Did any of the whiners actually read the whole coulmn?
Here just for you I can break down this whole column so you can understand it better.
Editor's Note: This is the first edition of a new weekly column by Staff Writer Dan Fotier. The column is called "MMOWTF" and will look at some of the stranger or more frustrating events in MMOs as seen by Mr. Fotier.
Editor states what type of column Dan will be writing. Also states that it will be written from Dan's personal point of view
So there I was sitting at my PC, staring at the screen wondering how to start off my new weekly column. It should be something appropriate and it seemed like I should start things off with a bang. In the midst of this pondering this, my trusty Yahoo Instant Messenger cheerfully advised me that I had a new e-mail and thus this rant was born.
Dan starts off at a blank until he sees something on his IM. OMG he even says it's a rant. The horror
n my inbox was mail from my friends over at NP Cube, makers of Dark and Light. The introduction line reads:
"The Ganareth Tour will give newcomers to the world of Ganareth a taste of many of the world's most addictive elements. It can be downloaded at no cost."
So... you're like a drug dealer giving a new client a free hit to peak their interest in your product's most addictive elements? The only difference here is that drugs actually have a high whereas your product starts out on the downer and gets worse from there. I could go on, but you get the idea. It is like an episodic comedy that follows the exploits (pun intended) of a group of inexperienced coders and designers who keep trying to get their first online game right.
I only imagine how the meeting of their great minds came to the conclusion that this was their greatest hope of bringing back all their customers they lost by with their downright goofy tactics up till now. I guess they figured the only thing going for them was their engine and that besides being a free subscription for the moment, they also needed to showcase it away from pesky things like other players and class imbalance. Good luck with that guys...
In the history of disasters of cosmic proportions you have a fairly short list and although many disagree I find the MMO list to be far shorter still. Right up there with Mourning and Trammel would have to be the blood red moon called Dark and Light. It shines like a cancerous beacon for all future developers to see and use as a marker for when to turn around and go the other direction. If you don't heed the baleful warning you risk not only going broke, but becoming synonymous with words like incompetence, inept and misleading.
Now you say to yourself why pick on these poor no-name devs when there are lots of other guys to make fun of across the industry who make a living off of screwing up? Frankly I haven't read a lot of 'professional' takes on the epic failure that Dark and Light has become and I thought that a few very important lessons need to be learned from it:
"Don't take candy from strangers."
"Look both ways before crossing the street."
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and most importantly, "if you don't know how to run an MMO please do yourself a favor and stop because all you will do is embarrass yourself and make fans of the genre less likely to take a chance on less well known projects and push them towards cloned grindfests... with elves."
See he goes on his rant about the email he got. What noone here has been spammed by near dead MMos begging you to comeback?
Stay tuned next week for more ill-informed nonsense from me and don't forget to throw in some abusive remarks you thought up while reading this
Well looky here, Dan even wants you to rant.
So what if Dan wants to write his columns like Dave Berry. You know how many writers out there do? Why should every column be so bleached that nothing is ever said just so someone wont feel hurt ' no F-bombs please it hurts me, see..see that bruise there it came from the F in wtf, I'm in agony'
You whiners need to get over yourselves. You can't even rant correctly.
I think the column is actually good, I don't really care WHAT they did wrong, because I could experience it myself, what I did, and I read about it long enough. I'm happy someone really says what we all want to say outloud. Because he's a columnist he's not allowed to fall with his mighty hammer on a company/game? I see it differently. I don't want another discussion about how and why and whatever, this has been discusses long enough, now we just say, F*** NP3 and DnL.
I don't remember who wrote this, but I don't see why a columnist can't rant if he feels like. Do we need a column to rant, no, I guess enough people do that on forums already. Do I accept it? Hell yea. At least something new. Yes, i can't wait for the rant about SWG, eventho I still play it, and I can't wait for the rant of DDO or WoW or CoH/CoV...
If more people would write what they really think without having to take care not to offend anyone, we would live in a better world.
If he asked for abusive comments and we gave them to him, why are you abusing our abuses? Wouldn't that make you in the wrong? I thought my comments were pretty darn abusive, myself. The comment about the SWG Veterans forum was at least mildly caustic, if not downright ill-mannered.
