Sorta-kinda.
Trent creates the music on his own, but in the past he has had no other input in the creative process. More recently he has collaborated with his touring band a bit, but not so much as to change his artistic vision.
His touring band changes often because he tends to have very long release cycles (his major releases have had 5 years in between), but his last two albums came about 2 years apart, so the band stayed pretty much the same with the exception of Josh Freese who joined after the previous drummer had to leave the band for medical purposes.
My post wasn't so much of a World of Warcraft / Eve Rules post; try not to think of it in such black and white terms. It has more to do with my particular tastes in gameplay.
My personal opinion is that if developers that are active in producing MMOs would be more willing to differentiate themselves from the same basic power-leveling, grinding, hack-and-slash same old game experience that is so prevalent in this particular genre, there would be far more interesting games to play.
Designers nowadays are more inclined to stick to the tried-and-true methods instead of trying something completely new and refreshing.
That's exactly what makes games like WoW unappealing to me; the grind. The simplistic gameplay and static worlds are a lot less than I would expect from a company like Blizzard. They haven't done anything revolutionary for the genre, they just took a tried-and-true method and simply made it the most fun and addictive, but even that depends on the perspective. I tried WoW for a week and was bored after the first 10 minutes.
I've been an avid Eve Online player for nearly 4 years, and it's depth, complexity, and sandbox-style of gameplay is exactly what makes it appealing. There's no other MMO out there that has even come close to matching the sheer volume of gameplay types available in Eve. The beauty of the game is that there's no 'maxing' your character. You don't hit Level 60 and decide 'ok, now I want to start a new character.' Your avatar is you as long as you play. The decisions you make affect everything you do down the road. You grow ATTACHED to your character, leaving your mark on the Eve universe as you see fit.
With all of it's complexity, the game has a very steep learning curve, probably the steepest of any game I've played. But the game doesn't FORCE you to do anything. Don't want to kill NPCs for Isk (in-game currency)? Then don't. The individual player can decide how they want to play. I wish there were more MMORPGs with this type of formula out there.
Eve's biggest draw is the large, persistent world. Everyone plays on the same server, regardless of location (with the exception of China). There's no switching to a different server if you do nasty things and ruin your reputation. It really forces you to live with your choices.
More game designers need to focus more on open-ended gameplay instead of making 'large-scale coop games'
Online Gaming has been proving this for years. I've been playing computer games on the Internet since I was a young teenager, and have been to countless LAN parties with people that I had met playing on Quake 2 servers.
The gaming culture opens us up to new friendships, especially for us introverted computer geek types. It allows us to project ourselves on other people without fear of ridicule for physical appearances or other quirks that we may or may not have. Many gamers feel more comfortable associating with people in this manner.
Last summer I traveled to London and met with people I play Eve Online with. It was a great experience, and is exactly why I play games online; to meet new and interesting people regardless of race and culture.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorta-kinda. Trent creates the music on his own, but in the past he has had no other input in the creative process. More recently he has collaborated with his touring band a bit, but not so much as to change his artistic vision. His touring band changes often because he tends to have very long release cycles (his major releases have had 5 years in between), but his last two albums came about 2 years apart, so the band stayed pretty much the same with the exception of Josh Freese who joined after the previous drummer had to leave the band for medical purposes.
My post wasn't so much of a World of Warcraft / Eve Rules post; try not to think of it in such black and white terms. It has more to do with my particular tastes in gameplay.
My personal opinion is that if developers that are active in producing MMOs would be more willing to differentiate themselves from the same basic power-leveling, grinding, hack-and-slash same old game experience that is so prevalent in this particular genre, there would be far more interesting games to play.
Designers nowadays are more inclined to stick to the tried-and-true methods instead of trying something completely new and refreshing.
and why is it that my post loses it's formatting (no carriage returns!) when I click submit! guess I actually need to use the break tag...
That's exactly what makes games like WoW unappealing to me; the grind. The simplistic gameplay and static worlds are a lot less than I would expect from a company like Blizzard. They haven't done anything revolutionary for the genre, they just took a tried-and-true method and simply made it the most fun and addictive, but even that depends on the perspective. I tried WoW for a week and was bored after the first 10 minutes. I've been an avid Eve Online player for nearly 4 years, and it's depth, complexity, and sandbox-style of gameplay is exactly what makes it appealing. There's no other MMO out there that has even come close to matching the sheer volume of gameplay types available in Eve. The beauty of the game is that there's no 'maxing' your character. You don't hit Level 60 and decide 'ok, now I want to start a new character.' Your avatar is you as long as you play. The decisions you make affect everything you do down the road. You grow ATTACHED to your character, leaving your mark on the Eve universe as you see fit. With all of it's complexity, the game has a very steep learning curve, probably the steepest of any game I've played. But the game doesn't FORCE you to do anything. Don't want to kill NPCs for Isk (in-game currency)? Then don't. The individual player can decide how they want to play. I wish there were more MMORPGs with this type of formula out there. Eve's biggest draw is the large, persistent world. Everyone plays on the same server, regardless of location (with the exception of China). There's no switching to a different server if you do nasty things and ruin your reputation. It really forces you to live with your choices. More game designers need to focus more on open-ended gameplay instead of making 'large-scale coop games'
Online Gaming has been proving this for years. I've been playing computer games on the Internet since I was a young teenager, and have been to countless LAN parties with people that I had met playing on Quake 2 servers. The gaming culture opens us up to new friendships, especially for us introverted computer geek types. It allows us to project ourselves on other people without fear of ridicule for physical appearances or other quirks that we may or may not have. Many gamers feel more comfortable associating with people in this manner. Last summer I traveled to London and met with people I play Eve Online with. It was a great experience, and is exactly why I play games online; to meet new and interesting people regardless of race and culture.