The first Star Wars MMO came out 5 years ago. Star Wars Galaxies couldn't live up to the hype but it had some good ideas in it such as its crafting system. SOE essentially killed it by entirely revamping the combat system, not even the space expansion could save it. It also didn't help that the game really had no plot to speak of to begin with. This new MMO will undoubtedly be the final nail in the coffin for Star Wars Galaxies.
How exactly would you do a 40K universe? 10k+ worlds, space fleet battles, willing turning to Chaos. To be truly representative of the material you'd have to be able to start as a lowly grunt, train/fight your way up to General in command of an entire sector, lead a space fleet to exterminate an entire planet inhabited by other players. How would you link together a million players into a single universe?
The easy way to do it is just have the battles on a planet or two and say they've been cut off by a warp storm. They could gradually introduce new planets (expansions) as the warp storm moves or subsides. For instance, Terra (Earth) was cut off from the rest of the universe for centuries due to a warp storm.
Most movie-tie-in games are not purchased for the continued story; I think it more has to do with uninformed consumers who just recognize the name. Like how many parents are going to buy their kid a game like Okami when they could just buy a game from a franchise that even they recognize? Basically as long as there are uninformed consumers, those crappy movie-tie-in games will continue to sell better than they should.
Star Wars is one of the few franchises I'd think where informed consumers are more likely to buy a crappy game than not though.
Diablo 3 was already in development well before Roper and them left to create Flagship Studios and Blizzard just took the reins of what they had already started.
It is also quite apparent Diablo would not be what it is today without Blizzard. Bill Roper and Flagship may be the original creators of Diablo but they obviously couldn't capture what made Blizzard games so addictive and fun in Hellgate: London. Yes, some of that had to do with funding but it doesn't excuse many of the flaws in Hellgate: London.
Basically I'd say the credit for Blizzard games transcends above any specific group of people within the company. It is the whole Blizzard way of doing things that ultimately makes their games shine.
That may very well be true but in order for a MMORPG to succeed, it needs to generate sufficient hype in beta that will carry it through to release; last minute changes don't do that. I guess it is unfortunate but a lot of people decide if they will purchase an MMO from their beta experiences and word of mouth. If an MMO doesn't do well at launch for whatever reason, there's very little chance at recovery. The only way to ensure a success at launch is to have a nearly flawless yet fun beta but that isn't realistic for most developers except for Blizzard...
It has already been done, it's called G-Saviour and it sucked. It was so bad, it's not even associated with Gundam anymore. If I remember right, it takes place after Victory Gundam in the UC timeline.
These "mainstream" games that CBS is trying to pass off as Pro Gaming will likely not be that entertaining to watch. The entertaining games to watch people compete in will likely not see the light of day on CBS, either due to violence or how complicated they are. Like Starcraft would be a great game to watch, which they do in Korea, but it is not mainstream enough in the US for the casual viewer to even know what is really happening. Then fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom or whatnot, most viewers could not appreciate how complicated it is to pull off those moves. Then FPS violence kind of eliminates them even though they're great to watch people compete at those. It's always good when games get positive exposure, especially with all the negative press recently, but I doubt this will catch on to CBS viewers. I've not seen a game tournament on Spike TV or ESPN so I don't know what kind of games they play at those but I'd assume any game tournament would be better off being shown on those networks.
I should also mention that it bugs me that turned the WoW arena into a Pro Gaming thing. An arena team is more dependant on class makeup and gear rather than skill which I doubt most viewers will understand.
I do think the list is pretty reasonable except for the Christ the Redeemer Statue. The thing that makes the statue really stand out is its location but it falls in line with other monuments like the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty which are arguably more impressive. I also have a problem with more modern creations being included on the last. Angkor Wat in Cambodia or even the Leaning Tower of Pisa seem much more appropriate for this list.
