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[Preview] H1Z1: Early Access and the Airdrop Madness
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Last night was a bit depressing. After HiveLeader’s excellent first impressions and livestream video, I was pretty excited for H1Z1. Even knowing how Early Access goes and how alpha builds get wiped and are pretty buggy messes, I’ll admit that the thought of a PVE sandbox zombie survival MMO has my interest piqued. But a rough start to the EA launch, brought on by some pretty high demand, coupled with a contentious decision to let people pay for airdropped gear, has everyone’s expectations a little down to earth.
Read on for Bill Murphy’s H1Z1: Early Access and the Airdrop Madness.
EDIT: This article was written before John Smedley's post about hotfixes on Reddit.
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Sewage… reminds me of home. Or at least, my home here.
Comments
"This issue aside though, I’m having a lot of fun with Hizzy. Especially, believe it or not, on the PVE servers. I’m not one for forced PVP, and I hope they eventually allow PVP flagging and faction or guild warfare on PVE servers, but I like the “it’s humans versus zombies” nature of the PVE servers. It makes for a more band of brothers type feel to the game when you don’t question every person you meet. I know some say that’s the point of these games… but it doesn’t have to be."
THANK YOU for this. It is refreshing to see! And I could not agree more. The fact that they actually listened to feedback and have included this option is fantastic, and guarantees that I will give this game a try.
I have long been an advocate for giving players a choice on what kind of playstyle they wish to engage in.
"they should be a random server occurrence, and not something that’s paid for."
Nailed it.
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/What a let down... not the game, but the P2W it already offers.
Really Sony had the ONLY FTP model i ever accepted. Play free, get a flat out full game via sub. Don't allow p2w in the store. I kind of liked that model.
WHY oh WHY did they change that in what i consider the WORST genre to have P2W aspects? I don't know. But i sure as hell won't touch the game untill they remove that.
Not saying i don't want to spend money on the game, because i do. IF it is not related to p2w. Let me pay a sub. Ill do. Let me buy cosmetic stuff, and i will. Include P2W and i won't touch it with a pole.
MMOs finally replaced social interaction, forced grouping and standing in a line while talking to eachother.
Now we have forced soloing, forced questing and everyone is the hero, without ever having to talk to anyone else. The evolution of multiplayer is here! We won,... right?
When the server pop reaches targets, an airdrop won't be paying for guns; it'll be paying for getting murdered and watching other people get guns.
Which sounds like a lot of fun. I'll pay for airdrops just to watch the carnage.
+1
Why game devs think pvp is the only way to go is beyond me. A mix and choice is always better then forced anything. AA could have been a great game if it had more pve after 30.
Starting to look forward to giving this game a go.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
How is paying 20 bucks to start a server event that you have no clue who will get the loot, P2W?
I think the mistake made was the overly generous loot table for the air drop.... The idea is cool as heck and can even be used tactically to draw people away from objectives.
But at the same time it is a dammed if you do, dammed if you do not situation. The had announced the Air drop mechanic over six months ago... and had it been "weak" people woudl have been up in arms about that instead because they paid 50$ "junk".
So could it been done better... Yes.. yes it could. But i think that in the end it will be a really nice mechanic.
This have been a good conversation
Because SOE promised NOT to sell any weapons, ammo, food etc in cash shop. It was a lie. You know very well what P2W means, admit it. Also, I'm sure that you can buy this stuff straight from cash shop soon when whales dropping money on crates get robbed and start QQing
This have been a good conversation
Yes I know what P2W mean... but you dont. I pay money, I get a better weapon and I blow people up using lesser weapons. Air Drop is a trigger for a server even and paying 20 bucks for it does not give you any advantage at getting anything. Its a SERVER WIDE event. Pulling Zombies and Players from all over. Last man standing gets the loot and even then, it may not have a BFG. Whales in this game mean nothing as you cant buy weapons and if there is a whale buying Air Drop after Air Drop trying to get a BFG, thats a server I would like to play on as it will be fun to watch him cry and log off in frustration for arming 1/2 the server.
Just unreal how developers like to spin words,since when do we call RMT... EVENTS?
Also the game is NOT promising because it does literally nothing,very few assets,one zombie model ,terrible graphics,VERY boring game play.
I just watched Kittyplaysgames on Twitch and she was doing nothing but continual running holding some hotkey to continual grab sticks.
The menu/UI is absolutely the WORST i have ever seen.You have to search and WAIT for the game code to activate,then there is some circle timer that again waits to access your inventory.Then i watched players go through many clicks to try and find something or craft something.
Crafting is again cheap just like the rest of the game's design,stick items into 1 of 4 boxes ,sort of like playing the slots lol.
There is absolutely NOTHING in that game or it's design that is worth a grain of salt.
IMO it is the worst by far game i have seen /watched in MANY years,i feel sorry for anyone who paid to play it.
This is what i call cashing in on all those people that are glued to TV's watching Walking Dead .The game is a 1/10 now and judging by the design it can't possibly reach much better than a 3 on release.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
It´s because all the veterans have either bailed SOE long ago or were laid off during one of the many rounds of lay offs that hit SOE the past years.
Look at EQ Landmark. Look at H1Z1. Just looks like a bunch of interns with a F-grade in game and UI design have been working on these games.
Seeing the progress of these two games (or more lack off), coupled with the terrible expacs that hit EQ2 last couple years.
I have lost all hope in Everquest Next and SOE in general. /shrug
When the Cash Shop sells an event lol or are you stuck to the fact a cash shop can sell many types of products? If the cash shop sold a weapon I would call it a weapon. If it sold water I would call it water.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
It is financially very risky with a new IP, especially if the main opposition is free to play in one way or another.
Much less risky to put the bar of entry as low as you can and use micro transactions.
This have been a good conversation
Steam % of positive reviews = 52% and dropping, Almost every negative review talks about the airdrops. Got to wonder what the % would be without the airdrop clusterF.
PS. Lots of Smed tweets about refunds:
Refunds - if you are upset about the airdrop P2W issue and want a refund email bwilcox@soe.sony.com and we will take care of you
we've asked Valve to allow self-refunds this weekend. They are awesome to work with. We'll let you know more as we do.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Sigh....F2P and early access have made such a mess of things.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
Because it doesn't generate enough income.
"After HiveLeader’s excellent first impressions and livestream video, I was pretty excited for H1Z1." this
"I’ll admit that the thought of a PVE sandbox zombie survival MMO has my interest piqued." and also this, well said Bill
The only difference is that no way I'll pay for an early access... I rather wait for the release, no need to rush anyways, the zombies will be there at launch I guess
If it's such a great mechanic, then why don't sony just do free random air drops and let pvp decide who gets the loot. Its an obvious greed mechanic that will not add anything to a "zombie survival" game (remember that is what its supposed to be, not CoD), except random zerg to get loot, which they could do for free and charge for other non p2w items.
I initially tried a pvp server and it was full of idiots and asshats ganking for no reason at all.
Went to a pve server and had an amazing time met up with a aussie, a german, and a guy from the UK and we ran together for a few hours sharing what we learned, helping each other out with food water and bandages, and ended up shredding some zombies together. Was really a good time.