I remember following Dark & Light and all the buzz about how good it was going to be. Then I got an official invitation to D&L's "Settlers of Ganareth". I was totally baffled when I couldn't find any way of downloading the client. I remember scouring the forums, which was full of glowing comments (nothing negative at the time) and not finding any links to a download !?!? I am soooo glad I did not pre-order, dodged a bullet there! I believe D&L is why I have never pre-ordered anything.
I also agree that SWG should've been higher on the list. I bought the original "An Empire Divided" thinking, "It's a Star Wars property, how could it be bad?". Wow was I in for a let down. Picture this:
1) It's the Star Wars universe and you start the game trapped on a brown blob of a planet. (Graphics weren't so hot, not awful, but not good either) NO Ships!!!!!??? I couldn't believe it. What is Star Wars without ships. A bad futuristic WoW clone.
2) Quests and cities were spread out so thin it felt like you had to run for days to get anywhere. I don't think I ever finished any real quests besides, "deliver this" quests that just gave you money as a reward. Storyline quests? Never came across them!
3) Randomly running into things that would kill you in one or two hits. Or getting ganked by the only player you come across in weeks. You couldn't tell what level things were or if they were PKers!!!
4) Everything was so expensive it felt like you'd never be able to afford a better... anything!!
5) It was so open ended (sandboxy), that it had absolutely no direction.
6) Imagine your favourite MMO releases a new class, but they won't tell anyone how to become this new class!! Forget becoming a Jedi. How to become one was a secret and no one was willing to share it. Some people claim they would remove any posts about "How to be a Jedi" from the forums. That was a very sore point for me.
Anyways, I slogged through my free month, eventually making some bone armor, running a few mining bots and buying a sand speeder and a house, but the experience was hostile and empty. I felt like SOE just slapped "Star Wars" on something with dollar signs in there eyes. It was bad, so I gave up and decided Sony would never get my money again. I know they added ships to the game and changed the core mechanics of the game(don't know how), but they will not sucker me again. What's that? Beta test PlanetSide for you? Well Sure I will!..... ugh.
Even after years I still remember the anger and disappointment like it was yesterday. Oh well, no big deal now.
I just replied to the main post, so if I have duplicated anyone else, my apologies. I will read the rest now.
Yes! Earth & Beyond, was a great game I played faithfully until they released an expansion that clogged the servers and lag became unbareable in some zones. It was soon to be shutdown by EA. Before the expansion my Progen Warrior Nanto had made it to 110, had a guild and everything. Loved the formation flying and the Self Destruct ability (which was pretty useless but fun). Then Poof! It was all gone.
They need to think more "Long Haul" for MMOs, but some companies are just looking for short term Cash-Cows. There will always be both, unfortunately.
I would've put SWG at the top of the list by far - all of us pre-CU and pre-NGE players got royally screwed on that!
But what's with the 4 relatively unknown games? sure, for the elite out there, they're familiar titles, but those of us who only have a knowledge of AAA and AA titles, perhaps some others should have made the list.
Here's my top 5:
1 - SWG - they screwed every player of the game in one fell swoop.
2 - Darkfall - "Epic Fail", "how not to make a game" - what ever you want to call it....this should be lessons learned for every game developer. In fact, there should be a text book based on this game and what you shouldn't do!!
3 - WAR - after years of watching Paul Barnett's crazy movies about all the awesome stuff going into the game, most of it doesn't make it in...and what does make it into the game becomes an extremely repetitve end-game.
4 - Hellgate London - Did you buy the lifetime membership? So many examples of what not to do when developing a game!!
5 - AoC - even the prospect of gratuitous nudity doesn't compensate for the mess that is AoC. Oh, and what's with the whole "buy the game, then buy time, then play" thing? It really would be nice to get 30 days free play when buying this!
Cunfushus says "Only through wasting time do we realize that time should not be wasted."
Originally posted by Silvermink Originally posted by Dubhlaith I have to admit that Dark and Light had my attention. I deeply wanted it to be a good game, but when SoG began, I began to see the writing on the wall. And I wept. But SOE is still the greatest company with regards to the utter disregard for the playerbase. And somehow, people continue to play their games. It is not only SWG, and I do not have any love for Science Fiction games, so I was not fortunate enough to enjoy that bit of evil. It is every game they have ever been in charge of. Vanguard had the potential to be a great game, I think, but they sadly did not have enough capital to complete their game. As a result, they had to let it go. SOE snatched it up like some leviathan taking beautiful things into its gaping maw, rending it into something unrecognizable and spitting it out, laughing at the terrified denizens of the world. I shudder at each announcement they give. I think you should do a company-based thing like this. I am sure many people would be interested to read something about the five most hated game companies. Perhaps not even hate, but rather the most feared for their terrible decision making.
