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What's the problem with this game?
Zoobi
Member UncommonPosts: 115
Having glanced through a few threads on the forum, I've noticed there are a few people passionately running this game down for all they are worth. Now I understand that games will always attract people who take satisfaction in venting their frustration in public forums, but the dedication shown by some in this forum usually have a reason behind them.
I'd like to know what these reasons are. What I am interested in are the impressions of people of any problems in this game that are stopping it fulfilling it's potential. What are the game's problems?
What I'm not interested in is hearing in opinions regarding community management issues, arguments about populations, subscriber numbers or anything like that. Just client/world/mechanic/mob/sound/graphics/hosting/content or any other gaming issue that people have noticed.
Thank you for your co-operation :-)
Comments
Why do you need to hear it from the forums . It has a free trial . Just download it and see for yourself . You will see that some and maybe most complaints is justified .
Thanks for the derail with the first reply.
I watched this video...
And quickly purchased the game. I installed it and went and fought a mob that proceeded to floated to me and into me or whatever. I then uninstalled the game realizing I got screwed.
Just from seeing your reply I feel like I got screwed, who in their right mind would purchase a game over one video from almost 3 years ago , and especially now with a free trial available.
Sure the game is bad but its mostly due to the people who run it. Maybe one day when Henrik realizes he lost the vision and gives it up to someone who knows how to bring professionalism into a game it will be saved. Until then , we just have to wait and see what unfolds.
[Mod Edit]
I bought the game in Block D on 11/6/09. I saved the purchase email to remind myself to never forget this mistake.
Edit: Not that I need to prove anything here but back in 09 there was no trial in case you were unaware of what you were talking about.
"Mortal Online, payment accepted
Thank you for your purchase of Mortal Online, shawn. Your payment was successful. Login here to modify your game account.
Your account is in block 'D' and will be allowed to login and play Mon 31 Aug."
To be completely honest, what was promised and what we received were two very different things. It's also not easy to tell old UO players that you're trying to recreate that experience in a 3D world, because that's a daunting task for any development studio. This is a very PvP centric game, with minimal PvE or AI intelligence, that really has less in common with true sandboxes than any other I've played. There simply isn't enough in the world to do.
Personally, though, I didn't like the fact that PvE seemed to be a game of trading blows, or that mobs generally didn't drop anything but meat and carcasses after having skinned/barbered them. There aren't many mobs in the world to begin with, and those that are supposed to be special really just feel like a reskin of the deer you just fought. I realize that the community these types of games are centered toward are generally PvP guilds, but even the territory control has little purpose at this point in time. At the end of my day playing, I just didn't seem to find anything interesting to do at all. I was also over hyped, being an individual who closely followed this game before release, and later discovered that many of the features I had read about were cut from the design, or entirely forgotten about. I also don't think this game looks that great, graphically speaking. Some of the environments are extremely inconsistent, and I mean as far as their texture or quality was concerned, and the character modeling always appeared dated to me, at best.
Are these reasons enough to tell someone to stay away? I think that could be argued, but I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone to buy this until after downloading and installing the trial, because I simply couldn't forgive myself when they came back and asked me what the hell they paid for. Truth is, I wouldn't be able to tell them. I've been playing MMO's since UO beta, that's around about seventeen years now, and I've never played something in such an unfinished state. Earthrise is certainly close, it reminded me to some degree of the state in which I played MO, but there's a reason it received so much negative publicity (I wanted to like this game).
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
If i loved playing a literal 'first-person shooter' mmo, I'd be playing still, probably. But, first-person all the time, for the most-part, seperated myself from being able to connect with my character and the world; it became too claustrophobic for me, the game-play.
I'd be one to jump-in pretty quickly, as I did with Darkfall for 8-months, and enjoy it if the game-play was third-person enabled.
There are several reasons why people hate on mortal online.
They were dissapointed in the game at launch or even with betas launch.
They were ganked in pvp and take it out on the game as a whole. They litterally don't hate the player. They hate the game.
They're themepark mmo fans and hate all full loot open pvp games.
They're Darkfall fans and consider Mortal Online as the enemy.
They're jealous of Henrik the main developer for accomplishing a life long dream.
I believe 99% of the haters fall into one or more of these categories.
It's ok if you hate mortal online. That's fine. Make 1 or 2 topics about Mortal Online and why you hate it and then move on to another game.
The problem you see in these forums is that some people have decided to make 1 or 2 THOUSAND anti mortal online posts ranging from twisting the truth around to make it sound far worst then it is to out and out lies. This dedication goes beyond that of a normal poster and enters the realm of hating mortal online so much that it has become a mental problem.
Were is the line drawn between trolling and real critisism? Everyone's answer will differ, but I think we can all agree making a few thousand anti mortal online posts crosses the line.
Never trust a screenshot or a youtube video without a version stamp!
I've read hundreds of posts about MO that were made by reasonable people with legitimate complaints dealing with a wide range of issues. There's a difference between that and the generally undeserved hyperbolic hating you see with titles like Rift and SWTOR. I also haven't seen much of an improvement in what people are saying about it unlike for example Darkfall (which I tried and liked except for the UI and control setup). MO was a game that definitely interested me when I was readiing about its development, much like Earthrise and Xsyon. But I don't think it would be wise to spend any money on any of them at the moment.
I certainly agree with most of the post in quote. I personally don't hate Mortal Online, but I dislike Star Vault. I paid $75.00 USD back in June of 2009. I received a beta cd that did not work, I received a book with more than half of it being blank pages, a tin can and I think a plastic figure. (There is a video on you tube describing the package.)
Starvault also started my subscription the day the server went live, so I also lost the 30 days that I paid for.
Starvault set my account to auto subscribe when I did not suscribe to anything. I just purchased the game. They should not have use that info to start a subscription to the game.
When I purchased Mortal Online , I was promised free updates on media for the life time of the game. (This has been removed from the web site since that time) As of today I haven't received the release DVD much less any updates.
I have yet to receive anything of use for my $75.00 USD
The defenders of this game, have gone to lengths to defend Star Vault, and to suggest that I am wrong to want what I paid for. One invidual even had the nerve to suggest how I use my bandwidth.
There are lots of horror stories from customers dealing with Star Vault.
As poster Lawlmonster said " To be completely honest, what was promised and what we received were two very different things. "
I am not a hater of Mortal Online, but I think that potential customers should be aware of the type of company that is selling this game. (Star Vault)
http://www.entropiapartners.com/?r=22415
Zoobi
I think you have oh-so hit the nail on the head with this post! Superb.
I've just subbed to MMORPG.com - because after having a read through these forums - there is some rediculous hating goin on here which is both biased and really quite unfair. As Zoobi says if you don't like the game, make a post or two and then go put your efforts into another game of community? What is it with the literally thousands of hating posts, I just don't get it. It's also not my experience of MO - yes is launched broken and a bit early - but those days are well behind us. Pre-Dawn MO was extremely stable - and we're starting to get back to that stability again.
MO is *not* a themepark where The Man is telling you what to do from start to finish - look at the new Star Wars game - ugh soo boring. Watching episode 55 of the walkthrough on YouTube made me go flacid in about 10 seconds.
And please - give Mortal another go if you have the time - trial accounts are there so you can have a pop, but don't come expecting a themepark - oh and bring your balls with you too!
[Mod Edit]
Time to right some wrongs...
With that $75 you will never have to buy the game client again. You can try the trial see if you like it or not for free and then if you choose pay for a monthly subscription. You will never have to shell out another $45 to buy the client.
Basically your left with $30 worth of Mortal Online history that you can probably sell on ebay anyways.
Never trust a screenshot or a youtube video without a version stamp!
