Actually the correct statement would be "SOTA is the spiritual successor of the Ultima I-IX games, with combat akin to UO" NOT the spiritual successor of UO!!
Your wrong.
The right statement is from Garriotts own mouth and it was - SotA is a spiritual successor to UO.
You need to learn more of the games history dude.
Well, to be honest, there is a certain confusion about that, and I have to admit that I was affected by it too. In my book it was also always sold as a successor to UO, otherwise I never would have backed it, but it seems that it was actually promised to be a mix of everything from the Ultima series, not only UO. So yeah, I will keep that in mind for the second part of the review. However, I am obviously not the only one who got confused by what the game was promised to be and the developers for sure tried to get all different groups of players on board. It's interesting that from what I have read, it's actually those who expected another Ultima 7 who are disappointed the most currently, because the development went rather in the direction of UO and singleplayer was neglected. But maybe that's only my perception. Here is by the way the description from the Kickstarter page, to settle this argument:
"Shroud of the Avatar is the “spiritual successor” to Richard’s previous work in the FRP genre. Our primary objectives are to tell a story even more compelling than Ultimas IV-VII, create a virtual world more interactive than Ultima VII, develop deep rich multi-player capabilities beyond combat akin to Ultima Online, and offer a bold new approach to integrate them with “Selective Multi-Player”."
The real problem is if you look at the thread on the official forums at the thread about this review, posters like Baron Drocis are the problem, he manipulates threads then screams for mods. He has done this for years. For some reason they don't seem to see it, he has gotten a few banned from there.
More than a few.
In other circles we call him Baron Bait & Report.
If you're looking for a perfect example of the worst in the SotA community, he's your man.
Well moderators over at SotA forums are corrupted so of course he do just fine.
Well, the SotA moderators are part of the community so all the bottom-feeders have to stick together.
Actually the correct statement would be "SOTA is the spiritual successor of the Ultima I-IX games, with combat akin to UO" NOT the spiritual successor of UO!!
Your wrong.
The right statement is from Garriotts own mouth and it was - SotA is a spiritual successor to UO.
You need to learn more of the games history dude.
Actually you are wrong, Richard may have said that, but what is advertised for the game says what the other poster wrote.
My two cents. SotAa has one of the best communities I've played with. This is definitely a game that is what you make of it. Personally I enjoy it and I credit being in a great guild for that. Fortunately, the game has no shortage of great guilds.
Visually SotA has improved by leaps and bounds this year. Housing and the customization of is probably the best in the genre. Archeage might give it some competition on customization, but visually SotA's architecture at times is jaw dropping. Avatars, have also been drastically improved, though I'd like to see more work done and more variations. But I can live with them as is if that never happens.
I've been playing SotA for 2 years. I have never made a card deck. Some of you have the impression you need to. Nope. Totally your call. Now that game is persistent I might check it out for variety. I agree combat is clunky, but again, this part of design has improved greatly over the past year. And Portalarium has stated combat is a priority. I still don't think combat will ever please people who want a modern day combat design. The one positive I can say about combat is spells and effects. Awesome and look fantastic.
If you grew up playing Garriot's classic Ultimas, personally I think you would like this game, if not love it. If you enjoyed UO's community/social aspect, I would say the same. But is SotA a modern day UO? No. The limitations of the Unity engine, at least in the way Portalarium approached SotA, just keep the game from being a good spiritual succesor to UO. If rolepalying is yout thing, I would say you should defintiely check this game out.
Actually the correct statement would be "SOTA is the spiritual successor of the Ultima I-IX games, with combat akin to UO" NOT the spiritual successor of UO!!
Your wrong.
The right statement is from Garriotts own mouth and it was - SotA is a spiritual successor to UO.
You need to learn more of the games history dude.
Not quite. Directly from Kickstart campaign:
"Shroud of the Avatar is the “spiritual successor” to Richard’s previous work in the FRP genre. Our primary objectives are to tell a story even more compelling than Ultimas IV-VII, create a virtual world more interactive than Ultima VII, develop deep rich multi-player capabilities beyond combat akin to Ultima Online, and offer a bold new approach to integrate them with “Selective Multi-Player”."
