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Irth Online Released Nov, what are your thoughts.
Razorback
Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 5,253
Im about as surprised by this as I was when I got the email that MxO was releasing and my Beta account would need to be upgraded...
Well I didnt play MxO after Beta... and I suspect a similar occurance will happen here.
Im trying to be as kind and open minded as I can about this but.... wow.... thats all I can say.... just wow.... 
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"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
http://purepwnage.com
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"Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spell" Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
Comments
NM, I found it...
Really can't find anything positive to say about it...
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion.cfm/load/forums/loadforum/510/loadthread/54037/setstart/1/loadclass/35
TY Grunty... and this from the front page
MMORPG IRTH ONLINE ANNOUNCES RELEASE DATE AND PRICING STRATEGY
DEDHAM, MA OCTOBER 9, 2005 Magic Hat Software, developer of fantasy MMORPG Irth Online, has announced the games official launch date is set for Tuesday, November 1, 2005. Pricing and distribution strategies were also announced.
"Our November 1st release date is firm," says Alan Chipura, Lead Game Designer. "The many suggestions provided by our avid and loyal Beta testers were so valuable that we absolutely had to incorporate them, even though it caused a slight delay in the launch date to November 1st."
At launch, Irth Online will be priced at $29.95 and the monthly subscription fee will be $13.95. Discounted pricing will be available in a Pre-Launch Special Offer to be announced in a few days.
Irth Online will only be available for purchase online. "Two years ago, in the early stages of development, we made the decision to distribute exclusively online and havent pursued any publishing deals," says Mr. Chipura. "It made more economic sense for us to self-publish."
Although no retail boxes are being produced for sale in retail stores, players who also want the game on disc may purchase Irth Online on DVD or CD-ROM for an additional $9.95 plus applicable shipping fees. Orders may be placed at www.irthonline.com and will be fulfilled immediately after the game is released.
The Irth Online Story
Irth Onlines virtual world is populated by three distinct PvP civilizations -- The Arcadians in the snowy north, The Morbus in the southeastern swamps, and The Mezoteks in the tropical southwest which have a thousand-year history of battling to capture the resources of the others to ensure survival. This persistent state of war inspired peace-loving pilgrims from all three civilizations to form their own civilization, and this fourth civilization in Irth Online is non-PvP, and survives via commerce in lieu of combat. Players join Irths history at a period when a fragile truce exists, and will determine the course of history of each civilization.
Gamers are encouraged to visit the official Irth Online website at www.irthonline.com to get all the latest news updates and game details.
About Magic Hat Software
Magic Hat Software (www.magichatsoftware.com) was established in July 2003 in Massachusetts. The team is committed to the idea of creating a virtual world without artificial limits on player behaviour or play style, and trusting players to determine their own game experiences. Irth Online is Magic Hat Softwares first commercial MMORPG.
premature... is the word that immediately springs to mind.
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"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
http://purepwnage.com
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"Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spell" Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
I...I...
I am absolutely stunned...
Not just a few days ago I gnashed my teeth and defended this game.
But now... I dont know what to think... They always said they will release when it will be ready, and that is the futherest thing from the truth. They said their prices will be competative, but paying $30 just for the download. Then on top of that another $10 for a dvd of it? The final blow is they are going to charge the same monthly fee as WoW?
I really wanted to believe Irth would be different, but it seems greed is the same in large and small developers. For all the talk they said we believe in our fans, but now they want us to pay for a game thats half finished.
Its heartbreaking to write this, I so wanted to believe in Irth, I really did.
Although most of us would not want a gaming world that only consists of soe or blizzard as hard as it is for new companies and start ups to be successful, i think as the product still has a long way to go
i would like to see a incremental pricing structure. Small charges in the beginning then in 5 -6 months from now maybe a reved up pricing structure.
For those anxious about past histories with game releases have out of the bat game cards available so that the fear of cc cards being billed for a no box item is not an issue and a clear understanding of what the billing company can do, and a very clear understanding of the pricing structure.....
i would hate to see this start up be doomed by pass game fu pas mistakes
thanks for bringing the latest news on this offering to our attention
Wow all I can say wow. I am like some of you, I defended it thinking they were actually gonna continue testing and developing it for atleast another year. All I can say is boy was I stupid. This game is not ready in my opinion. Especially if they want to compete with even the low population games, and to add that much of a price to just dl the game and then wtf another 10 bucks to get the disks, thats a very bad move on there part. Oh well lets hope some of the other games lower on list dont pull the same move.
This game could have been so much
I am so thoroughly dissapointed. Dark and Light better not pull something like this or else im going just strait morrowind ( I'm pretty sure i mispelled it) and solo rpg for awhile 
.
Playing Fallen Earth.
Well...
They prolly are in a situation like this: Find fundings or close!
If you like the ideas and the direction this game want to goes, you should strongly consider the slight support an account can give them.
