Warhammer Online got good quick! My best of 2010 was returning to WAR. I guess you know what I'm going to be playing in 2011. I'm hooked bad and loving it.
Several points I strongly agree with. Nothing in Cata interests me to waste more money on WoW. Freemium LotRO is awesome. And Allods broke my heart.
Seriously, a friend walked me through the Wargren starting area, and nothing was exciting at all. The whole area felt incredibly passive. They can come up with cool ideas all they like, but it's still shackled into the weak framework that is WoW. Especially when most of the people rolling these new races are not new players. It was fine for Tirisfal Glades to be soft and accessible five years ago, but the storytelling and methodology of this game is seriously worn out.
I played LotRO in beta, and was suitably unimpressed. Sadly, I never touched it again until it went Freemium. I rolled a toon on a server where some friends played, and gleefully played, free of charge, until level 22. With that extended free trial period, I was able to explore areas like the Shire and Bree-Land, areas heavily covered in the books. The level of detail and care that has gone into depicting Middle Earth is especially appealing to a LotR fan such as myself. And getting the chance to play the game without an upfront cost and 15 dollar subscription fees... Let's face it, LotRO is not as polished as WoW, and probably shouldn't cost as much. For now, the price is exactly right.
And for prices that are not right at all... Allods. I really enjoyed the world design and artwork. Plus the promise of sailing ships through the astral, fighting huge demon monsters and marauders other players like pirates... That sounded awesome. Then they wanted us to pay through the nose for this. And the leveling grind was really dull... If Allods was designed more around storytelling, varied content, and less WoW cloned quest grind (or EQ cloned quest grind), and didn't have mechanics that require you to buy play time from the cash shop, it could have been the first truly great F2P game. Instead... It took me to the prom, and then danced with the captain of the football team all night and sent me home alone. </3
Important facts: 1. Free to Play games are poorly made. 2. Casuals are not all idiots, but idiots call themselves casuals. 3. Great solo and group content are not mutually exclusive, but they suffer when one is shoved into the mold of the other. The same is true of PvP and PvE. 4. Community is more important than you think.
Regardless of how they changed Aion, that bitter feeling of how utterly depressing my 2 months of playing at release still lingers. They burnt that bridge and there is no way I can will go back.
With that said, I can understand why some people would still be playing or go back to playing. Overall, a nice and truthful article from my perspective.
Best ever of all times: Wow, main game and every single expansion. Period. And tried virtually all out there. No other games is so complete in every aspect.
Second best maybe AoC. Not playing now but will return for sure.
At first, CO could beat wow for fun factor, but more and more I played more blant and void game become. No way one could be i.e. fully fire or electro build. No enough different powers, they run out half levels. Then you can only have fire, frost, mage, ... all with orbital canon. Bah. Besides other problems. And besides had worst of the worst support in history of gaming imo.
I liked also EQII.
As for worst disappointment overall .. not only 2010 ... for sure FFIV. It took 1st place from other biggest disappointment: Aion. Grind trash with 2nd worst support on earth. And completely void of everything after as I remember lv. 20 or so.
lol at warhammer getting best of 2010 tell everyone the truth now about the servers being completely dead but the few remaining loyalists whom mythic/ea is about to run off with all the complaints about them destroying rvr and making that game for the renoun rank 80s to grind 20 more renoun ranks....
Worst: Waiting... Yes, been waiting for the games to be released... like SWTOR... how ridiculous I feel when I'm watching previews and release notes from the devs... stop that! release the game allready, or just don't talk about it.... people wait to christmas to arrive and .... it does arrive someday, less than one year.
Best: MMOPRG genre is not dead afterall, at least not as many thought it would be 2 years ago... or even last year...
What's with all the hatred for the new 'freemium' model? LotRO wasn't a failing MMORPG by any account when it went 'freemium' a few months ago and it's been a (mostly) good change.
There are way more players in low-mid level zones. The community is no worse than it was before from what I've seen thus far. Turbine is earning even more money so you know the game's going to stick around for a few years. And the store is hardly necessary if you're a VIP subscriber, so nothing much has changed for subscribers. The only downside I've seen thus far are the advertisements for the store in-game, which get a tad excessive. That and the fact that LotRO-EU is still lagging behind LotRO-US (no MyLotro ffs).
