expansion talks in the works! impressive monthly updates!). I'm a bit shocked I'm playing the game considering the sour taste it left with me at launch, but it is certainly a lot of fun to play now!
Comments
I never said Tolkien made them up. I said J.R.R. Tolkien was the one soley responsible for popularizing worldwide, northern and western European myths, superstitions, and legends. Before Tolkien came along, those northern and western European myths, superstitions, and legends, were in the conciousness of adults worldwide extreemly little, to none at all.
Also, it was the northern and western Europeans who got and grossly changed the ideas of Dwarves, Elkves, DRagons, etc.... from the southern and eastern Europeans. For example, compare the Elves of Santa's Elves, The Keebler Elves, to the current idea of Elves. Elves used to be 1 foot high, all living in trees, and not using bows and arrows. Elves, Gnomes, and Dwarves, were all thought of as the same things. Until the northern, and western, Europeans took those tales, and changed them.
There really is no definition of Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, etc... etc... It is all based on whatever the current popular public perception is of them. 4,000+ years ago in southern and eastern Europe the popular public perception was different. Then 2,000+ years ago in northern and western Europe the popular public perception changed. Even right now, in EQ2, the popular public perception of Orcs is different.
Dwarves, Elves, etc... all existed in real life. They were used as descriptions of people. An Elf was a synonym for a Pretty Boy. Check out the book " Gorkey Park " (which the classic movie is based on). When the Russian cop is in the bar, and he sees the bartender's wife, he calls her a Gnome. Not as an insult, but as a description the same way you would call someone lanky, stout, bulky, a hunk, big boned, etc... Was she really a Gnome? Yes and no. Same thing when the cop later on talks about how he met an ogre. "The Ogre was large, and muscular, with a feroucios look". He is using the original definition of a Gnome, not the current popular perception of a Gnome. Truth got turned into myth, myth got turned into legend, legend got turned into superstition.
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MMORPG games I've played:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor
Star Wars Galaxies:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/capt_xplororor
More games:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor_archives01
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MMORPG games I've played:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor
Star Wars Galaxies:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/capt_xplororor
More games:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor_archives01
AC2 is a fantastic game. I don't really care what some guy that never played it says.
Turbine/Microsoft made one very big mistake with AC2 though: They released it 18 months too soon. It was not finished. Like Anarchy Online was not finished when that was released. Same goes for (but far from to the same extent) DAoC. I do believe that AC2 has a future however.
As it is now I'd guess that AC2 has about 5-15k subscriber. This will not ensure the future of the game but I think a lot more will come. Players left the game because it wasn't finished. It still isn't but I have a damn hard time finding a better game out there. And old friends are coming back.
The only new game coming up that can compete with AC2 is WoW. Every EQ player I know are about to leave due to the fact that it has been tweaked a lot to accomodate new subscribers. Those players doesn't even consider playing EQ2. They are considering AC2 however.
A lot of AC2's players will try WoW but eventually some will return. I know I'll try out WoW when it comes. I will also keep my AC2 account because I expect WoW to suffer from the same problems as every other newly released MMORPGs.
AC2 has a "Red Dot" server. Every player can kill each other. So if you find the usual hunting and questing boring you can start hunting your fellow adventurers! Sooo cool :-)
This confuses me. If everyone can, and more than likely will kill each other if they are not in the same alliegance or are friends personally, how does anyone do anything but solo? Let's say I make a char on Darktide and head to the Arwic vault to get some levels, hoping to find someone there to fellow with--and instead of fellowing with me, they kill me? Maybe that's just not how it works, but I don't know what else to think.
Vendor buy us all a decent MMORPG bank guards recdu recsu
Vendor buy us all a decent MMORPG bank guards recdu recsu
On the red dot server you depend very much on allegiances. There are good ones that only kill their enemies and people that attack them and there are evil ones that kill every "red dot" (player) they see.
So in your case some would kill you at the Arwic vault and some would talk for example ask if you come in peace and team up with you. It all depends on who you meet.
It can be very frustrating at first. It requires a special breed ;-)
Sorry Xplor.
There were no gnomes in Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien began with the intention of writing children's stories and fairy tales (not epic trilogies). As a result there is a much different flavor in The Hobbit as opposed to LoTR. It was designed to be a children's book. As a result, you read that Bilbo became lost trying to escape from Goblins (rather than Orcs). Goblins were used because people of the time could identify with goblins through folklore (just as they were familiar with the idea of gnomes). In his early writings and "lost tale" material he called the Noldor (elves with an affinity for building and craft...Fingolfin, Feanor, Galadriel, Glorfindel, etc... ) gnomes so readers would have a vantage point in folklore to place them. Galadriel is a Noldor, ie originally what was termed a gnome, as she is the daughter of Finarfin and went into exile along with Feanor and the other Noldor. Sorry, Galadriel is no 3' high gal with a white curly beard who makes toys...