Edit: I just realized that your abuse of our abusive comments is itself an abusive comment, so you're good.
I really enjoyed this. I use different wording than what the column title uses but each to their own. I enjoyed seeing someone talking about what their bad experiences can make them think when getting such an e-mail. I remember gettting the same e-mail and thinking what kind of idiot does that place think I am. Just to make sure things were still as bad, I went and looked at the forums and saw what seemed like even more than before.
Can't wait to see what the next one will be and if I know about it as well.
Originally posted by BountyGreg I think the column is actually good, I don't really care WHAT they did wrong, because I could experience it myself, what I did, and I read about it long enough. I'm happy someone really says what we all want to say outloud. Because he's a columnist he's not allowed to fall with his mighty hammer on a company/game? I see it differently. I don't want another discussion about how and why and whatever, this has been discusses long enough, now we just say, F*** NP3 and DnL.
I don't remember who wrote this, but I don't see why a columnist can't rant if he feels like. Do we need a column to rant, no, I guess enough people do that on forums already. Do I accept it? Hell yea. At least something new. Yes, i can't wait for the rant about SWG, eventho I still play it, and I can't wait for the rant of DDO or WoW or CoH/CoV...
If more people would write what they really think without having to take care not to offend anyone, we would live in a better world.
I totally agree with your sentiments, especially your last comment.
I thought the article was entertaining, spot on, and most importantly - relevant. I actually found it to have a subtlety that spoke of a level of intelligence I rarely see from most forum posters on this site. Kudos to the author for having the kahonos for actually saying what was on his mind and calling a spade a spade, but without the typical whining and drivel of a forum poster.
We need more of this for the hobby to keep advancing. We all (fanboys and journalists) need to stop stroking the egos of of every game developer wannabe that comes along touting their product as the next big thing. This industry has matured in many ways but there still is a boatload of hacks out there trying to break into the market with no real business plan or solid, innovative ideas to work from. Yet, most of the time we give unwarranted encouragement to a project because of our own delusions of grandeur ("oooo, lookey there, pretty graphics" or "cool, that game will let me disembowel my enemy ... dude, that roxxor!"). We'd serve hacks like the DnL developers and those sure to follow in their footsteps a lot better if we dashed their over-blown hype sooner rather than later. Then we could encourage the real players with sound business models and a solid, well-thought out and ACHIEVABLE vision to achieve their goals.
The bottom line is that the sooner that all of us, game mags, game journalists, and game players, stop catering to these "false prophet" game developers the better off we game players and the game industry as a whole will be. Just like I see happening on the MMORPG forums, stop encouraging the morons of the industry so they fade away and the real, innovative developers can be heard and noticed and they can do their thing to take our hobby to the next level.
This column was a good first step. Keep up the good work. I hope MMOWTF continues to evolve into a no-nonsense, call it as you see it, no holds barred column that'll call out the less desirable elements of our hobby.
I just hope this guy does not get paid for his article writing... because if this is all you can come up with in one week, you need to work a bit harder.
I don't disagree with anything said, but it seemed at one point in the article like the author was going to attempt a real, professional look at why D&L failed... then we get 4 almost meaningless quotes.
Perhaps another week a thought will help the next article contain more substance. In fact, maybe for the first few you should just repost last week's and add to them... thereby making each week LOOK more substantive.
This article had been merely a personal rant...but doesn't EVERYONE already know DnL sucks? Is it really such a surprise to anyone? Do we need to keep mentioning DnL when commenting about it in articles such as this does nothing to change the past, nor the future? An article like this MAY have meant something when the game was first released and when it may have mattered...but now it's too little too late. How long did it take for DnL to even get a review on this site? Too little, too late. It's like a reporter commenting on Hurricane Katrina a year later; there is just no relevance to it. Is not the reason for sites such as mmorpg.com to exist to help people make informed decisions on the games out there? I sometimes wonder if Farlan/Npcube just did not lobby their game here, or couldn't pay for their advertising costs, and now mmorpg.com is venting frustrations like the rest of us because they got the shaft, too.
