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Game of The Week - ArcheAge. Fatal mistakes!
Greetings everyone, I made this post to inform the community about the completely misleading information of the (twice) Game of the week(Newsletter #318 and #317) , which happened to be ArcheAge.
As you may know, Newsletters are e-mails sent to the MMORPG.com members every week. And they also feature a "Game of the Week" column. The past two newsletters, Issue 317 January 2 and Issue 318 January 9 featured ArcheAge as game of the week. And the moderators provided entirely false information about it.
Here is what they wrote:
'This week's Game of the Week goes to XLGAMES' upcoming sandbox MMO, ArcheAge. ArcheAge is an free-to-play medieval fantasy MMO that has clearly captured the interests of the MMORPG.com community.
The game features CryEngine 3 powered graphics and its developers over at XLGAMES are promising to recreate the glory days of Ultima Online by providing the ultimate sandbox experience. To that end, ArcheAge looks to improve on many of the features gamers expect from a sandbox game while also boasting significant additions such as naval warfare.
ArcheAge is set for release sometime in 2012 in South Korea, though the game's fate as far as a North American release is still up in the air."
First of all, free-to-play MMO, is completely wrong. Quoting what Jake Song* said at his interview of ArcheAge.ru:
'Q:Is it going to be P2P or F2P? If you are not ready to answer this question now please let us know what payment way you personally think is preferable.
A:We have not made any decision regarding the business model, but we are open to each market's needs.'
And since then they haven't said anything official. Hence that most of the AA community expects it to be P2P, but thats just rumors.
'The game features CryEngine 3 powered graphics'.
Again wrong, merely wrong actually. Quoting wikipedia:
'On 2009, the company XLGames officially announced their new MMORPG ArcheAge, which uses CryEngine 2. XLGames licensed CryEngine 2. A source has indicated that CryEngine 3 will be used to develop some elements of ArcheAge and for now ArcheAge’s CryEngine 3 code is limited to graphics, animation, and physics. Networking and other miscellaneous subroutines remain unchanged' .
He said about that in one of his interviews, but I can't really find it out now. They use LIMITED CryEngine 3.
And here comes the biggest mistake: 'its developers over at XLGAMES are promising to recreate the glory days of Ultima Online by providing the ultimate sandbox experience.'
That's completely wrong. What they promised is a community like that of Ultima Online, PvE comparable to typical sandboxes and PvP taken from Lineage 2. Just the COMMUNITY of Ultima online. And for god sake, 'ultimate sandbox experience'?- that drove me crazy-. Jake Song marked ArcheAge's 'sandboxness' with 50 out of 100. That means it's like 50% sandbox (and 50% THEMEPARK). And DEFINITELY not the ULTIMATE SANDBOX experience.
'ArcheAge is set for release sometime in 2012 in South Korea'
Rumors...rumors... Again rumors. There haven't been any official word about it. As for now they are on CBT4, they may release it on 2012 but they may not.
Lastly and most frustrating, I also sent the administrators an e-mail, at the site cotent/news section, 1 week ago (at 3/1) expressing what I wrote here, just because I didn't want to issue this mistake on public. The auto-asnwerer told me that they will contact me within 24 hours. Yet not only didn't they contact me but also they re-listed all the utterly misleading information about ArcheAge. I admire and respect what you are doing, but for god sake - it's your job. And I tried to warn you in order to change it, but you just wrote it again.
*Jake Song is the CEO of XLGames and the lead designer of ArcheAge.
Ryzom, Haven and Hearth, Xsyon, The Repopulation, UO private shards, Mortal Online, Darkfall 1 remakes (New Dawn or Rise of Agon), RPG MO, Project Gorgon, EQ: Sanctuary (custom server)
Comments
I'm sorry but what? Looks like that complaint is wrong to me.
Then again, for those people who have been starving and thirsting for a sandbox experience, even the addition of those handful of mechanics will probably already feel like a whole wealth and oasis full of sandbox features.
You should know by now nobody pays attention to details anymore its all about catchy bullet points and this weeks buzz words...
why does something have to be 100% sandbox or 100% theme park?
I'm interested to see how a combination would work actually.
You should have bullet pointed those two points!
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https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I hardly think any of these are fatal mistakes.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Mountains out of mole hills, I think.
Yea, I wouldn't say it's COMPLETELY misleading.
The only other comments I have is on the payment method and mix of Sandbox & Themepark
While I'd prefer a P2P approach (to ensure fairness due to the competitive nature of MMORPGs), I'd be okay with a F2P pricing model IF it doesn't turn into a Pay 2 Win Cash Shop. (IE, offering consumables & gear not obtainable in game that would give an unfair advantage to the player that has the most discrtionary cash)
Secondly, in order for a game to have a AAA level polish (and get picked up by a good Publisher), it has to appeal to more people than what is available in the niche audience of Sandbox purists. I'm a Sandbox guy, but I fully recognize that a publisher / developer isn't going to spend 10s-100s of million dollars on a MMO project if it's only going to reach a few hundred thousand players.
