The impression I get is the game is gaining new people at the same ratio your posting per day. When the next patch goes in there will be a rush. The notes have got 4 times the page views as any of the other recent additions on test.
I believe most of those "new players" are just restarting on a different server because they're server is dead and Funcom hasn't done merges like they promised.
At least this is my impression after talking to many people ingame. I was lucky in choosing a popular server but even my server way too empty. I don't think there is a single AoC server that is even close to being full on prime time. At least not in EU.
4 EU and 4 US (?) servers would be sufficent imo.
I know of 20people that are new. My whole guild from WAR came over and are enjoying it alot. So no it s not all old people re rolling. I m sure were not the only new ones.
Wow, so this game is also starting to die out already... Wonder what is going on with the newer games that are coming out these days,.. Vanguard, D&D, LOTRO, AOC, WAR,.. as far as I can see, they are ALL sinking ships.. What do the older style games have that the new ones don't??.. Besides "players"?
The older games were different. Companies don't get it that they have to do stuff differently. Spewing out WoW clones will get you no where. You have to have some major differences while keeping some of the extremely successful things that came out of WoW. Right there lies the WoW killer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
Closer step to making it more enjoyable to current players I am sure. Someone at Funcom talked common sense to the others it looked like. Good and needed business decision.
Btw: What do you think should be the new server name?
So begins the 'divide by 2 till we hit zero' slide ... this outta be fun to watch.
Comedy Gold
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
They should max out the population on each server they plan on keeping, then create a new empty server for those who want to start over from scratch, or for new players that don't want to compete with people who have been playing for a year.
They can always add servers later if the need them...
They should max out the population on each server they plan on keeping, then create a new empty server for those who want to start over from scratch, or for new players that don't want to compete with people who have been playing for a year. They can always add servers later if the need them...
I think thats the goal, there will probably be about 6-7 remaining servers after the mergers with 2 new sever 1 of each type, for people taht are new to the game and others taht want to start over completely.
Edit: I doubt the servers will be filled to capacity tho because that would push the lag. There are some people that are still lagging today due to not the best comp/connections (4 peopel were dcing in my raid tonight while the rest of us were fine, of course it was all FC fault) and having full severs would make this happen more often.
The older games were different. Companies don't get it that they have to do stuff differently. Spewing out WoW clones will get you no where. You have to have some major differences while keeping some of the extremely successful things that came out of WoW. Right there lies the WoW killer.
What Funcom did wrong was that they made AoC almost identical to WoW. Now before you go all crazy just think about it. If AoC didn't have good graphics and if you only think about the gameplay then it's excatly like WoW. Same levels, same quests, same everything.
Some people are saying how AoC is revolutionary but I don't see it. It's just same old crap with better graphics.
I would love to see an MMO that was truly different and game us something new. Luckyli 2009 might be a good year for us since there's supposed to be many new releases.
The older games were different. Companies don't get it that they have to do stuff differently. Spewing out WoW clones will get you no where. You have to have some major differences while keeping some of the extremely successful things that came out of WoW. Right there lies the WoW killer.
What Funcom did wrong was that they made AoC almost identical to WoW. Now before you go all crazy just think about it. If AoC didn't have good graphics and if you only think about the gameplay then it's excatly like WoW. Same levels, same quests, same everything.
Some people are saying how AoC is revolutionary but I don't see it. It's just same old crap with better graphics.
I would love to see an MMO that was truly different and game us something new. Luckyli 2009 might be a good year for us since there's supposed to be many new releases.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
Don't expect the sandbox games coming out to be hugely popular, or much different from each other. Maybe Earth Rise will be different, but DF and MO will be very similar.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
How do you know that everyone expects the same? We haven't gotten any totally different MMO yet!
When we get something new and different and awesome, and people STILL want the same old crap, THEN you can say this.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
How do you know that everyone expects the same? We haven't gotten any totally different MMO yet!
When we get something new and different and awesome, and people STILL want the same old crap, THEN you can say this.
AoC was not different and certainly not awesome.
It seems somehow like you fail to apply your own wisdom in that last sentence. lol.
And for heavens sake what did we tell you? Add "In my opinion" to very subjective statements like the one above.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
How do you know that everyone expects the same? We haven't gotten any totally different MMO yet!
When we get something new and different and awesome, and people STILL want the same old crap, THEN you can say this.
AoC was not different and certainly not awesome.
It seems somehow like you fail to apply your own wisdom in that last sentence. lol.
And for heavens sake what did we tell you? Add "In my opinion" to very subjective statements like the one above.
yes AoC was very different. Many core features that people have become used to having in a MMO were either minimal, missing or broke. The only thing AoC raised the standard on was graphics quality which is debatable because it meant the average consumer was pretty much left out in the cold. WoW's graphics are minimalistic for a reason.
So yes AoC was indeed different, so would be eating a s*** sandwich. Different is not always good.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
How do you know that everyone expects the same? We haven't gotten any totally different MMO yet! When we get something new and different and awesome, and people STILL want the same old crap, THEN you can say this. AoC was not different and certainly not awesome.
