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My new home, my escape, my last chance
delete5230
Member EpicPosts: 7,081
Monday through Friday I have the same routine. I wakeup at 5 am, shower coffee and put my shoes on. All that's on my mind is the long drive in heavy traffic, only to arrive at work and get told how bad our day will be in our morning meeting. That's how my day starts. Later, after nine hours I'm back home with my girlfriend, give her a kiss and eat dinner as she cares for the grand kids. That parts not so bad, infact it's enjoyable. But now I have some free time, what can I do with it ?.........At times I'll go to the gym or watch some boring TV or play an offline game.
But what I really want is something more, something to really escape. Something I used to have but it's been taken away. And that's my escape to an online world. Their was a time where it was a given, infact we had choices. MMO's were here to stay and we assumed it could only get better with technology. Never did we think it would take a turn for the worst. We never thought non-passionate people would take over with a bunch of bad ideas like small zoned worlds like Warhammer, auto dungeon finders like World of Warcraft, ridiculously easy solo minded mmos like Guild Wars 2. At first glance auto grouping sounds nice, stand in an area and take down a monster together with a bunch of nameless strangers. Exciting for sure, but cold. No friends. Rift did this and they did it well, but it was just a fun little gimmick that should have been short lived. But no, it stuck..........Now were faced with countless games that are solo online games like Final Fantasy 14 and Guild Wars 2 all because of someone's "temporary good idea". Many here will say, I like this stuff. Well good for you, but it goes against mmo philosophy. It makes it something else, This something else doesn't have a name tag yet, it just blended in and MANY DON'T LIKE IT, no matter how vocal and loud some of us here are.
Because of the cold nature of the so called advancement in technology, mmos are dying off. Yet companies and marketing continue running mmo's into the ground, they simply blame the players, at the very least they say younger players like to play solo and they like easy....How did they reach that conclusion ?.....They changed the playing field, you will like it, end of story. So many of you believe this "young people like easy". It's ok, I don't blame you, MARKETING IS POWERFUL and if you don't put much thought into it you would believe its so. Let me ask this question. How often do YOU give the reply "I don't like easy, but everyone else does".......I have yet to find that everyone else group.
That's MARKETING !
It had gotten far worst. We reached a new level of bad. We don't even make our own mmos anymore. Cash Shop Asian grinders, that's all I'll say about that !
My new home, my escape, My last chance
Some day soon our dream will materialize. God willing, will get a good mmo out of Pantheon. I'm confidant Visionary Realms understands the longing for a true mmo that so many of us had waited so long for. A game that will last for years. Something that will bring back Guilds, community and friendship in a virtual world.........A place to escape from that long congested drive home. Will be logging into a cruel world where everything would love to eat us for dinner, yet together we can overcome. We may not get much done in two hours but will be in it for the long haul with our friends 
Comments
It's not really a new game you need, you are looking for new friends.
You are hoping a game which incorporates challenge and interdependencies between players will result in recreating the magic from earlier days, which I understand.
Thing is, you don't have to wait or hang your hat on a single, future game.
First, there are games out there already such as EVE which already encourage people to team up and work towards common goals.
But if it's not for you, there are other ways. Join a good "corporate" guild such as Grievence if you are WHEM based. They play multiple games, almost all the big titles and the friends you make there carry from game to game. (sadly EVE is not a title they are strong in)
Don't sit around waiting for a perfect game to help you find the socialization you crave, there are alternatives now but you may have to more actively seek them out.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Yes, but they shit !
Even with "taxi" grouping, many players died cause of many things (knocked back by boss attack and fell from high place, ganked by bunch of filthy ninja frogs, nearly one-shotted by stealthy mordrem sniper, etc, etc..).
Don't compare Core GW2 with HoT expac, it's hardly same game anymore.
When you don't want the truth, you will make up your own truth.
MAGA
So, why not?
When you don't want the truth, you will make up your own truth.
It was niche back then, its niche now, but not any more or less so.
You've mistakenly taken your personal situation and applied it as a general market perception.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
The difference is they tire of it more quickly and move on to the next title.
But I see no evidence they lack the time to play games, only the interesting doing so which I attribute to uninspiring designs more than anything else, YMMV.
(whoops, split post, oh well, screw it)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
But if you think it's fun to wait a video game instead of playing a video game, I guess whatever makes you happy.
And I liked it.
Using your movie analogy what we are getting is one attempted 'epic' after another. Where the analogy breaks down is once a movie is finished it is done. The ongoing costs are minimal after the initial marketing release and generally people see it once and it is on to the next.
MMOs and other multiplayer online games depend on repeat business and have higher ongoing costs. If they are developed by a publicly traded US company then they legally have to try to maximize profits. This results in a try to please everyone to reach the widest audience situation. This does not always succeed. Look at what happened with New Coke.
Indie companies are generally privately held (until they get to a certain critical mass) and thus have more leeway in developing products. Using the Coke analogy a main stream company would know that in the US you have to have a sweet drink to appeal to the consumer. An independent company could try a vinegar flavored drink, but it probably would not be a massive hit.