This article regarding DnL is not going to influence/change any future developers minds about what to do/what not to do in an MMO. People will continue with their lives as they always have and new games will come and go. If you want a column that will have an impact, then offer creative solutions not rants, and above all...listen to the posters on this site. The customers/posters knew the poor quality of DnL months and months ago, and our rating of DnL is even lower than the "official" rating of that game (but of course, because we're merely customers we can't possibly know more than those who rate the games "officially").
Pay attention to the ratings of the games by the members of this site. Review the games in a timely manner and we will not need any "post-article" concessions.
EDIT: Edited only for minor spelling errors. Incidentally, there may be some people who are new to these forums who don't know what the term "WTF" means on your new column. Might have been a good idea to even explain what your column is supposed to represent. Your "new" column seems only to be for those who are already familiar with these botched games, so what's the point? Or was this "showcase" article just to build up a possible fan-base of disgruntled players who think you empathize with them?
I have written MMO/Single player reviews for a print magazine, and I do agree with some of the people here in that the column lacked depth. It was a good start, but as was also pointed out, there was a need for the next step - suggestions. A good rant is enjoyable and puts (arguably) good information "out there." But without the substance of recommendations, it is just a rant and not overly useful other than, as the column name indicates, the WTF value.
I also expected to see more breadth - I wanted to see a little longer column, and talking to more than one item. After reading the boards over the last weeks, I exprected to see something about the click2play subscription debacle that is Neocron2. Maybe that will be next week. Maybe only 3 people are actually having trouble with it. Maybe single-threading is the intention.
As I said, I would focus on the remediation, not just the OMGWTF were they thinking?!
I have said it before and I will say it again, MMORPG.com lacks sevearly in the article writting dept. Many times you will have a good start but it seems as though you have made your opening arguments and that is it, only a begining no body and no conclusion. Occationally they will have a good aticle but 9 times out of 10 it will be 2 people that work for MMORPG.com having a debate and even then they are a little lacking, or it will be an interview with someone in the industry. In wich case the staff at MMORPG.com do not have to write the article only copy what the guest "writer" is saying. I am trying to be contructive to help out the site, but I am a firm believer in money talks and thats exactly what is happening. The one thing that you can use this site for is release dates but come on, someone else has got to have a site with more in depth reviews and articles if not less numerous.
We should start compiling a list of other MMO sites and start frequenting them and maybe we can find a site with some klout!
I laughed, I cried, I LOL'd. It's a shame it couldn't have come out eariler although I doubt it would have been released before the actual review. Keep on preaching brother
Originally posted by Reklaw Originally posted by hobodactyl This article has no critique to it at all; someone said it could use a bit more substance, but there is no substance to begin withl. I haven't played Dark and Light, and I wasn't interested in it to begin with, but this is totally useless: "Don't take candy from strangers." "Look both ways before crossing the street." "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and most importantly, "if you don't know how to run an MMO please do yourself a favor and stop because all you will do is embarrass yourself and make fans of the genre less likely to take a chance on less well known projects and push them towards cloned grindfests... with elves." A mindless rant like this doesn't deserve to be called a column. There are no suggestions for improvement, nor even any mention of what is actually wrong with the game, other than repeatedly asserting that it's terrible.
It's not easy to make a game, and people aren't evil for failing at what they set out to accomplish. At least these guys aren't wasting other people's air by making non-helpful, useless complaints. If you're going to be rude to people, at least have justification other than "because you guys know how bad it is."
I felt like saying something because it is "columns" like these that make me stop checking MMORPG.COM because they are inane and useless. Tell me about the game, tell me what should have improved, tell me WHY you didn't like the game. What goofy tactics were used up till now? Et cetera, et cetera.
Meh.
