Blizz does what all competitive businesses do, they analyze the competition and use what grants them the greatest profit. While that may seem overly cynical, study Corporate America (or any corporate structure regardless of national origin) and this will very swiftly become apparent to anyone with a modicum of perception.
How well will Blizz do that? Interesting question, particularly since Blizzard recently purchased its independence from Activision last month, and that raises the competitive bar for SOE to go against considerably.
Even peace may be purchased at too high a price, and the only time you are completely safe is when you lie in the grave.
I honestly do not want blizzard to make another mmorpg, they have already done enough un-repairable damage to the mmorpg genre/community as it is. Though it would be intersting if they made a super hardcore mmorpg and it did very well, and then devs would start copying that, might actually make some decent mmorpgs come out.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
As far as I'm concerned, Blizzard's Titan is BS until I actually see footage. The game is back to pre production because it was crap and so far Blizzards hype on this is just rumors and speculations. Since Activision took over Blizzard has gone to hell.
Blizz does what all competitive businesses do, they analyze the competition and use what grants them the greatest profit. While that may seem overly cynical, study Corporate America (or any corporate structure regardless of national origin) and this will very swiftly become apparent to anyone with a modicum of perception.
How well will Blizz do that? Interesting question, particularly since Blizzard recently purchased its independence from Activision last month, and that raises the competitive bar for SOE to go against considerably.
Blizz bought themselves out from activison? Activision was the main reason wow went to crap in the first place. Hopefully now that Blizzard is their own entity again titan might actually be worth watching.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Then you obviously don't know what a sandbox game is.
They said they were going hardcore sandbox, and they are delivering on that promise.
Who is this vast majority that don't want OW PvP? Who are you to speak for this majority?
As I said before the game was "revealed" they aren't going to make it for hardcore players and they aren't going to "force" pvp on players who don't want it.
They already said that the game isn't for "the hardcore" audience and we are waiting on pvp info.
You may feel free to contact me and say "I told you so" when they reveal more info and I'm proven wrong but I feel extremely confident in my assessment that the game will be a sandbox with added elements to make the game more alive and give players who want it directions AND it won't force pvp on players regardless of those who think the game "has to have it because it's sandbox".
Time will tell but I am betting it will prove me right.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
For a long time I've maintained that large corporations stifle more than they stimulate, and thus big outfits absorbing smaller ones is not the boon many are taught that it is. Absolutely love seeing indie studios doing stuff like this.
Even peace may be purchased at too high a price, and the only time you are completely safe is when you lie in the grave.
Originally posted by Leiros So, as I was watching the EQN reveal last week I couldn't help but imagine a group of Blizzard devs scribbling furiously with their pens and clipboards as the "new features" were being unveiled. Does anyone else feel like Blizzard is just waiting copy and then improve upon whatever EQN has to offer?
Yes, this is exactly it. Blizzard who has clearly copied everyone since the beginning of gaming and never done anything original is just sitting back waiting for the ideas to roll in from other developers so they can steal them and use them.
Seeing as myself and MANY other people predicted EXACTLY what EQN would be before the unveil it's not hard to say that Blizzard also could easily see where the market is going as well and was already developing in that direction. The best part was sitting in the chat room before the unveil and having everyone flame me for saying that it would make sense for them to do randomly generated worlds with action-based combat, then to watch the unveil and laugh.
Ego check for Ego13:
First, no need for the " /sarcasm", because you are right on the money. But not only for blizzard, all companies look at what other companies are doing and bring in ideas they feel work well. If you do not learn from others, you are doomed to fail. It's not underhanded, it is just how the world works.
Second, "you and many others predicted 'exactly' what EQN would be before the unveil?", O man, this is just too good to pass up. Lets get a few of your quotes from before the reveal:"
"They won't do anything ground-breaking (and if they do I'll GLADLY eat my own words) so the game will just be; Spam for group....wait....spam for group.....get in group....grind for the time you have......say 'thanks everyone'.....log out."
"They won't be able to change the way you progress in the game in such a dramatic way that my argument (That sandbox progression is the same as themepark progression as it pertains to groups) isn't valid. I can already think of a couple ways they could make.
