When I heard about a Warhammer fantasy IP I was so exciting and heard some good things from people in the beta, then launch happened...
It is also the only MMO I didn't stick out for at least a full week, despite having the usual free month.
Horrible PvE (both in writing and execution of events).
Horrible performance.
Mythic Time (their latency system that made button presses feel like they were unrelated to anything happening on screen).
Awful PvP system at start which not only warned when enemy players were about (a lag spike when someone was within a set distance as it loaded up player collision detection) but favored the victors and punished the losers excessively turning servers into one horse races (winners had the best gear, losers had...moxy?) which led to people switching factions and effectively dead RvR.
Laughable balance in PvP. Even amongst the mirror classes.
The butchering of Warhammer lore and the IP (how did GW let it get through? They are usually an enormous pain for companies to work with because they won't let people mess with their lore).
The EU handling of the services was also one of the worst I have ever seen...they put SOE to shame.
I think the biggest disaster for me is.. the World of Darkness Vampire MMO being developed by CCP.
I'm both hyped and terrified by this game. Hyped, because I've played and LARPed VtM for over twenty years now. It's a setting that's near and dear, and if there was ever an IP that practically screams for an emphasis of role-playing over roll-playing, it's WoD.
However, my hype is tempered by the knowledge that for everyone who logs in like me, there will be 50 asshats treating it as just another MMO to descend upon like a cloud of locusts and suck every bit of it dry before moving on. I love this IP, and I will hate this game.
Maybe they will allow us to have private servers or give us a robust Chronicle generation set of tools...that could make things better (I've been Storytelling for decades.)
A close second for disappointment would be MIsts of Pandaria. WoW has never been super serious, so while I find walking Pandas distasteful, that wasn't the dealbreaker for me. Metzen's obsession with orcs is getting old.
The last MMO that disappointed me was Shadowbane and I liked Shadowbane. I have been surprised at how truly bad or iincomplete games were like AoC or dark and Light. But I expected those games to be bad and still found something good there. Shadowbane I liked and I thought it was a good game. But the technical problems of lag and disconnects made it close to unplayable. I guess the same could be said for AO which was unplayable because of disconnects and was a much better game 6 months before release in beta,
I have to admit I was a little disappointed with The Secret World. It's not a bad game, but I was expecting something a bit better, especially in regards to combat when I first heard about it.
After that I just do not get excited or hyped about any MMO. When it releases I decide to buy / not buy. Getting all pumped up and anxiously awaiting release day is a thing of the past for me.
Same here, that was the game that made it not possible for me to get excited about an mmorpg before release ever again.
After that I just do not get excited or hyped about any MMO. When it releases I decide to buy / not buy. Getting all pumped up and anxiously awaiting release day is a thing of the past for me.
Same here, that was the game that made it not possible for me to get excited about an mmorpg before release ever again.
Same here.
I can still get excited about a game, but not nearly as much as I was about that one. Now I just look at myself from a detached place and say "Oh - the gamer-me is getting excited."
Then I left Tortage. Those of you who've played it, you know the rest.
So, what is your 'disaster' MMO?
It wasn't that the rest of the game was bad, just that Tortage was about as close to a SRPG quality in an MMO as the genre has ever seen and thus impossible to keep up with.
My disaster MMO, its a tie. SWTOR and TESO. Neither are living up to the IP standards and I love both IPs about equally. The depth isn't there, one at least managed to keep the expected great storyline. If they weren't using a known IP, it would have been Asherons Call 2, one of the other reasons it didn't make the top of the list is that I was expecting fail when I heard Microsoft had creative control and gave Ken Karl the lead.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
Worst Online Communities: WoW/WoD(the OG MMO Trolls), DayZ/WarZ, SMITE/LoL/DOTA, EVE Online, APB "Im ready for All the comparisons I think its dumb and its embarrassing Im switching off No longer listening Ive had enough of persecution and conditioning Maybe its instinct- Were only animal" - Lily Allen, Sheezus
Toss up between WAR and RIFT. Both are very much a WoW clone done badly. Rift was the final push for me in to never ever trust a linear Themepark game again. I long for the days of open world PvE sandbox goodness with in-depth quests like Asheron's Call.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Mortal Online. Felt completely duped as to the real status of the game when we got in beta. Not even playable. It had so many concepts I've wanted in an MMO. I've recently just downloaded it again to check it out since its now F2P up to 60 skill points. I will dabble but I still have a sour taste in my mouth.
