D&D Online Stress Beta Begins 400
kafka47 writes "Turbine's much-anticipated MMO, "Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach", is now opening up its stress test to Fileplanet subscribers. The registration is free, and it is a great opportunity for MMO and D&D fans to sign up and try out the game! Paid subscribers get a higher-rez client, but if you're curious about what DDO has to offer (and by all accounts, it's a lot) this is your chance to see it early."
oh yay (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:oh yay (Score:5, Funny)
</sarcasm>
Re:oh yay (Score:2)
-WS
Re:oh yay (Score:2)
I mean, where do you people get off thinking that...that...oh crap! I can't resist. *Shift-F9*
Damn, that is cool. Now I'm off to drop more widgets into my Dashboard.
Re:oh yay (Score:5, Interesting)
I think you're being a little hasty in saying that it's to push more people to their forums, more likely that a ready-made, limited userbase was there to be tapped for something like this, especially for testing purposes.
Re:oh yay (Score:5, Informative)
Like it or not, Windows is what the vast majority of the gamers use, so that's who the developers develop for. How do we fix that? Well, we get more gamers to use Linux and to demand Linux support in their games. And these people need to be willing to pay for these Linux games -- wanting free versions won't cut it. So far, we're not doing very well in that front at all.
And seriously, getting most of the commercial games that are available for Linux working in Linux is somewhat tricky. Getting OpenGL hardware support isn't difficult, but there's often other dependancies and such that have to be done before a certain game will work, and even when it does work it often doesn't work as well as the Windows version.
Every time I have to defend Windows or explain why somebody chose Windows rather than Linux I feel like I'm in some sort of bizarro-world, since I'm a pretty serious Windows detractor. But ultimately, as things stand at the end of 2005, Windows is a better platform for gaming than Linux or MacOS -- the support is there, the games are there, and things generally work with little pain. The only platforms that can rival it are the various consoles (and in many ways, they do have it beat, and in many ways, Windows beats them.)
Sure, lots of people understand that. What's your point? OK, but lots of people will jump through their hoops, and a few actually will sign up for their forums and buy subscriptions, so I doubt that the creators of D&D Online and the IGN/Fileplanet people will really miss you that much.Re:oh yay (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:oh yay (Score:2)
And I completely disagree. What good is a platform for gaming if there's no games that work on it? Like it o
Re:oh yay (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:oh yay (Score:3, Insightful)
if you need to get more linux gamers to attract more linux-support from game developers... you get a chicken-egg problem:
gamers won't come to linux if it's not supported by dev companies
dev companies won't support linux if gamers don't migrate
a better solution would be:
more quality open source/linux games that can equal the polished commercial counterparts.
free-games usually lack decent artwork or decent menus or whatnot... they even lack decent stories.
so the plan is:
- get bunch of talented people toge
Re:oh yay (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, from a developers standpoint, MacOS is the best choice because you generally know what the OS and hardware will always be. A Mac is closest thing in the computer world to a console. If you make a game that runs on Mac OS that year, you can generally assume most other Macs that run OS X will run it.
With Windows and Linux you basically have to guess what most people might be using for processor, motherboard, sound card, video drivers etc... Direct X, OpenGL, and windows APIs generally help this by making all things universal but problems do arise for end users when they have some pretty whacked specs or quirky video drivers.
However, from a publishers stanpoint, because of Mac OS small market penetration the Windows version makes more sense.
Perhaps the x86 systems will change that, but that is pure speculation.
Re:oh yay (Score:2, Informative)
Actually that is Bioware's fault, from the rad game tools website:
The Bink
NO, developer problem NOT platform problem (Score:2, Insightful)
Arguably, no you are wrong.
The only points that you have brought up, basically state that the reason why Windows is a better platform is because the developers develop for it. Please note that this is *very* different from Windows actually being the better platform.
If the developers have actually developed
Re:oh yay (Score:2)
It's pretty pedantic. :)
But really, I was talking about PC gamers. I touched consoles a tiny bit later in the post, but I could have been more clear in the beginning. Thanks for bringing it up.