If the majority of people wanted something new there would be more hype surrounding earthrise, eve, darkfall, mortal online, jumpgate eve, ect then there currently is. Furthermore, if people wanted something entirely new and different WotLK wouldn't of sold as much as it did, nor would WoW be back up to like 20mill+ subs.
Look at all the games that are currently being hyped by a good majority of the mmo community. Hell just look at the Aion forums, nearly everyone (trolls excluded) there knowingly admits that nothing in that game is new but are still crazy about the game. Look at what people have said about SWOR, look at what SWG was changed into, look at WAR, or for that matter any other game on list to the left.
That's proof enough for me that the majority of people like the WoW modle.
AoC simply attempted to expand upon the current modle but left some key features out to make the game more balanced for PvP (itemization being #1 with crafting a close second) and introduced a new combat system for melee. What was people's reaction. Complete and utter hatred and disdain that turned Funcom into Failcom (that and "lies").
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
How do you know that everyone expects the same? We haven't gotten any totally different MMO yet!
When we get something new and different and awesome, and people STILL want the same old crap, THEN you can say this.
AoC was not different and certainly not awesome.
If the majority of people wanted something new there would be more hype surrounding earthrise, eve, darkfall, mortal online, jumpgate eve, ect then there currently is. Furthermore, if people wanted something entirely new and different WotLK wouldn't of sold as much as it did, nor would WoW be back up to like 20mill+ subs.
Look at all the games that are currently being hyped by a good majority of the mmo community. Hell just look at the Aion forums, nearly everyone (trolls excluded) there knowingly admits that nothing in that game is new but are still crazy about the game. Look at what people have said about SWOR, look at what SWG was changed into, look at WAR, or for that matter any other game on list to the left.
That's proof enough for me that the majority of people like the WoW modle.
AoC simply attempted to expand upon the current modle but left some key features out to make the game more balanced for PvP (itemization being #1 with crafting a close second) and introduced a new combat system for melee. What was people's reaction. Complete and utter hatred and disdain that turned Funcom into Failcom (that and "lies").
The hype around next-generation is big enough. You don't know what you're talking about.
The gamers around the world who buy WOTLK expansion or follow Aion do it because they know the game very well/are hooked and because graphics are hawt.
The main point is that a lot of players don't know how awesome a game with great features really is. If a game like Darkfall can get past the inedvidable launch problems and develop well for 2 years. It will be a much more fun title. I have no doubt that players will love the next-generation games. It's just that there aren't very many of them around now, so they don't know them or how they feel to play.
The hype around next-generation is big enough. You don't know what you're talking about. The gamers around the world who buy WOTLK expansion or follow Aion do it because they know the game very well/are hooked and because graphics are hawt. The main point is that a lot of players don't know how awesome a game with great features really is. If a game like Darkfall can get past the inedvidable launch problems and develop well for 2 years. It will be a much more fun title. I have no doubt that players will love the next-generation games. It's just that there aren't very many of them around now, so they don't know them or how they feel to play.
I frequent the all the boards, and the hype behind the next gen MMOs is nothing too big or exciting and certianly wont generate 1mil+ subs. Players don't like games where the time spent in them can be for nought, they don't want to lose thier gear, they don't want FFA PvP all the time (WoW and WAR aren't FFA they are PvP by choice), and they tend to love raid dunegons (why I don't know)
The point I was trying to make is that the next gen of MMOs won't be mainstream, and probably will never be because the enviorments they chose to give to players aren't casual friendly and offer to much risk.
Wow, so this game is also starting to die out already... Wonder what is going on with the newer games that are coming out these days,.. Vanguard, D&D, LOTRO, AOC, WAR,.. as far as I can see, they are ALL sinking ships.. What do the older style games have that the new ones don't??.. Besides "players"?
Being one of those people who was weened on those older style MMOs, I think I can answer that...
The older style games had a player base with a different approach to the genre.
They (with some exceptions) weren't in a rush to race to end-game to "raid all day", only to get there, run out of stuff to do (having blown past most of the content in their hurrying) and then complain about "not enough content for end-gamer".
They didn't consider "the real game" to start at level cap. The real game started with their first step into this new world, and continued for as long as they chose to log in.
The mischaracterization of the so-called "old-school gamers" as "masochists with no lives, no jobs, no friends, who couldn't get laid and live in their mothers' basements and can play all day" is simply not true by and large. I'm sure there were those who fit that description... but then do you really think it's any different with the newer games? That's just the nature of some people and they'd likely behave the same no matter what they were doing.
What most of us "old-style" gamers were, and still are, is more patient, more laid back in play style, more measured with expectations (ie. not worried about it "taking too long" to get to level cap, etc) and more capable of simply sitting back and enjoying the game, the community and all there is to do as it comes.
Most every person I ever met in those "old-style" (pre-WoW) MMOs were either married with full-time jobs, full-time students, or otherwise had perfectly normal and active lives. They simply had a different attitude toward the game and could enjoy it without feelinglike they had to "race to end game" and be rewarded every other minute to do so.