The Secret World. Pre-launch, it was being advertised as a modern day survival horror inspired by HP Lovecraft. What we got was more dungeons, vampires and werewolves with spammy abilities and infinite magic bullets. They had a perfect opportunity to make crafting unique because of the setting. What we got was drag and drop metals into a box and out pops an ak47. Holy crap what a let down.
SWTOR....huge waste of my favorite IP. On top of that SWG shut down around the same time. Double whammy.
World of Darkness is second. The concept sounds awesome but CCP made dumb investments in games like Dust and now WOD sounds more like vaporware than reality.
I find it hard to get disappointed with mmo's considering the amount of information available before the launch. There are few exceptions however, and most notable to me is Age of Conan like OP mentioned too, somehow it simply just sounded a lot better than what the eventual game was, and Tortage kept that feeling alive so that players rushed into forums after an hour of gameplay to tell the world how awesome the game is.
Usually the disappointment comes during the development however, the devs drop the "we are making a wow clone" bomb and then it's just hard to get hyped in the first place. Other thing during the dev process is when you simply just learn that the game isnt going to be all that big or deep, and I often just feel like "oh well, it's probably fun for few days or weeks" - you dont get disappointed but you dont really get all that excited either.
The only MMOs that I've ever been incredibly hyped for were Guild Wars 1 and Uncharted Waters Online. And both were as good as I had hoped. Maybe better.
Age of Conan. No doubt. What a let down. I remember I got the CE with the map (that smelled for some reason) and for the first time I had the map laid out, then a short while later, realizing the entire game was zoned, the map was pointless, I folded it up and put it away. That was the first disappointment.
I am rather upset how mmorpgs got and getting hyped and people just blind follow this nonsens. And you see this crap before every mmorpg release in the recent years. Reading the HYPEMETER on mmorpg.com gives me always headache.
The last mmorpg which I had hopes for was actually SWTOR since I really like STAR WARS, but this was such a let down for me. An Instanced, steril world with a quest system remembering on a production line and HuttenballWars instead of StarWars.
World of Warcraft for example was also a huge success because the consumers did not have expectations and there were not expected gameplay content, hyped like sand would be suddenly gold. But when you did enter the game world you got big eyes.
When it comes to games, I was actually hyped with Skyrim and Fallout 3. But the reason for that is that Bethesda did release successfull titles before, so you did actually expect something in this case.
I really don't get hyped for MMO's. I prefer to get myself informed as much as possible so I know what to expect when I start playing, knowing full well if a game is simply for me or not. However, that being said I did break that rule and jumped into Pirates of the Burning Sea hoping I would get an EVE like experience but set in the age of sail and with walking avatars. Well I got the walking avatars but their sword fighting combat was just horrible and their overall pvp system and naval combat was just crap.
Todays Games Lack : A Dangerous Mysterious World the Player cant adapt as easily. Instances, kinda Ruin the feeling of thoose Game Worlds. I think it is possible to create a Ingame World that feels not as scripted and themeparkish like Worlds do today. I do strongly Believe Most Players do not realize, its mostly about Efficiency and being efficient or to become even more is Fun. To get stronger in such a World that feels alive and to be able to do Stuff not everyone can would be a Rush. But Todays Worlds just feel so Basic, its like you just use additions in Math. Character Builds become less complex as well. Players have fun being unique, but not just because of your Characters appearance. But if every 3th Player has the same Build, uses the same Items, has the same Skills, went thru the same Quest like you and uses the same Instanced Dungeon to grind the same Boss copy you just did, feelsnot as Epic as it could!!!!.
