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A WoW Player's Guide To Warhammer

With Warhammer Online just around the corner, Zonk wrote up a guide which compares it to the current top dog of the MMO market, World of Warcraft. He highlights the fact that despite the appearance of "War" in both names, Warhammer is much more focused on the struggle between factions, in gameplay and artistic style. Warhammer's open beta started on Sunday, doing well in the US but stumbling in Europe. The full version launches on Sept. 18th, but people who pre-order the game will be able to access live servers up to four days before, thanks to Mythic's head-start program. Mythic CEO Mark Jacobs recently launched a blog to answer questions about the game.

353 comments

  1. Attention developers; by B5_geek · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Guild Wars got my money because it works on Linux.
    Savage got my money because it works on Linux.
    Defcon got my money because it works on Linux.
    NeverWinter Night got my money because it works on Linux.

    There are many more but you get the idea.

    If you want my money, make sure it works on Linux!

    --
    "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
    1. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm sure they'll mourn the loss of all five of you Linux gamers.

      And all the tens of dollars you bring with you.

    2. Re:Attention developers; by RichMan · · Score: 4, Informative

      WoW works on Linux fine.

      Although I have given up WoW for Guild Wars now.

    3. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Same message but replace Linux by Mac, and add "real Mac port, not some lame Cider bullshit". I don't care what you think, Cider sucks on low-end Macs (which is half the Macs, all stuck with GMA950 and X3100).

    4. Re:Attention developers; by edremy · · Score: 4, Insightful
      WoW got 10 million player's money without Linux[1]

      The rest of the MMO market in total doesn't add up to WoW's subscriber numbers. Guild Wars is a distant also-ran to WoW.

      The MMO makers don't care about you.

      [1]; Yes, yes, I know you can run it under Wine. Any guesses as to how many people actually do this?

      --
      "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
    5. Re:Attention developers; by MooseMuffin · · Score: 1

      6,211 at last check.

    6. Re:Attention developers; by SECProto · · Score: 1

      response to [1]: A fair number did actually. I did when I was still running it, and i found a number of forum posts etc to help me out with addons not working properly on WoW under wine.

      But it probably wasnt a significant portion of the 10 million :)

    7. Re:Attention developers; by JCSoRocks · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously... the cost / benefit ratio there has gotta be something like - Costs a ton / gains us almost nothing. If I'm trying to run a profitable business I'm going to say... don't bother. It's the same reason you don't see the newest WWII FPS's marketed for people over 80. It's a tiny market segment... you won't make enough money to make producing the product worth your time. Sorry!

      --
      You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
    8. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I run WoW under Linux with Wine. Also, there is a thread on the Ubuntu Forums dedicated to this, and a decent amount have posted about it. I doubt it's even 1% of the 10 million users, but they are out there.

    9. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Trying to sell something to people who expect everything to be free: not a good business idea.

    10. Re:Attention developers; by Awptimus+Prime · · Score: 2, Informative

      don't worry, they don't run much better with a GMA950 under Windows, either. Blame it being a Mac, since Mac picked a sucky video chipset for your system.

      Owning both, I can safely say, for the same money you could have given up a little case polish and OSX for much more powerful hardware.

    11. Re:Attention developers; by guru42101 · · Score: 1

      ^
      |
      +------ WoW on Linux

      It actually performs better in Linux than XP

    12. Re:Attention developers; by Gewalt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Attention Guild Wars developers: Blizzard got my money for two years cause they support mac.
       
      Btw- why are you paying the company for ignoring your needs? When you purchase the windows version, then run it on linux in a windows emulation layer, you are effectively telling the company that you support their decision to not support any platform besides windows.
       
      Civil Disobediance has ALWAYS been the most effective way of making a point. If they don't support your platform, the least you can do is not support their business model by pirating the game. Grow a backbone already, but whatever you do, do NOT take pride in fueling their ignorance in marketplace demands.

      --
      Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
    13. Re:Attention developers; by Oldstench · · Score: 1

      Got any proof to back that up with a 1-to-1 hardware comparison?

    14. Re:Attention developers; by Lulfas · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So .0006 of Wow players. Aka: insignificant.

    15. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      since Mac picked a sucky video chipset for your system

      s/mac/you

      i thought when buying from the apple website you could customize your own machine? unless you bought from a shitty place like pc world where you dont really get a choice of anything with any machine

    16. Re:Attention developers; by Lulfas · · Score: 1

      People do not buy Macs or run Linux in order to play games. If they do, they are dumb. Buy a computer (a tool) for what you need to do. Buying a Ferarri and taking it 4x4ing isn't a smart move either. Buy Windows: If you want to play games. Buy Mac: If you do graphics or want to appear hip. Acquire Linux: Free OS and open source love.

    17. Re:Attention developers; by Lyrael · · Score: 1

      A lot of people I know actually dual-boot XP specifically for the sake of running WoW as Wine can be awkward at times (especially given that I can't find linux drivers for my shitty onboard graphics and everything goes a bit fubar if I try to run anything remotely graphic-intensive).

      I'd LOVE for Blizzard to make a Linux port so I could stop dual-booting but I know that they don't care so long as they get our money, which they do regardless. WoW players, Linux geeks or no, are just too hopelessly addicted to boycott WoW in the hopes of convincing Blizzard to give us a Linux port.

    18. Re:Attention developers; by Chaos+Incarnate · · Score: 1

      For sufficiently variable values of "works on Linux", perhaps. NWN and Defcon have native ports, while Guild Wars doesn't. I assume you're using WINE or Cedega?

      --
      Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
    19. Re:Attention developers; by Chaos+Incarnate · · Score: 1

      I don't have proof, but when I did have it working under Linux I noticed definite performance improvements versus under XP.

      Of course, under XP I also didn't have to reinstall my video card drivers every Patch Tuesday and pray that they still worked with the updated packages.

      --
      Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
    20. Re:Attention developers; by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 1

      How many Apple laptops let you change the video card when ordering it? None. Mac Book Pro, Mac Book, the mini, no video choices. Screen choices (on the laptops) are there. Nothing bout the video card.

      If your getting a laptop and plan on gaming on it, you better look at the video card or live/suffer with what it comes with.

    21. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Wait, you actually paid for Linux games?

    22. Re:Attention developers; by MikeDirnt69 · · Score: 1

      I bet pr0n works on Linux!

      --
      Am I eval()? - http://www.monst3r.com.br
    23. Re:Attention developers; by NoodleSlayer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, but Mac users do have this niggling tendency to actually pay for software, and many of them (at least the ones on Intel Macs) actually have the hardware to run the games. Note that a number of games actually are coming to Mac OS now. Some even are being released simultaneously like Spore, even though that was a Cider port.

      Does this mean people buy Macs to play games? No. But does this mean that Mac users wouldn't be open to buying games to play on their Mac? Of course not.

      Unlike Linux games (see: Loki), a number of Mac games have done well in the market, despite attempts from Aspyr to deliver as substandard of a product as possible.

    24. Re:Attention developers; by not+already+in+use · · Score: 5, Funny

      I started reading your post, and the Mac vs PC ad music started playing in my head.

      Then PC guy asks Mac guy what he's playing over there.

      Mac guy responds, "Oregon Trail, it's totally awesome!"

      PC guy says "Oh really? I'm playing all the new 3d games. In spite of your lame attempts to undermine me by beating old perceptions like a dead horse, I still hold a significant market share over you. As such, nobody wants to support you. Sure, you're popular among trendy college students with rich parents, but you'll eventually be sold when they drop out of school because they spend too much time on digg. "

      Mac guy starts crying.

      PC Guy: "I'm sorry, that was a little harsh."

      Mac Guy: "No, it's not you. Alice died of tuberculosis."

      Cue Mac VS PC ending jingle.

      --
      Similes are like metaphors
    25. Re:Attention developers; by eedwardsjr · · Score: 1

      They will not do it. Why? Marketshare of Linux? Nope Support issues on so many flavors of Linux? maybe DRM? you got it. They cannot lock it down as tight as a Windows box with rootkits/virus/malware labeled as "investment protection".

    26. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe a Mac Pro, which is the only Mac that can take a video card that is at least past 2004 level.

      I'm sorry, but I never get why Apple puts 64 MB of VRAM in a $2000 machine. With the buying power Apple has, they can at least stick a modern video card (as in something that performs better than the $50 bargain basement special for PCs) in the iMacs.

    27. Re:Attention developers; by Artifakt · · Score: 1

      Yes, much, much better than on Windows. Now go tell everybody who likes Pr0n why they need to switch to Linux immediately.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
    28. Re:Attention developers; by pyrr · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I could've done a 1-to-1 hardware comparison back before Blizzard released a patch that caused WoW to stop running correctly in Direct-3D mode and come out way ahead. I have a friend with an identical laptop running Windows and who plays WoW. My framerates have consistently been higher than his (I also used to run things like UI size and resolution higher, too), but I've noticed a lot more in the way of graphics glitches under OpenGL and sometimes the framerate fluctuates wildly. Cedega & Wine's current implementation of a D3D protocol doesn't seem to be compatible with the current WoW patch level. Hardware does matter; ATI tends to yield poorer performance under Linux than Nvidia.

      Then there's anecdotal evidence; aside from some glitches introduced in certain patches which I had to change config settings to mitigate, I can't recall the WoW client ever crashing for me under Wine or Cedega. It used to crash a couple times per week on my gaming box when it ran Windows (only the client, not Windows). After I ditched Windows and got games up-and-running under Wine or Cedega, it became rock-solid stable. Of everyone in guild and raids, I easily have the most stable client/OS. I see that as a big component of performance, since it's hard to say you're performing well despite crashing with relative frequency.

      And of course there's that even less-quantifiable gain that relates to the satisfaction of getting an application to work on an unsupported platform better than on most implementations of its native environment.

    29. Re:Attention developers; by pyrr · · Score: 1, Troll

      I'd phrase that differently:

      • Buy Windows if you don't care about stability or security and think being exploited by malware is cool.
      • Buy Mac if you value form over function.
      • Acquire Linux if you like to tinker with stuff.

      Except under certain circumstances where DRM is platform-dependent, OS just doesn't matter all that greatly. I certainly won't let an application dictate the OS I use under most circumstances, and it doesn't slow me down any.

    30. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am one of those 5 Linux Gamers. Acutally in closed beta their are huge threads for linux users. The game under winehq is working extremely well besides two bugs that will be fixed shortly after release. One of the bugs is fixed is people don't run shadows on full blast. Also, FPS is decent for the worlds suckiest nvidia linux drivers. 280 GTX here, and I have to say it still has months of improvement because it runs worse then the 8500 did under linux.

    31. Re:Attention developers; by Trevelyan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That depends where you start from. If you use open*L libraries from the start while targeting Windows, with portability in mind. Then OSX and Linux come at little extra effort.

      However if you build your game with DirectX then yes, it will cost more to port then you'll get in return. Keeping people tied to their platform is no doubt why MS provide DX for free.

      I think with the rise of Ubuntu there could be a market for games on Linux (there probably already is on OSX). But it is still at the chicken and the egg state. No games on Linux means not many gamers using Linux. Not many gamers using Linux means no games for Linux.

    32. Re:Attention developers; by Starayo · · Score: 1

      This is true. WoW in WINE ran with about 150% of the framerate I got on XP. >_

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    33. Re:Attention developers; by NoodleSlayer · · Score: 1

      The iMacs range from a 128 MB Radeon HD 2400 XT to a 512 MB 8800 GS

      The Macbook Pros come with either a 256 MB or 512 MB GeForce 8600M GT.

      The standard MacPro has a 256 MB Radeon HD 2600 XT.

      While none of these are top-of-the-line gaming cards, they aren't $50 bargain basement cards either. Nor are they "2004 level" cards. (The 2400XT was released in July 2007, the GeForce 8600M in May 2007)

      The Mac Mini, Macbook and Macbook Air all use some form of Intel Integrated Graphics, which while not stellar, there's no shortage of crap boxes coming from Dell with them either.

    34. Re:Attention developers; by Drathos · · Score: 1

      This reminds me of a trip I had to New Hampshire once. My friend and I were exploring and we came across a (very poorly maintained) trail that was marked on his map as a road. As he proceeded to drive on it in his brand new Audi, I commented that it probably wasn't the best idea and we should find a way around. He said "No problem. I've got all-wheel drive." To which, I replied, "And a sport suspension. You wouldn't drive a Lambo on this trail, would you?"

      (Note for the non-petrolheads: Lamborghini is owned by Volkswagen AG just like Audi and puts all-wheel drive in all it's cars.)

      --
      End of line..
    35. Re:Attention developers; by snuf23 · · Score: 2, Informative

      There are a surprising amount of Mac native games now. Sure they don't come out first on Mac. Also if you are a Mac owner and you really want access to PC games without hoping or waiting for a port, you can install Windows via bootcamp. Of course Linux users on x86 have the same option.
      If you don't want to dual boot then you have to make do with what's available.

      --
      Sometimes my arms bend back.
    36. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is what MS' commercial should have been. Not the abomination that it is with Seinfeld.

    37. Re:Attention developers; by RulerOf · · Score: 1

      And all the tens of dollars you bring with you.

      It's 'take."

      Something that is said to be arriving has been brought. Something that is said to be leaving has been taken.

      I've brought something to you. Now I will take it away.

      --
      Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
    38. Re:Attention developers; by BrandonBlizard · · Score: 0, Troll

      WoW works on Linux fine.

      Although I have given up WoW for Guild Wars now.

      and I have given up Guild Wars for Real Life

    39. Re:Attention developers; by lysergic.acid · · Score: 3, Interesting

      this could be a blessing in disguise. the lack of mainstream titles by the big studios means that there is an untapped niche market for smaller studios or independent developers.

      you won't see indie games with the most realistic 3d engine, but huge resources aren't necessarily a prerequisite for quality gameplay. besides, innovation is generally born from the margins of society rather than the mainstream.

      it may not be as profitable a market as other platforms, but surely there are enough potential linux gamers out there for it to be worth the attention of independent game developers. and with the ease of distributing the games yourself over the web, you can bypass publishers and retain all of your profits.

    40. Re:Attention developers; by Jorophose · · Score: 1

      It probably won't.

      At the very least you could make sure you game runs with Wine.

      Better than that, just distribute a version of your game compiled against the winelibs.

      Better than that, just write whatever patches you need to get your game working under Wine.

      Wine is not a native platform. But, between no games, and games with Wine, well...

    41. Re:Attention developers; by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Penny Arcade game came out for PC, Mac, and Linux at the same time. I don't know if they released stats for purchases by OS, though.

      --
      Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
    42. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Buy Windows if you don't care about stability or security and think being exploited by mal-ware is cool."

      How is being taken advantage of by malware going to stop with Mac or Linux? You can't fix stupid users.

      Once Mac reaches market share tipping point, which I think is inevitable given their better marketing atm, I can't wait to see the mac get taken alive by the vultures. The lure of Free Smileys and Limewire isn't limited to Windows. The reason it hasn't crossed over is market share and cost/gain. Once that market share is reached, and it's more lucrative to entice suckers that aren't any smarter for paying a premium...

      Same for Linux. There is a huge investment in time to learn how to properly setup/run in a linux environment. God forbid ubuntu or another flavor takes off and Stupid User gets a copy.

      At that point, each system is going to need the same series of software: AVirus, ASpyware, Firewall, etc... I personally would love to see mac hit 20%+ market & linux hit 20%... then watch the blood fly. Maybe I'm just bored.

      And as for stability... under proper use, I've gone years in a stable XP environment. Only when I start installing/uninstalling random tools, shakey drivers do I have problems. How much instability is Microsoft... and how much is PEBKAC? MS can put up 20 pops that say "Are you sure you wanna install Limewire?" and when a user clicks yes every time, the system is now open...

    43. Re:Attention developers; by gparent · · Score: 1

      They don't care about your money. They'd rather get 90%+ of the gamer market instead, and that's Windows.

    44. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I Like the. "Why make games for Linux/Mac. We don't have any Linux/Mac users playing our games"

      Well if no one makes games to Linux/Mac How can they then play?

      it's like when I mailed a company ones about there pages was IE only. There respons was that 94% of all there visitors was using IE so they did not see the need to make a version that worked in all browsers. ... Then you just have to think that the 94% are some that comes back. the last 6% is one time, that says. Hey I can't see this page so no need to get back here.

    45. Re:Attention developers; by Miseph · · Score: 1

      "it may not be as profitable a market as other platforms,"

      Actually, the most profitable works are almost always low-budget independents. Games, like movies, pretty much have a set sale price regardless of production costs, and also like movies the biggest hits usually have an astronomical budget that can only be offered by big publishers. Sure the vast majority of low budget indies are simply going to flop, but every now and then you get Mad Max or the Blair Witch Project or Star Wars and pretty much every dollar you make on the thing is pure profit; just how much do you really think it cost to make Doom?.

      --
      Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
    46. Re:Attention developers; by GaryPatterson · · Score: 1

      Once Mac reaches market share tipping point, which I think is inevitable given their better marketing atm, I can't wait to see the mac get taken alive by the vultures. The lure of Free Smileys and Limewire isn't limited to Windows. The reason it hasn't crossed over is market share and cost/gain. Once that market share is reached, and it's more lucrative to entice suckers that aren't any smarter for paying a premium...

      You're spot on there. We all know that the system design of OS X is precisely the same as Windows, and that the sort of easy hacks that affect Windows will always affect Macs. Security can only ever be through obscurity, never through design.

      Obvious stuff, really.

      Same for Linux.

      Too true.

    47. Re:Attention developers; by lysergic.acid · · Score: 1

      well, selling software is different from selling cars or physical commodities which have significant per-unit manufacturing costs. in software your production cost is offset by volume. the per unit cost should be minimal if you're selling 10-15 million copies, even if the game took 1-2 million dollars to develop.

      besides, runaway indie best-sellers are extremely rare. it's unlikely that most indie games will be able to compete with mainstream hits. that's why the linux gaming market is ideal for smaller developers. you trade the smaller market for less competition (and almost none from the big studios), which also means you don't have to spend as much money on marketing/advertising.

      and while i don't know how much it cost to make doom, that was a completely different market and gaming industry back then. i'm sure the cost of producing doom was about average for mainstream titles back then. the entry cost to the video game market today is too much for most independent developers to afford, which is why they should seek out niche markets.

    48. Re:Attention developers; by notamisfit · · Score: 1

      A native Linux port isn't going to fix any of the problems you mention. As for the ones you don't, wowwiki.com has a Wine page with some good suggestions for tweaking config.wtf and all that.

      --
      Jesus is coming -- look busy!
    49. Re:Attention developers; by notamisfit · · Score: 1

      And the motive would be what? Trying to use malware to "lock down" a SUBSCRIPTION-based MMO is an exercise in fail. TBH, I don't even know why Blizzard bothers with CD keys, especially considering the game itself can be had for $1.99.

      --
      Jesus is coming -- look busy!
    50. Re:Attention developers; by Locomorto · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Thats already $93,000/y at @15/month in subscription fees alone. I'm sure that the number would be much higher with an actual native linux port (wine is nice, but its theres no guantee its still going to work in a month). I'm sure that WoW atleast could hire one programmer to work on the linux port + support costs.

      --
      Stopping Content Restriction Annulment and Protection means not calling it DRM.
    51. Re:Attention developers; by lysergic.acid · · Score: 1

      those stats would be interesting to see.

      do you know who published their game? i know that PA has gotten pretty big over the years, so i'm guessing they can afford to go through a big publisher, but perhaps they're still small enough for the Mac & Linux markets to be worth grabbing. after all, they're still a newcomer in game development.

      I haven't actually played the game myself yet (perhaps they will release a PSP port on the PSN?) but they seem like the ideal type of company to produce games for Linux.

      first off, despite their popularity, they definitely depart from the mainstream in terms of gaming philosophy. Gabe and Tycho, or Jerry and Mike, are not the type to pander to mainstream tastes or follow popular gaming trends such as creating derivative FPS titles that simply bank on cutting edge graphics & eye candy.

      i'm guessing the title probably isn't too revolutionary in terms of gameplay either, but rather the rich comedic dialog and inventive storyline will be the main selling points of any title they produce. this in itself is pretty exceptional as it's a game developed by non-game-developers.

      and i'm sure the series will develop the same cult-following as their webcomic has. and this should be the aim of all Linux game developers; rather than try to compete with the mainstream to develop a better Half-Life 2 or Halo, aim to create a cult classic aimed at fringe demographics that the major studios have neglected all these years.

      there's already too many games made for the lowest common denominator, so create something that caters to more refined & less conventional tastes. it may be less accessible to the mainstream, and thus have little mass appeal, but you're not going to beat Activision or Midway at their own game anyway (no pun intended). the big studios can't risk experimenting with innovative/original games when they're sinking millions of dollars into each title they publish, so they have to stick with tried and true formulas. therefore it's up to smaller developers to create original titles.

    52. Re:Attention developers; by Samah · · Score: 1

      Interestingly enough, there is actually a WoW addon API call IsLinuxClient() that always returns false. It appears they put it in with the hope it might be used some day.

      --
      Homonyms are fun!
      You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
    53. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just search in google "Regnum Online". They got a small dev. team and made a quite decent game with almost no money.

      DEFCON has a large Linux and Mac user base, too.

    54. Re:Attention developers; by frieko · · Score: 1

      My friend who is obsessed with WoW, says he would switch to Linux if there was a native WoW client. Likewise I might try WoW if I didn't have to dick around with Wine. I think the studios need to realize that although most 'normal' people haven't heard of Linux, that their target audience, shockingly, contains a lot of nerds.

    55. Re:Attention developers; by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 1

      Having worked at several large software companies I've actually seen linux builds of apps come and go internally that were never released to the public (products you've heard of too!).

      The reason they were never launched is they were either deemed unsupportable or too expensive to test - and even those these apps were portable, there were plenty of platform specific issues that really would make triaging it across 4 platforms (linux, solaris, windows and mac) a serious effort.

      Maybe games are easier to test?

    56. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Blizzard is not only actively supporting Mac OS X for all their current Titles, they repeatedtly stated that Mac OS X is important enough (for them) to pour Money into it.

      And we all know that Blizzard won't do anything without a direct financial benefit.

      And WoW/Mac has more features than the PC version (it is actually the Lead Development Platform for the GUI and Client part of WoW).

      Of course Blizzard knows exactly how many % of their players run OS X, and it is enough to justify the investments.

      Others can either learn from Blizzard or go down the drains (like so many others before).

      AC

    57. Re:Attention developers; by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      besides, innovation is generally born from the margins of society rather than the mainstream.

      As long as it's better than opensource game development which usually seems to devolve into "let's make a clone of game X".

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    58. Re:Attention developers; by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      10-15 million sales is a top seller, 1-2 million $ dev cost is low budget these days. For most games the numbers are reversed, 10-15 million $ cost (or more), 1-2 million sales (if they're lucky).

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    59. Re:Attention developers; by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      The problem is that while making a website not IE-only is a relatively minor thing it's a lot of work to get a Linux version up. Sure, portability may not be the big issue if you design the game for it but you can't just ship it just because it compiles, if you sell an official Linux version that means you have to support it and many companies are probably scared by the prospect of dealing with issues that only appear in pretty obscure distros. Windows is mostly identical, all Vista versions are pretty much identical and what runs on one will most likely work on all others. Having a part of your buyers end up with an unplayable game because they have something in their OS the developers didn't anticipate isn't good.