But really, are there more people playing games on Playstations than on PCs? I have my doubts. After all, even if you just play Minesweeper or Solitaire on your PC occasionally, you're still a `gamer', are you n
Re:oh yay (Score:2)
I wasn't exactly `down on him'. I was disagreeing with him. There's a difference.
And really, if you want to `demand Linux support', you don't do it at the beta test when you're asking for a free download. (And you don't do it on /., for that matter.) You do it when the finished product is out -- you let the company know that `if you had a Linux version out, I'd buy it. But you don't, so
Re:oh yay (Score:3, Insightful)
If you are that paranoid, use a bogus e-mail, and bogus home address/phone number.
Re:oh yay (Score:3, Interesting)
You might be interested in DodgeIt [dodgeit.com]. It's a site that provides unsecured, public, read-only email inboxes. To use it, simply send an email to somerandomphrase@dodgeit.com... and then go the the website, enter 'somerandomphrase' into the box, and see your message. No setup required.
The mail's kept for a short period of time, it's mostly anonymous (DodgeIt could theoretically record the IP address of incoming connections and
Re:oh yay (Score:3, Funny)
Where is Loki Games when you need them? (Score:2)
All irony aside, you have the right idea but Linux has a lot of room to grow before it can be a competitive platform in the gaming market.
Re:oh yay (Score:2)
2. IGN/FilePlanet do these things because they provide bandwidth to ship out the files. Very few other places out there offer this service. This makes the stress test distribution process easier for
Re:WWIV says Ctrl-A (Score:2)
Re:WWIV says Ctrl-A (Score:2)
Now, I won't put too much weight on it being corded (I use a Logitech MX510), but still. This is $50 for a mouse that fits right into the previous generation MS Intellimouse or generic Logitech 3-butt
Re:Mac .... gamers? (Score:2)
In the old days, option click did it.
Not a terribly hard concept.
I actually started playing doom on the pc and never used the right mouse.
got a 3 button logitec for my mac and never needed to use anything but the left mouse button.
So, I guess the answer to your question is "easily".
Re:Mac .... gamers? (Score:2)
Too bad it's not as "easy" are you are claiming.
City of Heroes/Villains BOTH make use of the right button. In another game I'm helping beta, I'm constantly using the left button to aim my attacks at the ever-moving target while smashing away on the right button to attack them.
Add in the fact that you, yourself, need to be moving around (to keep up with the thing you are attacking) and your 'holding the control key' or whatever quickly fall apart.
Re:Mac .... gamers? (Score:2)
Re:oh yay (Score:2)
Re:oh yay (Score:2)
One guess at what they don't offer (Score:2)
Dice included? (Score:3, Funny)
Printable dice (Score:2)
-everphilski-
Re:Dice included? (Score:3, Funny)
New Product Alert: Dice Pad, the mouse pad for dice. Now you can play your favorite on-line role-playing game the way it was meant to be played: with dice!!! Our specially crafted 6-, 8-, 10-, and 20-sided dies contain special metallic compounds that react with sensors in the pad, sending roll information via USB 2.0 or FireWire directly to the game via our patented Die Master software.
Re:Dice included? (Score:5, Funny)
By making their saving throw vs. shipping. Duh.
Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:5, Insightful)
Here we have a possible new MMO and, trust me, I'd love to try it and be a paying customer. However, I'm deeply involved in another major MMO right now (WoW to be exact). I know many people who also will not try other MMOs because their current one is too infatuating.
Furthermore, if the most popular MMO has most of the population of gamers (like WoW does), doesn't this hurt the industry?
Yes, I know this has probably been covered in another thread but I was hoping someone could give me good reasons to stop trying to get to level 60 with my priest and spend my valuable free time trying to get into DDO. After browsing the site, I'm definitely going to go home and give this one a shot but what about all the MMOs that aren't slashdotted?
I'm reminded of an old friend from high school who hated the game franchises on the older consoles (like Mario Bros) because he was certain that their high pricing and continuous rehashing of the same story line not only stifled creativity but turned off gamers looking for something fresh. What do you think?
Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:4, Insightful)
For me, it's all about finding new things, having new experiences. And grinding to hit level 60 in WoW doesn't do that for me. I'd rather play the early & mid-game in twenty different titles than play through to the endgame in one.
However, I don't know how DDO differs from WoW. Until you try it, you won't know either. So maybe a reason to try DDO is that it could be much more fun. A few hours trying it out would be worth the chance, right?
Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:4, Funny)
If you're playing Super Mario Bros. for the story, then you're playing it for the wrong reasons.
Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:2)
But I could be wrong.
And Majora's Mask had no mention of Gan[n]on or the Triforce.
Don't think this one is trying to compete with WoW (Score:2, Insightful)
To be nice, WoW is advertised as a simple action MMORPG. Basically RPG Light. To be nasty, WoW is for leet kiddies who think numbers are part of the alphabet.
DDO from so far as I have it followed is going to be bearded. NWN/Baldur Gate rather then Diablo. If anything it is going to be even more anal the Everquest (although hopefully in depth not endless grinding) so your typical WoW gamer is NOT the kind of customer they want.
Everquest 2 is more of a target and trust me on this, getting people away from E
Re:Don't think this one is trying to compete with (Score:2, Insightful)
Short answer: it depends (Score:5, Interesting)
WoW itself also faced bigger franchises and established market leaders and won by being the better designed game, at least at lower levels. Whatever (legitimate) gripes you might have with the end-game grind, if you took someone new and gave him a level 1 account to every single MMO, chances are he'd find WoW the most fun.
That's what put WoW ahead, not franchise name, not "but everyone already plays EQ, so why would they even try a new MMO?", not anything else. The better designed game won.
And it had plenty of established competition. E.g., _the_ MMO at the time was EQ. All your MMO playing friends played it, your guild was on EQ, etc. Why would you move to move to WoW.
And EQ2 was just being released. For all other fame it might have had among gamers, _the_ name in the MMO market was Sony. (Think by comparison of another market. For all the fame and market Microsoft or Sony have, if you're into, say, platform games, then you think "Nintendo". Between a release by Microsoft or Sony and one from Nintendo, the platform fan will instinctively be more interested in the Nintendo release. Now you might be more interested in MS or Sony for other genres, but for platformers Nintendo is _the_ big name in the market. The same held for Sony and MMOs.)
Yet WoW handily won. Why? Because it was the better game.
Again, I stress that it wasn't just Blizzard's name or the Warcraft franchise. Bigger franchises, backed by bigger names, went down the garbage bin of the MMO market. E.g.,
- The Sims Online was based on _the_ bestselling PC game of all time. You know, the one that outsold any of Id's or Epic's or Blizzard's games, or a few of them combined. (And that's without even counting the sales for the 7 expansion packs.) For every single die-hard Warcraft player, the Koreans included, there were several of us TS gamers just waiting to move our virtual lives online. Yet for all the franchise name, and EA's marketting, TSO peaked around 100,000 subscribers and stayed there.
- SWG. Now that game was based on probably _the_ biggest franchise in history. Every single SW fan had waited for it like it was the second coming of Obi-wa... err... of Christ. If you have the patience to dig through the archive at PvP Online, Scott has a strip in which he captures the very essence of that expectation: one in which a character says goodbye to his friends, and says that having been a SW die-hard for all this time, he expects to never leave the SWG world once it's launched. That's how every single SW maniac felt about it.
Yet we ended up going back to other games, or later to WoW. Go figure.
What this huge rant is getting to is: the same applies to any other game. If DDO will be the better game, it _will_ unseat WoW, just like WoW has unseated the established names and franchises before it. If it will be the more traditional kind of "let's release some crap now and worry about balance or bugs later" MMO, it won't.
And I don't think this kind of Darwinism hurts the industry at all. The net result is that the good games and design elements survive (just look how much EQ2 rushed to copy from WoW for example), and the crap shrivels and dies. On the whole, we gamers are better off for it.