Was massively hyped for it, lobbied my friends, even went to a big city unveiling party that SOE hosted.
Visuals were terrible, starter isle was boring, loading screens every time you turn around. Teleporters even for intra-city travel. No racial homelands. It just didn't capture any of the EQ magic at all. (WOW on the other hand, did a brilliant job of pulling you into the world as a newbie).
Honorable mention: Vanguard
It was supposed to be the "real" EQ2, and you could craft your own boat and sail the World!
Except it barely ran at all on my PC, and was so buggy and crashy my friends ditched me after a couple of weeks.
Comments
WAR.
When I heard about a Warhammer fantasy IP I was so exciting and heard some good things from people in the beta, then launch happened...
It is also the only MMO I didn't stick out for at least a full week, despite having the usual free month.
Horrible PvE (both in writing and execution of events).
Horrible performance.
Mythic Time (their latency system that made button presses feel like they were unrelated to anything happening on screen).
Awful PvP system at start which not only warned when enemy players were about (a lag spike when someone was within a set distance as it loaded up player collision detection) but favored the victors and punished the losers excessively turning servers into one horse races (winners had the best gear, losers had...moxy?) which led to people switching factions and effectively dead RvR.
Laughable balance in PvP. Even amongst the mirror classes.
The butchering of Warhammer lore and the IP (how did GW let it get through? They are usually an enormous pain for companies to work with because they won't let people mess with their lore).
The EU handling of the services was also one of the worst I have ever seen...they put SOE to shame.
I think the biggest disaster for me is.. the World of Darkness Vampire MMO being developed by CCP.
I'm both hyped and terrified by this game. Hyped, because I've played and LARPed VtM for over twenty years now. It's a setting that's near and dear, and if there was ever an IP that practically screams for an emphasis of role-playing over roll-playing, it's WoD.
However, my hype is tempered by the knowledge that for everyone who logs in like me, there will be 50 asshats treating it as just another MMO to descend upon like a cloud of locusts and suck every bit of it dry before moving on. I love this IP, and I will hate this game.
Maybe they will allow us to have private servers or give us a robust Chronicle generation set of tools...that could make things better (I've been Storytelling for decades.)
A close second for disappointment would be MIsts of Pandaria. WoW has never been super serious, so while I find walking Pandas distasteful, that wasn't the dealbreaker for me. Metzen's obsession with orcs is getting old.
Same here, that was the game that made it not possible for me to get excited about an mmorpg before release ever again.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
Same here.
I can still get excited about a game, but not nearly as much as I was about that one. Now I just look at myself from a detached place and say "Oh - the gamer-me is getting excited."
Fine, we'll compromise. I'll get my way & you'll find a way to be okay with that.
It wasn't that the rest of the game was bad, just that Tortage was about as close to a SRPG quality in an MMO as the genre has ever seen and thus impossible to keep up with.
My disaster MMO, its a tie. SWTOR and TESO. Neither are living up to the IP standards and I love both IPs about equally. The depth isn't there, one at least managed to keep the expected great storyline. If they weren't using a known IP, it would have been Asherons Call 2, one of the other reasons it didn't make the top of the list is that I was expecting fail when I heard Microsoft had creative control and gave Ken Karl the lead.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster
http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
Heya! This is a great post!
I have a few, myself.
Tera- I thought this game would be the "bees knees". I bought it day one... uninstalled it within Week 1.
The Secret World- It's not a terrible game, by any means. It's just not what I thought it'd be.
Loves: SMITE, WildStar, Project Zomboid, PSO2, DCUO,
Worst Online Communities: WoW/WoD(the OG MMO Trolls), DayZ/WarZ, SMITE/LoL/DOTA, EVE Online, APB
"Im ready for
All the comparisons
I think its dumb and its embarrassing
Im switching off
No longer listening
Ive had enough of persecution and conditioning
Maybe its instinct- Were only animal" - Lily Allen, Sheezus
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Mortal Online. Felt completely duped as to the real status of the game when we got in beta. Not even playable. It had so many concepts I've wanted in an MMO. I've recently just downloaded it again to check it out since its now F2P up to 60 skill points. I will dabble but I still have a sour taste in my mouth.