      It's way easier to just expect people to use Wine because then it's not expected to work 100% and any problems popping up aren't yours to fix. If it doesn't run under distro X or fails with kernel version Y it doesn't matter to you.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    60. Re:Attention developers; by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Mac users can just install Windows if they want games that much, making an OSX version isn't absolutely necessary to get the parts of the market that are really interested in gaming.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    61. Re:Attention developers; by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Make something fool-proof and the universe will invent a better fool. Adding security helps against automatic attacks (which are becoming less important, even Windows is getting more secure) but social engineering will still depend on the intelligence of the user to defeat.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    62. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you start with DirectX then you can port your game to the Xbox360 with just as little effort and sell potentially as much as you did on the original PC game!

      Add that to the ease of developing under DX compared to SDL or any other input+video+audio solution, and you get a very unpersuasive argument.

    63. Re:Attention developers; by _2Karl · · Score: 1

      I wholeheartedly agree. Having worked in the games industry for 5 years+, I have had my childhood dreams largely shattered. Companies care little about the games themselves, they care only about the profits, which I guess is understandable, although frustrating.

      Users themselves, at least those in the mainstream, seem to only care about the latest high production value product - if it's not the latest 3D accelerated, bump mapped, Bloomed up HDR rendered FPS then they don't want to know. Oh and any game that's over six years old? Forget about it! It saddens me to think that many games which WERE considered the latest all-singing-all dancing games ten years ago are now largely forgotten, or considered laugable by the majority of modern "hardcore" gamers, despite still being fantastic games.

      There are some fantastic games available for genres many people think are long dead - point and click adventures, text adventures, thought provoking puzzle games - just waiting to be discovered. The fact that mainstream games haven't come to linux means that these "niche" games proliferate on that platform.

      Don't get me wrong, there are still some fine modern games (although I am struggling to name any off the top of my head), and not all non-mainstream games are fantastic, but at least the smaller developers are more inclined to make interesting games which are fun to play, rather than cookie cutter games with extreme production values.

      In most industries, finding a niche is the way to secure your income. Make a useful product that nobody else makes and you're laughing. In the games industry, the word "niche" is spoken with distaste. Make an original game unlike anything that has come before and nobody will buy it. At least that's the thinking. The reality is more along the lines of people will buy it, but not in the numbers high enough to support the obscene salaries of the marketing team.

      Real gamers care less about graphics than gameplay. They are happy with an immersiive story line, a captivating game experience. The more I consider this, the more I believe that the true "hardcore" gamers are not those who buy all the latest consoles, or allocate half of their computer build budget to graphics cards. The real hardcore are those who go out of their way to search for a fantastic game.

    64. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but the indies still stand a better chance of making a buck in the windows world because the mantra of the Linux crowd is that its supposed to be free.

      Really, I don't understand why the clue machine fails here. On one hand they bitch and moan no one makes games for them and when they do get them they bitch that the source isn't handed to them or that it cost money.

    65. Re:Attention developers; by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Parent: Troll. Me: Offtopic

      kthxbai.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    66. Re:Attention developers; by PainKilleR-CE · · Score: 1

      Surprisingly, $93,000/year doesn't buy you a whole lot in full-time support. You've basically hired a developer and maybe a tester at that point (and you'd have to give linux the junior tester because they'll either move on or move out of the alloted salary bracket). Not to mention that they're probably getting a cut of that income, and some percentage of it is going towards server maintenance and support (after which you probably have to lay off the tester and cut the developer's pay, and since you don't have a linux tester any more, you have to move the developer over to windows because his code never gets to the public).

      It's not a bad idea once you have a player base the size of WoW's, but the numbers are rarely going to add up, and someone's going to have to justify it to the people that do the books. Unfortunately, corporations don't like charity cases they can't write off with the IRS.

      --
      -PainKilleR-[CE]
    67. Re:Attention developers; by MrAngryForNoReason · · Score: 1

      While none of these are top-of-the-line gaming cards, they aren't $50 bargain basement cards either. Nor are they "2004 level" cards. (The 2400XT was released in July 2007, the GeForce 8600M in May 2007)

      Not that it is a great performance indicator but several of the cards you mention are available for under $50.

      When the parent says they are "2004 level" cards I presume they mean that the performance compares to a top of the range card released in 2004. A top of the range Nvidia card in 2004 was the 6800GT if you look at the Toms Hardware videocard chart then you can see that a 6800GT out performs a 2400XT.

      Just because a card is newer doesn't mean it is faster. The only serious gaming cards available in Macs at the moment are the 8800GS and 8800GT. With the GT only available in the Mac Pro range.

      This isn't to say you can't play games on an iMac or MacBook Pro but they aren't gaming machines.

      Your comparison of the use of intel graphics in low end Mac machines to Dells is irrelevant. Most of Dell's machines aren't sold for gaming either. They have specific ranges that are targeted at gamers, all of the systems in these ranges come with up to date medium to high power video cards.

    68. Re:Attention developers; by jitterman · · Score: 1

      No games on Linux means not many gamers using Linux. Not many gamers using Linux means no games for Linux.

      I hate to say it, but at least in my case you're correct. Windows isn't the best of breed, but I can do almost everything I want with it and still play a wide variety of titles; that is precisely the reason why I have not bought a Mac and don't run Linux at home. :(

      --
      For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
    69. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your average hardcore/fanboy-esque windows gamer probably spends just as much(thus requiring rich parents/rich parents sending them through college previously) to afford the latest video-cards+software licenses.

      Oregon trail was totally-awesome though. People on non-MS platforms might appreciate what games they *can* play more!

    70. Re:Attention developers; by DisKurzion · · Score: 1

      Please do direct me to where I can obtain WoW for $1.99.

      I am looking to split a character off onto another account, and that would certainly speed up my purchase.

    71. Re:Attention developers; by MistrBlank · · Score: 1

      Since when does Guild Wars have a native client for Linux?

    72. Re:Attention developers; by HAKdragon · · Score: 1

      It should be noted that the engine (Torque) that Hothead (the developer) used was already available for those platforms.

      --
      "Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor."
    73. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trying to sell something to linux newbies who expect everything to be GPL'ed not a good business idea.

      fixed that for you. That'll be fifty bucks.

    74. Re:Attention developers; by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, but when I played WoW (Quit at 1.7 rogue nerf), I ran it both on linux (Slack 10 at the time) and XP. Linux/Wine brought slight graphical glitches and headaches every patch when they broke wine, but between patches, it was fine. Windows had performance issues (about 70% FPS of what I got on linux) and massive stability issues (Random Bluescreens due to network drivers, I think).

      Only reason I used windows at all was when I wanted to use my N52 gamepad.

    75. Re:Attention developers; by Schadrach · · Score: 1

      HotHead games, first distributed on HotHead's own platform, Greenhouse (http://playgreenhouse.com). The also release on XBLA, being the most expensive XBLA game to date.

      They then released on Steam approx 3 weeks later, with the only mention of it prior to the date of release being that "Steam is a great service, it's just currently not one of the distribution methods on the list." With no means to activate a Greenhouse copy on Steam (which Steam says requires nothing more than a list of keys to activate against and that they offer the service for games distributed on Steam at no cost [good for advertising, I guess]], and HotHead says is absolutely impossible because they are two separate DRM systems), and the Steam version having more features (e.g. Achievements), of course (though HotHead says at least Achievements will be in Ep 2, and get backported to Ep 1 once introduced).

      Amusingly, most of the activity on the official forum for the game for a long while was the thread regarding the Steam release and people feeling like they'd been baited into buying the GH release by being told what they were and the lack of further communication. The thread was locked finally on 7/21/08, and it's only on page 2 of the forum, to give you an idea how much activity they have.

    76. Re:Attention developers; by BPPG · · Score: 1

      right on. I set up my buddy with Ubuntu and WoW (plus a few other games including unreal tournament 2k4, alpha centauri, Sauerbraten, and others), and he knows dick all about how linux or wine works. The terminal scares him, and he's unable to do just trivial tasks. But now that he's got his system working, he says he prefers it a lot to windows xp. Judging by posts made on ubuntuforums, this is typical behaviour for the newbies that need to ask a lot of questions about basic things. Ubuntu and other for-everyone* distros mostly broken down the technical barrier, now it just has to break down the moron barrier**. Native clients would help a lot with this.

      *I call them "for everyone", because they actually are for everyone, not just newbies. Although, everyone does include newbies, so since that takes more work that's where most of their focus needs to be.

      **Yeah, I'm calling my buddy a moron, but he'd probably agree and then laugh anyways.

      --
      What's the value of information that you don't know?
    77. Re:Attention developers; by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      Gamestop. The $1.99 demo disc contains the full game. As does, actually, the free download client.

      They "Keys" in question in this case are actually account keys that allow creating the new account, and have nothing to do with anti-copying measures.

    78. Re:Attention developers; by westlake · · Score: 1
      Thats already $93,000/y at @15/month in subscription fees alone. I'm sure that WoW could hire one programmer to work on the linux port + support costs.
      .

      That $93K is gross not net.

      That doesn't begin to cover the base salaries of your skeletal Linux support team

    79. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How many Apple laptops let you change the video card when ordering it? None. Mac Book Pro, Mac Book, the mini, no video choices. Screen choices (on the laptops) are there. Nothing bout the video card.

      If your getting a laptop and plan on gaming on it, you better look at the video card or live/suffer with what it comes with.

      gaming on a laptop generally fails anyway, not just on a mac

      (i'm basing this on playing hl2,cstrike,tf2 on 2 laptops, 3 desktops)

    80. Re:Attention developers; by aesirmd · · Score: 1
    81. Re:Attention developers; by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      > Surprisingly, $93,000/year doesn't buy you a whole lot in full-time support. You've basically hired a
      > developer and maybe a tester at that point

      No, you haven't. Not even close. The real cost of an employee is something on the order of 3x their salary. Benefits, their "share" of infrastructure usage -- electricity, heating, cooling, high-end machine for development, square footage leased or bought, and so on.

      So a crappy C student fresh out of Yokel U. would have to work for about $30k a year just to afford a developer. The extra tester is on top of that.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    82. Re:Attention developers; by pyrr · · Score: 1

      What percentage of Windows attacks really rely on stupid users and not some system exploit? If a user clicks on a box to do something stupid, they're stupid. If a user visits an unsavory website, that's dumb, but the blame isn't fully on the user because the browser and OS allow malicious scripts to install stuff behind the user's back. The user isn't stupid at all if it visits a website that is respectable, but had an MS-SQL injection exploit that cooperates with the scripting flaws in IE/XP that allows malware to be installed behind their backs. The user isn't stupid at all for receiving spam that exploits Outlook into installing a malicious payload without the user's knowledge or consent.

      Times are changing as Microsoft catches-up a little on security issues, but it used to be that the tricks that relied on the user's gullibility were quite obvious and a relatively small share, whereas the system exploits that hit flaws in the architecture were the most damaging and prevalent. It's all that much more important to have restricted user accounts and intricate controls on what users are permitted to do and not do, and Windows still fails massively on this count, since even under Vista, almost everything STILL needs to be run with administrator credentials, and it's still a ridiculous amount of trouble if a user isn't just logging in with an admin account.

    83. Re:Attention developers; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And then the mac guy boots in windows, and calls the pc guy a retard.

    84. Re:Attention developers; by djh101010 · · Score: 1

      Also if you are a Mac owner and you really want access to PC games without hoping or waiting for a port, you can install Windows via bootcamp. Of course Linux users on x86 have the same option. If you don't want to dual boot then you have to make do with what's available.

      Er, actually, not true for several years already. vmware (30 bucks) lets you install a Windows OS if you want, and run windows apps with it as if they're just another app in the MacOS screens. Looks just like another app running, it works transparently. No dual-booting required.

    85. Re:Attention developers; by lysergic.acid · · Score: 1

      The reality is more along the lines of people will buy it, but not in the numbers high enough to support the obscene salaries of the marketing team.

      you really hit the nail on the head with that one. we live in a culture of advertising and mass marketing. in advertising there's a popular phrase called 'cutting through the clutter'. every advertising/marketing agency talks about needing to break through the clutter, or how this new ad campaign will rise above the clutter. everyone wants to generate noise for their product, and everyone wants to capture the market, so all companies hire marketing gurus and advertising agencies to bombard consumers with ads that will imprint their product in the public consciousness. but there's so much being sold that unless you scream louder than everyone else, you're not going to be heard. and that just produces a vicious cycle of ever-increasing marketing budgets and ever-louder ad campaigns.

      but if someone is a 'hardcore gamer' in the sense that you've just described, then they're not likely to pay attention to the marketing hype of the latest big-budget titles because they already know what they're looking for. someone looking for Linux games has already narrowed down their search parameters to a specific niche devoid of the marketing clutter plaguing the mainstream market. instead of being assaulted with ads telling them what to buy, they're presented with genuine consumer choice rather than being manipulated by marketing.

      just do a google search for the phrase "linux games" compared to "pc games" and look at the sponsored links accompanying each set of results. there's only ONE text ad in the "linux games" results rather than 8 in the "pc games" search--and that's only because 8 is the maximum number of sponsored links google prints on each page, so it's actually a lot more than 8 ads since each search gives you a different list of ads for the "pc games" search.

      then there's the cost of operating any large corporation: CEO, VP, management, sales, accounting, customer relations, PR, etc. all of these are resource drains which contribute little to nothing towards producing an innovative, high quality video game.

    86. Re:Attention developers; by m8nkey · · Score: 1

      Are you kidding me? Mapple story alone eclipses WoW several times over (Something like 50million accounts). Asia has a thriving, though highly insulated, MMO market with insane player bases.

    87. Re:Attention developers; by raedeon · · Score: 1

      The whole $15 average subscription thing is way off. 15/Month for 1 month subs, $14 for 3 months, and I think $13 for 6 months? Something like that. Also, in Asia the prices are a lot different. They don't even get all the money from it, as they use other companies as middlemen.

    88. Re:Attention developers; by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 1

      Very, very few people run Linux to play games, and besides that, Linux is an always-changing, unstable platform that doesn't even have a defined ABI. Why should they waste their time on it? Not even Blizzard bothers with Linux.

      --
      "Sufferin' succotash."
    89. Re:Attention developers; by snuf23 · · Score: 1

      Err. Have you ever tried this with a brand new game that requires 3D acceleration? Yes VMWare has some support for DirectX but for performance it doesn't come close to running the game in a dual boot configuration.
      For regular Windows applications VMWare or Parallels works fine of course.

      --
      Sometimes my arms bend back.
    90. Re:Attention developers; by djh101010 · · Score: 1

      Err. Have you ever tried this with a brand new game that requires 3D acceleration? Yes VMWare has some support for DirectX but for performance it doesn't come close to running the game in a dual boot configuration. For regular Windows applications VMWare or Parallels works fine of course.

      Sorry, thought we were talking about WoW?

    91. Re:Attention developers; by snuf23 · · Score: 1

      Why would you run WoW in VMWare? WoW is native to OSX. You don't even have to buy the Mac version. All CD editions of WoW have the Mac client on the discs. Alternately you can download the Mac version if you don't have the disc.

      --
      Sometimes my arms bend back.
    92. Re:Attention developers; by Draek · · Score: 1

      Well then, if they don't care about me, why should I care about them?

      Well, I *do* care about them, just not in the sense they'd like me to. Since Blizzard is *such* a nice company, I shall be donating my bandwidth to TPB's Diablo 3 torrent the day it comes out[1] ;) no harm done, right? after all, I'm only one guy, that's like, 0.00001% of their market share? stastically insignificant.

      [1]: Hosting a game's torrent != playing the game. My legit, brand-new-in-sparkling-box copy of Guild Wars satissfies all my RPG needs, it's just that helping people screw Blizzard over is too attractive to pass up.

      --
      No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
  2. TFA, Distilled: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer:
    Go back to your blocks, children.

    Well, at least that's what I would have liked it to say.

  3. Thoughts by abigsmurf · · Score: 5, Informative
    I'm in the EU beta.

    The beta launch was handled horribly by GOA, the account activation was opened just a few hours before the servers went live and it completely collapsed. It wasn't just the numbers it seemed to be thoroughly broken. There's a reason you allow a few days before launching to let people sort out their accounts and keys.

    However now that I'm in I'm enjoying it. The public quests are brilliant fun, the scenarios (think WoW BGs) are easy to get into and the classes are varied and have creative play mechanics.

    remains to be seen if I'll still think it's great at level 30 when grind sets in but it's incredibly promising at this stage.

    1. Re:Thoughts by Dragoness+Eclectic · · Score: 1

      I'm not surprised. GOA's handling of Mythic's previous MMORPG, "Dark Age of Camelot" was usually handled horribly, according to most European players I heard from.

      --
      ---dragoness
    2. Re:Thoughts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That sucks I'm in the closed Beta (I'm in the US) and we were able to enter our codes WEEKS ago in August. The servers have had relatively few issues too, one brief downtime (scheduled) and its still trucking.

      I'm sorry for the folks across the pond. Other than a few isolated incidents with keys not being sent to people (GameCrazy didn't give two of my guild mates who WORK for them their preorder keys until the day before open beta either. One of them missed the preview weekend because of this, the other was an Elder tester and was fine anyways).

    3. Re:Thoughts by Knara · · Score: 1

      For whatever reason, "more problems with the European release" seems to be something I note a lot when it comes to MMO discussions.

    4. Re:Thoughts by Jorophose · · Score: 1

      Does the game stay true to the Warhammer Fantasy Battle origins?

      Or is it just WoW in warhammer?

      I was a big fan of warhammer up until I found out how expensive miniatures really get. I'm not likely to go there until I get my hands on a cheap 3D printer.

      If there was an RTS/TBS version of warhammer... That would be pretty sweet. Otherwise this is just WoW in the Warhammer world with likely more system requirements. Will likely pass.

    5. Re:Thoughts by ZerothAngel · · Score: 1

      If there was an RTS/TBS version of warhammer... That would be pretty sweet.

      There's Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, which I believe fits your bill. Haven't really played it much though. But I did re-install it to fill the lull between WAR preview weekend and open beta. :)

    6. Re:Thoughts by antdude · · Score: 1

      I still can't log into the game after registering, getting e-mails, clicking on links, etc. :(

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    7. Re:Thoughts by Admiral+Ag · · Score: 2, Informative

      It would have been a lot cooler if it had been based off of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which is the best RPG I ever played. They kept some of the things from that, like the careers, but from what I can see, none of the subtlety.

      --
      "by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots" DECS
    8. Re:Thoughts by MrAngryForNoReason · · Score: 1

      There's Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, which I believe fits your bill.

      Be forewarned Mark of Chaos is apparently a badly done Total War clone.

    9. Re:Thoughts by d_i_r_t_y · · Score: 1

      For one thing GOA have a website that requires Flash in order to work, breaking the first rule of the web: accessiblity.

      To my fellow website implementors: if you must have Flash on your website, for zod's sake don't make it obligatory; make sure you have a pure-HTML version as well or you will be losing my (and others') business :-)

  4. Blind Leading the Blind by sexconker · · Score: 1

    Seriously.

  5. Haven't heard a thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't get it... I remember subscribing to various newslettters and alerts regarding their beta program and I haven't heard a thing from them about it. I guess I could've been a little less passive about it but I only just found out the open beta had started after reading this here.

    I hope they'll be doing a trial or something, I'm already subscribed to two other MMO's and I'm not paying for another sub unless I'm sure it's worth it.

  6. Warhammer? by peter_gzowski · · Score: 4, Funny

    More like World of Warhammer... Craft...

    --
    "Now gluttony and exploitation serves eight!" - TV's Frank
    1. Re:Warhammer? by Drakin020 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think the reference you were looking for was...

      World of Warhammer Onlinecraft.

      http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2006/20060410.jpg

      --
      The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
  7. My experience in beta by koblek · · Score: 1

    I've been in the open beta too and I'm impressed so far. There are a few bugs, but fewer than I recall seeing in WoW at this same stage of release. I have to agree that the public quests are great. They're easy to get into (no worrying about joining a party) and fun. I like what little I've seen of the RvR too.

    1. Re:My experience in beta by flitty · · Score: 3, Informative

      Me too. Playing in vista, my game would crash every half hour. In XP, it crashes once every 3-4 hours. Pq's are great, and the "chickening" of higher level players in lowbie zones is the best Idea i've seen (turning them into easily killable chickens). I think that will even add some "replayability" to the game (playing zones you enjoyed a lot but leveld out of), which isn't common for an MMO.

      --
      Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
    2. Re:My experience in beta by Starayo · · Score: 1

      I can't wait for the tier 1 chicken raids, myself. :P

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:My experience in beta by Endo13 · · Score: 1

      Likewise. I've spent too many hours in the last three years on Guild Wars and WoW, and I'm just ready for a new game, like so many other players I know.

      This is where I have to take back statements I made in the past, where I said neither Age of Conan or Warhammer would have any real impact on WoW subscriptions. I'm almost 100% certain now that Warhammer will definitely have an impact on WoW. It won't kill it by any means, but I think they will see significant decreases in active subscriptions for pretty much the first time ever.

      That said, I'm pretty excited about the game. I've seen very very few bugs. The biggest one I experienced personally was some obscure compatibility error with my onboard ethernet adapter and the game. Something I've never heard of before, but here it is. I use an older DFI Lanparty socket AM2 board with an Nvidia chipset, and the ethernet adapter is an NVidia gigabit model. I've never had any trouble with any other games using this adapter, but for whatever reason there must be some specific type of packets being used by Warhammer that this adapter just can't handle properly. I'm able to log into the game fine, and even log into a character. But when I log into a character, most of the time it doesn't work properly at that point. I can see my character and other player characters, I can run around, but I can't cast any spells or interact with anything. Occasionally NPCs won't even show up. After a short while (30 sec to 3 min) I get disconnected and kicked back to server/character selection. If I log back in, my character will still be at the same place and clearly the game received no input from my system. My laptop has none of these issues, even when connected to the same network switch with the same ethernet cable. And the desktop that has these issues when connected through cable ethernet works fine when connected via wireless. I have yet to check for newer drivers for the ethernet adapter to see if that would solve the problem.

      Besides that, the only significant bug I've seen is it's extremely easy to get stuck, particularly in buildings.

      --
      There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
    4. Re:My experience in beta by HoppQ · · Score: 1

      I personally have only played a couple multi-hour sessions of WAR (EU) on Vista x64, and haven't had any crashes yet. I wouldn't be surprised if I went through the beta without crashing at all, and I would be equally unsurprised if you suffered these crashes until the next patch at least. These things are in some cases software/driver conflicts that can be a real PITA to figure out and fix. It might also be a x86/x64 difference, although I think that less likely.

      (As an off-topic mention, launching Steam and especially trying to launch Portal BSODs my Vista with certainty. It used to work, but the amount of changes that I made to my installation between using Steam was so high I just didn't know which one would be responsible. Instead of mucking about trying to fix my Vista I just use Steam in Linux under Cedega or Crossover Games, got the latter for free from an offer they had.)

      --
      My sig will be released in 2015 third quarter. Rating pending.
    5. Re:My experience in beta by HoppQ · · Score: 1

      Well, as a somewhat pointless addendum, I did actually manage to crash WAR to the desktop today, but that was over the four hour mark.

      --
      My sig will be released in 2015 third quarter. Rating pending.
  8. What I want is more simulation by leoboiko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here's what I want from a medieval MMO:

    • An ecosystem. Doesn't need to have full-featured critters like in Spore or Creatures; just make the monsters eat each other, reproduce, and compete for resources in the obvious way. Come on, it's not difficult.
    • An economic system. Again, nothing fancy, just set a few resource sources and sinks (even invisible) and let the market forces decide the item prices. WoW does it for the player market, why not the in-game market as well?
    • Auto-generated, per-player quests. Gearhead can auto-generate quests, why canâ(TM)t you? I mean, most of WoW quests look the same anyway: talk to someone, find something, kill something, or escort.
    • Allow player actions to affect the world. If I kill all predators from an area I expect the ecology to be ruined. If you donâ(TM)t want players ruining the ecology, make it difficult to genocide.

