Get a region unlocker. All the popular windows DVD players have been cracked. You just download a patch and POOF, your windows machine is a region-free player.
I would point you at a link, but that's probably illegal, I'm sure you can find one without much trouble.
Not sure what a reception this will get from Slashdot, but Dragon Empires, (http://www.dragonempires.com/) hired Piers Anthony (Xanth, etc) to do their story. He did the framework and foundation of the story.
Then other people keep fleshing it out more and more. It's actually the only MMORPG where I read all the backlog of fiction that goes along with it. This one is actually somewhat interesting, (even if it as well will have nothing to do with the gameplay.)
I -- Was 'the' Matrix movie. They needed no other.
II -- Wasn't a Matrix movie, it was a 'trapped in the computer' movie with some annoying/unrelated stuff about some subterrainian people who are scared of robots.
III -- Wasn't a Matrix movie, it was a 'humans against the machines' war movie with some annoying/unrelated stuff about some people trapped in a computer.
They need to re-edit it and change the titles. All of the 'in-the-computer' parts of 3 should be moved to 2, and it should be called "Tron 2" and be 100% about anthropomorphizing processes in a computer.
All of 'humans-vs-robots' stuff in 2 should be moved to 3, it should be renamed "Humanities Last Stand" and be 100% about a war between humans and their almost sentient AI robot overlords.
In "Tron 2" Neo is either a 'user' jacked into the computer (like in "Tron") or he's just an actual OSS program fighting against the evil DRM overlord (like Tron himself.)
In "Humanities Last Stand" Neo is just a rebellious member of the community with a wild plan to attack the robots at the central brain instead of of fighting the minions at the gates.
I'm pretty sure they could pull it off, with just reditting all the footage, and doing a few pickup scenes.
CoH deserves almost all the praise people give it. It's very pretty, it excels at what it does, it's execution (coding etc) is more solid than average, it's an excellent game, and the developers did very well....for what they did.
However, they are also charging more than any other MMORPG to date, and from my perspective offering less.
What does CoH offer? An excellent costume designer and an unprecedented degree of activity and action in combat. But what else? That's the problem, there's nothing else.
The way CoH is designed, it could actually work just fine in a NWN type of customer hosted mini-server scenario.
You form up a group of 8-10 people and someone starts a 'listen' server. Then the 10 of you fight random battles in randomly generated missions, for random rewards of disposable power-ups, etc and so forth.
The only 'persistance' in the game is that the numbers (dmg dealt) get higher, and the mobs have different names.
I'm not saying it's a bad game. I think it's an excellent game, but I don't think it's worth MORE than actual persistant online worlds, where you have services that can't be duplicated by customer s hosting thier own small game.
That, I consider a universal flaw. I think CoH should have come out with a monthly charge LESS than the normal MMORPG to match it's bragging about a reduced and refined feature set.
I also thing there are other flaws in it's design, but I think these are more preferential. I cancelled my subscription because there was no way I was going to pay $15/month for the equivalent of a co-op quake server, but I actually stopped playing the game before my free month was up.
The problem is that this action that it does so well at is ALL IT DOES. There is NOTHING short of of that action, and very quickly, that action turns into 'wrote memerization' (sp). Depending on your character type, the keystroke to defeat your first enemy are exactly the same as the keystrokes to defeat your hundredth enemy, and your thousandth. Target, perform attack A,B,C, repeat if necessary, find new target. Some archetypes are more interesting than others.
I found myself creating new characters and playing 2 levels and then creating again. Then, I skipped the levels, and just started playing full-time with the character editor, only saving the characters that looked really good.
To follow up my long story with a short story...they did some things VERY VERY well, but they left out too much, and it makes their MMORPG only half of what it needs to be to be worth the monthly fee. (The same thing happened with ATITD. It was EXCELLENT at what it did...but it's what it didn't try to do that made it 'not worth paying for' to the majority of it's would-be audience.) (gee, that statement's quite broad.)