"I am deeply skeptical that they would be changing everything we know about combat somehow....it's almost all been done before, which means it will be common-place for all of us."
O, and my personal favorite, about 2 weeks before the reveal you said:
"everyone is hoping for a sandbox, get ready to be disappointed..."
You are an intelligent person, and I will give you this: you did state that PvP wasn't going to be one of the building blocks of EQN, but to state such a grandiose claim that you and others knew "exactly" what was going to come out in the reveal, was very wrong. At best, you made educated guesses, like the rest of us lowly folk, and just like us, you were wrong on most accounts.
Back on the topic on hand though, Knowing Blizzard, they will find a way to incorporate some of the key concepts of EQN, without infringing on copyrights. Its only natural that successful concepts get copied, and unsuccessful ones get dropped. Mainly, the emergent AI, and the auto quest systems are mayor "copy able" tools that can increase the playability of any MMO out there, and they would be fools to not try to implement these tools at least in part.
Wait a few months on that one, and you'll probably be adding it to his list of blunders...
Then you obviously don't know what a sandbox game is.
They said they were going hardcore sandbox, and they are delivering on that promise.
Who is this vast majority that don't want OW PvP? Who are you to speak for this majority?
As I said before the game was "revealed" they aren't going to make it for hardcore players and they aren't going to "force" pvp on players who don't want it.
They already said that the game isn't for "the hardcore" audience and we are waiting on pvp info.
You may feel free to contact me and say "I told you so" when they reveal more info and I'm proven wrong but I feel extremely confident in my assessment that the game will be a sandbox with added elements to make the game more alive and give players who want it directions AND it won't force pvp on players regardless of those who think the game "has to have it because it's sandbox".
Time will tell but I am betting it will prove me right.
I always have mixed feelings about PvP. FFA PvP is mostly grief style playing, either with gang mentality to ensure wins or exploitative ambushes and its only a masochist who enjoys being on the receiving end of that. However some pvp I think is a good thing, and not that Arena crap that WoW came up with or a single zone that one farms independent from the rest of the game's content. To this day i think that DAOC had the best model around, pre ToA. So when people talk OW PvP as the best model, and claim they are a majority, I'd say the market is a better indicator as to what people like over some forumwarrior's opinion.
Blizz bought themselves out from activison? Activision was the main reason wow went to crap in the first place. Hopefully now that Blizzard is their own entity again titan might actually be worth watching.
And at the end of the day...do players REALLY care where the ideas come from? Maybe on the forums to argue about...but as far as the actual game...I could care less. I just want a fun game.
Originally posted by Leiros So, as I was watching the EQN reveal last week I couldn't help but imagine a group of Blizzard devs scribbling furiously with their pens and clipboards as the "new features" were being unveiled. Does anyone else feel like Blizzard is just waiting copy and then improve upon whatever EQN has to offer?
What I keep feeling is this: Blizzard already knew about EQN perhaps had some inside on the game itself before it was exposed and perhaps this was the reason they scrapped Titan for now and going to re-build their game. Because their games was to similar as to what EQN is bringing?
Originally posted by Leiros So, as I was watching the EQN reveal last week I couldn't help but imagine a group of Blizzard devs scribbling furiously with their pens and clipboards as the "new features" were being unveiled. Does anyone else feel like Blizzard is just waiting copy and then improve upon whatever EQN has to offer?
What I keep feeling is this: Blizzard already knew about EQN perhaps had some inside on the game itself before it was exposed and perhaps this was the reason they scrapped Titan for now and going to re-build their game. Because their games was to similar as to what EQN is bringing?
I don't think Titan was even close to what EQN was bringing to the table. I heard inside sources that Blizzard's Titan was basically a Civilization MMO. You start out as barbarians in circa 3000 AD with wooden Axes and crap and work your way up through the centuries gaining technology until end game you are wielding future military tech and it turns into a FPS.
Originally posted by Leiros So, as I was watching the EQN reveal last week I couldn't help but imagine a group of Blizzard devs scribbling furiously with their pens and clipboards as the "new features" were being unveiled. Does anyone else feel like Blizzard is just waiting copy and then improve upon whatever EQN has to offer?
