And for the record, "well.. that's nice.. but the hero runs like a retard and it's really muddy and blocky" isn't how I'd describe the game at all... or anyone I've known who has actually played.
A big thanks out to Zonk for organizing this... I've hosted a previous Carnival before and it's a decent amount of effort coordinating all the incoming submissions and making sure everything gets set up correctly. Great job, and hopefully we'll see your moonlighting blog ways show up on future CoG's.
I'm sure that there are incentives to being a gaming journalist, but I don't know any "journalist" that has stayed up 3 days straight camping for an Everquest drop (just to get spawn jumped) or bought 14 different mice before returning 13 just to see which gets you the most headshots. You know, attributes of real gamers.
I don't think that makes you a "real" gamer over other people. I think it just means you have a lot of time on your hands.
The only time I ever got up early at my grandmother's was to play Pitfall on the Atari. Later, it was Adventure. I once beat a Wing Commander game in three days while studying for finals. I helped setup a house wide LAN at my old fraternity so that we could play Doom MP without having to go see the light of day. I helped organize the old Eternal Champion tourneys at my old dorm. I once had regular meetings to discuss the proper strategy with my BBS allies in Solar Empires. I played Counter-Strike when it was good. I still have most home consoles made before the PlayStation enshrined in my living room. At one time, Super Bowl meant Halo In fact games that I have wasted literally days in a row on would include: Doom, Doom II, Quake, Quake III, Deus Ex, System Shock, System Shock II, Civilization, Zork (all of them), Dungeon Master, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Doom III, OGRE, Wing Commander (most of them), SSI Gold Series (several of them, Wizardry (about half of them), Morrowind,... and now I'm just tired of remembering them all. I'm a founding member of the Fireflies ILB wiki and used to be an active contributor to the Unreal wiki I've mapped the old office where I worked at. For Half-Life. And Unreal Tournament. I've made more than a couple of mods and won some awards in the latest MSUC.
So.
You really going to sit there and tell me I'm not a real gamer?
Look, I blog on games because it's the only thing game-related I can do at work without getting fired. I'm definately not speaking for the gaming blogosphere, but I don't consider myself a "new games journalist" or a "games journalist" or a "journalist", I'm just someone with a more than mild game addiction who when he isn't playing games, is usually playing around with building them, and when he's not doing that... writes about them.
It's not that I wouldn't prefer playing games, it's that I have a job.
I don't want to argue against this, but the same argument, if valid, should also allow kids to buy porn in other forms such as videos and magazines.
They have tried to compare video games to porn in the past, but it didn't pass the ethical/moral muster to be classified as such... except when in cases when the game is porn believe. Pornographic games are regulated just like a Playboy, so no new law is required.
Essentially video games are a form of expression and therefore free speech. Instituting potential financial harm on people who might sell these games causes market pressure to make less risky game. Hence, a violation of free speech.
So they aren't framing this as a free speech issue, or at least they are trying not to frame it as such. They are framing it as a public health issue. In recent interview with old Rob B, he directly compared video games to cigarretes and alcohol (as well as pornography). So basically, having failed the porn test... they want to try porn that will kill you.
No kidding. The argument is that violent video games will make violent children who will turn to violent crime, so that it is in the society's best interest to curtail this at the source.
The fact that there is no scientific basis for that argument hasn't stopped the supporters from saying there is. This is equivalent of banning cell phones for kids because they might get brain damage when they are thirty. It makes perfect sense, except it's completely wrong.
Not to mention that this is a solution for a problem that does not exist. There is no epidemic of children buying violent games. There is a trend of parents buying violent games for their kids. So even if this law had logic and facts on it's side, which it doesn't, it would do no good at to solving the problem.
The only thing this law does is pay some lawyers and get some politicians some press to indicate that they care about kids.
Children are not born violent, they are made violent. They become conditioned to associate violence with fun, as part of "normal life." Are we bringing up a generation of soldiers, or are we bringing up children? The end result of unmonitored video violence is we are training an army of kids.
Bullshit.
Children are not all born little innocent creatures incapable of doing harm to anything... and I don't trust any kind of "science" which makes that as a basis for fact. This where idiotic phrases like "manchurian children" or born.
This article is making more moral judgements than scientific analysis, if this it the kind of logic they use.
Personally, I look at it more like I do EQ. I bought EQ, played it for about the same amount of time as GW, and came to largely the same conclusion. I still didn't pay a monthly fee.
Except that with EQ you had a deadline, and if you went over that deadline the clock would start running and you'd have to pay for it. GW doesn't have any such restrictions, like a normally priced game.
Instead, let's compare it to some other forms of popular entertainment out there, like a movie.
OK. Fine. Let's say it's $10 a ticket. Let's say you pay a monthly fee of $30 and you can see movies whenever you want. If you see thirty movies in a month, it's a fantastic deal. If you only see one a month, it sucks eggs. And you have to pay upfront, so you better know there are good movies you want to see that month (and the next, etc.)
So sure, if you can put 40 hours a month into a $15 subscription, you're definately getting your money's worth. At 20 hours a month, you're getting closer to breaking even and if you get less than 10 hours a month - you're just throwing money away. That breaks down basically to people who play almost daily, almost weekly or sporadically.
Like I said originally, the normal MMO pricing only makes sense for people who are hardcore MMO players. If you're playing an MMO 40 hours a month, you're in that group. Guild Wars makes sense for anyone who wants to try out the game... period. So for QuantumG to state that Guild Wars is just as bad as any other MMO is flat out stupid and it's he that's being a troll, not us. At least you've played the game, he's just bashing it to get a response.
As for the 'every game sucks because it's not WoW' comment, go stuff words in someone else's mouth. I never said that, or even implied it.
So, ultimately, it's like you said, and I said. GW is most definitly on par with other games that don't charge extra for better content, better customer service, more consistent content updates, etc. It's the same as every other game out there which isn't an MMO, which is exactly what GW is not.
Well, maybe that was unfair - but it definately sounded like you were bashing Guild Wars simply because it didn't have the longevity you found with WoW, and my point was that is true of nearly every game in it's price point... which you seem to agree with.
I don't really see how GW isn't an MMO... and since you yourself said that out of the MMO's you've played... WoW comes the closest to the gameplay and style, I'm not sure how you can say it either. Oh yeah, there a serious technical and design differences between the two... but it's just different styles for different audiences. And GW's pricing model is part of that difference. ArenaNet realized that a monthly fee isn't for everyone. Personally, I've quit every MMO I've ever played largely because I didn't feel the fee was justified... so I'd say they had a point.
So far, my GW experience has been more akin to Diablo 2
Since they cost about the same, I don't see what's so wrong with that.
I'll use WoW, my current MMO of choice, which has a month by month fee of $15 bucks a month. Average of 30 days in a month, which gives us a cost of *gasp* 50 CENTS A DAY. Yea, that's so horribly expensive, isn't it?
Actually, it kinda is. And if you don't believe me, go buy a newspaper every single day, but only read it once or twice a week. Bet you start to notice and stop pretty quick.
Sure, if you read that newspaper every single day - it's not a big deal. And if you play WoW every day... all the power to you. But days add into months, and like I pointed out - end up costing a lot. At that rate you could be buying a new game almost every three or four months off the back of what you're spending on one. You only got a few weeks worth of fun out of Guild Wars? Oh, wow, yeah... that's... like... horrible. Gee, I only got a few weeks worth of fun out of Half-Life 2, Doom 3, or San Andreas and oh about 90% of any game I buy. Guess every game out there sucks because it's not WoW.
GM staff is another thing that it pays for. Just for curiosity on the issue of Customer Service, have you tried getting any for Guild Wars?
Yes, and it's not great. But it was 1,000 times better than PlanetSide's that's for sure... and I was paying monthly for that. For a monthly fee, I'd expect the same level of service as any other utility I pay for. Something goes wrong, I call someone, I get to talk to a human and they fix it. Not sit on my hands while they wait for servers to come back online.
So it's not great, but Guild Wars service is about on par with most games that don't charge a monthly fee. It got me enough information to fix my own issues, which have been small and sparse since the game itself is pretty stable.
You love WoW and GW didn't thrill you. Hey, that's fine. Like we've been saying, GW isn't really the same as the hardcore MMO... so I'm not terribly surprised.
But you're just proving my point. You paid for a title, had some fun with it and didn't like it for the long term. And you didn't have to pay a subscription to discover that. Go ArenaNet.
You have no idea what you're talking about, so you should stop trying. You've tried to compare GW to paid subscriptions and you clearly have no concept of the gameplay ArenaNet was going for. This isn't just EQuest of City of Heroes without a monthly fee, it's a totally different style.
I've spent probably 10-15 hours just making another character and flopping around the tutorial area of the game. Playing in "just" the common area is quite fun and easy to get pick up games with. In fact, some of the best PUGs are from the newer sections of the game, so going back and replaying missions is insanely common. More than half the missions I've played were with people doing it their second or third time around (at least). Show me another MMO that can boast that.
Sure, if all you're friends want to do is play in the expansion pack and all you want to do is play with your friends... you'll need the expansion pack. DUH. And if you've gotten a group of friends who like it that much, it will be worth the money. If not, you're bound to get your original $50 back just by soloing if you want.
Either way, at least you weren't wasting $12 a month just to get to that stage. For early adopters of the game under a monthly fee, they'd have spent $160 or more on the game, as opposed to the $40-$50 they have. So even when they buy the expansion for another $40-$50 in a few months, they're still many nickels over the normal MMO pricing scheme.
Now, begone troll. If you can't bother with facts or math to back up your silly opinions, not sure why anyone should bother with you.
Nothing like Slashdot to bring out the idiot trolls.
I've played month to month MMOs. Unless you are hardcore into the genre, they suck in terms of monetary value.. Period. It's a horrible payment schme. Every day you aren't playing the game - you're still paying for it. Oh, and if you dare play with friends and don't play enough to keep up with them... well, you can't play with them much longer. So you have to keep playing or else you're just wasting money AND time spent already in the game. I play GW because it's fun, not to level grind or keep up with the Joneses. I've already put in 40 hours PvE. So...I've already used the money I've spent on a normal game... and I'm maybe half way through the current plot. That's not counting the content ANet's already added in... for free.
Yeah, the expansion will cost about as much as the original. I'm sorry, how is that any worse than Sony charging nearly full price for an expansion to PlanetSide... a game which was nothing more than a paid beta when released? Well, because ANet's already showed that they have the chops to make an expansion every bit as worthwhile as the original, and not a patch you have to pay for.
And who will buy it? Well, people still interested in the game. Since you don't obviously don't play GW, I'll just assume you didn't know how silly a statement it is that you'll need the expansion to keep playing. I've picked up games with veterans, joined games with newbies, and I haven't even touched the additional content to date. What ANet is doing is assuming that they'll be doing a good enough job that the people who have played the original will want more. The expansions won't be required for play... that's also part of that um, "stated goals" you supposedly read.
Guild Wars is a different beast than other MMO's out there. Comparing it to other, subscription based, games with expansions is just ignorant.
Head back to your cave. I'll be in Ascalon if you need me.
That's a pretty funny prediction considering that AJAX is based on, in part, what was originally one of Microsoft's technologies.
Also considering that they'd be making their browser incompatible with a large section of utility sites and upcoming e-commerce sites - including their own - it sounds far too stupid for Microsoft to step toward.
Sorry, a bit too conspiracy and not enough logic for me to buy into that one.
#1 and #3 is definately true, although still just FOL of PC life aggravated by the XBox's existence.
#2 is generally true, although right now I'm trying out a cheap PC rig which might turn out cheaper than an XBox 360. Won't be as powerful, obviously, but still a decent gaming machine. WIll return with the review if it pans out. I'm installing UT2004 now.
Emulation isn't the same thing as an 360, neither is a prototype. In the immortal words of Dan Rydell... that's why they have those seperate words. To distinguish them. This is why all of these debates about how powerful and how fast and my box is bigger than yours are just dumb right now, people.
These consoles aren't finished
So let's all take a deep breath and wait for them to actually release something before actually giving a damn.
One aspect of this law which should be on everyone's mind... but is easily overlooked, is the justification for the violence portion of law.
It is written not in the same wording as morally objectionable content like pr0n, but socially dangerous material like tobacco.
This law makes an assumption that there is a casual relationship between violent video games and crime. That lays the groundwork for lawyers to start suing retail stores if little Jimmy robs a bank.
So while everyone argues about responsibility and free speech - the Illinois Assembly isn't even talking about that. To them, this is justified in the same sense that a seatbelt law or helmet law is justified. Sure, it might be a bit big brother - but it will satisfy the public good by keeping the streets safer at night.
In other words, they not only embraced the "murder simulator" theory in spirit - they've now put it to text and made it law.
I actually read a lot of these guys off an on throughout the week. When Tony mentioned he was going to organize this, I thought about doing it... but I have an awful track record when it comes to sticking to things like this and didn't want to lame out on it.
And blogs don't have to be hard hitting journalism, and jesus - hearing slashdotters bitch about that is simply hilarious. Some of them are just funny or personal. You aren't going to like all of them because they aren't simple neutral voices like journalism. But something like this offers people a wide range to read from, and maybe you'll find a couple you do like and then you can keep up with them.
I mean dang, worse thing that happens is that you find a few new websites that broaden the news and opinions about games. But I guess slashdotters only need to feed from one source? Whatever.
Give it a browse. You might find something you like. And if you don't, well you'll probably live to fight another day.
A Canvas for Original Works? OK, HL2 is nice and everything and their mod tools aren't bad but a) Unreal still has a much better platform for both mods and machinima and about 100x more content to boot and b) Quake based works have been a "canvas" for years now, including their GPL'd engines.
It's always interesting to see a quick summary of what people are doing with an engine, but the fanboy title is just more evidence on how lazy slashdot has gotten.
Personally, I'd rather have a powerful PDA that can game and play media... and that I can code for - rather than powerful gaming platform that isn't a PDA and can play media that I can't.
I'd be interested in reading the book, but her answers are pretty disturbing. She's falling right in line with the moronic Thompson pack that video games "trained" this kid to kill - which seems wildly beneath her obvious intelligence.
PlanetSide didn't work. I don't know how to make it more plain than that - it just didn't work. It would lock up. It would crash. I would spawn as a wall. Let me repeat that last one, because it's not a euphemism - I entered the game as a wall. I could watch people passing by my wall, and I could do nothing else.
SOE's Customer Support staff wasn't just useless, they were completely casual about how useless they were. If you asked them a question - ANY question, they wouldn't respond directly. They would just give you a form letter detailing all the log files they insisted that you cut and paste before they would acknowledge your existence.
And THEN they would really ignore you. I mean days would tick without even so much as an update post to let you know that they had even bothered to read these 4 page long log files.
In other words, they weren't there to help you. They were there to gather your system information so that they could further beta test the software you just paid money for.
I mocked this openly on their forums. I wasn't abusive, I wasn't insulting, although I was probably a little mean. I got banned.
Not from the forums. From the game. For annoying their useless customer support I was banned from the game. I didn't TK anyone, grief anything, cheat in any way. All I did was get frustrated at not just a lack of help from SOE - but a lack of response. I didn't even get an email telling me I had been banned.
This lack of response carried over to when they reinstated me. And didn't tell me. And started to charge my credit card.
That's when I cancelled, insisted they refund my monthly fee (which to their credit, they did) and swore to never touch another SOE product again.
(Sadly I've broken that bloodoath with their Champions of Norrath titles, but that's only out of respect for Snowblind)
Slashdot Mirror
They talk about that somewhat in the article.
... or anyone I've known who has actually played.
And for the record, "well.. that's nice.. but the hero runs like a retard and it's really muddy and blocky" isn't how I'd describe the game at all
As mention on the post, that I found this at Pixel Kill: http://www.pixelkill.com/2006/03/05/shadow-of-the- colossus.html
A big thanks out to Zonk for organizing this ... I've hosted a previous Carnival before and it's a decent amount of effort coordinating all the incoming submissions and making sure everything gets set up correctly. Great job, and hopefully we'll see your moonlighting blog ways show up on future CoG's.
