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D&D Online Stress Beta Begins
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."
Looks to be Windows-only. Gee thanks guys. Also I apparently have to be some member of IGN and/or FilePlanet, both ad-ridden slow over-commercialised scourges of the Internet. Does no one understand that this stuff is mainly a ploy to get users to sign up for the forums and buy subscriptions? Get me an actual freely available download and a Mac or Linux version, otherwise I think I'll pass on this one.
Take off every sig. For great justice.
Bandwidth...
How do they deliver your 20-sided dice via snail mail?
TPJ - Founder, The Amazon Basin
I believe it is 'a lot'. two words. 'A' and 'LOT'.
Thank you for your time,
AC
I'm curious as to what slashdotters really think about this subject.
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?
My work here is dung.
I think it's a great chance for non-gamers like me (well, pretty much) to see what all the MMORPG fuss is about, especially under the D&D banner. I think I might do it.
Dark Reflection
but you could still take a look at the movies ;)
http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=1869
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..
How can you play a video game with only 1 mouse button?
-everphilski-
No, you print it out... carefully cut and glue it together. No weighting it!!!
-everphilski-
its just another slashvertisment, press the backbutton and carry on
this site becomes more irrelevant everyday while commercial companies get even more desperate for your cash, where exactly is society going ? perhaps collapse couldnt come soon enough
Looking at those screenshots, it looks like EverCrack on steroids. I dare not try it. Must... not... try...
Nil in old Europe FB!!!
yawn
You sir are a dumbfuck! Crawl back under your rock please
Does anyone know how to alt-tab out of WoW on Mac?
Here we have a possible new MMO
Its not possibly a MMO, it is a MMO
I know many people who also will not try other MMOs because their current one is too infatuating.
Dude, you probably aren't their target then. If WoW is your life you probably arent "deep" enough to get into a true D&D MMO. WoW is the most simplistic MMO I ever played... its very point to point, the classes are very simple, the quests are very simple. D&D mechanics are far more in depth and a lot more complicated.
-everphilski-
go away and take your religious bullshit with you
Comment removed based on user account deletion
From the looks of the video it's graphics are WoW`style cartoony for char/npc models. Bah, well looks like it is Vanguard or bust!
All they had to do was torrent af few copies out- no need to blow their own bandwidth or force people to use IGN file networks.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Sign up early, see what's behind door #3. Ah, a +5 broadsword. Haul it over to eBay for some nice coinage.
I have played dungeons and dragons most of my life, but somehow I just knew that I shouldnt get my hopes up for this game. Instead of being a fun and competetive game they seam to have catered to only the carebears. With a lack of real PvP, I know that I will probably never play this game. I guess I can understand why this is, since the D&D game system is not very well balanced. They probably just couldnt make a balanced online game so they just made it so you couldnt compete with other humans.
I just hope they provide at least some sort of interesting high level content to the game. In most games you have PvP to interest you at your maxed out level, since killing random computer controlled mobs gets very boring.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
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 last century. Sure, AC2 sucked and was ripe to be canned, as nobody played it, but it tells everyone they'll drop an MMO in an instant if it makes sense financially, and they can't be bothered to fix their messups if they do one. So why bother even seeing how they fouled up this one? They are already fouling their 'preview' (aka 'Stress Test') royally.
So, since they don't want me to check the game out ('give Fileplanet $$$, plz'), I see no reason to be interested in the slightest in this crap. There's plenty of competiting MMOs out there - ones that offer straight up free tryouts, without crippled clients or other strings attached. I hope this one crashes and burns.
Turbine and EA - two fucked up MMO developers/publishers that have already burned the bridges with most 'hardcore' MMO players. SOE is rapidly going down the same route (See: SWG).
Thankfully there are other companies out there with bit more clue. The joys of free market...
Because someone has to say it!
James P. Barrett
I am in total agreement with you. I dont need to subscribe to download files, I dont mind waiting the 20 minutes or so while I do something else. Same with fileshack and any of the others which offer premium download speeds etc. It's a waste unless all I do is download files all day, which I dont. I know plenty of people do subscribe and that's fine. It's also not an issue of money, I could afford it, but hell I also could afford a 7800GTX but choose not to. Turbine has burned its bridges and I for one will not play ball.
From the FAQ:
c h/stresstest/
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.
If I clone myself, can I call it a thread?
If a girl winks to us, can I call it a race condition?
I played the beta for about 2 weeks... In my opinion it wasn't that fun.
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 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.
Ack! Don't feed the trolls!
It only makes them stronger.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Loki Games agrees with you. Unfortunately they shut down their business that was porting games to Linux.
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.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Since when does D&D have anything to do with PvP? Have you ever tried PvPing using the D&D ruleset? It doesn't work. Wizards annihilate everything in their path and fighters don't have a chance. D&D is about party teamwork not pwning noobs.
I like PvP in MMOG's. I played UO back in the 90's before they turned it into medevil sims online and really enjoyed Shadowbane. I'm currently on a WOW pvp server and having fun with that as well.