    Unlike most players I met in WoW, I find no fun in comparing the size of virtual âoeswordsâ or in optimizing numbers in a game of statistics. I want immersion. The way WoWâ(TM)s world is just some immutable scenario ruined immersion to me.

    --
    Prescriptive grammar:linguistics :: alchemy:chemistry. Stop being a nazi and learn some science.
    1. Re:What I want is more simulation by PlatyPaul · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Allow player actions to affect the world. If I kill all predators from an area I expect the ecology to be ruined. If you donÃ(TM)t want players ruining the ecology, make it difficult to genocide.

      As long as it is possible, someone will do it, if only for teh LoLz.

      --
      Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
    2. Re:What I want is more simulation by PlatyPaul · · Score: 1

      An economic system. Again, nothing fancy, just set a few resource sources and sinks (even invisible) and let the market forces decide the item prices. WoW does it for the player market, why not the in-game market as well?

      Because item farmers will drive prices through the roof, then undercut the in-game sellers for real-world profit.

      --
      Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
    3. Re:What I want is more simulation by Duradin · · Score: 4, Interesting

      UO initially had ecosystems of a sort. Then the players pillaged and burned and plowed salt into the ground.

      Animals? All killed off. Trees? Graphics still there but no lumber generating. Monsters? Hahahahahahahaha. You killed the other players while waiting for the one (1) orc to spawn in the orc fort.

      Ecosystems are cool until they come into contact with players.

    4. Re:What I want is more simulation by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      I've already seen everything you listed, except for the last one, done in NWN persistent worlds.

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    5. Re:What I want is more simulation by kitsunewarlock · · Score: 1

      I would love an MMORPG with the ability to be a "merchant". The only merchant class I've seen has been in ragnorok and was really more of a "bank character" (if not just "item user" much like the Alchemist from d20 or Rikku from FFX).

      Allowing for multiple coins at rates that are increased and decreased based on the prospects of the players, use of the coins and even GM side interference (i.e. "House Lancaster is putting 10% more gold in their coins, causing a 20% rise in price due to its now high use by NPCs.").

      But that's the primary problem with MMOs today--very little change, especially based on player input. And I don't mean whining about class balance. I mean GMs aren't real GMs--they are customer support and referees. A "game master", in my tabletop experience at least, is supposed to actually help make and develop the game to fit the needs of the players. If GMs were actually given the powers of a development team (as well as the work-hours, payscale and benefits), it would do a lot of good for an MMORPG. Also, the patch system is outdated. Client side map data is outdated. Quests are outdated. Kill quests as a whole are outdated. The experience, level and class based system is outdated.

      Finally, for the love of Zeus, drop the idea that all servers have to be the same (or drop servers all together). My #1 Gripe with WoW is I have 20 friends who all play; on 15 different servers. On top of that on each server one side or the other continuously dominates in PvP. Why? Because whenever a patch comes out to help one side of the game in PvP, half the servers in which one side was dominating gets more and more screwed, while the other half gets only slightly repaired from the negative consequences of the patch that tried to fix the first half.

      --
      Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
    6. Re:What I want is more simulation by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Like others have intoned, the real problem with this sort of dynamic and open system is people. A percentage of players in online games feel free to act in ways they would never think about in the real world because there are no real consequences for negative actions (worst that can happen is a ban). As such, they feel free to perform actions which, if done in the real world, would merit anywhere from a punch in the nose to lengthy jailtime.

      Until this fundamental problem is addressed in some manner, online games will and must remain fairly tightly controlled affairs. Otherwise, chaos will reign and the vast majority of gamers will leave for greener and more pleasant pastures. With the enormous cost of developing MMOs, that's just not something most developers are willing to risk.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    7. Re:What I want is more simulation by ted.hansson · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you want EVE-Online then. One single, massive server and a vibrant player industry/market.

    8. Re:What I want is more simulation by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Part of the issue with the WoW ecosystem is that you pretty much found yourself in a world that was sort of selectively shrunken so that you could actually run into people in it, without having to simulate a million npcs and buildings and villages to fill the space.

      I mean did we think that the whole World of Warcraft is supported by what, 24 farmsteads in the entire world?

      The assumption is that the animals reproduce "off camera" and walk into your little world from the bigger real world. So, genocides are not really ever genocides.

      And yes I actually thought about this. All the art sort of supports this fisheye lens sort of world.

      I see your point though, but what you want is a full-on medieval fantasy simulation, not necessarily a MMO. And for that, you'll find that the part of the world that any player, even a superhero, can actually effect is rather small. So to create all of what you are looking for, you'd probably need 95% of your code (not to mention client and server resources) devoted purely to environment and "big picture" rather than on game play.

      In the end, as big as MMOs like WoW are, they still only pretend to simulate a very, very narrow range of "real" actions and situations.

    9. Re:What I want is more simulation by qqqlo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is possibly the truest thing I've ever heard.

    10. Re:What I want is more simulation by Grandiloquence · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Ah, game design from the "Anything I don't understand must be trivial to implement" school.

      These issues have been discussed endlessly by many, many, many people. Inevitably real game designers realize that your suggestions are either far to complex to implement or aren't fun in practice.

    11. Re:What I want is more simulation by genner · · Score: 1

      UO initially had ecosystems of a sort. Then the players pillaged and burned and plowed salt into the ground.

      Animals? All killed off. Trees? Graphics still there but no lumber generating. Monsters? Hahahahahahahaha. You killed the other players while waiting for the one (1) orc to spawn in the orc fort.

      Ecosystems are cool until they come into contact with players.

      I'm surprised there's enough players left on UO to keep the ecosystem from regenerating.

    12. Re:What I want is more simulation by esampson · · Score: 1

      I've wanted a game with most of those features as well and I actually don't believe they are as impossible as most of the others have said.

      • Ecosystem: I think this is more difficult than you are making it out to be simply because of the amount of computer power required to handle the decision making of all the creatures. It is far from impossible but I wouldn't say it's "not difficult".
      • I think this is definitely doable. UO's economy failed for a lot of reason but just because that doesn't mean it is impossible.
      • This one I've seen done. I'd just like to see it done better.
      • The last one is really tricky. Like people say, if you make it doable by a player some people will do it just for fun and you'll eventually end up with a barren world. That said the solution would probably be to make it a theoretical possibility but a practical impossibility. It isn't as though one person can wipe out an entire species unless the species is seriously endangered to begin with. With large enough populations over large enough areas it will be pretty much impossible for that to happen. Of course this is somewhat at odds with allowing people to have a direct effect on the world and it would require huge amounts of computing power to control so many creatures.
    13. Re:What I want is more simulation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is true. I remember Wurm Online and when the Something Awful Goons showed up and cut down a large number of forests turning them to sand.

    14. Re:What I want is more simulation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you a developer? You've got the ideas myself and countless other RPG types have been dying for. Seriously. Keep at it - find some cash, and some lazy ass programmers and make the immersive RPG everyone needs!!!

    15. Re:What I want is more simulation by Uglypug · · Score: 1

      You should maybe try Wurm Online: http://wurmonlinecom./ It's not perfect, but it ticks a few of your boxes and is by no means your average WoW clone.

    16. Re:What I want is more simulation by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      WoW does it for the player market, why not the in-game market as well?

      They don't even have a good player market. Everyone uses buy-out prices instead of having real bidding at an auction and let current market forces determine the selling price.

      Auto-generated, per-player quests.

      Bad idea. WoW quests are already pretty brain dead as it is, without a lot of thought spent on the writing of the text or the subtleties. Most players just click "accept" without reading more than the objectives, and randomized quests would just encourage that non-thinking play style even more.

      Compare to LOTRO where the quest objectives are often very similar to WoW, but where the quest descriptions are much more interesting to read, tie into the lore more often, and actually give a reasonable reason why someone wants you to kill 10 boars.

      Also compare to the single player game Daggerfall, where it had almost exclusively randomly generated quests. The majority of its players panned the quest system, even though there were a few who seemed to like it. It was just mind numbingly dull after a while, when just about every quest is "Go fetch a $a from the dungeon of $b and deliver it to the head of the $c guild in the town of $d." Mad-Libs quests just don't cut it.

      Allow player actions to affect the world.

      Good idea. And while you're at it, just start getting rid of all the XP you get from killing off wild life randomly, and get rid of quests that want you to kill 12 red boars and 14 blue boars. And then each zone has wildlife that just gets tougher and tougher; from 10 hp boars up to 1000 hp boars. This is just silly. Don't reward players for grinding.

      Compare this to single player RPGs and you don't see this sort of thing. Sure, you get some XP early on, but then it drops off to nothing usually. Many of these games give XP for doing the quests, or battling tough enemies, not slaying indiscriminately.

      Of course crafting professions that require you to go through 5000 pieces of leather to master the skill doesn't help matters either.

    17. Re:What I want is more simulation by leoboiko · · Score: 1

      And for that, you'll find that the part of the world that any player, even a superhero, can actually effect is rather small. So to create all of what you are looking for, you'd probably need 95% of your code (not to mention client and server resources) devoted purely to environment and "big picture" rather than on game play.

      Yes, that's actually exactly what I want! Multiplayer Dwarf Fortress ftw.

      As for any effect being small â"it's not like I can do much in WoW anyway. Even a small effect would be better than none.

      --
      Prescriptive grammar:linguistics :: alchemy:chemistry. Stop being a nazi and learn some science.
    18. Re:What I want is more simulation by drc500free · · Score: 1

      You want either Eve or Puzzle Pirates. They cover pretty different gaming experiences and genres, but they both have great economies.

    19. Re:What I want is more simulation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is rehashing the past.

      See Ultima Online on why this is such a bad idea. Vendor farming/spawn camping taken to extreme heights.

      Agreed on other people in this thread. If it is exploitable, it will be done.

    20. Re:What I want is more simulation by Sean0michael · · Score: 1

      Note: This comment copied from another I made in the article about the book Quests.

      The only way I can see something like this happening -- and I think it could blow open MMOs -- is having different servers always in different, fluxuating states. This would require thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of playable servers, and character transfer would have to be seamless and very quick.

      My first though along this line in terms of WoW is a ranking of zone control, from 100% Horde to 100% Alliance. With the sheer number of players and instances, there will always be zones that are roughly 50-50 (or zones where control doesn't switch, like today). New players can choose a friendly or constant server to level on, and switch to a different one if their preference changes (they want to PVP more) or if the balance of power on the server shifts out of your favor. Hardcore gamers and guilds can control a server, sway a neutral one, or try to retake one that is already overwhelmed by the opposing faction. The emphasis here is on PVP, but you could probably create a third faction (the Burning Legion, perhaps?) to creatively mess with the other two, making for interesting outcomes.

      As for questing, this would also make it easy to find a server where a major or minor event has/has not happened, or a quest has/has not been completed. You couldn't do that for most trivial quests (e.g. kill 10 centaurs, collect 20 hoofs), but for ones that could affect the other available quests, items, zones, it could be done. Then you could always get your quest if you want, or just decide to abandon it and try something new.

      Naturally, this means a huge increase in the hardware and software capabilities of the MMO creator, and a heck of a lot more planning for conditional maps, quests, items, NPC dialog, etc. It may even mean much smaller worlds for a while. But hardware costs continue to plummet. And would everyone, from casual to hardore gamers, be willing to pay more for it? I would bet so.

      --
      Funtime Candy Wow! - my plan for eventually conquering Japan.
    21. Re:What I want is more simulation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was called Star Wars Galixies pre NGE.

      -Minerals were planet/location based and you hacd to place harvesters to extract resources, after time the resources would dry up and you would need to scower the different worlds looking for more (if there was any at the time).

      - player cities/bases could be made, with local vendors. I remembering always traveling to naboo to one specific town to get armor after mine wore out (disposeable armor anyway had costume stun-proof composite for hunting rebels).

      - as seen above items are unique, and are very customizable. Rare items would be made on a per unit basis, general use items and clothing were mass produced a player owned factory. The economy was completely in the players hands, towns could even have their own transports.

      -The non-lore/story based quest (aka kill X of Y) were dynamically created, my guild use to cheat and take and quit 20 quests and litter the surroundings of our secret imperal base with rebel NPC's.

      GOD I MISS SWG :(

    22. Re:What I want is more simulation by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Interesting

      UO initially had ecosystems of a sort. Then the players pillaged and burned and plowed salt into the ground.

      Ha, I remember that. I had a Grandmaster Ground-Salter. Those were good times.

      Anyway, I've thought about how cool an "ecosystem" would be, and also the problem of player abuse. It seems like you could get something a lot better than what we have without leaving it open to complete exploitation by the players. UO's problem was that it tried to remain too "pure" which opened the way to player abuse/boredom, while WoW's problem is that it remains completely artificial with only the tiniest nods towards an ecosystem (i.e. a wolf mob will attack a squirrel or bunny mob that's nearby, and sometimes herd animals actually travel in small herds though usually not). Vicious velociraptors will walk right past delicious zebras without taking notice. Because both are waiting to be slain by the players.

      Just add more dynamism. Have the carnivores hunt down the herbivores, and have their respawn rates be relatively related to the number of each. When left alone, the populations will naturally stay in balance. If the players start killing off the carnivores, then the herbivores spawn faster. When the herbivore population rises, then carnivores start to spawn faster too. If the player keeps killing the carnivores, then before you're up to your neck in herbivores, they start to die of starvation. If the player kills lots of herbivores, then carnivores start to die too. But you never have to let the respawn rate reach zero, or even get more than some fraction less than the default spawn rate. Assume, much like you must to imagine Orgrimmar is really a bustling city, that the population that is represented by mobs is really a subset of a much larger one and thus genocide is effectively impossible.

      WoW has done a decent job of making sure respawn rates are such that it takes a fair amount of concerted effort to truly keep an area clear. Put some basic safeguards around an ecosystem, and you could keep players from completely wrecking things while also making it much more interesting. UO didn't do that, and had much too low of a base respawn rate anyway (and a much smaller world and much fewer mobs etc etc). I don't think we need to write off the idea entirely because of UO.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    23. Re:What I want is more simulation by m50d · · Score: 1

      I want immersion. The way WoWâ(TM)s world is just some immutable scenario ruined immersion to me.

      Because having world-scale effects is a definite part of real life for you?

      --
      I am trolling
    24. Re:What I want is more simulation by Kent+Recal · · Score: 1

      I wonder why you guy make such a big deal of this.
      Establishing a balance in an online eco-system works just the same as it works everywhere else (read: in mother nature): If you don't want $angry_mob to destroy your $pretty_forest then give your players an incentive to protect $pretty_forest. The most feasible incentive would be useful items/ressources spawning in $pretty_forest at regular intervals.

    25. Re:What I want is more simulation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The reason that previous games with ecology (E.g. UO) have failed was because the ecology was too simplistic. When I played UO when it was new, the realities of the day were far, far, different then what is capable now. Those were the days of the Pentium II!

      Doing a game with real ecology today does not mean that griefing players would not try to wreck it for everyone. Of course they would! The difference is that today you could have many different stable equilibriums and the players actions would only be the catalyst for pushing the environment between states. As in Newton's "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."

      In other words, it can't be as simple as there are bears in the woods or there are no bears. The lack of bears would have to allow for other species a chance to flourish. The starting point of the ecosystem would just be one of many possible scenarios and would be the one the designers felt was a good starting point.

      For even more interest the starting points need not even be stable. The designers could select a state that they know will move to correct itself naturally and that would make things even more realistic.

    26. Re:What I want is more simulation by Unoti · · Score: 1

      UO was pretty close to much of this, although that's ancient history, and today mainly only good for people who love to yearn about the good old days. But Tale in the Desert, more recently, has much of what you describe today.

    27. Re:What I want is more simulation by apoc.famine · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The solution is a badass, omnipotent, omniscient being, able to smite at will, subscription bedamned. When the forest god assumes wolf form and eats you dead, dead, dead as you attempt to exterminate the wolves, everyone else will think twice about doing it.

      While it doesn't work all that well IRL, on the internet, most everything is better with a vengeful dictator at the helm. Griefers and other problem users can be struck down with little else.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    28. Re:What I want is more simulation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Games like Runescape have over a hundred different "worlds". Could it be possible to let the players affect the world and still allow players to interact with less altered worlds by having a bunch of instantiations, each ranked or described with statistics in a way which informs players how much that world has been altered from the pristine state? This way, players could opt to do quests no longer relevant in altered worlds.

    29. Re:What I want is more simulation by DerWulf · · Score: 1

      > hey don't even have a good player market. Everyone uses buy-out prices instead of having real bidding at an auction and let current > market forces determine the selling price.

      Nonsense. Even in the real economy bidding is marginal and only happens for novelity / one-off type of deals where there aren't enough reference points to determine the market price. If every backery offers a loaf of bread for a dollar there is no point in auctioning one.

      --

      ___
      No power in the 'verse can stop me
    30. Re:What I want is more simulation by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Except it doesn't quite work that way in WoW. Someone sells a loaf of break for $100, and someone really rich buys it. Everyone else who sells loaves of bread also wants to sell for $100. They won't sell it right away, but if they relist it often enough it will eventually sell. The person with only $1 is out of luck.

      Plus the prices fluctuate wildly. Weekend prices are always higher for some reason. Plus there are always the players overpricing hoping to win the lotto, and players giving too low a price.

      Instead of bidders rising prices up, you get sellers that keep undercutting each other. This isn't done to lower the price to an actual market value, but because the cost of production is zero and you can keep cutting prices down to the NPC vendor's price without losing money (and some players forget to stop there).

      This is how a lot of online games do things, so a lot of long time players think it's normal. But it's not at all how a real world economy works.

    31. Re:What I want is more simulation by rpillala · · Score: 1

      It sounds like you want a single player game. I'm kind of in the same boat as you.

      The only item in your list that requires other people is the market forces portion, but even that could be pretty easily simulated for the purposes of a roleplaying game. I think the players you met in WOW were mostly trying to ignore the game world in favor of advancing their characters. It makes no difference whether you're inhabiting a breathing world if you run past it all as fast as you can.

      --
      When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
    32. Re:What I want is more simulation by wilsonthecat · · Score: 1

      The chronicles of spellborn claims to have what you're describing http://www.tcos.com/ plus some more intelligent mob AI (melee protecting caster mobs and so on) courtesy of the Unreal 2.5 engine it runs off.

    33. Re:What I want is more simulation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you ever heard of EVE Online? One server supporting more than 30k concurrent players.

    34. Re:What I want is more simulation by DerWulf · · Score: 1

      Sorry to say but you have no idea what you are talking about. You describe supply and demand as if this wasn't the market force. People can not charge arbitrary prices precisely because other sellers would permanently undercut them. Sure there are outliers in pricing but the exagerated once are simply hoping that someone would accidentally misclick which is much closer to a scam then the millions of normal transactions that take place. Where bulk trade goods are concerned the auction house prices are relativly stable and the vast majority of offers is priced within a small band around the median.

      You mention price increases on weekends: simple to explain. More people play on the weekends for a longer time which means that consumption will rise beyond production since production is limited by factors such as transmute timers and static resource spawns. Speculation is counteracting this, smoothing out prices throughout the week but can not hide the spike completely. This too works exactly like in the real world, except on a much smaller scale.

      Your most unbelievable claim is that production in WoW has zero cost. What about the time players have to spend to procure raw materials either from nodes or mobs? What do you think that real world costs boil down to once you eliminate the many many layers of indirection? People's time spent gathering resources and people's time spent figuring out how stuff works, that's what. WoW has a very simple economy but the same basics apply to it as to the real world.

      --

      ___
      No power in the 'verse can stop me
    35. Re:What I want is more simulation by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

      The solution is a badass, omnipotent, omniscient being, able to smite at will, subscription bedamned. When the forest god assumes wolf form and eats you dead, dead, dead as you attempt to exterminate the wolves, everyone else will think twice about doing it.

      Not really. You can't pay to have your godlike supercops everywhere at once. All GrieferGuild would do is have one tard keep the Cop busy while the rest go sneak into the noob area and start killing everything in sight.

    36. Re:What I want is more simulation by shoemilk · · Score: 1

      You could even give tree hugging players a quest to protect animal X. You have to slay all the people killing them without being killed by the animal or killing one yourself.

    37. Re:What I want is more simulation by brkello · · Score: 1

      I don't know why posts like this always get modded up. Allowing players to "affect the world" in any significant way will not work in an MMO because everything would just be rubble. It isn't realistic. This would be more interesting in a single player game or in a multiplayer game like CS where the server is going to reset after something is won or lost.

      You want to be special in an MMO...you never will be unless you devote your life to it. That is the nature of the beast.

      An auto-generated quests? Give me a break...that would be horrible. You would be actually destroying the immersion even more since quests would all have generic texts and would always be the kill and fetch quests. Yeah, WoW has plenty of those...they also have interesting ones too if you care to read and not rush through everything.

      --
      Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
    38. Re:What I want is more simulation by OverlordQ · · Score: 1

      All GrieferGuild would do is have one tard keep the Cop busy

      Isn't that the exact opposite of an omnipotent/omniscient being if you can easily distract him?

      --
      Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
    39. Re:What I want is more simulation by harl · · Score: 1

      Here's what I want from a medieval MMO:

      • An ecosystem. Doesn't need to have full-featured critters like in Spore or Creatures; just make the monsters eat each other, reproduce, and compete for resources in the obvious way. Come on, it's not difficult.

      Why?

      It's a pointless waste of dev, programmer, and CPU time. There's no reason for it. The eco system is players kill mobs. Mobs respawn.

      An economic system. Again, nothing fancy, just set a few resource sources and sinks (even invisible) and let the market forces decide the item prices. WoW does it for the player market, why not the in-game market as well?

      Again. Why?

      The player market fills the niche for merchant type players.

      The only goods that should be sold by NPCs, and thus subject to your system, are required cash sink goods. Required goods are required and thus the price will only fluctuate based on population.

      Auto-generated, per-player quests. Gearhead can auto-generate quests, why canâ(TM)t you? I mean, most of WoW quests look the same anyway: talk to someone, find something, kill something, or escort.

      Yes. Fucking. Please. Anarchy Online does this. I'm sure others do it. It really should be a must have feature.

      Allow player actions to affect the world. If I kill all predators from an area I expect the ecology to be ruined. If you donâ(TM)t want players ruining the ecology, make it difficult to genocide.

      This is game breaking. There is only one possible end result of this. A barren dead game world. What's the point of that.

      Unlike most players I met in WoW, I find no fun in comparing the size of virtual âoeswordsâ or in optimizing numbers in a game of statistics. I want immersion. The way WoWâ(TM)s world is just some immutable scenario ruined immersion to me.

      You don't want immersion, which is immpossible anyways with our current technology level. The problem is that you are looking for something that MMPOGs can't offer. You need to look for a genre that fits your need.

      --
      I find being offended by me offensive.
    40. Re:What I want is more simulation by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

      Oh! You mean this putative MMO is going to hire God Almighty himself to be an admin? That is different. He definitely could fix the problem.

    41. Re:What I want is more simulation by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      By zero cost I'm not talking about crafted goods. But the items you find in instances or raw materials found. I have never believed that time is money in a game. If you're playing a game it should be for fun. If you found a valuable sword in a dungeon that you're playing for fun, then it is all profit for you if you can get someone to buy it. Many players don't even bother with the auction house and just tell to NPC vendors (or they've been burned by listing fees before and don't want to bother with it again).

    42. Re:What I want is more simulation by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

      Thinking about it, that would be a great game mechanic. Instead of "petitioning" a GM, what you do is run to the nearest shrine and /pray. If enough players pray for the same thing (or the GMs are just bored that day), *then* the all-powerful GM toon comes around and takes care of the problem.

      You could even work out some kind of holiness or karma system, to help filter out the prayers of the greifers from everyone else. Perhaps someone who buffs strangers lot might get extra consideration than the normal player.

