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General: '08 Awards: Most Innovative Feature
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
Innovation is the key to the long-term success of any genre. Innovation keeps things interesting and fun, giving us new and interesting features. How a game builds upon and changes the ideas put forward in the games that came before it can mean the difference between a long-term hit and "just another copy".
- Council of Stellar Management (EVE)
- Combo Combat (Age of Conan)
- Public Quests (Warhammer Online)
- Ship Combat (Pirates of the Burning Sea)
Check out the Most Innovative Feature nominees and vote!
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
pq's for sure
I don't think any of these game concepts are really that innovative. I guess if I had to pick one, it would probably be the public quests in Warhammer.
I think the entire industry reeks of a lack of innovation. All I see is one copycat game after another.
Age of Conan combat combo is most certainly not innovative, it has been done before in other games. As to ship combat, how is that different than ship combat in Eve? I think the jury is still out on the Council of Stellar Management in Eve, it seems more a marketing ploy than anything helpful to date.
I think we have to look to the indy developers for a company to take a chance on something truely innovative, the major ones seem to avoid that lately.
I agrre with the poster above, but if i had to pick one it would be pq's for sure.
I have to respectfully completely disagree:
I honestly can't remember ever seeing Age of Conan-style combat in another MMO. I'm not saying I'm king of all knowledge or anything, but to the best of my recollection, or that of anyone else that I have spoken to, we've not seen it in another MMO.
Have you played Pirates of the Burning Sea? I can't recall the last time that wind direction and strength played a role in EVE Online... given there's no wind in space. I'm not knocking EVE's combat, I'm just saying.. it's different.
The Council of Stellar Management has already made a number of differences in the direction of EVE. I wouldn't say it's any more of a marketing thing than any other feature of an MMO. when there's news about it, they send out a release. Take a look at this interview.
Honestly, and please don't take this personally, but I think you might be confused as to the meaning of the word innovation.
Invention is the creation of something completely and wholly new, while innovation is taking something that already exists and somehow changing it (generally to improve upon it).
Communities have always contributed to development decisions, The CSM takes a new spin on that and formalizes it via elections
Quests have always existed in MMOs, PQs present them in a different way, encouraging people to work together without requiring grouping
ship to ship combat has always existed, but PotBS used what they knew of nautical age of sail combat and integrated functions to replicate it.
MMOs have almost always used single key attacks, Age of Conan added a new layer to that by requiring combos to activate certain abilities.
These are all innovative features. I'm not saying they're all great, and we're not asking you what the best feature is. You don't have to like something for it to be innovative. Inf act, innovation often results in the opposite.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
I totally agree with Stradden on this one
In the land of Predators,the lion does not fear the jackals...
PQ's are new'ish (been done to a lesser degree in WoW and others), but they are a 100% failure so no way thats getting my vote.
Combos are new to MMO's
The other 2 I dont care about.
So my vote goes to AoC combo system
I would rather put my vote to LOTRO weapon leveling system in MoM (although I dont know if thats new or not).
This one was easy
_____________________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
Warhammer deserves it for Public Quests. This is a feature that's bound to be emulated in most MMO's of the future.
Personally I think that AoC's combat system is pretty revolutionary, and works great for PvE, it's too involved for PvP though.
Eve, I haven't had enough expirience with to comment. I've played the trial, but that's it.
PotBS I haven't played at all.
WAR's PQ system was pretty fun at tier one, but by tier 2 they were ghost towns. Again, if this was a primarily PvE game it would have worked out better.
So I guess my vote has to go to AoC. Even though the game is severely lacking in some ways, it had several good points. Apply the graphics and combo system to a game like Asheron's Call and it'd be the best game out there, IMO.
One could say that Age of Conans combat has a resembelence to what would have been Gods and Heroes combat system. The only difference in being that the hits were broken up into 1/2/3 for AoC where as in GnH it was just 1 click walla! But GnH never came out and I can't really recall any other combat system like it. I voted for the PQ's, a very good innovation for the future development of MMO's. On the combat question though, wasn't DDO's combat similar to AoC. I never played it so i could be wrong. I do remember hearing that it had a twitch type combat though.
PQs hands down.
I do have to say a big THANK YOU to whoever chose the nominees for that list, for not including WoW's "phasing" as a "new feature." It's been around for years, despite countless claims to the contrary by WoW fans here and elsewhere.
Haha! You are actually planning to give out awards this year ?