As for the other points in the article. I can't see Aion being particularly good even with most of its grind removed, but Age of Conan definitely seems much better now. APB certainly deserves a mention in the 'worst of' category, but I'd say FFXIV deserves that mention even more-so. At least APB had the illusion of being a semi-decent game going for it... FFXIV doesn't even have that. Global Agenda is a decent online third-person shooter, but I'm sure most people here would rather not call it a MMOG.
Sadly, Cataclysm was the best thing that happened to MMORPGs this year. I agree with the author on this, it sickens me too...
On the other hand, FFXIV clearly deserves the WORST first place.
Really hoping that something good and uniquewill see the light next year... Good luck to all of us and Happy New Year!
What's funny about WoW and Cataclysm, and what doesn't make me 'sick' per se, but certainly curious... is how developer after developer has tried to capture WoW's lightning... and failed. It's like watching a mass of lemmings with different company logos tattood on them running off a cliff hoping to land in a sea of 1 million+ subscribers, only to land face-first on the jagged rocks below.
I've seen developers try to copy the gameplay, the graphics style (especially the graphics style), the quest indicators.. and so on... None of them seem to "get it", in my opinion, as to what makes WoW work.
Developers seem to be focusing on lifting specific elements from WoW and hanging their hopes on that. Maybe they think if they make it look like WoW, they can fool enough people into thinking it's just like WoW. And it might work... on a few... at first. You install the game, start it up and in many cases (in my experience) something's "off" even at the character creation. You get into game, and it just doesn't feel smooth, or solid, or polished. The gameplay feels "off".
It's like the real steak/synthetic steak experiment Jeff Goldblum does in "The Fly". Something "tastes wrong' about the imitation. As Goldlum sums it up about the fake steak in that movie, "it's missing the flesh". Similarly, the WoW clones are missing that "something crucial".
What WoW has, that its various wanna-be releases sorely lack, is not any one single element, and it's not even something "tangible" or immediately identifiable. I guess you could sum it up as polish. Look at any aspect of the game.
It's what you could call the "Shigeru Miyamoto Effect". While numerous developers put out games that receive "meh" responses, it seems everything Miyamoto touches turns to gold. Why is that? Well, play even the oldest games of his, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, etc... They all have that same quality to them that, in my opinion, Blizzard's games have as well. I'm not just talking WoW now. I'm talking Diablo, Diablo II, Starcraft, Starcraft II.. the previous Warcraft games. Even Lost Vikings has that "something" about it that says "polish".
Despite the hate flung their way, like their games or not, Blizzard already had an excellent reputation as a game developer before WoW even hit the market. They didn't get there "on accident".
I don't know what Miyamoto's approach is to game design/development, but I remember reading that Blizzard's approach is to "polish as they go". They don't get the game done, then do a "polishing pass". They get everything as solid as they can as the game is developed. Maybe that has something to do with it. But I don't think it's even only that.
Maybe if more developers paid more attention to how Blizzard and Miyamoto and other "top tier" developers do what they do... and not merely "what" they do... we might see some more polished and worthwhile games hitting the scene.
"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
I agree , wow is too old and stell. Maybe GW2 will change the layout of MMOs, what I've seen of it....I am going to ban WoW and salute the returning King of MMOs, ArenaNet. The chance to play a Char like Goblins look so vain.
As for that comment WSIMike, Arenanet dosen't have to follow the WoW footsteps, they got a groove all thier own and a non-stat (no int, str, or other trash) based system all in a buy - to - play system. I'm looking forward to the story continuing 250 years after Eye of the North, WoW so stall in the storyline that it makes me thankful they aren't planning a "World of Starcraft". Besides, I got sick of WoW's one side bias development, Horde horde horde.... I think I'll go join Mr Murphy at the Vomit Bar.
Arenanet kick Blizzards ass please like you did EQ.
For us sci-fi fans, 2010 will be remembered for the disappointment of STO and the shameful news of how Battlestar Gallactica will appear as a browser-based MMO.
I am surprised you didn't mention STO and FFXIV for worst of the year. Otherwise, nice list. I too felt underwhelmed this year and can't wait for SWTOR and GW2 to hit my PC.
Agreed. STO really deserves some time in the spotlight here. It was just an awful mess. I too am looking forward to SWTOR and GW2.
The WoW debacle is strange, its a good fun game but it seems something should be able to compete with it.
Can't really call WoW a debacle, but rather it's a phenomenon. Semantics though.
Blizzard has one thing really going for them though and that's loyalty among their fanbase. I don't think any other developer in the world can claim such customer loyalty as the Blizzard fanbase.