I'm sure that there are incentives to being a gaming journalist, but I don't know any "journalist" that has stayed up 3 days straight camping for an Everquest drop (just to get spawn jumped) or bought 14 different mice before returning 13 just to see which gets you the most headshots. You know, attributes of real gamers.
... and now I'm just tired of remembering them all.
... writes about them.
I don't think that makes you a "real" gamer over other people. I think it just means you have a lot of time on your hands.
The only time I ever got up early at my grandmother's was to play Pitfall on the Atari. Later, it was Adventure.
I once beat a Wing Commander game in three days while studying for finals.
I helped setup a house wide LAN at my old fraternity so that we could play Doom MP without having to go see the light of day.
I helped organize the old Eternal Champion tourneys at my old dorm.
I once had regular meetings to discuss the proper strategy with my BBS allies in Solar Empires.
I played Counter-Strike when it was good.
I still have most home consoles made before the PlayStation enshrined in my living room.
At one time, Super Bowl meant Halo
In fact games that I have wasted literally days in a row on would include: Doom, Doom II, Quake, Quake III, Deus Ex, System Shock, System Shock II, Civilization, Zork (all of them), Dungeon Master, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Doom III, OGRE, Wing Commander (most of them), SSI Gold Series (several of them, Wizardry (about half of them), Morrowind,
I'm a founding member of the Fireflies ILB wiki and used to be an active contributor to the Unreal wiki
I've mapped the old office where I worked at. For Half-Life. And Unreal Tournament.
I've made more than a couple of mods and won some awards in the latest MSUC.
So.
You really going to sit there and tell me I'm not a real gamer?
Look, I blog on games because it's the only thing game-related I can do at work without getting fired. I'm definately not speaking for the gaming blogosphere, but I don't consider myself a "new games journalist" or a "games journalist" or a "journalist", I'm just someone with a more than mild game addiction who when he isn't playing games, is usually playing around with building them, and when he's not doing that
It's not that I wouldn't prefer playing games, it's that I have a job.
Children are non-violent at birth. Hell, they can't even lift up their heads
... however a truly excellent point :)
Nitpicky
I don't want to argue against this, but the same argument, if valid, should also allow kids to buy porn in other forms such as videos and magazines.
... except when in cases when the game is porn believe. Pornographic games are regulated just like a Playboy, so no new law is required.
... they want to try porn that will kill you.
They have tried to compare video games to porn in the past, but it didn't pass the ethical/moral muster to be classified as such
Essentially video games are a form of expression and therefore free speech. Instituting potential financial harm on people who might sell these games causes market pressure to make less risky game. Hence, a violation of free speech.
So they aren't framing this as a free speech issue, or at least they are trying not to frame it as such. They are framing it as a public health issue. In recent interview with old Rob B, he directly compared video games to cigarretes and alcohol (as well as pornography). So basically, having failed the porn test
No kidding. The argument is that violent video games will make violent children who will turn to violent crime, so that it is in the society's best interest to curtail this at the source.
The fact that there is no scientific basis for that argument hasn't stopped the supporters from saying there is. This is equivalent of banning cell phones for kids because they might get brain damage when they are thirty. It makes perfect sense, except it's completely wrong.
Not to mention that this is a solution for a problem that does not exist. There is no epidemic of children buying violent games. There is a trend of parents buying violent games for their kids. So even if this law had logic and facts on it's side, which it doesn't, it would do no good at to solving the problem.
The only thing this law does is pay some lawyers and get some politicians some press to indicate that they care about kids.
Children are not born violent, they are made violent. They become conditioned to associate violence with fun, as part of "normal life." Are we bringing up a generation of soldiers, or are we bringing up children? The end result of unmonitored video violence is we are training an army of kids.
... and I don't trust any kind of "science" which makes that as a basis for fact. This where idiotic phrases like "manchurian children" or born.
Bullshit.
Children are not all born little innocent creatures incapable of doing harm to anything
This article is making more moral judgements than scientific analysis, if this it the kind of logic they use.