The Secret World. Pre-launch, it was being advertised as a modern day survival horror inspired by HP Lovecraft. What we got was more dungeons, vampires and werewolves with spammy abilities and infinite magic bullets. They had a perfect opportunity to make crafting unique because of the setting. What we got was drag and drop metals into a box and out pops an ak47. Holy crap what a let down.
Ing the Conqueror
SWTOR....huge waste of my favorite IP. On top of that SWG shut down around the same time. Double whammy.
World of Darkness is second. The concept sounds awesome but CCP made dumb investments in games like Dust and now WOD sounds more like vaporware than reality.
I find it hard to get disappointed with mmo's considering the amount of information available before the launch. There are few exceptions however, and most notable to me is Age of Conan like OP mentioned too, somehow it simply just sounded a lot better than what the eventual game was, and Tortage kept that feeling alive so that players rushed into forums after an hour of gameplay to tell the world how awesome the game is.
Usually the disappointment comes during the development however, the devs drop the "we are making a wow clone" bomb and then it's just hard to get hyped in the first place. Other thing during the dev process is when you simply just learn that the game isnt going to be all that big or deep, and I often just feel like "oh well, it's probably fun for few days or weeks" - you dont get disappointed but you dont really get all that excited either.
I'd say Age of Conan first.
Warhammer online second.
As a Star Trek fan I was quite excited about STO as well. The disappointment was even greater.
Do you really want to know it ?
I was hyped for NONE
I am rather upset how mmorpgs got and getting hyped and people just blind follow this nonsens. And you see this crap before every mmorpg release in the recent years. Reading the HYPEMETER on mmorpg.com gives me always headache.
The last mmorpg which I had hopes for was actually SWTOR since I really like STAR WARS, but this was such a let down for me. An Instanced, steril world with a quest system remembering on a production line and HuttenballWars instead of StarWars.
World of Warcraft for example was also a huge success because the consumers did not have expectations and there were not expected gameplay content, hyped like sand would be suddenly gold. But when you did enter the game world you got big eyes.
When it comes to games, I was actually hyped with Skyrim and Fallout 3. But the reason for that is that Bethesda did release successfull titles before, so you did actually expect something in this case.
Seed
Tabula Rasa
Vanguard
None really.
I got disappointed mostly from GW2, but i wasn't incredibly hyped in the first place.
I was only hyped for Warhammer Online, but it met my expectations for the most part, it's my all time favorite after all.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
Every MMORPG since WoW and including WoW.
Todays Games Lack : A Dangerous Mysterious World the Player cant adapt as easily. Instances, kinda Ruin the feeling of thoose Game Worlds. I think it is possible to create a Ingame World that feels not as scripted and themeparkish like Worlds do today. I do strongly Believe Most Players do not realize, its mostly about Efficiency and being efficient or to become even more is Fun. To get stronger in such a World that feels alive and to be able to do Stuff not everyone can would be a Rush. But Todays Worlds just feel so Basic, its like you just use additions in Math. Character Builds become less complex as well. Players have fun being unique, but not just because of your Characters appearance. But if every 3th Player has the same Build, uses the same Items, has the same Skills, went thru the same Quest like you and uses the same Instanced Dungeon to grind the same Boss copy you just did, feelsnot as Epic as it could!!!!.
Everquest 2.
Was massively hyped for it, lobbied my friends, even went to a big city unveiling party that SOE hosted.
Visuals were terrible, starter isle was boring, loading screens every time you turn around. Teleporters even for intra-city travel. No racial homelands. It just didn't capture any of the EQ magic at all. (WOW on the other hand, did a brilliant job of pulling you into the world as a newbie).
Honorable mention: Vanguard
It was supposed to be the "real" EQ2, and you could craft your own boat and sail the World!
Except it barely ran at all on my PC, and was so buggy and crashy my friends ditched me after a couple of weeks.