Instead of trying to make a game that uses UO mechanics(which it does) and is kinda like UO/Ultima sorta. They should have just put the money into a new version of UO with the mechanics every one loves minus all the stuff that chased every one away
I can't disagree with this. I think it would have been a smarter move and appealed to more people.
Based on the sheer amount of post, this certainly is a game people are interested in, maybe because it is Garriotts latest attempt.
I think where the game really destroys the immersiveness though, is in its overuse of scenes. You just have to zone way too many times and you are forced to zone, because each scene is SO small that you might stay there and fight for a bit, but at some point, very quickly you get tired of that and need to go to the city or something.
I dont see what more is needed to make the interface great either. It seems to me that it has what a typical MMO has. And the graphics is fair. I think the scenes are quite good actually, but the very clunky animations destroys the feeling.
I like the combat, its very MMO'ish. Here the interface might lack a bit, I never discovered the random aspect of the deck thing, even though I knew it was there...
Its not really a game I could recommend, the overuse of zoning is just too much, maybe because we can see game after game that knows how to avoid this. And yeah, this is said to be early-alpha, but how do you expect zoning to be removed/reduced even with further development?
By far and away my biggest gripe. Instancing is what kills any chance of being a modern day UO. Couldn't agree more.
I think you nailed it. I backed this and wish I had not. While I recognize it isn't "finished," I doubt it will be. Most people will be underwhelmed enough that the game won't gather any real momentum beyond the rabid fanbois. Personally, I don't even have it installed.
My two cents. SotAa has one of the best communities I've played with. This is definitely a game that is what you make of it. Personally I enjoy it and I credit being in a great guild for that. Fortunately, the game has no shortage of great guilds.
Wow, you must have gotten the community from universe A, because I got the one from universe B.
I believe the portal between the two is somewhere near the entrance to the World Bank.
That glyph deck system has the smell of "different just to be different."
Actually, I have to disagree with that. If you've been following it from the beginning, the glyph system is a direct descendant of Richard's idea to have something like a personal style in combat. The idea was that players should learn moves/skills, and then practice them. By practicing them and getting better at them, you developed your own unique approach to combat. eg, if you tend to thrust a lot more than you parry, then you learn to do that much better, and it comes to your mind more easily in combat.
I'm not sure if you've ever been in combat, or in any sort of martial arts, but that's not too different from how it actually works. You learn a series of moves, and then the fight normally proceeds too quickly to really think about what you're doing. In that situation, you fall back on the combos and specific strikes you've practiced over and over. In this case, those are the glyphs that pop up in your bar.
Now, whether the idea was good, or whether it was executed well.... That's definitely something that could be questioned, though it's obviously subjective. Whether it's there just to be different? That's definitely not the case.
I'm not sure if you've ever been in combat, or in any sort of martial arts, but that's not too different from how it actually works. You learn a series of moves, and then the fight normally proceeds too quickly to really think about what you're doing. In that situation, you fall back on the combos and specific strikes you've practiced over and over. In this case, those are the glyphs that pop up in your bar.
I have and it is different.
First off, in combat you don't have cards shoved in your face to tell you what to do next. You assess the situation and react from memory.
Second, You aren't learning moves. You're following a series of glyphs that tell you what you can do next. You don't have the freedom to react the way you think is best, you can only react based on what is on the bar. At least with a static bar you can choose a set of skills you want to use, but otherwise you're playing an RNG card game when you should be looking what is happening on the screen.
Implementing a system like what BDO did (RMB for one skill LMB for another, LMB+RMB for a third, etc.) would have made it a lot more realistic and exciting. In BDO, you don't even need to use the hotbar unless you want to shove positions, etc there. It feels more like reacting from memory than a "go fish" card game.
First off, in combat you don't have cards shoved in your face to tell you what to do next. You assess the situation and react from memory.
Second, You aren't learning moves. You're following a series of glyphs that tell you what you can do next. You don't have the freedom to react the way you think is best, you can only react based on what is on the bar. At least with a static bar you can choose a set of skills you want to use, but otherwise you're playing an RNG card game when you should be looking what is happening on the screen.