Personally, I look at it more like I do EQ. I bought EQ, played it for about the same amount of time as GW, and came to largely the same conclusion. I still didn't pay a monthly fee.
... period. So for QuantumG to state that Guild Wars is just as bad as any other MMO is flat out stupid and it's he that's being a troll, not us. At least you've played the game, he's just bashing it to get a response.
... which you seem to agree with.
... and since you yourself said that out of the MMO's you've played ... WoW comes the closest to the gameplay and style, I'm not sure how you can say it either. Oh yeah, there a serious technical and design differences between the two ... but it's just different styles for different audiences. And GW's pricing model is part of that difference. ArenaNet realized that a monthly fee isn't for everyone. Personally, I've quit every MMO I've ever played largely because I didn't feel the fee was justified ... so I'd say they had a point.
Except that with EQ you had a deadline, and if you went over that deadline the clock would start running and you'd have to pay for it. GW doesn't have any such restrictions, like a normally priced game.
Instead, let's compare it to some other forms of popular entertainment out there, like a movie.
OK. Fine. Let's say it's $10 a ticket. Let's say you pay a monthly fee of $30 and you can see movies whenever you want. If you see thirty movies in a month, it's a fantastic deal. If you only see one a month, it sucks eggs. And you have to pay upfront, so you better know there are good movies you want to see that month (and the next, etc.)
So sure, if you can put 40 hours a month into a $15 subscription, you're definately getting your money's worth. At 20 hours a month, you're getting closer to breaking even and if you get less than 10 hours a month - you're just throwing money away. That breaks down basically to people who play almost daily, almost weekly or sporadically.
Like I said originally, the normal MMO pricing only makes sense for people who are hardcore MMO players. If you're playing an MMO 40 hours a month, you're in that group. Guild Wars makes sense for anyone who wants to try out the game
As for the 'every game sucks because it's not WoW' comment, go stuff words in someone else's mouth. I never said that, or even implied it.
So, ultimately, it's like you said, and I said. GW is most definitly on par with other games that don't charge extra for better content, better customer service, more consistent content updates, etc. It's the same as every other game out there which isn't an MMO, which is exactly what GW is not.
Well, maybe that was unfair - but it definately sounded like you were bashing Guild Wars simply because it didn't have the longevity you found with WoW, and my point was that is true of nearly every game in it's price point
I don't really see how GW isn't an MMO
So far, my GW experience has been more akin to Diablo 2
... all the power to you. But days add into months, and like I pointed out - end up costing a lot. At that rate you could be buying a new game almost every three or four months off the back of what you're spending on one. You only got a few weeks worth of fun out of Guild Wars? Oh, wow, yeah ... that's ... like ... horrible. Gee, I only got a few weeks worth of fun out of Half-Life 2, Doom 3, or San Andreas and oh about 90% of any game I buy. Guess every game out there sucks because it's not WoW.
... and I was paying monthly for that. For a monthly fee, I'd expect the same level of service as any other utility I pay for. Something goes wrong, I call someone, I get to talk to a human and they fix it. Not sit on my hands while they wait for servers to come back online.
... so I'm not terribly surprised.
Since they cost about the same, I don't see what's so wrong with that.
I'll use WoW, my current MMO of choice, which has a month by month fee of $15 bucks a month. Average of 30 days in a month, which gives us a cost of *gasp* 50 CENTS A DAY. Yea, that's so horribly expensive, isn't it?
Actually, it kinda is. And if you don't believe me, go buy a newspaper every single day, but only read it once or twice a week. Bet you start to notice and stop pretty quick.
Sure, if you read that newspaper every single day - it's not a big deal. And if you play WoW every day
GM staff is another thing that it pays for. Just for curiosity on the issue of Customer Service, have you tried getting any for Guild Wars?
Yes, and it's not great. But it was 1,000 times better than PlanetSide's that's for sure
So it's not great, but Guild Wars service is about on par with most games that don't charge a monthly fee. It got me enough information to fix my own issues, which have been small and sparse since the game itself is pretty stable.