What we saw in early development of the MMO genre was the learning curve of the companies as they figured out what would appeal to the customers. Blizzard nailed it with WoW and all the other mainstream companies have been chasing them since.
To address the original post. Try to temper your expectations. The more anticipation/expectation you invest the more likely you will be disappointed. This game will probably release in a rough state. Hopefully they will be able to polish and update within a reasonable amount of time. It will not be perfect.
Not saying we have a higher benchmark than other forums, oh hell no, its just we are slightly different monkeys , slinging slightly different pooh.
How many diet beer brands were created after Miller Lite showed that there was a market?
One of the bad things about WoW's success (in my opinion) is that it seemed overwhelm the rest of the market drowning out many of the niche games as many companies tried to become Pepsi to WoWs Coke.
I am not saying today's MMOs are better when they are not. The problem is where Vanilla WOW hit the nail on the head is a good balance for game play until end game. People on both sides forget the flaws of Vanilla WOW and what were the major successes of WOW before going on a rant how we need games that are Pre-WOW. They all forget how time consuming these games were, YES MMOs need to be time consuming but they need the right type of time sink which every MMO Failed Pre-WOW. For example If you were unlucky in SWG it might take you 30+ minutes to get from where you are out in the middle of one planet and have to jump 2 planets over and end up out in the middle of no where there just to play with friends. This was a stupid time sink. WOW fix this time sink by flight paths that might take you 15 minutes, BUT that would be your AFK break.
I have been a big fan of Vanilla WOW servers, everyone knows this. Yet over the last 2 months I REALLY took a hard look at this personally. Would I like the 3 to 5 day raid schedule needed for progression or any type of raiding? Nope I just dont have the time no matter what I do. I have kids that have after School activities and I most nights cannot play until 9pm, and no way in hell am I staying up past 11pm when I get back up at 530 am to do it all over again 5 days a week. I cannot do old school raid.
Now what do I REALLY want from Vanilla WOW or TBC WOW. I want instances that require CC, I want instances that I need to have a premade group, I want instances that if my team is not working together to make me fail the instance. How can I do this? Well its called friends and only needing 4 other people. I could text someone on Monday about a Friday night run or Saturday run and have my group setup days before, I dont need LFD/G to get a group. I do that Through Friends. NOW Raiding can be like that but the time requirement of raiding in Pre-LFR is that you need to spend around 3 to 4 hours per-raid each week when you are on Farm status VS 1 maybe 2 hours for any instance other than BRD full run.
This is what today's developers are foolishly not understanding. The same with Pantheon, as with, SOTA, Crowdfall and the rest of them. They are so locked up in what happened 16 years ago that they refuse to accept what were very big CONs and not understanding today's average MMORPG player is in their 30s and reaching 40s. They cannot play like they were in their 20s single with no family.
Until we have an MMO like Vanilla WOW that meshes Good core MMO design with efficiency tools that do not make an MMO a single player game; we will continue to have below average MMOs. For example, you can have dungeons in your MMO that require groups. But you cannot make the Dungeon content be a treadmill like setup to get gear up for raiding. Back in BC a player could get some crafted gear, some quest gear, and some Dungeon gear and get into raiding fairly fast. Dungeon gear only helped progress Raids faster if done over and over again. But now we have a token system because everyone needs to feel special because RNG is not fair you might not get what you want for your time. Yet this makes running Dungeons a must, making the game a massive Treadmill and what do you need? A LFD tool that pushes people to group up in a matter of minutes. Now you have single player game play..........
The problem is the MMO GAMER not the MMORPG Genera. We all want to feel like special snow flakes and need to have that shine new reward for any little effort we put into the game. That is the core reason why MMORPGs are in the shitter.
This niche is still out there, I game with some of them.
Not sure how valid your survey data is, no one I know has ever been contacted. I think you put too much faith in it.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I don't care how much data research DMKano has or where it came from...It's all bull crap
You can't put a number on fun. You cant chart things when choices are forced on people. You cant get any accurate figures when you have cash shops forced on people, or games are just made easy for developer reasons and its ALL THEIR IS.
How can you ask in a survey if people like games such as UO or EQ1 when their 20 year old.
Millions of people are waiting for a real mmo.......Chart that.
I agree with your Post.
I have not seen market direct analysis like DMKano has, but I have been aware of this kind of research for quite some time. Pretty much anywhere there is money being made from a group of customers, there will be someone else analyzing that market to plan other products. I never bought this info in 2002-2003 when I was trying to develop my own game, but I had an amount budgeted to purchase it if I went forward.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Precedent.
There is no recent precedent that establishes the potential of a game like EverQuest. That is because people have been busy replicating the most successful game in the genre.
The statistics for modern mmos also tell us that this formula they've all so willingly adopted has poor long-term performance.
I believe Kyleran will be proven correct based on my observations. There are millions of people estranged from this genre awaiting a game like EQ. The only difference is that there are 3x the number of people on the internet so that niche stands to be considerably larger if such a game comes along and does it right.
While I have my doubts Brad will produce a quality game based on my own experiences with Vanguard which I am hoping will be wrong because I too would love to see a game like Pantheon succeed I cannot see where you're getting your millions figure.