Implementing a system like what BDO did (RMB for one skill LMB for another, LMB+RMB for a third, etc.) would have made it a lot more realistic and exciting. In BDO, you don't even need to use the hotbar unless you want to shove positions, etc there. It feels more like reacting from memory than a "go fish" card game.
Dude, it's a game. The cards are supposed to be analogous to muscle memory, and you're never going to find a game that's like combat. Just like you're never going to find a book or movie that get's it entirely correct. I actually happen to like the BDO approach more myself, and think it would have been better, too. That's irrelevant to the point, though. @Iselin said that the card system was different for the sake of being different. It's not. It was designed and placed in the game with intent and with specific reasoning attached.
Whether it's done well or not, or whether another system would have been better, is another issue.
Though, I do think they were successful in what they were trying to do, and there are aspects of it that I like a lot. I think the BDO system is a bit more on the arcade-like side of things, and a skill-based/technique system like SotA has would combine with the actual control system BDO uses to create something better. Purely opinion, though.
First off, in combat you don't have cards shoved in your face to tell you what to do next. You assess the situation and react from memory.
Second, You aren't learning moves. You're following a series of glyphs that tell you what you can do next. You don't have the freedom to react the way you think is best, you can only react based on what is on the bar. At least with a static bar you can choose a set of skills you want to use, but otherwise you're playing an RNG card game when you should be looking what is happening on the screen.
Implementing a system like what BDO did (RMB for one skill LMB for another, LMB+RMB for a third, etc.) would have made it a lot more realistic and exciting. In BDO, you don't even need to use the hotbar unless you want to shove positions, etc there. It feels more like reacting from memory than a "go fish" card game.
Dude, it's a game.
So why try and tie it to real combat? It's a game, remember.
I can't think of any other reason to bring it up except to try and "legitimize" the system.
Pick a side of the fence and stay on it.
As for the system being different for the sake of being different, I completely agree with @Iselin. In fact, the entire game is trying to be different for the sake of being different. Portalarium has spent way too much time trying to be edgy and different -- hipster mentality -- and in the process, built a game that is just the same old rehash pulled from various MMOs over the years. There is NOTHING in the game that hasn't been done before in one form or another, including that abomination of a combat system.
First off, in combat you don't have cards shoved in your face to tell you what to do next. You assess the situation and react from memory.
Second, You aren't learning moves. You're following a series of glyphs that tell you what you can do next. You don't have the freedom to react the way you think is best, you can only react based on what is on the bar. At least with a static bar you can choose a set of skills you want to use, but otherwise you're playing an RNG card game when you should be looking what is happening on the screen.
Implementing a system like what BDO did (RMB for one skill LMB for another, LMB+RMB for a third, etc.) would have made it a lot more realistic and exciting. In BDO, you don't even need to use the hotbar unless you want to shove positions, etc there. It feels more like reacting from memory than a "go fish" card game.
Dude, it's a game. The cards are supposed to be analogous to muscle memory, and you're never going to find a game that's like combat. Just like you're never going to find a book or movie that get's it entirely correct. I actually happen to like the BDO approach more myself, and think it would have been better, too. That's irrelevant to the point, though. @Iselin said that the card system was different for the sake of being different. It's not. It was designed and placed in the game with intent and with specific reasoning attached.
Whether it's done well or not, or whether another system would have been better, is another issue.
Though, I do think they were successful in what they were trying to do, and there are aspects of it that I like a lot. I think the BDO system is a bit more on the arcade-like side of things, and a skill-based/technique system like SotA has would combine with the actual control system BDO uses to create something better. Purely opinion, though.
So... basically it's not being done for the sake of being different, but for the sake of emulating real combat.
In that case, maybe Garriot should have just listened to your initial advice of "Dude, it's a game" because the system as it is appears to suck horribly. Implementing a system, whether it's for the sake of being different just to be different, or if it's to "emulate muscle memory" or "real combat" is meaningless to whether or not a game is GOOD. What matters is if the end result is TERRIBLE, which appears to be the case here.