Of those in my guild who play WoW I would wager that about 95% of them have played every other blizzard PC game. We often talk about WarCraft, StarCraft and Diablo in guild chat. We are even planning on running guild groups for D3 when it comes out.
Other developers fail to meet the "WoW" standard because they are trying to tap into a very loyal customer base. Only a few in my guild even bother to watch other mmorpgs, they are just content to play WoW and single player games like Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Bioshock, etc. My guild is only an extremely small sample, but I am willing to wager other guilds are similar.
For another developer to come in and sweep up players, they are going to have to be extremely different than WoW. The game is also going to have to have a ton of polish and not a bunch of empty promises. Most of all, another developer is going to have to tap into a previously untapped fanbase.
GW2 and Rift look good. Rift is a bit similar to WoW and looks a lot like WAR, which may hurt it.
GW2 is looking like it's going to be a very different experience, and ArenaNet has a solid reputation via GuildWars. But is the game going to be interesting enough to snatch up a lot of players or make a new fanbase?
SWTOR has the potential for a new market, especially if they can get star wars fans to play, but they might not snatch up as many mmo vets as they believe.
Agreed - played and hated in the end, but at the same time loved the customization options and cars. Community was one of the worst. Drunk teenagers, trash talking morons, cussing idiots and in general just a lot of low life character showing kids and drunk adults. Game was fun in the beginning, but I already knew that APB will die because of idiotic policies of the company supporting it, and forum admins who admittedly allowed cussing on forums because game was rated M. It was the most idiotic policy I've ever seen. I knew since that very moment that game will be flooded by morons and eventually will die because of hacking. Which to my amusement really did happen.
Even though game goes F2P - hacking will return and even more morons will come to join the fun especially when game will go F2P. PvP free to play games of this nature attract the worst gamers out there. Trash and low life... Or those who wants to be trash and low life.
BEST: The Freemium Model
Even though many may disagree I think this is a future of gaming. Video Games are a part of Entertainment business that started with arcades and Las Vegas casinos. Video Games today is a good source to invest money into for people with fat wallets. Its along time investment and it means increased income only in a few successful cases so game developers from now on will be keeping in mind this "freemium" model when they release new MMO. Its a clear fact that Asian F2P games are flooding the market and every one of them has item mall and they make a lot of money on people who prefer to pay $$$ for an advantage of being more powerful than the rest of the crowd.
BEST: Vindictus and Global Agenda
Vindictus seemed new and innovative for the first 5 hours for me. Then I've noticed that there is nothing in that game other than repetitve instance grind and the whole focus of the game is on gear. Game is well designed but very poorly constructed as far as game mechanics go. It is after all just another Asian F2P with repetitive boring gameplay, even though I have to agree that battle mechanics are one of the best. But no matter what they are even if its the most cool battle mechanics in the whole world - you'll end up hating it if you have to hammer on the same content over and over again for days and weeks.
Global Agenda - disagree - its a very boring game as well. No matter events and group instances. Tried it - got bored. Didn't even last 2 full weeks with my super pooper bonuses to exp. Unfortunately game doesn't provide enough material to capture the interest. At least it didn't for me. Quests are very spaced out, very few quest hubs available and gameplay even though its 3rd person shooter MMO - still feels slow and dragging.
WORST: WoW Still Manhandling the Competition
No matter how successfull this game is or how many subs they claim it has - WoW was always on the last page of my book of "Interesting Games". Sorry, just not my type.
BEST: Aion and Age of Conan Get Good
I have characters in both. If i ever try either of two again it will be AoC. Got bored in both games. Aion while pretty and has nice music - got me bored eventually. Asian games have this odd specific game-play feeling to them. No matter how pretty they are they always make you feel that there is an awful grind is awaiting you somewhere out there. And of course Aion didn't surprise - grind there was as usually. AoC got to lvl 51 after game release and got bored of doing endless quests. While game was one of the best graphics it provided little variety but similar type of quests. A lot of people quit the game around lvl 50 due to 'quest grind'.
WORST: Nothing Really Happened
Did happen to me. Of course this article is about MMOs but thanks to single-player titles they kept me on float the whole year. I've kept playing LOTRO at the same time and titles like ME2, DAO and DAO:A spiced my year with a good gaming experiences. LOTRO still remains the best MMORPG in my "book of interests" even though I don't play it as often as first 1-2 years. I still always come back and have FUN like in no other MMO out there. Thanks to Turbine for regular new content release (festivals especially).