      Anyone who heals PUGs regularly should get a karma so high, others will seek them out to pray on their behalf. :-)

    43. Re:What I want is more simulation by OverlordQ · · Score: 1

      It wouldn't be too hard given the AI the game will obviously already have for all the critters.

      AIBot: Hurm, 95% of Pigs have been slaughtered in the last 30 minutes in area B, dispatching Deity.
      Deity: *SMITE*

      --
      Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
  9. Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by Liquidrage · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There's a few things that standout in this game.

    When you kill a person in RvR you get EXP. You get loot (money and items that come from a random pool, not the dead players pockets).

    There are repeatable quests for RvR. You join the RvR scenarios (similar to WoW battlegrounds but a faster pace and with more on the line) simply by clicking an icon on yuor screen from anywehere (though your likely to be in a queue for a few minutes before actually getting into the scenario). You have repeatable quests in those scenarios. You truely can level in this game with just RvR.

    On the PvE side Public Quests are very well done. Open groups are very well done. In both cases you just walk up and your "part" of something. No need for invites. No more "we don't need a tank, we need a healer" rejections.

    Now, the games not perfect, but it's well done. It certainly is linear in many ways (from zones to loot). And it misses the mini-game casual play of WoW. There's no mini-pets or fishing in WAR. Some like that, some dont. But it will have an impact on the total player base.

    Anyways, Massively's got a lot of info on the game that anyone interested should check out so not much more I can really say besides it gets a thumbs up so far.

    1. Re:Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by LandDolphin · · Score: 1

      " Open groups are very well done. In both cases you just walk up and your "part" of something. No need for invites. No more "we don't need a tank, we need a healer" rejections"

      Can you explain this in more detail?

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    2. Re:Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by Awptimus+Prime · · Score: 2, Funny

      No more "we don't need a tank, we need a healer" rejections.

      We always just said that because you were a sucky tank and couldn't keep mobs off the casters.

    3. Re:Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 1

      In games like WoW, usually a group is already formed and only needs one or two more roles filled. They tend to be either a tank or a healer. The problem is when you've got a tank and need a healer you have to reject everyone who wants to also do the quest you're grouping for. In the PQs, everyone in the zone is doing the quest and being rewarded for it. And the more you contribute towards the end (usually killing a boss that spawns after killing two waves of guys) the more likely it will be that you'll get an item reward on top of the exp and area influence you gain.

      --
      Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
    4. Re:Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by SBacks · · Score: 1

      There's no invites or instances or anything. So, if you want in on a raid, you just start attacking the mob, or healing people to claim your share of the kill.

    5. Re:Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by geeknado · · Score: 1

      Open groups are exactly that-- open. If you enter a zone and are not already in a group, you will see an icon that informs you of the presence of open groups in your area. Clicking it, you can join one of these groups without an invite. This is particularly useful for Public Quests, large scale quests which you may automatically and repeatably participate in just by moving into an area. Now, they can still kick you, and one personal gripe that I have is that /all/ groups start open, which definitely isn't my preferred option when tooling around with a few friends, but those are relatively small reservations.

    6. Re:Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by LandDolphin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Does someone else joining in, like throwing you a heal, take away from the EXP, or anything else, that you would have gotten if they did not throw you that heal or help kil lthe mob?

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    7. Re:Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by LandDolphin · · Score: 1

      "Now, they can still kick you"

      Ok, that was one thing I was wondering. Sounds interesting.

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    8. Re:Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by PlatyPaul · · Score: 1

      Totally not his fault. That shaman was all Win Omen.

      --
      Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
    9. Re:Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by Liquidrage · · Score: 2, Informative

      I really haven't noticed much in terms of EXP. In most cases though the Open Groups are not traditional MMO things. For example, the Public Quests are repeatable and start again very quickly after they finish. The game also keep track of something they call influence which is raised for an area by doing public quests in that area. So really, even if the exp is split, it doesn't hurt since more people means they go faster. The other place open groups works very well is in Open-World RvR which is VERY well done in WAR. Which again, even if the exp is split the more you have the more you kill so the split exp evens out.

      For the RvR example, imagine there's a 40 on 40 battle going on. Very common in WAR. If you're solo you only get exp and kill counts for the ones you literally had a part in killing. But in the open groups, you get kills for your buddy next to you, both in exp and in terms of your kill count (which is used in some quests and for in-game achievements).

    10. Re:Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by LandDolphin · · Score: 1

      Sounds interesting. I'll say you've peaked my interest in wanting to play more then it was before. Saddly, I can't play for a whileow. A shame, the beging is always the best time to start imo.

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    11. Re:Mythic has broken some old MMORPG rules.. by andi75 · · Score: 1

      I'd like to see the shaman that wins Omen with his Flame Shock DoT.

  10. Another game that doesn't get it... by ivan256 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "PvP is a much more important part of..."

    Ok, so they got a focus group together, and looked on the internet, and people said "More, better PvP!"...

    Too bad the niche hardcore players are the only people who speak up in those forums. Here's a big hint to everybody making this type of game: All those casual players that make Warcraft and Diablo crazy, stupid successful.... They play for the co-op and social aspects. They don't PvP. People who post on internet forums and create feature wishlists for these types of games (probably 90+% of the people who read this) aren't representative of the bulk of players no matter how vocal they are, or how important they think they are. If you cater to those players, and "being the next WoW" (in terms of paying playerbase) is your goal, you will fail.

    1. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by DeadManCoding · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Damn, it's been too long since I got mod points, otherwise you'd be +5 Insightful right now... WoW appeals to casuals, hence the reason that it's the biggest MMO out there, and quite possibly ever.

      --
      "The only constant in the universe is change." - Unknown author
    2. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by loom_weaver · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You do realize that Mythic is directly targeting those who like to PvP. That percentage of the market is much less than PvE'ers but it exists. Think of all the FPS out there.

      One way to imagine WAR is a FPS MMORPG.

      I played DAoC quite a bit and I think Mythic got the PvE/RvR balance right in that game. I spent most of my time in PvE but when I felt competitive I had a decent PvP game to partake in.

      WAR is not designed to be the next WoW.

    3. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Drakin020 · · Score: 1

      I have to disagree.

      What about Final Fantasy Online? There is little to no PVP in that game, however they just released a patch that allowes you to level down so you can party with others, but still gain experience. If that's not focused on the casual player I don't know what is. Yet why isn't that game a hit?

      --
      The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
    4. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except its not hardcore PvP. It's PvP that anyone can queue up for, or anyone can go help capture a keep. It's not exclusive in any way. Log onto a WoW server any given time and see just how many people are playing battlegrounds at any given time. More than are doing arenas, raiding, and almost as many as are leveling up new characters or alts.

      WAR is aimed at those players that play WoW BGs all day despite the fact that they're meaningless and give poor rewards. WAR makes that style of PvP meaningful and rewarding.

    5. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? I am a casual gamer, and all I do is PvP, I want to get on, kill some people, and be done with it. But nooo, (in WoW) I have to grind up to 70, then when at 70, play retarded amount of hours to try to keep up with the kids that never get off so they have 200x better gear, so when my casual gaming butt gets on I get whacked. PvE usually doesn't work for casual gamers - You have to find a group, wait for correct times (raid junk) this involves alot of sitting around waiting - not what you want when you don't game all day! Warhammer gives XP for PVP, which is something WoW should have done, and I bet will do in the future. Warhammer is a decent game, still a bit buggy with targeting and some NPC stuff, will it knock WoW off? doubt it, but it will have a strong user base.. this game is loads better than Tabula Rasa, or any other mmo out at the moment.

    6. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Tw0Ply · · Score: 1

      Mythic has said repeatedly they do not want to become the next WoW or view themselves as a WoW killer. And to quickly summarize what Mark Jacobs is saying on his blog. WAR's success means alot to the MMO community. If it succeeds and pulls some good numbers (not WoW sized, but respectable), it will help continue to open the market to more MMO games. Otherwise, investors will be hesitant to dump money into an area that feels it can't compete in while Blizzard is in the race.

    7. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by grominar · · Score: 1

      "PvP is a much more important part of..."

      Ok, so they got a focus group together, and looked on the internet, and people said "More, better PvP!"...

      Too bad the niche hardcore players are the only people who speak up in those forums. Here's a big hint to everybody making this type of game: All those casual players that make Warcraft and Diablo crazy, stupid successful.... They play for the co-op and social aspects. They don't PvP. People who post on internet forums and create feature wishlists for these types of games (probably 90+% of the people who read this) aren't representative of the bulk of players no matter how vocal they are, or how important they think they are. If you cater to those players, and "being the next WoW" (in terms of paying playerbase) is your goal, you will fail.

      You don't know what you are talking about quite honestly. Warhammer is very social, the social element comes into play in a very obvious way, the big difference is you are fighting other people not some cheesy AI. In addition the game appears to have a lot of framework to ensure no abuse of other faction. This is definitely not warcraft and from a game play. socio-political perspective is very much deeper and better.

    8. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by CogDissident · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And if warhammer gets all the hardcore players, it will "still" be profitable. And the casuals of WoW will be happy because they don't have to deal with as many "hardcore" jerks.

      You don't have to "beat" WoW to win, you just have to make a game that has a profit margin. And having a devoted fanbase of people who are shown to stick around is a good way to ensure this.

    9. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by andrewd18 · · Score: 1

      The PvP system in World of Warcraft is fundamentally broken. It favors people who play for hours at a time over casual players. The people with the uber PvP gear completely wipe the floor with the casual players, and it ruins the casual player's day.

      Guild Wars had a better system, at least. Give everyone access to max-level PvP right away, and give them unfettered access to almost top-of-the-line gear. This, along with the smaller 8-skill skillset, focused the PvP around individual and team strategy, not wtfpwning the other side because you've grinded for months to get your purples.

      I'm looking forward to trying WAR, and hopefully the RvR will be just as easy to win for casual players as the hardcore players. I'm hoping the whole "armies versus armies" mindset balances out battles so that they doesn't end up being lopsided against the non-geared. We'll have to wait and see. For the meantime, I'm cautiously optimistic.

    10. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by ivan256 · · Score: 1

      So... Play WAR, or future games will suffer?

      Sorry. He loses. If you pick up a game "for the good of the market" you send the message that people should invest in games like that. If WAR fails, it sends the message that they got it wrong, not that Blizzard is unstoppable.

      Let me translate what Mark Jacobs was saying: "This was harder than we thought. We don't think we can be as successful as we'd like to be, or as successful as we thought we could be when we started. But we really want to save face."

    11. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Final Fantasy XI has to be just about the most casual-hostile game I've ever played. For five full years after the game came out if you wanted to do anything in this game you had spend the time looking for a group, which could take up to an hour or more if your build wasn't exactly right or you had some kind of unacceptable job/subjob combination, or if your support job wasn't properly leveled, or any number of reasons. Once you lucked into a party, you proceeded to one of the overcrowding hunting areas and stood around while the main tank went to find a monster and pulled it back to the group, where you'd have an exciting couple of minutes to kill it off and get a couple hundred XP (if the monster was particularly tough, and your party didn't manage to get itself wiped out), then the tank would be off again to find the next creature while the rest of the group waited around for him to get back.

      Try to grind experience after about level 10? It's doable, but only just. After 20? Just not feasible without at least a three person party, and six is better.

      And just now, over five years later, a patch arrives to allow the high-level folks to cap their levels so that they can help out the lowbies in the starting areas. This isn't to make the game more casual-friendly, it's because the starting areas are almost all completely deserted. Most of the players in the game have gotten their characters up to high-levels with all the jobs and there just hasn't been an influx of newbies to keep the starting areas occupied. This results in any new folks trying to get into the game with virtually nobody to group with, and then they're likely to leave pretty quickly as a result.

    12. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by CodeBuster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Please MOD the parent up.

      I also played DAoC right up until the ill-fated Trials of Atlantis (TOA) expansion (Mythic made the mistake with TOA of tying PvP success directly to PvE and by the time they realized their mistake and done something to correct it they had lost too many players and now it is only about 50,000 or so really hard core PvP players left) and it really did have some great features and good ideas. For a while there back in 2001-2003 they really had the best game going in the MMORPG space.

      WAR will be more successful if they can successfully differentiate themselves from WoW and Realm vs Realm (RvR) and PvP, which WoW has basically fumbled, is the best way that they can do that. I will probably give WAR a try not because I am huge Warhammer fan, but because I remember the good times in DAoC and hope that Mythic will get it right from the start this time (using the lessons that they learned from DAoC).

      Although, personally I would have preferred a more open ended and generic MMORPG type game where pre-conceived storylines and areas (from the Warhammer world in this case) do not intrude upon the gameplay. It would be far more interesting to start with an original world, drawing upon classic fantasy elements but not completely out in left field (i.e. use classic fantasy gaming elements and memes established by LOTR, D&D, and other popular fantasy novels but in a new setting) and let the actions of the players actually build the world as the game progresses.

      It is not always necessary to have a pre-existing brand tie-in and it can infact hurt more than it helps (by drawing in lots of Warhammer fanbois who are just playing because its Warhammer and not because they are really interested in a good MMORPG experience). Plus, the publishers (EA\Mythic in this case) have to pay licensing fees or cut in the creator for a share of the profits (Games Workshop in this case) for the use of their copyrights. It seems like every MMORPG is a brand tie-in these days (Star Wars, Warhammer, World of Warcraft, etc) and sometimes (most times? WoW being a notable exception) the brand tie-in actually hurts rather than helps the long term viability of the game.

    13. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by AP31R0N · · Score: 1

      If you're looking for grind/twink/farmer free pure PvP... try PlanetSide. It's an MMFPS of 24/7 sci-fi warfare. Strategy, tactics, skill and cooperation win the day.

      As for MRPGs, i'm waiting for NWN meets WoW but without player trade or grinding. i want to play a game, not have a second job (that *costs* money).

      The PvP aspect of WoW was a turn off for me. Spawn, die, spawn, die, spawn, die, log off. Running quests with friends was fun.

      And i totally agree with you, trying to make WoW2 is virtually futile. WoW has a magic combination of traits that can be imitated, but the imitation would be transparent (and require players to start over in a game few their friends are *not* playing).

      i'd like to give the game a try, but i'm not going to spend 50$ to do it.

      --
      Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
    14. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by ivan256 · · Score: 1

      It doesn't matter if the WoW PvP system is broken or not. Most casual players don't want to PvP. Which is why there are 50% more players on PvE realms than on PvP realms in Warcraft. In other words: There are more players on non-PvP WoW servers than there are in all other MMOs combined.

      Incidentally, PvE servers have majority Alliance populations, and PvP servers have majority Horde populations.

      My prediction for WAR? "Armies vs. Armies" is going to be hard to balance, because the "hardcore players" are going to pick the evil faction.

    15. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by ACupOfCoffee · · Score: 1
      A couple important things that the above post doesn't seem to get:
      • PvP may be a niche market, but if that niche is only 10% - well, I think I'd call a million subscriptions a success.
      • WAR is oriented towards RvR (realm vs. realm). RvR is different in some aspects than a number of common impressions about PvP. In particular:
        • the pvp aspect is voluntary (you choose to go into the area) - no getting ganked when you want to relax
        • you are detached from your enemy and have de facto allies (each realm is one side, your allies can't hurt you and are likely working towards killing your enemies) - side bonus, enemies can't talk trash to you
      • RvR is implicitly cooperative - see above.
      • Just because RvR is a primary feature in this game does not mean there is not a wealth of PvE content. As others in this thread have said, public quests are a wonderful new feature to encourage cooperative play. There is also raid content, dungeons, etc.
      • RvR is just as social as casual pve - perhaps more so because you are more likely to be working on a coordinated objective, unless you are in a coordinated raid (not necessarily casual)... or a public quest!
      • Open parties (an easy way for a casual player to join a group looking for new members) are a huge social mechanic for casual players to meet and play with people.

      There are a large number of people who say that they hate pvp because their impression of pvp is running around on a low level character getting killed by higher level min-maxed characters when all they want to do is kill their first fluffy bunny. WAR has an alternative rule set for that style of play, but the core rule set intentionally prevents it.

    16. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nonsense. There are plenty of PVP players that are not "Hardcore" I play about 15 hours a week and would prefer a well implmeneted pvp to wow bgs anyday or any other content. Problem is there has not been a good pvp game since trials of atlantis ruined daoc.

    17. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While I haven't checked the realmstats to confirm or deny the assertation about the population breakdown of WoW PvE / PvP servers, here's something to consider:

      The primary reason why a player would choose Horde over Alliance is for the racials. Horde racials are almost universally better than the Alliance racials.

      Many, if not all, of the WoW racials are being changed for Wrath of the Lich King - precisely because of how unbalanced the racials are.

    18. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you are not considering the fact that there are millions of Warhammer fans that have been reading and playing warhammer games since the mid 1980s. Many of them have become MMO players. Warhammer is a world they know and competition has always been part of the warhammer gaming franchise.

    19. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by james_orr · · Score: 1

      What you don't get, is that they aren't trying to take over from WOW. It's a different game with a different market. If you like fishing in WOW, this probably is not the game for you.

    20. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by random256 · · Score: 1

      Actually, WAR isn't even a game for the hardcore pvpers. The hardcore are actually griefers in disguise, and the ability to grief in WAR is amazingly small. Smaller than in WoW. I honestly don't know how to explain how well they actually laid out the game other than to say that I talked my girlfriend into playing the game, who has never pvp'd in her life, and wouldn't because of the hardcore morons, and now I can't tear her away from her computer.

    21. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by tnk1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You don't have to "beat" WoW to win, you just have to make a game that has a profit margin.

      Yes and no.

      Do you know why so many MMOs are really getting the green light and are being developed these days? Because the business types think that all they have to do is build an MMO and the money will come.

      For them, a profit that technically indicates "success" does not mean complete success. If they don't get a knockout, they will lose interest, and eventually the game will disappoint everyone, particularly the hardcore players, because you will need to keep generating content and hyping the game for years.

      These guys want MMO action figures, card games, board games and everything WoW has. If WoW remains the only MMO to be able to accomplish these things, the MMO genre will crash really, really hard when Blizzard finally loses interest in WoW.

    22. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by vertinox · · Score: 1

      They play for the co-op and social aspects. They don't PvP.

      As a WAR beta player I have to say two things:

      1. PvP is completely optional.
      2. PvP is actually fun because its organized into something other than random gankfest.

      There is no inter faction PvP whatsoever in a sense so its kind of very community like as you would find in say capture the flag.

      If you like playing TeamFortress but with an RPG setting and gameplay, you'd probaly like WAR.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    23. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by andrewd18 · · Score: 1

      It doesn't matter if the WoW PvP system is broken or not. Most casual players don't want to PvP.

      That's where you're wrong. It does matter if WoW's PvP system is broken, because that's exactly why casual players dislike PvP.

      Casual players want to log on, make some kind of progress towards a defined goal (usually quests), and log off, without spending their entire evening to do so.

      You say that players prefer PvE versus PvP because there are more players on PvE servers. There's a correlation there, but I think the cause lies completely in World of Warcraft's world PvP system. How many times have casual players logged into Stranglethorn Vale to finish a quest or two, only to get killed and corpse-camped for 2 hours by a character who's 30 levels higher than they are? Without high-level friends, they have no chance to make progress that evening. Even if high-level friends arrive, the enemy's high-level friends arrive, and very little changes. Casual players prefer PvE servers because they don't get ganked, and therefore can still make progress with small amounts of gametime.

      WAR will try to solve this in two ways. One, all RvR is going to be within a certain level range. If you enter a noob zone with a high-level character, you get turned into a chicken. This keeps extreme ganking to a minimum. Second, the main focus will always be PvP. Sure, PvE exists, but most of the time, players will be forced into an arena-like mindset of "I need to kill other players before they kill me". Since you can level and get loot from PvP, it almost turns PvP into a PvE experience... it moves from a quest to kill 80 murlocs into a quest to kill 80 player-controlled drow, which isn't a whole lot different.

      I'm expecting that WAR will attract casual players back to PvP, simply by fixing what's wrong with WoW's PvP model. I'll be looking at over-gearing and overpowered classes, but I'm still optimistic about its success. I think that all casual players need to enjoy PvP again is a system that rewards them no matter how many hours they have to play.

    24. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by genner · · Score: 1

      I have to disagree.

      What about Final Fantasy Online? There is little to no PVP in that game, however they just released a patch that allowes you to level down so you can party with others, but still gain experience. If that's not focused on the casual player I don't know what is. Yet why isn't that game a hit?

      Because nothing is soloable.
      You need to group to do even basic quests and level. You may as well put upa big sign that says "Harcore PVE players only"
      Casual players don't want to waste an hour forming a group everytime you play.

    25. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by DeadManCoding · · Score: 1

      As long as Blizzard can keep up with content (slightly), they'll keep interest in WoW. The only reason is because of how much money they have invested, as well as how much money the game keeps bringing in.

      --
      "The only constant in the universe is change." - Unknown author
    26. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Lord+Ender · · Score: 1

      PvP...PvE'ers...FPS...FPS...MMORPG...DAoC...PvE/RvR...PvE...PvP...WoW.

      This post needs more acronyms.

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    27. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by andreasg · · Score: 1

      I'm a big fan of PvP, but I was wondering in which way Warhammer was more focused on PvP except for the fact that you can earn some xp and skills through PvP? To me RvR sounds just like WoW Battlegrounds, which have the huge flaw of being instanced and removing the importance of player interaction from the world server. Basically these forms of instanced PvP (at least in WoW) feels more like roller coaster rides and less like PvP RPG/roleplaying. You could be grinding bots dressed as players and you wouldn't know the difference.

    28. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As I was at the very first Mythic Fan fair in DC. I can honestly say. The devs are clueless. Granted between then and now they MIGHT have gotten a clue but at that point, they admitted knowing nothing about pvp and just flying by the seat of their pants and really didn't want to hear diddly from the old school pvpers.

      Since that day I canccelled my DAoC account and will never look back. Matter of fact, there is not a single MMO out right now that really offers anything "NEW." Opps, back up a little, Age of Conan had the potential to be a freaking awesome game, but funcom yet again screws the pooch and releases to soon. They may have gotten the "box price" of the game but I know for a fact their subscriptions are suffering terribly.

      So, suffice to say, WTB NEW IDEAS IN MMO'S.... Honestly, until there is risk again in MMO'S they will be lacking.

    29. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Liquidrage · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hopefully you read this because I'll expand.

      The scenarios that are WAR's versions of battlegrounds are more like a mini game. A way to level if you want. Etc..

      However, the real focus of WAR is open-world-RvR. Very large scale battles. Now, the amazing thing, is these do exist in game. Huge battles. Where you spend hours and hours with 40 people on yuor side killing 40 people on the other side. The front lines shift and change.

      The reason this works is there are goals in open-world RvR. If you're familar with WoW you might recall old RvR like Tarren Mills style or the Xroads in the barrens. In WAR there are lots of places like this. And you want to control them. You need to control them. Merchants that have items you want are in them. To open certain content your side needs to control certain ones. Not to mention your guilds can control and take over and defends keeps.

      So yes, the scenarios are just like WoW's battlegrounds. A little better integrated into the game, but similar enough. However the true RvR is the open-world battles and they've managed to pull it off.

    30. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Krater76 · · Score: 1

      Let me translate what Mark Jacobs was saying: "This was harder than we thought. We don't think we can be as successful as we'd like to be, or as successful as we thought we could be when we started. But we really want to save face."

      Or he's just being a realist and understands that WoW is the exception and not the rule. 10 million players is an aberration, just the rare cosmic event that, per capita, may never be reached again. It was such a shock to Blizzard that they stopped selling their game for months after release because they couldn't handle the influx of players. It took them years to build their infrastructure to handle all the problems of growing so quickly.

