Nice article Jon, was a great read. Mythic seems to know what the community wants. Hopefully they don't go around listening to everything though. It could end up biting them back.
I disagree with most of Jon's views in the majority of his comment's. For him to think that adding two removed classes will sort out the imbalance issues is ignorant. I can tell you (from a professional gamers point of view, not a writer/journalists.) that by adding those two classes will do nothing about the imbalance problems. Simply put, WAR is a great game for casual's and offers nothing to the hardcores. Glad to see Jacob's vs. Kaplan, Mythic 0 - Blizz 1.
May I disagree?
Theses classes will add some balance but the real balancing will come from tweaking all the classes and scenarios.
Now WAR, as most MMO now, is for harcore at max level, and yes I know you have a 40 lvl Soc on Dark Craig.
I saw lot of negativity in your posts lately and personally I wish you'll find your home into FallenEarth as we can agree KotorOnline won't be your cup of tea as it won't be like SWG Pre-CU.
And I insist even, if you don't like the game, which is your right, you can't say Mr Wood wasn't right on track.
To each is thier own, KoTOR-O will not be my cup of tea becuase I already have all the info thanks to my friends in certain places. However, it doesn't mean Im not going to play a free month as I do in all the MMO's. I collect MMO's and will continue to do so as they are released, max out my toons and then move on. If it can keep me longer great...
I respect Jon Woods, im just baffled at some of his comment's almost as if Mythic gave him money to say some of the remarks he made. Just my 5 Canadian cent's.
Let me get this straight, You collect MMOs?
You basically buy a MMO knowing you will only play the free month, get to max level and quit?
Then you come on the boards and troll the shit out of the game you just capped?
That's the stupidest shit I have ever read, who the hell does that?
MMOs are designed to evolve overtime not be spectacular the first 30 days.
I feel bad for you that you only play through the balance/bug fixing month of a MMO.
I was going to block your post due to the pink writing but now I have a better reason.
People we have a world class troll on our hand..... a professional even.
I disagree with most of Jon's views in the majority of his comment's. For him to think that adding two removed classes will sort out the imbalance issues is ignorant. I can tell you (from a professional gamers point of view, not a writer/journalists.) that by adding those two classes will do nothing about the imbalance problems. Simply put, WAR is a great game for casual's and offers nothing to the hardcores. Glad to see Jacob's vs. Kaplan, Mythic 0 - Blizz 1.
Professional gamer? lol
A lawyer is a profession. A Doctor is a profession, but a gamer is not a profession. No need to argue with me about it, just look it up for yourself, and you will see you used the term "professional" a little liberally.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
I disagree with most of Jon's views in the majority of his comment's. For him to think that adding two removed classes will sort out the imbalance issues is ignorant. I can tell you (from a professional gamers point of view, not a writer/journalists.) that by adding those two classes will do nothing about the imbalance problems. Simply put, WAR is a great game for casual's and offers nothing to the hardcores. Glad to see Jacob's vs. Kaplan, Mythic 0 - Blizz 1.
Professional gamer? lol
A lawyer is a profession. A Doctor is a profession, but a gamer is not a profession. No need to argue with me about it, just look it up for yourself, and you will see you used the term "professional" a little liberally.
Actually you can be a professional gamer, the most well known is a guy called Fatal1ty. Have a look at him on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal1ty
Originally posted by soaro77 Originally posted by PinkCat Simply put, WAR is a great game for casual's and offers nothing to the hardcores.
Good, it is about time someone did something for casual gamers too. Hardcore gamers already have a game they can play. Blizzard likes to devote every patch and upgrade in WoW to hardcore gamers and completely ignore causal gamers. Now us casual gamers have a game we can play too.
Originally posted by sairusco Professional gamers.. hardcore.. times have changed I guess. (I seem to be one of the rare individuals that plays a game for fun and to relax after a hard day of work)
Originally posted by Zanthorn Originally posted by sairusco Professional gamers.. hardcore.. times have changed I guess. (I seem to be one of the rare individuals that plays a game for fun and to relax after a hard day of work)
Thank you, I was begining to think I was alone in feeling this way. Way to many have forgotten what the words "Game",and "Gamer" means.
AMEN!!!! Nearly had a heart attack
Geez, guyz/girls you just don't know how good I feel at reading such comments, really a sore to my eyes
I disagree with most of Jon's views in the majority of his comment's. For him to think that adding two removed classes will sort out the imbalance issues is ignorant. I can tell you (from a professional gamers point of view, not a writer/journalists.) that by adding those two classes will do nothing about the imbalance problems. Simply put, WAR is a great game for casual's and offers nothing to the hardcores. Glad to see Jacob's vs. Kaplan, Mythic 0 - Blizz 1.
Professional gamer? lol
A lawyer is a profession. A Doctor is a profession, but a gamer is not a profession. No need to argue with me about it, just look it up for yourself, and you will see you used the term "professional" a little liberally.
Actually you can be a professional gamer, the most well known is a guy called Fatal1ty. Have a look at him on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal1ty
Well, I admit that I was thinking of the word profession, not professional when I replied. There are certain standards that are required to be met before a occupation can be considered a profession. One example is an advanced academic degree and a unified code of ethics.
It's amazing that there are professional gamers now. I feel it's a waste of time though. I see gaming as a hobby, not as something that should be pursued professionally. I believe that energy could be better spent helping others in the world, but not everyone has my priorities or needs to. Kudos to that guy for finding his niche in this world.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
I disagree with most of Jon's views in the majority of his comment's. For him to think that adding two removed classes will sort out the imbalance issues is ignorant. I can tell you (from a professional gamers point of view, not a writer/journalists.) that by adding those two classes will do nothing about the imbalance problems. Simply put, WAR is a great game for casual's and offers nothing to the hardcores. Glad to see Jacob's vs. Kaplan, Mythic 0 - Blizz 1.