BEST: Looking forward to 2011
Aye, Aye sir! My boat of cool gaming is pointed towards the New Year as well. The biggest thing that i am waiting for with anticipation is definitely Star Wars The Old Republic. But titles like Guild Wars 2, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, Deus X: Human Revolution and some others will be like a great icing on my cake of cool gaming next year.
I am surprised you didn't mention STO and FFXIV for worst of the year. Otherwise, nice list. I too felt underwhelmed this year and can't wait for SWTOR and GW2 to hit my PC.
This exactly... I am game starved and am really looking forward to 2011 for SWTOR and GW2.
As for that comment WSIMike, Arenanet dosen't have to follow the WoW footsteps, they got a groove all thier own and a non-stat (no int, str, or other trash) based system all in a buy - to - play system. I'm looking forward to the story continuing 250 years after Eye of the North, WoW so stall in the storyline that it makes me thankful they aren't planning a "World of Starcraft". Besides, I got sick of WoW's one side bias development, Horde horde horde.... I think I'll go join Mr Murphy at the Vomit Bar.
Arenanet kick Blizzards ass please like you did EQ.
LOL... Haven't there been enough "WoW killers" and the inevitable results, for people to realize that at this point the only threat to WoW is Blizzard itself? GW's was a fun game, but it only managed a fraction of the players that WoW has. GW2 does look like a great deal of fun, but lets be realistic. Neither it, nor TOR nor Rift are going to be "WoW killers". I'm personally looking forward to all of them. I've no doubt if they are done right, that they will be successful, enjoyable games. But "WoW killer"? Not going to happen.
Pretty good article, I agree with just about all of it. To those who question, Aion HAS become a really good game, as long as the PvP isn't what you were looking forward to. It really doesn't happen very much anymore, which is actually good news to a lot of people on this side of the world. It was steadily improving before I left, and in fact the only reason I quit was because of the terrible item grind which was addressed with a huge increase in the drop rate. It was mentioned that within 20 trips through one of the endgame dungeons they left with tons of legendary and epic items between them all. People who played Aion know how huge that is, where prior you could grind your entire career and never see an orange item drop let alone be the one to get it.
The problem is most, like me, were burnt pretty bad on Aion. So, even if it has gotten better, the interest in it is still just as lost. With MMOs, there's just so many that these days you only really get ONE chance to make a good impression on your audience. Once you mess that up, it's over. No matter how much you improve, how much you put into your advertising, you'll always have that stigma. People still swear WoW is for kids based on quests as they used to be instead of the challenge the end-game holds now (so I'm told, I don't play), people swear Aion's still a Korean grinder (which I can say first hand, it is not), people swear Champions is a snooze fest with zero content even though it's improved so much it's not even the game it started as anymore. Do I neven need to bring up Age of Conan? Let alone Final Fantasy 14.
You just can't recover from a stigma once you have it, because the choices are too varied. Sometimes that's a shame, and other times it's well-deserved.
It looks like you haven't played Aion for a long time..if ever.
The rifting, which was nerfed after loosing a ton of players, was being abused. High levs in low lev areas ganking.....prople couldn't quest or grind ( grind is minimal now) so they left.
After the nerf I was amazed at how many people were in areas like Eltnen and Heiron. These numbers went up a bunch with the NC offer to players who had left to return free for 18 ( I think) days. The numbers were way up...untill the last 2 days of the offer when NC removed the nerf in Heiron and made the Eltnen nerf so weak that the high levs had no problems ripping through lowbies. Areas went from crowded to semi-lonely again.
It seems NC doesn't get it. My sub is up in a few months and I don't plan to stay. To bad, I like aspects of the game but there are times when its impossible to get anything done. Its going to be very hard for a new player to do much of anything.
The Abyss was originaly fun for pvp but its much easier these days to just pop on another game or find something else to do.
Regardless of how they changed Aion, that bitter feeling of how utterly depressing my 2 months of playing at release still lingers. They burnt that bridge and there is no way I can will go back.
With that said, I can understand why some people would still be playing or go back to playing. Overall, a nice and truthful article from my perspective.
This...
NC Soft blew it up front. Because of Aion, I will never play another NC Soft title. They rolled in our money and tossed it up in the air as we all begged for them to add more quests, do something about the bots, stop the gold selling , and add more drops. It wasn't until people started to unsub and they had to merge servers that they took the hint. We weren't going to take it. By that time I was long gone. They game may be fun now, but i'll never know or care to know.
