Shocked to see Guild Wars 2 not on the list but I guess they did not get a tenative release date. Oh well the list looks pretty weak. I don't know, maybe Aion or Stargate Worlds might be interesting ?
Out of that list, I had to vote for Earthrise simply because it is a change from the fantasy games I've been playing and the independent criminal looks intriguing . Darkfall is a close second. I will definitely try both of these games and seriously hope they do well since both look like a break from the cookie-cutter MMOs currently available.
The rest of the list just doesn't rock my boat.
Not on the list that I'm looking forward to (not in any particular order)...
The Agency
Fallen Earth
The Secret World (hopefully)
Star Trek Online (keeping my fingers crossed. The character screenshots looked awful )
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Next LOTRO expansion (probably Rohan) - Yeah, I know. Its not new, but I'm still looking forward to it.
I am afraid it's gonna be another year with lots of MMO's, but a louzy year for MMORPG's.
Nothing really intresting, but keeping my eye on a few, but can not comment on any of them as of yet because there is to little info out at the moment.
I am usually not into Superhero games (hated CoH tbh), but what I have seen from CO so far looks pretty good. Couldn't vote for Darkfall since they simply have released to little substantial information, except their project goals. Remains to be seen what actually made it into the game and how well it works. Aion looks OK, but reports from the Korean release sound a lot like been-there-done-that to me. Runes of Magic is free, granted, but just doesn't cut it both gameplay-wise and graphically for me. Same for Spellborn - just not my cup of tea (from what is known so far anyway). Haven't looked too much into Earthrise, so no real opinion on that.
i voted chronicles of spellborne just to annoy you and tell you once again it is released in europe alreaddy and people actually play it (at least here in germany)
my 2nd vote would go to aion but something in the back of my head tells me not to get my expectation to high. it probably will b a good game but nc soft proved to me in the past that they werent able to solve any botting or balancing issues fast enough for my liking.
both darkfall and earthrise are on my list to hopefully be pleasently suprised when they go life.
i dont have a strong eye out for them but they have a good concept and may become my personal sleeperhits for 2009 just like Chronicles of Spellboren was for 2008
if your bored, visit my blog at: http://craylon.wordpress.com/ dealing with the look of mmos with the nvidia 3d vision glasses
No Guildwars 2 in the vote? I know that some people are sceptical that it will release 2009 since the beta havn't started yet but they still have a year fot that.
The first GW is still the second MMO on X-fire so the sequel should at least be in the vote.
Today, we continue with our nominee announcements for the 2008 MMORPG.com Reader's Choice Awards with our Most Anticipated Game category. Here, readers will vote for their most eagerly anticipated game with an expected 2009 release date.
Runes of Magic Aion Champions Online Chronicles of Spellborn Darkfall Earthrise Jumpgate Evolution Stargate Worlds
Runes of Magic will not be the WoW clone they are hoping for. Too many problems with it and any game from Asia that screams "FREE TO PLAY, FREE TO DOWNLOAD" is bound to be another item mall scenario where it does not matter what you do in the game but only what you buy from the website to play.
Have to agree here. Item Shop games may be "all that and a bag of chips" in the land of their birth (so to speak), but the concept doesn't seem to have caught on here. I'm inclined to think Western players, for a good part, prefer a flat monthly sub that covers everything they want to do in game (botting and gold buying/selling notwithstanding, of course).
I think that many see it for what it is and aren't suckered by the "free to play" gimmick. Sure.. you can *play* for free... But to be at your best, you're gonna have to shell out the cash, and very likely more than a monthly sub would cost. There's not a single one I've checked out that allows you to really play the game to its fullest without having to pull out the credit card. Even Perfect World which is a surprisingly polished game and not so "in your face" with the item shop, has its "gotchas"; just a matter of identifying them.
This is why I'm glad Aion (my personal pick for this poll, incidentally) is going with the monthly sub approach.
Aion may end up being NCSoft's shining moment. Then again everyone thought Tabula Rasa would be their big thing and it flopped badly. Will see this game take off with a sustained playerbase when it happens.