May I disagree?
Theses classes will add some balance but the real balancing will come from tweaking all the classes and scenarios.
Now WAR, as most MMO now, is for harcore at max level, and yes I know you have a 40 lvl Soc on Dark Craig.
I saw lot of negativity in your posts lately and personally I wish you'll find your home into FallenEarth as we can agree KotorOnline won't be your cup of tea as it won't be like SWG Pre-CU.
And I insist even, if you don't like the game, which is your right, you can't say Mr Wood wasn't right on track.
To each is thier own, KoTOR-O will not be my cup of tea becuase I already have all the info thanks to my friends in certain places. However, it doesn't mean Im not going to play a free month as I do in all the MMO's. I collect MMO's and will continue to do so as they are released, max out my toons and then move on. If it can keep me longer great...
I respect Jon Woods, im just baffled at some of his comment's almost as if Mythic gave him money to say some of the remarks he made. Just my 5 Canadian cent's.
Let me get this straight, You collect MMOs?
You basically buy a MMO knowing you will only play the free month, get to max level and quit?
Then you come on the boards and troll the shit out of the game you just capped?
That's the stupidest shit I have ever read, who the hell does that?
MMOs are designed to evolve overtime not be spectacular the first 30 days.
I feel bad for you that you only play through the balance/bug fixing month of a MMO.
I was going to block your post due to the pink writing but now I have a better reason.
People we have a world class troll on our hand..... a professional even.
/block
QFT!
Reading this persons posts in this thread and others you can tell they have a superiority complex. Yeah lets race to cap and skip loads of content in between then cry that I dont like the content and that I have every mmo ever released so I am an expert and only my opinion matters 'cause I am a professional gamer"
Yeah we get it, your the best MMO gamer ever. I don't know why 'she' even plays this genre when it is obvious they will never find the perfect MMO. Then they troll about it, every single chance they get like they are getting paid to do so. Then make condescending remarks towards people that do enjoy the game. You will also see these type of people never give constructive feedback or mention some redeeming qualities of the game.
Get over it already. I will never understand why someone who hates a game will still continue to post on that games forums. If I hated WAR so much I would stay away from the WAR boards. End of rant....
I read the State of the Game address and it did touch on a few of the things I have been worried about. The influence system for open world rvr sounds just like what we need to make open rvr more populated. It is good that they are bringing back the missing tank classes and I am looking forward to seeing all the class balancing. Mark said vast majority of classes were getting some love so I hope they do it correctly. I do hope they continue to improve the graphics engine in terms of making it look better. I'm still waiting for EAX to be enabled again for Vista users as well. I have seen nothing mentioned about the EAX issue since it was disabled in Open Beta.
I disagree with most of Jon's views in the majority of his comment's. For him to think that adding two removed classes will sort out the imbalance issues is ignorant. I can tell you (from a professional gamers point of view, not a writer/journalists.) that by adding those two classes will do nothing about the imbalance problems. Simply put, WAR is a great game for casual's and offers nothing to the hardcores. Glad to see Jacob's vs. Kaplan, Mythic 0 - Blizz 1.
The game has been targeted at a completely different demographic so I was hugely disappointed as I am a massive Warhammer fan. This is probably the only MMO I really wanted to play above and beyond anything else and I can't believe I have not logged in for a whole week because I just find it so dull and basic. Today my sub runs out and I hope it continues to grow for those that love it. I thought about rerolling on a high pop server but even that would only draw my gameplay out for another month. They need to shut down some low pop servers now and as stated in the article, let players move on to high pop servers. One more thing...give us a crafting bag!!!! Anyone that cultivates and is an alchemist will feel my pain here. My inventory had 20 different items for each crafting method and I was constantly dropping or selling good stuff. Its not even new now...most MMOs have a crafting bag alongside your inventory! Geeeshh..basic stuff guys, sort it!
Great comments, Jon. I agree! Great state of the game from MJ. The only thing I wasn't too pleased to read was where Mark stated: "I also said that we would not charge any additional fees for this new content or put it in a separate expansion pack; that’s not how we operate. We’ve kept to that plan and with the introduction of these two classes, Mythic shows that once again we are happy to keep giving players more value for their subscription dollars than any other MMORPG developer." Mythic has to be real careful saying that. The company that wins HANDS DOWN for added content free of charge is Turbine with LOTRO. This content they are adding was taken out before release because it wasn't ready and everyone knows that. I love WAR and LOTRO, but honestly... when Mythic starts adding new content free of charge than Turbine has in the past 1-1/2 years, then they can make those kinds of statements. Otherwise, it comes across as arrogant.
I think this was pretty clearly a stab at WoW and not LotRO which it can't compare well to at this point and has a very different playerbase. WoW however releases this next month a new Hero class which was originally acknowledged slated to be an after release content patch (along with other Hero classes). Lots of other content like the Druids stormcrow form has been added in as expansion content when it was taken out during beta. So this is a stab at disgruntled WoW players who are paying for features they got excited about with release a long time ago.
LotRO players, well I just don't expect a lot of them (Monster players mostly) will be excited by WAR for long. Storywise and gameplay wise they go after very different types of players, they can only be compared in how well each of them has gone after their market.
Has it really come to the point where the guys has to make a point of saying that this report on what they’re planning to put in the game isn’t a guarantee and that they’re just talking about what they’re planning? I mean, I commend Mark for putting this in there as a “just in case” way of managing expectations (a game’s development is constantly changing and adapting) but shouldn’t that just be a given?