SoE got as screwed on Vanguard as the players. Brad sold SoE a sob story and they bought it.
Really? Something tells me that I do not have the entire story. Where could I go to find out about this?
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Those are decent choices... but I can think of a few more for that list... WWII Online being one of them. It had probly one of the most laughable launches in gaming history.... the game was in "beta" for almost a year. Then when it was finally pay to play, the product was still far from what was promised on the box, or even in the manual for the game. And 8 years after the launch it still doesnt have many of those features. Its sad that that game had so much potential that was held back by the arrogance of a few of its development team.
I played WWII online for awhile, it's not that bad. There are allot of dedicated players in WWII online. When I played a few years ago, it seemed barren and took forever to get to a battle, but once I got there, I got my first kill.
As you stated about the features, I dont think the hardcore players care.
I gave up the game to play Battlefield 2, it is free and basically the same game, in some respects.
EQ2 royally pissed me off. I beta tested it, liked it. Then they went all solo-content unfriendly with the newly chained mobs on release which made soloing nigh on impossible at the time. Given that getting a good group together took quite a while it killed the game for me having limited time to play.
AoC was fail of epic proportions. I agree, if it had another years development time it may have been a great. Nothing will erase my initial impressions of it, even though I played 3 months with a good group of friends it lacked any meaningful progression once you hit the level cap (which was easy to do). Sieges were a farce and pvp a joke.
AC2 was disappointing in that they cancelled it due to low subs. I liked the game and it had some innovative classes and features. Wasn't without problems, which I guess drove too many away.
Surprised UO trammel didn't rate the list. Next to SWG's NGE screwup, I think that impacted a lot of people and left a bad taste in the mouth.
Edit : How could I forget WAR... yup the sucky non-working endgame content. Same shit as AC2 just different packaging. To think I shelled out on collecter's editions of both games. Beh, never again!!!
Darkfall doesn't deserve the negative hits people enjoy heaping on it. Despite the hackers and exploits which still haven't been adequately dealt with, the game is enjoyable regardless... guess it all comes down to mindset (it isn't a game for everyone) & a good guild. Been playing since launch and probably will for a while more.
Later, developers changed the direction of the game significantly. So significantly, in fact, that they went so far as to offer refunds to their pre-payers. Things went downhill from there.
Between players complaining that the offered refunds were difficult, if at all possible to obtain, the eventual total cancellation of The Chronicle and the eventual closure the Rapid Reality as a company
I'd like to address this on just 1 level:
1) Who had trouble obtaining a refund?
I, PERSONALLY, refunded everybody who asked for one through PayPal. The Company that was Rapid Reality did not refund people, their refunds came directly from my bank account.
I took a LOAN out specifically so I could continue to refund people at the time. I told people to ask for the refund, so I could mark down and (hopefully) later be repaid by the company, through 3rd Party Forums, IRC, GTalk, MSN and on the phone.
The refunds were, in no way, difficult. Everybody who asked for one got one, period.
If somebody is telling you that they did not get a refund, it is because they did not request one.
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title. "When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
I would have listed Star Wars Galaxies higher too, not that I ever played pre cu personally but because it had a good subscriber base when the 'ripoff' happened so that rather than a few thousand spending a few dollars on prorders as far as I know it was a few hundred thousand spending hundreds of dollars each paying for the game and more importantly the time they invested in that game that can never be returned only for SOE to stick their middle fingers up at them.
I also wonder if star gate worlds will make it onto this list in future, unpaid wages, pyramid scams etc. and it's still unknown if the game will even release.
Same here, I would list SWG as the number one offender in this list. I mean SWG pissed off more people than all the other games listed combined! I would also include Vanguard since and maybe even AoC.
1, No desire to put the same company on the list twice. 2, There was never a single large event in EQ that generated anger, it was absolutely every single thing the company did.
EQ is just slowly evolving in directions that not all of its players want to go. It has never pulled any real crash and burn stunts like SWG.
Hmmm...must not have paid the same Sony Online that I did back when EQ first came out. We called it Never Quest because most of the quests were broken, meaning you would spend 60 hours questing a quest item to have it not be on the mob after killing it, or have it destroyed because you didn't have room in your inventory, or you repeat the words in [brackets] to the NPC but he just stares at you. Same guys who did a 6 month subscription but who's online subscription service never seemed to work when you wanted to cancel. It took me 3 months, server was always "down" and I didn't get my next automatic 6 month subscription back, Sony refused to pay me. Servers were constantly crashing for the first year (if not longer). You would log back in and not know where your body was a majority of the time. Getting into the game of course was a privilege though. The wait was usually 15 minutes to several hours. Luckily, usually someone was crashing out so you could get in.