I think the difference here is that Tabula Rasa was, as I understand it, NC's attempt to "break into the Western market" by creating a MMO that, on paper anyway, had everything us "Western Players" seem to want - more real-time combat, not designed around Asian-Grind type gameplay, etc.
It just didn't deliver on it well enough, it seems.
I also think it was over-hyped... something many games are falling victim to. Too damn much hype that sets expectations far too high to ever be met for many people.
I wish companies would learn to just make the best game they can, tell us what they're trying to achieve, and stop telling us how revolutionary and amazing we're going to think it is. Let us, the players, decide for ourselves... We're going to anyway.
Aion, on the other hand, from what I've seen, is more true to the classic Asian style of gameplay, but with some Western elements mixed in. It seems to me to be taking the PvP content of Lineage 2 and blending in more PvE content, a la WoW... It's somewhere in-between the two.
In essence, instead of going "all or nothing" on either style, they seem to be building the foundation of the game on what they know (Asian-style), and tempering it with some Western type elements to help lower that bar of entry.
Lineage 2 had been a pretty successful game here in the West for a time and is still very popular overseas (I believe at one point it had over 14 million subs worldwide). Unfortunately, they didn't take the West's hate of botting/RMT/cheating seriously enough, until it was too late. They let it run rampant for too long, and now it's costing them in the form of declining subs.
Part of the reason for that, too, is the way they implemented some aspects of the game, such as gathering materials for crafting. No sane human wants to spend their time gathering the hundreds, or thousands in some case, of materials required for a single craft that could end up failing. Thus, very few people will even bother to try farming their own mats and that gave the RMT companies a perfect niche to fill... and fill it they did.
They seem to be taking it a *little* more seriously now... but it's too little too late for many who were already one foot out the door.
Let's hope they don't make the same mistakes with Aion.
Chronicles of Spellborn................................................................I was one of the first members of the community there and still peek in when I get time. This game is headed for failure for one very simple reason, the engine it was built on. Can anyone else think back to a highly anticipated game built with Unreal that was an MMO and not a FPS? I can,Vanguard, and the engine did half the work of killing the game off before it ever left beta. The Unreal Engine can not support thousands or even hundreds of players and everything that comes with them and the game itself and remain stable. It just was not built for it.
I don't really agree here. It comes down to the people using the tech, not the tech itself.
Lineage 2 uses the Unreal 2 engine and does a wonderful job with it. Despite the fact that the tech was designed for isolated, finite maps and not seamless open worlds, they've managed to take the tech and make it work... and well.
Vanguard was a mess because of the way the development was handled; not the tech they were using.
I think it boils down to the ability of the developers using the tech; not necessarily the tech itself.
Darkfall, bah. Someone else said it for me. Dark and Light all over again. Sorry after the French on their little island took people for a ride I do not see the folks in Greece doing it any better.
I think DF is offering up a *lot* of interesting concepts. How well they work in execution is another thing altogether. I'll reserve judgement about that for after it's released. According to one fo their folks, the game is and has been ready for release and is in better shape than other MMOs at this stage. Those are some pretty big words... will probably hurt if they have to eat them.
The thing that's keeping me at arm's distance from DF more than anything is its community - or at least a significant portion of it. There's a significantly sized... or at least quite loud... portion of that game's following that reminds me too much of the worst element from Shadowbane.
I've got a personal prediction that if those types are allowed to run as rampant in DF as they are in SB or were for a time in Lineage 2, before long DF will be another MMO with a small but fiercely loyal following; maybe enough for a couple servers. Just enough to keep the game afloat.
I say this with *some* confidence because I've seen it happen too many times in several games to discount it.
For example...
In Lineage 2's early days, a level 43 character could grief you as soon as you stepped out of the starting area at level 2; repeatedly if they wanted. GMs wouldn't do anything about it. "It's an open PvP game", they would say. "You have to fend for yourself". Great in concept. Unfortunately, it doesn't account for those who are going to use that freedom to harass as many new players as they can right out of the game - arguably their only reason for even logging in. And that's exactly what they did.