Yes. See: Your forums
The majority of posters here have no clue about development, or would even be open to the idea that "Shit happens"…… Nope, they will just flame all day long that "It was promised!!" That and start saying things like "They are incompetent!!SHIFT1!", or something about monkeys and type writers.
Ok this is ingorant. Coming from a programing background when talking about developing something you only speak in basics that can be delivered. If you tell a client that you will delivery some functionality and then a month before supplying the final product tell the client you could not put in the promised items that is called "You will not be hired again." Development or no you do not make promises and then fail to produce them. If you underestimate what you can produce then the client will be much happier. Think Scotty from Star Trek...say 5 hours to fix, but do it in 2 so people think you are a miracle worker.
Ok this is ingorant. Coming from a programing background when talking about developing something you only speak in basics that can be delivered. If you tell a client that you will delivery some functionality and then a month before supplying the final product tell the client you could not put in the promised items that is called "You will not be hired again." Development or no you do not make promises and then fail to produce them. If you underestimate what you can produce then the client will be much happier. Think Scotty from Star Trek...say 5 hours to fix, but do it in 2 so people think you are a miracle worker.
While I kind of agree with this,I have to point out that you're not talking about promises. Promise is a term that get applied later to an interview or similar piece.
Sites like this one have the ability to go "nbehind the scenes" and get early reports on the game that the developers are trying to make. It's important to understand the context of a creative project like this where everything is constantly changing and decisions sometimes have to be made to sacrifice some elements in favor of others.
The bottom line here is if you read it in an interview pre-launch, you take it with a grain of salt. This is, right now, what we're trying to do. Unless a developer specifically "promises" a feature, you can't fault them if it doesn't materialize.
I enjoyed the state of play and found the comments useful. I didn't agree with all of them but I don't want to include pink on my post so will simply state the obvious- 'sherly that's the point of comment??'
I was disturbed to see there's no change to LFG functionality. I've read MJ's comments about having the brilliantest lfg functionality ever. Unfortunately he's wrong. It's not killing the game as an MMO- the silence is and I was so reassured to see something's been done about that- but it is crippling it for casuals like me. The open group system is great in it's way. It's fab for pq's but is not much used other than that. If MJ does not believe me I strongly suggest he checks his metrics.
People join up with a mate and they take on a hero/champ they reckon they can take. I see 'em do it and join in only to find they didn't know how/forgot to close their group. After the first few times those of us who don't particlarly enjoy being sworn at except by people we're killing stop joining outside of pq's. I made a joke about this in a warband pq and was shocked. A previously silent group came alive with people sharing similar stories while nailing the final boss. We ended up sticking together and doing all the pq's in the area but it led me to believe it's not just me feeling that way.
Also, if you're a casual and looking to do the instances how is this supposed to happen? I tried hanging around IC spamming chat and looking for groups to join on my Shamie. Nada. I've been outlevelled by everybody in my guild so need to find a PUG. Outside of PQ's the current limited LFG system is so unfriendly to PUG's. So yes, great guild system but spot the obvious flaw pre-end game.
My third example is scens. I'm getting bored with being constantly rolled by guilds/TS'd/Vented groups. If there was an lfg system we could actually pre-plan. People who did not want to could just pop as now but those of us who would like to have a chance of winning could benefit from an lfg system where we could use a search engine to find like-minded people and together plan ahead for when the scen pops.
I wondered why I'd stopped playing my (still lowbie) shamie and become an altoholic. That should not have happened for months. I sat down this morning and thought about it after reading MJ's announcement. i think it's the fact that I feel like renown fodder for order and not enough is done in the game mechanics to help prevent that. I like this game. I like it's look and feel but I do not like the fact it currently feels like a third person shooter with a lot of solo content and occasional flashes of MMO (PQ's). For a casual not hunting with their guild having vent and TS is useless and there is nothing in-game to compensate for this. I believe this is fixable.
I've spent a night taking a keep and another failing to hold one. Both great nights. Lousy xp but amazing fun so I know why the devs are so excited about their game but yesterday I did go and check up on the WoW expansion for the first time since the day I quit AoC. and I don't want to feel like that about this game. So i'm excited about the patch and will be subscribing but its not the absence of cities I've never seen or classes I've never played that's causing me frustration.
Hopefully the improvements to chat will be enough but I did not want to make some pink l33t crit without offering a suggestion considering how open to ideas the Mythic team have proven themselves to be.Another reason I like this game. So, please, an Lfg engine with the ability to specify what you are looking for just like MMO's usually have.
/rant
Finally, to the people constantly trolling editorials and articles like this on this site with 'Ohmygod you're so biassed an im rite cos i'm grate mummy tells me so'. Please shut up. This is a gaming fansite. articles are meant to be from people who like the game they're writing about. They don't have to think its absolutely superduperperfect but they are expected to err on the side of 'i'm one of those that like the game i'm writing about'. Those of us with an ounce of intelligence are meant to understand that and consider it when we think about what they have written. It gets boring having to wade past pages of your sh1t to read other gamers who have something interesting to say.
WOW Pinkcat can you come off your high horse please.
Funny how when jon clearly asked how you are a professional gamer....instead of answering you just said something to the extent of "lol instead of just proving how i am a gamer, im going to act like you are ignorant for not automatically knowing".
Clearly you are not one.
As others have pointed out...professional games are professionals. They make $ in some way shape or form through playing video games.
If you simply just play a bunch of video games, that doesnt count.
But hey if you are one, show us. Answer Jon's questions cause i too would be interested to hear your resume on your professional gaming.