Having said that, it was a trailblazer, and it was still EverCrack, so I don't really believe it belongs on the list. Of course I have a sour taste for any Sony online game still.
sorry but Hellgate london should have atleast replaced SWG, I know people have issues with SWG but come on at least there is still enough of a player base to keep it going H:L crashed and burned, promised so much, delivered very little and pi**ed alot of people off, especially those that paid for a life time sub.......
I remember following Dark & Light and all the buzz about how good it was going to be. Then I got an official invitation to D&L's "Settlers of Ganareth". I was totally baffled when I couldn't find any way of downloading the client. I remember scouring the forums, which was full of glowing comments (nothing negative at the time) and not finding any links to a download !?!? I am soooo glad I did not pre-order, dodged a bullet there! I believe D&L is why I have never pre-ordered anything. I also agree that SWG should've been higher on the list. I bought the original "An Empire Divided" thinking, "It's a Star Wars property, how could it be bad?". Wow was I in for a let down. Picture this: 1) It's the Star Wars universe and you start the game trapped on a brown blob of a planet. (Graphics weren't so hot, not awful, but not good either) NO Ships!!!!!??? I couldn't believe it. What is Star Wars without ships. A bad futuristic WoW clone. 2) Quests and cities were spread out so thin it felt like you had to run for days to get anywhere. I don't think I ever finished any real quests besides, "deliver this" quests that just gave you money as a reward. Storyline quests? Never came across them! 3) Randomly running into things that would kill you in one or two hits. Or getting ganked by the only player you come across in weeks. You couldn't tell what level things were or if they were PKers!!! 4) Everything was so expensive it felt like you'd never be able to afford a better... anything!! 5) It was so open ended (sandboxy), that it had absolutely no direction. 6) Imagine your favourite MMO releases a new class, but they won't tell anyone how to become this new class!! Forget becoming a Jedi. How to become one was a secret and no one was willing to share it. Some people claim they would remove any posts about "How to be a Jedi" from the forums. That was a very sore point for me. Anyways, I slogged through my free month, eventually making some bone armor, running a few mining bots and buying a sand speeder and a house, but the experience was hostile and empty. I felt like SOE just slapped "Star Wars" on something with dollar signs in there eyes. It was bad, so I gave up and decided Sony would never get my money again. I know they added ships to the game and changed the core mechanics of the game(don't know how), but they will not sucker me again. What's that? Beta test PlanetSide for you? Well Sure I will!..... ugh. Even after years I still remember the anger and disappointment like it was yesterday. Oh well, no big deal now. I just replied to the main post, so if I have duplicated anyone else, my apologies. I will read the rest now. Yes! Earth & Beyond, was a great game I played faithfully until they released an expansion that clogged the servers and lag became unbareable in some zones. It was soon to be shutdown by EA. Before the expansion my Progen Warrior Nanto had made it to 110, had a guild and everything. Loved the formation flying and the Self Destruct ability (which was pretty useless but fun). Then Poof! It was all gone. They need to think more "Long Haul" for MMOs, but some companies are just looking for short term Cash-Cows. There will always be both, unfortunately. Great article, Thanx!
Lol, you're putting down what most SWG haters want back in SWG. Personnally, I agree with sandbox games having not enough direction even if "theme park" games have too much sometimes.
1, No desire to put the same company on the list twice. 2, There was never a single large event in EQ that generated anger, it was absolutely every single thing the company did.
EQ is just slowly evolving in directions that not all of its players want to go. It has never pulled any real crash and burn stunts like SWG.
Hmmm...must not have paid the same Sony Online that I did back when EQ first came out. We called it Never Quest because most of the quests were broken, meaning you would spend 60 hours questing a quest item to have it not be on the mob after killing it, or have it destroyed because you didn't have room in your inventory, or you repeat the words in [brackets] to the NPC but he just stares at you. Same guys who did a 6 month subscription but who's online subscription service never seemed to work when you wanted to cancel. It took me 3 months, server was always "down" and I didn't get my next automatic 6 month subscription back, Sony refused to pay me. Servers were constantly crashing for the first year (if not longer). You would log back in and not know where your body was a majority of the time. Getting into the game of course was a privilege though. The wait was usually 15 minutes to several hours. Luckily, usually someone was crashing out so you could get in.
Having said that, it was a trailblazer, and it was still EverCrack, so I don't really believe it belongs on the list. Of course I have a sour taste for any Sony online game still.
Well in the earlier days of mainstream MMO's, After Ultima Online there was Evercrack or Asherons Call... and most remember "Neverquest" (yes I remember that lol, and the cackling klaknak website) TUMPY TONICS FTW!!! Ooooh or how about the old gem.... "BOOOOOOOOAAAAT!" and the fear of after having traveled 30 minutes that when you zone into Freeport you'll go linkdead and only be able to log back on AFTER you zoned back into the Ocean of Tears? Yeah... downtime and grind was the name of that game... and gave up after Kunark. Best of times, worst of times... though personally I think FFXI surpassed EQ in Group Pressure and grind in early days.