Even L2's karma system didn't slow them down. They took pride in being "perma-red" and racking up as many PK's as they could. They had no worries of dropping gear from dying because, well.. what level 2 player is going to drop a level 30+?
After a while, in L2, even the long-time players who enjoyed and avidly defended NC's "hands-off" approach acknowledged that the griefers were chasing away too many new players, causing the game to become top heavy. They asked the griefers to knock it off.. give new players a chance to get their footing; the game needed more new blood. The griefers ignored them and kept at it.
So the high level players took matters into their own hands and went "red hunting", or griefer hunting basically. Quite predictably, the griefers - who will rarely ever enter anything resembling a fair fight - would either run away squealing, or log out at the sight of anyone who might actually be a challenge. Then they'd log in and continue on when the coast was clear. Sometimes, at the height of irony, they'd smack talk about "needing a higher level character to beat them" as they ran away.
NC eventually realized the problem with such an open system as well, and made changes. It's noble to adhere to a true "wide-open PvP system". But nothing speaks louder than decreasing subs and a shrinking bottom line.
I'm waiting for the day that true PvP'ers (ie. those looking for the rush of an actual challenge.. not the mindless ease of shooting fish in a barrel) will start to distinguish between a "lowbie ganker" and a "PvP'er" and stop defending them both as the same thing. They aren't.
Point is... if DF delivers on the open PvP it promises - even with whatever penalties they have in place for griefing or ganking - those same idiots whose only goal is to ruin others' experience will be at it.. doing their best to drive as many from the game as they can; gloating over each one like a badge of bravery.
Overall, out of that list, the one I'm most looking forward to is Aion.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
No sheep votes please....LOTRO is never "anticipated".
But, I agree with the first poster...nothing here "shines"
Aion has some big buck production quality, Darkfall though has the "ooo, is it gonna be awesome or a big fail"...Darkfall I think is my pick due to the train wreck that I believe will happen on release...(I smell Dark and Light here)
nope i can garrentee yout hat granted it may not be perfect who knows yet
I"m also interested in Aion as it looks very interesting, but it lost out for two reasons. 1) Korean MMO tend to be more about grind. Those kind of games only work if you devote your life to them. 2) I've played GW, WoW, and LoTRO I'm ready for a new genre.
That being said there ae two other titles I'm really looking forward too. The Agency is first. SOE track record is kind of weak but I'm hoping they can pull off all the bells and whistles the devs hae promised. I'm a little concerned that it's being made for console though. That could mean dumbed down
The game that will assuredly get my attention when released though is Guildwars 2. Take your time Arena Net and get this one right!
Unless SQUARE ENIX announced a new Final Fantasy MMO i would have ZERO anticipation of an MMO.
I am interested in a few games like Darkfall/TCOS/Huxley and a few others,but none have me on the edge of my seat ,frantically waiting.Runes of Magic had a few great ideas like stealing the sub class system off of FFXI,however there game just bored me to death,it really is done on a low end scale.
If someone could make a game like that MU online 3rd season video ,then yes i would be drooling,however i do not see it happening.
Instead i see this site everyday posting up tons of trash games.These are games that are barely fit for Nintendo 64 and they are trying to pan them off as good new games lol.
I believe the next wave of good games will be 2010,there could however be a sleeper out there,i just never heard of it ,if there is one.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Comments
Too bad Global Agenda isn't up there
That game looks SICK!
can't vote seeing as the only mmo i want to play is mortal online.
Shocked to see Guild Wars 2 not on the list but I guess they did not get a tenative release date. Oh well the list looks pretty weak. I don't know, maybe Aion or Stargate Worlds might be interesting ?
Darkfall. It's been in development since I was in elementary school - since it's been that long, it's only fair to see how it will end up.
