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General: The List: Five Recent MMO Blunders
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Developers screw up. Jon Wood counts down five of his favorite blunders in recent MMO history in this week's edition of "The List."
Making an MMORPG is a tough gig. No matter what your opinion is of the current state of MMORPG development or the approach taken by developers, it is very hard to make the argument that being a game developer is an easy way to make a living.
During what is generally the stressful and complicated process of developing and maintaining an MMORPG, certain mistakes are made. Most of those mistakes are minor, and generally escape the notice of most everyone following the industry, but some of them stand out like a sore thumb and end up getting highlighted in some journalists top five list.
Read it all here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
Sort of ironic that AoC gets taken to the woodshed over false advertising one item on their box, when what is generally considedered the original MMO, Ultima Online, not only had false advertising, but my friend sued them over it and won free play time for the entire player base.
How short our memories are in today's information age.
I consider Funcom to be the biggest blunder ever when it comes to MMO gaming. Maybe Dana doesn't realise it yet but Funcom have actually pulled SW galaxies all over again in their latest patch. The real dmg just isn't out yet.... The entire game is now unbalanced and unplayable based on new stat system that will take over a year to balance. DX10 is one thing ... changing the entire game and just fix part of the problems that accure... thats something huge ....
I am surprised that Tasos Flambouras didn't get his own entry.
I'm suprised Turbine didn't wind up on this list, either for the AC2 fiasco or for its management of DDO.
I totally disagree that AoC's lack of DX10 functionallity "wasnt a big deal", and that Funcom's re-assigning of the devs to tackle (DX9) performance issues "wasnt such a big deal". Funcom took something in the order of 3 months to address client-breaking issues, which in itself was the single reason I cancelled my subby back then.
Funcom should NOT have released AoC in the sorry state it was back then. That alone should elevate them to number one in your 'list'.
Honorable mentions?
Yeah i am suprised that Darfall was not on the list considering the manking cheats and hacking going on in the game, plus the bad reviews it got.
The latest AoC patch is hardly the equivalent of the NGE. There were significant changes to how things work, to be sure, but they didn't spend months on the previous patch to build up and fix a single profession only to elminate it completely in the next the way the NGE did. The "logic" of the NGE flew in the face of real logic in so many ways and ignored blantant omissions and oversights right up through it's launch. You didn't have in-game communities gathering together the night before 1.05 to mourn the "end" of the game like SWG did the day before the NGE went live in all of it's buggy glory.
I don't see the current issues in AoC, both real and those imagined by certain vocal segments of the community, taking years to "balance". You may not be able to do things exactly the way you did before, but that doesn't mean there aren't new ways of doing things. It all comes down to how much variety you have in your game play and how adaptable you are.
Regardless, comparing AoC 1.05 and SWG NGE is like comparing apples and rotten meat: apples may not be your food of choice, but you'd have to be starving to want rotted meat.
Read it all here.
As usual a very good article and I have no particular problem with the placements because let's be honest it's hard to top what SOE did but we as a community (mmo players) really need to start to consider "truth in advertising" in what Funcom did people keep proclaiming that DX10 was the only feature on the box not in at launch which if I remember right simply isn't true drunken brawling I beleive was also on the box and I just remember hearing maybe one or two other things let's also not forget that some of the things on the box simply did not work which is not much better and in some cases worse than not having the feature in game. MMos are the only form of entertainment that get's away with this false advertising and it astonishes me. I have laid this example out many times but let's imagine you bought your favorit bands new album or even better a greatest hits album by them and the music on the packaging was not on the album there would be hell to pay this I know for a fact because it was one way that the music business was able to do great harm to bootleggers back in the late 80's early 90's because lot's of bootleg music did not have all of the songs listed and in some cases even the wrong album all together.
Maybe right now mmos are much like medicine in it's infancy in that people were able to label anything as a miracle cure and sell it as such without really knowing what the heck it did but it astonishes me that in this day and age anyone can get away with doing business this way. Another question about this, why is it so easy for console games and even non online pc games to get their packaging right what is it about mmo's that makes this such a difficult task? If someone can give me an answer that made sense I personally would begin to cut the industry some slack but until then I will continue to hold them to the same standard as the rest of the console and entertainment industry in general.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
My vote(s) would go to UO: Trammel and SWG:NGE for sure.
UO was my favorite MMO of the old days because of the lack of level systems and skills actually increasing with use. I loved being a PK (red) and loved the threat that came with it of being ousted from towns etc. and watching my back for fear of stat loss etc. Also forcing me to use "player" towns instead of sanctioned ones was awesome, like a true outcast. Hopefully the same (similar) will ring true for Mortal Online. Let's just hope they don't cower to the cry baby types who just lost their "sword of disintegration +fire dmg DoT molesto" elite weapon to the hands of a would be PK.