Kinda like how Ultima Online originally let species go extinct if players killed too much (either in the alpha or the beta, according to some dev posts). It certainly had its own purpose and wasn't there "just to be different", and in fact, sounds awesome, but then players made EVERYTHING go extinct in a few days so the developers immediately said "Nope." and removed the system because they wisely realized it was unworkable (or at least, not worth the ridiculous amount of research, tech, and care needed to make it work). Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Garriot actually learned much from Ultima Online.
That glyph deck system has the smell of "different just to be different."
Actually, I have to disagree with that. If you've been following it from the beginning, the glyph system is a direct descendant of Richard's idea to have something like a personal style in combat. The idea was that players should learn moves/skills, and then practice them. By practicing them and getting better at them, you developed your own unique approach to combat. eg, if you tend to thrust a lot more than you parry, then you learn to do that much better, and it comes to your mind more easily in combat.
I'm not sure if you've ever been in combat, or in any sort of martial arts, but that's not too different from how it actually works. You learn a series of moves, and then the fight normally proceeds too quickly to really think about what you're doing. In that situation, you fall back on the combos and specific strikes you've practiced over and over. In this case, those are the glyphs that pop up in your bar.
Now, whether the idea was good, or whether it was executed well.... That's definitely something that could be questioned, though it's obviously subjective. Whether it's there just to be different? That's definitely not the case.
Other than that, solid review. Good job!
If they want to emulate instinctive reactions in a game surely there are better ways than borrowing from Magic The Gathering and whac-a-mole to do that.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
I think it is important to do a 'state of the game' review at certain points nowadays. So many games rely on backer funding and founder pack sales to just complete the game. It is good to know what is going on with the game in relation to how it plays now. Reading articles like this allow people on the fence a clearer picture of what to expect from the game as it is now. I look forward to part 2 Markus.
This is NOT true what so ever because being " on fence"changes nothing,you get access to actually see for YOURSELF only by spending money.Also we need to see an accompanying video to actually convey what we read.
So in reality,these ,especially from this site are NOT reviews but more so business articles that have been ASKED to write up for the business that is mmorpg.com.
Can anyone fathom that some business making a new hammer feels the need to post ...."ok after the first month we have developed a hammer handle".Ok after the second month we have developed a hammer head.Ok after third month we have developed a form of combining the two.Of course not,nobody cares,they want to see the final product before buying it.
Long winded point??Should be obvious,we buy products in life when we SEE them and hold them and try them,not just on a whim or because some salesmen tells us to.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I think it is important to do a 'state of the game' review at certain points nowadays. So many games rely on backer funding and founder pack sales to just complete the game. It is good to know what is going on with the game in relation to how it plays now. Reading articles like this allow people on the fence a clearer picture of what to expect from the game as it is now. I look forward to part 2 Markus.
This is NOT true what so ever because being " on fence"changes nothing,you get access to actually see for YOURSELF only by spending money.Also we need to see an accompanying video to actually convey what we read.
So in reality,these ,especially from this site are NOT reviews but more so business articles that have been ASKED to write up for the business that is mmorpg.com.
Can anyone fathom that some business making a new hammer feels the need to post ...."ok after the first month we have developed a hammer handle".Ok after the second month we have developed a hammer head.Ok after third month we have developed a form of combining the two.Of course not,nobody cares,they want to see the final product before buying it.
Long winded point??Should be obvious,we buy products in life when we SEE them and hold them and try them,not just on a whim or because some salesmen tells us to.
What are you talking about?
A video game is much closer to a movie or a book than a freaking hammer. Maybe you ignore them, but lots of people read reviews for movies or books before they buy them. Case in point I bought Grim Dawn based 100% of the review/reaction from @SBFord . It's been the best game I've played all year, probably longer.
Your analogy is just... bad.
Post edited by Slapshot1188 on
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
So why try and tie it to real combat? It's a game, remember.
I can't think of any other reason to bring it up except to try and "legitimize" the system.
Pick a side of the fence and stay on it.
As for the system being different for the sake of being different, I completely agree with @Iselin. In fact, the entire game is trying to be different for the sake of being different. Portalarium has spent way too much time trying to be edgy and different -- hipster mentality -- and in the process, built a game that is just the same old rehash pulled from various MMOs over the years. There is NOTHING in the game that hasn't been done before in one form or another, including that abomination of a combat system.