And maybe, just maybe, it will also force the industry to realize that quality _does_ sell. It's good and fine to have better screenshots (EQ2 has much better ones), or franchise names (SWG), or be the sequel to the best selling game (TSO), but at the end of the day, the higher quality game is the one that gets more of the market. And in the end that was the upper hand that Blizzard had all the time, even with their previous games.
Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:2)
I've played most of the new MMORPGs to come out in the last 5 years...All of them that had a free trial, and a few others to boot. I stuck with the ones I liked for a while, and the ones I didn't like, I tossed.
I'm pretty big into WoW right now, but if a new MMORPG came along that I like better, I'll play it. Why not? Nobody owns my business, I haven't sold my soul to any MMO company, though I can't really bea
Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:2)
Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:2)
It only hurts the developers pockets.
In theory, a 100,000 MMO vs a 1,000 MMO isn't much different for the player experience if they keep their population concentration on an even server load. Instead of the 100 servers the 100,000 MMO has the 1,000 player game just puts everyone on a single server.
On most MMORPGS, the most one can technically interact with is around 64 players at once at
Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:4, Insightful)
That's what I saw happen with WoW and EQ2. I didn't start playing WoW from the beginning, I got into it 4 months after launch -- something like March 2005. I started playing EQ2 in November to December of 2004. Mainly because it looked really cool, and I played EQ years ago.
After 4 months of EQ2, I started hating to play it like I was going to work. I was going to sit down one weeknight to play it for an hour or so before going to bed -- to keep working on my character -- and at the end of the 60-90 minutes I realized I had just thrown away those 60-90 minutes just trying to recover my body after dying repeatedly.
I realized that I seriously felt like I was *paying* someone to abuse me. (S&M, anyone?)
I heard someone mention World of Warcraft and how it's like EQ2 but better, so I checked out a few reviews. After reading reviews, I decided to try it, and liked the (almost) complete lack of punishment. I felt like I was appreciated as a customer, and not being mugged on a daily basis.
Sure, I make stupid mistakes in WoW and waste some of my time, but I have never gotten up from playing it feeling like I just completely wasted my time on frustration.
Sure, WoW isn't perfect and people complain about various aspects of the gaming experience, but it's still the best overall experience out there right now, which is why it reigns supreme. It's kind of like a restaurant or dining experience.
This doesn't hurt the industry, it just guarantees competition and better quality. Like a restaurant, if the latest MMO is way better than any other, everyone will flock to it and the crappy ones will be forced to change to compete or die.
Re:No (Score:2)
-everphilski-
Re:No (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No (Score:2)
-everphilski-
Re:No (Score:2)
-everphilski-
Re:No (Score:3, Informative)
If you want a complex RPG look at rolemaster, I only played it once but it was kind of ridiculous, took like 10 minutes to kill an orc because of all the dice rolls and lookups.
Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:2)
Since we're on this, I have one thing to say: DDO and WoW are for completely different types of players. DDO will not be stealing away WoW's subscriber base.
Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:2)
RIght now I expect your next comment to be:
DDO Sucks! Discuss.
I think it's a great chance... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I think it's a great chance... (Score:2)
-Rick
Re:I think it's a great chance... (Score:2)
Avoid "stress test" time like the plague.
Re:I think it's a great chance... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Uh, why am I killing skeletons again?"
Gamer:
"To get to level 5!"
Non-Gamer:
"What do I get at level 5?"
Gamer:
"Improved fireball man!"
Non-Gamer:
"What do I do with the improved fireball?"
Gamer:
"Shit, man, you need improved fireball if you want to get to level 6."
Non-Gamer:
"So I am getting to level 5 so I can get to level 6?"
Yeah... better you just not show non-gamers what MMORPGs are all about. Unless they addict easily, they are probably just going to think you are insane and need to get out more.
MMORPGs are a bad habit that I kicked a while ago. Wake me up when someone grows a pair and offers something new... and by new I don't mean prettier graphics or a refinement of the old formula. If you can stip the core game play down to "killing stuff to get to the next level", count me out.
Re:I think it's a great chance... (Score:2)
Re:I think it's a great chance... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I think it's a great chance... (Score:2)
site seems to be quite slow... (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=1869 [gametrailers.com]
In general the game looks pretty good, I watched a few of them and in general it looks like "yet another hack and slash" party.