Currently playing: EverQuest II
Tried: EVE Online (will return someday), Final Fantasy XI (didn't like, sorry)
Out of that list, I had to vote for Earthrise simply because it is a change from the fantasy games I've been playing and the independent criminal looks intriguing
. Darkfall is a close second. I will definitely try both of these games and seriously hope they do well since both look like a break from the cookie-cutter MMOs currently available.
The rest of the list just doesn't rock my boat.
Not on the list that I'm looking forward to (not in any particular order)...
~ Adder ~
Quick, Silent, Deadly
this is going to be one crap year....oh well...at least i will have the sims 3 and Empires Total war.
i guess i would vote for Darkfall if anything...
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
I am afraid it's gonna be another year with lots of MMO's, but a louzy year for MMORPG's.
Nothing really intresting, but keeping my eye on a few, but can not comment on any of them as of yet because there is to little info out at the moment.
I am usually not into Superhero games (hated CoH tbh), but what I have seen from CO so far looks pretty good. Couldn't vote for Darkfall since they simply have released to little substantial information, except their project goals. Remains to be seen what actually made it into the game and how well it works. Aion looks OK, but reports from the Korean release sound a lot like been-there-done-that to me. Runes of Magic is free, granted, but just doesn't cut it both gameplay-wise and graphically for me. Same for Spellborn - just not my cup of tea (from what is known so far anyway). Haven't looked too much into Earthrise, so no real opinion on that.
i voted chronicles of spellborne just to annoy you and tell you once again it is released in europe alreaddy and people actually play it (at least here in germany)
my 2nd vote would go to aion but something in the back of my head tells me not to get my expectation to high. it probably will b a good game but nc soft proved to me in the past that they werent able to solve any botting or balancing issues fast enough for my liking.
both darkfall and earthrise are on my list to hopefully be pleasently suprised when they go life.
i dont have a strong eye out for them but they have a good concept and may become my personal sleeperhits for 2009 just like Chronicles of Spellboren was for 2008
if your bored, visit my blog at:
http://craylon.wordpress.com/ dealing with the look of mmos with the nvidia 3d vision glasses
Where is Star Wars : The Old Republic on that list?
It could launch in Q4 2009.
Can you restart the poll and put the option of none of them?
Every single one of them mmorpgs is gonna be shit.
you have one or even two good games there, stop complaining.
No Guildwars 2 in the vote? I know that some people are sceptical that it will release 2009 since the beta havn't started yet but they still have a year fot that.
The first GW is still the second MMO on X-fire so the sequel should at least be in the vote.
I voted SGW..
But then again, most of those games are in my signature already
Darkfall, easy.
Darkfall Travelogues!
GW is not an MMO.
Darkfall Travelogues!
darkfall or i move to console gaming - those are the two options for me in 2009.
Theres only so many years of crap I can take and i'm suprised I lasted this long looking back.
I don't think there are any MMO players not wondering if Darkfall will rise and fall or not.
So, maybe not the most awaited game but certainly the most anticipated one.
Vote for the Most Anticipated Game for 2009
Runes of Magic will not be the WoW clone they are hoping for. Too many problems with it and any game from Asia that screams "FREE TO PLAY, FREE TO DOWNLOAD" is bound to be another item mall scenario where it does not matter what you do in the game but only what you buy from the website to play.
Have to agree here. Item Shop games may be "all that and a bag of chips" in the land of their birth (so to speak), but the concept doesn't seem to have caught on here. I'm inclined to think Western players, for a good part, prefer a flat monthly sub that covers everything they want to do in game (botting and gold buying/selling notwithstanding, of course).
I think that many see it for what it is and aren't suckered by the "free to play" gimmick. Sure.. you can *play* for free... But to be at your best, you're gonna have to shell out the cash, and very likely more than a monthly sub would cost. There's not a single one I've checked out that allows you to really play the game to its fullest without having to pull out the credit card. Even Perfect World which is a surprisingly polished game and not so "in your face" with the item shop, has its "gotchas"; just a matter of identifying them.