First of i do not understand what you all about, you say you on MMRPG.com often but somehow i get the feeling you don't come here often else you would have read all the other post about DnL and whats wrong with it and what can be done for it, The only thing i wonder is why this topic was made as everything said in the main post of the topic been said before over and over again and nothing new was said, so thats my only suprise that how someone opens a new topic with almost copied words from other post about DnL, besides that most things said in topic about DnL is completly right and if company's try and advertise in honosty people would not be so disappointed with a game !!
all i have to say is, i hope you'll let me help you with a future topic, one on Empire Of Martial Heroes, as i have been playing it over a year now and am seriously disappointed in where it has gone. as far as all of you commenting on this article, with "this lacks depth" and "this is blah, i smoke peckers", whatever, if you dont like the base of this publishing, DONT F'ING READ IT. i have no interest in the mentioned game, but enjoyed the article. thanks for this gem
Hmm...Does anyone really need a point for point analysis of why Dark and Light is the laughingstock of the game industry? If so, I'll happily point you in the right direction:
On a more serious note, I definately could have gone into more detail. Mentally noted. Thanks for all the love-hate posts, I print out each of them on 3x5 cards and run around my house naked with them all stapled to my body.
Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the reviews of MMORPG.com or its management.
Originally posted by hobodactyl This article has no critique to it at all; someone said it could use a bit more substance, but there is no substance to begin withl.
...
A mindless rant like this doesn't deserve to be called a column. There are no suggestions for improvement, nor even any mention of what is actually wrong with the game, other than repeatedly asserting that it's terrible.
...
I felt like saying something because it is "columns" like these that make me stop checking MMORPG.COM because they are inane and useless. Tell me about the game, tell me what should have improved, tell me WHY you didn't like the game. What goofy tactics were used up till now? Et cetera, et cetera.
Meh.
Well put. Just out of curiosity, which site or sites, other than MMOPRG.com, WOULD you check for non-inane and non-useless MMORPG related articles?
Originally posted by BountyGreg I think the column is actually good, I don't really care WHAT they did wrong, because I could experience it myself, what I did, and I read about it long enough. I'm happy someone really says what we all want to say outloud. Because he's a columnist he's not allowed to fall with his mighty hammer on a company/game? I see it differently. I don't want another discussion about how and why and whatever, this has been discusses long enough, now we just say, F*** NP3 and DnL.
I don't remember who wrote this, but I don't see why a columnist can't rant if he feels like. Do we need a column to rant, no, I guess enough people do that on forums already. Do I accept it? Hell yea. At least something new. Yes, i can't wait for the rant about SWG, eventho I still play it, and I can't wait for the rant of DDO or WoW or CoH/CoV...
If more people would write what they really think without having to take care not to offend anyone, we would live in a better world.
A columnist can and should express his opinion, or even "rant". A good columnist not only expresses his opinion, but supports it with factual details and examples derived from the subject matter. An excellent columnist not only expresses his opinion and supports it, but provides enough background information in a suitably blended and non-boring fashion that people who have NOT directly experienced the subject matter can enjoy the column as well.
The author of this column needs to write a lot more columns before I would consider him an excellent or even a good columnist. Having said that, since I know a little bit about DnL I found the column to be mildly entertaining.
There was a guy on MMORPG a while back who wrote a series of articles on game design that I would consider an excellent columnist. He would make points about general features he would like to see in a game and then back them up with examples from specific games. I don't recall his name offhand and I'm too lazy to google it, but gee, whatever happened to THAT guy?
"WTF" is wrong with an offline world viewer like this? I saw a third party one for WoW and it looked pretty interesting. DnL is something I'll probably never play but I'll check out this offline version and maybe be tempted. It's true that DnL is a comedy of errors even to a casual spectator such as myself but shouldn't they be applauded for this marketing effort?
Originally posted by hlampert A columnist can and should express his opinion, or even "rant". A good columnist not only expresses his opinion, but supports it with factual details and examples derived from the subject matter. An excellent columnist not only expresses his opinion and supports it, but provides enough background information in a suitably blended and non-boring fashion that people who have NOT directly experienced the subject matter can enjoy the column as well.
The author of this column needs to write a lot more columns before I would consider him an excellent or even a good columnist. Having said that, since I know a little bit about DnL I found the column to be mildly entertaining.