And SWG was an awesome game in pretty much all ways. I was personally a crafter because I loved harvesting and building things etc. But would also beat some mobs around from time to time. NGE comes along with the crosshair crap and turns it into essentially holding a button while trying to follow the mobs around with the hairs. But need I say more, we have all seen it...
Nice article Dana. Definitely agree with your number one choice.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
The latest AoC patch is hardly the equivalent of the NGE. There were significant changes to how things work, to be sure, but they didn't spend months on the previous patch to build up and fix a single profession only to elminate it completely in the next the way the NGE did. The "logic" of the NGE flew in the face of real logic in so many ways and ignored blantant omissions and oversights right up through it's launch. You didn't have in-game communities gathering together the night before 1.05 to mourn the "end" of the game like SWG did the day before the NGE went live in all of it's buggy glory.
I don't see the current issues in AoC, both real and those imagined by certain vocal segments of the community, taking years to "balance". You may not be able to do things exactly the way you did before, but that doesn't mean there aren't new ways of doing things. It all comes down to how much variety you have in your game play and how adaptable you are.
Regardless, comparing AoC 1.05 and SWG NGE is like comparing apples and rotten meat: apples may not be your food of choice, but you'd have to be starving to want rotted meat.
Ironic you don't see AOC taking years to fix things when they are just now only in beta of DX10 you know the feature advertised on the box but pulled only after folks paid for it.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
World of Warcraft Blunders
1. Wrath of the Lich King in general
2. Death Knights
3. Winter Grasp
4. Linking Winter Grasp to Heroics
5. Nerfing locks
6. Continuing Arena imbalance
WAR
1. The latest expansion "The Desert That Died"
2. Continuing class imbalance
3. No dueling, I have held this theory for a long time, if WAR had dueling the class imbalance would have sorted itself out
4. The engine
AoC
1. The entire Project from front to back
2. Everything else!
Darkfall
1. Ultima Online is better than DF
2. The management team that runs Darkfall should be on trial for embezzlemet and fraud.
Blunders that stick in my mind are actually few.
Wow's infamous,instance plague infection ,that carries out to the whole server.
FFXI finally agrees to revamp the large slow weilding 2 handed weapons,then after they hit for most damage as should be,they claim it was a coding mistake and it ends up back where it started ,no revamp at all.Back to having little nub weapons do more damage,really sad.
SOE's mistake? not the NGE,that was just change that was going to happen anyhow,it doesn't matter that it was nge.Where the mistake was is their pr,then claiming it was a mistake in hopes to quiet the masses,but in reality,they know it was no mistake just giving the people what they wanted to hear.So there mistake was the way they handled it.
Played a game called Shaiya.They hold events,there is actually a bumbling mistakes on an event here.One they give out a christmas hat that is so powerful,that some players use a loophole to use it in PVP in the 1-15 zone[level 16 hat],it was a bigtime advantage over others who did not have it.If i remember right it was something like +15 or 20 to all stats,on just one hat lol.
Played RFO,they hold an event,the obvious problem is players using speed buffs.So the kind GM announces no speed buffs to be used,well immediately after saying that ,you can literally see hundreds buffing up for speed.Anyone w/o the speed buff of course has no chance.The GM goes onto say anyone caught gets banned,well no bans and instead threatens those complaining with a ban,ya fix all your screwups with ban warnings lmao.
SHAIYA ...again an event for top notch gear.They hold an event during the day when everyone at work ..lmao,talk about alienating 3/4's of the player base.No doubt because the GM in charge,probably does not work on weekends,so figured good time was when she was at work.Many complaints later,they decide to hold another,new problem,was like the first 10 to showup with the needed items gets prize.Well guess what ! the people off work al lday,already had the items ready,all they had to do is walk up to the GM and they win,the people that were at work all day alienated again lmao,sad setup for an event.
Vanguard..they made a mistake with Hand to hand damage.I think it was the rogue that if using no weapon could deal damage that was at least 3x superior to the best weapon holders in the game.Took about a couple weeks before they fixed that.
Maybe the biggest bumbling mistake i have seen across the board is devs using Game Guard,it is such a laughable piece of anti rubbish,i can't believe any reputable gaming company tries to pan it off as anti cheat.
There was one more that stood out in my mind,but it has been too long to remember what game it was.Some game offered a large cash prize and never came through with it.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
-DAOC Atlantis was a horrific blunder because it reshaped an RvR focused game with a light grind into an everquest style PvE grind that people were forced to take part in to be competitive. They later released some popular classic servers that didn't include the atlantis content, but eventually the game died out because all development resources were poured into creating warhammer.