This is why I'm glad Aion (my personal pick for this poll, incidentally) is going with the monthly sub approach.
Aion may end up being NCSoft's shining moment. Then again everyone thought Tabula Rasa would be their big thing and it flopped badly. Will see this game take off with a sustained playerbase when it happens.
I think the difference here is that Tabula Rasa was, as I understand it, NC's attempt to "break into the Western market" by creating a MMO that, on paper anyway, had everything us "Western Players" seem to want - more real-time combat, not designed around Asian-Grind type gameplay, etc.
It just didn't deliver on it well enough, it seems.
I also think it was over-hyped... something many games are falling victim to. Too damn much hype that sets expectations far too high to ever be met for many people.
I wish companies would learn to just make the best game they can, tell us what they're trying to achieve, and stop telling us how revolutionary and amazing we're going to think it is. Let us, the players, decide for ourselves... We're going to anyway.
Aion, on the other hand, from what I've seen, is more true to the classic Asian style of gameplay, but with some Western elements mixed in. It seems to me to be taking the PvP content of Lineage 2 and blending in more PvE content, a la WoW... It's somewhere in-between the two.
In essence, instead of going "all or nothing" on either style, they seem to be building the foundation of the game on what they know (Asian-style), and tempering it with some Western type elements to help lower that bar of entry.
Lineage 2 had been a pretty successful game here in the West for a time and is still very popular overseas (I believe at one point it had over 14 million subs worldwide). Unfortunately, they didn't take the West's hate of botting/RMT/cheating seriously enough, until it was too late. They let it run rampant for too long, and now it's costing them in the form of declining subs.
Part of the reason for that, too, is the way they implemented some aspects of the game, such as gathering materials for crafting. No sane human wants to spend their time gathering the hundreds, or thousands in some case, of materials required for a single craft that could end up failing. Thus, very few people will even bother to try farming their own mats and that gave the RMT companies a perfect niche to fill... and fill it they did.
They seem to be taking it a *little* more seriously now... but it's too little too late for many who were already one foot out the door.
Let's hope they don't make the same mistakes with Aion.
Chronicles of Spellborn................................................................I was one of the first members of the community there and still peek in when I get time. This game is headed for failure for one very simple reason, the engine it was built on. Can anyone else think back to a highly anticipated game built with Unreal that was an MMO and not a FPS? I can,Vanguard, and the engine did half the work of killing the game off before it ever left beta. The Unreal Engine can not support thousands or even hundreds of players and everything that comes with them and the game itself and remain stable. It just was not built for it.
I don't really agree here. It comes down to the people using the tech, not the tech itself.
Lineage 2 uses the Unreal 2 engine and does a wonderful job with it. Despite the fact that the tech was designed for isolated, finite maps and not seamless open worlds, they've managed to take the tech and make it work... and well.
Vanguard was a mess because of the way the development was handled; not the tech they were using.
I think it boils down to the ability of the developers using the tech; not necessarily the tech itself.
Darkfall, bah. Someone else said it for me. Dark and Light all over again. Sorry after the French on their little island took people for a ride I do not see the folks in Greece doing it any better.
I think DF is offering up a *lot* of interesting concepts. How well they work in execution is another thing altogether. I'll reserve judgement about that for after it's released. According to one fo their folks, the game is and has been ready for release and is in better shape than other MMOs at this stage. Those are some pretty big words... will probably hurt if they have to eat them.
The thing that's keeping me at arm's distance from DF more than anything is its community - or at least a significant portion of it. There's a significantly sized... or at least quite loud... portion of that game's following that reminds me too much of the worst element from Shadowbane.
I've got a personal prediction that if those types are allowed to run as rampant in DF as they are in SB or were for a time in Lineage 2, before long DF will be another MMO with a small but fiercely loyal following; maybe enough for a couple servers. Just enough to keep the game afloat.
I say this with *some* confidence because I've seen it happen too many times in several games to discount it.
For example...