      That said, WoW has skewered the definition of 'success' way too far. MMO success is measured in hundreds of thousands, not millions. I don't know what the break even point is but even with 200k subscribers I think you could call a major MMO like WAR a success. I imagine it will hover around 350-500k however. And, I've said it in other posts, it will never be a WoW-ish juggernaut (1+ million) until it taps into the asian market, which contains about 60% of WoW's playerbase.

      I know the WoW fanboys will overract, feeling like they are getting cheated on, but just relax. WoW will be around for a long time. Give WAR a chance, and if you don't like it the WoW expansion in a couple months will give you plenty of a reason to return to Azeroth.

      --
      "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
    31. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by CthulhuDreamer · · Score: 1

      Playing on a server that is 87% Alliance and 13% Horde, I can suggest that racials don't mean squat. (We have more Night Elf Hunters than there are Horde.) If anything, many of the Alliance racials needed to be toned down. Most Horde players chose Horde races long before looking at racials.

      The Alliance uses tigers for mounts. The Horde gets limping wolves and giant chickens. The cool crowd goes with the tigers. To play Horde you have to like the squalor and darkness of most Horde cities over the sparkly grandeur that the Alliance gets, so the Horde gets fewer players in general (but the ones we do get tend to be more...intense).

    32. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by raznorw · · Score: 1

      Don't forget that leveling in FFXI requires massive amounts of exp which can essentially only be obtained through partying since quests give negligible amounts of exp (if any). 4-5+ hours of grinding per level from 50-75 (not counting time spent organizing a party) is hardly casual player friendly. The level down patch has renewed my interest somewhat since I can now at least play with friends, but the impact on the already few good camp areas has yet to be seen / felt.

    33. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Knara · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'd mod you up if I could.

      The only reason I'm giving this game a try (after the requisite MMO release buffer time) is because Mythic did incredibly fun things with regard to PvE and PvP balance in DAoC. I still regard nights playing in Thid as some of my favorite gameplay experiences, hands down.

    34. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by ibsteveog · · Score: 1

      I'm wondering if I'm just feeding a troll...

      FF Online? Casual? In what way is [spending 2-6 hours trying to get a party together just so you can kill a few mobs] part of a Casual game?

      Unless they made it so more than 1 class could solo, or made it so that finding groups after level 40 didn't take a dedicated group of people doing it together day after day, then it was nothing near a Casual game.

      And farmers! Farmers are not casual friendly, and that game has them in oodles, without instancing to shield you.

      I only played it for 6 months (and reached level25+ with a few classes, and 45+ with 2), but I regret having wasted so much time in that MMORPG.

    35. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actually after beta testing this for several months ive found that it is a much more casually compatible experience than WOW ever was. almost all PVE quests from npcs can be soloed if you are that type of player. it is overwhelming easy to find and join a group either for PVE quests or to enter Public Quests which are very fun and show great camaraderie. A good example of this is one of the low level or quest where i was forming a battle line with other INTUITIVELY with other random players.

      WOW instance farming and level grind are what ultimately turned me off to the game. Warhammer has gone many steps in the right direction to staisfy me as a more casual player.

    36. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Pebby · · Score: 1

      ... so for the non-pvpers, they added Public Quests, which, I can say from experience, are totally awesome and social situations. No player-killing, but no busywork just getting together with some people to hang out and kick some monster butt.

    37. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by immcintosh · · Score: 1

      You should really try WAR before knocking it so hard. I've known a LOT of people who have been strictly PvE in WoW and other games because they hated PvP, but have reluctantly tried it in WAR and absolutely loved it. PvP in WAR is actually a very, very different experience from other games I've played. It's, oddly enough, much friendlier, and something that less "hardcore" people can easily enjoy on their own terms. For example, unlike WoW, EVERYBODY CAN CONTRIBUTE. It doesn't matter what class you are, or how you specialize, or even what level you are, I have found that, regardless, you always feel useful in RvR/PvP as long as you play your role well. Give it a try, I think you'll be surprised.

    38. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Endo13 · · Score: 1

      Warhammer gives XP for PVP, which is something WoW should have done, and I bet will do in the future.

      It's way too late to just throw that in WoW, unless they also allow players to switch off EXP gain as in EQ2. Why? The twink scene is way too large at this point. There's thousands of twink players now in every battlegroup. Heck, the largest guild I've ever been in was a twink guild.

      Yes, I know all the twink-haters would love that. But currently, there's way more twink players than haters.

      --
      There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
    39. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by GaryPatterson · · Score: 1

      If anything, many of the Alliance racials needed to be toned down.

      Yes, diplomacy is pretty damn powerful in battlegrounds.

      "Can't we just talk about this?"

      As hard as I try, negotiating a settlement over Tower Point (in Alterac Valley) just never seems to work.

    40. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by notamisfit · · Score: 1

      Not to mention that Blizzard's jumping all over the PvP bandwagon itself. Millions of players is nice, and billions of dollars in revenue is nice too, but developer e-peen rules over all.

      --
      Jesus is coming -- look busy!
    41. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by notamisfit · · Score: 1

      PvP/PvE servers only dictate one type of PvP: random non-consensual world PvP. Players on "carebear" servers are more than free to queue up for an instanced battleground, join an arena team, or even flag and do world PvP. Considering the only other "endgame" options are raiding, farming a shitload of heroic badges, or giving up in frustration and rolling something else, PvP is doing alright.

      --
      Jesus is coming -- look busy!
    42. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      now it is only about 50,000 or so really hard core PvP players left

      Not that many. DAoC (which I still play) has about 3000 people playing most nights in North America. It seldom breaks 2000 out of primetime. And that includes buffbots, which amount to perhaps 20%-30% of the online population.

      A better guestimate might be 10,000-15,000 players left. Or perhaps lower than that - I tend to agree that the remaining players tend to be pretty hardcore, and I think a higher percentage of them are playing every day than for your typical MMO.

      Note also that, on average, less than half of them (including bots) are doing PvP at any given time.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    43. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by baggins2001 · · Score: 1

      What's Warcraft and Diablo?

      --
      He who said 1,000,000 monkeys on 1,000,000 typewriters would eventually type the great novel, never saw an AOL chat room
    44. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by wilsonthecat · · Score: 1

      If you look at the instance stats for WoW which Blizzard publish, you'll see WSG/AB/AV far exceeds those PvE dungeons each week, so I'm not convinced PvE is 90% of WoW, but not lower than 60%.

    45. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

      I've been playing in beta for a few weeks. Your objection has merits in theory, but it doesn't really apply to Warhammer. The PvP they have is not really so integral to the game that you can't do without it. A lot of it is actually just PvE, where the "E" happens to mobs that look just like players of the other faction.

      My wife *hates* PvP, and she's now playing the game with me.

      Perhaps the endgame is all PvP, I haven't gotten there. But I bet most casual players (who are typically the ones who don't go in for PvP) probably wouldn't get there for quite some time either.

    46. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by doomicon · · Score: 1

      Wow is no longer any more casual than any other MMO. Sure you can "casually" just quest around and reach level 20 in three weeks, and chat with your friends in /g, but you can do that on any other MMO.

      You can casually get to 70 and try to PVP in Greens and Blues, and every other player with casually hand your ass to you.

      Spending weeks in BGs to get Tokens+Honor PVP gear != Casual
      Raiding nonstop for months to get PVE gear != Casual
      Running Heroics for a sh!tton of Badges for Badge Gear != Casual

      I'm sure ppl will tell me how it takes so much longer in MMO X to get this or that, but that doesn't make Wow casual.

      --

      Awesome!
    47. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by twosmokes · · Score: 1

      I'm on the other side of the same coin. The only reason I won't try it is because of Mythic's attachment. It was DAoC that turned me off to MMORPGs for a very long time. I quit shortly after Shrouded Isles because the lack of any content other than RVR (which is useless when you still need to level) became too frustrating.

      Had this game been made by a different developer I'd give it a try at release, but now I'm going to wait a good six months or so for more information.

    48. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I, too, played DAoC for a long time. I started shortly after release, and circumstances forced me away from the internet right before ToA came out. I tried it again with Catacombs, but they'd definitely lost the 'spark' that it'd had pre-ToA. It was my first MMO, though, and while I've played probably a dozen different ones since then, nothing has lived up to it.

      WoW... I played WoW in closed beta. It had some neat stuff when it started out, but I hated the visual style and the crap PvP. Still, of all the other games I tried, it's the one I spend longest in. I really hate the way Blizzard is doing expansions though. The policy of doing vertical expansions and thus basically invalidating pre-expansion achievements bugs me (eg. doing Onyxia pre-Burning Crusade was hard. Post BC you can kill her with three people...).

      I've been playing Warhammer for a couple weeks now, and having -fun- in an MMO again. I haven't run into anyone being an ass just for the sake of being an ass, I keep actually READING the quest stories, and I love getting tome unlocks and silly titles. Also, I adore being able to go out and kill other players. A poster a bit below me mentions Tarren Mill and such in WoW. Big difference? In WAR when you're trying to control the area, you can actually control it, instead of just killing everyone and being a dick about it. Scenarios are what WoW wishes it's battlegrounds were. Fun, challenging, strategic and accessible. The last one is probably the most important to me. When you enter a scenario you're bumped up (or down) to a certain level. You retain your skills, but your hitpoints etc. match that level. This means that you can start doing it at level one, if you like.... none of this bullshit where you're only effective in a battleground at the highest level for it.

      I'm really hoping Mythic can keep it up. I like the way they've differentiated PvE and RvR ranking and balancing. I like that mobs are balanced to players, not the other way around. I love Public Quests... how often does your level 4 toon get to kill a dragon?? (Well, about 4 times yesterday, as it happens ^^)

      Through all the MMOs I've played since it, I've missed DAoC. Now, I still miss some of the community there, but the gameplay lives up to what I'd come to expect from an MMO... actual fun.

    49. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by aralin · · Score: 1
      Do you realize that people who like PvP are predators. Much of the fun for them is not in hunting other predators, but in hunting weak prey. If they have nobody to prey on, they will follow the prey back to WoW.

      ...

      More details about 'killer' type in Designing Virtual Worlds from Richard Bartle

      --
      If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
    50. Re:Another game that doesn't get it... by CodeBuster · · Score: 1

      because the lack of any content other than RVR (which is useless when you still need to level)

      DAoC had item crafting as of Shourded Isles (and all of the best gear was crafted anyway) so there really was no need to go looking for high level drops like there was and is in WoW and other MMORPGs (unless you were really cheap or poor and wanted to salvage your crafting materials instead of buying them). The only problem with the RvR implementation in DAoC was the lack of item, crafting material, and money drops for PvP kills (something which Warhammer is going to remedy with random loot tables for PvP kills and actually there is nothing to stop them from adding this same concept to DAoC if they haven't already done so). I think perhaps that mythic was concerned (back in the Shrouded Isles days) that if they severed the last thread between PvE and PvP (by giving money and drops for PvP kills) that most people would abandon the PvE content (except for big raids) and spend all of their time in the battle grounds and RvR areas (which is what ended up happening anyway if the reports are to be believed since I don't play DAoC anymore). I think that they will get it right with Warhammer, they have so much experience from running DAoC that I think they understand the RvR, PvP, PvE issues very well now. I will pick it up when I have some spare time between projects and give it a whirl but it may not be right when the game comes out.

  11. Yep by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While there is certainly nothing wrong with developers targeting Linux, Linux heads need to stop pretending like they are a major market. Linux on the desktop isn't all that common, and Linux on the desktop in a gaming situation is extremely rare. Thus this idea that developers really need to be targeting Linux is silly. To me it seems Linux is finding it's stronghold in business type markets. That's wonderful, but not a target for games.

    1. Re:Yep by Lovedumplingx · · Score: 1

      Good point.

      I like Linux and have a distro on my box (dual boot) and I know lots of people who do most of their computing in Linux. But when they game they just face the music and load Windows because that's where it's most accessible.

      Maybe after Linux breaks the business barrier more developers will think about it as more than just an afterthought but until then it really is a silly idea.

    2. Re:Yep by Relic+of+the+Future · · Score: 1

      Chicken. Egg.

      --
      Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
    3. Re:Yep by Lyrael · · Score: 1

      But unfortunately, that kind of thinking is what's keeping Linux out of the gaming situation. Everyone I know who runs Linux either dual-boots or has a separate Windows box, just for games that don't have native Linux clients. :(

    4. Re:Yep by not+already+in+use · · Score: 1

      The Linux community feels like they get the shaft when it comes to support, but they ask for it. Seriously, what does it mean to "support" linux? You mean, "support the Linux kernel and the million variants of desktop distributions that exist." I couldn't imagine why they wouldn't....

      --
      Similes are like metaphors
    5. Re:Yep by Dan667 · · Score: 1

      Linux is maturing. Ignoring it would be like Microsoft ignoring Firefox, because IE is the most dominant browser. Honestly, when some company starts making money putting out a Linux version, everyone will do it.

    6. Re:Yep by Dekker3D · · Score: 1

      hmm, most code that isn't API-specific would work on any linux distro, and windows, and in some cases, macs as well (aside from some directory issues). the only reason you'd need the lesser-used API calls is for weird manipulations, like DRM systems. anything else can just use open*L and other stuff that works under linux. most of those libraries that work under "linux" get bug-tested to work on Ãll linux distros.

      gotta admit, i'm not looking forward to writing linux-compatable code either. a good deal of my friends use linux though, and i like freedom.. shouldn't be a hypocrite and force people to run whatever i make on windows only.

    7. Re:Yep by not+already+in+use · · Score: 1

      Well, besides porting the game itself, something relatively trivial such as an installation program has to be maintained for a good number of distros and packaging systems. Then you'd have to support them all.

      In the end, it's hard to deny that the platform with the smallest market share will require the biggest investment in time and it's just not worth it.

      --
      Similes are like metaphors
    8. Re:Yep by Jorophose · · Score: 1

      Look at it this way, if 3%-4% of computers run Linux, either full time or in a VM or as a dual-boot, how many people are just looking for their favourite games to work, and then they'd go off and use Linux?

      And how many don't give a fuck as long as it works, and their games working is a bonus? I mean, how many people buy Macs and then complain about their windows games not working?

      Linux gets a lot of flak for nothing. I wonder how many shills are paid off to browse technology sites and normal sites to troll against linux?

    9. Re:Yep by DerWulf · · Score: 1

      this implies that opengl is equivalent to directX which last I heard isn't the case. The by many accounts botched new opengl spec probably doesn't help matters ... Evenmore so then in the past gaming will mean using windows.

      --

      ___
      No power in the 'verse can stop me
    10. Re:Yep by MistrBlank · · Score: 1

      Truth. Mod up parent.

    11. Re:Yep by waveclaw · · Score: 1

      Linux on the desktop isn't all that common, and Linux on the desktop in a gaming situation is extremely rare

      I'm not so sure. For many of the people I know that run a Linux Desktop, just being system administrator of it is the video game they play on their PC.

      Dodgy binary driver strikes your memory manager, dealing 100Mb of damage. Process beagle needs CPU time badly. You are in a twisty directory of files, all alike. (S)ave, (Q)uit to Windows or (R)m -rf /* now?

      --

      "You cannot have a General Will unless you have shared experiences. You cannot be fair to people you don't know."
    12. Re:Yep by erikdalen · · Score: 1

      Yet for example Skype does it 'for free' (I know the Windows client has loads more features).

      A statically compiled binary would pretty much just continue to work even if the distro is upgraded. Of course there's been a few changes like OSS->ALSA and such that could cause incompatibilities once every few years, but not all the time.

      --
      Erik Dalén
  12. WoW by Krneki · · Score: 2, Insightful

    People only want to enjoy the game, not get their char ganked by some "PvP elite".

    --
    Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
    1. Re:WoW by Hydian · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I know this is /. but you could try reading the article. You'll only get ganked if you go someplace (well marked) that has RvR active.

    2. Re:WoW by Awptimus+Prime · · Score: 1

      Sort of. WoW's PvP servers have been a success for people who like the freedom to chop up noobs or start fights in opposite faction towns.

      I got two characters to 60 on a PVP server, and quite honestly, didn't mind the occasional visit from a ganker. It also made going fishing with someone of the opposite faction a real matter of trust. More often than not, people would just be chill. But, by all lore in the game, you are at war with them and should be able to attack if you want.

      People who get their panties in a bunch over a gank are best off sticking with the care bear servers.

    3. Re:WoW by Krater76 · · Score: 1

      People only want to enjoy the game, not get their char ganked by some "PvP elite".

      First, you can't get 'ganked' unless you are flagged, and you only get flagged in RvR areas. You can't enter an RvR area without knowing it, it's quite obvious.

      Second, in both their Core and Open server types (RvR restricted and RvR everywhere, respectively) there is a 'chicken' mechanic that turns you into a chicken if you an upper-level character in a lower-level area trying to gank. You literally become a chicken with 1 hp.

      Really, WoW is the game where gankers will stay. There's really no reason to do it in WAR, although it will happen a little bit, but only to characters within about 10 levels. And with the way WAR PvP plays that's not a guaranteed kill, and definitely can't be considered a 'gank'.

      --
      "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
    4. Re:WoW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah no crap! I played EVE online for a while till I got blown out of the sky by some idiot that had a ship 1000000x better than mine. Yeah it's so close to real life you might as well live your real life. I mean seriously I play games to get away from the stupid social status thing where everyone gloats over everything they do...

    5. Re:WoW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not only did they NOT read the article, but the moderator obviously didn't either. Or they have a strong bias for WoW and against WAR.

      Please, mod GP down.

    6. Re:WoW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well thanks for quitting EVE. We don't like people who pity themselves when faced with adversity.

  13. But is it like WoW? by Drakin020 · · Score: 1

    You know, I played WoW up to 70, and the BG's and isntances were just boring to me.

    How does this game play in relation? Is it just another WoW? If you hated WoW would you hate this?

    I'm holding out before dishing out 50 bucks for something that may not be innovative.

    --
    The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
    1. Re:But is it like WoW? by k_187 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you didn't like WoW's battlegrounds and/or Arena, probably not. The PvE side of the game is fun, but definitely not the focus. I'd argue that the PvE side of WAR is even more grindy than WoW's since it has a definite end. WAR is really the PvP lover's WoW in a lot of ways.

      That said, I think its a blast.

      --
      11 was a racehorse
      12 was 12
      1111 Race
      12112
    2. Re:But is it like WoW? by Drakin020 · · Score: 1

      Well I guess the reason I say that was because in WoW I never really had a sense of accomplishment. It was just one BG after another, with no real change in the end game.

      --
      The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
    3. Re:But is it like WoW? by haystor · · Score: 1

      In Warhammer, there is the feeling of suspense as you head out to world pvp, not knowing how well defended a keep or tower will be. Then there is all the strategy and politics of gathering forces, the scouting of the enemy, the logistics of deploying siege equipment...etc. Simply nothing comparable in WoW.

      --
      t
    4. Re:But is it like WoW? by andreasg · · Score: 1

      I was thinking though, what exactly keeps players involved in world pvp except for the fact they joined one faction and the other players joined the enemy faction? Is there anything to gain from participating? Important resource points? Is it possible to build things players gets attached to (towns perhaps), so they will feel like they need to defend it or revenge it if it gets burnt down? Problem is that without some of these things, won't PvP in WAR get tired fast?

    5. Re:But is it like WoW? by immcintosh · · Score: 1

      Probably the biggest way it differs from WoW is that every class has a unique and useful role to play, and they have to work together and coordinate at a much higher level. Tanks can actually TANK; coming from WoW you'll be very surprised how hard it is even for multiple DPS classes to burn a tank down in WAR. There is collision detection, which is huge; you can't run through players at all. So, for example, you can have a line of tanks wall up across a narrow passage, for example, and actually completely prevent your opponents from getting through. Set some healers up behind them and you have an effective blockade. The mechanics of combat also are just very different. Every class in WAR works off of the equivalent of a WoW rogue's energy, with additional unique mechanics layered on top of that. What this means, most importantly I think, is that there is no mana for casters. Spells work off of this same quickly replenishing energy bar. Overall this all makes the mechanics of combat MUCH more strategic and slower paced, and less twitchy, although combat still does get quite frantic.

      Aside from that, PvP/RvR in WAR is actually meaningful. There's sort of a grand RvR cycle which all leads up to ransacking your opponents' capital city. Everything you do contributes to that, and that in itself is a major event, unlike anything in WoW. It has open world PvP--capturing keeps and objectives in non-instanced areas--which WoW doesn't really have anything meaningfully equivalent to, although I hear the next expansion will integrate things like siege weaponry like WAR has. WAR will probably do it better than WotLK.

      WAR has battlegrounds, although it calls them scenarios. They are much more focused and quick than the WoW equivalent. They all have time limits, 15 minutes or so, so you'll never have to deal with a 3 hour Warsong Gulch (god I hated that battleground). Also, WAR has a HUGE VARIETY of scenarios. Really, there's more different kinds with different gameplay and objectives than you can shake a stick at. With the short running time, you can get a good variety of play in.

      If you can't tell yet, I absolutely love WAR. I could never go back to playing WoW at this point. It really is very different from WoW on a lot of levels, and if you're at all interested in this sort of thing, I can almost guarantee you'll get your $50 worth and then some.

    6. Re:But is it like WoW? by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 1

      How does this game play in relation? Is it just another WoW? If you hated WoW would you hate this?

      Good question. Perhaps someone will write A WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer to answer this for us?

    7. Re:But is it like WoW? by notamisfit · · Score: 1

      From what I understand, zones can actually be won and lost depending by the number of "victory points" any particular side gets. Being restricted to your capital city might just be the thing to get a lot of players into world PvP.

      --
      Jesus is coming -- look busy!
    8. Re:But is it like WoW? by haystor · · Score: 1

      If you lose your capital city, gnomes break into your house and steal your dog.

      It's a computer game. There are no real consequences, just like every other computer game.

      If you lose some territory, you may have to go play somewhere else in the game for a while until you claw your way back.

      --
      t
  14. WoW got 10 million with Mac by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Interesting

    WoW has got 10 million with the mac and just google for 'wow wine' to see just how active a subject it is.

    Blizzard apparently cares enough to have reversed its stance on Wine as being a hacker tool earlier. If the market is so small they could have simply kept it banned but they didn't. Explain please if they don't care about linux users.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

    1. Re:WoW got 10 million with Mac by tnk1 · · Score: 0

      Supporting WoW on Wine doesn't exactly require a whole new development team. All Blizzard did was decide that Wine really wasn't a hacking tool and sort of try to work with it again. Its not like they launched a Linux port of WoW or something and then committed to a port of Starcraft II.

      Basically this is how it went at Blizzard:

      Linux liking dev: "Hey, can we support Wine again?"

      Manager: "Its a hacking tool, Jones told me so."

      Dev: "No its not."

      Manager: "Is this going to cost me money?"

      Dev: "No."

      Manager: "Yeah, okay, whatever, Wine is no longer a hacking tool. Knock yourself out."

      Dev: "Thanks for caring about Linux!"

      Manager: "Yeah, uh that. Thanks. Where's your status report?"

    2. Re:WoW got 10 million with Mac by RobDude · · Score: 1

      Blizzard *doesn't* care at all about Linux users. They care about $$$.

      Blizzard offers no official support Linux. Getting WoW to run in Linux is a nightmare...and Blizzard has enough problems supporting their Windows Users.

    3. Re:WoW got 10 million with Mac by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem with this theory is that, actually, Warden might have been altered to accept Wine, therefore 1. costing money and 2. opening a channel for hacking tools. The original problem is that Warden checked to see if the environment wasn't clean. Guess what, under Wine, it wasn't. So they had to make a special case for this.