In other words: I don't think it will really offer anything more about other MMORPG other then a different set of terrain...
to bad..
Re:site seems to be quite slow... (Score:2)
I of course ment: the graphics look good, but it is just another hack and slash party, and if you ask me, we already have to many of those games.
Another cyber-drug (Score:5, Funny)
Looking at those screenshots, it looks like EverCrack on steroids. I dare not try it. Must... not... try...
Re:Another cyber-drug (Score:2)
Arrg. Why not Torrent??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Arrg. Why not Torrent??? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Arrg. Why not Torrent??? (Score:2)
That would give them all the exclusivity they want and let them encourage people to register for their service without making it impossible to get the download.
On the other hand that would undermine their image as _the_ place to download games from, so it's probably not a good idea at all.
A.K.A. "Monty Haul" Online (Score:2, Funny)
DDO Already Nerfed (Score:2, Interesting)
I jus
Re:DDO Already Nerfed (Score:2)
Re:DDO Already Nerfed (Score:2)
PVP can be done even w/o enabling probably (Score:2)
They eventually set aside certain areas as okay for PvP, while in others it was forbidden.
William
Only paying fileplanet subscribers need to bother (Score:2, Flamebait)
Then noticed that they only offered the 1.5GB 'low res' client for DL. You need to pay for subscription of Fileplanet to DL the 'high res' version (2.5GB)
Sorry. If you don't want me to see your game in the maximum shiny version (yes, my system can take it, thankyouverymuch), without making me pay for it to Fileplanet, I'm not interested. Turbine's karma is already pretty much busted - they canned AC2, and have not published anything worth two cents since.. umm... sometime las
Re:Only paying fileplanet subscribers need to both (Score:2)
My Hat of D02 No No Limit! (Score:2)
Bloody Marketing.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Q: How are participants for the Stress Test Event selected?
We are offering a limited number of Stress Test Event slots as an exclusive to FilePlanet members. Stress Test Event access will be offered on a first-come first-served basis until the total number of Stress Test Event accounts has run out.
Q: I was accepted into the Stress Test Event. Does this mean I'm in the Beta now?
No. The Stress Test Event is separate from the Beta. Acceptance into the Stress Test Event will grant you access to special servers for three days only.
Q: If I am a FilePlanet member, where do I go to get signed up?
http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/ddo_stormrea
Come on...
Looks like FilePlanet just want boost its members numbers... again.
Nothing to see here, move along.
Didn't like this game. (Score:2, Interesting)
I just remember this one part in the game where I was in a room and there were easily at least 50 barrels to destroy for items. After 5 minutes of clicking on barrels to attack & destroy them to see if one of them supposedly had this key I was looking for, I decided that this game definitely wasn't for me.
Now I only played D&D (the table-top RPG) for a few months on the weekend with a group of friends. I didn't really
Re:Didn't like this game. (Score:5, Funny)
Now I only played D&D (the table-top RPG) for a few months on the weekend with a group of friends. I didn't really get into that either (they took it WAY too slow, all had characters in levels 3-4 after playing this certain campaign for easily 3 years), but I don't remember any instances where we had to break into a room, and destroy tons of barrels to find this "hidden" key.
In pen&paper, that's the kind of thing that gets glossed over with a "search check". Or just say that you destroy every barrel in the room untill you find it. It's as simple as the player maybe saying one sentence, and perhaps having to roll the dice once or twice.
If your tabletop DM were to try to run a game like an MMO does, he would have set down miniatures of their characters and each barrel, and the conversation might have gone something like this:
Player1: I destroy all the barrels untill I find the key.
DM: Ok, which barrel do you destroy?
Player1: All of them.
DM: No, which one do you bash in first?
Player1: Alright, I'll play along, the one on the left.
DM: Ok, make an attack roll.
Player2: It's a barrel, it ain't going anywhere!
DM: I have to know how much damage you do to the barrel.
Player1: I'm just beating on it untill it's destroyed!
DM: But you didn't roll to attack, how can you know if you really hit it?