What I keep feeling is this: Blizzard already knew about EQN perhaps had some inside on the game itself before it was exposed and perhaps this was the reason they scrapped Titan for now and going to re-build their game. Because their games was to similar as to what EQN is bringing?
I don't think Titan was even close to what EQN was bringing to the table. I heard inside sources that Blizzard's Titan was basically a Civilization MMO. You start out as barbarians in circa 3000 AD with wooden Axes and crap and work your way up through the centuries gaining technology until end game you are wielding future military tech and it turns into a FPS.
That sounds interesting, even if it ended up not being true.
I'm going to laugh if Blizzard releases an "old-school," more realistic graphics, tab-targeting game using a lot of the promising ideas being used in EQN, such as the emergent AI and world quests... Despite my dislike for WoW, I would then become a Blizzard fanboi. lol.
I was wide eyed for most of the reveal. But then Action Combat happened. And then the death of the Holy Trinity happened. And then my tears happened Q.Q
they have to copy and make it better, but guess they will just make it more cartoon-ish and they will add more pve elements and make it more themepark but for sure they will copy storybricks and i hope they will do, otherwise this project will be a mess ..
If there was ever a monster who was lawlin' at the premise of Blizzard using EQN's design concepts for their Titan project, it would be this guy. Me, right here.
<--
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
Copy what? What new ideas and features are you talking about? So far I don't see much that is "new" and never been done. WoW has already had forms of destructible worlds that change, EQN may be taking it a step further...but is it really original? I highly doubt people are going to be lined up to copy this game.
I will agree that I think a lot of MMOs took ideas from the original EQ. A lot were just more successful. The problem is, SoE has wanted to re-capture that magic for a long time and fail every time. It's unfortunate. I know it has to be hard, people basically want EQ with updated graphics....but they tried that with eq2 (maybe vanguard, I never tried that game) and failed. I applaud SoE for trying, EQN looks to be the absolute worse of all the games they tried to make since EQ..but what choice did they really have? EQ2 and Vanguard had the realistic graphics but were obviously missing something else because they fizzled out. I actually liked eq2 for a long time myself, but the crowd was not there. It's just unfortunate that's it's come to this.
They will sell a few million boxes, but they won't be able to retain that number of subs.
What was the last AAA Sandbox title? Go on, I'll wait for you to answer. SWG is the last one I can think of, and it did well... until SOE decided to NGE it. UO before that was incredibly successful for its time.
Sandboxes are not niche. Indie sandbox games with low budgets that target a specific market (PVPers, etc) are niche.
Oh, and a lot of people consider the Grand Theft Auto series to be a sandbox style game (although progression requires doing the missions, so I don't personally think of it as one).. And that series has done okay.
I will agree that I think a lot of MMOs took ideas from the original EQ. A lot were just more successful. The problem is, SoE has wanted to re-capture that magic for a long time and fail every time. It's unfortunate. I know it has to be hard, people basically want EQ with updated graphics....but they tried that with eq2 (maybe vanguard, I never tried that game) and failed. I applaud SoE for trying, EQN looks to be the absolute worse of all the games they tried to make since EQ..but what choice did they really have? EQ2 and Vanguard had the realistic graphics but were obviously missing something else because they fizzled out. I actually liked eq2 for a long time myself, but the crowd was not there. It's just unfortunate that's it's come to this.
EQ and EQ2 were 2 different games. That was one of the problems SOE had at launch with people leaving EQ to check out EQ2, discovering they didn't like it's direction (comically getting similar responses that you find about EQN and not being 'everquest' enough) and then leaving without returning to EQ (which back then was starting to show it's age not only in graphics but in how it's code was holding up).
Vanguard was just a mess. Badly organised budgets and management etc. It had great ideas and plans but that alone couldn't save it from it's launch state (much like how AoC never recovered from it's distasterous first month, and that could have been argued to have been in a more release ready state).
I daresay though that if anything proves popular in EQN you WILL see it in some iteration in other games, it is after all how the industry works. Whether a game will copy the while package though would be doubtful in the near future. If the game takes off and becomes as successful as SOE seem to hope it will then you guarantee the term EQN clone will start floating around these very forums.