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
Don't get me wrong, sandbox is nice, but without some direction to generally wander toward, it seems pointless.
Like I said, I couldn't even find any kind of storyline quest back then. Who knows, maybe I'd like SWG now, but I lost all respect for SOE after the NGE curfuffle, or is it CU, or WTF , FFS? ... I don't know, and don't care.
In response to my quote: LOL, thanx. Don't get me wrong, sandbox is nice, but without some direction to generally wander toward, it seems pointless. Like I said, I couldn't even find any kind of storyline quest back then. Who knows, maybe I'd like SWG now, but I lost all respect for SOE after the NGE curfuffle, or is it CU, or WTF , FFS? ... I don't know, and don't care. Thanx for the read
Dude, I got a free month back in July. When I logged back into my old Smuggler and re-specced him to the Han Solo class, I almost cried when I found the server emptier than a ghost town...and the Smuggler class was STILL broken LOL Don't go back, it'll just ruin all of your old memories...
Cunfushus says "Only through wasting time do we realize that time should not be wasted."
Speaking of DnL. They are back at it again. talesofkalenor.com/ Taken from the message board at DnL original site (surprised it's still active)
This is an incorrect and misleading post, btw....Tales of Kalenor is not being developed by the same people that "attempted" to create DNL...it's just people/fans of ..how to word this...fans of how they wanted DNL to be, creating the Tales of Kalenor mmo...not at all associated with NPCube, NP3 or any of the companies that were involved with the making/breaking of DNL...just some motivated people with an engine and time/money to invest in themselves.....actually if you looked into it, they look farther along then what DNL did ....so go volunteer to give them a hand if you like the "idea" of DNL...
This was even in closed beta, and Gamestop was taking preorders for it. News was coming out fast and furious, and it appeared to be ready for open beta within any day... and then all of a sudden disappeared as Perpetual decided they needed to focus their energy on Star Trek: Online (which, coincidentally, they also collapsed under). The studio went bankrupt, and G&H is now gone for good...
Sure, there's tons of vaporware out there, but never an MMO this massive, with as much interest as it had...
And for those of you saying Darkfall should be on there - at least it came out. After being derided as vaporware for its entire development, at least it came out...
Speaking of DnL. They are back at it again. talesofkalenor.com/ Taken from the message board at DnL original site (surprised it's still active)
This is an incorrect and misleading post, btw....Tales of Kalenor is not being developed by the same people that "attempted" to create DNL...it's just people/fans of ..how to word this...fans of how they wanted DNL to be, creating the Tales of Kalenor mmo...not at all associated with NPCube, NP3 or any of the companies that were involved with the making/breaking of DNL...just some motivated people with an engine and time/money to invest in themselves.....actually if you looked into it, they look farther along then what DNL did ....so go volunteer to give them a hand if you like the "idea" of DNL...
As I said it was taken directly from the message board.
"Dark and Light is not coming back anytime soon, well atleast not with the same content.
Few people from the old DnL Staff have started a new MMORPG project called Tales of Kalenor (Working title), Currently recruiting volunteers for the development in the name of good-old-times, But this time, you define the game. Check the forums."
The idea of DnL is long gone. And if people from the DnL staff are working on it. I don't see it being any better. Just my opinion. I however could be wrong. Either way I'm not touching it.
Speaking of DnL. They are back at it again. talesofkalenor.com/ Taken from the message board at DnL original site (surprised it's still active)
This is an incorrect and misleading post, btw....Tales of Kalenor is not being developed by the same people that "attempted" to create DNL...it's just people/fans of ..how to word this...fans of how they wanted DNL to be, creating the Tales of Kalenor mmo...not at all associated with NPCube, NP3 or any of the companies that were involved with the making/breaking of DNL...just some motivated people with an engine and time/money to invest in themselves.....actually if you looked into it, they look farther along then what DNL did ....so go volunteer to give them a hand if you like the "idea" of DNL...
As I said it was taken directly from the message board.
"Dark and Light is not coming back anytime soon, well atleast not with the same content.
Few people from the old DnL Staff have started a new MMORPG project called Tales of Kalenor (Working title), Currently recruiting volunteers for the development in the name of good-old-times, But this time, you define the game. Check the forums."
The idea of DnL is long gone. And if people from the DnL staff are working on it. I don't see it being any better. Just my opinion. I however could be wrong. Either way I'm not touching it.
It took me a while to find the actual post you're referencing...link would've helped....but apparently you're quoting Dajesse, who is a user on that message board(god knows why its still up and operating), who has 4 posts total with an account created (oct 08) after DNL closed its doors and shut their servers down (july 08).