That was actually the best answer of the thread really. MO has and has had so many issues that it's pretty much impossible to state here. Many of the issues you will read about on these forums don't apply anymore but if your interested in knowing what has people all worked up the issues are plainly spelled out for you to see. If your looking for some more current and relavent issues that you will face then a free trial is the way to go as it won't take you long to see why this game has so many "haters".
Having asked the question "Whats the problem with this game?" it's guaranteed you haven't played it yet. There are only 2 types of people that would ask this question, those that haven't played or those that suffer from some serious form of denial.
I used to think similarly, that people on these forums were being too hard on the game.
So I decided to try the free trial for myself to see if I could prove them wrong...
I gave four hours of my time and the benefit of a doubt this game. The first hour was spent getting it to install correctly without error and to even run without crashing right away. The next hour was spent trying to get through character creation, constantly being stopped by crashes or server timeout issues where I simply couldn't create my character because I apparently took too long customizing my character. The third hour was spent trying to get the game to work properly in the game world and having to deal with texture loading issues, lighting problems, and more crashes. I was finally able to tinker around with the settings enough to make the game half-way playable without crashing every five minutes (but it would still crash every so often). The next hour or so was spent trying to figure out the monstrosity that is the UI and controls of the game, dealing with lag, and being randomly attacked and killed by things that wouldn't even load onto my screen.
After all of that I just gave up and wrote the game off as yet another poorly made MMO that promises the sky, yet fails to even deliver solid ground to walk on.
Long story short, after playing the trial for MO, I no longer question the criticism of the people who rail on the game on these forums almost daily.
you missed out the most common one, they were previously banned from mortal online.
Quick history of MO.
the list of features promised for mo at launch were met except tindrem, which instead we got thievery. The launch itself however was terrible, if i had not palyed mo during early beta knowning just how good the game can be i would have never ever palyed it at release. Instead i took a 2 month break and came back once the majority of major problems had been fixed. For me mo is a game i am so glad i stuck with it. Many peoples cirtisims and opinions are based off of that dreadful release which in reality does not reflect the game in its current state.
the special edition and boxed editions of mo were requested by the fanbase, cosntantly when the devs said they would only do digital downlaod but the devs provided it at no actual profit to themselves for those who really had to have a special edition version, everything in the speical edition bag was listed on sale and palyers got exactly what was listed. Granted it wasnt really worth the 100.00 price tags hence hwy i didnt buy it. Seems like some failed to read the contents.
The dvd on the disc was suppsoed to be released once mo was at a stable state, however many players demanded their discs be sent out early and sv had to oblige sending out dvds that were esnetially out of date by the time they arived since hte game was being patched daily. The discs themselves were useless due to a new installer added (players could still dl the game from the website) 1 month later the discs were finally compatible and able to install the game from the disc.
during early release many players left due to being let down by the release of the game and many were banned due to hacking (previously in beta no anti hacking existed so many tried it during release). After players were banned some setup a hate campaign over on mmorpg with the intent of destroying mo for good. With a small community the haters had full reign on mmorpg posting whatever they liked even making stuff up. Those who attempted to defend mo were swiftly banned or discouraged through heavy moderation and post deleting and only now has there been people active on mmorpg who want to give a much more fair opinion of the game.
after release the game went through patch after patch, at first 1 or 2 every week then eventually 1 every 2 weeks, many of the patches added new bugs at the same time they removed old ones and some even brought back old bugs, however slwoly but surely the game got better and better with many new features add. From release to now we have.
butchery, cooking, alchemy, complete new mount system, around 400 new skills, graphic overhaul 2x, sleeping and campfires, aronud 20 new mobs, gatherables, task system, among many others.
there are 2 types of mmo, imitators and innovaters.