Originally posted by Kyleran Titan will release to market one month after EQN and history will repeat itself. Most likely in the month of November.
That's an interesting flashback. If people remember when EQ2 launched 1 month before WoW, people flooded into EQ2, then when WoW released a big portion of those players went with WoW instead. EQ1 players went back to EQ1, rest like me went to WoW and didn't bother with EQ2 again until after 2 years of constant revamps by SOE.
People writing Blizzard off should be careful. Blizzard has knocked SOE off the throne once, in a decisive victory, and it has held onto the throne for almost 10 years since. As far as I'm concerned, Blizzard is still in the driver's seat. It's obvious their talent went from WoW's dev team to Titan's dev team. I'm fully expecting a good, quality game from Blizzard as they've always shown us they're capable of delivering.
SOE has not shown me they're capable of big time any longer. SOE hasn't had a top 5 game in the U.S. or the world since 2004. Most of their recent ventures have been failures. We're talking about DCUO, Planetside 2, etc. Smed will be happy if they're able to string some players along, just long enough for them to purchase some station cash items. People jumping on EQN bandwagon just must have selective memory. If this was any other company, I may have higher hopes for EQN's future. But it is SOE, and SOE just hasn't been a big time player in the MMORPG genre for quite awhile.
Comments
If EQN is a great game and then after a few years Titan comes out with their revision on what they think would make it better, that'd be great.
It's easy to trash on WoW now that everyones sick of themeparks, but it was a cool game back when it came out.
Blizz does what all competitive businesses do, they analyze the competition and use what grants them the greatest profit. While that may seem overly cynical, study Corporate America (or any corporate structure regardless of national origin) and this will very swiftly become apparent to anyone with a modicum of perception.
How well will Blizz do that? Interesting question, particularly since Blizzard recently purchased its independence from Activision last month, and that raises the competitive bar for SOE to go against considerably.
Even peace may be purchased at too high a price, and the only time you are completely safe is when you lie in the grave.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!
Blizz bought themselves out from activison? Activision was the main reason wow went to crap in the first place. Hopefully now that Blizzard is their own entity again titan might actually be worth watching.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!
No one is sick of themeparks.
As I said before the game was "revealed" they aren't going to make it for hardcore players and they aren't going to "force" pvp on players who don't want it.
They already said that the game isn't for "the hardcore" audience and we are waiting on pvp info.
You may feel free to contact me and say "I told you so" when they reveal more info and I'm proven wrong but I feel extremely confident in my assessment that the game will be a sandbox with added elements to make the game more alive and give players who want it directions AND it won't force pvp on players regardless of those who think the game "has to have it because it's sandbox".
Time will tell but I am betting it will prove me right.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Fascinating stuff Nadia, thanks for the post.
For a long time I've maintained that large corporations stifle more than they stimulate, and thus big outfits absorbing smaller ones is not the boon many are taught that it is. Absolutely love seeing indie studios doing stuff like this.
Even peace may be purchased at too high a price, and the only time you are completely safe is when you lie in the grave.
Wait a few months on that one, and you'll probably be adding it to his list of blunders...
I always have mixed feelings about PvP. FFA PvP is mostly grief style playing, either with gang mentality to ensure wins or exploitative ambushes and its only a masochist who enjoys being on the receiving end of that. However some pvp I think is a good thing, and not that Arena crap that WoW came up with or a single zone that one farms independent from the rest of the game's content. To this day i think that DAOC had the best model around, pre ToA. So when people talk OW PvP as the best model, and claim they are a majority, I'd say the market is a better indicator as to what people like over some forumwarrior's opinion.
Blizz bought themselves out from activison? Activision was the main reason wow went to crap in the first place. Hopefully now that Blizzard is their own entity again titan might actually be worth watching.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard
scroll to the bottom, Blizz dropped a hefty wad to insure they had significant controlling interest, was actually impressed by their move.
Even peace may be purchased at too high a price, and the only time you are completely safe is when you lie in the grave.
Copying is the best form of flattery.
And at the end of the day...do players REALLY care where the ideas come from? Maybe on the forums to argue about...but as far as the actual game...I could care less. I just want a fun game.