That's a stretch at best with accuracte information about it...the best I can think of is that he's calling "Few people from old DnL. Staff have started a new MMORPG project" as one erroneous sentence but should be read as two sentences
I can specifically confirm/say since I'm assisting them on the ToK project that Fjalar (the lead) worked part time as a forum mod/GM for a few months for AD (The GM/Story provisioning support company that also moderated the boards but had no control over any aspect of the game development of DnL) .
I know of NO developer of DnL that is involved in the TOK project in anyway, shape or form. Just want to make sure that's clear as the post you're referencing is in itself, english illiterate and incorrect. Besides, they're using an entirely different engine to boot as well as mostly stocked with old player (DnL) volunteers.
I'm very surprised that Darkfall didn't make the list with their limited release junk, and their general abuse of their playerbase, AND their debacle with Eurogamer, AND their billing snafus.
QFT. Not to mention the game simply isn't FUN on top of that all.
I call BS here. I am In-game RIGHT now. Paid for the next month of play yesterday, and still havings lots of fun.
When I joined the community and got into beta, it was named Realms of Torment.
Fortunately I never pre-ordered as things just didn't feel right.
I could go into more detail but it would take pages....needless to say, they earned the top spot on this list.
I'd have to give AC2 honorable mention for closing down their servers a month after releasing an X-pack.
SWG should have been #2 on this list. SoE ruined what was one of the best sandbox games ever made. Easily the best crafting system of any MMO I've ever played. Some of the best classes as well.....then they tried to turn it into WoW/Candyland.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
There were a lot of things I loved about AC2, and most of the things I hated about it were Microsoft's fault, not Turbines. I still miss climbing up the Deru Tree with my pet Lasher 'Stumpy'.
MS started this failor but it was unforgivable that turbine let people buy expansion legions and not long after announced they stop with AC2.
AC2 was great mmo but from start it was a huge screwup mainly MS fault way to early released and announced as a follow up to AC they should never make AC2 a followup to AC1.
AC1 fans also helped with failor AC2 they demonize it all over the netz:(
If they had waited 10more months and release AC2 with hero patch and clearly stated that AC2 may have same names like dereth arwic and more simaliritys they should have go for complete new appraoch with this game for more casual gamers.
AC2 would still be here if they released it 10months later and not as a follow up to ac1.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009..... In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Comments
I remember following Dark & Light and all the buzz about how good it was going to be. Then I got an official invitation to D&L's "Settlers of Ganareth". I was totally baffled when I couldn't find any way of downloading the client. I remember scouring the forums, which was full of glowing comments (nothing negative at the time) and not finding any links to a download !?!? I am soooo glad I did not pre-order, dodged a bullet there! I believe D&L is why I have never pre-ordered anything.
I also agree that SWG should've been higher on the list. I bought the original "An Empire Divided" thinking, "It's a Star Wars property, how could it be bad?". Wow was I in for a let down. Picture this:
1) It's the Star Wars universe and you start the game trapped on a brown blob of a planet. (Graphics weren't so hot, not awful, but not good either) NO Ships!!!!!??? I couldn't believe it. What is Star Wars without ships. A bad futuristic WoW clone.
2) Quests and cities were spread out so thin it felt like you had to run for days to get anywhere. I don't think I ever finished any real quests besides, "deliver this" quests that just gave you money as a reward. Storyline quests? Never came across them!
3) Randomly running into things that would kill you in one or two hits. Or getting ganked by the only player you come across in weeks. You couldn't tell what level things were or if they were PKers!!!
4) Everything was so expensive it felt like you'd never be able to afford a better... anything!!
5) It was so open ended (sandboxy), that it had absolutely no direction.
6) Imagine your favourite MMO releases a new class, but they won't tell anyone how to become this new class!! Forget becoming a Jedi. How to become one was a secret and no one was willing to share it. Some people claim they would remove any posts about "How to be a Jedi" from the forums. That was a very sore point for me.
Anyways, I slogged through my free month, eventually making some bone armor, running a few mining bots and buying a sand speeder and a house, but the experience was hostile and empty. I felt like SOE just slapped "Star Wars" on something with dollar signs in there eyes. It was bad, so I gave up and decided Sony would never get my money again. I know they added ships to the game and changed the core mechanics of the game(don't know how), but they will not sucker me again. What's that? Beta test PlanetSide for you? Well Sure I will!..... ugh.
Even after years I still remember the anger and disappointment like it was yesterday. Oh well, no big deal now.
I just replied to the main post, so if I have duplicated anyone else, my apologies. I will read the rest now.
Yes! Earth & Beyond, was a great game I played faithfully until they released an expansion that clogged the servers and lag became unbareable in some zones. It was soon to be shutdown by EA. Before the expansion my Progen Warrior Nanto had made it to 110, had a guild and everything. Loved the formation flying and the Self Destruct ability (which was pretty useless but fun). Then Poof! It was all gone.