But D&D 3.5 and D20 isn't a balanced pvp ruleset and therefore if they want to make D&D online I'd prefer they stick as close to the pen and paper ruleset as possible instead of messing with it to accomodate l33t doods.
I'm currently in the DDO beta and my high level, generic, non NDA breaking opinion on the game right now is there still is testing to be done.
How much do you think IGN/Fileplanet paid for them to release the stress test exclusively over their site(s)? The D&D name carries alot of weight, so I'm guessing quite alot.
So, let me get this straight. They want me to spend the time on a 1,644.5MB download for a demo that's going to expire on Saturday?
Right.
I can sequester myself for days on end with Soda and Pizza. I won't even have to see the other geeks I am campaigning with (or against). It's a win-win!
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
"Bottom line:
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.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I'd agree with all that you said, but I would point out some things that Turbine has done right. Turbine continues to add content to the original Asheron's Call. That game has been obsolete for quite some time now, but there are still a few people who hang on... I never played AC2, but AC had amazing seamless "one world" technology. Yes there were dungeons to be entered, but one could essentially run all over the huge AC landscape without artificial gates or barriers to different portions of the world. It provided for a very unique experience. I would advise others to look into Turbine's background for themselves. What made AC2 such a horrendous flop? They tried at least once with a major update to bring it back to life, but no luck. Have they learned anything from that fiasco? Customer service is rarely the high point of any online game, but Turbine had a moderately successful system based on volunteers in AC. They abruptly pulled the plug on the volunteer system some years ago. Will they bring it back? AC is a 6(?) year-old game, I'd like to think that Turbine had some institutional memory and was learning from its successes and failures, but right now I don't see a lot of evidence to support that wish.
seriously, how many fucking MMORPG's do we really need? I got into WoW for a month before I got sick of the grinding, I fire up Guild Wars every now and then for a quick 'fix' of gaming with a few close friends (that I actually know on this physical realm we inhabit..), but then what? How many alterations on hack/slash/walk/repeat can there really be?
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?
It has the feel. Down to the little d20 rolling for every attack down in the corner of the GUI. The DMText, has all the typical descriptions that I or any of my DMs have used.
It is far from perfect, but perhaps its due to the fact that it is in early beta stages. Currently the game is in v 3.15, final game I expect to be v 5 to 7 or so.
The game is currently not geared well for solo play, which makes it tough for me, as I rarely group in games with anyone I don't know in RL. I see a lot of potential for a good RP environment which is lacking in most other games of its type. The combat is fast even after the slowdown they just put in. The combat is also somewhat unbalanced at the moment as melee combat DPS is far greater than ranged and magic attacks.
I guess thats all I have thus far, but I have been away from testing due to holiday ruckus.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I typically play for content, so I stay long enough to cap a character out content-wise (if I like the game in the first place), and then I either hibernate until a significant content update or I move on. That's just me, though. Guild Wars is slightly different because it is more like an FPS for me, in that I periodically pop on for a few hours of guild combat just as I do with Fear.
As far as your question about why you should try something else. Are you at the Flowers, Diamond Ring, or Gold Band stage of your relationship with WoW? You decide when to stop playing the field, and it is probably best if you listen to your own feelings on the matter. I'd be more interested in why you are even considering a different game and what that says about your gaming goals. I think you might have a bit of a "grass is greener" going on there, but there is nothing wrong with that in the Flowers stage.
Why not just continue playing WoW, and then spend a portion of your time exploring DDO or whatever else interests you? In a month or less, you will probably have your own good reasons for preferring one or the other.
It's not. The game looks much more serious than WOW. I'm curious as to which video you watched to get such an oddball impression...
No game company in existance will spend extensive periods of time trying to save a MMORPG that isn't profitable. Why? because they are a BUSINESS and they are there to make money. Is it that hard to understand? Foolish posts like this give slashdot a bad name, think before you post people.
Who wants to invest time and money into a game that is run by a company that shuts down their servers?
turbine is closing AC2 shortly. AC1 never had any rules against macroing, but now they're banning people left and right for macroing, while at the same time putting in almost no effort into the monthly patches. It's like a backdoor way of closing down the game without taking the heat that they did with AC2's announcement.
DAoC did PvP right - those who wanted it could go get it in the Frontiers.
Those who didn't like having their play experience ruined by someone who randomly PKd (ask someone on WoW's PvP servers how easy it is to grind out levels when you're getting ganked in teh wetlands or barrens...)
I don't need PvP in my MMORPGs. Crafting is a nice sideline, but not essential. I want to go out and slay the dragon.
And the lack of a player market will hopefully ensure that farming by companies is kept to a minimum.
Seriously, freaking EVERYTHING is either instanced, or you have to unlock something to continue on. There is no 'exploring' you can do in the world, unfortunately. The city feels like a prison to me.
I did find it fun for a bit, though. If you have a group of people you can play with I bet it is more enjoyable as well.
I was just browsing through the screenshots and I saw a sword-wrangler taking a swipe at a giant's shins. Does this kind of kill the suspension of belief that is to easy to make when playing with paper & pencil?
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?
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
"And when someone talks shit about yer mom, what are you going to do?"
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?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
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 EQ2 is easy. It is just that at the moment nothing else is available. Not everyone hates EQ2 because of its heavyness. It is more the constant bugs and huge level gap that forms the problem. Both EQ2 and WoW suffer badly from the fact that a majority of its players shoot to the highest level and are then left wondering what to do.
DDO aims (or claims too) to make the journey the goal not reaching your destination. Less focus on levelling up and more on having fun. Or to put it another way. Less people running around 'Looking for XP group'.
One of the things that still amazes me in EQ2 that I a relative new and in-frequent player can still point out fun quests to complete to players who already got characters at the highest level. DDO hopefully will be more about completing story based quests then in getting to the next level as fast as possible. Nothing ruins an MMO for me faster then being in a fun group and then allowing a new person in only to get them to wine that we could get XP so much faster if only we did X. I can only imagine they must all be teenage boys who need to be thought by their girls, sometimes the price does not go to he who finishes first. Slowdown and take your time, you may find that it is more fun that way.
So you want a reason to stop trying to get your char to level 60? Well okay how about this. Why do you want to be level 60? What is going to happen then? Are you not now enjoying yourselve at your current level? Will your char at level 60 suddenly be fun and challenging to play?
If you set yourselve a goal at least ask yourselve why you set that goal. That is my answer. How you answer it determines wether you should stick with WoW or go on the new hunting grounds. Just that DDO is hopefully not going to be about levelling up.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I like how someone registers on Slashdot to call other people nerds.
I'm in the beta, and while I won't discuss anything too specific (NDA and all that crap), I can tell you that this isn't exactly Dungeons and Dragons on tabletop. That would, of course, be difficult to replicate, but I don't think they've managed to get enough of the feeling across.
:/
As far as MMO's go, they had a better grouping idea here. Most of the quests are set to require a party, but this is more out of monster difficulty then anything else. Rogues are good for traps, secret doors, etc, but players can easily avoid the traps, and secret doors can be found. Locked doors can sometimes be a nuisance. Combat moves so fast that spellcasters barely have time to get off spells before it's all done. Most of the mages I've seen simply use their spells to buff up others. Clerics of course do that healing thing, making them handy.
The Dungeons are something of a disappointment too: Light in the Ebberron campaign is very common, so low light/darkvision is negated. No torches or light spells needed. The designs of them do not force players to move cautiously or stick together as a group. Many quests involve smashing lots of things. Whack whack whack! (There is no 'speed limit' or weight restrictions , so a dwarf in platemail can run as fast as that human rogue in light armor (They increase the amount of weight someone can carry, a person with a str of 12 could carry about 500 pounds))
Whoever designed the user interface needs to be taken out back and beaten. It's ugly...very difficult to tell what things are and annoying to manage.
They've made some serious efforts to make things better then other MMO's out there, but they're still lacking far, far behind tabletop games. You don't feel the need to work together, nor is there any real RPG element to it. Just hack and slash
The original AD&D on-line Multi-player role-playing game, the ``Gold Box'' Neverwinter Nights on AOL wouldn't allow one to hit other players with melee weapons, but one was subject to spell effects, so PVP was the province of magic-users and clerics (with most people using a dual-classed human cleric/MU --- min-maxing at its finest).
They eventually set aside certain areas as okay for PvP, while in others it was forbidden.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
When did our love die?
Lol, your paragraph nearly killed me.
My work here is dung.
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.
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
Usually posts that are so condescending at least have better grammar and aren't so rambling. Why do I never have mod points when I need them.
Feel free to mod me "-1 - Angry Jerk".
Well, having read the Gaminggod synopsis the thing that struck me most was that you were REQUIRED to have a balanced party to progress.
:-)
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 the morning. (BTW this was the main reason my entire guild left EQ for WoW).
Casual gamers in DDO who are only online for a short period will find themselves locked out from being able to progress unless someone has a revolutionarily good way for people to quickly find a suitable group. Hanging around waiting for tank/healer/thief combinations who have the right levels and also speak the same language and aren't on any of their blacklists will quickly become frustrating. If I were cynical I'd suspect that they can push advertising at these people waiting and pay for the servers that way.
I wouldnt miss PvP, crafting or housing. If you want PvP play halflife
World of Warcraft has this solved - you can still solo meaningfully at even the higest level, letting you enjoy yourself whist a group slowly comes together. If the group doesnt pan out, well, that isnt the end of the world.
-- Don't believe everything you read, hear or think
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Why pay when you can play for free via *established* Guild Wars?
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.
I played the first stress test, and now the second. I can agree a bit with some of the comments, but I'm not a huge fan of the MMO genre. It's basically Baldur's or NWN in an MMO format, at least from what I can see, which IS fun, but not something I have to buy outright. PLayed the trial of WoW... got insanely bored. And no one should be allowed to create an elven fighter called "Holagurl".
So my thought is if you like DND at all, and like experiencing it with other people, it's a good time. IF you're actually looking for a true DND experience, or a game like WoW, you're going to be disappointed.
I played it last night for an hour. It looks pretty especially the indoor places, but for some reason the engine wasn't smooth like WoW. I thought it was lags, but it was still not smooth even at 6 AM PST. Taverns (those are cool -- better than WoW's inns) are so laggy for me. Solo instances(?) are smoother, but not that smooth. Outdoor areas lag too for me. I had turn things down like use billinear, distance view lowered, etc.
/laugh, /dance, /p for party talk, etc.
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:
# 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.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
no, we're talking about the dirty man we wish would rape you
I noticed no Windows 2000 in this stress test! See the requirements.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I never thought I'd see the day. The site seems dead now. This is great. Even their massive bandwidth cannot handle the iron fist of the SLASHDOT!
How big is that one? Standard one looks good for me, but my computer choked. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Next Up: Linux user won't pay for programs, Windows user runs one program at a time.
It depends on whether it'll actually be a better game than WoW, or just another "we've got a great franchise, so we can release any crap" exercise.
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.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
So... $50 for a three-button mouse that emulates one extra button? That's corded? I hate to fall back on some "overpriced Mac crap" argument, but come on. Heaven forbid one wants to press both a right and left button at the same time, or possibly use more than forward and back buttons, or (gasp!) go wireless.
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-button.
Hopefully USB really is universal in that one could use a high end non-Mac mouse in their Mac machine.
LegendMUD
IIRC, Turbine has been the only vendor to support/ignore player based 3rd party applications. Many, many AC 'players' max out characters by pressing the 'Start' button and then come back 5 days later to see how their character is doing.
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.
Where is the Mac version? WoW was fun for a few months, but I want choises! Common!
When in danger, whewn in doubt! Run in circles, scream and shout!
"Well, I'm certainly not going to argue that any of these games are a productive use of time. But I must say I gain more enjoyment from besting another human than a computer program. Same reason Yahoo chess is more fun than Chessmaster."
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 in MMOs. How about friendly rivalries? You can best a player by getting more kills, etc. This would work even better if people had an award page, with awards given for specific accomplishments in multiplayer instances.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
"Why waste your time "grinding" your way up level trees, when you could play a game that is actually competitive and fun, where you compete with more than just AI mobs.."
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.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
You know why The Sims Online failed? No PvP. Oh and don't forget PvP doesn't mean simply including the option to engage in duels or even staged arena fights with you know balanced teams and everyone having the same equipment to balance things out.
No proper PvP is allowing level 10000 players to form groups and attack solo new players. And don't you dare call that unfair it is their fault for not been 133t enough.
IF, that is IF, ddo delivers what it promises it could be great. It all depends on how much they succeed in keeping the people like the parent poster out. DDO for the bearded PnP orhpans who couldn't give a toss about PvP or having the latest gear. Just fun.
I don't suppose anyone got a fileplanet subscription to spare?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
OK, no, I'd like to understand once for all, how do you become a member of FilePlanet without a subscription? Because whenever I want to be a member of FP, I click on "Join Today" and it only leaves me options of choosing how much I want to pay...
You just got troll'd!
I understand your point, but somedays when I take the bus from Ottawa to Montreal I just really fucking want to get to Montreal. Other days, I want to just take a ride and enjoy the scenery. Either way, the 'fun' is in getting to Montreal...I just have a different attitude about it. I don't think either game will be mutually exclusive. You can play both and find what you need.
The game has NO pvp, NO housing, NO crafting .... the graphics look unimpressive ..... doesn't seem to have a storyline of sorts ..
...
Is slashdot getting kickback from this blatant add of a really soddy game?? I am starting wonder why pretty much every poor review by anyone is modded so low even flamebait
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For those who want to play traditional RPGs but can't find players, I've listed a few ways to do so on my site. Included are several IRC or other chat-based systems to play actual RPGs online. Not as beautiful as some of the MMORPGs out there, but infinitely more freeform and open-ended.
I've been in the DDO beta for about a week. It looks better than I expect from what I had seen of the most recent screenshots. Although, while the females look very attractive the males are rather ugly. Not to mention that they look out of too shape considering they're adventurers. The graphics, however, are a lot better than I had expected from what I had seen in screenshots. It isn't quite on the scale of EQ2, especially as far as character detail is concerned, but the water effects look great and the lighting and bloom is nice. It also runs quite well. I have a 3ghz P4 with a 128mb Radeon 9800 Pro and I play the game at full detail getting roughly 25fps to 30fps. Maybe not perfect, but very playable. As for the game itself, I was underwhelmed. It's extremely tedious. The whole game seems to be designed around making progress as slow as possible. It also takes a little bit of time before you get the hang of how to fight and I cant say I like having to double-click on everything. The previous week I had tried the WoW 10-day trial and found that game very easy to get into and enjoy. Levelling is excruciatingly slow, right from the start. It took me hours to fill up my first XP bar and when I finally did I discovered I was still level 1. There are 4 or 5 ranks per level. And there are 10 levels total. I predict a casual gamer will take a month to reach level 2. The highest level character I found online was level 7. A friend mention that the game currently doesn't have any endgame content, but I can't confirm that either way. And the problem with that is that your progression is limited by your level and the quests you complete. You're restricted to the docks until you complete a few quests. Then you're stuck outside the main city walls until you complete another set of quests. You can't move on to another city until level two. At least there seem to be a lot of quests available, but the environments tend to all feel the same despite changing tilesets. The puzzles are neat, and quests don't consist of defeating everything in an instance. But it's still a grind. You don't get XP for defeating anything other than some bosses. XP is earned for completing the quest. Fairly early on I also realized that the game is heavily geared towards grouping. While there are benefits to instancing it tends to isolate you from the greater world, especially since the rest of the world is nothing but cities. While there's no travelling to deal with, for me it makes the experience less immersive. It seems like it follows a model similar to Guild Wars except that game is free. I don't think your average gamer is going to find DDO particularly appealling, especially those drawn to MMOs like WoW. If you're a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons you might enjoy this game immensely. It seems this game is a bit more demanding than others, which means it may lure some from EQ/EQ2. However, not having an open world to explore and no crafting may make it a turnoff. If the developers were expecting DDO to have broad appeal I think they're going to be disappointed. I expect this game will attract a select group of gamers.
Hopefully USB really is universal in that one could use a high end non-Mac mouse in their Mac machine.
Indeed you can. You can always get at least the wheel and two buttons working; the ability to map the other buttons is not as given, but usually works too.
Personally, I use a Microsoft BlueTooth Intellimouse--and Mac users don't even need the BlueTooth dongle that comes with the mouse, as BT is now built into every Mac. Although it's not officially supported, I use all 5 buttons fine. The only sad thing is that there is no warning for when the batteries are going to die, like with the Apple BT keyboard.
In fact, I wouldn't be really surprised at all if Mac users made up a huge percentage of BT mice users (including eg the Microsoft mice, regardless of there being no support)--if you have to use a dongle with a PC, you may as well use an RF mouse. And I think most PCs still require a dongle for BT support.
--
$tar -xvf
Grammer notsies our awl ouvre are nutzax liek teh buncha loosers theyre is.
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Other people are idiots. They get far too much enjoyment out of ruining my game experience. With single player, you get a consistent and enjoyable game.
Then again, I don't equate "competitive" with "fun".
The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
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 cross-platform in mind, the world would be a different place. http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/ is a good example of this. It supports OSX, Win and Linux no problem.
So, it isn't a platform problem, it a *developer* problem.
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.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Am I missing something? Where's the world? All I see are instanced dungeons? Isn't this massive multiplayer? And if it's all single group instances like Guild Wars, why is there a subscription? What's next, paying subscriptions for single player games?
Actually, new Macs ship with Mighty Mouses, though by default they behave as one-button mice.
English is easier said than done.
Endless, bearded in-depth anal grinding! HOT!!
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Note, the is actually the second fileplanet DDO Stress test. The first ran from November 11th to November 18th (for limited definitions of "ran" as the servers were down most of the time.) Here's the original DDO news article.
The core of D&D has always been to get together with friends and cooperatively complete adventures.
If you want h4rdc0r3 PvP, go play Counterstrike or Quake.
The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
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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!
Remember, before WoW, EQ was the most popular MMORPG. I played it. Loved my lvl 70 Shadowknight. Then got bored, but played anyway. Then EQ2 came along. I tried that and loved it. Then WoW came along. I tried that and loved it. Eventually I decided to keep just one account ... and am now once again getting bored of my lvl 60 Druid.
So DDO may represent the next "best MMORPG" out there. If so, good for us! EQ2 was too stale and not enough fun. EQ1 was dated. WoW is rapidly becoming World of Raidcraft. So there's always room for the new guy.
Remember, WoW just celebrated their 1 year anniversary!
Stay buffed. Kill the badguys. Have fun.
DT
The AI deosn't necessarily have to be stupid. It could be challenging.
Yeah. In theory it COULD be. But it practice it WILL be mind-bogglingly stupid operating in perfectly predictable and thus boring fashion.
What's the point of all the PvP games?
The point of PvP is to pit one's skill (not twitch skill, but rather combat tactics) against other humans who are unpredictable, inventive, and generally fun to fight.
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
I have been in the beta since the beginning and I must say I am very unimpressed. I have played AC2, EQ2, WOW, and several other RPGs, this is by far the worst of them all, not because its really terrible in any aspect, it just isn't great in any either. When first playing I was seriously lost in an MMO for the first time, there are hardly any instructions, tutorials, and the dialog is very boring and uninspired, granted it is a beta.
I thought this game would be awesome as I absolutely loved AC2 and still hold it in high regard, the same team making a D&D game, now this can't miss, well it did. I don't know if its just the fact that I've been spoiled by WOW and EQ2, but this game seems like a step backward from AC2 even.
If you are thinking of taking your first plunge into the MMO world, I would highly suggest you do it with WOW instead of this game, as you will probably be lost. Pretty much every aspect of this game is sub-par when compared to EQ2 and WOW, graphics, gameplay, features, sound, music, quests, weapons, armor.
There are a few features and things that are very cool about it, like the way you move your character around, climbing ladders, hanging on to cliffs, etc. Also the games community will probably be better than any of the others, because only hardcore D&D fans will put up with all of the games shortcomings, so that could be a huge bonus.
Turbine has never impressed me, and this game didn't change that. The sad part is that they have LOTR Online too. Two outstanding franchises RUINED by one lousy game company. SO LAME.
Yes, but Turbine NEVER tried.
They basically dumped out a turd, and then mostly gave up on it.
Yeah exactly - windows has been tweaking Direct X for games, and video cards have been tweaking for directx for so long, theres no question.
NWN on Linux had no Antialiasing or anything advanced that current cards use - it basically supports what directx 7 or mayby 8 support. Either that or its the video card drivers... which also need improvement. Also all the programming teams are quite experienced in doing what they do now, programming for Windows.
DOnt get me wrong, ive been wanting linux games for years, but the best way to do so at this point is to either emulate windows+directx, or to advance drivers and SDL in linux to do the same tasks as direct X so that the APIs can either be easily converted over to or remapped efficiently (straightforward emulation). I dont know much about wine, but whenever ive tried it, it feels like its trying to remap apples to oranges then back to apples (DirectX -> SDL -> DirectX videocard).
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but Blizzard did a fine job of crafting a Mac version of World of Warcraft. In fact, the Windows and Mac versions are available on the same CDs. So, having a good MMORPG is possible on a Mac, you just need a developer willing to take the time to do it.
Honestly though, I bought a Mac knowing there aren't that many games written for it. That way I could at least curtail my gaming somewhat. Well, damn it, then Blizz had to come along with a Mac version of WoW and I'm back to getting nothing done at all.
-r
Jackass... this is NOT a preview or demo version! It's a stress test. They just want as many people on at one time. Doesn't matter if you have the best graphics available.
Man, the PVP has to be controlled, of course! Nobody said, "We want shitty PVP!"
Have you played WoW? Have you tried PvP in WoW? It's mostly done right.
I played in WoW for 7 months before even getting involved in PvP in any way. You can't just be attacked/mugged and have items stolen unless you flag yourself as being open to PvP. Even then, they don't get shit from killing you, just honor (if you are within 4-5 levels of them). You could be killed 50 times and lose no armor durability or anything else -- and recovering your body in WoW is not painful like in games like EQ2.
The bottom line is PvP can be implemented so it doesn't bother people like me who mostly like PvE. And it can be available so people like me can try it out if we want.
Every MMORPG doesn't have to be the all-and-everything, but without competing on all major features with other MMORPG's, it will never be in the same class. If it doesn't compete on the major features, it's doomed to a niche. Nothing wrong with that, but don't even try to compare this game to other MMORPG's like WoW if it doesn't even offer the same major features.
I put on my robe and wizard's hat...
Its a preview/demo. Mostly designed to build up launch hype.
They call it a stress test, but these 'open' beta events are 95% PR/publicity and 5% seeing if the servers blow up. They have been like that for a few years already for MMOs. MXO had one, COV had one... and I'm most likely forgetting half dozen others. And they were so close to launch that, at best, they provided some pre-warning if their infrastructure would blow up on launch day or not.
Heck, AC2 'stress test' (aka 'free demo/sneak peek') almost single handedly doomed that game as everyone could see that there was no game to speak of. Yet they didn't deviate from the launch plan by a single day.
In fact, it's beyond hilarious that their open stress test still has an NDA, yet anyone can sign up and see for themselves.
Only MMO I've seen so far to deviate from launch plans based on beta tests is Auto Assault. Their beta testers told the devs in no uncertain terms there was no game (and the visuals looked dated), and launch was postponed by at least 6 months. For every other game so far, betas are just a tool to drum up hype for as big launch day sellout of boxes as possible.
I am just waiting for a version of hack (or Moria, or rogue, or whatever you want to call it) to go MMORPG. I bet the overhead would be a lot less. :You kill helpless begger :you rob helpless begger :you eat moldy slime...MOre... :Moldy slime is posion, you die.
ah memories....
I can just see the menu screen....
Pick your avatar:
K: Knight
T: Thief
P: Priest
W: Wizard
gold I tell you. GOLD!
"Yeah. In theory it COULD be. But it practice it WILL be mind-bogglingly stupid operating in perfectly predictable and thus boring fashion."
How hard would it be to have a one-time boss that uses different tactics that previous mobs? Not very. Adding unique enemies could help an AI be challenging.
"The point of PvP is to pit one's skill (not twitch skill, but rather combat tactics) against other humans who are unpredictable, inventive, and generally fun to fight."
Yeah, I know. The wording of my response was meant to mirror the wording of GGP, since that post was pretty snide about PvE. I was trying to make the point that just because he didn't feel rewarded by PvE doesn't mean others can't feel differently. Also, that some people feel the same way about PvP as he does about PvE.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
The only way to get XP is to complete Quests.
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"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?"
No, this means you can *only* grind, and you can only grind by killing things, not by crafting.
And if you're really afraid of PVP, virtually most games with PVP offer non-PVP servers or have only consentual PVP (you turn on a PVP flag or enter an "arena" area).
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is it possible, just once, to have an article related to D&D show up without the Beavis and Butthead "huh, huh, huhhuh, huh, he said pole" and "lol, D&D is for NERDS!" crowd chiming in their worthless $0.02?
eudas
Blessed is he who expects the worst, for he shall not be disappointed.
Immersive RPGs provide the adrenalin rush that many people seek these days. I played some AmericasArmy. It's an online game, although I wouldn't call it an MMO. At some point it was all about getting to the next level. However, that was not the initial nor the continuing appeal of the game. It was all about the suspense and adrenalin of a truly immersive gaming environment. Either being a noob, hiding behind a rock, remaining alone from your team and waiting for the last opponent... Or being an experienced player and still enjoying the suspense of combat and the rush of victory. If all the game has to offer is competitiveness on the way to the next level, it won't endure long, because there's no real reward. If the game does offer you that immersive experience that you're looking for, you can keep playing it for years.
Oh my god.
Has any story ever as perfectly fit in with the purpose of this website?
News for Nerds. Stuff that matters.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Ever played D&D? Its based off the D&D core ruleset. Go get yourself a book. 3.5 is the current ruleset. It'll blow your mind away. The rules are way more complex than WoW.
This is what is going to hurt DDO, the rules. Most MMORPG players have been spoiled by the simplicity of games like WoW. Throw in the D&D rules and it is going to turn a lot of people off.
"l0lz ypou no0bzor, my l33t axe d3als 10 tim3s d4mage th4n your does."
-- Technology for the sake of technology is as pathetic as eschewing technology because it's technology.
"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."
Yes, WoW is the biggest. Yes, WoW booted EQ out of the top spot as EQ did to Ultima Online earlier. Yes, WoW has had a far larger subscriber base than EQ ever did.
But an MMO doesn't need 4 million subscribers to be profitable. The greatest thing about WoW is that it has achieved a very broad range of appeal with lots of gamers who have never played an MMO before jumping in.
WoW is the second MMO I've ever seriously played, having spent close to a year on City of Heroes before. Yet City of Heroes/City of Villains was not put out of business by WoW. Different gamers want different experiences. Someone who loved Eve Online may not think WoW is the greatest game of all time.
I think that you may see a lot of ex-WoW players in 2006 trying out new MMOs. Not everyone wants to be raiding Molten Core in hopes of getting a purple item. Not everyone wants to run the same dungeons over an over again. Some people love it, and for others it gets boring.
The decision to leave an MMO can be a bit difficult as well. You have your guildmates and friends, you have the character(s) you've spent endless hours building up to the highest levels. But there comes a time when you just need to do something else.
I know I'll be taking a break from WoW soon to check out City of Villains. I don't think I will spend a year with CoV having grinded City of Heroes to level cap though. The thing is, there are a lot of new MMOs hitting the market in 2006, DDO, Lord of the Rings online, the Conan one, Auto Assault, Pirates of the Burning Seas etc. I think I'm likely to find myself a year from now exploring yet another MMO world.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
It's not complex enough to be of any challenge to anyone, all it takes is time time time. Blizzard could've made it require ALL the steps to make even simple armors and equipment and teach people something useful. Instead there are readymade thread, cloth, wood, salt and whatnot and creating a leatherarmor takes two steps: skinning and making it using some thread.
It's stupid stupid stupid.
Preserve old classics: copy your collection onto all hard drives.
This game plain sucks. It's an MMO with all the fun sucked out of it.
The game is doomed to fail since they insist on taloring it to the PnP crowd.
THAT DOES NOT TRANSLATE WELL TO A COMPUTER GAME.
Trust me, it blows and it blows hardcore, if they can keep the servers running for a year I'd be surprised.
It bored me to tears after 2 weeks, and no amount of updates from alpha thru beta ever put any fun in.
AC
That would be inadvisable.
Breakfast served all day!
I got into the Alpha for DDO. I was very excited. I have been playing DnD for a year and a half and love Table Top. I was very unimpresed by this game. Too much instances, graphics are bad, UI is frustrating and lvling is soooooo sllll...oowww. I think hardcore DnD peeps will like it. The MMO follows the rule sets pretty well.
I will stick with WoW until i ether get into Vanguard beta or it goes live.
...to a whole new world.
Limited time offer. While supplies last! Only $5.15!! (3 Day Shipping only $4.99!!!)
This problem can easily be addressed by means other than PvP.
But when they beg for their life, it is much more fun.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
On the beta forums, particularly early on, the game was compared to Guild Wars, largely due to its instancing, and this is not a wholly invalid view. Quests are all instances, and they are ALL geared towards parties. There is, really, nothing in the way of solo content, particularly if you chose a "squishy" class like an arcane spellcaster or rogue.
Combat is real time, which means that it can rapidly become a click-fest, a la Diablo, but without the balance that Diablo achieved. If you're playing a level 1 wizard, expect to get regularly slain by kobolds with a CR of 1/2.