Slashdot Mirror
The first Star Wars MMO came out 5 years ago. Star Wars Galaxies couldn't live up to the hype but it had some good ideas in it such as its crafting system. SOE essentially killed it by entirely revamping the combat system, not even the space expansion could save it. It also didn't help that the game really had no plot to speak of to begin with. This new MMO will undoubtedly be the final nail in the coffin for Star Wars Galaxies.
How exactly would you do a 40K universe? 10k+ worlds, space fleet battles, willing turning to Chaos. To be truly representative of the material you'd have to be able to start as a lowly grunt, train/fight your way up to General in command of an entire sector, lead a space fleet to exterminate an entire planet inhabited by other players. How would you link together a million players into a single universe?
The easy way to do it is just have the battles on a planet or two and say they've been cut off by a warp storm. They could gradually introduce new planets (expansions) as the warp storm moves or subsides. For instance, Terra (Earth) was cut off from the rest of the universe for centuries due to a warp storm.
Most movie-tie-in games are not purchased for the continued story; I think it more has to do with uninformed consumers who just recognize the name. Like how many parents are going to buy their kid a game like Okami when they could just buy a game from a franchise that even they recognize? Basically as long as there are uninformed consumers, those crappy movie-tie-in games will continue to sell better than they should.
Star Wars is one of the few franchises I'd think where informed consumers are more likely to buy a crappy game than not though.
Diablo 3 was already in development well before Roper and them left to create Flagship Studios and Blizzard just took the reins of what they had already started.
It is also quite apparent Diablo would not be what it is today without Blizzard. Bill Roper and Flagship may be the original creators of Diablo but they obviously couldn't capture what made Blizzard games so addictive and fun in Hellgate: London. Yes, some of that had to do with funding but it doesn't excuse many of the flaws in Hellgate: London.
Basically I'd say the credit for Blizzard games transcends above any specific group of people within the company. It is the whole Blizzard way of doing things that ultimately makes their games shine.
Geography also plays a large role. If a city is surrounded by mountains like Los Angeles or Mexico City, there's no way for the smog to escape.
That may very well be true but in order for a MMORPG to succeed, it needs to generate sufficient hype in beta that will carry it through to release; last minute changes don't do that. I guess it is unfortunate but a lot of people decide if they will purchase an MMO from their beta experiences and word of mouth. If an MMO doesn't do well at launch for whatever reason, there's very little chance at recovery. The only way to ensure a success at launch is to have a nearly flawless yet fun beta but that isn't realistic for most developers except for Blizzard...
It has already been done, it's called G-Saviour and it sucked. It was so bad, it's not even associated with Gundam anymore. If I remember right, it takes place after Victory Gundam in the UC timeline.
These "mainstream" games that CBS is trying to pass off as Pro Gaming will likely not be that entertaining to watch. The entertaining games to watch people compete in will likely not see the light of day on CBS, either due to violence or how complicated they are. Like Starcraft would be a great game to watch, which they do in Korea, but it is not mainstream enough in the US for the casual viewer to even know what is really happening. Then fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom or whatnot, most viewers could not appreciate how complicated it is to pull off those moves. Then FPS violence kind of eliminates them even though they're great to watch people compete at those. It's always good when games get positive exposure, especially with all the negative press recently, but I doubt this will catch on to CBS viewers. I've not seen a game tournament on Spike TV or ESPN so I don't know what kind of games they play at those but I'd assume any game tournament would be better off being shown on those networks. I should also mention that it bugs me that turned the WoW arena into a Pro Gaming thing. An arena team is more dependant on class makeup and gear rather than skill which I doubt most viewers will understand.
Or how long does it take to charge?
I do think the list is pretty reasonable except for the Christ the Redeemer Statue. The thing that makes the statue really stand out is its location but it falls in line with other monuments like the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty which are arguably more impressive. I also have a problem with more modern creations being included on the last. Angkor Wat in Cambodia or even the Leaning Tower of Pisa seem much more appropriate for this list.