These are my views exactly. Though i would like to add that i got the impression the article would have been this or a safe 'SWG sucks' or safer 'EVE rulesomfgroxxors!!!1one11'. I mean i guess knowing your readers goes a long way to buying love and favour with them (esspecially if your hoping to write more articles) but if you really want to leave an impression and make yourself a distinguished writer, well....Grow some fucking balls! And write about how SWG doesn't completely suck ass, what DnL managed to do right, or the problems with EVE. Tackle a challenging perspective that might make people actually think, as hard (or impossible) in some cases as it may be. I find some of the articles found on this site are only just summaries of what the forums rants say, i hardly ever read anything remotely close to original thinking or thought provoking (game reviews are still sometimes good though).
While i don't mean to single out this particular article, like others have said it was mildly entertaining, it is yet another example of the degradation of MMORPG.com's standard of writing. Hoping that will change since i remember i used to read great articles in the past here.
Cannot agree with this rant more. And to think, I almost spent my precious money on this half-worked game. Thank god for beta testers that gave the truth!
Were a small company based in the UK, feel free to check out the site and let us have your comments on the forums And i couldn't agree with the article more either, its my creed for designing this game to do something different.
Comments
Did any of the whiners actually read the whole coulmn?
Here just for you I can break down this whole column so you can understand it better.
Editor's Note: This is the first edition of a new weekly column by Staff Writer Dan Fotier. The column is called "MMOWTF" and will look at some of the stranger or more frustrating events in MMOs as seen by Mr. Fotier.
Editor states what type of column Dan will be writing. Also states that it will be written from Dan's personal point of view
So there I was sitting at my PC, staring at the screen wondering how to start off my new weekly column. It should be something appropriate and it seemed like I should start things off with a bang. In the midst of this pondering this, my trusty Yahoo Instant Messenger cheerfully advised me that I had a new e-mail and thus this rant was born.
Dan starts off at a blank until he sees something on his IM. OMG he even says it's a rant. The horror
n my inbox was mail from my friends over at NP Cube, makers of Dark and Light. The introduction line reads:
"The Ganareth Tour will give newcomers to the world of Ganareth a taste of many of the world's most addictive elements. It can be downloaded at no cost."
So... you're like a drug dealer giving a new client a free hit to peak their interest in your product's most addictive elements? The only difference here is that drugs actually have a high whereas your product starts out on the downer and gets worse from there. I could go on, but you get the idea. It is like an episodic comedy that follows the exploits (pun intended) of a group of inexperienced coders and designers who keep trying to get their first online game right.
I only imagine how the meeting of their great minds came to the conclusion that this was their greatest hope of bringing back all their customers they lost by with their downright goofy tactics up till now. I guess they figured the only thing going for them was their engine and that besides being a free subscription for the moment, they also needed to showcase it away from pesky things like other players and class imbalance. Good luck with that guys...
In the history of disasters of cosmic proportions you have a fairly short list and although many disagree I find the MMO list to be far shorter still. Right up there with Mourning and Trammel would have to be the blood red moon called Dark and Light. It shines like a cancerous beacon for all future developers to see and use as a marker for when to turn around and go the other direction. If you don't heed the baleful warning you risk not only going broke, but becoming synonymous with words like incompetence, inept and misleading.
Now you say to yourself why pick on these poor no-name devs when there are lots of other guys to make fun of across the industry who make a living off of screwing up? Frankly I haven't read a lot of 'professional' takes on the epic failure that Dark and Light has become and I thought that a few very important lessons need to be learned from it:
"Don't take candy from strangers."
"Look both ways before crossing the street."
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and most importantly, "if you don't know how to run an MMO please do yourself a favor and stop because all you will do is embarrass yourself and make fans of the genre less likely to take a chance on less well known projects and push them towards cloned grindfests... with elves."
See he goes on his rant about the email he got. What noone here has been spammed by near dead MMos begging you to comeback?
Stay tuned next week for more ill-informed nonsense from me and don't forget to throw in some abusive remarks you thought up while reading this
Well looky here, Dan even wants you to rant.
So what if Dan wants to write his columns like Dave Berry. You know how many writers out there do?Why should every column be so bleached that nothing is ever said just so someone wont feel hurt ' no F-bombs please it hurts me, see..see that bruise there it came from the F in wtf, I'm in agony
You whiners need to get over yourselves. You can't even rant correctly.
