I'm quite surprised that HELLGATE: LONDON didn't make the list. It certainly was a celebrated fiasco and the plug was pulled in epic fashion.
STAR WARS GALAXIES did infuriate hundreds of thousands of players and Sony deserves to be spanked again and again, but in fairness, 2009's game is not particularly infuriating. The current devs have spent basically 2 1/2 years undoing the worst of the NGE and restoring some complexity, interest and fun to the game. I enjoy playing it today.
You die, and lose, for example... 5000 of your total 10,000xp that you had total towards your next level.
To gain that xp back, you could either :
A. Go kill/quest to regain xp
or
B. Simply log off and it would regenerate back the xp you lost over time.
This was an awesome concept for me... because back in the days of early Everquest, you could play for 5 hours grinding to get a few bars of xp, and lose it all with a failed pull, bad spawn, linkdead cleric... ect. You could actually DELEVEL if you lost enough XP, especially if your corpse was in a bad location, people ragequit before they could get your corpse, ect...
Basically it allowed you to feel like you weren't being punished, but let you log off and take some time off without the obligation to grind so much.
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
if not for all the reasons that have been described on this thread earlier (trials of ob1 scam, making a complete new game in a week, squelching all feedback and loosing 300k players), the NGE at release was unplayable:
lag galore due to the astronomically stupid acceleration of player combat and moves;
game-breaking bugs on all levels;
quests which did not work;
exploits galore;
pre-cu and cu modifiers/items/systems still in the game overlapping the nge system... people did not know what was supposed to work and what not...
Wow, that Mourning story sounds so crazy. I was getting angry just reading it and thinking about it!
From what I've heard I would say that Darkfall should be on the list.
For me personally though the most infuriating dissapointment would have to be Tabula Rasa... I remember hearing all this great stuff about it, and it sounded totally unique.. then i log in to play...and I felt like a sap within 10 minutes for paying 50 bucks for the game
" Anyway, DAoC and the Trials of Atlantis expansion angered a lot of people. Mythic introduced asinine overpowered abilities with really boring and difficult hoops to jump through to get them. Screw that noise."
Wait, what? You mean they added more powerful stuff if you put in the effort to get it and you decideing to not bother is the devs or the game's fault? Its the same thing as increasing level caps, adding anything really past the original game's end game content. Just because you thought you 'made it to the end' in a game doesn't mean it was the company that made the game's fault. The only reason people don't cry about this in wow is pve is the end game while pvp is an after thought.
Great list though. Was on the bandwagon's of two of those games. Had the misfortune of playing SWG for 2 weeks before the nge and didn't have to pay for it as I got it free from a friend who quit. He had 3 weeks left paid up and I never bothered to reup when it ended. Can't say it angered me though. Just a little disappointed.
Earth and Beyond's debt system worked as such... You die, and lose, for example... 5000 of your total 10,000xp that you had total towards your next level. To gain that xp back, you could either : A. Go kill/quest to regain xp or B. Simply log off and it would regenerate back the xp you lost over time.
This was an awesome concept for me... because back in the days of early Everquest, you could play for 5 hours grinding to get a few bars of xp, and lose it all with a failed pull, bad spawn, linkdead cleric... ect. You could actually DELEVEL if you lost enough XP, especially if your corpse was in a bad location, people ragequit before they could get your corpse, ect... Basically it allowed you to feel like you weren't being punished, but let you log off and take some time off without the obligation to grind so much.
I loved that about EQ. Sometimes is sucked, but it is the only PvE game that ever gave me that rush. Even after death lost most meaning like in other MMOs, I still got a bit of a rush when things took a bad turn. Of course that was then and this is now and I don't think I will ever have the time or the drive to go through all that again.
Jesus... people are knocking Darkfall a bit. I didn't find it stressful or infuriating at all. I will admit was in Covert Ops so I guess I was not on the receiving end of the 'bass taping,' but I thought it was fun as shit for the first month to month and a half. Also all through beta I had a blast. One of those games that you get up, forget breakfest, forget work, forget lunch, forget dinner, and finally pass out at the keyboard from a lethal combination of a lack of sleep, food, and water.