However, as the story progressed and there was interest on the part of adults for his stories, he ceased to call them gnomes and referred to them as elves, Noldor. In the same light, he stopped calling the villains Goblins and developed the name Orcs to make them an original race, native to his Middle Earth. In fact, he didn;t even bother to include the word "goblin" when he made the index for LoTR.
Aslo, Tolkien was not quite as original as you think. As you stated, much of his work cane from mythology, mainly Norse. In fact The Eldar Eddas contain many similarities to Tolkien's work. Here are some examples:
1. Let's start with the author of The Eldar Eddas: a priest named...Saemund the Wise. Hmm, who does that sound like LOL?
2. The opening: called...Voluspa, Prohecy of the Vala...here a volva chants about the cosmos from creation to the destruction...sound a bit similar to the great music of the vala to Illuvatar before the creation of the world?
3. Yggdrasil, the One Tree: not to be confused with the two trees of Valinor
4. Vanir-Aesir: these were the greater and lesser gods similar to the Valar-Maiar
5. Gandalf: called Gandalf in the Elder Eddas heh
6. Middle Earth: literal translation of the mortal realm of Midgard
7. Rings of Power: the dwarves for constantly forging Rings of Power for the gods. There was one that cursed the bearer, one that duplicated itself into 9 rings every ninth day, etc...
8. Dietrich and Laurin: Dietrich won a ring from the dwarf Laurin, who ruled a magnificent underground kingdom, by winning a riddle game (test of wits) as well as a magic cape which granted the wielder...what else...invisibility!
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The point: Tolkien wasn't original and MMORPG are really copies or recreations of traditional folklore and myth, not the works of one man.
Ok, I have been trying to decide whether to save my money for EQII come November or to try another game. I played Lineage 2 and City of Heroes and got discouraged very quickly, L2 has some big problems with it's combat system and CoH was great just not appealing to my fantasy drivin mind. So, I think "hmmm maybe Asherons Call 2 will be some fun for a while, meet some new people, have some adventures, heck if I like it enough maybe ill stay and not go to EQII"
So thats what I did. It has been roughly 9 months to a year since i have logged in to my account and surprisingly I still had all my characters on the Coldeve server, just no one else was logged in. Am I doomed to play on an empty server?? The only reason I did come back was for the KvK/PvP. How does it work on the carebear severs? :-) Only in designated areas or what???
I am unsure about AC2's future but I don't mind forking over 50 bucks for some entertainment till the big boy comes out.
On the red dot server you depend very much on allegiances. There are good ones that only kill their enemies and people that attack them and there are evil ones that kill every "red dot" (player) they see.
So in your case some would kill you at the Arwic vault and some would talk for example ask if you come in peace and team up with you. It all depends on who you meet.
It can be very frustrating at first. It requires a special breed ;-)
Ok so I am wondering if I should start somewhere else, forget about my level 50 and just start new. First I want to know some numbers, some real ones, not rounded up if ya know what I mean! On Darktide how many average people are logged in peek hours? Also I would really like to know about the PvP status on the 2 Carebear servers, is it decent or non existant?
And what is this game feature that they have not put in?
xplororor:
I was waiting for you to ask heheh. Before AC2 came out, and while it was in beta, and during the first 4 months it was out, and even in the 2 page magazine coverstory on it, AC2 advertised a game feature no other MMORPG ever had, nor was planning. (Not even the rest of the new 4th generation MMORPGs are planning it!) -
NPCs coming along, destroying towns, and players rebuilding the towns, defending the towns from getting destroyed again by NPCs. Heck, if AC2 ever get around to putting this in, I would even support it even more than you. I would personally find a way to advertise AC2's uniqueness among the sea of over-saturated Fantasy-Themed MMORPGs
Xplororor you were not lieing, I played AC2 right at release, they spoke about great creatures attacking the towns, the players are called to band together to defend against the disasters, then to choose which towns get rebuilt... None of that happened, I did enjoy the game but all the promises were never fullfilled. I think if the devs followed through with their promisses the game would be much more succesful.
Whats funny is the closest thing that I have ever experienced to this AC2 promise of creatures attacking, and players rebuilding occured in AC1 with the Bronze Golems. These monsterous Bronze Golems would spawn throughout some of the major towns such as Qualubr' Shoushi, ect... These golems were powerful and would kill most solo midlevel characters, pummel low levs and were even a challenge for the higher levels. This went on numerous times a day for a whole month, Large trophies could be found on the golems giving large exp rewards.
Now this only undertakes the first part of the whole "Creature vs Player" concept where the town is involved which is the attacking part, it still doesn't cover the destruction or rebuilding of the town. I'm sure other games have done this as well but thats the closest they have ever gotten.
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Warrior of Passion
There's no real reason to look out for people too much. I mean, what were they going to do with that time anyway? Watch reruns of crappy sitcoms? They'd already committed that time to doing something non-productive in deciding to check out a game to start with. What's wrong with letting people find out the full truth themselves, and letting them interpret the truth for themselves? It's not like the low numbers are a secret.