Player3: I fireball all the barrels. Does that destroy them?
DM checks his notes, measures the room for radius of effect of the fireball, then replaces mini barrels with mini piles of ash.
DM: Yes, that destroys them.
Player1: Ok, so we have the key now. I just dug around in the ash untill I found it.
DM: No, which pile of ash are you going to search?
Players all stuff the pile of minis down the DM's throat.
Re:Didn't like this game. (Score:5, Funny)
DM: Ok, you're in a room with 3 barrels inside of it, what do you do?
Player1: My character does what is appropriate to find whatever clues are inside the room and discovers them if there are any.
DM: Um...what are you talking about?
Player1: Well, I'm role playing.
DM: what?
Player1: I'm role playing. I'm role playing a character that is smarter than I am. Since he would know what to do and I wouldn't, the only way I can say it is to tell you that he does the appropriate thing.
DM: Um, why don't you just tell me what he does.
Player1: Because I have no idea what he does. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't know what to do. Don't penalize my character just because the person playing him is dumber than he is.
DM: Ok, I quit...is there any Mountain Dew left?
Re:Didn't like this game. (Score:3, Informative)
I wanna see a Fading Suns MMO. Or even better, Paranoia.
No More Social Life (Score:2)
er.. how many of these things do we need? (Score:3, Insightful)
Am I in the minority of gamers when my real life is far more important than spending 5+ hours a day wandering aimlessly through someone elses fantasy world?
Re:er.. how many of these things do we need? (Score:2)
None. But just because it's not your thing, or you had a bad experience with one or two, doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of people who enjoy MMORPGs, and actually look forward to variety.
You think the games will ever get better if there isn't constant competition from new games?
"Am I in the minority of gamers when my real life is far more important than spending 5+ hours a day wandering aimlessly through someone elses fantasy world?"
Re:er.. how many of these things do we need? (Score:2)
Where's the variety though? Hack and slash with a different colour pallete and someone elses character set? Thrilling, I'm sure.
"You think the games will ever get better if there isn't constant competition from new games?"
Honestly? Nope. I'm fairly certain they're well aware that they only need to keep a mod
Ankle-biting Giants? (Score:2)
So how realistic is the fighting anyway? I think in 'real life', if you managed to strike a sword across a naked shin *just once*, you have a disabled giant. Do you have to make 40 hacks and then the giant vaporizes? Or do the D&D rules already cover this?
Stress Hah! Try RPGing for 24 hours ... (Score:5, Funny)
These kids have it easy. Why, in my day, we'd start White Plume Mountain or Temple of Elemental Evil on a Friday at 4pm (enough time to get off the bus, grab the backpack with books and dice and pedal over to someone's house) and game straight through until Sunday morning.
not for the casual gamer (Score:2, Insightful)
The high end game in Everquest became like this, and this triggered a lot of casual players to leave. I've known LDoN (Lost Dungeons of Norrath) groups take so long to get together that by the time you have a quorum, it is so late in the evening that players have not got long enough left online to actually finish the adventure properly. Some players have families, or work in
My 2 cents! And notes... (Score:5, Informative)
I did not like its GUI. I think it was just too big especially when my maximum screen resolution is 1152x864. I prefer WoW's.
I loved the character setup. I made a hot chick with red long hair [grin]. Its setup reminds me of City of Heroes and City of Villain's. I also like the video clips (I wonder how much disk space these took up) showing each player class. I played as a barbarian since I like meelee fightings. I only got off the second boat after training. I will play more later hopefully. A lot of commands are similiar if you know WoW like:
Note that it it is only until THIS Saturday! Yep, it's a short test! Then, it's over. Downloading takes a while (1.6 GB for the standard client). You can apply for an account before installing. Note you need to be subscriber on those download sites to get the high quality package. The game was choppy for me with everything ON and without antialias on my XFX NVIDIA GeForce 6800 (128 MB), Athlon 64 3200+, and 1.5 GB of RAM.
