MMOFringe Opinions

You know what the problem with MMO Industry is? They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit. Now I'm not some grungy wannabe fanboi that's searching for escapism through a haze of bong smoke or something. No, it's easy to pick apart bad coding, short-sighted development, and a purely moronic stringing together of words that many of the studios term as "voice acting". No, I'm talking about the lack of immersion. Immersion; not a pervasive element in today's modern American game development vision. Take The Old Republic, for example. Arguably Bioware's best work, short of Mass Effect and KoTOR Part 1, of course. Masterpiece of beta testing, easily Bioware's best. The cinematography, the graphics, the storyline, all top-notch. But... they didn't push the envelope.

Now what if in deep space, the smuggler REALLY wanted to pilot the ship? What if - now this is the tricky part - what if he started jump to lightspeed right away? No mercy, no quarter. "Get out of my way or the Whaladon-class container ship gets it side full speed." Bam, crash! What, still no player created chaos? Come on! How many transport freighters splattered across a galaxy would it take to have the Republic reverse its policy on smuggling situations? And this is 5000 BBY; there's no Vader, there's no Palpatine, there's no... there's no Empire! Now fast forward to A New Hope, time of the rebellion, same situation. How quickly would the Galactic Empire make a frenzy over this? In a matter of hours, it'd be biggest story from Hutta to Corelia! Ten Kessel Runs, twenty, thirty; relentless, bam bam, one right after another, all caught in high-def, computer-enhanced, holovid recorded. You can practically taste the glitterstim spice. All for what? More devs, delayed launch? A couple of million dollars more so success would be assured?

I don't think so. Just a thought. I mean, it's not within the realm of conventional gaming... but what if?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG-Z6-nFQBo

i now admit my earlier prediction that this game wouldn't last 6 months is wrong. why? one thing. it isn't the vast amounts of beta testers. or the preorders being cancelled due to lack of boxes. in this instance a game i used to hate and vilify is a better judge of the viability of this game and the industry as a whole. WOW. the fact that WOW lost a considerable amount of subs when TOR hit beta says more for the possible future of the game than anything else.

                                      looks like i have to admit that after all the crappy games claiming to be the one that could dethrone WOW...this WOW clone is the first one that actually stands a shot at doing it.  and make no mistake about it. TOR IS a WOW clone. if you strip it down to its basic components its just another thin and shallow themepark game. its chances for success have nothing to do with polish,voice overs,quest choices, or any of the other highly touted features. none of these can carry a game. they're just icing on the cake. its all about the star wars experience. those of you who defend the shallow "safe" themepark design that bioware have chosen really need to stop beating us non believers over the head with "but its got story!" "and quest choices!" because we both know that the real reason you love the game so much is its star wars...period. and hey there's nothing wrong with that. we recently saw the article about the different reasons why TOR could fail. i actually came to the game's defense cause those were the stupidest reasons ever.

                                                   the only reason this game stands a good chance of failing is the same reason all the other WOW clones failed. a design philosophy deeply rooted in the idea of stealing another game's playerbase. that said its actually the first game that has blizzard sweating. the only other game that had a chance to dethrone WOW was lotro. and it was a sight the day that open beta ended and the majority of the players abandoned the game to go back to WOW. i guess when open beta for TOR ends we'll see if they stick around. anyway enough meandering. my modified predictions:

3-4 months post launch: EAware will trumpet success at stealing a million players from WOW. but it wont be enough to satisfy EA's legion of doom management. or pay back the 200 million investment. the fist signs of boredom will start to show on the forums. if EA lets them post and not ban them.

6-8 months post launch: still not happy with a actual success EA will push out a lifetime sub. the subs will start to shrink as the star wars euphoria wears off and people start to realize they are just playing WOW in space. at the same time blizzard will get back many players by announcing a expansion.

1 year post launch: with the WOW expansion along with boredom taking a hit on subs they will then stab the lifetimers in the back by going FTP+RMT. doesnt matter though. anyone who buys a lifetime sub in a game that depends on regular income to support constant content updates gets what they deserve.

well only time will tell if im close to right. flame on!

The devs suck. They can't come up with a decent engine that can't be hacked seven ways to Sunday. They can't fix a bug without installing three others, and that bug will likely come back later. They can't see past the dollar signs in their eyes to make a great game. They whore themselves out to stupid and selfish players - because that is the lowest common denominator.

The players suck. They are gutless and brainless in PvP. Content to grind loser rewards rather than make an effort to win - because it's more efficient (TY for that devs) and they can't deal with their hurt feelings. They expect anyone who joins a dungeon group to already have the gear that drops there AND know the fights (like they were BORN knowing them and never had to learn). They take pride only in their wardrobe and RMT purchases, and not in playing WELL.

The companies suck. They release MMOs designed by the marketing department that serve only to suck money from stupid children.

Fuck the lot of you. I had a few good (even great) times my first few years playing MMOs, but it's all shit now.

STWOR - it's KOTOR online, not a Star Wars MMORPG. Fuck that.

GW2 - some cute ideas in combat, but NO MOUNTS? Bullshit. "We've eliminated the holy trilogy". Bullshit. Wait and see. "We'll add RMT if the players want them". Bullshit. PLAYERS don't ask to pay for content that used to come at NAC. Company shills make those posts.

TSW - wow, this one hurts. A modern day horror MMORPG sounds very cool. Sort of like X-Files the MMO. But - a sub fee + cash shop? GREED, pure and simple. Fuck you fanboys before you hand out the "yeah, but..." excuses for this shit.

This industry is a sewer - populated by rats.