Also....yes KotBS will hopefully add a little something something, but i think it is far from solving the unfortunate problems in the game. I have to decide whether to subscribe after my trial is up and to be honest it is not an easy choice. If it wasnt for my guild it would be a no brainer. I joined WAR for the open world RVR and pvp experience and it is a ghost town.
Thanks again for a great article Jon, I enjoyed the talking head perspective.
While I won't claim to be a "professional" gamer, I've been MMO'ing since MUDs and have to say that I'm quite happy with the amount of information coming out of Mythic. I feel that most of it is useful and while not overly detailed it often answers some of my questions and gives me a sense they actually are a bit more connected to their subscriber base - even without official forums.
And as for balance whines... in the end just suck it up, be the best at the class you play.
Luckily you included FOX when describing the talking heads, because your commentary sounds like FOX commenting president Bush. You're just repeating whatever marketing BS Mythic is feeding you. Lets do a comment on your comment:
"It’s important to note the language here as he says “750K+ worldwide account holders”. In the first month, this is really the only statistic that is really valid. There’s no real way to talk about current players until we see results past the included 30 days of free play. In any case, this is quite an accomplishment."
No its not the only statisic we can look at. You can look at dwindling xfire numbers, empty servers and guildies not playing anymore. I like WAR a lot, but there are serious problems with keeping people hooked to the game. Tier 3 & 4 are just not interesting enough to keep the same interest up as Tier 1 & 2.
"Here, Mark announces the game’s first major patch in the form of 1.1. There was some speculation as to whether or not Mythic would keep up with a schedule of big, free updates with all of the small free fixes that have been happening since launch. Mark does a great job here of explaining where the focus has been and where it’s going. We also know that we’re not going to have to wait too long as it’s been promised by later this fall."
Here you go again. Just repeating the marketing speak with no analysis what so ever. It this really a big update? Comparable to the last big WoW update for instance? Or are they just adding a few quests and two professions. WAR professions seem to be pretty much four types with some flavour to make them play a little different.
"While some might say that this won’t help the perceived imbalance between the number of Order Tanks vs Destruction Tanks, I respectfully disagree. I think that many order side players have been waiting to be able to roll an Empire Tank and they will soon have their chance."
Ah, a bit of analysis. Too bad it is wrong. If current order players are going to roll empire tanks, that does nothing to change the imbalance between order and destruction. We need destruction players to roll empire tanks. If that isn't going to happen, the imbalance remains.
It’s nice to hear them talking about solving performance issues, and nicer still to hear that they’ve got a focus on lower end machines.
sure, its nice, but is it an analysis?
Mail system upgrade: Woot! I’m not really sure what else to say here other than once again, it’s interesting how Jacobs manages to put a positive spin on the issue without appearing to “sweep it under the rug”.
Eh, maybe you should stop sucking up to advertisers, just like members should stop to suck up to managing editors. Not for my sake, but because objective real analysis will keep more people glued to mmorpg and that will keep your advertisers. If mmorpg loses its reputation, no sucking up will keep the advertisers here.
Anything that helps to promote RvR in this game is going to be a positive. While there any many aspects to the game, RvR is Mythic’s crown jewel.
But why, why is it to be positive? Well, because there is almost no RvR going on. You want to travel safely through an open RvR server where I play? Take a route through the RvR area, the change you encounter the ennemy is extremely small. Only if order takes the trouble to organise an attack, there will be RvR, but as order is creamed most of the time (all destruction players finally happy that some RvR is going are attracted like a strong magnet), order will decrease the number of attacks. By completely ignoring this issue, you appear to be either ignorant or willingly covering up the major problems Mythic has. It sure doesnt help mmorpg, nor mythic.
Allowing players to move from low pop servers to medium pop servers is going to make a big difference for those players who started out early on a server that just didn’t catch on. Population is such a key to enjoyment in Warhammer. While it’s possible to enjoy yourself on a low pop server, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and it isn’t the design of the game
See you agree on the main issue with Mythic, but are afraid to say so directly. Fear makes for bad writing. But what is the difference between a low and a medium populated server? None. Both are extremely empty. How can WAR be so succesful and need server mergers? Interesting questions you don't touch at all. I am sure that if Mythic wants some applause they could buy some advertisement with you.
"While the performance of WAR is great on most higher spec machines, we know that we can improve its performance on lower spec machines."
LOL!!! Low end pc? If calling a core 2, 8600gts card and 4 gig ram low end! Dude! please post your system spec !!!
sorry to say it but that spec you posted is lowend, mid range these days is quad core with 2 cards in Sli or an X2 card, 4 gig or ram is mid range, high end it the top end quad core with high end Sli cards or X2 in crossfire ( esentially 4 cards) and 8 gig of ram. Dell outlet sell machines with 8 gig btw.
I sadly have a low end system with a high end graphics card the card does ALOT to solve issues but I only run 2 gig of ram so get the slow loading times rather than the lag in graphics in big battles.
Has it really come to the point where the guys has to make a point of saying that this report on what they’re planning to put in the game isn’t a guarantee and that they’re just talking about what they’re planning? I mean, I commend Mark for putting this in there as a “just in case” way of managing expectations (a game’s development is constantly changing and adapting) but shouldn’t that just be a given?
Yes. See: Your forums
The majority of posters here have no clue about development, or would even be open to the idea that "Shit happens"…… Nope, they will just flame all day long that "It was promised!!" That and start saying things like "They are incompetent!!SHIFT1!", or something about monkeys and type writers.
I know! It's almost as if they're paying for a service or something.
Why the need to tell anybody about what you are thinking of adding to the game except the dev team?
To bait players? To create undeserved hype? Why?