They need to think more "Long Haul" for MMOs, but some companies are just looking for short term Cash-Cows. There will always be both, unfortunately.
Great article, Thanx!
I would've put SWG at the top of the list by far - all of us pre-CU and pre-NGE players got royally screwed on that!
But what's with the 4 relatively unknown games? sure, for the elite out there, they're familiar titles, but those of us who only have a knowledge of AAA and AA titles, perhaps some others should have made the list.
Here's my top 5:
1 - SWG - they screwed every player of the game in one fell swoop.
2 - Darkfall - "Epic Fail", "how not to make a game" - what ever you want to call it....this should be lessons learned for every game developer. In fact, there should be a text book based on this game and what you shouldn't do!!
3 - WAR - after years of watching Paul Barnett's crazy movies about all the awesome stuff going into the game, most of it doesn't make it in...and what does make it into the game becomes an extremely repetitve end-game.
4 - Hellgate London - Did you buy the lifetime membership? So many examples of what not to do when developing a game!!
5 - AoC - even the prospect of gratuitous nudity doesn't compensate for the mess that is AoC. Oh, and what's with the whole "buy the game, then buy time, then play" thing? It really would be nice to get 30 days free play when buying this!
Cunfushus says "Only through wasting time do we realize that time should not be wasted."
Really? Something tells me that I do not have the entire story. Where could I go to find out about this?
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
WTF? No subscription fee?
I played WWII online for awhile, it's not that bad. There are allot of dedicated players in WWII online. When I played a few years ago, it seemed barren and took forever to get to a battle, but once I got there, I got my first kill.
As you stated about the features, I dont think the hardcore players care.
I gave up the game to play Battlefield 2, it is free and basically the same game, in some respects.
EQ2 royally pissed me off. I beta tested it, liked it. Then they went all solo-content unfriendly with the newly chained mobs on release which made soloing nigh on impossible at the time. Given that getting a good group together took quite a while it killed the game for me having limited time to play.
AoC was fail of epic proportions. I agree, if it had another years development time it may have been a great. Nothing will erase my initial impressions of it, even though I played 3 months with a good group of friends it lacked any meaningful progression once you hit the level cap (which was easy to do). Sieges were a farce and pvp a joke.
AC2 was disappointing in that they cancelled it due to low subs. I liked the game and it had some innovative classes and features. Wasn't without problems, which I guess drove too many away.
Surprised UO trammel didn't rate the list. Next to SWG's NGE screwup, I think that impacted a lot of people and left a bad taste in the mouth.
Edit : How could I forget WAR... yup the sucky non-working endgame content. Same shit as AC2 just different packaging. To think I shelled out on collecter's editions of both games. Beh, never again!!!
Darkfall doesn't deserve the negative hits people enjoy heaping on it. Despite the hackers and exploits which still haven't been adequately dealt with, the game is enjoyable regardless... guess it all comes down to mindset (it isn't a game for everyone) & a good guild. Been playing since launch and probably will for a while more.
Later, developers changed the direction of the game significantly. So significantly, in fact, that they went so far as to offer refunds to their pre-payers. Things went downhill from there.
Between players complaining that the offered refunds were difficult, if at all possible to obtain, the eventual total cancellation of The Chronicle and the eventual closure the Rapid Reality as a company
I'd like to address this on just 1 level:
1) Who had trouble obtaining a refund?
I, PERSONALLY, refunded everybody who asked for one through PayPal. The Company that was Rapid Reality did not refund people, their refunds came directly from my bank account.
I took a LOAN out specifically so I could continue to refund people at the time. I told people to ask for the refund, so I could mark down and (hopefully) later be repaid by the company, through 3rd Party Forums, IRC, GTalk, MSN and on the phone.
The refunds were, in no way, difficult. Everybody who asked for one got one, period.
If somebody is telling you that they did not get a refund, it is because they did not request one.
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
I would have listed Star Wars Galaxies higher too, not that I ever played pre cu personally but because it had a good subscriber base when the 'ripoff' happened so that rather than a few thousand spending a few dollars on prorders as far as I know it was a few hundred thousand spending hundreds of dollars each paying for the game and more importantly the time they invested in that game that can never be returned only for SOE to stick their middle fingers up at them.
I also wonder if star gate worlds will make it onto this list in future, unpaid wages, pyramid scams etc. and it's still unknown if the game will even release.
Same here, I would list SWG as the number one offender in this list. I mean SWG pissed off more people than all the other games listed combined! I would also include Vanguard since and maybe even AoC.
Fight Me! http://zunarn.mybrute.com
EQ is just slowly evolving in directions that not all of its players want to go. It has never pulled any real crash and burn stunts like SWG.