The release of WoW brought a whole new generation of gamers who were weened on fast-paced action with frequent rewards, where you could finish a typical game in a couple weeks, if not sooner, and move on. That playstyle totally clashes with how MMORPGs have traditionally been, but mirrors very well what you see in MMOs nowadays...
How many times do you see people say they're "'playing "X" only until "Y" comes out"? I can't recalla single time I saw that when playing any of those older MMOs. People were plenty happy with what they were playing and had no desire to go anywhere else - many still don't to this day. No matter how out-dated their game might look to others, they still find it enjoyable.
Of course, when you are a company who can bring in millions of players like Blizzard did and make that kind of money, other companies take notice. And so you ended up with everyone making the next WoW... or trying to... to get a slice of that pie. And so the "clone wars" began.
Of course, the down-side to that is that with the "go go go, now now now" mindset, you can only keep people entertained for so long and they begin to burn out.
In this sense, WoW is still the exception rather than the rule. Whatever they're doing, it's keeping even those who say they're sick of the game logging in day after day (I know having friends and such who play has alot to do with that)
Interestingly, the more "old-school" MMOs seem to be getting more interest lately.. not like a deluge of it.. but, for example, I'm seeing more people coming into FFXI forums showing interest in the game, or outright saying "I'm a new player..."
I think, at least in part, that's due to people finally burning out on the "more of the same" they're getting from almost every other developer out there.
Anyway... that's my take on 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
I think it has more to do with polish than rulesets. UO, EQ and the other games were very very rough. But players had nothing else to compare it to, so they endured bugs and exploits without a second thought. Yeah, they petitioned GMs, but there were no other games to jump to.
WOW changed that, and is the reason why a lot of games after it have failed. We know what happened to AOC the first month, and look at what is happening to warhammer now that players are getting into Fort raids (that crash the servers) and city sieges (that are completely broken). Every game, including wow has issues, but players are not going to 'give it 6 months' with gamebreaking bugs like AOC and War had.
The whole " all games launch broken" thing is gone with the release of WOW and LotRO.
There is no point sharing your viewpoints with narrow minded fans. It goes in the one ear, and out the other.
We all knew server merges was coming after new year. Its buisness, money as usual. Nothing to be discussing really.
Just hope there will be 1 server that will give "some kind of" good population for the ones that actually plays and pays. We all want everyone to be happy, but please dont tell me why I dont understand.
I think it has more to do with polish than rulesets. UO, EQ and the other games were very very rough. But players had nothing else to compare it to, so they endured bugs and exploits without a second thought. Yeah, they petitioned GMs, but there were no other games to jump to.
WOW changed that, and is the reason why a lot of games after it have failed. We know what happened to AOC the first month, and look at what is happening to warhammer now that players are getting into Fort raids (that crash the servers) and city sieges (that are completely broken). Every game, including wow has issues, but players are not going to 'give it 6 months' with gamebreaking bugs like AOC and War had.
The whole " all games launch broken" thing is gone with the release of WOW and LotRO.
WoW launched broken too fyi.
heres my thoughts on wow AoC and every game brought out since WoW has basically "failed"
Publishing companies have a lot of cloute because they put up the capital to get the game on to CDs, and finished. The only way that any game will ever be released pretty much smoothly and bug free is if the production comapny and the publishing company are one in the same (Billzard EA with some games) or if the publishing company is new to the market (hopefully DF will prove this on the 22nd). If you expect a game to be launched without bug and nither of these apply, you are expecting to much.
I fail to see how a) unfinished equals the opposite of smoothly released and bugfree, cause AOC was and still is unfinished, aka with left out features, b) what kind of argument this sentence is supposed to be: "games can't be smoothly released and bug free, unless the development and publishing company are the same, or publishing company is new to the market". In my opinion, that's not an argument, that's nonsene.
As for the last sentence, I have to answer that if companies want to be rejected by the vast majority of their customers they are free to continue releasing unfinished products.
My point was that the publisher basically determins when the game is launched, not the developer. The only time the developer has say is 1) They are publishing their own game like Blizzard does with WoW, ow 2) When the publishers is trying to break into the market with a successful launch like what DF hopefully will be. Its not rocket science.
Publisher make their money by getting as many boxes sold as possible, not off of long sub times. When a company has to rely on a publisher to launch their game they have to listen to their demands. This is what happened with WAR, AoC, and Vanguard. The publisher saw the most opportune time to make money, in AoC's case it was launching a "PvP game" before WAR, in WARs case it was launching before WotLK.
I'll say it again. If you want a game to have a bug free launch (smooth) and have everything they promised in the game prior to beta (complete) then only follow games that meet those two criteria. Or you'll be disappointed every time.
The older games were different. Companies don't get it that they have to do stuff differently. Spewing out WoW clones will get you no where. You have to have some major differences while keeping some of the extremely successful things that came out of WoW. Right there lies the WoW killer.
What Funcom did wrong was that they made AoC almost identical to WoW. Now before you go all crazy just think about it. If AoC didn't have good graphics and if you only think about the gameplay then it's excatly like WoW. Same levels, same quests, same everything.
Some people are saying how AoC is revolutionary but I don't see it. It's just same old crap with better graphics.