"The liberties and resulting economic prosperity that YOU take for granted were granted by those "dead guys"
I disagree with most of Jon's views in the majority of his comment's. For him to think that adding two removed classes will sort out the imbalance issues is ignorant. I can tell you (from a professional gamers point of view, not a writer/journalists.) that by adding those two classes will do nothing about the imbalance problems. Simply put, WAR is a great game for casual's and offers nothing to the hardcores. Glad to see Jacob's vs. Kaplan, Mythic 0 - Blizz 1.
This made me laugh , dont u mean a professional no lifer , so thats what u call it when u play games 24hrs a day , yeah good one mate.
I might even understand if u was getting payed to play games , but sitting at your computer in your house "Thinking your a Professional Gamer" is just silly.
Professional gamers.. hardcore.. times have changed I guess. (I seem to be one of the rare individuals that plays a game for fun and to relax after a hard day of work)
Thank you, I was begining to think I was alone in feeling this way.
Way to many have forgotten what the words "Game",and "Gamer" means.
Yeah, people take games way too seriously. Was talking to a friend of mine about this regarding this one linkshell (guild) on his server in FFXI who have declared themselves "THE Elite End-game LS". They treat anyone not in their LS like dirt. They regard all the high end HNMs (raid bosses) as their sole property, and anyone else who tries to claim them is treated as though they're some kind of criminal. They expect anyone in their LS to drop whatever they're doing, on a second's notice, and go to whatever event they decide they're doing; if you don't, you're kicked after the first offense because you haven't made them your #1 top priority at all times. And on and on.
In short, they take the game, and themselves way too seriously.
Last I checked, games are supposed to be a fun, casual pastime. Not a second job, or military tour of duty.
"Loss of perspective" comes to mind when I think about it.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Ok this is ingorant. Coming from a programing background when talking about developing something you only speak in basics that can be delivered. If you tell a client that you will delivery some functionality and then a month before supplying the final product tell the client you could not put in the promised items that is called "You will not be hired again." Development or no you do not make promises and then fail to produce them. If you underestimate what you can produce then the client will be much happier. Think Scotty from Star Trek...say 5 hours to fix, but do it in 2 so people think you are a miracle worker.
You are clrearly coming from the bussiness/government software side then. There is a well know double standard in software developement between commercial and bussiness software. Bussiness software has to meet spec and fulfill promises, commercial does not. Has Microsoft ever released an operating system that met all the original promises made? How about Vista? And games are typicly the worst of the commercial side. I come from the bussiness/government side myself and it bugs me when commercial developers claim that all SW has bugs; mine does not, it cannot. However, it has become the standard for commercial software to be released with bugs and missing content. I don't think you can blame a reported for expressing this.
Comments
Nice article Jon, was a great read. Mythic seems to know what the community wants. Hopefully they don't go around listening to everything though. It could end up biting them back.
May I disagree?
Theses classes will add some balance but the real balancing will come from tweaking all the classes and scenarios.
Now WAR, as most MMO now, is for harcore at max level, and yes I know you have a 40 lvl Soc on Dark Craig.
I saw lot of negativity in your posts lately and personally I wish you'll find your home into FallenEarth as we can agree KotorOnline won't be your cup of tea as it won't be like SWG Pre-CU.
And I insist even, if you don't like the game, which is your right, you can't say Mr Wood wasn't right on track.
To each is thier own, KoTOR-O will not be my cup of tea becuase I already have all the info thanks to my friends in certain places. However, it doesn't mean Im not going to play a free month as I do in all the MMO's. I collect MMO's and will continue to do so as they are released, max out my toons and then move on. If it can keep me longer great...
I respect Jon Woods, im just baffled at some of his comment's almost as if Mythic gave him money to say some of the remarks he made. Just my 5 Canadian cent's.
Let me get this straight, You collect MMOs?
You basically buy a MMO knowing you will only play the free month, get to max level and quit?
Then you come on the boards and troll the shit out of the game you just capped?
That's the stupidest shit I have ever read, who the hell does that?
MMOs are designed to evolve overtime not be spectacular the first 30 days.
I feel bad for you that you only play through the balance/bug fixing month of a MMO.
I was going to block your post due to the pink writing but now I have a better reason.
People we have a world class troll on our hand..... a professional even.
/block
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing
Professional gamer? lol
A lawyer is a profession. A Doctor is a profession, but a gamer is not a profession. No need to argue with me about it, just look it up for yourself, and you will see you used the term "professional" a little liberally.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Professional gamer? lol
A lawyer is a profession. A Doctor is a profession, but a gamer is not a profession. No need to argue with me about it, just look it up for yourself, and you will see you used the term "professional" a little liberally.
Actually you can be a professional gamer, the most well known is a guy called Fatal1ty. Have a look at him on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal1ty
Good, it is about time someone did something for casual gamers too. Hardcore gamers already have a game they can play. Blizzard likes to devote every patch and upgrade in WoW to hardcore gamers and completely ignore causal gamers. Now us casual gamers have a game we can play too.
Thank you, I was begining to think I was alone in feeling this way.
Way to many have forgotten what the words "Game",and "Gamer" means.
AMEN!!!! Nearly had a heart attack
Geez, guyz/girls you just don't know how good I feel at reading such comments, really a sore to my eyes
The first major patch is shaping up nicely. I'm really excited to see where Mythic run with this game.
Professional gamer? lol
A lawyer is a profession. A Doctor is a profession, but a gamer is not a profession. No need to argue with me about it, just look it up for yourself, and you will see you used the term "professional" a little liberally.