These discussion are a bit ridiculous. Did any of you stop to think that some of us are sandbox enthusiasts, people who enjoy open world FFA PvP games, but know when we're playing something that's under developed, or almost entirely unenjoyable to play? How can you justify entire arguments on assumptions, like only themepark players hate MO, or that we're Darkfall fans, or that we've been banned before? Personally, none of these things apply to me and I'm certain that's true for others as well. Some of us really wanted this game to succeed, and it receives negative attention for good reasons: it simply isn't a finished, well made game.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
I don't know what your problem with his reply is. His reply is pretty much in line with what most on here have already observed. I mean, come on. Read through the many threads on this forum. People have stated their many gripes with the game, it's developer and tthe community. But at the end of the day, they are just opinions. If you really want to know why people dislike the game, then go play the free trial. Form your own opinion.
However, I suspect (and sorry if I am wrong) you created this thread because you are an MO supporter and this is just another not so clever attempt at disparaging the people venting their gripes and to draw attention from the reasons people have stated MO is a bad game...
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true...
Thank you all for your contributions to this thread. I think Lawlmonster has made a good summary in the above quote of what I perceive to be the reason behind people's frustrations. They were sold a dream, and when the devs took the, now normal, route of cashing in on an unfinished game, this backlash ensued. I dont think we can pick out the devs of this game of any particular nefarious behaviour with their premature release, as it seems to be the route most MMOs take.
However, releasing bug ridden, poorly implemented ideas no matter how good a concepts underpinning them are cannot be acceptable. Caveat emptor really does seem to apply with dealing with this game.
cheers
P.S. kakasaki, I'll answer your posting by referring you to the quote you, uhm, quoted.
Thanks for the GREAT post. It's nice to see a long time community member give additional validation to the general perception of the game and company.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
[Mod Edit]
Most people have mo problem installing and playing the demo as evident with all the yellow flagged players running around.
I replied to the OPs' topic "What's the problem with this game" by sharing my experience as a customer of Star Vault. Star Vault is what's wrong from my perspective, because I did not get an opportunity to actually play the game that I bought and paid for.
I will not repeat my above post, because readers that read and comprehend actually understand what Star Vault sold, and what they actually delivered. An ananolgy that I have use before is if Star Vault was selling roasted peanuts, and I ordered a bag of roasted peanuts , only to receive a bag of peanut shells is this fair or even legal ?
Now another Star Vault defender attempts to defend the indefensible as to what I as a customer should do for not receiving what I bought and paid for. If the defender had said something to the effect (hopefully Mortal Online and Star Vault will become a huge success and allow them to make restitution for some of their past debacles) this would have lent credibility to many of his other posts, as I would see that this individual has an open mind. Instead he suggests that I sell my shells on ebay:)
In conclusion, I purchased what was advertised on Star Vaults website, I did not purchase history. No I will not make an ebay account to to sell Mortal onlines' history, but I do appreciate your sincere advice. I wrote to the OP that Star Vault was whats wrong with this game, I would now like to add, that parts of their community is also whats wrong with this game.
I let the readers decide.
http://www.entropiapartners.com/?r=22415
so what iddnt you get that was advertised?
there are 2 types of mmo, imitators and innovaters.
According to his post, he didn't get gametime. At all. He got a busted beta disc and some useless collectibles.
He was supposed to get a chance to play beta, plus the game disc once it released. Instead, he received no game disc and was "automatically" subscribed to the game because his information was already in the system.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -Edmund Burke
Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards. -Lois McMaster Bujold
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. -Abraham Lincoln
The only real flaw with MO is......Starvault.
The game design itself has promise and could be done well and achieve at least a modicum of success. It could even be a medieval competitor to EVE's sci-fi sandbox.
In the right hands.
Those hands do not, unfortunately for the MO players, belong to Starvault however.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
well when you buy the game back in beta days you had instant access by downloading the beta lcient regardless of which version you purchased. the disc didnt work for the first month of releae (works now) however you could still play the game via the dl client. All the useless tat in the special edition was claerly listed and even pictured next to the purchase button, i didnt buy it cause i didnt think it warranted the asking price seems like some people failed to read though.
its common practise for game companies to start the free month on the rleease month. all those who purchased the game with an active email acconut recieved a clear email stating charges would start after the first mnoth unless you unsubscribe.
there are 2 types of mmo, imitators and innovaters.