In Lineage 2's early days, a level 43 character could grief you as soon as you stepped out of the starting area at level 2; repeatedly if they wanted. GMs wouldn't do anything about it. "It's an open PvP game", they would say. "You have to fend for yourself". Great in concept. Unfortunately, it doesn't account for those who are going to use that freedom to harass as many new players as they can right out of the game - arguably their only reason for even logging in. And that's exactly what they did.
Even L2's karma system didn't slow them down. They took pride in being "perma-red" and racking up as many PK's as they could. They had no worries of dropping gear from dying because, well.. what level 2 player is going to drop a level 30+?
After a while, in L2, even the long-time players who enjoyed and avidly defended NC's "hands-off" approach acknowledged that the griefers were chasing away too many new players, causing the game to become top heavy. They asked the griefers to knock it off.. give new players a chance to get their footing; the game needed more new blood. The griefers ignored them and kept at it.
So the high level players took matters into their own hands and went "red hunting", or griefer hunting basically. Quite predictably, the griefers - who will rarely ever enter anything resembling a fair fight - would either run away squealing, or log out at the sight of anyone who might actually be a challenge. Then they'd log in and continue on when the coast was clear. Sometimes, at the height of irony, they'd smack talk about "needing a higher level character to beat them" as they ran away.
NC eventually realized the problem with such an open system as well, and made changes. It's noble to adhere to a true "wide-open PvP system". But nothing speaks louder than decreasing subs and a shrinking bottom line.
I'm waiting for the day that true PvP'ers (ie. those looking for the rush of an actual challenge.. not the mindless ease of shooting fish in a barrel) will start to distinguish between a "lowbie ganker" and a "PvP'er" and stop defending them both as the same thing. They aren't.
Point is... if DF delivers on the open PvP it promises - even with whatever penalties they have in place for griefing or ganking - those same idiots whose only goal is to ruin others' experience will be at it.. doing their best to drive as many from the game as they can; gloating over each one like a badge of bravery.
Overall, out of that list, the one I'm most looking forward to is Aion.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
No sheep votes please....LOTRO is never "anticipated".
But, I agree with the first poster...nothing here "shines"
Aion has some big buck production quality, Darkfall though has the "ooo, is it gonna be awesome or a big fail"...Darkfall I think is my pick due to the train wreck that I believe will happen on release...(I smell Dark and Light here)
nope i can garrentee yout hat granted it may not be perfect who knows yet
where is Guild Wars 2??????????????????
Somewhere in 2010.
You know it, the best way to realize your dreams is waking up and start moving, never lose hope and always keep up.
I voted for Champions Online.
I"m also interested in Aion as it looks very interesting, but it lost out for two reasons. 1) Korean MMO tend to be more about grind. Those kind of games only work if you devote your life to them. 2) I've played GW, WoW, and LoTRO I'm ready for a new genre.
That being said there ae two other titles I'm really looking forward too. The Agency is first. SOE track record is kind of weak but I'm hoping they can pull off all the bells and whistles the devs hae promised. I'm a little concerned that it's being made for console though. That could mean dumbed down
The game that will assuredly get my attention when released though is Guildwars 2. Take your time Arena Net and get this one right!
Cheers
Unless SQUARE ENIX announced a new Final Fantasy MMO i would have ZERO anticipation of an MMO.
I am interested in a few games like Darkfall/TCOS/Huxley and a few others,but none have me on the edge of my seat ,frantically waiting.Runes of Magic had a few great ideas like stealing the sub class system off of FFXI,however there game just bored me to death,it really is done on a low end scale.
If someone could make a game like that MU online 3rd season video ,then yes i would be drooling,however i do not see it happening.
Instead i see this site everyday posting up tons of trash games.These are games that are barely fit for Nintendo 64 and they are trying to pan them off as good new games lol.
I believe the next wave of good games will be 2010,there could however be a sleeper out there,i just never heard of it ,if there is one.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Wow.....what a lousy crop of games. With AoC and War breaking my heart, I'm just not pumped about these at all......