I would love to see an MMO that was truly different and game us something new. Luckyli 2009 might be a good year for us since there's supposed to be many new releases.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
Don't expect the sandbox games coming out to be hugely popular, or much different from each other. Maybe Earth Rise will be different, but DF and MO will be very similar.
This was a major problem, in my estimation - that AoC was not significantly different from WoW, or many of the other games like it. Of course, there are some gameplay differences, as all of them have at least minor functional or cosmetic differences, but the changes are very small in degree.
It's my opinion that WoW keeps its playerbase now by continuing to expand its accessibility, not just to the game by having low computer requirements, but to content and gear, which are the driving forces that keep people playing. The risk in this now is that almost everyone has access to almost everything, homogenizing the players and to some degree killing the competitive drive or uniqueness one feels toward one's character.
FC said that AoC was going to be a different, innovative game. In truth, it really wasn't, and though a clone, AoC didn't do many of the things the original does, and didn't do the things it does particularly well.
Darkfall does target a different audience, and appears to be shooting for a different focus than the norm. Will it be wildly popular? Probably with the UO and AC1 crowds, along with a few newer gamers that are interested in a more "hardcore" PvP experience. But it's doubtful that it will ever be a big mainstream success.
They need to hurry up. The fact that they are merging only 2 servers today with eachother kind of pisses me off. They need to take down ALL servers for this? For 7 hours it looks like? Wow....come on Funcom.
The older games were different. Companies don't get it that they have to do stuff differently. Spewing out WoW clones will get you no where. You have to have some major differences while keeping some of the extremely successful things that came out of WoW. Right there lies the WoW killer.
What Funcom did wrong was that they made AoC almost identical to WoW. Now before you go all crazy just think about it. If AoC didn't have good graphics and if you only think about the gameplay then it's excatly like WoW. Same levels, same quests, same everything.
Some people are saying how AoC is revolutionary but I don't see it. It's just same old crap with better graphics.
I would love to see an MMO that was truly different and game us something new. Luckyli 2009 might be a good year for us since there's supposed to be many new releases.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
Don't expect the sandbox games coming out to be hugely popular, or much different from each other. Maybe Earth Rise will be different, but DF and MO will be very similar.
This was a major problem, in my estimation - that AoC was not significantly different from WoW, or many of the other games like it. Of course, there are some gameplay differences, as all of them have at least minor functional or cosmetic differences, but the changes are very small in degree.
It's my opinion that WoW keeps its playerbase now by continuing to expand its accessibility, not just to the game by having low computer requirements, but to content and gear, which are the driving forces that keep people playing. The risk in this now is that almost everyone has access to almost everything, homogenizing the players and to some degree killing the competitive drive or uniqueness one feels toward one's character.
FC said that AoC was going to be a different, innovative game. In truth, it really wasn't, and though a clone, AoC didn't do many of the things the original does, and didn't do the things it does particularly well.
Darkfall does target a different audience, and appears to be shooting for a different focus than the norm. Will it be wildly popular? Probably with the UO and AC1 crowds, along with a few newer gamers that are interested in a more "hardcore" PvP experience. But it's doubtful that it will ever be a big mainstream success.
The only thing that will kill WoW, is time.
but you have to give AoC credit for atleast being different in several key ways. Combat, graphics, PvP. Those are the big 3 that I can think of now. What does WAR have? Keeps (ever raided sentinel hill?), PQs (imo too many), dyes. Other than that I don't thing there is much difference between WAR and WoW.
Darkfall may not be a HUGE success like WoW, but I could see it holding on to about 100k-200k subs if they do most everything correctly. I certainly will be trying it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
The older games were different. Companies don't get it that they have to do stuff differently. Spewing out WoW clones will get you no where. You have to have some major differences while keeping some of the extremely successful things that came out of WoW. Right there lies the WoW killer.
What Funcom did wrong was that they made AoC almost identical to WoW. Now before you go all crazy just think about it. If AoC didn't have good graphics and if you only think about the gameplay then it's excatly like WoW. Same levels, same quests, same everything.
Some people are saying how AoC is revolutionary but I don't see it. It's just same old crap with better graphics.
I would love to see an MMO that was truly different and game us something new. Luckyli 2009 might be a good year for us since there's supposed to be many new releases.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
Don't expect the sandbox games coming out to be hugely popular, or much different from each other. Maybe Earth Rise will be different, but DF and MO will be very similar.
This was a major problem, in my estimation - that AoC was not significantly different from WoW, or many of the other games like it. Of course, there are some gameplay differences, as all of them have at least minor functional or cosmetic differences, but the changes are very small in degree.
It's my opinion that WoW keeps its playerbase now by continuing to expand its accessibility, not just to the game by having low computer requirements, but to content and gear, which are the driving forces that keep people playing. The risk in this now is that almost everyone has access to almost everything, homogenizing the players and to some degree killing the competitive drive or uniqueness one feels toward one's character.
FC said that AoC was going to be a different, innovative game. In truth, it really wasn't, and though a clone, AoC didn't do many of the things the original does, and didn't do the things it does particularly well.