Pretty good article, I agree with just about all of it. To those who question, Aion HAS become a really good game, as long as the PvP isn't what you were looking forward to. It really doesn't happen very much anymore, which is actually good news to a lot of people on this side of the world. It was steadily improving before I left, and in fact the only reason I quit was because of the terrible item grind which was addressed with a huge increase in the drop rate. It was mentioned that within 20 trips through one of the endgame dungeons they left with tons of legendary and epic items between them all. People who played Aion know how huge that is, where prior you could grind your entire career and never see an orange item drop let alone be the one to get it.
The problem is most, like me, were burnt pretty bad on Aion. So, even if it has gotten better, the interest in it is still just as lost. With MMOs, there's just so many that these days you only really get ONE chance to make a good impression on your audience. Once you mess that up, it's over. No matter how much you improve, how much you put into your advertising, you'll always have that stigma. People still swear WoW is for kids based on quests as they used to be instead of the challenge the end-game holds now (so I'm told, I don't play), people swear Aion's still a Korean grinder (which I can say first hand, it is not), people swear Champions is a snooze fest with zero content even though it's improved so much it's not even the game it started as anymore. Do I neven need to bring up Age of Conan? Let alone Final Fantasy 14.
You just can't recover from a stigma once you have it, because the choices are too varied. Sometimes that's a shame, and other times it's well-deserved.
It looks like you haven't played Aion for a long time..if ever.
The rifting, which was nerfed after loosing a ton of players, was being abused. High levs in low lev areas ganking.....prople couldn't quest or grind ( grind is minimal now) so they left.
After the nerf I was amazed at how many people were in areas like Eltnen and Heiron. These numbers went up a bunch with the NC offer to players who had left to return free for 18 ( I think) days. The numbers were way up...untill the last 2 days of the offer when NC removed the nerf in Heiron and made the Eltnen nerf so weak that the high levs had no problems ripping through lowbies. Areas went from crowded to semi-lonely again.
It seems NC doesn't get it. My sub is up in a few months and I don't plan to stay. To bad, I like aspects of the game but there are times when its impossible to get anything done. Its going to be very hard for a new player to do much of anything.
The Abyss was originaly fun for pvp but its much easier these days to just pop on another game or find something else to do.
Yep, I went back to try Aion again. Nothing much has changed and the gankers are back in full force. NCSoft just is clueless as ever. The only thing I can do is laugh at proponents for this game.
Comments
Warhammer Online got good quick! My best of 2010 was returning to WAR. I guess you know what I'm going to be playing in 2011. I'm hooked bad and loving it.
Several points I strongly agree with. Nothing in Cata interests me to waste more money on WoW. Freemium LotRO is awesome. And Allods broke my heart.
Seriously, a friend walked me through the Wargren starting area, and nothing was exciting at all. The whole area felt incredibly passive. They can come up with cool ideas all they like, but it's still shackled into the weak framework that is WoW. Especially when most of the people rolling these new races are not new players. It was fine for Tirisfal Glades to be soft and accessible five years ago, but the storytelling and methodology of this game is seriously worn out.
I played LotRO in beta, and was suitably unimpressed. Sadly, I never touched it again until it went Freemium. I rolled a toon on a server where some friends played, and gleefully played, free of charge, until level 22. With that extended free trial period, I was able to explore areas like the Shire and Bree-Land, areas heavily covered in the books. The level of detail and care that has gone into depicting Middle Earth is especially appealing to a LotR fan such as myself. And getting the chance to play the game without an upfront cost and 15 dollar subscription fees... Let's face it, LotRO is not as polished as WoW, and probably shouldn't cost as much. For now, the price is exactly right.
And for prices that are not right at all... Allods. I really enjoyed the world design and artwork. Plus the promise of sailing ships through the astral, fighting huge demon monsters and marauders other players like pirates... That sounded awesome. Then they wanted us to pay through the nose for this. And the leveling grind was really dull... If Allods was designed more around storytelling, varied content, and less WoW cloned quest grind (or EQ cloned quest grind), and didn't have mechanics that require you to buy play time from the cash shop, it could have been the first truly great F2P game. Instead... It took me to the prom, and then danced with the captain of the football team all night and sent me home alone. </3
Important facts:
1. Free to Play games are poorly made.
2. Casuals are not all idiots, but idiots call themselves casuals.
3. Great solo and group content are not mutually exclusive, but they suffer when one is shoved into the mold of the other. The same is true of PvP and PvE.
4. Community is more important than you think.
Regardless of how they changed Aion, that bitter feeling of how utterly depressing my 2 months of playing at release still lingers. They burnt that bridge and there is no way I can will go back.