This game is close to the "Magical Zapper" on Woody comic and is trying to survive, this is all. I am pretty sure their team HATE to have to procceed with the release now, but if they dont, it will never release. You can be neutral toward the game and ignore it because you dont like their ideas OR you can support them...or you can require a finished product and see them died and never get your finished product.
Maybe I will try it, maybe not...I dunno yet, depend on what I am doing in november...but odds are that I will be playing Civ4.
And no, this game has BETTER concepts than DnL (I read french better than english), it consider PvE players, which is something DnL will have a huge shortage. I dont say Irth is perfect for PvE players, I dont like tradeskills myself and find myself kinda trapped in a tradeskilling role, but at least, there is something for the PvE players...and maybe they can avoid tradeskilling as well...we will see. DnL will have troubles to please players from FFXI, EQ, EQ2, CoH, at least half the WoW servers and so on...simply because DnL has 0 appeal for PvE players, at least they are honest about it and dont try to ****** us in a SoE way.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
DnL has 0 appeal for PvE? Please... Im pretty sure DnL is #1 on just about EVERYONE's list as of right now.
It doesn't really matter what the game could have been. Sure we could all sit here forever talking about what Wish , UO 2, or more topic relevant, Irth Online could have been. But the bottom line is, Magic Hat Software has failed to produce an acceptable product in the 3-4 years they have been working on it. In my opinion, it's quite pointless to "support" this game at release and pay their $30 to download the game...and 14 more buck per month to play it when I doubt the game will last longer than a month or two before MHS closes the doors. They are obviously low on funds, and when the game is released, the number of idiots that actually pay for this game and subscribe will probably be very low, which is why I predict an almost instant flop.
Dont get me wrong, I've been a supporter of Irth and a beta tester for quite some time now, but they have sealed the fate of this game with their latest decision.
*Edit* Perhaps it wasnt their latest decision that sealed their fate, maybe their mistake was made in the beginning, maybe it was when they decided to save money by hiring fewer programmers? If they had more staff, perhaps the game would be a lot closer to being finished. I don't know, just my thoughts.
I imagine the pressure to release to pay the bills has outweighed the need to release a finished product and in MMO games, regardless of the development budget very few games are released ready when they finally make it to launch.
The devs are probably hoping to launch to pay for the remaining development costs. I agree with a previous poster that perhaps if they started charging small it would be more acceptable than charging the same as WoW & other leading MMO's.
Because they're an indie I wish them luck but I think they'll need a lot of luck to see this through.
Benny.................................
I fully agree, if they are running out of money that is one thing. But when I discovered IO in the middle of summer, all they told us was "It will be released when its ready! We wont betray the fans by releasing something premature. The funding said they are in it till the end"
I suppose it was very stupid of me to believe them. So I am partly mad at them for obviously lying to us, but part of my anger is directed at myself for hanging my own "kick me" sign on my back.
I dont mean to sound so bitter, but I hope you can understand why I am.
A couple of possible things to think about here.
Perhap's in their perspective the game is finished. Perhaps according to their "Vision" of the game it is now complete, and they are in their eye's at least adhering to their word. Just because we disagree that the game is finished, does not necessarly make it so.
Of course, it is also possible the investor's simply decided to pull strings and state, Realease now or funding is cut. A Cut our losses ultamatum per se. While the Dev's may have very well been willing to see it through to the end, if he who writes the check stop's. Well one has to put food on the table if you catch my drift.
My thought's; I think the game had alot of potential. I do not think it replaces UO for the PVPer, or honestly even come's close. It has some similarties yes, but not enough to convince me it is the next big thing. Honestly from my perspective, I would not consider it ready or even close for that matter. I likewise think that no Box on the shelf without a serious amount of advertising is going to hurt them severely. At the very least they need to get some type of card or flyer or Demo into major game retailer's. Again I think it had potential, but to me that potential is now very questionable. I would be sincerely shocked if Woody's bug zapper does not get this one.
DnL is certainly not at the top of my list, looked at it and quickly disregarded any notion of even trying it. The game I am waiting to try is Pirates of the Burning Sea. Until then, I will also be trying to beat CIV 4 on the most difficult settings possible.
As for the suggestion that players who support Irth Online should open an account to do so, I say NO WAY. That is absurd. Too many games are released incomplete and buggy, and players should not support this unprofessional conduct. You don't see this kind of behavior in other industries. It's unfortunate that gaming companies aren't being forced to recall product that does not deliver what is advertised.
There are a lot of games being released in the near future, and some of them deserve to die a quick death, as well as some games already out that have outlived their usefulness. I would like to see only a dozen or so real quality games out there that are supported by large playerbases.
"We feel gold selling and websites that promote it damage games like Vanguard and will do everything possible to combat it."
Brad McQuaid
Chairman & CEO, Sigil Games Online, Inc.
Executive Producer, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
www.vanguardsoh
One word comes to mind here for me as well on this totally incomplete game being released WAY too early... and that one word that comes to my mind here is... "Mourning".