You love WoW and GW didn't thrill you. Hey, that's fine. Like we've been saying, GW isn't really the same as the hardcore MMO
But you're just proving my point. You paid for a title, had some fun with it and didn't like it for the long term. And you didn't have to pay a subscription to discover that. Go ArenaNet.
You have no idea what you're talking about, so you should stop trying. You've tried to compare GW to paid subscriptions and you clearly have no concept of the gameplay ArenaNet was going for. This isn't just EQuest of City of Heroes without a monthly fee, it's a totally different style.
... you'll need the expansion pack. DUH. And if you've gotten a group of friends who like it that much, it will be worth the money. If not, you're bound to get your original $50 back just by soloing if you want.
I've spent probably 10-15 hours just making another character and flopping around the tutorial area of the game. Playing in "just" the common area is quite fun and easy to get pick up games with. In fact, some of the best PUGs are from the newer sections of the game, so going back and replaying missions is insanely common. More than half the missions I've played were with people doing it their second or third time around (at least). Show me another MMO that can boast that.
Sure, if all you're friends want to do is play in the expansion pack and all you want to do is play with your friends
Either way, at least you weren't wasting $12 a month just to get to that stage. For early adopters of the game under a monthly fee, they'd have spent $160 or more on the game, as opposed to the $40-$50 they have. So even when they buy the expansion for another $40-$50 in a few months, they're still many nickels over the normal MMO pricing scheme.
Now, begone troll. If you can't bother with facts or math to back up your silly opinions, not sure why anyone should bother with you.
Nothing like Slashdot to bring out the idiot trolls.
... well, you can't play with them much longer. So you have to keep playing or else you're just wasting money AND time spent already in the game. I play GW because it's fun, not to level grind or keep up with the Joneses. I've already put in 40 hours PvE. So...I've already used the money I've spent on a normal game ... and I'm maybe half way through the current plot. That's not counting the content ANet's already added in ... for free.
... a game which was nothing more than a paid beta when released? Well, because ANet's already showed that they have the chops to make an expansion every bit as worthwhile as the original, and not a patch you have to pay for.
... that's also part of that um, "stated goals" you supposedly read.
I've played month to month MMOs. Unless you are hardcore into the genre, they suck in terms of monetary value.. Period. It's a horrible payment schme. Every day you aren't playing the game - you're still paying for it. Oh, and if you dare play with friends and don't play enough to keep up with them
Yeah, the expansion will cost about as much as the original. I'm sorry, how is that any worse than Sony charging nearly full price for an expansion to PlanetSide
And who will buy it? Well, people still interested in the game. Since you don't obviously don't play GW, I'll just assume you didn't know how silly a statement it is that you'll need the expansion to keep playing. I've picked up games with veterans, joined games with newbies, and I haven't even touched the additional content to date. What ANet is doing is assuming that they'll be doing a good enough job that the people who have played the original will want more. The expansions won't be required for play
Guild Wars is a different beast than other MMO's out there. Comparing it to other, subscription based, games with expansions is just ignorant.
Head back to your cave. I'll be in Ascalon if you need me.
That's a pretty funny prediction considering that AJAX is based on, in part, what was originally one of Microsoft's technologies.
Also considering that they'd be making their browser incompatible with a large section of utility sites and upcoming e-commerce sites - including their own - it sounds far too stupid for Microsoft to step toward.
Sorry, a bit too conspiracy and not enough logic for me to buy into that one.
#1 and #3 is definately true, although still just FOL of PC life aggravated by the XBox's existence.
#2 is generally true, although right now I'm trying out a cheap PC rig which might turn out cheaper than an XBox 360. Won't be as powerful, obviously, but still a decent gaming machine. WIll return with the review if it pans out. I'm installing UT2004 now.
A $1,000 box is particularly silly when you start to play games designed for a $200 console on it.
Course, if that $200 console didn't exist, that wouldn't be so much of a problem? The cost of PC's predates the XBox, not the other way around.
Who would have thought burning billions of dollars into a competing market might *gasp* negatively effect the PC?