With that said, I can understand why some people would still be playing or go back to playing. Overall, a nice and truthful article from my perspective.
Best ever of all times: Wow, main game and every single expansion. Period. And tried virtually all out there. No other games is so complete in every aspect.
Second best maybe AoC. Not playing now but will return for sure.
At first, CO could beat wow for fun factor, but more and more I played more blant and void game become. No way one could be i.e. fully fire or electro build. No enough different powers, they run out half levels. Then you can only have fire, frost, mage, ... all with orbital canon. Bah. Besides other problems. And besides had worst of the worst support in history of gaming imo.
I liked also EQII.
As for worst disappointment overall .. not only 2010 ... for sure FFIV. It took 1st place from other biggest disappointment: Aion. Grind trash with 2nd worst support on earth. And completely void of everything after as I remember lv. 20 or so.
lol at warhammer getting best of 2010 tell everyone the truth now about the servers being completely dead but the few remaining loyalists whom mythic/ea is about to run off with all the complaints about them destroying rvr and making that game for the renoun rank 80s to grind 20 more renoun ranks....
Worst: Nothing new comes out of the MMO stable.
Best: The MMO player base starts to realise this is a trend and wakes up. Well you can dream can't you?
Aion? One of the best ? seriously?
Which FF Character Are You?
Worst: Waiting... Yes, been waiting for the games to be released... like SWTOR... how ridiculous I feel when I'm watching previews and release notes from the devs... stop that! release the game allready, or just don't talk about it.... people wait to christmas to arrive and .... it does arrive someday, less than one year.
Best: MMOPRG genre is not dead afterall, at least not as many thought it would be 2 years ago... or even last year...
--------------Gamer for life.--------------
What's with all the hatred for the new 'freemium' model? LotRO wasn't a failing MMORPG by any account when it went 'freemium' a few months ago and it's been a (mostly) good change.
There are way more players in low-mid level zones. The community is no worse than it was before from what I've seen thus far. Turbine is earning even more money so you know the game's going to stick around for a few years. And the store is hardly necessary if you're a VIP subscriber, so nothing much has changed for subscribers. The only downside I've seen thus far are the advertisements for the store in-game, which get a tad excessive. That and the fact that LotRO-EU is still lagging behind LotRO-US (no MyLotro ffs).
As for the other points in the article. I can't see Aion being particularly good even with most of its grind removed, but Age of Conan definitely seems much better now. APB certainly deserves a mention in the 'worst of' category, but I'd say FFXIV deserves that mention even more-so. At least APB had the illusion of being a semi-decent game going for it... FFXIV doesn't even have that. Global Agenda is a decent online third-person shooter, but I'm sure most people here would rather not call it a MMOG.
What's funny about WoW and Cataclysm, and what doesn't make me 'sick' per se, but certainly curious... is how developer after developer has tried to capture WoW's lightning... and failed. It's like watching a mass of lemmings with different company logos tattood on them running off a cliff hoping to land in a sea of 1 million+ subscribers, only to land face-first on the jagged rocks below.
I've seen developers try to copy the gameplay, the graphics style (especially the graphics style), the quest indicators.. and so on... None of them seem to "get it", in my opinion, as to what makes WoW work.
Developers seem to be focusing on lifting specific elements from WoW and hanging their hopes on that. Maybe they think if they make it look like WoW, they can fool enough people into thinking it's just like WoW. And it might work... on a few... at first. You install the game, start it up and in many cases (in my experience) something's "off" even at the character creation. You get into game, and it just doesn't feel smooth, or solid, or polished. The gameplay feels "off".
It's like the real steak/synthetic steak experiment Jeff Goldblum does in "The Fly". Something "tastes wrong' about the imitation. As Goldlum sums it up about the fake steak in that movie, "it's missing the flesh". Similarly, the WoW clones are missing that "something crucial".
What WoW has, that its various wanna-be releases sorely lack, is not any one single element, and it's not even something "tangible" or immediately identifiable. I guess you could sum it up as polish. Look at any aspect of the game.
It's what you could call the "Shigeru Miyamoto Effect". While numerous developers put out games that receive "meh" responses, it seems everything Miyamoto touches turns to gold. Why is that? Well, play even the oldest games of his, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, etc... They all have that same quality to them that, in my opinion, Blizzard's games have as well. I'm not just talking WoW now. I'm talking Diablo, Diablo II, Starcraft, Starcraft II.. the previous Warcraft games. Even Lost Vikings has that "something" about it that says "polish".
Despite the hate flung their way, like their games or not, Blizzard already had an excellent reputation as a game developer before WoW even hit the market. They didn't get there "on accident".
I don't know what Miyamoto's approach is to game design/development, but I remember reading that Blizzard's approach is to "polish as they go". They don't get the game done, then do a "polishing pass". They get everything as solid as they can as the game is developed. Maybe that has something to do with it. But I don't think it's even only that.
Maybe if more developers paid more attention to how Blizzard and Miyamoto and other "top tier" developers do what they do... and not merely "what" they do... we might see some more polished and worthwhile games hitting the scene.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I agree , wow is too old and stell. Maybe GW2 will change the layout of MMOs, what I've seen of it....I am going to ban WoW and salute the returning King of MMOs, ArenaNet. The chance to play a Char like Goblins look so vain.
As for that comment WSIMike, Arenanet dosen't have to follow the WoW footsteps, they got a groove all thier own and a non-stat (no int, str, or other trash) based system all in a buy - to - play system. I'm looking forward to the story continuing 250 years after Eye of the North, WoW so stall in the storyline that it makes me thankful they aren't planning a "World of Starcraft". Besides, I got sick of WoW's one side bias development, Horde horde horde.... I think I'll go join Mr Murphy at the Vomit Bar.
Arenanet kick Blizzards ass please like you did EQ.
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Star Wars Galaxies relaunch by December 2012
For us sci-fi fans, 2010 will be remembered for the disappointment of STO and the shameful news of how Battlestar Gallactica will appear as a browser-based MMO.
The WoW debacle is strange, its a good fun game but it seems something should be able to compete with it.
Agreed. STO really deserves some time in the spotlight here. It was just an awful mess. I too am looking forward to SWTOR and GW2.
Can't really call WoW a debacle, but rather it's a phenomenon. Semantics though.
Blizzard has one thing really going for them though and that's loyalty among their fanbase. I don't think any other developer in the world can claim such customer loyalty as the Blizzard fanbase.
Of those in my guild who play WoW I would wager that about 95% of them have played every other blizzard PC game. We often talk about WarCraft, StarCraft and Diablo in guild chat. We are even planning on running guild groups for D3 when it comes out.
Other developers fail to meet the "WoW" standard because they are trying to tap into a very loyal customer base. Only a few in my guild even bother to watch other mmorpgs, they are just content to play WoW and single player games like Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Bioshock, etc. My guild is only an extremely small sample, but I am willing to wager other guilds are similar.
For another developer to come in and sweep up players, they are going to have to be extremely different than WoW. The game is also going to have to have a ton of polish and not a bunch of empty promises. Most of all, another developer is going to have to tap into a previously untapped fanbase.
GW2 and Rift look good. Rift is a bit similar to WoW and looks a lot like WAR, which may hurt it.
GW2 is looking like it's going to be a very different experience, and ArenaNet has a solid reputation via GuildWars. But is the game going to be interesting enough to snatch up a lot of players or make a new fanbase?
SWTOR has the potential for a new market, especially if they can get star wars fans to play, but they might not snatch up as many mmo vets as they believe.
WORST: The APB Crash and Burn
Agreed - played and hated in the end, but at the same time loved the customization options and cars. Community was one of the worst. Drunk teenagers, trash talking morons, cussing idiots and in general just a lot of low life character showing kids and drunk adults. Game was fun in the beginning, but I already knew that APB will die because of idiotic policies of the company supporting it, and forum admins who admittedly allowed cussing on forums because game was rated M. It was the most idiotic policy I've ever seen. I knew since that very moment that game will be flooded by morons and eventually will die because of hacking. Which to my amusement really did happen.
Even though game goes F2P - hacking will return and even more morons will come to join the fun especially when game will go F2P. PvP free to play games of this nature attract the worst gamers out there. Trash and low life... Or those who wants to be trash and low life.
BEST: The Freemium Model
Even though many may disagree I think this is a future of gaming. Video Games are a part of Entertainment business that started with arcades and Las Vegas casinos. Video Games today is a good source to invest money into for people with fat wallets. Its along time investment and it means increased income only in a few successful cases so game developers from now on will be keeping in mind this "freemium" model when they release new MMO. Its a clear fact that Asian F2P games are flooding the market and every one of them has item mall and they make a lot of money on people who prefer to pay $$$ for an advantage of being more powerful than the rest of the crowd.
BEST: Vindictus and Global Agenda
Vindictus seemed new and innovative for the first 5 hours for me. Then I've noticed that there is nothing in that game other than repetitve instance grind and the whole focus of the game is on gear. Game is well designed but very poorly constructed as far as game mechanics go. It is after all just another Asian F2P with repetitive boring gameplay, even though I have to agree that battle mechanics are one of the best. But no matter what they are even if its the most cool battle mechanics in the whole world - you'll end up hating it if you have to hammer on the same content over and over again for days and weeks.
Global Agenda - disagree - its a very boring game as well. No matter events and group instances. Tried it - got bored. Didn't even last 2 full weeks with my super pooper bonuses to exp. Unfortunately game doesn't provide enough material to capture the interest. At least it didn't for me. Quests are very spaced out, very few quest hubs available and gameplay even though its 3rd person shooter MMO - still feels slow and dragging.
WORST: WoW Still Manhandling the Competition
No matter how successfull this game is or how many subs they claim it has - WoW was always on the last page of my book of "Interesting Games". Sorry, just not my type.
BEST: Aion and Age of Conan Get Good
I have characters in both. If i ever try either of two again it will be AoC. Got bored in both games. Aion while pretty and has nice music - got me bored eventually. Asian games have this odd specific game-play feeling to them. No matter how pretty they are they always make you feel that there is an awful grind is awaiting you somewhere out there. And of course Aion didn't surprise - grind there was as usually. AoC got to lvl 51 after game release and got bored of doing endless quests. While game was one of the best graphics it provided little variety but similar type of quests. A lot of people quit the game around lvl 50 due to 'quest grind'.
WORST: Nothing Really Happened
Did happen to me. Of course this article is about MMOs but thanks to single-player titles they kept me on float the whole year. I've kept playing LOTRO at the same time and titles like ME2, DAO and DAO:A spiced my year with a good gaming experiences. LOTRO still remains the best MMORPG in my "book of interests" even though I don't play it as often as first 1-2 years. I still always come back and have FUN like in no other MMO out there. Thanks to Turbine for regular new content release (festivals especially).
BEST: Looking forward to 2011
Aye, Aye sir! My boat of cool gaming is pointed towards the New Year as well. The biggest thing that i am waiting for with anticipation is definitely Star Wars The Old Republic. But titles like Guild Wars 2, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, Deus X: Human Revolution and some others will be like a great icing on my cake of cool gaming next year.
LOL... Haven't there been enough "WoW killers" and the inevitable results, for people to realize that at this point the only threat to WoW is Blizzard itself? GW's was a fun game, but it only managed a fraction of the players that WoW has. GW2 does look like a great deal of fun, but lets be realistic. Neither it, nor TOR nor Rift are going to be "WoW killers". I'm personally looking forward to all of them. I've no doubt if they are done right, that they will be successful, enjoyable games. But "WoW killer"? Not going to happen.
Totally agree. Nothing aww-inspiring about this year.
-I am here to perform logic
It looks like you haven't played Aion for a long time..if ever.
The rifting, which was nerfed after loosing a ton of players, was being abused. High levs in low lev areas ganking.....prople couldn't quest or grind ( grind is minimal now) so they left.
After the nerf I was amazed at how many people were in areas like Eltnen and Heiron. These numbers went up a bunch with the NC offer to players who had left to return free for 18 ( I think) days. The numbers were way up...untill the last 2 days of the offer when NC removed the nerf in Heiron and made the Eltnen nerf so weak that the high levs had no problems ripping through lowbies. Areas went from crowded to semi-lonely again.
It seems NC doesn't get it. My sub is up in a few months and I don't plan to stay. To bad, I like aspects of the game but there are times when its impossible to get anything done. Its going to be very hard for a new player to do much of anything.
The Abyss was originaly fun for pvp but its much easier these days to just pop on another game or find something else to do.
This...
NC Soft blew it up front. Because of Aion, I will never play another NC Soft title. They rolled in our money and tossed it up in the air as we all begged for them to add more quests, do something about the bots, stop the gold selling , and add more drops. It wasn't until people started to unsub and they had to merge servers that they took the hint. We weren't going to take it. By that time I was long gone. They game may be fun now, but i'll never know or care to know.
"WORST: WoW Still Manhandling the Competition"
+1
Yep, I went back to try Aion again. Nothing much has changed and the gankers are back in full force. NCSoft just is clueless as ever. The only thing I can do is laugh at proponents for this game.