Darkfall does target a different audience, and appears to be shooting for a different focus than the norm. Will it be wildly popular? Probably with the UO and AC1 crowds, along with a few newer gamers that are interested in a more "hardcore" PvP experience. But it's doubtful that it will ever be a big mainstream success.
The only thing that will kill WoW, is time.
but you have to give AoC credit for atleast being different in several key ways. Combat, graphics, PvP. Those are the big 3 that I can think of now. What does WAR have? Keeps (ever raided sentinel hill?), PQs (imo too many), dyes. Other than that I don't thing there is much difference between WAR and WoW.
Darkfall may not be a HUGE success like WoW, but I could see it holding on to about 100k-200k subs if they do most everything correctly. I certainly will be trying it.
No credit need be given to AoC on those differences other than graphical detail (art is a different story), because in my opinion the combat and PvP aren't nearly as different as some claim, or as much as FC said they would be. PvP especially in AoC is far overrated, and doesn't come close to making it the PvP-centric game they claimed.
All games have different combat systems (WoW is different from LOTRO, is different from EQ2, is different from WAR, is different from VG, etc). While AoC also has a different combat system, I do not agree that the system is THAT different, or of an entire different category of combat systems (and in this regard, only the melee system is that different, magic is extremely similar to other games).
WAR has RvR as the main focus of the game, which makes it significantly different from most games, and is the reason most people play it.
Personally, I don't care if Darkfall, or any game for that matter, is as "big" as WoW. If it at least has a decent enough amount of people to play with and survive financially, and it's fun, I'll play it. I will also be giving Darkfall a try. If they can come close to delivering on the many things they promise, I think Darkfall could provide the actual PvP-centric and guild/clan focus I was hoping AoC was going to bring (and didn't).
Comments
I believe most of those "new players" are just restarting on a different server because they're server is dead and Funcom hasn't done merges like they promised.
At least this is my impression after talking to many people ingame. I was lucky in choosing a popular server but even my server way too empty. I don't think there is a single AoC server that is even close to being full on prime time. At least not in EU.
4 EU and 4 US (?) servers would be sufficent imo.
I know of 20people that are new. My whole guild from WAR came over and are enjoying it alot. So no it s not all old people re rolling. I m sure were not the only new ones.
The older games were different. Companies don't get it that they have to do stuff differently. Spewing out WoW clones will get you no where. You have to have some major differences while keeping some of the extremely successful things that came out of WoW. Right there lies the WoW killer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
Closer step to making it more enjoyable to current players I am sure. Someone at Funcom talked common sense to the others it looked like. Good and needed business decision.
Btw: What do you think should be the new server name?
"TO MICHAEL!"
Comedy Gold
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
They should max out the population on each server they plan on keeping, then create a new empty server for those who want to start over from scratch, or for new players that don't want to compete with people who have been playing for a year.
They can always add servers later if the need them...
I think thats the goal, there will probably be about 6-7 remaining servers after the mergers with 2 new sever 1 of each type, for people taht are new to the game and others taht want to start over completely.
Edit: I doubt the servers will be filled to capacity tho because that would push the lag. There are some people that are still lagging today due to not the best comp/connections (4 peopel were dcing in my raid tonight while the rest of us were fine, of course it was all FC fault) and having full severs would make this happen more often.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
What Funcom did wrong was that they made AoC almost identical to WoW. Now before you go all crazy just think about it. If AoC didn't have good graphics and if you only think about the gameplay then it's excatly like WoW. Same levels, same quests, same everything.
Some people are saying how AoC is revolutionary but I don't see it. It's just same old crap with better graphics.
I would love to see an MMO that was truly different and game us something new. Luckyli 2009 might be a good year for us since there's supposed to be many new releases.
What Funcom did wrong was that they made AoC almost identical to WoW. Now before you go all crazy just think about it. If AoC didn't have good graphics and if you only think about the gameplay then it's excatly like WoW. Same levels, same quests, same everything.
Some people are saying how AoC is revolutionary but I don't see it. It's just same old crap with better graphics.
I would love to see an MMO that was truly different and game us something new. Luckyli 2009 might be a good year for us since there's supposed to be many new releases.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
Don't expect the sandbox games coming out to be hugely popular, or much different from each other. Maybe Earth Rise will be different, but DF and MO will be very similar.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
How do you know that everyone expects the same? We haven't gotten any totally different MMO yet!
When we get something new and different and awesome, and people STILL want the same old crap, THEN you can say this.
AoC was not different and certainly not awesome.
How do you know that everyone expects the same? We haven't gotten any totally different MMO yet!
When we get something new and different and awesome, and people STILL want the same old crap, THEN you can say this.
AoC was not different and certainly not awesome.
It seems somehow like you fail to apply your own wisdom in that last sentence. lol.
And for heavens sake what did we tell you? Add "In my opinion" to very subjective statements like the one above.
How do you know that everyone expects the same? We haven't gotten any totally different MMO yet!
When we get something new and different and awesome, and people STILL want the same old crap, THEN you can say this.
AoC was not different and certainly not awesome.
It seems somehow like you fail to apply your own wisdom in that last sentence. lol.