Time playing a game is not time "invested". It is time that is wasted by the mere fact that you are playing a game instead of doing something to improve yourself or the world you live in. Wasting time isn't necessarily a bad thing. We all need down time. But you can't really pretend that people are losing anything if they decide to play a little AC2.
I saw how low the server populations were when I played a free trial of AC2 recently, prior to the new advertising campaign, and it didn't really adversely affect my play. I found lots to do by myself, and I even found other people to fellowship with. Frankly, I haven't found high server populations in other games to be very good predictors of whether or not it was a game worth my time. And if they shut down the game, there's nothing lost. I'll just go play something else. No big deal.
~*~
neschria
...
This is where I draw the line: __________________.
Unfortunately both Coldeve (KvK) and Darktide (PvP) suffers from the lack of players. On the positive side this means you can level up much easier since you'll be all alone on Osteth. People are starting to join though.
I can't give you precise numbers. Instead check out http://www.fallenkingdoms.com/. They have a script telling how many is online on each server all the time. I have noticed the populations rising lately.
Non-Consentual PvP has long ago been proven a failure from a buisness P.O.V. Other MMORPGs have learned this lesson from UO. UO finally learned this lesson from itself. PvP done right means consentual PvP.
Also a pure PvP server does not pay for itself. PvM is the biggest market. PvP is the next biggest market. Then there is the Dabbler Market which is big enough to bring in money. A pure PvP server only targets 1 of those 3 markets. And completly ignores the Dabbler Market. Games like DAoC, SWG, and AO have successfully targeted all 3 nitch gamer markets.
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Nope. Check out the notes at Raphs site about the aftermath of UO after they had FFA (Free For All) PvP aka Non-Consentual PvP. You cannot use such a game feature successfully. Ask if you come in peace?!? You will always be at the mercy of higher level players, griefers, kill stealers, etc....
http://www.legendmud.org/raph/gaming/index.html
(Then click on "essays")
It requires powergamers with no life who can level up super-quick,, not a "special breed". Gamers who do not have as much free time to play will always be on the losing end.
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MMORPG games I've played:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor
Star Wars Galaxies:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/capt_xplororor
More games:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor_archives01
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MMORPG games I've played:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor
Star Wars Galaxies:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/capt_xplororor
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One ac2 rocks its great game
Two best server is darktide pvp rules fully pvp world nowhere save
You can do all things you can do on carebear server but extra is pvp always danger go anti clans good ones or go rpk clans bad ones they kill on sight.
Darktide is completedly different from carebear server but if you dont care to be killed by other player and try lvl so you can have your revenge its great fun.
RED DOT rules
Fights take place in cragstone or millstone arwic linvak tukal arramora chaos dungeon or loft dungeon everywhere you have fights always be on alert becouse enemy can be near,pvp heaven AC2 DARKTIDE go play there
It's not Non-Consentual since you actually created a character on the PvP server. But you are probably right since these servers have quite few players. But killing intelligent opponents appeals a lot more to me than killing script based opponents. I just mentioned Darktide and Coldeve since I hope more will start there in case they decide to sign up.
It's not Non-Consentual since you actually created a character on the PvP server. But you are probably right since these servers have quite few players. But killing intelligent opponents appeals a lot more to me than killing script based opponents. I just mentioned Darktide and Coldeve since I hope more will start there in case they decide to sign up.
That arguement has been tried by supporters of FFA PvP. And you are right. The thing that shoots that argument down though are the game Developers theirselves, and the Moneymen. A brand new server for a modern MMORPG costs roughly $100,000.oo (USA). Then there is the monthly costs for upkeep, electricity, and maintance, backups, etc... The most cost effecient MMORPGs have PvM, PvP, and Dabblers on every single server. It is like a car that has 4WD, 2WD, an automatic, and stick shift(or steering wheel shifting like race cars have.). Because it is more universal, it cuts costs because there will be a consumer it caters too.
A pure FFA PvP server is like a car that is stick shift only. It caters only to 1 market. And it gets worse... FFA PvP does not in practice work for the majority of players who like, love, and enjoy, PvP!
For example you can be a level 100 player with the best armor and weapons in the game. You will still easily be defeated. All anyone has to do is wait for your health to get low from either fighting monsters, or other players. Then they step in and in a few shots kill you.
Or as one guild in UO did, on purpose have every member make low level characters, log them in, keep fighting the strongest enemy and whittle his health down. Then log on their main characters and kill him. His health will be too low, or he will have run out of health/mana potions.
Everytime anyone logs on, they face getting absolutly nothing done because they can get chainkilled. You even face never leveling up, or higher level players with no life can even make it so only they reach high level.
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MMORPG games I've played:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor
Star Wars Galaxies:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/capt_xplororor
More games:
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http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor_archives01
Aye the Game is great and only getting better and better!
Though...Make sure when you start/come back, that you do it on Darktide
Asherons Call 2 - Level 60 - Tonk CB
Proud Member of Half Dozen
Asherons Call 2 - Level 60 - Tonk CB
Proud Member of Half Dozen
Darktide
Heh X and his recruiting ... shameless
Try the Alliance Section 
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