Because games are a form of art, and that's what you do. Why do they add suspenseful music in games? Why worry about how a shot is framed in a movie? Why worry about lighting in a painting?
They're imparting a sense of an experience through some form of mechanic unique to their system, just as every other writer, director, conductor, painter, and any other artist attempts to do. Not that I really expect you to understand that. You've decided to be against something, and you're not going to make the slightest attempt to appreciate anything about it what-so-ever. Sad, really. I can't imagine living such a poor two-dimensional existence.
I really don't care much for Joseph Haydn's work. None of his pieces particularly appeal to me, but that doesn't prevent me from appreciating his innovation or understanding why others might like his music. ...though, I guess that is the burden of intelligence, this realization that the ego is not the sole arbiter of worth in the world, and that dissenting opinions can actually be valid.
Comments
Well, to be honest, there is a certain confusion about that, and I have to admit that I was affected by it too. In my book it was also always sold as a successor to UO, otherwise I never would have backed it, but it seems that it was actually promised to be a mix of everything from the Ultima series, not only UO. So yeah, I will keep that in mind for the second part of the review. However, I am obviously not the only one who got confused by what the game was promised to be and the developers for sure tried to get all different groups of players on board. It's interesting that from what I have read, it's actually those who expected another Ultima 7 who are disappointed the most currently, because the development went rather in the direction of UO and singleplayer was neglected. But maybe that's only my perception. Here is by the way the description from the Kickstarter page, to settle this argument:
"Shroud of the Avatar is the “spiritual successor” to Richard’s previous work in the FRP genre. Our primary objectives are to tell a story even more compelling than Ultimas IV-VII, create a virtual world more interactive than Ultima VII, develop deep rich multi-player capabilities beyond combat akin to Ultima Online, and offer a bold new approach to integrate them with “Selective Multi-Player”."
Well, the SotA moderators are part of the community so all the bottom-feeders have to stick together.
~~ postlarval ~~
Actually you are wrong, Richard may have said that, but what is advertised for the game says what the other poster wrote.
Visually SotA has improved by leaps and bounds this year. Housing and the customization of is probably the best in the genre. Archeage might give it some competition on customization, but visually SotA's architecture at times is jaw dropping. Avatars, have also been drastically improved, though I'd like to see more work done and more variations. But I can live with them as is if that never happens.
I've been playing SotA for 2 years. I have never made a card deck. Some of you have the impression you need to. Nope. Totally your call. Now that game is persistent I might check it out for variety. I agree combat is clunky, but again, this part of design has improved greatly over the past year. And Portalarium has stated combat is a priority. I still don't think combat will ever please people who want a modern day combat design. The one positive I can say about combat is spells and effects. Awesome and look fantastic.
If you grew up playing Garriot's classic Ultimas, personally I think you would like this game, if not love it. If you enjoyed UO's community/social aspect, I would say the same. But is SotA a modern day UO? No. The limitations of the Unity engine, at least in the way Portalarium approached SotA, just keep the game from being a good spiritual succesor to UO. If rolepalying is yout thing, I would say you should defintiely check this game out.
Not quite. Directly from Kickstart campaign:
"Shroud of the Avatar is the “spiritual successor” to Richard’s previous work in the FRP genre. Our primary objectives are to tell a story even more compelling than Ultimas IV-VII, create a virtual world more interactive than Ultima VII, develop deep rich multi-player capabilities beyond combat akin to Ultima Online, and offer a bold new approach to integrate them with “Selective Multi-Player”."
I can't disagree with this. I think it would have been a smarter move and appealed to more people.
By far and away my biggest gripe. Instancing is what kills any chance of being a modern day UO. Couldn't agree more.
Seaspite
Playing ESO on my X-Box
I believe the portal between the two is somewhere near the entrance to the World Bank.
~~ postlarval ~~
I'm not sure if you've ever been in combat, or in any sort of martial arts, but that's not too different from how it actually works. You learn a series of moves, and then the fight normally proceeds too quickly to really think about what you're doing. In that situation, you fall back on the combos and specific strikes you've practiced over and over. In this case, those are the glyphs that pop up in your bar.