What I keep feeling is this: Blizzard already knew about EQN perhaps had some inside on the game itself before it was exposed and perhaps this was the reason they scrapped Titan for now and going to re-build their game. Because their games was to similar as to what EQN is bringing?
I don't think Titan was even close to what EQN was bringing to the table. I heard inside sources that Blizzard's Titan was basically a Civilization MMO. You start out as barbarians in circa 3000 AD with wooden Axes and crap and work your way up through the centuries gaining technology until end game you are wielding future military tech and it turns into a FPS.
That sounds interesting, even if it ended up not being true.
If there was ever a monster who was lawlin' at the premise of Blizzard using EQN's design concepts for their Titan project, it would be this guy. Me, right here.
<--
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
Maybe they're rename it from Titan to Everquest 3, I know I'd play.
Asdar
Copy what? What new ideas and features are you talking about? So far I don't see much that is "new" and never been done. WoW has already had forms of destructible worlds that change, EQN may be taking it a step further...but is it really original? I highly doubt people are going to be lined up to copy this game.
I will agree that I think a lot of MMOs took ideas from the original EQ. A lot were just more successful. The problem is, SoE has wanted to re-capture that magic for a long time and fail every time. It's unfortunate. I know it has to be hard, people basically want EQ with updated graphics....but they tried that with eq2 (maybe vanguard, I never tried that game) and failed. I applaud SoE for trying, EQN looks to be the absolute worse of all the games they tried to make since EQ..but what choice did they really have? EQ2 and Vanguard had the realistic graphics but were obviously missing something else because they fizzled out. I actually liked eq2 for a long time myself, but the crowd was not there. It's just unfortunate that's it's come to this.
What was the last AAA Sandbox title? Go on, I'll wait for you to answer. SWG is the last one I can think of, and it did well... until SOE decided to NGE it. UO before that was incredibly successful for its time.
Sandboxes are not niche. Indie sandbox games with low budgets that target a specific market (PVPers, etc) are niche.
Oh, and a lot of people consider the Grand Theft Auto series to be a sandbox style game (although progression requires doing the missions, so I don't personally think of it as one).. And that series has done okay.
EQ and EQ2 were 2 different games. That was one of the problems SOE had at launch with people leaving EQ to check out EQ2, discovering they didn't like it's direction (comically getting similar responses that you find about EQN and not being 'everquest' enough) and then leaving without returning to EQ (which back then was starting to show it's age not only in graphics but in how it's code was holding up).
Vanguard was just a mess. Badly organised budgets and management etc. It had great ideas and plans but that alone couldn't save it from it's launch state (much like how AoC never recovered from it's distasterous first month, and that could have been argued to have been in a more release ready state).
I daresay though that if anything proves popular in EQN you WILL see it in some iteration in other games, it is after all how the industry works. Whether a game will copy the while package though would be doubtful in the near future. If the game takes off and becomes as successful as SOE seem to hope it will then you guarantee the term EQN clone will start floating around these very forums.
That's an interesting flashback. If people remember when EQ2 launched 1 month before WoW, people flooded into EQ2, then when WoW released a big portion of those players went with WoW instead. EQ1 players went back to EQ1, rest like me went to WoW and didn't bother with EQ2 again until after 2 years of constant revamps by SOE.
People writing Blizzard off should be careful. Blizzard has knocked SOE off the throne once, in a decisive victory, and it has held onto the throne for almost 10 years since. As far as I'm concerned, Blizzard is still in the driver's seat. It's obvious their talent went from WoW's dev team to Titan's dev team. I'm fully expecting a good, quality game from Blizzard as they've always shown us they're capable of delivering.
SOE has not shown me they're capable of big time any longer. SOE hasn't had a top 5 game in the U.S. or the world since 2004. Most of their recent ventures have been failures. We're talking about DCUO, Planetside 2, etc. Smed will be happy if they're able to string some players along, just long enough for them to purchase some station cash items. People jumping on EQN bandwagon just must have selective memory. If this was any other company, I may have higher hopes for EQN's future. But it is SOE, and SOE just hasn't been a big time player in the MMORPG genre for quite awhile.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO