Slashback: MMORPG Trends 52
Some additional details on stories we've previously discussed. The Garriott brothers gave a talk at the DICE conference earlier this month, and while Next Generation offered the gist of the Garriot keynote, Gamespy has a detailed look at their predictions. We also talked earlier about World of Warcraft as the new golf. C|Net has a deeper look at the trend of networking in Azeroth. From that article: "With more than 5.5 million people now playing WoW and joining guilds for everything from police officers to soldiers returning from Iraq, it was bound to happen: The rich guys have carved a virtual space to call their own. In fairness, the six-month-old guild isn't just for rich folks. There are plenty of bartenders and regular workaday types in the group as well. But what sets 'We Know' apart is its concentration of movers and shakers in the technology world."
How on earth.. (Score:3, Funny)
I barely have enough time to post to slashdot these days!
Re:How on earth.. (Score:1, Troll)
Re:How on earth.. (Score:2)
Re:How on earth.. (Score:1)
You: do all the work.
The Boss: doesn't.
(and, btw, he just told me to tell you that you're spending too much time on slashdot...)
Re:How on earth.. (Score:2)
Not to be a jerk, in fact I played WoW when I did support, but I could only play for a little bit at time. So we're talking very basic killing and quick
I'm sorry, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm sorry, but... (Score:4, Funny)
No, you don't understand. Shallow corporate raiders are the RL equivalent ninja-looters.
Why is it... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Why is it... (Score:3, Interesting)
Even when I have a ping of 50ms the game can still be laggy. I have a pretty decent system (A64-3700, 1Gig of Cas 2, 6800GT, 74GB Raptor) so with a ping of 50ms the issues are at their end.
My guess is that either:
a) they are running out of backbone bandwidth (unlikely), or
b) they have downgraded the spec of the servers they are now buying to the bare minimum they can get away with, just to save a few bucks
Re:Why is it... (Score:2)
On the new servers, it depends on which one your on. There are, in the US, 12 PVP servers that are on very low user levels, and lag is negligible on those. For Normal servers, switch to one that's at Medium traffic - they've been there for a long time, and are well established, but actually have less traffic
Re:Why is it... (Score:2)
Until, of course, they decide to offer transfers to people from a high-population to your medium-population server. Then you get to experience an influx of rude people, lag, and wait queues during most of the time you're interested in playing
Re:Why is it... (Score:1, Insightful)
Do like me.
Quit.
Re:Why is it... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Why is it... (Score:1)
Re:Why is it... (Score:2)
Only $15 a month? With over 5 million subscibers, Blizzard has a steady revenue stream of $75 million a month. For comparison, it cost Bungie around $40 million to develop Halo 2 over the course of three years, and H2 was considered a very high-budget game. Blizzard is making nearly twice that in a month. They have more than enough financial resources to keep the game running perfectly for every single paying customer.
Re:Why is it... (Score:2)
And no, I'm not basing this off the costs of my broadband connection. I'm basing it off the fact that other MMOs in the past (like Everquest) were successful with a cheaper mo
Re:Why is it... (Score:1)
Re:Why is it... (Score:2)
World of Warcraft as the new golf. (Score:2, Funny)
That is the dumbest thing I heard all day. And I just watched an interview with Cindy Sheehan.
Re:World of Warcraft as the new golf. (Score:2)
That is the dumbest thing I heard all day. And I just watched an interview with Cindy Sheehan.
Now that's the dumbest thing that I've heard all day. And I just RTFA!
Re:World of Warcraft as the new golf. (Score:1)
MMORPG (Score:4, Funny)
Awkwardness, sexlessness.
Re:MMORPG (Score:1)
Re:A Much Disliked MMORPG Trend (Score:1)
Rock on, 10-hour day gamer! You win the contest to see whose time is the least valuable!
Re:A Much Disliked MMORPG Trend (Score:4, Funny)
::cue background music::
Announcer: Bud Light Presents: Real American Heroes
Vocalist: (real american heroes)
Today we salute you, Mr. 10-Hour Day Gamer.
(Mr. 10-Hour Day Gamer)
In a world where most people only play a few hours a day, you're not afraid to stick it out - all day long.
(playing all day now)
Aspring to new hights of simulated glory, you endure sitting at your desk for days at a time, ignoring anyone and any bodily function that could possibly get in the way.
(gotta pee like cra-zy)
Thanks to you, we know what it means to really play a game and look impressive while doing it!
(IM S0 teh Aw3s0m3!!1!)
So "Rock On!", and grab yourself an ice cold Bud Light Mr. 10-Hour Day Gamer. Because without you, there'd be nobody else to teach us what 'noob' or 'pwn' really mean.
(please speak english to me)
- Pragma
Re:A Much Disliked MMORPG Trend (Score:1, Insightful)
Dont get me wrong I dont like WoW all that much but I respect what they accomplished.
Bashing in all the sacred cows like death should mean something(only to hardcore players obviously), progession should be hard and slow(again hardcore niche players), etc.
They went against the norm and made a game that although viewed as "too easy" by many,
just dominated
Re:A Much Disliked MMORPG Trend (Score:1)
If you're trying to appeal to a large segment of players, you have to make it mind-numbingly easy.
People tend to play games (MMORPGs especially) to relax or escape, and they don't want to waste a lot of time 'thinking' or 'figuring out stuff'.
UO has gotten nothing but more complicated over the years, and that huge learning curve is undoubtedly intimidating to new players.
I can't say the same about WoW from what I've seen.
If you want to keep your numbers up, make it like pop music, or anything else po
Re:A Much Disliked MMORPG Trend (Score:2)
Re:A Much Disliked MMORPG Trend (Score:2)
Complicated != challenging. Case in point: chess or poker. Both are very simple to learn compared to most video games, yet they're both very deep games with many levels of strategy.
There's a big difference between dumbing a game down and removing the tedium. I'm not an expert on MMORPGs by any means, but I was really turned off by the ridiculous tedium that was so prevalent in the genre pre-WoW. From wh
Re:A Much Disliked MMORPG Trend (Score:2)
Oh Noes!!! (Score:1)
(Original version rejected by Slashdot lameness filter...sigh...)
Re:Oh Noes!!! (Score:1)
Im pleased (Score:1)
Re:Kingdom of Loathing (Score:2)
Re:Kingdom of Loathing (Score:2)
Re:Kingdom of Loathing (Score:2)
karmic retribution at lvl 60 (Score:3, Interesting)
Take it even further (Score:1)