Another small company with HUGE promises to their fans, and nothing but lies and deciet in the end in pursuit of nothing more then the almighty dollar. For these guys to think that this game can even compete in the very competitive mmo world is ubsurd with a half finished mmo with absolutley NO polish at all.
If I want to pay money for a ton of UGLY BUGS, then I will go to a pet store and buy a bag of bugs.
This is ridiculous, Irth will flop as hard if not harder then did Mourning. Another joke here and it will nothing more then the butt of many mmo jokes in the coming months.
- Zaxx
PoBS looks cool, that's about as much as I can agree with Jorev's post, can you imagine a world that limits the amount of content available to a dozen games. It's like saying "there should only be 50 or so music acts in the world" - ridiculous!
The world needs a lot of games to suit the huge player base out there & to suit a very diverse global population and as for product recalls, games are software & when was the last time you could recall a software product? I do agree that it would be fair to do so, but one Mr Gates would disagree for sure & software is unfortunately prone to not working properly I mean IE still doesn't work 10-years after 1st release - get real.
Benny..................................................
Well, not every company is backed by Sony, Blizzard, Microsoft and other giants.
Irth Online look at Nevrax and prolly drool all over themselves.
If you want companies that take risks and promote completely new approach to games, you can trust Smedley (he is my favorite teddy bear
, but that is related to the fact EQ was my first game)...or you can give a hug to those lowly devs at Irth Online.
Will I try it myself, I dunno. Maybe, maybe not. But I will certainly play Irth online before I give my support to a big company that bring another "must raid/PvP/tradeskill" setting, only the small companies without the finances get such a credit from me as a customer, the big companies, they better release a game I enjoy from start to the end...and if they change the gameplay in the middle of the road, it is better be involving only gameplays I enjoy (solo or grouping in PvE for exemple) or they lose a customers.
Once upon a time, Blizzard was a small company. Verant was a small company. The products they release where not ready for release, they where crippled with bugs. They where winning and progressing. However, as they progress, they stop bringing new stuff and simply focus on refining what already exist...
If everyone are fine with perfectly refined version of what already exist, we would only be playing chess by now. Hopefully something nice will come out, and not necessarily from a big company. Will it be Irth Online? Don't think so, but who am I to say yes to such a big question? We never know. Irth devs are open minded in a good way for now and maybe, maybe not.
SoR is still far from the standard of some released games, some peoples love it and it is a nice game on it own. Same apply to many other games.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Bias
3 a : BENT, TENDENCY b : an inclination of temperament or outlook; especially : a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment
I have tried to avoid this when giving my opinion of a game for many years. I am certain I have failed to do so from time to time, but overall I have remained fairly impartial in giving my review of the game overall. As such, When EQ was coming out of Beta I wrote a very long scathing post on some of the glaring issue's with the game. Issues that had persisted since Phase 2 beta were I started and remained unaddressed. I have similiarly done this for each and every game I have ever beta tested, if there were issues that remained to be dealt with. Was I wrong about EQ's success? of course, that is a given. However I do not and shall never retract a word I said about it, because it was the truth. Gamer's deserve better and its long beyond the time where we need to start making our stance clear. Dev's need to understand clearly the problem's that exist, thus it is then their choice as to if they proceed or not. I would be Biased if I were to look at any game and Slam it because it was made by a big developer, and support only small, or visa versa. I do not care how big or small the developer is, I care about the quality of the product.
In the case of Irth, I feel the game has potential. As to if it will survive long enough to see that potential come to fruition is another debate. I am skeptical, but then I was about EQ as well. However part of the Dev seeing the game through to success is knowing the problems that exist. If they know of the problems then they can have a plan in place to deal with those problems. While I do disagree with the practice of releasing unfinished product, It is a freedom that the online gaming industry has that Console or offline game's do not enjoy. However that freedom is only there because we as gamer's and consumer's allow it to be there by paying for it. Am I daft enough to think that gamer's are going to suddenly unite and refuse to spend their money? Hardly I even realize fully that when a game captures my attention enough I will pay for it bug's and all as well. However It is something to keep in mind, especially for those who sign up for Beta Test's. Your job as a Tester is not to get free play demo time, its to see what issues are in the game and provide unbiased, honest if sometimes blunt feedback to the Dev's, and when the NDA is lifted the potential customer's. Will there ever be a bug free game released? No, nothing is perfect nor ever will be.
Dekoth, what exactly is your point? That all games are released with bugs? Ok...thanks for the info...I do believe I just wasted about 5 mins reading your worthless post. lol
I do believe this is yet another publiticy stunt tough...nobody even mentioned irth for long time before they released press release and now it's all over in all mmorpg related boards...i bet 1st of nov will come and go and magic hat will release press release on 10th of december telling that "Sorry sorry...we'll release 1st of jan!!"
It was something to do with my first couple of post's. However I got distracted in the middle of it since I am at work and I actually forgot myself.
If it make's you feel better I am not certain I understand what I wrote this time either. This is what I get for getting 3 hours worth of sleep.
Haha! No prob Dekoth :P