-Vanguard's vision was never a blunder. It lost funding from microsoft and was forced to release an unfinished game.
-Trammel was an NGE style blunder but ultima online continues to exist like SWG.
-You can't simply call Darkfall a blunder in general; You've got to have something specific and unique against it. Ask anyone who has been a GM in a major MMO about hacks and macros and you'll find they exist as much in any other MMO, they just don't have as much direct impact on the players because they never see it. Obviously a PvP game with sharp consequences is going to have hacks be more noticable, but that doesn't make it unique to darkfall. Adventurine has also appeared to be doing everything in their power to find and ban them.
I'm missing your meaning on that the NGE was not a blunder?
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
^ What he said.
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"I like wow, I like aion and I like AoC all for different reasons.....the later cause i get to see boobs, but still its a reason!!" - Sawlstone
I am in full agreement with the #1 MMO blunder. I would take off couple of those games and Add Adveturine business practices or lack thereof and Mythics rush job on warhammer.
Played : WOW, LOTRO, COH/COV, EQ2, SWG, and WAR.
Playing EVE Online and AOC.
Wtg for SW:TOR and WOD
Not only has Cryptic been scooped up by Atari, but also as new evidence, new figures or even a new trend come to light, it can significantly change the direction of any game or studio.
Correction - Cryptic was purchased by Atari's parent company Infogrames and given to Atari after Atari went belly-up.
And probably the only "new figure" that came to light was the $48 million bonus attached to the sale based on net profits for CO and STO by 2011.
eve onlines
capital ships and how you hold space. that was and has been broken for years and there is no fix coming, while space holding is a core piece it just sucks.
played:WoW and Eve off and on 5 years
Tried:CoH/V, PoTBS, War, TR, STO, FE
TOR is likely to rock
I'm absolutely shocked that Dark and Light didn't make this list.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
I think Darkfall should have been on the list. The joke that was their launch, followed by their attempt at a billing system, the "game-breaking" exploits/hacks, just to name a few of the blunders. Of course, it is an extremely small scale game with a dwindling population.
As stated by the OP.
The #1 choice was right on the money. Star Wars Galaxies by far is the BIGGEST and I mean BIGGEST blunder in any MMORPG history. Its a shame that SOE doesnt like to admit they were wrong, they still live in denial to this day.
I missed the NGE blunder, but from friends I think the original design of SWG sounded really cool.
I think both LotRO and AoC blundered with their more gear-centric mods. I understand why, but still think it's sad.
LotRO continueed to dissappoint me with the twists they gave to moral (making it for all intents and purposes just like Hit Points), and the popular magical spells they gave to a non-magical world, ie: loremasters and runekeepers. Turbine's biggest blunder was not setting the game in the Fourth Age, and therefore being able to side-step the lore-fans like me.
And AoC... DX10 didn't even make my radar. Not being able to play the game, even with an updated and fairly uber machine that met their requirements, THAT is a major blunder in my book. Mainly because my friend's machines were even less uber, especially my girl's, who now has my still uber machine as a hand-me-down. I think the 'innovative' combat system was a bit of a let down too. The directional attacks are a meaningless joke, it's just a combo system like EQ2, but with MUCH cooler graphics. And should I mention the PvP? It wasn't even supported for several months. It drove me to a PvE server.
I think Warhammer's biggest blunder for me was there was no reason to chat. I could group and quest or PvP or join Warbands all day, and never actually chat with anyone. So great grouping tools but not great for community building.
TSW, LotRO, EQ2, SWTOR, GW2, V:SoH, Neverwinter, ArchAge, EQ, UO, DAoC, WAR, DDO, AoC, MO, BDO, SotA, B&S, ESO,
I will stick to my earlier comments about AOC and Funcom. The game started out with a certain vision that then was totally changed with dire and unforseene results. Half of those are not realised yet... mostly because the game is not populare in the first place.
Mayben DX10 should be mentioned on its own. If I remember correctly Vanguard was supposed to be dx10 and ended flat on its face. There is no secret that Microsoft is a giant that is able to silent even the biggest blunders. Someone else took the fall....?
Anyway - I think current MMO developing is on a very dangerous course. The current PR powertrip of promising all sorts of things and then dont deliver half of it isn't very good for long term buisness. Its a disgrace to see games beeing released so far from finished and then beeing patched up for CONTENT AND MAJOR BUG FIXING for over a year after release. Then Im ofc talking about content that was supposed to be in the game acording to earlier reports.
The future of MMO gaming is in Free to try games. Meaning they are free to play when beeing developed and then changed to either sub or bought expansions.. NOT BOTH. THe current economy crisis will effect MMos much more than ppl realise - we are just starting to see the effects in games like DDO (that btw realised now that they need more time to go "free")