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[Column] General: PAX East 2013 Postmortem
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
With PAX East 2013 now behind us, we're offering our thoughts on some of the things we looked forward to seeing at the show.
WildStar looks gorgeous every time we see it and I find myself impressed with the game in new ways each time Carbine gives us a closer look at the game’s fairly nuanced game design. If you play the game for a couple of minutes, you might get the idea that WildStar is just a quirky “me too” MMO, but there is a whole lot going on under the surface. Barring any surprises, this is my game to watch in 2013.
Read more of Michael Bitton's PAX East 2013 Postmortem.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
MH - no thanks
FF - now thats condidence lol
Wildstar - I agree
The FF thing touches on others as well though, what is it with the lack of confidence in ones own product.
ES is close to getting my stamp, they have really opened the doors lately, all im waiting for from ES and WS at this point is a release date.
I'm still waiting and hoping for a true virtual world style super hero MMO. I have absolutely no interest in Marvel Heroes. Just like I was disappointed in City of Heroes and Champions Online and DC Universe Online. Every one of them combat focused with little or no worlds to speak of with tons of instancing and always twitchy.
I'm looking forward to trying Elder Scrolls Online and learning more about EverQuest Next. I'm not sure about Wildstar as it seems to be a raid or die game. I do like its atmosphere which is delightfully created by wonderful voice overs with both nuanced and fun tongue and cheek humor.
The behavior of the FFXIV team makes me wonder if there is the possibility that the higher ups may be considering shutting the whole thing down, which would certainly be reflected in such a glum and lackluster presence at the show.
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Final Fantasy and Marvel Heroes? Neither are worth mentioning IMO, they will be nonentities within 6 months of release if they last that long.
Even Neverwinter will do better than either of them. Wildstar and Elder Scrolls will do quite well though, will have to agree with you there.
We didn't see it.
lol
What happen if it's not B2P?
Wildstar looks like another stupid cartooned MMO. The main reason I didn't play World of Warcraft.
Do people really like this style graphics in an MMO? Is this what has become acceptable?
I am so hesitant of any new MMOs anymore.
the only one I am watching now is ESO, the rest well I seen footage for wildstar and it looks like something from full metal alchamist, and all I got to say about that is its grea if your my 23 year old, its meh for me.
Looks like another year of nothing in the mmorpg world. Not good.
So tell me, I'm dying to know...
In what year are we finally able to create a working time machine?
So we have another know-everything guy here
You should contact FOX or BBC or something and create a show
Hey at least he has the maturity to not act hurt when someone decks a game he likes, no matter how justified it may be (sorry but FF... just doesn't look to be much more than a bright graphical explosion followed by a puff of smoke and then nothing).
Sounds like your open minded.... lol
The people giving FFXIV a second chance are the people that have bothered to read up about the game. It's a completely rebuilt game, almost nothing is the same. It's even on a new engine. Any preconceptions based on how 1.0 turned out are pointless because the rerelease has almost nothing in common with it beyond the class system.
They didn't show a lot at PAX because they're busy. They had their big marketing push about a month ago instead when they launched the benchmark.
Hey Mike,
Good write-up. I would have loved to hit up PAX, but that job thing gets me every time. I am surprised there wasn't more of a solid marketing campaign for FFXIV at PAX E', we all know the company needs it. I do want to ask, what does a "me too" mmo mean?
Thanks,
Ink
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
It was Joshua in a rather non-descript booth at the end of a row near the indies.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
GDC SF and PAX East were back to back, so a lot of devs limited their presence to the event that best fit their current message/news. For example, Turbine HQ is about 40 minutes away from there, but their big announcements were the opening of a San Fran office and their upcoming MOBA, Infinite Crisis, which is stuff more for the developer and industry oriented crowd. SOE had recently released a bunch of new titles and they've been through the circuit mostly, so their Dragon's Prophet reveal and PS2 player app announcements were more of a GDC thing, as well. SOE did have some reps and even a player gathering in Boston for PAX East, though.
It's an event that's definitely not losing relevance, as it has grown in both attendance and reach each year.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Mike your a nice guy, but this is a lie, I have been playing elderscrolls games for over 10 years, if the game doesn't allow players to become necromancers, or conjurers it is nothing like an Elderscrolls game, nor does it allow you too do anything you want. Please do not lie to the people who visit this website, and give them false hope that they are going to get a game that is completlely open world, open ended class system, when we all know it's not. If there is something that you know that I don't please pm me. I'de be most interested to know, because I was told by my friend that is currently beta testing it, it's not open ended like the Elderscrolls games, and nothing like Elderscrolls at all. It's a complete themepark like every other MMO
Not every MMO is a themepark dude :P (just saying because EVE-Online is the type of game where you can do anything you want at any time, just that it takes time to do it well).
Thats funny since the gaming industry is growning at incredible rates now and has just recently become the highest grossing section of entertainment.
Neverwinter was probably the game with the second longest line (if you don't count league but its out so i wont) at pax so i find it odd they aren't talking about it in this article. People should realize thought that ESO could be horrible and still have a chance to be the all awaited WoW killer. The game had the longest line i've ever seen at pax. At one point the line wrapped all the way around the booth and then ran the complete width of the floor on top of that. It was well over a 2 hour wait. What makes WoW is population and momentum more than anything else, so if ESO gets that kind of population and momentum then it will be very very successful.
All in all the top games at pax were great this year but the other booths were a serious fall off from the last two pax. Normally one of the best things about pax is all the games you never would have heard off that you see and look awesome of which there really werent any this year. The indi booth was full of what I call hipster indies and there was very little quality to what they brought. The vendors at pax this year didnt really show off goods and were more interested in having quarky announcers for people playing random games.
The main thing that was great this year was there was a huge improvement in panel quality over the last pax.