The UI is non-intuitive, and somewhat ugly. The healing process is poorly thought out. Lag is an issue even on an Athlon 3000 with a gig of RAM, a pretty recent video card (I can play Doom 3 or Quake 4 without too many issues) and a 5.1Mbps cable connection. Finding random pickup groups can be a large hassle, particularly since the game seems to be splitting along the lines of casual players and heavy role-players, with both groups hating each other and obnoxiously dropping each other during dungeons. If you're considering trying it out, make sure that you get some friends to sign up, too, to have a solid party. The overarching storyline doesn't seem to be present yet and the world is largely non-interactive.
All that said, the game has the feel of classic DnD, although not really of Eberron (which is a source of more strife in the player base), and the graphics are good enough to convey the feeling of a homegrown campaign set in someone's den. It's worth checking out for its uniqueness in flavor, but you definately want to try this one before you buy it.
A business that creates tons of ill-will will lose customers and find it hard to get new ones and lose money as a result.
Pissing people off is not good business.
Unless you control 90+% of the world's desktops and 50+% of its servers and can get away with it.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
"Those who didn't like having their play experience ruined by someone who randomly PKd (ask someone on WoW's PvP servers how easy it is to grind out levels when you're getting ganked in teh wetlands or barrens."
If someone gets ganked in Wetlands on a PVP server, they have not had their experience ruined. That's the frigging point of a PVP server. Re-roll on PVE server and problem goes away completely.
Game companies like to make money, hence Windows.
Other platforms support and dev costs cut to far into the the small number of gamers.
Chicken, meet egg. egg, chicken.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
How about first of all making sure that we can add up to 100%
30% + 10% + 50% doesn't quite do it
Oh well, 2005 has been a shit year anyway
Maybe 2006 will be better
"(enough time to get off the bus, grab the backpack with books and dice and pedal over to someone's house)"
takes his stuff with him.
"through until Sunday morning."
Are you mad? that losses the rest of sundays!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If the paragraph didn't, the wife surely will. :-)
As much as I love bittorrent, I am always reminded of a quote I once heard when complaining about nearly the same thing:
"Some people are not communist."
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power. -- Mussolini
So... $50 for a three-button mouse that emulates one extra button? That's corded? I hate to fall back on some "overpriced Mac crap" argument, but come on. Heaven forbid one wants to press both a right and left button at the same time, or possibly use more than forward and back buttons, or (gasp!) go wireless.
Any USB or Bluetooth mouse works.
I mentioned in the story that the high-resolution version of the client is only available to paid subscribers of Fileplanet. The good news is that they've lifted that restriction and its now available to all Fileplanet members, paid or unpaid:
http://www.fileplanet.com/158497/download/Dungeons -&-Dragons-Online:-Stormreach-Client-%5BHigh-Resol ution%5D
Maybe I quit too long ago, but back when I used to play AC, Decal had nothing to do with macroing: it allowed people to make similar UI mods like World of Warcraft has (map enhancements, monster statistics etc...). Unless they did a complete 180 of what Decal used to do (and why even CALL it Decal still if it did something so completely different?), Decal is not a "level up to 128" macro program. It doesn't do anything automatically in terms of combat... again, unless they totally changed what the program does since last I saw.
-Vendal Thornheart
I found this web site yesterday and reading it made me incredibly sad.
Maybe all you WoW players should delete your silly characters and live in the real world
YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY NEED YOU!!
what is the deal with "housing" that has everyone so infatuated? for years it was "player mounts and housing", and every new game was supposed to have them. now games actually have mounts, but in a lot of ways it seems like their introduction was balanced by making things farther apart so that we're back where we started. now every new MMO is supposed to have housing, and i wonder if the only difference will be that you store your items in a house rather than a bank and instead of buying more bank space you buy a bigger house. so tell me, if i had a house in a game, what would i do with this house that was fun or interesting?
"What I don't understand is the anti-PvP majority getting pissed off at the existance of the PvP crowd. Seems like a lot of em feel that they are entitled to enjoy every game on the market. I won't be surprised if they all start playing DarkFall and then start whining to the developers about how they got killed by those mean PKs."
That's their right, and both sides make that complaint. The problem is the game publishers, who are still learning about the market. As the MMO market develops, I'm sure we'll see healthy representation for both PvE and PvP.
Re: trolls, it's usually not about people disagreeing -- most of the time, it's the tone of the comment. The wikipedia section on trolls is pretty good. To me, it's about intent -- did the poster make a comment just to incite a reaction, or was it to further a discussion? Usually when people flame or use an insulting tone in a post, it's because they are just trying to incite a reaction.
I've gotten into some heated discussions, but they were not filled with troll posts IMO, because despite all the swearing etc, the intent was to discuss an issue.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
You need to pay for subscription of Fileplanet to DL the 'high res' version (2.5GB)
I don't have a paid subscription, waited 30 min in the queue, registered for my key and downloaded and played the high resolution version.
(Though if you you've ever played GW I can't say I recommend bothering as it seemed like poor imitation, with an awkward control system, some bugged animations and a limited interface).