Actually you can be a professional gamer, the most well known is a guy called Fatal1ty. Have a look at him on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal1ty
Well, I admit that I was thinking of the word profession, not professional when I replied. There are certain standards that are required to be met before a occupation can be considered a profession. One example is an advanced academic degree and a unified code of ethics.
It's amazing that there are professional gamers now. I feel it's a waste of time though. I see gaming as a hobby, not as something that should be pursued professionally. I believe that energy could be better spent helping others in the world, but not everyone has my priorities or needs to. Kudos to that guy for finding his niche in this world.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
May I disagree?
Theses classes will add some balance but the real balancing will come from tweaking all the classes and scenarios.
Now WAR, as most MMO now, is for harcore at max level, and yes I know you have a 40 lvl Soc on Dark Craig.
I saw lot of negativity in your posts lately and personally I wish you'll find your home into FallenEarth as we can agree KotorOnline won't be your cup of tea as it won't be like SWG Pre-CU.
And I insist even, if you don't like the game, which is your right, you can't say Mr Wood wasn't right on track.
To each is thier own, KoTOR-O will not be my cup of tea becuase I already have all the info thanks to my friends in certain places. However, it doesn't mean Im not going to play a free month as I do in all the MMO's. I collect MMO's and will continue to do so as they are released, max out my toons and then move on. If it can keep me longer great...
I respect Jon Woods, im just baffled at some of his comment's almost as if Mythic gave him money to say some of the remarks he made. Just my 5 Canadian cent's.
Let me get this straight, You collect MMOs?
You basically buy a MMO knowing you will only play the free month, get to max level and quit?
Then you come on the boards and troll the shit out of the game you just capped?
That's the stupidest shit I have ever read, who the hell does that?
MMOs are designed to evolve overtime not be spectacular the first 30 days.
I feel bad for you that you only play through the balance/bug fixing month of a MMO.
I was going to block your post due to the pink writing but now I have a better reason.
People we have a world class troll on our hand..... a professional even.
/block
QFT!
Reading this persons posts in this thread and others you can tell they have a superiority complex. Yeah lets race to cap and skip loads of content in between then cry that I dont like the content and that I have every mmo ever released so I am an expert and only my opinion matters 'cause I am a professional gamer"
Yeah we get it, your the best MMO gamer ever. I don't know why 'she' even plays this genre when it is obvious they will never find the perfect MMO. Then they troll about it, every single chance they get like they are getting paid to do so. Then make condescending remarks towards people that do enjoy the game. You will also see these type of people never give constructive feedback or mention some redeeming qualities of the game.
Get over it already. I will never understand why someone who hates a game will still continue to post on that games forums.
If I hated WAR so much I would stay away from the WAR boards. End of rant....
I read the State of the Game address and it did touch on a few of the things I have been worried about. The influence system for open world rvr sounds just like what we need to make open rvr more populated. It is good that they are bringing back the missing tank classes and I am looking forward to seeing all the class balancing. Mark said vast majority of classes were getting some love so I hope they do it correctly. I do hope they continue to improve the graphics engine in terms of making it look better. I'm still waiting for EAX to be enabled again for Vista users as well. I have seen nothing mentioned about the EAX issue since it was disabled in Open Beta.
Good to see they're adding those two classes they took out. Should make a lot of people happy, except Pro gamers of course.
The game has been targeted at a completely different demographic so I was hugely disappointed as I am a massive Warhammer fan. This is probably the only MMO I really wanted to play above and beyond anything else and I can't believe I have not logged in for a whole week because I just find it so dull and basic. Today my sub runs out and I hope it continues to grow for those that love it. I thought about rerolling on a high pop server but even that would only draw my gameplay out for another month. They need to shut down some low pop servers now and as stated in the article, let players move on to high pop servers. One more thing...give us a crafting bag!!!! Anyone that cultivates and is an alchemist will feel my pain here. My inventory had 20 different items for each crafting method and I was constantly dropping or selling good stuff. Its not even new now...most MMOs have a crafting bag alongside your inventory! Geeeshh..basic stuff guys, sort it!
I think this was pretty clearly a stab at WoW and not LotRO which it can't compare well to at this point and has a very different playerbase. WoW however releases this next month a new Hero class which was originally acknowledged slated to be an after release content patch (along with other Hero classes). Lots of other content like the Druids stormcrow form has been added in as expansion content when it was taken out during beta. So this is a stab at disgruntled WoW players who are paying for features they got excited about with release a long time ago.
LotRO players, well I just don't expect a lot of them (Monster players mostly) will be excited by WAR for long. Storywise and gameplay wise they go after very different types of players, they can only be compared in how well each of them has gone after their market.
Yes. See: Your forums
The majority of posters here have no clue about development, or would even be open to the idea that "Shit happens"…… Nope, they will just flame all day long that "It was promised!!" That and start saying things like "They are incompetent!!SHIFT1!", or something about monkeys and type writers.
Ok this is ingorant. Coming from a programing background when talking about developing something you only speak in basics that can be delivered. If you tell a client that you will delivery some functionality and then a month before supplying the final product tell the client you could not put in the promised items that is called "You will not be hired again." Development or no you do not make promises and then fail to produce them. If you underestimate what you can produce then the client will be much happier. Think Scotty from Star Trek...say 5 hours to fix, but do it in 2 so people think you are a miracle worker.
While I kind of agree with this,I have to point out that you're not talking about promises. Promise is a term that get applied later to an interview or similar piece.
Sites like this one have the ability to go "nbehind the scenes" and get early reports on the game that the developers are trying to make. It's important to understand the context of a creative project like this where everything is constantly changing and decisions sometimes have to be made to sacrifice some elements in favor of others.