Because he's a columnist he's not allowed to fall with his mighty hammer on a company/game? I see it differently.
I don't want another discussion about how and why and whatever, this has been discusses long enough, now we just say, F*** NP3 and DnL.
I don't remember who wrote this, but I don't see why a columnist can't rant if he feels like. Do we need a column to rant, no, I guess enough people do that on forums already. Do I accept it? Hell yea. At least something new. Yes, i can't wait for the rant about SWG, eventho I still play it, and I can't wait for the rant of DDO or WoW or CoH/CoV...
If more people would write what they really think without having to take care not to offend anyone, we would live in a better world.
To Timberhick:
If he asked for abusive comments and we gave them to him, why are you abusing our abuses? Wouldn't that make you in the wrong? I thought my comments were pretty darn abusive, myself. The comment about the SWG Veterans forum was at least mildly caustic, if not downright ill-mannered.
Edit: I just realized that your abuse of our abusive comments is itself an abusive comment, so you're good.
I don't necessarilly agree or disagree but...
What I wanna read is stuff with info and research behind it. News.
Not rants
Less blabber more researching and updating the site...
How come the Marvel MMO isnt even in your games list yet?
Seems pretty freakin offical to me.
You even admit that you have no clue about what happened in detail but you judge the situation without background knowledge.
So you serve general negative blabla without going into detail ( in lack of knowledge).
This is bad journalism and smells like immature phrases painted on the walls in school toilets.
PS:
My critisism is just about the rant style he used to write without having any background.
I also dislike what happened with DnL.
I really enjoyed this. I use different wording than what the column title uses but each to their own. I enjoyed seeing someone talking about what their bad experiences can make them think when getting such an e-mail. I remember gettting the same e-mail and thinking what kind of idiot does that place think I am. Just to make sure things were still as bad, I went and looked at the forums and saw what seemed like even more than before.
Can't wait to see what the next one will be and if I know about it as well.
I totally agree with your sentiments, especially your last comment.
I thought the article was entertaining, spot on, and most importantly - relevant. I actually found it to have a subtlety that spoke of a level of intelligence I rarely see from most forum posters on this site. Kudos to the author for having the kahonos for actually saying what was on his mind and calling a spade a spade, but without the typical whining and drivel of a forum poster.
We need more of this for the hobby to keep advancing. We all (fanboys and journalists) need to stop stroking the egos of of every game developer wannabe that comes along touting their product as the next big thing. This industry has matured in many ways but there still is a boatload of hacks out there trying to break into the market with no real business plan or solid, innovative ideas to work from. Yet, most of the time we give unwarranted encouragement to a project because of our own delusions of grandeur ("oooo, lookey there, pretty graphics" or "cool, that game will let me disembowel my enemy ... dude, that roxxor!"). We'd serve hacks like the DnL developers and those sure to follow in their footsteps a lot better if we dashed their over-blown hype sooner rather than later. Then we could encourage the real players with sound business models and a solid, well-thought out and ACHIEVABLE vision to achieve their goals.
The bottom line is that the sooner that all of us, game mags, game journalists, and game players, stop catering to these "false prophet" game developers the better off we game players and the game industry as a whole will be. Just like I see happening on the MMORPG forums, stop encouraging the morons of the industry so they fade away and the real, innovative developers can be heard and noticed and they can do their thing to take our hobby to the next level.
This column was a good first step. Keep up the good work. I hope MMOWTF continues to evolve into a no-nonsense, call it as you see it, no holds barred column that'll call out the less desirable elements of our hobby.
I just hope this guy does not get paid for his article writing... because if this is all you can come up with in one week, you need to work a bit harder.
I don't disagree with anything said, but it seemed at one point in the article like the author was going to attempt a real, professional look at why D&L failed... then we get 4 almost meaningless quotes.
Perhaps another week a thought will help the next article contain more substance. In fact, maybe for the first few you should just repost last week's and add to them... thereby making each week LOOK more substantive.