A few things killed Darkfall, one was all the people that got tired of getting turned into my 'finger puppet' and there was a seriously fucked up magic system... (Naked people, killing people in Full Plate with a fire ball that hits 50 with splash damage and has no cooldown...Yeah, the devs really got hit with 'The Fucking Retarded Downie Stick' there.) Although it did take people around... a month to a month and a half for people to get up to that high of magic. You might be asking yourself; 'hey isn't that about the time you said it stopped being fun!? Hey you're right Skippy! Now shut the fuck up because you are fucking psycho that talks to yourself.
Now Tasos and the other slow fingerpainters at their office get no props for making an MMO that sucks balls after the first month, but the people that played and cry about it were on the receiving end of the arrows and swords that are homing for your nether regions. So I leave you with some serious, flame starting banter; If you quit Darkfall because you start to tire of being killed... you are fucking terrible at video games. That game was a game that a man with feet for hands could win at. As long as you have movement in your foot/hand and can click the mouse, You can beat 90% of the short bus window lickers that populated that game.
And it never seizes to amaze me how self-involved some people are, looking at the discussions.
Yes, the list is subjective, yes you may have had your own personal moments of frustration with game A, B or C but overall I think the OP did a good job. Most importantly, he clearly laid out the reasons for each game. WTH more do you want. SWG was surely a frustrating experience for many players, but in the larger context I think rank 5 is reasonable. As Jon said, it's still around so that's saying something - even if the 'Vets' disagree on that. And to be honest, many people have moved on long ago - it's really just a small(ish) number of ex players who can't let go and I truly am sorry for that. Because frankly, it's just a game after all - getting worked up over that even after several years is, well, sad...
I always hoped that Dark and Light would make it. But SWG was probably the biggest upset of the five for me, most likely because I was already attached severely to the game. There will never be one quite like it. So sad...
Good list. For myself SWG takes #1 and here is why.
If I came across a game full of promises and then they failed to deliver , it would leave less of a mark. Like Dark and light , been there done that . Granted I was not happy for certain, but there was no time invested there hardly . It was easy to move on.
SWG on the other hand I had invested 2 years into it, was there from launch. Made a lot of friends and had worked hard to get where I was at. Then out of the blue they tore all my work and effort away along with my friends work and efforts. My friends left game and so did I. I not only lost all the things I built and worked on but many friends to. This left a mark. I moved on but I will never forget how SoE treated their customer.
" Anyway, DAoC and the Trials of Atlantis expansion angered a lot of people. Mythic introduced asinine overpowered abilities with really boring and difficult hoops to jump through to get them. Screw that noise." Wait, what? You mean they added more powerful stuff if you put in the effort to get it and you decideing to not bother is the devs or the game's fault? Its the same thing as increasing level caps, adding anything really past the original game's end game content.
If you weren't there for it, you won't get it but let me try explaining it better but briefly:
DAoC was the anti-EQ. If you wanted massive raiding, mob camps and epic items at the time you were playing EQ. If you played DAoC you were either playing it for the RvR focus or because it was a goregously put together low(ish) fantasy dark ages theme. Roleplayers loved it because it all hung together well. Now introduce ToA
ToA was a fine EQ expansion. It was all about massive raids, mob camps and epic items; all achieved through PvE and it gave massive advantages in RvR despite dev claims of minimal impact.On top of that, the setting made no sense. Ancient Atlanteans? Egyptian crocodiles? In a northern-european setting dark ages game? Umm wtf?
So no, the complaining wasn't about adding new end game content.
The real issue though, is why don’t we learn? We know you can’t trust what you read about a game, we know the press releases from the company are written on toilet paper. But still we pre order, still we buy at launch.
Let the lemmings buy the game at launch, I wait till a couple of months in; read the reviews, not the previews. Why buy a product in advance? Where else in your life do you do that?
Don’t get caught up in the hype and the feeling you need to be one of the first, one of the in crowd. Because as history shows you are very likely to become one of the very disappointed crowd.