Other notes/FYI:
FYI from FAQ [gamespy.com]:
# Monday at 9:00am PST registration servers go live
# Tuesday at 11:59am PST game servers go live. If you received a key and created your stress test event account you can begin playing the game
# Friday night player event starting at 3:00pm PST and ending at 7:00pm PST. Everyone in the stress test will have the opportunity to win a closed beta account
# Saturday at 11:59pm PST game servers close
To compare, I still like WoW more so far. Check out other posters' comments on Blue's News [bluesnews.com].
No Windows 2000! (Score:2)
Re:No Windows 2000! (Score:2)
Wow.. fileplanet slashdotted! (Score:2)
Support macroing like Asheron's Call? (Score:2)
If DDO supports macroing ( like Decal ), then this game is screwed.
Note to Turbine: For the love of God, please hire some QA people to check updates before you launch them.
DDO isn't for everyone. (Score:5, Informative)
Ugh (Score:4, Insightful)
Betatests are an excellent opportunity to find bugs and game issues and fix them, as well as give your testers a taste of what the game will be like.
In this day and age where the MMORPG market is completely saturated and the only way to actually get players is to hook em early and hope you're good enough to topple the current titan (WoW), it is NOT a good idea to be putting an intentionally crippled product into the hands of potential customers, no matter how much IGN/Fileplanet may be paying you.
Not to mention it is a complete slap in the face to every gamer out there who is damn well aware of how easy it is to release a client via bittorrent for a simple stress test.
This isn't a betatest folks, this is a sponsored marketing campaign for IGN and Fileplanet that you have to pay to truly enjoy. I for one won't be playing this game ever, although it is a shame because I'm a longtime player/DM and love NWN. Guess I'll just stick to that game.
Re:+5 Fist of the Bachelor! (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, I took a bath last week!
fuckin
In my dreams!
nerds should be out of harms way for another 18 months once this gem hits the newsgroups.
I never leave the basement anyway, so HA!
Re:+5 Fist of the Bachelor! (Score:3, Informative)
It only makes them stronger.
Re:Looks like this game SUCKS - here is why: (Score:4, Insightful)
NO crafting.
NO housing.
NO PvP."
Sweet. This means I can just play without having to grind for days? This means that I don't have to worry about griefers screwing with my fun by engaging me in PvP when I don't want to?
Why does every MMORPG need to be the all-and-everything? Let this game specialize in hack-n-slash, while some other game can specialize in a crafting economy.
Re:Looks like this game SUCKS - here is why: (Score:4, Insightful)
Put them on the ignore list. Not stoop to their level. If it's an all-ages game, report them to the mods for abusive behavior.
"And when someone steals your loot?"
This is avoidable if the game is designed properly. I remember from Runescape, ages ago, they used to have a time period when only the killer could pick up the loot. Or instancing, if camping is your problem.
This problem can easily be addressed by means other than PvP.
"What's the point of these games? Just seems tedious to fight against stupid AI."
Again, it depends on game design. Quests can be designed well, cooperative play can be required/encouraged. The AI deosn't necessarily have to be stupid. It could be challenging.
What's the point of all the PvP games? Just to run around ganking people, and to fight massive battles that might as well be PvE?
Re:Looks like this game SUCKS - here is why: (Score:2)
Well, that's fine for you, but not fine for everyone. I get more enjoyment about teaming up with friends to take on a boss, than I ever do from PvP. Sometimes cooperation is just as much fun as direct competition.
Also, direct combat is not the only form of competition
Re:You must be new here, eh to MMORPG's (Score:2)
The other problem is that PvP denigrates the rest of the game. No one will do the hard co-op quests if they can just gank the uberloot from someone who already did.
Again, though, I'm reminded of Runscape, which though graphically challenged and simple, has decent gameplay. Free players don't have access to all the content, a lot of which is hosted on members-only servers. But other than that, every server is open to everyone. The game world is split into PvP areas and non-PvP areas, whi
How about the HQ version? (Score:2)
Re:Try a REAL game (Score:2)
You're not competing with AI mobs. Your competing with other players by killing AI mobs.
Direct combat is not the only means of competition.
Re:Preview from the beta (Score:3, Informative)