And for heavens sake what did we tell you? Add "In my opinion" to very subjective statements like the one above.
yes AoC was very different. Many core features that people have become used to having in a MMO were either minimal, missing or broke. The only thing AoC raised the standard on was graphics quality which is debatable because it meant the average consumer was pretty much left out in the cold. WoW's graphics are minimalistic for a reason.
So yes AoC was indeed different, so would be eating a s*** sandwich. Different is not always good.
I miss DAoC
If the majority of people wanted something new there would be more hype surrounding earthrise, eve, darkfall, mortal online, jumpgate eve, ect then there currently is. Furthermore, if people wanted something entirely new and different WotLK wouldn't of sold as much as it did, nor would WoW be back up to like 20mill+ subs.
Look at all the games that are currently being hyped by a good majority of the mmo community. Hell just look at the Aion forums, nearly everyone (trolls excluded) there knowingly admits that nothing in that game is new but are still crazy about the game. Look at what people have said about SWOR, look at what SWG was changed into, look at WAR, or for that matter any other game on list to the left.
That's proof enough for me that the majority of people like the WoW modle.
AoC simply attempted to expand upon the current modle but left some key features out to make the game more balanced for PvP (itemization being #1 with crafting a close second) and introduced a new combat system for melee. What was people's reaction. Complete and utter hatred and disdain that turned Funcom into Failcom (that and "lies").
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
How do you know that everyone expects the same? We haven't gotten any totally different MMO yet!
When we get something new and different and awesome, and people STILL want the same old crap, THEN you can say this.
AoC was not different and certainly not awesome.
If the majority of people wanted something new there would be more hype surrounding earthrise, eve, darkfall, mortal online, jumpgate eve, ect then there currently is. Furthermore, if people wanted something entirely new and different WotLK wouldn't of sold as much as it did, nor would WoW be back up to like 20mill+ subs.
Look at all the games that are currently being hyped by a good majority of the mmo community. Hell just look at the Aion forums, nearly everyone (trolls excluded) there knowingly admits that nothing in that game is new but are still crazy about the game. Look at what people have said about SWOR, look at what SWG was changed into, look at WAR, or for that matter any other game on list to the left.
That's proof enough for me that the majority of people like the WoW modle.
AoC simply attempted to expand upon the current modle but left some key features out to make the game more balanced for PvP (itemization being #1 with crafting a close second) and introduced a new combat system for melee. What was people's reaction. Complete and utter hatred and disdain that turned Funcom into Failcom (that and "lies").
The hype around next-generation is big enough. You don't know what you're talking about.
The gamers around the world who buy WOTLK expansion or follow Aion do it because they know the game very well/are hooked and because graphics are hawt.
The main point is that a lot of players don't know how awesome a game with great features really is. If a game like Darkfall can get past the inedvidable launch problems and develop well for 2 years. It will be a much more fun title. I have no doubt that players will love the next-generation games. It's just that there aren't very many of them around now, so they don't know them or how they feel to play.
I frequent the all the boards, and the hype behind the next gen MMOs is nothing too big or exciting and certianly wont generate 1mil+ subs. Players don't like games where the time spent in them can be for nought, they don't want to lose thier gear, they don't want FFA PvP all the time (WoW and WAR aren't FFA they are PvP by choice), and they tend to love raid dunegons (why I don't know)
The point I was trying to make is that the next gen of MMOs won't be mainstream, and probably will never be because the enviorments they chose to give to players aren't casual friendly and offer to much risk.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
Being one of those people who was weened on those older style MMOs, I think I can answer that...
The older style games had a player base with a different approach to the genre.
They (with some exceptions) weren't in a rush to race to end-game to "raid all day", only to get there, run out of stuff to do (having blown past most of the content in their hurrying) and then complain about "not enough content for end-gamer".
They didn't consider "the real game" to start at level cap. The real game started with their first step into this new world, and continued for as long as they chose to log in.
The mischaracterization of the so-called "old-school gamers" as "masochists with no lives, no jobs, no friends, who couldn't get laid and live in their mothers' basements and can play all day" is simply not true by and large. I'm sure there were those who fit that description... but then do you really think it's any different with the newer games? That's just the nature of some people and they'd likely behave the same no matter what they were doing.
What most of us "old-style" gamers were, and still are, is more patient, more laid back in play style, more measured with expectations (ie. not worried about it "taking too long" to get to level cap, etc) and more capable of simply sitting back and enjoying the game, the community and all there is to do as it comes.
Most every person I ever met in those "old-style" (pre-WoW) MMOs were either married with full-time jobs, full-time students, or otherwise had perfectly normal and active lives. They simply had a different attitude toward the game and could enjoy it without feelinglike they had to "race to end game" and be rewarded every other minute to do so.
The release of WoW brought a whole new generation of gamers who were weened on fast-paced action with frequent rewards, where you could finish a typical game in a couple weeks, if not sooner, and move on. That playstyle totally clashes with how MMORPGs have traditionally been, but mirrors very well what you see in MMOs nowadays...