    4. Re:WoW got 10 million with Mac by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      Linux users tried to screw Blizzard with bnetd. Bnetd is a emulate Battle.net server that facilitate software piracy of Blizzard products by circumventing Blizzard's authentication code. Why should Blizzard do anything for the linux community?

    5. Re:WoW got 10 million with Mac by kiddygrinder · · Score: 1

      bnetd runs on windows... so therefore microsoft hates blizzard OMFG they should make blizz-linux!

      --
      This is a joke. I am joking. Joke joke joke.
    6. Re:WoW got 10 million with Mac by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a HUGE difference to deciding to not actively ban Wine users and actually supporting them. They picked it is better to just ignore them. If you think they support Wine feel free to try and log a support call with them with Wine as your platform and see what sort of response you get.

    7. Re:WoW got 10 million with Mac by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Still far, far from a port to Linux natively. Said Linux liking dev could have done it all in his spare time by himself over lunch for all we know.

      It could be easy, or it could be relatively time consuming, but I imagine that Bliz didn't write an all or nothing checker that couldn't be configured relatively easily.

      Either way, it doesn't change the fact that the Linux gaming market is so tiny that it makes porting to Macs look wildly profitable. Its unlikely that Blizzard would honestly care if it loses every Linux gamer it has. I'm sure there are employees in the company would are favorable to it, but in the end, money talks and any substantial resources are controlled by the bean counters.

  15. RvR is good but... by 1WingedAngel · · Score: 1

    I'm an active WoW player and am on the fence on picking up WAR. A lot of people I play WoW with are in the same boat.

    The problem is this: We like raiding.

    We may also like PvP. Several of us have 3 regular arena teams and are in full S4. But, still, we like raiding.

    Now, everything I read on WAR trumpets the virtues of their PvP and RvR system while promising us that there is some sort of mythical PvE endgame without really describing it.

    In short, can anyone confirm that there is a PvE endgame where you group up with X friends and fight tough bosses (where X >= the number of fingers you possess)?

    That would get my kind of folks interested.

    1. Re:RvR is good but... by loom_weaver · · Score: 1

      If you like raiding then you're already in the right game - WoW.

    2. Re:RvR is good but... by Hydian · · Score: 1

      There is definately large raid content on the high end. Big, scary, nasty stuff.

    3. Re:RvR is good but... by JCSoRocks · · Score: 1

      I am not a Warhammer expert... but from what I've read the final battles are all based around huge cities that you siege and attack. Apparently the scale is massive enough that it certainly would make sense for it to be the sort of thing that an entire group of people did together. There were originally going to be a ton of cities but I think they've cut it back to two or something for now just to get the game out... they'll add more as time goes on.

      Like I said, I'm not that interested in it, so someone can point out anything I've gotten wrong.

      --
      You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
    4. Re:RvR is good but... by AioKits · · Score: 1

      In short, can anyone confirm that there is a PvE endgame where you group up with X friends and fight tough bosses (where X >= the number of fingers you possess)?

      See, I'm just the opposite. I can't stand raiding most the time. Did it in EQ2, did it in WoW, etc. It is fun for the first time through, but after that it becomes glorified farming. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to pick on you or your preferences. Nothing wrong with liking raiding. Most of the time I play MMORPG games, I am by myself or wish to solo with very little grouping.

      I used to play Dark Age of Camelot religiously (Trials of Atlantis can still kiss my ass) and loved the RvR combat. Some of those fights were EPIC. I would sometimes go to work zombified cause I didn't know when to quit (thankfully I learned). I miss that kind of experience.

      "Hey, our faction is attacking one of the other factions!"
      "Which one?"
      "I dunno, but let's jump in on this and see if we can't beat the crap outta something!"

      This is just me though. The PvP in WoW felt forced. It was (let's be fair here) an after thought. I look forward to trying out WAR, for hopes of rekindling that love that DAoC gave me towards PvP and RvR combat.

      PS - Percival Server, Hibernia, Druid, Chullain - lvl 50 Nurture Druid

      --
      "Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
    5. Re:RvR is good but... by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 1

      You've got it pretty right. There are two main cities right now, and the goal is to control points leading to them (think Battlefield), finally unlocking the ability to enter the city. In the city is a bunch of quests and also a king to kill.

      --
      Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
    6. Re:RvR is good but... by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Actually, I got the idea that what he meant by raiding was beating scripted encounters as that is what WoW has in the endgame, and what they are used to. That's exactly what we had when I was GM of an endgame guild in WoW.

      Fact is that I would be extremely surprised to see the same sort of play in the PvP end game battles in WAR. In WoW raids, you take pride in being a super healer or tank. In PvP/RvR, the other side focus fires down your healing and ignores your tanks until they are all alone, and then they play with them like a hyena pack plays with a water buffalo. There is almost no set strategy involved, just a set of tactics and your ability to communicate with teammates and think on your toes.

      And if it does end up that you can go to bosskillers.com and find the no-lose scripted strat for taking down that Chaos stronghold, I will be disgusted beyond belief.

    7. Re:RvR is good but... by Krater76 · · Score: 1

      The PvP in WoW felt forced. It was (let's be fair here) an after thought.

      You are completely right and maybe even a little understated. WoW tried to tack on world PvP objectives in their expansion and that totally failed. They added 1 battleground, which was fun but just a hybrid of the others, and who gives half a shit about the objectives in Hellfire, Zangarmarsh, or even Nagrand? You get a little PvE boost and tokens for gear and stuff that might have been good when everyone was leveling to 70 but is way underpowered now.

      And don't get me started with the arena system. I rue the day that ever came into a dev's mind.

      --
      "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
    8. Re:RvR is good but... by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      No, and we're glad there isn't. You see, there's a large number of people out there who can't stand raiding. Really, if my options were to raid weekly in WoW or never play a video game again, I'd pick option number 2. The purpose of this game is not to go kill big bad bosses. If you want that, EQ, WoW, and FFXI already provide it. The point of this game is pure PvP. Keep your damn raids out of it.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    9. Re:RvR is good but... by immcintosh · · Score: 1

      The problem is this: We like raiding.

      Say no more. I'd say stick with WoW. WAR is just really not for you. It's not a raiding game. For me, that's amazingly good. Raiding in WoW was easily the WORST time I've ever had playing any computer game, bar none. For people who like it though, PvE raiding is, and I think will be for some time to come, WoW's domain. That's just what WoW does, and not something WAR even really tries to do to nearly the same degree.

      That's not to say there are no tough PvE bosses in WAR. It's just not as much of a regular and integral experience as it is in WoW. And generally the big PvE encounters are all based off of PvP accomplishment. For example, when you capture the enemy capital city, you get to fight and kill the king, which is a raid-type encounter. But in order to get there it's all about the RvR. That's how you capture the city.

      That said, WAR RvR is not like WoW PvP. It's really a different experience. Whereas WoW's PvP is more or less tacked on to a PvE core, WAR was built around it. I've known several people who felt the same as you--not so into the PvP, mainly liking PvE--but have ended up loving the RvR. And that's what the end-game in WAR really is. RvR everywhere, all the time. It's very fun, but it's really a different breed of end-game from what you're used to.

    10. Re:RvR is good but... by Liquidrage · · Score: 1

      It's impossible to ignore tanks completely.

      For one, there's collision detection. In RvR only btw. So it's not there if you're out questing in your own territory. But in all RvR it's there. It can be at times actually difficult get past a few tanks to get to the caster behind them. At other times down right impossible.

      Also, EVERY tank class has a skill call guard that lets them absorb damage directed at their friendly target. In WAR you can have two targets at all time. One enemy, one friendly. It's done very well. You don't need to hit "tab" to switch between the guy trying to kill your friend and the guy you're trying to heal.

      In WAR you really have to think about what you're dealing with. Who is on your side and what you're up against. And act accordingly. Flanking maneuvers happen in WAR. Falling back to a better position happens. Coordinated attacks happen. It really is PvP/RvR done right.

    11. Re:RvR is good but... by don+depresor · · Score: 1

      Percival was a blast, I loved that server for almost 3 years (Albion shield Armsman, Dupres).

      I hope WAR gets half the epic fights we got there :)

    12. Re:RvR is good but... by AioKits · · Score: 1

      Dupres? We've met on the field of battle before my friend. I miss those days. My ability to attack was 'adequate' at best, but man I could tweak my friends out.

      --
      "Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
  16. Right by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Tell that to every korean MMORPG that has PvP.

    The problem is that western MMORPG's do PvP wrong, they do open world PvP and that just doesn't belong in a level based game. Warhammer does things different, far closer to Guild Wars. Wether it will work is anybodies guess, but PvP done well with no ganking could easily attract a large enough userbase to make the game succesfull.

    Anyway, it is not like the industry needs another PvE MMORPG.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

    1. Re:Right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Mmm-hmmm... sounds like the typical grief player who developers in most MMOs have to spend thousands of man-hours to code against.

      We all know and love the Korean game Lineage 2, where the people who were getting banned were not the botters and the GY campers. Neither were the people with the third party trainers to keep their name white (as opposed to purple or red if they wounded or PK-ed someone.)

      It sold great in Korea, but after people realized there was nothing to be gained there other than ganking newbies to steal their stuff (In L2, if you were killed by another player, there was a chance they could loot your weapon and armor, and losing a weapon basically meant rerolling.)

      The people that got banned in L2 were the people who complained about the game.

      That is not PvP. That is grief play, which apparently some people like because they have no abilities to succeed anywhere else MMO related. Same with the people in WoW in PvP servers who sit stealthed at the Barrens, Westfall, or Ashenvale borders waiting to gank newbies crossing into contested territory for the first time.

      I guess some people just like it. Great for them. The mainstream players who actually wouldn't mind a chance at levelling will pass the grief-prone MMOs by or remain with WoW.

      Griefing is why Everquest 1 died so fast as soon as WoW came out. There was no penalty for training in EQ1, where you could pull the majority of mobs in a zone and then either suicide, feign death, or merely hit a zone line. Then all those mobs would promptly attack other people, likely causing a group or raid wipe. Everquest 2 fixed the problem with instancing and leashing, but it was too little, too late. Griefing is also why UO died. To the average MMO player, why should they pay their cash and put in time to play a MMO when all they end up with is someone else's loot or HK, and nothing to show for it?

      Blizzard learned this lesson, which is why they have success. I think WAR also has this lesson as well. Unless games have a way to keep griefing to a minimum, people will pass it up.

  17. simulation != game by WinPimp2K · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And your laundry list of "features" pretty well demonstrates the difference. People play MMOs to have fun with other players. What you would make a good solo game for a micromanager.

    Just consider your "ecology"
    So what happens when a griefer guild shows up and slaughters all the wolves and bears in your forest? How do prevent this or can they even?

    economies: much as I hate to admit it (I like the idea of a player economy as well), player based economies are actually very destructive to game enjoyment. The "Auction Hall" global market with instant results just provides massive encouragement for goldselling services and the resulting rampant inflation. The more resources and money supply is controlled by the publisher, the more the econommy winds up in control of the goldsellers.

    If it is so darn "not difficult", why haven't you written your own game and have a few hundred thousand subscribers already?

    However, the idea of allowing players to have a real impact on the game world is a good one, but once again darn near impossible in an MMO. Making real changes requires that new content be constantly generated to replace that which is no langer valid. Example: THe players have finally ended the zombie chicken infestation at Farmer Brown's. No longer will zombie chickens trouble the farm. Ever. So what new content do you propose for the beginning characters? Perhaps they could work on the rat infestation over at Farmer Smith's? What if someone gives Farmer Smith a pregnant cat(reproducing)? Oh the ecological horrors - plus the destruction of more content intended for beginning players.

    Just ramp up those examples for "end game" content and you get a glimmer of the problem. It just takes too long to come up with new storylines/adventures. So players making real changes in games like this will be best done as solo games.

    Or the games will have to have multiple "sub-games" built into them to keep folks occupied. (See Eve Online) which does have a failry robust and involved (although unfortunately corrupt) economy and PvP system.

    --

    You either believe in rational thought or you don't
    1. Re:simulation != game by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      So what happens when a griefer guild shows up and slaughters all the wolves and bears in your forest?

      That's what open PvP is for. Also, implement some measures to make this harder (how about royal decrees to leave the wolves and bears alone, and big nasty NPC rangers on the lookout for poachers?)

    2. Re:simulation != game by Endo13 · · Score: 1

      Clearly you didn't take much time to think that through. Let's dissect it, shall we?

      That's what open PvP is for.

      That depends on someone always being around to stop someone else from committing genocide, and on that first someone to be able to stop the second someone from committing it. Do you really think max level players in top gear are really going to sit around in starting areas waiting for other max level players to stop them from doing genocide? Yeah, right.

      Also, implement some measures to make this harder (how about royal decrees to leave the wolves and bears alone, and big nasty NPC rangers on the lookout for poachers?)

      Right. So now you have to decide exactly how many kills of the same thing in a certain timespan, to be adjusted based on level that players are allowed to get away with before they get pwnt by the big bad rangers. And you have to tweak that for every type of mob in every zone, and you have to make sure you have rangers covering every area, or you have to have rangers spawning out of nowhere. None of which makes the player experience fun. I'm absolutely certain the vast majority of players would much rather just have infinite mobs on a set respawn timer.

      --
      There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
    3. Re:simulation != game by drc500free · · Score: 2, Interesting

      economies: much as I hate to admit it (I like the idea of a player economy as well), player based economies are actually very destructive to game enjoyment. The "Auction Hall" global market with instant results just provides massive encouragement for goldselling services and the resulting rampant inflation. The more resources and money supply is controlled by the publisher, the more the econommy winds up in control of the goldsellers.

      Puzzle Pirates has a great economy, which is *COMPLETELY* player run other than the sources and sinks. It requires design and balance, not slapping an auction house down on an existing looting system.

    4. Re:simulation != game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just consider your "ecology"
      So what happens when a griefer guild shows up and slaughters all the wolves and bears in your forest?.

      The furry porn market really heats up?

      Turing word: giraffe

    5. Re:simulation != game by leoboiko · · Score: 3, Interesting

      So what happens when a griefer guild shows up and slaughters all the wolves and bears in your forest? How do prevent this or can they even?

      What prevents real-life griefers from doing so? For one thing it's a massive task, not easily accomplished by twenty or thirty people (even if they're expert hunters). Another thing is that they would attract attention from local police, then armed militia, and in most places armed militia is more combat-effective than any civilian organization. Just implement that in-game. And if a faction does manage to overcome armed opposition and the sheer amplitude and execute such an amazing feat, then I want to see the ecology ruin and the local economy plunge. Just make it easy to regenerate scenario procedurally (the nethack approach -- things may die, but then you just play again with new things). If the players managed to ruin the whole world, why not have creator gods come up with a new one? Why not challenge these players to destroy the new one too, patching the game to be less and less exploitable -- wouldn't it be much more rewarding to the griefer guild to be known as destroyers of worlds than "those guys who narf n00bs in the town"? Hire some professional writers to come up with convincing explanations, the possibilities are endless.

      I know, most gamers are power trippers and your level 99 "hero" needs to be the Strongest Creature on Earth and single-handled trample entire societies and gamers would oppose to be less powerful than guards. I for one wouldn't mind less powerful characters in a more immersive world. Hell, I bet I'd feel more powerful if I could somehow affect the world, however slightly.

      If it is so darn "not difficult", why haven't you written your own game and have a few hundred thousand subscribers already?

      Er, because it takes hundreds of people and thousands of dollars to put a 3D MMO online? I did experiment with roguelikes; I hacked a bare-bones ecosystem in a weekend in Ruby, and now I'm (leisurely) playing with fractal terrain in Scheme. By now I'm convinced a simulation-centric (as opposed to stats-growing--centric) MMORPG is feasible; it just wasn't tried yet.

      --
      Prescriptive grammar:linguistics :: alchemy:chemistry. Stop being a nazi and learn some science.
    6. Re:simulation != game by Phrogman · · Score: 1

      Well to be honest, Star Wars Galaxies in its earliest incarnation had a lot of "simulation" elements in it.

      * Creatures spawned in the wilderness and wandered around alone or in groups. If you killed them off, they would be replaced by other mobs but not in the same location.
      * The economy was entirely player driven. if you wanted something, you got a crafter to make it or bought it from their vendor. There was essentially no looted items. It worked fantastically in many cases, although some items were very hard to sell and almost useless when bought. The economy was entirely market driven, and there were multiple crafting and trading classes who only produced things and engaged in trading, marketing etc.

      Sadly, in subsequent versions of the game SOE/Lucas Arts removed pretty much every decent and functional element of the game and replaced with something incredibly simplistic and mostly pointless. Thats true for the entirety of the game which is now the shadow of the shadow of its former self.

      Even then its more engaging in some ways than much more popular games, if you are the type to prefer a sandbox. Personally I *hate* having quests shoved down my throat and having to zone continuously every time I cross a map. Instances suck, period.

      The original SWG was a classic example of a "sandbox" game, but they are sadly getting increasingly rare - in fact EVE is the only one I can think of, although Rycom (if thats the right name) probably qualifies. Vanguard might qualify too not sure.

      The problem is that WOW is the antithesis of a sandbox game, and because it was so spectacularly popular, every game that comes out after it will emulate it and eschew sandboxy design I think. Certainly WAR is not a sandbox at all.

      --
      "The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
    7. Re:simulation != game by Jack9 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Another thing is that they would attract attention from local police, then armed militia, and in most places armed militia is more combat-effective than any civilian organization.

      If you want players to be forest rangers, how do they keep track of how many of each animal is left and what do they care since they have to go to bed sometime?

      Right, so they better be invincible super-intelligent NPC guards defending those bears to:
      1. Not be kited with a snare or against a sprint
      2. Kill in a single blow
      3. Never miss
      4. Know which animals to protect and adjust their pathing accordingly ... Fuck it, if(bear.isLastBear){ bear.invincible = true; }

      I don't think you have thought this through or played enough MMORPGs. Not sure which.

      If the players managed to ruin the whole world, why not have creator gods come up with a new one?

      Once it's announced or discovered that a world can be reset, there will be entire guilds dedicated to doing it as fast as possible. If you can get hundreds of people playing in Battlegrounds for fun, or 160 ppl for a single epic dragon in WoW, how long would it take for a couple guilds to exterminate every living thing within the majority of zones? (or whatever the reset trigger is) Oops reset! Your base evaporates as the casual players realize their playtime is effectively wasted at random intervals that are ever shortening.

      It's much more fun to think about how other people are doing it wrong, when you don't understand why other ways don't work. No offense.

      --

      Often wrong but never in doubt.
      I am Jack9.
      Everyone knows me.
    8. Re:simulation != game by Zaphod-AVA · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Just consider your "ecology"
      So what happens when a griefer guild shows up and slaughters all the wolves and bears in your forest? How do prevent this or can they even?

      -Then the game spawns quests to reward players to repopulate the forest. Go capture wolves and bears and release them in the depopulated forest.

      economies: much as I hate to admit it (I like the idea of a player economy as well), player based economies are actually very destructive to game enjoyment. The "Auction Hall" global market with instant results just provides massive encouragement for goldselling services and the resulting rampant inflation. The more resources and money supply is controlled by the publisher, the more the econommy winds up in control of the goldsellers.

      -Only when the game spawns wealth and creatures infinitely, in an open ended way. If there is a closed cycle economy, the system doesn't create inflation.

      However, the idea of allowing players to have a real impact on the game world is a good one, but once again darn near impossible in an MMO. Making real changes requires that new content be constantly generated to replace that which is no langer valid. Example: THe players have finally ended the zombie chicken infestation at Farmer Brown's. No longer will zombie chickens trouble the farm. Ever. So what new content do you propose for the beginning characters?

      -How about guarding chicken deliveries?

      Just ramp up those examples for "end game" content and you get a glimmer of the problem. It just takes too long to come up with new storylines/adventures. So players making real changes in games like this will be best done as solo games.

      -The future of MMO's will include dynamic world simulations. It is only a matter of time.

    9. Re:simulation != game by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      Do you really think max level players in top gear are really going to sit around in starting areas waiting for other max level players to stop them from doing genocide?

      They will, if they know that it will eventually affect them. Also, maybe the griefer guild will be more careful on the next server after they find out the impact that their actions have on their own members.

      Then again, the in-game ecology can be made large enough that genocide isn't possible. You know the maximum number of players on the server, you can estimate that rate at which they can kill stuff - so you just need to tweak the reproduction curve of the mobs accordingly. It's just a matter of doing some fairly simple math, but most people don't want to bother with anything that even looks like a differential equation.

      I'm absolutely certain the vast majority of players would much rather just have infinite mobs on a set respawn timer.

      Unfortunately, if you want to make a MMORPG that appeals to the "vast majority of players", you'll have to compete with WoW and it will probably wipe the floor with you, unless Blizzard manages to screw up royally at some point. If you want to start your own MMORPG - don't compete with WoW in the beginning. It's like trying to take the bananas away from a 600-pound gorilla in a bad mood.

      Instead, find some features that WoW does not offer, and never will. I'd happily try out and play a MMOG with perma-death for example (nothing gave me adrenaline rushes like D2 HC back then), since I usually get bored with a char after a few weeks and don't really like the system where your reward is mainly a function of how long you play, and only somewhat related to skill. If doing stupid things (or just plain bad luck) gets your character killed permanently, being the top dog on the server will mean more than "yeah, I spend 10 hours a day, 7 days a week in front of the computer".

    10. Re:simulation != game by jitterman · · Score: 1

      Just consider your "ecology" So what happens when a griefer guild shows up and slaughters all the wolves and bears in your forest?

      Bunnies. Bunnies everywhere.

      --
      For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
    11. Re:simulation != game by BarryJacobsen · · Score: 1

      I did experiment with roguelikes; I hacked a bare-bones ecosystem in a weekend in Ruby, and now I'm (leisurely) playing with fractal terrain in Scheme. By now I'm convinced a simulation-centric (as opposed to stats-growing--centric) MMORPG is feasible; it just wasn't tried yet.

      Your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Seriously :P Let me know if anything comes from your experimentation because that's exactly the type of game I've been looking to play.

    12. Re:simulation != game by anw · · Score: 1

      absolutely, spot on.

      I went for a job interview at a company that was trying to develop a 'new' mmo. They asked me what I would do differently to WoW.

      I said, based upon the basic principles of gear, levelling, latency, and multiple players, I really couldn't think of much to do differently that WoW was doing. I thought WoW was exceptionally finely developed around the 'sport' motif, and very hard to beat.

      They didn't give me the job.

      They are no longer in business.

      You need to wrap your head around the difference between what would be fun for you to play (and me, for that matter - I want the same game you do! ), and what would actually work in a multi player experience.

    13. Re:simulation != game by Endo13 · · Score: 1

      They will, if they know that it will eventually affect them.

      It won't affect them. They're already done with the newbie area. And trying to put in a system so starting area genocide would somehow affect max-level players is way more trouble than it's worth.

      Also, maybe the griefer guild will be more careful on the next server after they find out the impact that their actions have on their own members.

      Clearly you don't understand griefers. They don't care what future impact their actions will have. If the game quits being fun, they'll just move on to another game after they've destroyed the last one.

      Then again, the in-game ecology can be made large enough that genocide isn't possible. You know the maximum number of players on the server, you can estimate that rate at which they can kill stuff - so you just need to tweak the reproduction curve of the mobs accordingly. It's just a matter of doing some fairly simple math, but most people don't want to bother with anything that even looks like a differential equation.

      How the irony of your statement here escapes you is astounding. For all practical purposes, what you describe here is exactly what every MMO uses. They just simplify it with a fixed respawn timer and limit so the mobs never run out and the server doesn't have to waste resources trying to calculate exactly how many mobs need to reproduce in order to keep up with current kill rates. Unless of course you're suggesting a fixed reproduction rate that would counter the maximum amount of slaughter that could theoretically be done to that species, which would result in the whole server being over-run by that species in no time. You really do need to take more time to think things through before you hit Submit.

