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Sounds like a clone of Guild Wars ?
Devilon
Member Posts: 7
From reading the E3 previews this game sounds like it's borrowing alot of what makes guild wars successful.
Please correct me if I'm mistaken? 
Comments
If you're referring to the instancing, keep in mind that Hero's Journey uses instancing when it adds value to a game, not as a matter of course. There will be plenty of common areas where you can run into other players, as well as plenty of instanced quest areas. The world should feel a lot more connected, less isolated.
Where instancing IS used, it's used to a much more involving effect. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to heavily interact and affect your surroundings when you're in an instance... if you watch the E3 videos, you can see a small glimpse of what I mean - To take out a large group of Ukar, one of the players caused an avalanche which killed several of them at once.
Additionally, with the journey system, you won't get the same set of quests every time you start a new hero. The goal is for every hero in game to have their own unique story instead of providing the same static quests to everyone who plays.
Was there anything else in particular that was making you think of Guild Wars?
EDIT: This week's Q&A goes into the idea of instancing and common areas a bit more.
HJ-Xadrian
Hero's Journey GameMaster - Fighting for the rights of badgers everywhere.
www.play.net/hj/
Wow...aside from instancing (in a MUCH different way) this has nothing in common with Guild Wars...well, dual classes I guess...what are you talking about?
DAMN that was a lot of abbreviatons!
But, yeah, this isn't a GW clone from what it seems. Not in the slightest.
I disagree, I think it is a copy from GW and City of Heroes, they need to convince me further before I will believe that these guys were able to come up with that unique of an idea, give me a break, although that isn't what is important because we all know even the greatest of all people copied from someone before them to make a great product, of course I'm not giving these guys any credit yet, as we all know by know from their website they are a small time group and probably don't have very talented designers, well maybe talented but unknown, or lack of experience.
Well, some of their shots were quite nice and showed some real great talent. Though I agree with you that their website is HORRIBLE!!!! Please Simu fix that and create a real webiste...I dont even wanna mention their forum, hehe.
Anyways so far I am positive about the game and from what Ive seen, I liked it, but we just have to wait for the end product and see how will it turn out.
Honestly I can't say that I would like it because we haven't played it so I wouldn't say anything yet, plus you saw the website so they are obviously small-time and without any real resources I can't see this thing coming out anytime soon, I heard that they've been working on this game forever. The main designer has had this game in his back pocket for a while so I can imagine that it will be creative or interesting but the real challange is to make the game fun, I've seen these Q&A's and they keep saying that fun is the most important thing but anyone can say that I have to see it to believe it.
Instant travel. From what I've heard, if you want to get somewhere....you just go there. You never actualy travel through a game world from point A to point B. That, the instancing, and just the look of the game play movie I saw all made me think GW.
Exactly, like I said, from my past experience I just don't put any faith in a small time company to make a big time game. If you don't have the resources then you can't expect great things, just the same old thing, but probably worse, of course I'm saying all of this negative because I'd like to be surprised, I'm not saying that when it comes out I won't try it, I will give it honest chance but I'm not going to waste my money for the same thing
I got 2 words for you: No.
You still have another word dude
Just bear in mind, this "small" company has been making a profit since 1987. Thats been in business, had products on market, and turning a profit to pay onsite and distributed employees for 18 years.
Now I will give you that this is their first MMORPG. Ultima Online was Origin's first MMORPG. Everquest was Verant's first MMORPG.
All I can tell you is that this is a passionate, dedicated company with talented artists and people who believe in what they are doing, and that they have the experience in making a game fun to have a really great chance of making it, else I wouldnt have joined them.
So yes, you are right, they are a small company, and yes, they have never made a MMORPG before. I for one am looking forward to their first one.
I think 'Graphical MMORPG' would be a better term than just MMORPG, considering Simu's text-based games can be considered MMOs.
...Never thought I'd find myself correcting a GM. O.o
Such text-based games are most often referred to as MUDs - Multi User Dungeons - and not MMORPGs. But you can say they are some kind of MMORPG, yes.
Yeah, I knew that, and you have a point. The only thing is I always see MUDs and MMOs as the same things, because the only real difference between them is that one has graphics and the other one does not. And perhaps the other has more subscribers.
Ren, I have a quick question for you..
I know you're pretty knowledgeable about Simutronic's other games, and have no doubt played more than one of them. For someone who has never played any of their games before (much less a text based mmo), which one would you suggest trying? Do you have a particular favorite?