I would just say "2008 MMO awards are canceled due to lack of quality contestans"
But anyway
* Council of Stellar Management (EVE)
I dont know how much "revolutionary" this is. Still EVE is pretty much the only game of quality on the list.
* Combo Combat (Age of Conan)
Are you kidding me? Combo combat in AOC is one of most poorly designed gameplay elements i seen in PC gaming in general , and i am talking last 10 years included. Whoever designed it obviously has no touch with gaming in practical sense. Only potential benefit i would see as some kind of bridge to XBOX version. But we know that will never happen
* Public Quests (Warhammer Online)
Good idea on paper. But never actually play tested. It just doesnt work in practice.
Other quality companies come up with such ideas, playtest them and junk the ones that doesnt work , by dosens.
* Ship Combat (Pirates of the Burning Sea)
When you rip off and steal gameplay mechanic of other game (Sid Meiers Pirates) and actually manage to destroy it and make it 10X times more boring than the original - that amazing feat does indeed deserve award , just not this kind of award.
Perhaps you should rename the contest into : 08 Most failed feature
I agree with what Stradden said. AoC got my vote for their combo system. Its a nice change from the old hit the auto attack and spam a few special attack buttons til the monster is dead.
I would have thought LoTRo Legendary Items would have made it onto this list...
ZZZZZZZZZZZ...
But anyway, I think this one is close. Public Quests I found to be quite entertaining. You count on a sturdy group of people to complete several objectives, and it's not Realm vs, Realm or an instanced Raid. Added a certain fun factor that you really couldn't get from anything else.
The ship combat in PotBS is rather innovative when you think about the strategy needed to be successful in certain areas. There are many things that you need to identify and take into an account before you go off into a PvP port battle (wind, number of people, positioning on the map, ship types, shot types, formations). It's much like a game of chess, where you try to think a few steps ahead. I've really never experienced anything like that in any other MMO.
Age of Conan's combat system at the time was a very welcome change to the same ol' same ol' that is MMO combat. Combat systems have used the same basic system for almost a decade, and Funcom decided to break the mould. I think that it's pretty innovative.
I have to give my vote to Pirates of the Burning Sea.
Everquest has evolving weapons / gear.
The PQ's in Warhammer are innovative, it is the player base that is the failure in that game.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
I agree with most posters and vote:
"None of the above!"
There are others, more innovative ideas and features out there. Spellborns combat for example. Yes, PQ of Warhammer are a nice idea, but not really working the way they should from a players point of view.
I am sorry, but I see no innovative feature (working) in that list. At least none, that would suffice an award.
Have to agree with the others...none of the features are that innovative...but of the four listed WARs PQs get my vote.
The PQ's in Warhammer are innovative, it is the player base that is the failure in that game.
I was just about to say ya EQ had leveling weapons too. The PQ system got my vote. Although the combo system in AoC would have been a close second.
Playing Fallen Earth.
Say what you will about how Funcom aka Failcom dropped the balled, but they got one thing right. Age of Conan's Combo Combat System is by far the best combat system right not. Too bad that and the lore is the only two things the game has going for it, other than the hot graphics and the DX 10 support. Alas not enough to be the new number one for most MMO gamers.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
Actually, I have not yet played any of these, although I expect that I will sometime in the next year. I am currently playing just LOTRO and EQ2 but am actively searching for one or two more amongst which to divide my time (I've played quite a few others but have abandoned them for one reason or another).
I did do some research on the features of the four innovations nominated and my vote goes to Eve's Council. They are all definitely 'different', but since I always get deeply involved in the community forums of the games I play, often I post many suggestions and see many good to great suggestions/ideas/problem solutions within the forums that never get addressed nor are given serious consideration from the devs of those games, and the Council setup in Eve is a very positive and innovative step in the right direction.
~ Adder ~
Quick, Silent, Deadly
QFT
And yeah "Most failed feature" would be a better choice of words.
theres public quests in runescape and I bet many games, just sayin'
bet mythic weren't the first to do faction vs faction pvp either they just like to give stuff a new name and pretend its revolutionary.
anyway I voted aoc. the combat was not perfect but it sure as HELL is 100 times better than every other mmo. most people don't like it because they can't handle hafting to use both hands.
My blog:
Uhh, I didn't find AoC's combo combat that revolutionary. Revolutionary to mmos....I guess.
I voted for Council of Stellar Management. Any game company (and community) that goes to that effort to listen to its subscribers gets my vote.
None of the options appear too innovative for my liking, but I went with PotBS for the fun of it.