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E3 MMOG News
The ever churning E3 information mill has revealed details on several upcoming Massive game titles. MMORPG.com has details on Ring of Ryzom, the first expansion for Nevraxs' massive game. Gamespot has details on NCSoft's Tabula Rasa and Cryptic Studios' City of Villains, as well as the new Everquest II content Spirit of Splitpaw and Desert of Flames. Update: 05/20 14:52 GMT by Z : Age of Conan and The Lord of the Rings Online have also been shown off on the expo floor.
Crickets were heard chirping in response to announcements from several massively-multiplayer online games which were not World of Warcraft.
Audience members, who nearly outnumbered the company spokesmen, called it the biggest non-Blizzard MMOG announcement since the last Shadowbane expansion.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
After just leaving their display area, I must say that Blizzards display was one of the least popular areas in all of E3 so far. 1. WoW displayed a single battleground, which the Blizzard rep's said was still in beta. I was treated to waiting in a que to test that single battleground, and even once in that battleground it lagged. 2. Ghost was hyped more than WoW at the Blizzard booth. Although, Ghost looks archaic compared to Halo 2, so I was very disappointed. Some of the more interesting displays so far... Unreal 3 engine. Almost CGI quality. Their displays drew many crowds. Vanguard. I have no intention to play it, however it looks surprisingly alot like EQ2. The Vanguard reps explained that it would be time consuming in the way the original EQ couldn't even imagine.
I think some of the stuff EQ2 might be worthwhile, I guess the number one question is why hasn't it been done yet? Destructible environment, moveable items, be able to scale cliffs etc (shouldn't rogues be able to climb walls?). I stopped playing eq over a year ago... some of these things might make me pick up eqII (especially if they add zek-type servers). Still I want to be able to dig trenches, mine shafts, build walls cut down trees (or pay mercenaries to do these things). I want cities that feel like cities (scale a town home run across the roof tops attract the notice of hte guard). I want to see the world change as its marked by the players. Forests could rise/fall, the flow of rivers be changed. /Then again I think perma-death and pvp are good ideas too.