      Unfortunately, if you want to make a MMORPG that appeals to the "vast majority of players", you'll have to compete with WoW and it will probably wipe the floor with you, unless Blizzard manages to screw up royally at some point. If you want to start your own MMORPG - don't compete with WoW in the beginning. It's like trying to take the bananas away from a 600-pound gorilla in a bad mood.

      Yeah, see here's what you're missing. "Vast majority of players" in this case doesn't refer to players who want a certain type of MMO gameplay. Rather, it refers to players who want to be able to play an MMO without having to worry about some jackass fucking over the game so it's unplayable. It refers to the players of WoW, Guild Wars, CoX, AoC, Vanguard, EQ, EQII, LotRO, WAR... do I really need to make the whole list for you? So sure, knock yourself out. Go find the other 3 guys who want the same thing you do and go build your own private game. Since there'll just be the 4 of you, you won't have to worry about an asshat ruining it.

      Instead, find some features that WoW does not offer, and never will.

      You mean like big quests involving dozens of people without requiring you to form any kind of group? Or balanced PvP? Or large-scale RvR?

      I'd happily try out and play a MMOG with perma-death for example (nothing gave me adrenaline rushes like D2 HC back then), since I usually get bored with a char after a few weeks and don't really like the system where your reward is mainly a function of how long you play, and only somewhat related to skill. If doing stupid things (or just plain bad luck) gets your character killed permanently, being the top dog on the server will mean more than "yeah, I spend 10 hours a day, 7 days a week in front of the computer".

      Whoops, I think you just lost 2 of the other 3 people who were interested in your game.

      Ok, seriously, all sarcasm aside. Yes, there's room for niche games. But there's only so much room. And if every big feature of your game goes against mainstream popular demand, guess what - your game will appeal to very very very few players. No, you don't have to make a WoW-killer that appeals to all the care-bears to have a successful game. You do have to have features that appeal to enough players to make it worthwhile. Less than 100K players is not usually considered successful for an MMO.

      --
      There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
    14. Re:simulation != game by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      It won't affect them.

      In current games it won't. We're talking about games where it eventually will.

      And trying to put in a system so starting area genocide would somehow affect max-level players is way more trouble than it's worth.

      Yes, but mostly because systems theory isn't on the usual lists of game designer skills. Let someone without a clue about systems theory design such a game, and it'll be either a complete mess or simple never finished.

      Clearly you don't understand griefers. They don't care what future impact their actions will have. If the game quits being fun, they'll just move on to another game after they've destroyed the last one.

      They'll be looking for the games with game mechanics (or lack thereof) that are conducive to griefing. If game mechanics make griefing too boring or tedious ... yes, they'll move to another game. And good riddance.

      For all practical purposes, what you describe here is exactly what every MMO uses.

      No it's not. Most MMOs completely lack feedback loops. That makes them completely different beasts from any game that would.

      Unless of course you're suggesting a fixed reproduction rate that would counter the maximum amount of slaughter that could theoretically be done to that species, which would result in the whole server being over-run by that species in no time. You really do need to take more time to think things through before you hit Submit.

      I'm not suggesting any of that, but the scope of a slashdot posting is too limited to provide even a brief introduction into systems theory and feedback control. But here's a very simple example (I hope you're not afraid of differential equations): The reproduction rate of a certain mob specied could be a function of the current population of this mob, with a sharp rise as the population goes towards zero (many species react this way), an equilibrium point where the reproduction rate is zero, and a negative reproduction rate above this equilibrium point to take the effects of overpopulation into account. Now you only need to make sure that the reproduction rate, at some point before the population reaches zero, exceeds the worst-case maximum kill rate the players can achieve.

      You mean like big quests involving dozens of people without requiring you to form any kind of group?

      That would be fairly trivial to add to WoW. In fact, there already were quests like that, remember the prelude to Ahn'Qiraj ? Other games also have this type of quest, for example the zone-specific events in CoX.

      Or balanced PvP?

      Other games than WoW offer much better balanced PvP. Balanced PvP was never a really big design concern for WoW.

      Or large-scale RvR?

      DAOC has that, but it's getting kinda old. Eve also has some fairly large battles.

      Whoops, I think you just lost 2 of the other 3 people who were interested in your game.

      Yeah, because no one was playing D2 HC, right ? I mean, your precious collection of bits could die permanently, even to things like bad luck, bugs, lag or even the occasional professional ganker. Just like no one's playing Nethack, etc.

      And if every big feature of your game goes against mainstream popular demand, guess what - your game will appeal to very very very few players.

      I think that if the game gets a few basic things right (for example not being buggy as heck at release, or not having a kludge as an UI), players will notice it.

    15. Re:simulation != game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's nice. Come back when you've scaled up the tech and the design.

      You made a model rocket and now think traveling to the moon is easy.

    16. Re:simulation != game by Endo13 · · Score: 1

      In current games it won't. We're talking about games where it eventually will.

      No, we're not. You're talking about your idealistic MMO where that would happen. But no one will make that game because no one would play it. No one wants to play a game where they have to keep playing in the starting area indefinitely. Except you perhaps.

      Yes, but mostly because systems theory isn't on the usual lists of game designer skills. Let someone without a clue about systems theory design such a game, and it'll be either a complete mess or simple never finished.

      It's not on the list because it's a waste of time.

      They'll be looking for the games with game mechanics (or lack thereof) that are conducive to griefing. If game mechanics make griefing too boring or tedious ... yes, they'll move to another game. And good riddance.

      Any multiplayer game that allows a griefer to have an impact on the play experience of other players is a prime candidate for griefers. If they can make the game worse for other players, they will be there and they will make it worse.

      No it's not. Most MMOs completely lack feedback loops. That makes them completely different beasts from any game that would.

      Newsflash: no one (besides you) cares what the number-crunching behind the curtain looks like. People care about results. There's two types of ecologies you can put in an MMO: 1. one that can be affected by players, which will be exploited and ruined. 2. one that cannot be affected by players. There is no in-between. If it can be affected by players, it can be exploited and trashed. Any other system is functionally identical to every other such system. It's a complete waste of programming time and server resources to try to put in a 'player affected' ecology that you then have to put in feedback loops for so players can't trash it. In the end, you achieve nothing that a fixed respawn timer and rate could not have done just as well with far less wasted time and resources. That's why it will never happen, at least not in a successful MMO.

      You mean like big quests involving dozens of people without requiring you to form any kind of group?

      That would be fairly trivial to add to WoW. In fact, there already were quests like that, remember the prelude to Ahn'Qiraj ? Other games also have this type of quest, for example the zone-specific events in CoX.

      Or balanced PvP?

      Other games than WoW offer much better balanced PvP. Balanced PvP was never a really big design concern for WoW.

      Or large-scale RvR?

      DAOC has that, but it's getting kinda old. Eve also has some fairly large battles.

      This story is about Warhammer. You said something about making a game with features WoW doesn't have. Those are features WoW does not have.

      Yeah, because no one was playing D2 HC, right ? I mean, your precious collection of bits could die permanently, even to things like bad luck, bugs, lag or even the occasional professional ganker. Just like no one's playing Nethack, etc.

      And those games are making their developers bucketloads of money, I'm sure.

      I think that if the game gets a few basic things right (for example not being buggy as heck at release, or not having a kludge as an UI), players will notice it.

      That's a completely meaningless statement. Every game is noticed by players. A lot of them are not noticed by many players, and many are noticed for the wrong reasons. But you will not get enough players to make your game profitable noticing your game unless it offers features they are interested in. Once again, if every major feature in your game is something that appeals to a specific niche crowd, your game will appeal to an extremely small amount of people. Each niche feature is going to exclude players that might otherwise have played your game. That's why, if y

      --
      There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
  18. Compelling PvP by nate+nice · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Compelling PvP cannot exist without these 3 things:

    Conflict, consequence and subjectivity.

    Players must have a struggle and fight for something in the game. This creates a conflict that players will get involved in and fight over.

    Players must feel repercussions for their decisions. Jumping and ganking the wrong people will result in total destruction of everything you and your friends have built by the community you have violated.

    Finally, the sides must not be clearly defined at the beginning of the game. Your allies shouldn't be a gameplay decision based on what side of a coin you flip. Alliances need to be built out of a common desire to survive. You cannot possibly have a real hatred for an enemy just because your predisposed to them. But more importantly, you are forced to ally with those you may not want to because you are on the same side.

    These static gameplay issues are the same reason WAR will be as interesting as WoW in terms of PvP and that is to say it won't be. Well, it will be fun objective based, tactical PvP.

    But the game lacks *real* conflict, any type of consequence and subjectivity.

    --
    "If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer ..."
    1. Re:Compelling PvP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is what made UO PvP so compelling to me. It wasn't that the game's mechanics led to great PvP gameplay -- it didn't. The gameplay mechanics were horribly broken.

      However, the game had the three properties you mentioned. (Note that I played for the first few years, but stopped right after the first expansion).

      Conflict: Land and resources were scarce. Each person was a giant bag of goodies you just had to pop. You received bounties for killing notorious PKers. This gave lots of reasons to kill others -- and of course, that bred lots of reasons to defend yourself and actively go after the PKers.

      Consequence: If you died, your body was fully lootable. If you killed good people, you'd become more evil and ultimately lose access to towns. If you killed bad people, you'd become more good and gain certain benefits (I can't remember offhand what they were). People were clearly marked as red or blue depending on if they were good or evil. Combine that with the fact that anybody could kill anybody and that you could put people or entire guilds on Kill-On-Sight lists (which the UI marked for you), and you had lots of consequence for your actions.

      Subjectivity: There were no mechanical alliances pre-defined. Everyone started off neutral. Other than a general good-evil spectrum that only defined how NPC guards treated you, you were free to do whatever you want. You had your PKers (those who hunted anybody). You had your PKKers (those who hunted PKers). You could communicate with everybody, so you could potentially set up spies or beg for your life or barter with the other side or whatever.

      All in all, the world felt like it was a wild frontier, and that led to some of the most engaging PvP I've ever had. It shows to me that the meta-gaming of PvP (social aspects, forging alliances, dealing with traitors, etc.) is what drives the fun much more than the mechanics of it.

    2. Re:Compelling PvP by FrzrBrn · · Score: 1

      ...Finally, the sides must not be clearly defined at the beginning of the game. Your allies shouldn't be a gameplay decision based on what side of a coin you flip. Alliances need to be built out of a common desire to survive. You cannot possibly have a real hatred for an enemy just because your predisposed to them. But more importantly, you are forced to ally with those you may not want to because you are on the same side.

      Asheron's Call II had that sort of a system. Every guild belonged to one of three factions so when you joined a guild, you became part of that faction. There was no artificial separation along racial boundaries.

      --
      I read it on the Internet, it must be true!
    3. Re:Compelling PvP by nate+nice · · Score: 1

      I agree 100% about UO. I played that as well as Shadowbane, among others, back in the day. Both games had issues but you got past it because of the true social aspect of the games.

      But you hit the nail on the head when you brought up that the meta-game aspects of an MMO are what truly bring the PvP to the next level. And it's basically free once the game rules are set into place.

      I hope some of the games on the horizon (if they aren't vaporware) are ale to bring back this style of gameplay. I'm not even sure if it will come back since these games existed in a time when MMO's were mainly fringe games. And with the lush oasis WoW and its brethren bring to the gamer who doesn't want the apparent stress of PvP, there isn't a compelling reason for a lot of people to join in.

      Unless you want a competitive online game...

      --
      "If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer ..."
    4. Re:Compelling PvP by vertinox · · Score: 1

      Players must feel repercussions for their decisions. Jumping and ganking the wrong people will result in total destruction of everything you and your friends have built by the community you have violated.

      Let me explain something up front.

      WAR has no inter-faction PvP.

      Secondly, in accordance to this "ganking" in a sense is actually part of the Games Workshop lore of the Warhammer Fantasy Battle universe.

      The Chaos faction is basically pure evil. Killing innocent and weak people is what they do.

      At the same time, Empire ain't what you would the nice guys. They hold inquisitions, torture, and purge religions they don't think are compatible with their ideal. Witchunters have been known to burn down entire villages of innocents because there was on Chaos guy hiding their midst.

      Well, ok the Empire isn't all that bad and neither is Chaos because they are actually very fleshed out as more than black and white (good and evil) in the lore.

      But the idea behind the backstory which was built up by GW with their tabletop game and novels was that this is a no holds bar situation. Either you are with the team or your next in line to be slaughtered.

      Anyways... There is change to the world, a faction can capture each others leader which results in certain changes to the world which is basically the idea behind the realm war. Its not as dynamic as one would like but its a lot more dynamic than most current other games.

      If you capture a keep or vital point on the map you get NPCs guarding it and even shop keepers. If you take that point you can deny the other side the resources of the RvR gear sold there as well as a safe haven in hostile territory.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    5. Re:Compelling PvP by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      Nope, those are the wrong three things. The three things it needs are: the ability to get a fight easily, the ability to fight alongside your friends, and combat where tactics and strategy are factors (in other words, player skill and coordination matters). WAR has all three of these things. Quite truthfully I don't care if it has any of the things you mentioned- in fact at least 2 of them are actually turnoffs (consequence and subjectivity).

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    6. Re:Compelling PvP by nate+nice · · Score: 1

      Counterstrike has been out for years. Play it.

      --
      "If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer ..."
    7. Re:Compelling PvP by immcintosh · · Score: 1

      I've got to disagree. That's some interesting theorizing, but the things you are saying are almost orthogonal to the experience of playing WAR. They just don't register, as it were. Which is to say, you're talking about a different KIND of PvP than what's for offer with WAR. You're talking about the UO/Shadowbane style of PvP. Totally unstructured, essentially anarchy except for the order the players force onto it. That's fun in its own way, but WAR just offers a different, much more structured approach. And honestly, in the end, I think you're fundamentally wrong. The RvR in WAR, so far as I've experienced, is in fact very compelling. Just in a very different way from what you're expecting.

    8. Re:Compelling PvP by nate+nice · · Score: 1

      I've played the RvR in WAR and I like it for what it is. My PvP clan will be having a fun time creating tactics, etc for this game of arena combat. It isn't compelling though. Compelling means to force something or necessitate and WAR doesn't do that. It creates an avenue for advancement and is a nice game, but it isn't compelling. And because it isn't compelling it loses some edge. You don't have to be there to defend anything; a resource, a property or your friends. And this is what is so exciting about those types of games and what is missing from todays pvp games. If you aren't ready to fight you could lose it all!

      So although I agree with you it is a fun game, it clearly isn't compelling because it is akin to an e-sport instead of nation survival game. Compelling doesn't mean it is good or bad. It just means if the game forces you into a mode of survival from pvp encounters. WAR can be played completely safely. And to some people, that isn't as thrilling or exciting.

      --
      "If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer ..."
    9. Re:Compelling PvP by immcintosh · · Score: 1

      Now, correct me if I'm wrong because I haven't experienced this part of the game, but WAR allows guilds to capture and hold keeps, from which they will receive benefits. Obviously, this requires that they actually defend those keeps. Apparently, this mechanic still needs some work on the details, but as I understand, it's in there.

      This doesn't really present a "lose everything" situation, but the simple fact is that the people who have any interest in risking losing everything in a game where they just want to have fun constitute a vanishingly small minority. Nothing wrong with that, it's just how it is. I guess I'm just saying is that most of us don't need that aspect to find PvP compelling. I've found that WAR provides more than enough incentive to make me feel compelled to participate.

    10. Re:Compelling PvP by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      DOn't like FPSes. I prefer fantasy themes, and games that aren't total twitch. WAR looks like it will suit me nicely, although I'm not happy with the recent xp nerf and book of binding cooldown addition.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  19. Would that translate well? by decipher_saint · · Score: 4, Funny

    You enter Games Workshop

    You encounter Level 1 Nerd

    Punch Nerd (5 damage)

    Loot Nerd

    Received unpainted minis, bag of dice (commom), potion of asthma healing (inhaler).

    Sorry... what were we talking about again?

    --
    crazy dynamite monkey
    1. Re:Would that translate well? by charlesbakerharris · · Score: 1

      Give me my inhaler back, dickhead.

  20. Who said WAR wants to be WoW? by Liquidrage · · Score: 1

    I get what you're saying. I can point you to a million page thread on the main WAR forum where I bought up WAR is a niche game.

    However, what you're missing is you think Mythic wants to be WoW. Sure, they'd love the WoW numbers, but they, and the high-ups at Mythic have said this very thing, they don't need WoW numbers to make money or to have a great game.

    WAR is not your typical RvR game anyways. It's not the cutthroat gank fest that other games are. It is a little more casual friendly then you might think. But one thing you have to respect is that the developers are making the game they want without varying the design for a cash grab.

    And yet at the end of the day the numbers playing WAR will be very large. It won't be WoW, but it doesn't have to be to make them money and to give the people that do play it what they want.

  21. Impressions from the closed and open betas by Fross · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was in the WAR closed beta for a couple of months, and now in the open beta. Much about the game has already been covered so I'll skip it, but I have a few things to say.

    First of all, I do love the game.

    WoW did well with a (relatively) unknown lore and translated it into something sophisticated that touched the whole game. WAR does the same with its great lore set. Architecture, monsters, speech text, the ways the classes play, it all fits very well.

    The graphics in the closed beta were bad, texture wise at least. In the open beta, they're significantly better. Hardly any graphic settings are changeable in game currently, so I figure they had a crappy default on the closed beta, a slightly better one now, and when you can tweak it to use your full system, it will be able to rival AoC.

    The main point about WAR is, it is two games. It is a PvE game - you can do quests, public quests, instances, raids and never even go RvR enabled, if you so choose. It also has a full RvR game - scenarios, RvR enabled areas, RvR quests (from doing PvE activities within RvR areas, so actually killing players as an objective), a beautifully designed tiered RvR hierarchy, the lot. You can sign up for a scenario at Rank 1 and go right into PvP if you so choose, never looking back. Of course, the strength is when you do a little of both and have a lot of fun.

    So far my impression is the RvR stuff is stronger, but the PvE is pretty damn good too.

    Crafting, I've had a play with. I'll need more of a look. It feels a bit limited compared to WoW's "become the best blacksmith and make a fortune" ideal, but both innovative and with a fair element of chance that things won't come out as planned.

    The interface was great in the closed beta, but not much handholding. They've added that in now and it's easy to get around and the early quests seem as graceful a learning curve as WoWs, but perhaps even more fun - more dark humour and some cool ones (shooting ballistas at NPCs etc)

    It's worth mentioning again the classes and the beautiful way some of them work. Bright Wizards and Disciples of Khaine are my favourites. The first is a caster who the more spells they unleash, the more damage and crit they get, but the more chance to blow themselves up (and their teammates) too. The Disciple of Khaine is a healer, but their mana is generated through doing melee damage combos. No more standing at the back spamming Renew. It encourages, nay, requires, strategy rather than tactics.

    Speaking of strategy, tanks intercepting attacks make formation hunting *very* powerful. The healer is hiding behind the tank? You can't hit him, target him, lob a fireball, chances are the tank intercepts it. And you can't just run through him. Finally! :)

    In my second ever scenario, while a large skirmish was going on, a few of us outflanked the enemy and *ripped them apart*. The way it should be.

    Overall the beta launch has been smooth. Even in Europe, where I play. I was in the WoW open beta as well, and it was nowhere near as smooth as this. People do forget that, a couple of years on. It's been playable almost all the time, which hey, is pretty good for a beta.

    Speaking of beta, one thing I was impressed with was during closed beta, the level of interaction required from players. Lots of surveys on performing actions (how was that last quest, last scenario, etc) and looks like the developers have been very good at picking things up.

    Overall, I think it's great. May not be for everyone, but I'm having a lot of fun.

    1. Re:Impressions from the closed and open betas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Overall the beta launch has been smooth. Even in Europe, where I play."

      Definite proof, that you're just making stuff up. The Europe launch of the open beta was a disaster. That was the exact word used by Mythic and GOA even - a disaster.

    2. Re:Impressions from the closed and open betas by myowntrueself · · Score: 1

      I was in the WAR closed beta for a couple of months, and now in the open beta.

      I heard that they had huge problems getting people to play the non-chaos faction. Everyone wanted to be chaos.

      Did they manage to get around this and actually have something like a balanced population across factions?

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    3. Re:Impressions from the closed and open betas by Clandestine_Blaze · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Great summary!

      Some things I enjoyed:

      1.) There are no utility classes. Healers are still there to heal, but actually have to get involved with attacking skills in order to build up higher and better healing spells.

      This sort of keeps healers and other casters from hiding behind tanks the whole time. They can if they still want to, but if they want more powerful heals, they'll have to actually attack.

      My warrior priest, for instance, had to be in the front-lines, dishing out damage while also being able to heal. I was still able to heal without attacking, but my heals became more and more powerful as I attacked more.

      2.) The number of ways that you can gain experience. You're not limited to just PvE grinding. You can gain experience (and influence) through Public Quests, renown points through Scenarios, and just do standard questing. It never feels like a grind, and you always feel rewarded for your actions and if you get bored of doing it one way, you can try another.

      The beauty is that you won't even have to spend hours looking for a group to run an instance. I noticed this in several MMOs. With WAR, you can walk right into a public quest and join in without being in a party.

      3.) Since the object of the game is destroying the other faction's city (pillage and burn!), there is a far greater incentive to see other players get better gear as well.

      4.) Tome of Knowledge. Seriously, it's a huge asset. Sometimes doing even the stupidest things may unlock something from your journal. Dying multiple times in Scenarios, for instance, gets you titles such as "The Anguished", "Snuffed", etc.

      It's nice how the lore is built right into the tome, and how you can keep track of your kills, your achievements, and your quests all in one book.

      5.) No redundant classes. Every class is unique and each faction has different classes. It really makes experiencing each faction worthwhile.

      There are still some minor animation bugs, such as watching a Shadow Warrior release an arrow makes me want to gouge my eyes out. But the attention to detail is magnificent. Even your "starter sword" looks very unique and textured if you zoom into it.

    4. Re:Impressions from the closed and open betas by Fross · · Score: 1

      Actually, since the open beta began there was more of a problem of everyone playing Order, Destruction seemed to have some population issues. I'm sure it will go back and forth.

      Though I have no solid facts on it, I believe underpopulated factions get some sort of bonus in order to try to even things up a little. Not sure what format that takes, however.

    5. Re:Impressions from the closed and open betas by Fross · · Score: 1

      This sort of keeps healers and other casters from hiding behind tanks the whole time. They can if they still want to, but if they want more powerful heals, they'll have to actually attack.

      My warrior priest, for instance, had to be in the front-lines, dishing out damage while also being able to heal. I was still able to heal without attacking, but my heals became more and more powerful as I attacked more.

      I like how each healing class has different dependencies. The warrior priest and disciple of khaine need to go hand to hand in order to cast healing spells (effectively, converting action points into mana). The goblin shaman, by contrast, converts action points directly into healing, but their damage spells affect the power of their healing spells and vice versa. Again, encouraging this "orthogonality". The dwarf rune priest seems to be the only healing class who can sit at the back and cast spells, but I didn't get far enough into playing one yet to realise exactly what the mechanism is.

      4.) Tome of Knowledge. Seriously, it's a huge asset. Sometimes doing even the stupidest things may unlock something from your journal. Dying multiple times in Scenarios, for instance, gets you titles such as "The Anguished", "Snuffed", etc.

      It's nice how the lore is built right into the tome, and how you can keep track of your kills, your achievements, and your quests all in one book.