Originally posted by zaxxon23 I remember DnL, and particularly remember how Settlers of Genaroth was sold out (10k keys) in about 30 seconds. So many people wanted to try that game, and it was such a train wreck lol. In hindsight, I'm very glad I didn't get in sog. As for the rest, all I can say is thank goodness I didn't try them out. However, RYL made me lol. I can only imagine the hackfest their game turned into after offering a million (!!!) dollar prize.
Yes... I was one of those "Settlers"... I felt so incredibly lucky to catch a key for their beta....
After starting beta, I still hoped for a "miracle build" somewhere as the devs told us repeatedly that all those "great features" would only come in at launch.... well...
This list was simply great. I agree 100%. Hopefully such historic fails will not happen again in the MMORPG business - one can only hope....
1, No desire to put the same company on the list twice. 2, There was never a single large event in EQ that generated anger, it was absolutely every single thing the company did.
Number 1, Was thinking different game but soe.
This post is intentionally written as to not make any sense what so ever. Thank You Very Much.
Earth and Beyond's debt system worked as such... You die, and lose, for example... 5000 of your total 10,000xp that you had total towards your next level. To gain that xp back, you could either : A. Go kill/quest to regain xp or B. Simply log off and it would regenerate back the xp you lost over time.
This was an awesome concept for me... because back in the days of early Everquest, you could play for 5 hours grinding to get a few bars of xp, and lose it all with a failed pull, bad spawn, linkdead cleric... ect. You could actually DELEVEL if you lost enough XP, especially if your corpse was in a bad location, people ragequit before they could get your corpse, ect... Basically it allowed you to feel like you weren't being punished, but let you log off and take some time off without the obligation to grind so much.
I loved that about EQ. Sometimes is sucked, but it is the only PvE game that ever gave me that rush. Even after death lost most meaning like in other MMOs, I still got a bit of a rush when things took a bad turn. Of course that was then and this is now and I don't think I will ever have the time or the drive to go through all that again.
I Agree with ya all the way. They laid something on the line. So you really did have something to lose. Motor City Online we got to Race for our Money or Even Pink Slips. Motor City Online Was the biggest Rush of all.
This post is intentionally written as to not make any sense what so ever. Thank You Very Much.
Two games I can add to the marketing hype (both of which i liked) Tabula Rasa and Hellgate:London, both had large amounts of advertising, it is a wonder if developers realize an MMO is for the long haul, not the short? I can see many people are hoping Aion's Hype won't end similarly
Oh yeah Hellgate London... It's no MMORPG, but man, it was hyped so much for so many years, that I fell for it and preordered it. And once I got it, it was so buggy I couldn't play it. I tried for a while, but it really was not playable in any way. Half a year later it was fixed far enough that it could be played, but stuff like "you can't reset your talents unless you pay real money" was demotivating me to play. Whenever I wanted to try something, I had to prepare to make a new char and level to this point.
Now, I play Hellgate London and Titan Quest every now and then, when I feel to play something Diablo like. Titan Quests graphics and stuff ain't as impressive as those of Hellgate London, but at leat it's polished, diversified and deeper.
The only thing that annoys me right now about Hellgate London is, that there is no way to play it in multiplayer (since the company got bancrupt about it and the servers are down). They should at least have published a patch that allows people to play it in a LAN or something. It's like them saying "yeah you bought it with multiplayer in mind, but you made us bancrupt so you don't deserve to play it in multiplayer mode". -.-
About Tabula Rasa: I played it for a while and had fun (apart from the horribly disappointing crafting system). I actually didn't notice any hype about it. I just noticed it a few days before it got released.
I never heard of the other 4. I did however play swg, and I felt it should be in the top spot. Even now the mear mention of that game in any mmorpg that I am playing sparks hours of folks being still totaly mad.
Your soon going to be able to add Lotro to the list. They have lost their way and they are about to blow it as well.
Darkfall was actually pretty damn awesome to be honest. I have 3 accounts and it is a great game compared to many mmos.
I really don't understand why Darkfall is flamed and is trolled so much. It is a very decent game, especially after the last few patches.
However I pre-ordered 2 copies of Mortal Online to be in "Block A" in beta.
