lack of information...WHAT???

Povey151 · April 2007

Why do people keep saying there is a lack of information on this game. If you read the website you can really find out pretty much everything you can expect to know about the game

There is races, classes, how the classes are, how combat works, how the skills work, how items/equipment works, how leveling works, how the world is designed, how pvp works...etc.etc.etc.

I'm definately not a fanboy as i've just started looking into this game yesterday and have already found all of this out. Just suggesting that instead of coming to a 3rd party website and complaining about it maybe you should dig some more on the tcos website, also check the forums, post your questions....i have and have gotten thorough and quick responses in most cases, usually with links.

The game website is

www.thechroniclesofspellborn.com

just check it out, dig around.

Pietoro · May 2007

There are also a decent selection of gameplay videos available on Youtube.

People are just lazy and don't want to actually have to follow website links or read.

stefan_t_st · May 2007

Yes. There is a lot of info in the net about this great looking game. But i cant w8 anymore...i want to jon the beta and find how good the game is by myself. There isnt better info than playing the game yourself....i hope the OB will start soon ^^

Check the tcos.com and find a lot of info, screens and movies....

Somnulus · May 2007

Originally posted by Pietoro
There are also a decent selection of gameplay videos available on Youtube.People are just lazy and don't want to actually have to follow website links or read.

I dont' personally consider the videos on YouTube to be strict gameplay videos; the majority are trailers, cuts and full versions of The Howling, or screen footage from E3.

I only saw two videos that I would consider actual gameplay videos, rather than just exhibitions of different facets of the engine or trailers designed to show us what they would like us to see.

For a game that should be damn near release, they should be pushing the envelope on market saturation. Early in development, I was very excited about TCoS, but at this point, I quite frankly could care less when it will publish; particularly when U.S. servers are a secondary consideration, meaning an even greater delay for the U.S. market.

"Stratics: TCOS is scheduled for one more closed, and open beta, and second quarter 2007 release. After release, how will your resources be split amongst live, maintenance, and development teams? What plans do you have for the future of the game - live content, in-game events, expansion, etc?"

That was a quote from the Stratics interview posted 1 May 2007 on the TCoS site. The reply from Marco Van Haren didn't negate that schedule.

Now, I may be a bit hazy on the math, but there isn't a whole heck of a lot of the 2nd QTR left here in 2007. If I pushed the definition of "2nd Quarter Release" to include every single day in June, that would give us just a bare 51 days until we should expect to see TCoS go retail.

So for my part, it's easy to understand why people are saying there is a lack of information.

There's been no mention of a dropping of the NDA, no quoted start date for the open beta and no date for the retail release (although IGN is saying 30 June 2007 and the TCoS site itself in its forums says that release for Europe is planned for May 2007 (official forum announcement) - huh?).

The FAQ on the website still says TCoS is slated for a Q4 2006 release, even though we all know that's inaccurate.

So yup.... this close to supposed release, there does seem to be an absence of concrete information being provided.

If I am mistaken on those three major points (specific start date for the open beta, announcement of a specific date the NDA will be repealed and the specific release date for both Europe and the U.S.) I would be thrilled to see some correction.

Expatriate · May 2007

Good points.

Too many games are into 5 or more years of development, and I think that's a big problem for the gaming industry considering the rapid advances in hardware, not to mention that people are tired of hearing about it by then.

By the time a game comes out, hardware has advanced 2 generations.

The industry needs to work on making 1 year the max development time for a game.

Somnulus · May 2007

Originally posted by Expatriate
Good points.
Too many games are into 5 or more years of development, and I think that's a big problem for the gaming industry considering the rapid advances in hardware, not to mention that people are tired of hearing about it by then.
By the time a game comes out, hardware has advanced 2 generations.
The industry needs to work on making 1 year the max development time for a game.

You have an excellent point about the fact that over an extended period of time, people get tired of hearing about a game in development; particularly when, in all honesty, the majority of the time there is little to actually report from the developer on a weekly or even a monthly basis until they near completion.

The problem isn't the development time itself; there is really little that can be done with MMORPGs to minimize the overall development time. The more complex they are, the longer they will take to development. There is much more involved in developing MMORPGs than nearly any other PC game genre. While new tools are constantly being created to decrease development time, the process for MMORPGs is still much more lengthy than your average PC game development cycle.

The real issue is; why do studios feel the need to begin advertising their development the minute they begin? Of course we, as players, are going to get tired of hearing about a given MMORPG after five years! At that point, what we really want is to play the game.

The studios should begin publicizing their game about two years out from the release. That gives them a huge amount of material to provide to their potential customers, allows them to deliver the game in a timely manner without the customer losing interest and gives a greater impression of competence by providing a finished, polished product much more quickly than their competition.

Expatriate · May 2007

Building the hype over 2 years is one way to look at it, but I'm wondering if someone couldn't get massive hype PLUS good will by keeping a project secret and then springing a finished MMORPG onto the market.

For example, I was excited about LOTR a couple of years ago when it was supposed to be released, but now I haven't even bothered to play it.

I know MMORPG's are massively complex to develop--that's the problem that needs to be worked on, like you say, by developing tools to make faster development possible. 5 or more years is crazy. By the time it comes out, the graphics are outdated.

xDestinedx · May 2007

It makes me laugh how American's are complaining about how it will get an EU release first, and even thats only marginally.

I'd happily switch places with you, EU is generally considered the last thought for any gaming company

The lack of information may be a good sign, just lately companies have been far too busy building hype, than focusing on the actual game, vanguard would be a prime example, huge forum base, hundreds of fan sites with everything you;d wish to know, the game however was released unfinished and buggy

I'd rather they spent there time on developing the game, rather than showing it off at every given opportunity

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