The bottom line here is if you read it in an interview pre-launch, you take it with a grain of salt. This is, right now, what we're trying to do. Unless a developer specifically "promises" a feature, you can't fault them if it doesn't materialize.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
I enjoyed the state of play and found the comments useful. I didn't agree with all of them but I don't want to include pink on my post so will simply state the obvious- 'sherly that's the point of comment??'
I was disturbed to see there's no change to LFG functionality. I've read MJ's comments about having the brilliantest lfg functionality ever. Unfortunately he's wrong. It's not killing the game as an MMO- the silence is and I was so reassured to see something's been done about that- but it is crippling it for casuals like me. The open group system is great in it's way. It's fab for pq's but is not much used other than that. If MJ does not believe me I strongly suggest he checks his metrics.
People join up with a mate and they take on a hero/champ they reckon they can take. I see 'em do it and join in only to find they didn't know how/forgot to close their group. After the first few times those of us who don't particlarly enjoy being sworn at except by people we're killing stop joining outside of pq's. I made a joke about this in a warband pq and was shocked. A previously silent group came alive with people sharing similar stories while nailing the final boss. We ended up sticking together and doing all the pq's in the area but it led me to believe it's not just me feeling that way.
Also, if you're a casual and looking to do the instances how is this supposed to happen? I tried hanging around IC spamming chat and looking for groups to join on my Shamie. Nada. I've been outlevelled by everybody in my guild so need to find a PUG. Outside of PQ's the current limited LFG system is so unfriendly to PUG's. So yes, great guild system but spot the obvious flaw pre-end game.
My third example is scens. I'm getting bored with being constantly rolled by guilds/TS'd/Vented groups. If there was an lfg system we could actually pre-plan. People who did not want to could just pop as now but those of us who would like to have a chance of winning could benefit from an lfg system where we could use a search engine to find like-minded people and together plan ahead for when the scen pops.
I wondered why I'd stopped playing my (still lowbie) shamie and become an altoholic. That should not have happened for months. I sat down this morning and thought about it after reading MJ's announcement. i think it's the fact that I feel like renown fodder for order and not enough is done in the game mechanics to help prevent that. I like this game. I like it's look and feel but I do not like the fact it currently feels like a third person shooter with a lot of solo content and occasional flashes of MMO (PQ's). For a casual not hunting with their guild having vent and TS is useless and there is nothing in-game to compensate for this. I believe this is fixable.
I've spent a night taking a keep and another failing to hold one. Both great nights. Lousy xp but amazing fun so I know why the devs are so excited about their game but yesterday I did go and check up on the WoW expansion for the first time since the day I quit AoC. and I don't want to feel like that about this game. So i'm excited about the patch and will be subscribing but its not the absence of cities I've never seen or classes I've never played that's causing me frustration.
Hopefully the improvements to chat will be enough but I did not want to make some pink l33t crit without offering a suggestion considering how open to ideas the Mythic team have proven themselves to be.Another reason I like this game. So, please, an Lfg engine with the ability to specify what you are looking for just like MMO's usually have.
/rant
Finally, to the people constantly trolling editorials and articles like this on this site with 'Ohmygod you're so biassed an im rite cos i'm grate mummy tells me so'. Please shut up. This is a gaming fansite. articles are meant to be from people who like the game they're writing about. They don't have to think its absolutely superduperperfect but they are expected to err on the side of 'i'm one of those that like the game i'm writing about'. Those of us with an ounce of intelligence are meant to understand that and consider it when we think about what they have written. It gets boring having to wade past pages of your sh1t to read other gamers who have something interesting to say.
/rantoff
WOW Pinkcat can you come off your high horse please.
Funny how when jon clearly asked how you are a professional gamer....instead of answering you just said something to the extent of "lol instead of just proving how i am a gamer, im going to act like you are ignorant for not automatically knowing".
Clearly you are not one.
As others have pointed out...professional games are professionals. They make $ in some way shape or form through playing video games.
If you simply just play a bunch of video games, that doesnt count.
But hey if you are one, show us. Answer Jon's questions cause i too would be interested to hear your resume on your professional gaming.
Also....yes KotBS will hopefully add a little something something, but i think it is far from solving the unfortunate problems in the game. I have to decide whether to subscribe after my trial is up and to be honest it is not an easy choice. If it wasnt for my guild it would be a no brainer. I joined WAR for the open world RVR and pvp experience and it is a ghost town.
---sig---
Click this for lulz: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/173737/page/6
"While the performance of WAR is great on most higher spec machines, we know that we can improve its performance on lower spec machines."
LOL!!! Low end pc? If calling a core 2, 8600gts card and 4 gig ram low end! Dude! please post your system spec !!!
RIP Orc Choppa
Thanks again for a great article Jon, I enjoyed the talking head perspective.
While I won't claim to be a "professional" gamer, I've been MMO'ing since MUDs and have to say that I'm quite happy with the amount of information coming out of Mythic. I feel that most of it is useful and while not overly detailed it often answers some of my questions and gives me a sense they actually are a bit more connected to their subscriber base - even without official forums.
And as for balance whines... in the end just suck it up, be the best at the class you play.
Great reading
-<[ Damn Dirty Apes ]>-
-<[ Merde Souill
Luckily you included FOX when describing the talking heads, because your commentary sounds like FOX commenting president Bush. You're just repeating whatever marketing BS Mythic is feeding you. Lets do a comment on your comment:
"It’s important to note the language here as he says “750K+ worldwide account holders”. In the first month, this is really the only statistic that is really valid. There’s no real way to talk about current players until we see results past the included 30 days of free play. In any case, this is quite an accomplishment."