How many times do you see people say they're "'playing "X" only until "Y" comes out"? I can't recalla single time I saw that when playing any of those older MMOs. People were plenty happy with what they were playing and had no desire to go anywhere else - many still don't to this day. No matter how out-dated their game might look to others, they still find it enjoyable.
Of course, when you are a company who can bring in millions of players like Blizzard did and make that kind of money, other companies take notice. And so you ended up with everyone making the next WoW... or trying to... to get a slice of that pie. And so the "clone wars" began.
Of course, the down-side to that is that with the "go go go, now now now" mindset, you can only keep people entertained for so long and they begin to burn out.
In this sense, WoW is still the exception rather than the rule. Whatever they're doing, it's keeping even those who say they're sick of the game logging in day after day (I know having friends and such who play has alot to do with that)
Interestingly, the more "old-school" MMOs seem to be getting more interest lately.. not like a deluge of it.. but, for example, I'm seeing more people coming into FFXI forums showing interest in the game, or outright saying "I'm a new player..."
I think, at least in part, that's due to people finally burning out on the "more of the same" they're getting from almost every other developer out there.
Anyway... that's my take on it.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I think it has more to do with polish than rulesets. UO, EQ and the other games were very very rough. But players had nothing else to compare it to, so they endured bugs and exploits without a second thought. Yeah, they petitioned GMs, but there were no other games to jump to.
WOW changed that, and is the reason why a lot of games after it have failed. We know what happened to AOC the first month, and look at what is happening to warhammer now that players are getting into Fort raids (that crash the servers) and city sieges (that are completely broken). Every game, including wow has issues, but players are not going to 'give it 6 months' with gamebreaking bugs like AOC and War had.
The whole " all games launch broken" thing is gone with the release of WOW and LotRO.
There is no point sharing your viewpoints with narrow minded fans. It goes in the one ear, and out the other.
We all knew server merges was coming after new year. Its buisness, money as usual. Nothing to be discussing really.
Just hope there will be 1 server that will give "some kind of" good population for the ones that actually plays and pays. We all want everyone to be happy, but please dont tell me why I dont understand.
WoW launched broken too fyi.
heres my thoughts on wow AoC and every game brought out since WoW has basically "failed"
My point was that the publisher basically determins when the game is launched, not the developer. The only time the developer has say is 1) They are publishing their own game like Blizzard does with WoW, ow 2) When the publishers is trying to break into the market with a successful launch like what DF hopefully will be. Its not rocket science.
Publisher make their money by getting as many boxes sold as possible, not off of long sub times. When a company has to rely on a publisher to launch their game they have to listen to their demands. This is what happened with WAR, AoC, and Vanguard. The publisher saw the most opportune time to make money, in AoC's case it was launching a "PvP game" before WAR, in WARs case it was launching before WotLK.
I'll say it again. If you want a game to have a bug free launch (smooth) and have everything they promised in the game prior to beta (complete) then only follow games that meet those two criteria. Or you'll be disappointed every time.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
What Funcom did wrong was that they made AoC almost identical to WoW. Now before you go all crazy just think about it. If AoC didn't have good graphics and if you only think about the gameplay then it's excatly like WoW. Same levels, same quests, same everything.
Some people are saying how AoC is revolutionary but I don't see it. It's just same old crap with better graphics.
I would love to see an MMO that was truly different and game us something new. Luckyli 2009 might be a good year for us since there's supposed to be many new releases.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
Don't expect the sandbox games coming out to be hugely popular, or much different from each other. Maybe Earth Rise will be different, but DF and MO will be very similar.
This was a major problem, in my estimation - that AoC was not significantly different from WoW, or many of the other games like it. Of course, there are some gameplay differences, as all of them have at least minor functional or cosmetic differences, but the changes are very small in degree.
It's my opinion that WoW keeps its playerbase now by continuing to expand its accessibility, not just to the game by having low computer requirements, but to content and gear, which are the driving forces that keep people playing. The risk in this now is that almost everyone has access to almost everything, homogenizing the players and to some degree killing the competitive drive or uniqueness one feels toward one's character.
FC said that AoC was going to be a different, innovative game. In truth, it really wasn't, and though a clone, AoC didn't do many of the things the original does, and didn't do the things it does particularly well.
Darkfall does target a different audience, and appears to be shooting for a different focus than the norm. Will it be wildly popular? Probably with the UO and AC1 crowds, along with a few newer gamers that are interested in a more "hardcore" PvP experience. But it's doubtful that it will ever be a big mainstream success.
The only thing that will kill WoW, is time.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
They need to hurry up. The fact that they are merging only 2 servers today with eachother kind of pisses me off. They need to take down ALL servers for this? For 7 hours it looks like? Wow....come on Funcom.
Can't wait until it's back up.
What Funcom did wrong was that they made AoC almost identical to WoW. Now before you go all crazy just think about it. If AoC didn't have good graphics and if you only think about the gameplay then it's excatly like WoW. Same levels, same quests, same everything.
Some people are saying how AoC is revolutionary but I don't see it. It's just same old crap with better graphics.
I would love to see an MMO that was truly different and game us something new. Luckyli 2009 might be a good year for us since there's supposed to be many new releases.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
Don't expect the sandbox games coming out to be hugely popular, or much different from each other. Maybe Earth Rise will be different, but DF and MO will be very similar.