Hmmm...must not have paid the same Sony Online that I did back when EQ first came out. We called it Never Quest because most of the quests were broken, meaning you would spend 60 hours questing a quest item to have it not be on the mob after killing it, or have it destroyed because you didn't have room in your inventory, or you repeat the words in [brackets] to the NPC but he just stares at you. Same guys who did a 6 month subscription but who's online subscription service never seemed to work when you wanted to cancel. It took me 3 months, server was always "down" and I didn't get my next automatic 6 month subscription back, Sony refused to pay me. Servers were constantly crashing for the first year (if not longer). You would log back in and not know where your body was a majority of the time. Getting into the game of course was a privilege though. The wait was usually 15 minutes to several hours. Luckily, usually someone was crashing out so you could get in.
Having said that, it was a trailblazer, and it was still EverCrack, so I don't really believe it belongs on the list. Of course I have a sour taste for any Sony online game still.
Speaking of DnL. They are back at it again. talesofkalenor.com/
Taken from the message board at DnL original site (surprised it's still active)
sorry but Hellgate london should have atleast replaced SWG, I know people have issues with SWG but come on at least there is still enough of a player base to keep it going H:L crashed and burned, promised so much, delivered very little and pi**ed alot of people off, especially those that paid for a life time sub.......
Lol, you're putting down what most SWG haters want back in SWG. Personnally, I agree with sandbox games having not enough direction even if "theme park" games have too much sometimes.
EQ is just slowly evolving in directions that not all of its players want to go. It has never pulled any real crash and burn stunts like SWG.
Hmmm...must not have paid the same Sony Online that I did back when EQ first came out. We called it Never Quest because most of the quests were broken, meaning you would spend 60 hours questing a quest item to have it not be on the mob after killing it, or have it destroyed because you didn't have room in your inventory, or you repeat the words in [brackets] to the NPC but he just stares at you. Same guys who did a 6 month subscription but who's online subscription service never seemed to work when you wanted to cancel. It took me 3 months, server was always "down" and I didn't get my next automatic 6 month subscription back, Sony refused to pay me. Servers were constantly crashing for the first year (if not longer). You would log back in and not know where your body was a majority of the time. Getting into the game of course was a privilege though. The wait was usually 15 minutes to several hours. Luckily, usually someone was crashing out so you could get in.
Having said that, it was a trailblazer, and it was still EverCrack, so I don't really believe it belongs on the list. Of course I have a sour taste for any Sony online game still.
Well in the earlier days of mainstream MMO's, After Ultima Online there was Evercrack or Asherons Call... and most remember "Neverquest" (yes I remember that lol, and the cackling klaknak website) TUMPY TONICS FTW!!! Ooooh or how about the old gem.... "BOOOOOOOOAAAAT!" and the fear of after having traveled 30 minutes that when you zone into Freeport you'll go linkdead and only be able to log back on AFTER you zoned back into the Ocean of Tears? Yeah... downtime and grind was the name of that game... and gave up after Kunark. Best of times, worst of times... though personally I think FFXI surpassed EQ in Group Pressure and grind in early days.
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
In response to my quote:
LOL, thanx.
Don't get me wrong, sandbox is nice, but without some direction to generally wander toward, it seems pointless.
Like I said, I couldn't even find any kind of storyline quest back then.
Who knows, maybe I'd like SWG now, but I lost all respect for SOE after the NGE curfuffle, or is it CU, or WTF , FFS? ... I don't know, and don't care.
Thanx for the read
Dude, I got a free month back in July. When I logged back into my old Smuggler and re-specced him to the Han Solo class, I almost cried when I found the server emptier than a ghost town...and the Smuggler class was STILL broken LOL Don't go back, it'll just ruin all of your old memories...
Cunfushus says "Only through wasting time do we realize that time should not be wasted."
This is an incorrect and misleading post, btw....Tales of Kalenor is not being developed by the same people that "attempted" to create DNL...it's just people/fans of ..how to word this...fans of how they wanted DNL to be, creating the Tales of Kalenor mmo...not at all associated with NPCube, NP3 or any of the companies that were involved with the making/breaking of DNL...just some motivated people with an engine and time/money to invest in themselves.....actually if you looked into it, they look farther along then what DNL did ....so go volunteer to give them a hand if you like the "idea" of DNL...
http://www.forceofarms.com/index.php
List fails without Gods & Heroes
This was even in closed beta, and Gamestop was taking preorders for it. News was coming out fast and furious, and it appeared to be ready for open beta within any day... and then all of a sudden disappeared as Perpetual decided they needed to focus their energy on Star Trek: Online (which, coincidentally, they also collapsed under). The studio went bankrupt, and G&H is now gone for good...