      Even better, from my view, is that when you're in hardcore questing or scenario mode and just want to ignore the lore and get stuff done, you can. The information will be there in the Tome of Knowledge and easily navigatable during a quieter time.

    6. Re:Impressions from the closed and open betas by don+depresor · · Score: 1

      I played the closed beta since Xmas and most of the time population was balanced in our server.

    7. Re:Impressions from the closed and open betas by DerWulf · · Score: 1

      thanks for sharing your insights. I heard that the melee combat moves and combat animations in general are not very distinct. Whereas in WoW you (can) know exactly what abilities are used by opponents and allies through animation and sound I heard that in WAR this is not possible. Could you share your thoughts on that, please?

      --

      ___
      No power in the 'verse can stop me
    8. Re:Impressions from the closed and open betas by Fross · · Score: 1

      The activation servers have had the problems and non-availability. That's all been sorted out for a couple of days, however.

      As a closed-beta user, I didn't really see any of that, I have to admit, as I was already activated. But if you think that means I'm making all this up, you need to do something with all that pent-up anger before you break your keyboard. Try playing WAR, only a week or so til release ;)

    9. Re:Impressions from the closed and open betas by Fross · · Score: 1

      I would say I certainly saw how some moves are distinct, eg the disciple of khaine's melee moves, they have different animations. Also the bright wizard's spells have different movements. I'm not sure if this translates across the entire gamut of abilities.

      However, PvP is far less "twitchy" than in WoW, you won't get Pom-Pyrod and dead in 2 seconds, so I'm not sure it will be quite as important as it is in WoW

    10. Re:Impressions from the closed and open betas by idburns · · Score: 0

      The graphics in the closed beta were bad, texture wise at least. In the open beta, they're significantly better. Hardly any graphic settings are changeable in game currently, so I figure they had a crappy default on the closed beta, a slightly better one now, and when you can tweak it to use your full system, it will be able to rival AoC.

      Apparently you didn't pay much attention to the beta forums or anything else that was being released to us closed testers. I've been in the closed beta for 4+ months and the graphics got progressively better with each content push as the devs worked on the lighting engines. To claim about crappy graphics in a closed beta is foolish, especially since the developers were always vocal in the work that was being done on the game during testing. As for the lack of visual options, by locking the settings down it makes trouble-shooting and any possible feedback easier to deal with. The point of closed beta isn't to test the graphics, it's to test play mechanics and ensure that the content and classes are working properly.

  22. WoW PvP is Bad by Solitude · · Score: 1

    WoW PvP is a sad, pathetic, unbalanced POS. What's worse is the devs know it and have acknowledged it. They are trying to fix it in the upcoming expansion. Problem is, they let it go on all these months and it's soured a lot of people, including me, to arenas, which is WoW's PvP focus at this point. It reminds me a lot of CMs (combat medics) in SWG and their ridiculous DoTs, turning people off to PvP in that game too.

    As a fire mage, my option if I want to do arenas is respec ice. Bah! If I wanted a pet, I'd have rolled a warlock! I do respec PoM/Pyro on weekends for battlegrounds, which is a total blast, but all the best gear comes from arenas, so it's crap knowing I'll always have second-best gear.

    Balance. It's all about balance. That's the one thing I'll be looking for in WAR. If they can get that right, I'll give it a try. As long as there's no CMs, SHS rogues, MS warriors, or resto droods running around ruining the fun with their FoTM class.

    1. Re:WoW PvP is Bad by GaryPatterson · · Score: 1

      Mages? Ha! You've got it easy!

      Try being a Paladin. Only Holy Paladins are even close to being viable in Arena, and you'll never see any in the top twenty when the cash prizes are on offer.

      The upcoming expansion is going to change this, apparently, but Paladins have been waiting a *long* time for any sign of change.

  23. One thing missing by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    a movement penalty for carrying all that gear and gold on your person as you quest online ...

    Seriously, the amount of stuff I can carry is ridiculous!

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:One thing missing by notamisfit · · Score: 1
      --
      Jesus is coming -- look busy!
  24. RSS by smoker2 · · Score: 1

    Please don't format the headline - I got A WoW Players Guide to Wa ... in my RSS reader

  25. How casual-friendly is warhammer? by MarcoAtWork · · Score: 1

    I have played wow off and on since about release, and it always ends up the same way: fun at the beginning, but in the end you end up having to spend too much time to do anything to have any sort of sense of progression/enjoyment. Nowadays I am spending my gaming time on TF2, since I can just join in, but I kind of miss the mmporg setting, just not its time constraints.

    I would like to know if it's possible to, say, jump in for 1/2 an hour and get something done in PVE or PVP/RvR, or if it's going to be like another WOW where once you hit max level you have to start thinking in terms of 'if I can't stay logged for at least 2 hours it will be pointless' and then you just end up hanging out in shatt treating wow like a chat room basically.

    The whole concept of 'open groups/quests' seems interesting, but I am wondering if it will just degenerate into people kicking people they don't know or that they perceive are not 'geared enough' etc.

    --
    -- the cake is a lie
    1. Re:How casual-friendly is warhammer? by Pebby · · Score: 1

      No one can be 'kicked' from an open quest. If you're in the area, you're working with the team on the quest, and everyone shares the rewards. At best/worst (depending on your opinion), the player who contributes the most gets a higher chance to get a 'magic goodie bag' with a selection of items in it.

    2. Re:How casual-friendly is warhammer? by WallyDrinkBeer · · Score: 1

      All of the PvE quests are easily soloable. The Public Quests are just available for anyone in the area and you don't have to be part of a group.

      At end game, there will be some PvE style dungeons as well as PvP objectives.

      With PvP, all of the objectives are out in the open, so you can just rock up to an existing fight and start hitting stuff - without asking for an invite.

      On beta there have been some really big fights trying to capture Keeps that go on for hours - people on both sides coming and going.

  26. SWG by servognome · · Score: 1

    Star Wars Galaxies at launch had this sort of scope. I made it very fun for some folks, but most want spoon-fed content rather than a real sandbox.

    --
    D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
  27. PvP, RvR, PvE... by TechwoIf · · Score: 1

    PvP stands for Player vs. Player, PvE stands for Player vs. Environment. What does RvR stand for?

    1. Re:PvP, RvR, PvE... by WallyDrinkBeer · · Score: 2, Informative

      RvR (Realm vs Realm) is just PvP.

      Each "side" (Order v Chaos) is called a realm. The idea is that one half of the server is fighting the other, not just player v player.

      To accomplish this they have big server wide objectives, like capturing a Keep or destroying a city.

      Having said that, it's more of a marketing line, it's really just PvP.

    2. Re:PvP, RvR, PvE... by ZzzzSleep · · Score: 3, Informative

      Realm vs Realm. I think it's meant to be PvP on a much larger scale.

    3. Re:PvP, RvR, PvE... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not so much. Yes, it's larger scale, but it also refers to the idea that you're working with a team of people on your side to kill the team of people on their side. It's about the community as a whole, and it's what I find missing in your standard PvP setups.

  28. WarHammer will fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IF only because EA is the Life Sucking Black hole of MMO's..

  29. Anarchy online by IdeaMan · · Score: 1

    they feel free to perform actions which, if done in the real world, would merit anywhere from a punch in the nose to lengthy jailtime.

    That's really the problem isn't it. Toons cannot be punished by other players.
    Without death or jail, there is no impetus to create any form of government. Without a method for one player to punish another, there can't be any heroes, only villains.

    I once proposed adding a jail and everybody said "we play this because we want to get away from real life." I guess if we somehow got resurrection in real life our world would turn into a huge grief-fest?

    --
    They ARE out to get you simply because They are in it for themselves and they don't care about you.
  30. Some pics of world pvp by issaco · · Score: 1

    http://silentmmo.blogspot.com/ taken at a world pvp objective (something wow can't manage to get players to care about).

  31. Please stop calling it an open beta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It isn't open by any past definition of that word. To participate, you either have to pre-order the game which nets you an invite code or you have to be a preexisting closed beta tester.

    If you're just a random member of the public and would like to take a sneak peek at how this new game is going to play out, the beta remains quite closed. This is a closed beta, period. "Open" means that anyone, regardless of whether they have already fronted $50 for the game, would be able to play.

    WoW had an open beta. It convinced me to place a pre-order for the game, something I hadn't done for any game since I was a teenager eagerly awaiting the home release of Mortal Kombat. LotRO also had an open beta, which wasn't as impressive as WoW's but they also had a neat pricing offer for a permanent membership and that at least was worth debating with myself over. EA/Mythic has already wasted their best opportunity to market this game. It was over before it started.

    With so much expectation riding on this game, it seems really strange that they would miss the opportunity to get the word out that the game really delivers. Frankly it's enough to make me think that they have something to hide, and they can bet that I won't be going anywhere near this game until the proper reviews are out. Is this how they were hoping to capture WoW's audience, or is it an indication that they've abandoned hope of that possibility?

    1. Re:Please stop calling it an open beta by Clandestine_Blaze · · Score: 1

      If you're just a random member of the public and would like to take a sneak peek at how this new game is going to play out, the beta remains quite closed. This is a closed beta, period. "Open" means that anyone, regardless of whether they have already fronted $50 for the game, would be able to play.

      Well, it's sort of open. I pre-ordered the game and I haven't paid a dime towards it yet until it ships out. If, at any point during open beta I decide that I hate the game, I can cancel my pre-order and not pay anything.

      But you don't have to pay $50 to pre-order. Many retailers will not charge you if you pre-order online. I know EBGames doesn't. In-store, you probably have to pay a $5-$10 reservation fee.

      Frankly it's enough to make me think that they have something to hide, and they can bet that I won't be going anywhere near this game until the proper reviews are out.

      Many people have been involved with the closed and open betas of this game. If there was something to hide, it would already be out. Massively, as well as many other online magazines, blogs, and journals, have already covered this game almost daily and extensively - with ALL of the good and bad features reviewed.

      There have also been several people on the Warhammer public forums that have expressed both good and bad opinions. Believe me, they're not trying to bait-and-switch the public.

      Is this how they were hoping to capture WoW's audience, or is it an indication that they've abandoned hope of that possibility?

      They were never hoping to capture WoW's audience. This game is very different from WoW, both in a good way and in a bad way. Mythic has repeatedly stated that they are not attempting to compete with WoW. They already know that people who are familiar with the tabletop version will be interested, and there will also be some people who have played WoW and want to try something different.

      I do agree that their version of an open beta, which means that anyone with a pre-order can play, is different than the traditional open beta other game companies have put out. But you're still not paying a CENT (Euro / AUD or whatever your local currency is) until the game ships out or you go to the store to pick up a copy.

    2. Re:Please stop calling it an open beta by malf-uk · · Score: 1

      "To participate, you either have to pre-order the game which nets you an invite code or you have to be a preexisting closed beta tester."

      Tell that to the tens of thousands of people that got them without pre-ordering or being in the closed beta from community sites such as Freddyshouse and Multiplay to name but two.

      --
      R Tape loading error, 0:1
    3. Re:Please stop calling it an open beta by Dobeln · · Score: 1

      Yea, they released probably on the order of 100 000 - 200 000 free keys to the beta in the US and Europe. Got mine from a single batch of 50 000(!) completely free keys!

  32. Re:Attention developers; OT by DarkProphet · · Score: 1

    I am not sure if you are trying to be funny or not, but there is some truth to this. Installing the windows codecs under Xine allowed me to watch all movies I have under Linux, when not all of them played (at all) under windows. I have always found that to be rather interesting.

    --
    What could possibly hurt the security of the American people more than giving our own government the ability to hide its
  33. Like Regnum Online by Jack+Action · · Score: 1

    Regnum Online: Realm vs. Realm fantasy 3D MMORPG produced by NGD Studios, an Argentinian game company. Has just opened up their first English language server, is completely distributed over the web, AND has a native Linux client (that runs flawlessly on Slack 12.1 with ATI drivers).

  34. My observations... by huddles · · Score: 2, Informative

    I was in the closed beta briefly, and have been playing the open beta since it started. So far, my observations are:

    • The game feels very linear. Actually, it doesn't feel linear, it *is* linear. There is a well-defined path from where you start to where you need to go next. Sure, you can travel to the other starting zones, but that's just one more direct path to the last tier.
    • For a given career, all the gear looks basically the same. This is especially true for the two careers I've played the most--Zealot and Witch Elf. Upgrades look exactly like your old armor.
    • Regarding variety, some careers are very limited in what kind of gear they use. For instance, Witch Elves dual wield daggers, period. Zealots uses daggers, period. Etc.
    • There's nothing that really sets one [DPS|tank|healer] career apart from the others. In Wow, shamans have totems, priests have shackles, mages have polymorph, etc. Nothing like that, really, in WAR.
    • Somewhat related to the above point, Rune Priest (dwarf healing career) and Zealot (Chaos healing career) are functionally equivalent--just the names of spells are different. There are other pairings, too, for instance in the tank careers.
    • Cultivation is pretty cool, or at least pretty novel. However, it should have been a crafting profession instead of a gathering profession.
    • Crafting is pretty much non-existent. You have Apothecary and Talisman-making, and that's it. And your characters can't take two gathering professions--you're limited to one crafting and one gathering.
    • The game seems to be very much *not* dependent on gear, which I suppose is a good thing. But it also takes away the joy of coming across a good find.

    Overall I like the game, but it's really only for PvP. If you're not into the PvP in other games, there's really nothing for you in WAR. Being so heavily PvP-based, though, Mythic has made sure all of the classes have a decent survivability.

    The pace of the game is very fast--on my healer, just a few seconds of not casting is enough to fully replenish my action points (WAR's version of mana/rage/energy). The fast pace makes the RvR scenarios very chaotic at times. I suppose you could say that WAR is to MMOs what Diablo was to RPGs.

    There are a few other things about the game I don't care for, but I think these they will eventually end up tweaking. For instance, the mail system is a pain to use, and there's no auto-loot feature.

  35. WoW does NOT work fine under Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually, while WoW works under Wine, it doesn't really work "fine". Aside from the fact that it looks much better on Windows, there are places in the game where WoW freezes for a long time, and I've even had it go into an inconsistent state in which I couldn't play the game anymore, since it kept loading my character forever. I solved this by moving the account to a Windows installation of WoW. This happens especially on slopes of high mountains, if you stop and look around --- for me it happened on the Shimmerweed quest as a dwarf, but any high mountain near Iceflow lake on that map will probably do. It froze multiple times for extended periods, and one time for good, and this was just the second map in a dwarf's game (people usually between levels 5-9 there).

    So, no, I would not call that working "fine".

  36. Sounds like the failed early UO model by Moraelin · · Score: 1

    An ecosystem. Doesn't need to have full-featured critters like in Spore or Creatures; just make the monsters eat each other, reproduce, and compete for resources in the obvious way. Come on, it's not difficult.

    [...]

    Allow player actions to affect the world. If I kill all predators from an area I expect the ecology to be ruined. If you donâ(TM)t want players ruining the ecology, make it difficult to genocide.

    UO launched with that failed model, and it quickly degenerated in just that: a bunch of people worked real hard and made it their goal in life to get whole species extinct.

    The problem is that it's a one-time stunt. You give _one_ player per server the satisfaction of being the one who got the last wolf extinct. (Ok, maybe two.) Then another one who got the bears extinct, and so on, so maybe you made a dozen players happy. Total. You have tens of thousand of players on that server now who have nothing more to hunt. Congrats, that was the dumbest possible idea in gaming history.

    UO tried the same with the economy, btw. There'd be a finite amount of ore in the world, and more would be generated when old swords and armours are destroyed or sold. But then some players took it upon themselves to ruing the economy, e.g., by hoarding as many items as possible, to keep the ore from respawning. Not to corner the market or otherwise make a profit, but just for the sake of fucking up the game for someone else.

    Needless to say, that was another model that was discarded very quickly.

    So be careful what you wish for, it might not be what you expected. Stop thinking that it would be _you_ who's the big cheese and who'd leave your mark upon the world. You'd most likely be the victim of someone else who left his mark on the world by making your life shitty. E.g., by making sure there are no more wild animals in the world, so leatherworkers are shafted, and so is any hunter who needed a pet, and all hunting quests become impossible.

    For some people, being annoying to many, is the only glory they can hope for in their pathetic little lives.

    --
    A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
  37. It is open beta. by Dobeln · · Score: 1

    Pre-order is just one way of getting in. They have also been releasing huge numbers of keys free to the public. I got my EU key from a single batch of 50 000 keys via Fileplay.com. I got my US key from a free batch via Warcry.

    Of course, the number of free spots aren't unlimited, but they probably have 100 000 non-preorder people in the beta, total. Which seems pretty open to me.

  38. funny though by ingenious+nor · · Score: 1

    I'm sure they'll mourn the loss of all five of you Linux gamers.

    And all the tens of dollars you bring with you.

    you know, there were once couple of guys who had nothing to do. So they developped a light machineoriented programming language. The idea was that it would be easy to port it on different architectures. They needed it for their new OS. Imagine only if they hadn't bothered at that time ;-) as I am quite sure there was not really that big a market for C and UNIX back there.

  39. Sigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll be so glad when this MMO fad is over and the game publishers can go back to making games instead of glorified chatrooms.

  40. D3D Competition by kenp2002 · · Score: 0, Troll

    I will develop games exclusively for Linux as soon as the linux platform can supply me with a complete programming solution that can complete and can provide me with a support contract that is at least as good as XNA support contracts.

    If I am developing XYZ and I need a a patch to the DirectX dll to accomidate testing and I need that patch dll in the next 4 hours to make the regression build by 5pm. I simply do not have time to wait around and hope l33tMan4 has time to get that in before heading out to the next Make Faire. I help test ArcEmu for fun and my day job I work with 2000+ programmers across 4 continents.

    Seriously, developers run on deadlines and OpenGL and Linux doesn't have anyone in position to provide actual support. Linux as a gaming platform is not capable of handling this idea call "deadlines." Look at what OpenGL gave us after a few years... minor tweaks. The Windows platform gets better with age.

    better yet, lets do the TETRIS test:

    Ok, you have 8 people, 4 to a team.

    You need to code a PACMAN, SUPER MARIO BRO., and a TETRIS clone.

    You have 48 hours to do all three.

    Team 1 gets to use Windows and DirectX as a platform to work with.

    Team 2 gets Linux.

    Which team is going to get them done quicker and more importantly which team can actually TEST their programs effectively? On the Windows platform I have a slew of QA tools for testing and test automation.

    Which team has better and faster development tools?

    I've done this test to students back when I taught. Time and time again, the Windows team gets a better product quicker.

    Photoshop and Illustrator was quicker then GIMP in getting the game art pipeline completed.

    Windows as a platform had more reuseable libraries to get the game up and running quicker.

    The Windows team had better tools for generating and creating sounds for each game.

    and to really piss of the Linux folks, they finished early enough to add multi-player in the mario clone and tetris clone. The Linux team never even finished the Tetris clone (Hence why I call this the TETRIS test.) The reason they didn't to be fair was there were few automated test tools for Linux and thus they had to code in, under Linux some testing tools and do a lot of use cases by hand. The entire Windows PACMAN clone had full automated testing as each intersection was coded as a pathing point and they could do automated permutation testing while they coded the Mario clone.

    Having a robust and complete programming solution is critical and Eclipse has come a long way (The Tibco process modelling tool is neat!) but now Linux needs common libraries and tools that CAN COMPETE with the offerings under Windows.

    Yeah yeah Linux has port of X,Y, and Z gaming engines (Quake, Torque, etc.)

    That's the problem, if Windows has it and Linux ports it, you have no argument to switch from Windows to Linux.

    PEOPLE DO NOT LEAVE THE ESTABLISHED SOLUTION FOR AN EQUAL SOLUTION, THE MIGRATE TO A 'BETTER' SOLUTION.

    Matching Windows blow for blow is useless, you have to BEAT them as the platform of choice.

    You need a good project management solution
    You need a solid QA management solution
    You need a solid IDE
    You need pipeline management tools (art, sound, code, assets)
    And all of that needs to talk to one another so I can link code revision 0.0.3 to Defect # 1011242 and th QA tool needs to link Use Case 40442 as the test. And once Use Case 40442 is run on Rev 0.0.3 successfully then we can close defect 1011242 and commit that correlating change made in 0.0.3 to promote into the next release code base.

    Linux is ahead in technology and GNU in general is DECADES behind in overall solution providing for the rapid pace that gaming evolves in tools (where unlike other industries that still code in COBOL).

    Linux is like a stero-typical scientist, really smart and socially inept in communicating with others and dressed in an excentric fashion.

    Linux = Bill Nye the Science Guy

    Linux needs to become Robert Downey's Tony Stark now to get AHEAD!

    --
    -=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
  41. Check your math by zoward · · Score: 1

    Thats already $93,000/y at @15/month in subscription fees alone...

    6,211 linux users * $15/month = $93,165/month.

    $93,165 * 12 months/year = $1,117,980/year.

    Numbers look a little better, don't they?

    I'd like to know where the 6,211 figure came from. I'd be wiling to bet that with the number of linux users in other countries, that number is higher.

    And yes, I'm a US Linux WoW subscriber.

    --
    "Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
  42. Oh yeah. That'd be awesome. by Petersko · · Score: 1

    "a movement penalty for carrying all that gear and gold on your person as you quest online ..."

    That'd be just swell, because moving at a glacial pace because you found one decent item too many would add tons of fun to the gaming experience.

    1. Re:Oh yeah. That'd be awesome. by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      You're assuming a flat penalty.

      E.g. 0-100 kg move 100 pct speed
      101-200 kg move 10 pct speed
      201-1000 kg do strength check to move 10 pct speed

      Whereas I was thinking a sliding scale

      E.g. 0-100 kg move 100 pct speed
      101-1000 kg move 100-(wt/10) pct speed
      1001+ kg do strength check to move 1 pct speed

      Which would have you move slower and slower as you increased your mass.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  43. Don't bother with Warhammer, play Conan instead. by Threemoons · · Score: 1

    Doing the Beta now, and I have to say...I'm glad that I bought just the beta-code cheap and didn't invest whole hog in the game yet.

    The gameplay is weak at best. The combat and targeting systems are sluggish, and the inventory is incomprehensible (no real identifiers on items, so you lug around crap not knowing if your class can use it or not, if you can use it later, etc). Also, having to pay to use new level abilities (via trainers) is also just lame, and only encourages "grinding for gold."

    What really made be bow out though was just the general slow game pace. Combat was unexciting, and targeting is a pain (no auto-targeting at all, but you apparently have to use the mouse to target and the number pad to attack...all while using arrow keys to move). Worst of all, there is no "default attack" so it's not like you can just map a mouse key and be done with it. Pre-order bonuses are kind of lame also, and the quest lines are predictable. I can't see myself paying $70+ every six months to have slow-motion combat for lame, predictable quests.

    Compare and contrast Conan Age of Empires. FANTASTIC graphics, engaging combat (there's also no real "auto-mash" option either, but combat is much easier to initiate and keep going), good PvP (despite gankers), engaging quests, and fun group quest/chat options. The pre-order/Collector's Edition code items are actually useful and rather cool (how can armored pachyderms NOT be cool?). I can see myself paying for Conan (which I am) but not Warhammer. I'll consider the $$ I spent for the Beta and Early Access code for Warhammer spent and cut my losses.

  44. Re:Don't bother with Warhammer, play Conan instead by T.E.D. · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've played both games quite a bit, and I think this is a great post. Just reverse the logic on everything he said, and its 100% accurate!

  45. a simulation-centric MMORPG is feasible by Dareth · · Score: 1

    Dude, you so need to get a Second Life!

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
  46. Re:Don't bother with Warhammer, play Conan instead by Threemoons · · Score: 1

    Hey, with all due respect, I stand by my evaluation of Warhammer. Love Conan, hate this. It's your nickel.