The MMORPGs of 2005 41
MMORPGDot.com has a two-part piece on the upcoming Massive games of 2005. The first article in the series touches on big name titles expected out this year like Matrix Online and Tabula Rasa, while the second article mentions lesser known small budget titles. From the big-title article: "If a list of features could make a great game, Dark & Light would be the first. NP Cube is promising some really ambitious things like a 40.000km gameworld without any loading, the possibility to become the king or conquer a town and enough goodies to whet your appetite. The question is how many of those features will actually be present at release?"
Re:meh.... (Score:2)
Go to my store and bet on the new england/philly game.
I need meat!
Search for cheap blue pixels and Lookie the Bookie!
Matix Online (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Matix Online (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Matrix Online (Score:1)
Re:Matrix Online (Score:1)
Re:Matix Online (Score:5, Interesting)
It still needs a lot of polish and optimization. Once it launches the plan is to have a flowing storyline written by Dave Gibbons. Right now that would be about the only thing that would convince me to play after beta.
My only fear at launch is summed up best by CtrlAltDel [ctrlaltdel-online.com]. So far the beta community is a pretty cool bunch though.
Re:Matix Online (Score:2)
Re:Matix Online (Score:1, Insightful)
- The combat system is very cool at first and it sustains enough interest (with higher abilities) as you level up.
- There are TONS of different abilities to choose from. The special moves (in all skill trees) look awesome
- Tons of cool clothes/items and other shit available. Where else can you find women characters with short leather minis.
- PvP!!!
- The missions look ok but boring since there is no live content available (to avoid story spoilers)
- There is quite a bit
Re:Matix Online (Score:1)
Spoken like someone who didn't experience MMORPG's until EverQuest... (old school) Ultima Online PvP, in my opinion, is unparalleled in its high requirements for skill to win, since a competitive cha
Re:Matix Online (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree that it looks like it has potential, but having seen the production of 2 MMORPGs from the inside, I can tell you that the potential will never be fulfilled if the project is mismanaged. The company has a deadline which will be met, regardless of the quality of their product. Since my former roommate was certainly not skilled in management, I hold very dim hopes for Matrix Online.
Re:Matix Online (Score:1)
I'm afraid that has summed up my experience so far in MMORPGs, still waiting for a good one.
Re:Matix Online (Score:1)
And yes, you should go through the tutorial at least once.
The most important feature in an MMORPG is... (Score:3, Insightful)
That's part of the problem with so many coming out. It doesn't matter how great the game is AS MUCH as it matters if you can find other people to co-operate with/fight online, or as much as it matters as that is the game your friends are playing. Hence the importance of marketing the game - something small developers can't afford to do well and players may not have the patience to wait around for word of mouth to succeed.
Case in Point: Allegiance was by far the best MMO I have ever played - but it died due to lack of players because MS dropped the ball in marketing it.
Re:The most important feature in an MMORPG is... (Score:2)
Re:The most important feature in an MMORPG is... (Score:2)
Re:The most important feature in an MMORPG is... (Score:3, Interesting)
For example, FFXI has (or at least had) 500,000 people on 30 different servers. Who needs 500,000 people if you will never know about them? A quick jump over to my microsoft calculator just told me that if you have only one server and 16,000 people it would be the exact same gameplay. I would rather play an MMO that I really like, than one that is popular. Especially considering you only need 16,000 people playing it to fill up a single server.
Obviously o
Size != Content (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, with a fractal algorithm and high enough precision location variables, I could give you a ten bajillion square mile game world next week. It'd suck as there's be nothing to do there except go up and down some hills and mountains, maybe occasionally swim across an ocean or screen, but it'd be huge.
A large gameworld is utterly meaningless without content. Gameplay is about density of content. Once you have a good density, sure, more is always good.
I'd rather play a game with 4km^2 of content with five really well considered pieces of content per meter than a 40,000 km^2 world with one automatically placed generic feature every 10m. Sure, it may technically have even more content than the smaller world but the quality and density of content will make me choose the smaller one.
At the end of the day, do you really want to play in a huge 1:1 simulation of Nebraska or would you have more fun at a much smaller, well designed theme park?
Re:Size != Content (Score:2)
Roma Victor correction (Score:1, Informative)
The article [mmorpgdot.com] is a bit thin on the features [roma-victor.com] and details [roma-victor.com] and also incorrectly indicates that Jolt is the publisher. It's an independent and largely community-driven [roma-victor.com] project.
Guild Wars (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Guild Wars (Score:2, Funny)
Now, anyone want to start a /. guild, see if we can break the guild system, or perhaps find an upper limit to how many can join a single guild?
Tabula Rasa? (Score:4, Informative)