And I have yet to be able to log into the game for more then 5 minutes.
At this point Mortal Online, is the new mmo scam and I freaken fell for it.
Mortal Online doesn't even have a proper executable file to start the game! You have to click on some weird file then open the folder manually that Mortal Online is in.
Darkfall was actually pretty damn awesome to be honest. I have 3 accounts and it is a great game compared to many mmos. I really don't understand why Darkfall is flamed and is trolled so much. It is a very decent game, especially after the last few patches. However I pre-ordered 2 copies of Mortal Online to be in "Block A" in beta. And I have yet to be able to log into the game for more then 5 minutes. At this point Mortal Online, is the new mmo scam and I freaken fell for it. Mortal Online doesn't even have a proper executable file to start the game! You have to click on some weird file then open the folder manually that Mortal Online is in.
I suspect what has so many people upset about Darkfall(aka Gankfall) ^^ is that they promised the moon, stars and Gank utopia, and then launched way before they were ready. Companies could get away with that in years past. But today's audience is MUCH less tolerant of such antics.
I can't believe no one has mentioned Horizons. I worked for the company during launch and it was freaking horrible to be an employee at that point!
I'm surprised by this as well David Bowman was literally ran out of the Industry on a rail, but he has always gotten a pass in the media....even when he was hiding under his desk after the launch of Horizons news sites refused to call him out on it.
Mind Boggling
This sword here at my side dont act the way it should Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave And it howls! it howls like hell!
Comments
Earth and Beyond's debt system worked as such...
You die, and lose, for example... 5000 of your total 10,000xp that you had total towards your next level.
To gain that xp back, you could either :
A. Go kill/quest to regain xp
or
B. Simply log off and it would regenerate back the xp you lost over time.
This was an awesome concept for me... because back in the days of early Everquest, you could play for 5 hours grinding to get a few bars of xp, and lose it all with a failed pull, bad spawn, linkdead cleric... ect. You could actually DELEVEL if you lost enough XP, especially if your corpse was in a bad location, people ragequit before they could get your corpse, ect...
Basically it allowed you to feel like you weren't being punished, but let you log off and take some time off without the obligation to grind so much.
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
I would include WISH but it never made it past the beta,which was to bad it was looking to be a good game.
As for Hellgate :London it was multiplayer but not a mass multiplayer,so I can see why it didn't make the list.
swg should have been higher up the list.
if not for all the reasons that have been described on this thread earlier (trials of ob1 scam, making a complete new game in a week, squelching all feedback and loosing 300k players), the NGE at release was unplayable:
lag galore due to the astronomically stupid acceleration of player combat and moves;
game-breaking bugs on all levels;
quests which did not work;
exploits galore;
pre-cu and cu modifiers/items/systems still in the game overlapping the nge system... people did not know what was supposed to work and what not...
it was a complete mess.
Wow, that Mourning story sounds so crazy. I was getting angry just reading it and thinking about it!
From what I've heard I would say that Darkfall should be on the list.
For me personally though the most infuriating dissapointment would have to be Tabula Rasa... I remember hearing all this great stuff about it, and it sounded totally unique.. then i log in to play...and I felt like a sap within 10 minutes for paying 50 bucks for the game
" Anyway, DAoC and the Trials of Atlantis expansion angered a lot of people. Mythic introduced asinine overpowered abilities with really boring and difficult hoops to jump through to get them. Screw that noise."
Wait, what? You mean they added more powerful stuff if you put in the effort to get it and you decideing to not bother is the devs or the game's fault? Its the same thing as increasing level caps, adding anything really past the original game's end game content. Just because you thought you 'made it to the end' in a game doesn't mean it was the company that made the game's fault. The only reason people don't cry about this in wow is pve is the end game while pvp is an after thought.
Great list though. Was on the bandwagon's of two of those games. Had the misfortune of playing SWG for 2 weeks before the nge and didn't have to pay for it as I got it free from a friend who quit. He had 3 weeks left paid up and I never bothered to reup when it ended. Can't say it angered me though. Just a little disappointed.