Thanks for the insight. Without having played either, I would like to know how you know that.
I'm currently playing Gemstone IV with a character of the same name, so I guess you could say that's my favorite. Gemstone has a pretty good community and is their longest running game, and I think it's one of the easiest of their games to learn.
Dragonrealms has a fancier combat system, but I found the game harder at the low-levels. It feels more DnDish than Gemstone though.
Modus Operandi is excellent, but unfortunately the game world is small and there's not a whole lot to do, and the community is incredibly small. The game has potential but not the players.
Haven't played AoH enough to have an opinion. I think I played it for 15 minutes when it first came out years ago...but it doesn't have a big community.
So the best two options are Gemstone IV and Dragonrealms.
Some small companies can make super games. Look at Mythic Entertainment's lineup prior to Dark Age of Camelot. I had never heard of Turbine prior to Asheron's Call or Origin before the UltimaWing Commander series. (This is just me, of course.)
I find it's generally the small no name companies that risk all or nothing on groundbreaking changes (some with more success than others, mind you) to get their faces out of the dirt, and those that want to continue to sit on their mountain of wealth that follow the beaten path.
First off, this game will have something Guild Wars doesn't-GM's. Instancing is used in Guild Wars, Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft and is nothing too new. It was used before Guild Wars in Everquest:Lost Dungeons of Norrath, so you could argue that Guild Wars is nothing more than an LDON ripoff with a storyline.
But comparisons like that are an indulgence in frivolity; these games should be judged on their own merits. The video game world is full of proliferation and we can't blame a game for borrowing from ideas like instancing as they are unpatentable and thusly pretty much public domain. One could argue that a console RPG is an instance of a game that only the one user will be able to play
Lastly, they are games and meant to be fun and not coddled and protected like a child. Gamers are too territorial at times and consider new games as a threat to their beloved game. I have never felt this way and embrace new games as they come out, why can't other people too?
I've played FFXI which is 100% zone based and I have to say that it was really annoying having to run everywhere you wanted to go early on. So I'm definately not in favor of a game that's 100% zone based. I think the game designers were asked if they had considered making it just one continuous world, ie. no zones or instances and their answer was that they wanted to put so much detail into the game, graphically and otherwise, that that type of setting would slow the frame rate down way too much. So IMO, instances is the best way to go. People are going to complain either way. If it's zone based then people will have to complain about all the time wasted trying to get to where you're going. If it's instanced then people will complain about the isolation in instances. I think what we have to realize is that not everyone playing these games are power gamers that have the time to play for 12 hours a day. There will be a lot of people playing that only have 1 or 2 hours a day to spend on this game. Those people don't want to have to spend most of that time just trying to get to where they're going. Remember the motto. "More fun, less tedium."
And as far as the belief that this game won't be that good because it's made by a small company, again I go to my FFXI example. Square is a big company and FFXI sucks. You have to walk until you're level 20 when you can finally do a quest to be able to ride a Chocobo and you can't ride an airship until you've completed 10 missions. And unless you have a lot of high level help then you won't be completing the 10th mission until you're about level 50. Soloing is impossible at high levels and parties can be hard to find a lot of the time. Their crafting system is nothing but busy work and the game overall just feels like a job after a while. So the argument that a game made by a small company won't be as good doesn't hold water as far as I'm concerned. It's not how big your company is, it's how much effort you put into your games. My experiences with SIMU games tell me that they put a lot more effort into their games than at least one big company.
Would you rather everything be handed to you on a silver platter, ala WoW? FFXI is a kickbutt game personally, only two things dragged me from the experience.
#1. No payment history for 3 months and you lose your characters
#2. You spend more time waiting for groups than being in them.
Personally, I loved it plus the combo system was so awesome. I loved having my little guide and see what weapons everyone had so we could make skill chains.
How do you think big time companies got that way? At one point they were all small time, can anyone tell me how big Blizzard was before Warcraft and Diablo???? Anyways, sounds like somebody is just trying to get everyone all worked up.........
IMHO, FFXI is the only game worth playing right now, it is a little too slow I'll agree, but I believe players should be rewarded for work done, and now how much money he can afford to buy online. High levels are difficult to acheive, but shouldn't they be? All I know is that in FFXI my 50+ black mage is respected and in demand, as opposed games like Guild wars where you can level cap in a week....lol. I really wanted to be impressed with GW, but c'mon that game got boring soooooo fast....Guess I'll wait for HJ or Dark and Light....