This article had been merely a personal rant...but doesn't EVERYONE already know DnL sucks? Is it really such a surprise to anyone? Do we need to keep mentioning DnL when commenting about it in articles such as this does nothing to change the past, nor the future? An article like this MAY have meant something when the game was first released and when it may have mattered...but now it's too little too late. How long did it take for DnL to even get a review on this site? Too little, too late. It's like a reporter commenting on Hurricane Katrina a year later; there is just no relevance to it. Is not the reason for sites such as mmorpg.com to exist to help people make informed decisions on the games out there? I sometimes wonder if Farlan/Npcube just did not lobby their game here, or couldn't pay for their advertising costs, and now mmorpg.com is venting frustrations like the rest of us because they got the shaft, too.
This article regarding DnL is not going to influence/change any future developers minds about what to do/what not to do in an MMO. People will continue with their lives as they always have and new games will come and go. If you want a column that will have an impact, then offer creative solutions not rants, and above all...listen to the posters on this site. The customers/posters knew the poor quality of DnL months and months ago, and our rating of DnL is even lower than the "official" rating of that game (but of course, because we're merely customers we can't possibly know more than those who rate the games "officially").
Pay attention to the ratings of the games by the members of this site. Review the games in a timely manner and we will not need any "post-article" concessions.
EDIT: Edited only for minor spelling errors. Incidentally, there may be some people who are new to these forums who don't know what the term "WTF" means on your new column. Might have been a good idea to even explain what your column is supposed to represent. Your "new" column seems only to be for those who are already familiar with these botched games, so what's the point? Or was this "showcase" article just to build up a possible fan-base of disgruntled players who think you empathize with them?
I also expected to see more breadth - I wanted to see a little longer column, and talking to more than one item. After reading the boards over the last weeks, I exprected to see something about the click2play subscription debacle that is Neocron2. Maybe that will be next week. Maybe only 3 people are actually having trouble with it. Maybe single-threading is the intention.
As I said, I would focus on the remediation, not just the OMGWTF were they thinking?!
We should start compiling a list of other MMO sites and start frequenting them and maybe we can find a site with some klout!
Until that day !
^demon^^
Click here to let me Bite you!
Wha...?
Hmm...Does anyone really need a point for point analysis of why Dark and Light is the laughingstock of the game industry? If so, I'll happily point you in the right direction:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setview/reviews/gameID/58/loadReview/43
On a more serious note, I definately could have gone into more detail. Mentally noted. Thanks for all the love-hate posts, I print out each of them on 3x5 cards and run around my house naked with them all stapled to my body.
Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the reviews of MMORPG.com or its management.
Well put. Just out of curiosity, which site or sites, other than MMOPRG.com, WOULD you check for non-inane and non-useless MMORPG related articles?
The author of this column needs to write a lot more columns before I would consider him an excellent or even a good columnist. Having said that, since I know a little bit about DnL I found the column to be mildly entertaining.
There was a guy on MMORPG a while back who wrote a series of articles on game design that I would consider an excellent columnist. He would make points about general features he would like to see in a game and then back them up with examples from specific games. I don't recall his name offhand and I'm too lazy to google it, but gee, whatever happened to THAT guy?
These are my views exactly. Though i would like to add that i got the impression the article would have been this or a safe 'SWG sucks' or safer 'EVE rulesomfgroxxors!!!1one11'. I mean i guess knowing your readers goes a long way to buying love and favour with them (esspecially if your hoping to write more articles) but if you really want to leave an impression and make yourself a distinguished writer, well....Grow some fucking balls! And write about how SWG doesn't completely suck ass, what DnL managed to do right, or the problems with EVE. Tackle a challenging perspective that might make people actually think, as hard (or impossible) in some cases as it may be. I find some of the articles found on this site are only just summaries of what the forums rants say, i hardly ever read anything remotely close to original thinking or thought provoking (game reviews are still sometimes good though).
While i don't mean to single out this particular article, like others have said it was mildly entertaining, it is yet another example of the degradation of MMORPG.com's standard of writing. Hoping that will change since i remember i used to read great articles in the past here.
When one is a weekly columnist, one should learn to spell. It's "pique" someone's interest, not "peak" their interest.
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And i couldn't agree with the article more either, its my creed for designing this game to do something different.
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