I loved that about EQ. Sometimes is sucked, but it is the only PvE game that ever gave me that rush. Even after death lost most meaning like in other MMOs, I still got a bit of a rush when things took a bad turn. Of course that was then and this is now and I don't think I will ever have the time or the drive to go through all that again.
Jesus... people are knocking Darkfall a bit. I didn't find it stressful or infuriating at all. I will admit was in Covert Ops so I guess I was not on the receiving end of the 'bass taping,' but I thought it was fun as shit for the first month to month and a half. Also all through beta I had a blast. One of those games that you get up, forget breakfest, forget work, forget lunch, forget dinner, and finally pass out at the keyboard from a lethal combination of a lack of sleep, food, and water.
A few things killed Darkfall, one was all the people that got tired of getting turned into my 'finger puppet' and there was a seriously fucked up magic system... (Naked people, killing people in Full Plate with a fire ball that hits 50 with splash damage and has no cooldown...Yeah, the devs really got hit with 'The Fucking Retarded Downie Stick' there.) Although it did take people around... a month to a month and a half for people to get up to that high of magic. You might be asking yourself; 'hey isn't that about the time you said it stopped being fun!? Hey you're right Skippy! Now shut the fuck up because you are fucking psycho that talks to yourself.
Now Tasos and the other slow fingerpainters at their office get no props for making an MMO that sucks balls after the first month, but the people that played and cry about it were on the receiving end of the arrows and swords that are homing for your nether regions. So I leave you with some serious, flame starting banter; If you quit Darkfall because you start to tire of being killed... you are fucking terrible at video games. That game was a game that a man with feet for hands could win at. As long as you have movement in your foot/hand and can click the mouse, You can beat 90% of the short bus window lickers that populated that game.
Good list, I'd say.
And it never seizes to amaze me how self-involved some people are, looking at the discussions.
Yes, the list is subjective, yes you may have had your own personal moments of frustration with game A, B or C but overall I think the OP did a good job. Most importantly, he clearly laid out the reasons for each game. WTH more do you want. SWG was surely a frustrating experience for many players, but in the larger context I think rank 5 is reasonable. As Jon said, it's still around so that's saying something - even if the 'Vets' disagree on that. And to be honest, many people have moved on long ago - it's really just a small(ish) number of ex players who can't let go and I truly am sorry for that. Because frankly, it's just a game after all - getting worked up over that even after several years is, well, sad...
I always hoped that Dark and Light would make it. But SWG was probably the biggest upset of the five for me, most likely because I was already attached severely to the game. There will never be one quite like it. So sad...
Good list. For myself SWG takes #1 and here is why.
If I came across a game full of promises and then they failed to deliver , it would leave less of a mark. Like Dark and light , been there done that . Granted I was not happy for certain, but there was no time invested there hardly . It was easy to move on.
SWG on the other hand I had invested 2 years into it, was there from launch. Made a lot of friends and had worked hard to get where I was at. Then out of the blue they tore all my work and effort away along with my friends work and efforts. My friends left game and so did I. I not only lost all the things I built and worked on but many friends to. This left a mark. I moved on but I will never forget how SoE treated their customer.
Well, my list would be different, because I've never playe any of those games. Besides SWG, which sucked before NGE.
I would put EQ and DAoC. Both basically pulled NGEs of their own with expansions that drastically changed how the games would be played.
If you weren't there for it, you won't get it but let me try explaining it better but briefly:
DAoC was the anti-EQ. If you wanted massive raiding, mob camps and epic items at the time you were playing EQ. If you played DAoC you were either playing it for the RvR focus or because it was a goregously put together low(ish) fantasy dark ages theme. Roleplayers loved it because it all hung together well. Now introduce ToA
ToA was a fine EQ expansion. It was all about massive raids, mob camps and epic items; all achieved through PvE and it gave massive advantages in RvR despite dev claims of minimal impact.On top of that, the setting made no sense. Ancient Atlanteans? Egyptian crocodiles? In a northern-european setting dark ages game? Umm wtf?
So no, the complaining wasn't about adding new end game content.