This was a major problem, in my estimation - that AoC was not significantly different from WoW, or many of the other games like it. Of course, there are some gameplay differences, as all of them have at least minor functional or cosmetic differences, but the changes are very small in degree.
It's my opinion that WoW keeps its playerbase now by continuing to expand its accessibility, not just to the game by having low computer requirements, but to content and gear, which are the driving forces that keep people playing. The risk in this now is that almost everyone has access to almost everything, homogenizing the players and to some degree killing the competitive drive or uniqueness one feels toward one's character.
FC said that AoC was going to be a different, innovative game. In truth, it really wasn't, and though a clone, AoC didn't do many of the things the original does, and didn't do the things it does particularly well.
Darkfall does target a different audience, and appears to be shooting for a different focus than the norm. Will it be wildly popular? Probably with the UO and AC1 crowds, along with a few newer gamers that are interested in a more "hardcore" PvP experience. But it's doubtful that it will ever be a big mainstream success.
The only thing that will kill WoW, is time.
but you have to give AoC credit for atleast being different in several key ways. Combat, graphics, PvP. Those are the big 3 that I can think of now. What does WAR have? Keeps (ever raided sentinel hill?), PQs (imo too many), dyes. Other than that I don't thing there is much difference between WAR and WoW.
Darkfall may not be a HUGE success like WoW, but I could see it holding on to about 100k-200k subs if they do most everything correctly. I certainly will be trying it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
Just a heads up. Looks like the first merge was a success.
The new server is called Bloodspire. Everyone sounds pretty happy on the forums..
Will see how THAT goes in a day or two...lol.
But, as of today...Bloodpsire is a good PvP (with some RP) server if anyone is looking for a new server to join
Cheers...
What Funcom did wrong was that they made AoC almost identical to WoW. Now before you go all crazy just think about it. If AoC didn't have good graphics and if you only think about the gameplay then it's excatly like WoW. Same levels, same quests, same everything.
Some people are saying how AoC is revolutionary but I don't see it. It's just same old crap with better graphics.
I would love to see an MMO that was truly different and game us something new. Luckyli 2009 might be a good year for us since there's supposed to be many new releases.
AoC's game play is different, but in a themepark style game theres not that much that can be done different with quest and end game since everyone in the MMO market expects everything to be nearly the same.
Don't expect the sandbox games coming out to be hugely popular, or much different from each other. Maybe Earth Rise will be different, but DF and MO will be very similar.
This was a major problem, in my estimation - that AoC was not significantly different from WoW, or many of the other games like it. Of course, there are some gameplay differences, as all of them have at least minor functional or cosmetic differences, but the changes are very small in degree.
It's my opinion that WoW keeps its playerbase now by continuing to expand its accessibility, not just to the game by having low computer requirements, but to content and gear, which are the driving forces that keep people playing. The risk in this now is that almost everyone has access to almost everything, homogenizing the players and to some degree killing the competitive drive or uniqueness one feels toward one's character.
FC said that AoC was going to be a different, innovative game. In truth, it really wasn't, and though a clone, AoC didn't do many of the things the original does, and didn't do the things it does particularly well.
Darkfall does target a different audience, and appears to be shooting for a different focus than the norm. Will it be wildly popular? Probably with the UO and AC1 crowds, along with a few newer gamers that are interested in a more "hardcore" PvP experience. But it's doubtful that it will ever be a big mainstream success.
The only thing that will kill WoW, is time.
but you have to give AoC credit for atleast being different in several key ways. Combat, graphics, PvP. Those are the big 3 that I can think of now. What does WAR have? Keeps (ever raided sentinel hill?), PQs (imo too many), dyes. Other than that I don't thing there is much difference between WAR and WoW.
Darkfall may not be a HUGE success like WoW, but I could see it holding on to about 100k-200k subs if they do most everything correctly. I certainly will be trying it.
No credit need be given to AoC on those differences other than graphical detail (art is a different story), because in my opinion the combat and PvP aren't nearly as different as some claim, or as much as FC said they would be. PvP especially in AoC is far overrated, and doesn't come close to making it the PvP-centric game they claimed.
All games have different combat systems (WoW is different from LOTRO, is different from EQ2, is different from WAR, is different from VG, etc). While AoC also has a different combat system, I do not agree that the system is THAT different, or of an entire different category of combat systems (and in this regard, only the melee system is that different, magic is extremely similar to other games).
WAR has RvR as the main focus of the game, which makes it significantly different from most games, and is the reason most people play it.
Personally, I don't care if Darkfall, or any game for that matter, is as "big" as WoW. If it at least has a decent enough amount of people to play with and survive financially, and it's fun, I'll play it. I will also be giving Darkfall a try. If they can come close to delivering on the many things they promise, I think Darkfall could provide the actual PvP-centric and guild/clan focus I was hoping AoC was going to bring (and didn't).
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
They may refer to it as Server Mergers, they should call it a delayed slow-motion implosion.
Thats right...because no MMO ever merges servers.
You're so cheeky!