I had a sitdown with GamerDad a little while back, covering parents, gamers and ESRB:
w ith-gamerdad.html
http://cathodetan.blogspot.com/2005/07/interview-
Emulation isn't the same thing as an 360, neither is a prototype. In the immortal words of Dan Rydell ... that's why they have those seperate words. To distinguish them. This is why all of these debates about how powerful and how fast and my box is bigger than yours are just dumb right now, people.
These consoles aren't finished
So let's all take a deep breath and wait for them to actually release something before actually giving a damn.
Talked about it here.
since it's from the VP of marketing, it simply will become true.
One aspect of this law which should be on everyone's mind ... but is easily overlooked, is the justification for the violence portion of law.
It is written not in the same wording as morally objectionable content like pr0n, but socially dangerous material like tobacco.
This law makes an assumption that there is a casual relationship between violent video games and crime. That lays the groundwork for lawyers to start suing retail stores if little Jimmy robs a bank.
So while everyone argues about responsibility and free speech - the Illinois Assembly isn't even talking about that. To them, this is justified in the same sense that a seatbelt law or helmet law is justified. Sure, it might be a bit big brother - but it will satisfy the public good by keeping the streets safer at night.
In other words, they not only embraced the "murder simulator" theory in spirit - they've now put it to text and made it law.
I actually read a lot of these guys off an on throughout the week. When Tony mentioned he was going to organize this, I thought about doing it ... but I have an awful track record when it comes to sticking to things like this and didn't want to lame out on it.
And blogs don't have to be hard hitting journalism, and jesus - hearing slashdotters bitch about that is simply hilarious. Some of them are just funny or personal. You aren't going to like all of them because they aren't simple neutral voices like journalism. But something like this offers people a wide range to read from, and maybe you'll find a couple you do like and then you can keep up with them.
I mean dang, worse thing that happens is that you find a few new websites that broaden the news and opinions about games. But I guess slashdotters only need to feed from one source? Whatever.
Give it a browse. You might find something you like. And if you don't, well you'll probably live to fight another day.
A Canvas for Original Works? OK, HL2 is nice and everything and their mod tools aren't bad but a) Unreal still has a much better platform for both mods and machinima and about 100x more content to boot and b) Quake based works have been a "canvas" for years now, including their GPL'd engines.
It's always interesting to see a quick summary of what people are doing with an engine, but the fanboy title is just more evidence on how lazy slashdot has gotten.
These are all reasons why the Zodiac got named my underdog of the year.
Personally, I'd rather have a powerful PDA that can game and play media... and that I can code for - rather than powerful gaming platform that isn't a PDA and can play media that I can't.
I'd be interested in reading the book, but her answers are pretty disturbing. She's falling right in line with the moronic Thompson pack that video games "trained" this kid to kill - which seems wildly beneath her obvious intelligence.
But I've already ranted on this once today.
PlanetSide didn't work. I don't know how to make it more plain than that - it just didn't work. It would lock up. It would crash. I would spawn as a wall. Let me repeat that last one, because it's not a euphemism - I entered the game as a wall. I could watch people passing by my wall, and I could do nothing else.
SOE's Customer Support staff wasn't just useless, they were completely casual about how useless they were. If you asked them a question - ANY question, they wouldn't respond directly. They would just give you a form letter detailing all the log files they insisted that you cut and paste before they would acknowledge your existence.
And THEN they would really ignore you. I mean days would tick without even so much as an update post to let you know that they had even bothered to read these 4 page long log files.
In other words, they weren't there to help you. They were there to gather your system information so that they could further beta test the software you just paid money for.
I mocked this openly on their forums. I wasn't abusive, I wasn't insulting, although I was probably a little mean. I got banned.
Not from the forums. From the game. For annoying their useless customer support I was banned from the game. I didn't TK anyone, grief anything, cheat in any way. All I did was get frustrated at not just a lack of help from SOE - but a lack of response. I didn't even get an email telling me I had been banned.
This lack of response carried over to when they reinstated me. And didn't tell me. And started to charge my credit card.
That's when I cancelled, insisted they refund my monthly fee (which to their credit, they did) and swore to never touch another SOE product again.
(Sadly I've broken that bloodoath with their Champions of Norrath titles, but that's only out of respect for Snowblind)