The real issue though, is why don’t we learn? We know you can’t trust what you read about a game, we know the press releases from the company are written on toilet paper. But still we pre order, still we buy at launch.
Let the lemmings buy the game at launch, I wait till a couple of months in; read the reviews, not the previews. Why buy a product in advance? Where else in your life do you do that?
Don’t get caught up in the hype and the feeling you need to be one of the first, one of the in crowd. Because as history shows you are very likely to become one of the very disappointed crowd.
Yes... I was one of those "Settlers"... I felt so incredibly lucky to catch a key for their beta....
After starting beta, I still hoped for a "miracle build" somewhere as the devs told us repeatedly that all those "great features" would only come in at launch.... well...
This list was simply great. I agree 100%. Hopefully such historic fails will not happen again in the MMORPG business - one can only hope....
Number 1, Was thinking different game but soe.
This post is intentionally written as to not make any sense what so ever. Thank You Very Much.
I loved that about EQ. Sometimes is sucked, but it is the only PvE game that ever gave me that rush. Even after death lost most meaning like in other MMOs, I still got a bit of a rush when things took a bad turn. Of course that was then and this is now and I don't think I will ever have the time or the drive to go through all that again.
I Agree with ya all the way. They laid something on the line. So you really did have something to lose. Motor City Online we got to Race for our Money or Even Pink Slips. Motor City Online Was the biggest Rush of all.
This post is intentionally written as to not make any sense what so ever. Thank You Very Much.
Mourning was truly an epic disapointment.
Darkfail should have been #1
Oh yeah Hellgate London... It's no MMORPG, but man, it was hyped so much for so many years, that I fell for it and preordered it. And once I got it, it was so buggy I couldn't play it. I tried for a while, but it really was not playable in any way. Half a year later it was fixed far enough that it could be played, but stuff like "you can't reset your talents unless you pay real money" was demotivating me to play. Whenever I wanted to try something, I had to prepare to make a new char and level to this point.
Now, I play Hellgate London and Titan Quest every now and then, when I feel to play something Diablo like. Titan Quests graphics and stuff ain't as impressive as those of Hellgate London, but at leat it's polished, diversified and deeper.
The only thing that annoys me right now about Hellgate London is, that there is no way to play it in multiplayer (since the company got bancrupt about it and the servers are down). They should at least have published a patch that allows people to play it in a LAN or something. It's like them saying "yeah you bought it with multiplayer in mind, but you made us bancrupt so you don't deserve to play it in multiplayer mode". -.-
About Tabula Rasa: I played it for a while and had fun (apart from the horribly disappointing crafting system). I actually didn't notice any hype about it. I just noticed it a few days before it got released.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
I think Face of Mankind should also be on that list but that's my own opinion..
I never heard of the other 4. I did however play swg, and I felt it should be in the top spot. Even now the mear mention of that game in any mmorpg that I am playing sparks hours of folks being still totaly mad.
Your soon going to be able to add Lotro to the list. They have lost their way and they are about to blow it as well.
Darkfall was actually pretty damn awesome to be honest. I have 3 accounts and it is a great game compared to many mmos.
I really don't understand why Darkfall is flamed and is trolled so much. It is a very decent game, especially after the last few patches.
However I pre-ordered 2 copies of Mortal Online to be in "Block A" in beta.
And I have yet to be able to log into the game for more then 5 minutes.
At this point Mortal Online, is the new mmo scam and I freaken fell for it.
Mortal Online doesn't even have a proper executable file to start the game! You have to click on some weird file then open the folder manually that Mortal Online is in.
I suspect what has so many people upset about Darkfall(aka Gankfall) ^^ is that they promised the moon, stars and Gank utopia, and then launched way before they were ready. Companies could get away with that in years past. But today's audience is MUCH less tolerant of such antics.
I'm surprised by this as well David Bowman was literally ran out of the Industry on a rail, but he has always gotten a pass in the media....even when he was hiding under his desk after the launch of Horizons news sites refused to call him out on it.
Mind Boggling
This sword here at my side dont act the way it should
Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave
Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave
And it howls! it howls like hell!