No its not the only statisic we can look at. You can look at dwindling xfire numbers, empty servers and guildies not playing anymore. I like WAR a lot, but there are serious problems with keeping people hooked to the game. Tier 3 & 4 are just not interesting enough to keep the same interest up as Tier 1 & 2.
"Here, Mark announces the game’s first major patch in the form of 1.1. There was some speculation as to whether or not Mythic would keep up with a schedule of big, free updates with all of the small free fixes that have been happening since launch. Mark does a great job here of explaining where the focus has been and where it’s going. We also know that we’re not going to have to wait too long as it’s been promised by later this fall."
Here you go again. Just repeating the marketing speak with no analysis what so ever. It this really a big update? Comparable to the last big WoW update for instance? Or are they just adding a few quests and two professions. WAR professions seem to be pretty much four types with some flavour to make them play a little different.
"While some might say that this won’t help the perceived imbalance between the number of Order Tanks vs Destruction Tanks, I respectfully disagree. I think that many order side players have been waiting to be able to roll an Empire Tank and they will soon have their chance."
Ah, a bit of analysis. Too bad it is wrong. If current order players are going to roll empire tanks, that does nothing to change the imbalance between order and destruction. We need destruction players to roll empire tanks. If that isn't going to happen, the imbalance remains.
It’s nice to hear them talking about solving performance issues, and nicer still to hear that they’ve got a focus on lower end machines.
sure, its nice, but is it an analysis?
Mail system upgrade: Woot! I’m not really sure what else to say here other than once again, it’s interesting how Jacobs manages to put a positive spin on the issue without appearing to “sweep it under the rug”.
Eh, maybe you should stop sucking up to advertisers, just like members should stop to suck up to managing editors. Not for my sake, but because objective real analysis will keep more people glued to mmorpg and that will keep your advertisers. If mmorpg loses its reputation, no sucking up will keep the advertisers here.
Anything that helps to promote RvR in this game is going to be a positive. While there any many aspects to the game, RvR is Mythic’s crown jewel.
But why, why is it to be positive? Well, because there is almost no RvR going on. You want to travel safely through an open RvR server where I play? Take a route through the RvR area, the change you encounter the ennemy is extremely small. Only if order takes the trouble to organise an attack, there will be RvR, but as order is creamed most of the time (all destruction players finally happy that some RvR is going are attracted like a strong magnet), order will decrease the number of attacks. By completely ignoring this issue, you appear to be either ignorant or willingly covering up the major problems Mythic has. It sure doesnt help mmorpg, nor mythic.
Allowing players to move from low pop servers to medium pop servers is going to make a big difference for those players who started out early on a server that just didn’t catch on. Population is such a key to enjoyment in Warhammer. While it’s possible to enjoy yourself on a low pop server, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and it isn’t the design of the game
See you agree on the main issue with Mythic, but are afraid to say so directly. Fear makes for bad writing. But what is the difference between a low and a medium populated server? None. Both are extremely empty. How can WAR be so succesful and need server mergers? Interesting questions you don't touch at all. I am sure that if Mythic wants some applause they could buy some advertisement with you.
sorry to say it but that spec you posted is lowend, mid range these days is quad core with 2 cards in Sli or an X2 card, 4 gig or ram is mid range, high end it the top end quad core with high end Sli cards or X2 in crossfire ( esentially 4 cards) and 8 gig of ram. Dell outlet sell machines with 8 gig btw.
I sadly have a low end system with a high end graphics card the card does ALOT to solve issues but I only run 2 gig of ram so get the slow loading times rather than the lag in graphics in big battles.
Yes. See: Your forums
The majority of posters here have no clue about development, or would even be open to the idea that "Shit happens"…… Nope, they will just flame all day long that "It was promised!!" That and start saying things like "They are incompetent!!SHIFT1!", or something about monkeys and type writers.
I know! It's almost as if they're paying for a service or something.
Why the need to tell anybody about what you are thinking of adding to the game except the dev team?
To bait players? To create undeserved hype? Why?
"The liberties and resulting economic prosperity that YOU take for granted were granted by those "dead guys"
This made me laugh , dont u mean a professional no lifer , so thats what u call it when u play games 24hrs a day , yeah good one mate.
I might even understand if u was getting payed to play games , but sitting at your computer in your house "Thinking your a Professional Gamer" is just silly.
Thank you, I was begining to think I was alone in feeling this way.
Way to many have forgotten what the words "Game",and "Gamer" means.
Yeah, people take games way too seriously. Was talking to a friend of mine about this regarding this one linkshell (guild) on his server in FFXI who have declared themselves "THE Elite End-game LS". They treat anyone not in their LS like dirt. They regard all the high end HNMs (raid bosses) as their sole property, and anyone else who tries to claim them is treated as though they're some kind of criminal. They expect anyone in their LS to drop whatever they're doing, on a second's notice, and go to whatever event they decide they're doing; if you don't, you're kicked after the first offense because you haven't made them your #1 top priority at all times. And on and on.
In short, they take the game, and themselves way too seriously.
Last I checked, games are supposed to be a fun, casual pastime. Not a second job, or military tour of duty.
"Loss of perspective" comes to mind when I think about it.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
You are clrearly coming from the bussiness/government software side then. There is a well know double standard in software developement between commercial and bussiness software. Bussiness software has to meet spec and fulfill promises, commercial does not. Has Microsoft ever released an operating system that met all the original promises made? How about Vista? And games are typicly the worst of the commercial side. I come from the bussiness/government side myself and it bugs me when commercial developers claim that all SW has bugs; mine does not, it cannot. However, it has become the standard for commercial software to be released with bugs and missing content. I don't think you can blame a reported for expressing this.