Now, whether the idea was good, or whether it was executed well.... That's definitely something that could be questioned, though it's obviously subjective. Whether it's there just to be different? That's definitely not the case.
Other than that, solid review. Good job!
~~ postlarval ~~
Whether it's done well or not, or whether another system would have been better, is another issue.
Though, I do think they were successful in what they were trying to do, and there are aspects of it that I like a lot. I think the BDO system is a bit more on the arcade-like side of things, and a skill-based/technique system like SotA has would combine with the actual control system BDO uses to create something better. Purely opinion, though.
I can't think of any other reason to bring it up except to try and "legitimize" the system.
Pick a side of the fence and stay on it.
As for the system being different for the sake of being different, I completely agree with @Iselin. In fact, the entire game is trying to be different for the sake of being different. Portalarium has spent way too much time trying to be edgy and different -- hipster mentality -- and in the process, built a game that is just the same old rehash pulled from various MMOs over the years. There is NOTHING in the game that hasn't been done before in one form or another, including that abomination of a combat system.
~~ postlarval ~~
In that case, maybe Garriot should have just listened to your initial advice of "Dude, it's a game" because the system as it is appears to suck horribly. Implementing a system, whether it's for the sake of being different just to be different, or if it's to "emulate muscle memory" or "real combat" is meaningless to whether or not a game is GOOD. What matters is if the end result is TERRIBLE, which appears to be the case here.
Kinda like how Ultima Online originally let species go extinct if players killed too much (either in the alpha or the beta, according to some dev posts). It certainly had its own purpose and wasn't there "just to be different", and in fact, sounds awesome, but then players made EVERYTHING go extinct in a few days so the developers immediately said "Nope." and removed the system because they wisely realized it was unworkable (or at least, not worth the ridiculous amount of research, tech, and care needed to make it work). Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Garriot actually learned much from Ultima Online.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
This is NOT true what so ever because being " on fence"changes nothing,you get access to actually see for YOURSELF only by spending money.Also we need to see an accompanying video to actually convey what we read.
So in reality,these ,especially from this site are NOT reviews but more so business articles that have been ASKED to write up for the business that is mmorpg.com.
Can anyone fathom that some business making a new hammer feels the need to post ...."ok after the first month we have developed a hammer handle".Ok after the second month we have developed a hammer head.Ok after third month we have developed a form of combining the two.Of course not,nobody cares,they want to see the final product before buying it.
Long winded point??Should be obvious,we buy products in life when we SEE them and hold them and try them,not just on a whim or because some salesmen tells us to.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
A video game is much closer to a movie or a book than a freaking hammer. Maybe you ignore them, but lots of people read reviews for movies or books before they buy them. Case in point I bought Grim Dawn based 100% of the review/reaction from @SBFord . It's been the best game I've played all year, probably longer.
Your analogy is just... bad.
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
As of this post 601 peak players on steam. This game is bombing hard. Can't even see them keeping the servers up...
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/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
But...but...but...
"It's still in alpha?!? Uh beta? Uh, early access?
"The game is not finished yet!"™
Don't speak Portalariumese? Here, let me translate:
"It's been over three years now and we still don't know what the f**k we're doing."
~~ postlarval ~~
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/Because games are a form of art, and that's what you do. Why do they add suspenseful music in games? Why worry about how a shot is framed in a movie? Why worry about lighting in a painting?
They're imparting a sense of an experience through some form of mechanic unique to their system, just as every other writer, director, conductor, painter, and any other artist attempts to do. Not that I really expect you to understand that. You've decided to be against something, and you're not going to make the slightest attempt to appreciate anything about it what-so-ever. Sad, really. I can't imagine living such a poor two-dimensional existence.
I really don't care much for Joseph Haydn's work. None of his pieces particularly appeal to me, but that doesn't prevent me from appreciating his innovation or understanding why others might like his music. ...though, I guess that is the burden of intelligence, this realization that the ego is not the sole arbiter of worth in the world, and that dissenting opinions can actually be valid.