So there has to be the right mix of sandbox / linear play that appeals to the right mix of players to make the project economic. My understanding is the game starts out in a linear fashion, that guides players with quests & certian protections until they reach a certian level, and then the game opens into a sandbox type of environment where seasoned players can create their own content with a FFA PvP system similar to L2. (except there will be boats, pirates, and player housing)
Thats pretty fair if you ask me.
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Yeah for a big site with propably best internet adress for mmorpg's site that are really preety serious flaws.
AA does NOT have any business model decided yet(p2p preety please ! sandbox games need fairness ) AND it only have community aspects from UO not gameplay / mechanics wise.
So spreading false information is wrong and misleading.
Correct this info if you send infos about ArcheAge again mmorpg.com pls. You're supposed to feed CORRECT info to your consumers, after all people sign in for newsletter to get correct info, at least I do.
edit:
Actually correction E-Mail would not be bad idea.
MMORPG.com has a Newsletter?
I probably wouldn't play if it was F2P with cash shop.
Yeah I know, there are games with 'fair" F2P shops where only cosmetics or pets are sold. But I now too have to admit that more and more F2P games are selling power, and that's a no no for me.
Also, the thing is that an F2P shop can be fair at launch, and then evolve into a shop with power, so even at the start of those F2P games, you have no idea on how the shop will evolve over time.
go to the top left to the "profile" link, it will take you to a page.
Then go to the "alerts" link at the top.
You can choose to receive the newsletter. I'll be honest, I question how often it comes out as sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Hmm. Well I'm no CryEngine or game engine expert, but I am a programmer and network performance is hugely important for pretty much anything that is client-server.
My unedumacated guess is that a newer engine might better optimize the network-related tasks which would in turn improve client connectivity to the server and hopefully reduce things like "lag"... /shrug?
Enter a whole new realm of challenge and adventure.
I see you arrived with the wave of 2010 wow fanbois
-Core 3 "Its the Pwn!"
My perfect mmo would be what archage is going to be.I can max any skills i want yet i can find a quest and some hand holding when i dont wanna spend time grinding skills. Ultima online was good but it could be a bit overwhelming at times because u had to spend hours trying find a quest.
What i find more annoying than incorrect infos in the newsletter or their article is the fact that right off the bat we dont even know if the game will be released in the western world.
As it stands it does not. Why not cover games that are actually being released in the core market of the userbase of this website?
I mean, there are a lot more MMO's out there!
What if this game is never released for some unknown reason in North America/ Europe?
Or else you may as well start covering the countless other MMO out there from China and Korea...
This makes no sense. A game may run on one engine OR another. It cannot run on one engine AND another.
Why cant Archeage be the ultimate sandbox experience ? I consider Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines to be a pretty amazing RPG, and yet its also an action game. So nope, a game doesnt need to be pure something to be great at it.
I wonder what engine they use for their network code then, CryEngine 2?
My motivation to know is that the network code seems to determine how likely it is a game will have hacks. games based on the source engine are incredibly prone to hacks for example, I don't know how prone the CryEngine is to hacks but I do know some of their code is open source now, which really doesn't sound too promising.
edit: to be fair I should have said "their SDK is free to use now" it likely doesn't include the uncompiled source code, but still, it's a bit worrying
There is no reason for that but that is a hybrid and shouldn't really be called a sandbox.
Yeah, OP is right. The newsletter should have been more clear, saying that the game features Cryengine 3 isn't really wrong but the way it is written makes people think it exclusively use it.
But with the release date I am not sure, maybe MMORPG.COM have some kind of inside information.
Some people really beg to be imagined as the fat light-saber kid, sobbing over a mmorpg.com newsletter lol.
how nerdish can you be ...
+1
It is not even because of my like or dislike to certain model. It is just that cash shop and game based on microtransaction directly hurt sandbox features. I saw that in some f2p sandbox games. Of course this is just my personal opinion.
If I was very interested in pure themepark game I might try to play with f2p / freemium , but since AA has alot of sandbox elements and great crafting I won't play it as f2p even with "fair" cash shop.
Just hope it will be P2P in EU or /and NA. If yes I will deffo play it , damn It might be first game in my life I will pre-order.
True. It is one of my biggest concerns. I mean hacks & exploits and botting.
I hope XLGames have enough experience and very importantly man power & money to quickly patch , fix and if needed modify their network and other code to eventual loopholes used by hacks / exploiters.
Also in-build good GM policing tools usually help alot with that problems.
Certain games just handle it better. I think many things can be done to minimize hacks & similar things.
Good than CE is not open source. (well I like open source software but not in this case obviously)
We corrected the free-to-play error in last week's newsletter and I'll be sure to take your additional feedback into account when drafting the next newsletter featuring ArcheAge as our GOTW. Thanks!
Personally, I would be much more worried about other pieces of software or operating systems being "hack bait" than a game engine. Think of how often Windows has to do critical security updates or how often Facebook leaks your personal information. It's just not worth worrying about since we're pretty much rolling the dice that a developer knows what they are doing every time we log into something.
Enter a whole new realm of challenge and adventure.