Sure, there's tons of vaporware out there, but never an MMO this massive, with as much interest as it had...
And for those of you saying Darkfall should be on there - at least it came out. After being derided as vaporware for its entire development, at least it came out...
This is an incorrect and misleading post, btw....Tales of Kalenor is not being developed by the same people that "attempted" to create DNL...it's just people/fans of ..how to word this...fans of how they wanted DNL to be, creating the Tales of Kalenor mmo...not at all associated with NPCube, NP3 or any of the companies that were involved with the making/breaking of DNL...just some motivated people with an engine and time/money to invest in themselves.....actually if you looked into it, they look farther along then what DNL did ....so go volunteer to give them a hand if you like the "idea" of DNL...
As I said it was taken directly from the message board.
"Dark and Light is not coming back anytime soon, well atleast not with the same content.
Few people from the old DnL Staff have started a new MMORPG project called Tales of Kalenor (Working title), Currently recruiting volunteers for the development in the name of good-old-times, But this time, you define the game. Check the forums."
The idea of DnL is long gone. And if people from the DnL staff are working on it. I don't see it being any better. Just my opinion. I however could be wrong. Either way I'm not touching it.
I must be pretty unlucky as I was stung by most of these games :-(
Played SWG from release and left when they changed the game.
Pre-ordered The Chronicle and never got my money back.
Also played beta in both Dark & Light and Mourning but fortunately I didn't buy them :-)
This is an incorrect and misleading post, btw....Tales of Kalenor is not being developed by the same people that "attempted" to create DNL...it's just people/fans of ..how to word this...fans of how they wanted DNL to be, creating the Tales of Kalenor mmo...not at all associated with NPCube, NP3 or any of the companies that were involved with the making/breaking of DNL...just some motivated people with an engine and time/money to invest in themselves.....actually if you looked into it, they look farther along then what DNL did ....so go volunteer to give them a hand if you like the "idea" of DNL...
As I said it was taken directly from the message board.
"Dark and Light is not coming back anytime soon, well atleast not with the same content.
Few people from the old DnL Staff have started a new MMORPG project called Tales of Kalenor (Working title), Currently recruiting volunteers for the development in the name of good-old-times, But this time, you define the game. Check the forums."
The idea of DnL is long gone. And if people from the DnL staff are working on it. I don't see it being any better. Just my opinion. I however could be wrong. Either way I'm not touching it.
It took me a while to find the actual post you're referencing...link would've helped....but apparently you're quoting Dajesse, who is a user on that message board(god knows why its still up and operating), who has 4 posts total with an account created (oct 08) after DNL closed its doors and shut their servers down (july 08).
That's a stretch at best with accuracte information about it...the best I can think of is that he's calling "Few people from old DnL. Staff have started a new MMORPG project" as one erroneous sentence but should be read as two sentences
I can specifically confirm/say since I'm assisting them on the ToK project that Fjalar (the lead) worked part time as a forum mod/GM for a few months for AD (The GM/Story provisioning support company that also moderated the boards but had no control over any aspect of the game development of DnL) .
I know of NO developer of DnL that is involved in the TOK project in anyway, shape or form. Just want to make sure that's clear as the post you're referencing is in itself, english illiterate and incorrect. Besides, they're using an entirely different engine to boot as well as mostly stocked with old player (DnL) volunteers.
http://www.forceofarms.com/index.php
QFT. Not to mention the game simply isn't FUN on top of that all.
I call BS here. I am In-game RIGHT now. Paid for the next month of play yesterday, and still havings lots of fun.
Perhaps on a list of the most fun games of 2009.
Perhaps on a list of the most fun games of 2009.
Tasco quit trolling the forums and get back to work!
I was a part of Mourning as well.
When I joined the community and got into beta, it was named Realms of Torment.
Fortunately I never pre-ordered as things just didn't feel right.
I could go into more detail but it would take pages....needless to say, they earned the top spot on this list.
I'd have to give AC2 honorable mention for closing down their servers a month after releasing an X-pack.
SWG should have been #2 on this list. SoE ruined what was one of the best sandbox games ever made. Easily the best crafting system of any MMO I've ever played. Some of the best classes as well.....then they tried to turn it into WoW/Candyland.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
MS started this failor but it was unforgivable that turbine let people buy expansion legions and not long after announced they stop with AC2.
AC2 was great mmo but from start it was a huge screwup mainly MS fault way to early released and announced as a follow up to AC they should never make AC2 a followup to AC1.
AC1 fans also helped with failor AC2 they demonize it all over the netz:(
If they had waited 10more months and release AC2 with hero patch and clearly stated that AC2 may have same names like dereth arwic and more simaliritys they should have go for complete new appraoch with this game for more casual gamers.
AC2 would still be here if they released it 10months later and not as a follow up to ac1.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.