My prediction...this rapid build-up of subscriptions will shortly be followed with a rapid decline in subscriptions. I also predict that the follow-up game "City of Villains" will see all those people coming back. They will be thinking, (like I am) 'It was a good game, if only...' and they'll check out CoV to see if the 'only' is there. Whether they stay depends on CoV.
Probably not. You have an 'endurance' meter. You can 'sprint' (ie extra speed burst).
In the article is said there was a 15% run speed increase, and a 30% run duration increase. So, I'm guessing they are just talking about sprinting. That means normal movement is probably unaffected.
Can you show me in my post where I expressed my political leanings? Are you serious in that you think I should get my 'facts' from the Daily Show instead of Fox News? Did you really mean to say that?
I didn't express any of my personal politics. I just said that Moore and the Daily Show do NOT take themselves seriously, so neither should anyone else. Rather, they take current events and skew them in the name of entertainment.
I'm not trying to get everyone to kish Bush's feet, I'm just saying that basing your world view on someone's comedic routine isn't really the best idea.
I didn't say specifically that he did that in this film. I said he did that he DOES that. He has made other things you know.
And just to be clear, I even gave an example of it in something that's from this film. (The golf thing. It's in the trailer...it may or may not be in the film.)
Calm down, there are already too many high-horses on Slashdot.
I can't beleive no one's mentioned this. Moore's movies remind me exactly of the kind of stuff you see on the Daily Show.
They take real things, real people, and somewhat real interviews and just totally twist the heck out of it to make it sound ludicrous.
I don't have anything against Michael Moore, I think he's really funny, like Bill Maher, but I'm certainly not going to base my 'politics' on anything he says.
Haven't seen this movie yet. Just the trailer. Saw a bunch of underhanded jabs, like coming to interview the President when he's playing golf, and then making fun of him for playing golf? Excuse me, he was there first.:)
Anyway, there's nothing wrong with the movie...as long as no one takes it seriously.
I hold Ground Control up as THE greatest RTS.. (even if the 'S' (strategy) is more of a T (tactics). So far it's the only one to pull off a truly accessable and useful 3D interface. (I don't know why the other games don't just copy it.)
GC2 on the other hand made some poor decisions, and as far as I can tell they lost the magic.
If I signed up for one of these new keys...I'd have the original warez, the purchased box version, and finally the free-download version. (heh).
The question I have, (which I know the answer, but I pretend it confuses me.) On the freely downloadable one...why didn't they just DROP the cd-key requirement et all and make it easily downloadable and freely distributable....they totally detroyed their chances as getting the game into the hands of people who haven't played it by doing this stupid FilePlanet thing.
Re:I may screw this up...
on
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I used to have pigs. You can't hurd them like cows. What we did was pull on their tail. Grab on to their tail, and they are as easy to direct as if they had a steering wheel. Problem is, the most you can do it 2 at a time.
I don't look for 'content' in the terms of different monsters, I look for 'content' in the terms of different activities.
With CoH, if you closed your eyes and played the game, you'd notice that you were always hitting the exact same keystrokes. I had nice patterns, "jab, punch, swing" then again, "jab, punch, swing". Occasionaly I'd throw in a 'brawl' if my jab wasn't back yet.
There's nothing else to do...find monster, (missions were good because it was easier to find a monster). Run through your attack sequence till it was dead. Find another monster.
A 'non-reduced' MMOG would have other option. I could find a monster to beat up. I could try some lucrative money making activity (run errands?). I could make something to sell. (crafting).
And the funny thing, it's not so much WHAT you're doing, just that you have another option. (Of course..if it's completely stupid it doesn't count.)
That's why I called it 'reduced.' There's only one option for gameplay.
It's funny that you mention Eve. I read some of the beta diaries, and I was amazed to hear nothing but talking about their trade empire, and the hierachal structure of the corporations, and fleet management, and bulk orders of supplies and ships.. It seemed to be more of an economical simulation than your typical MMORPG.
I personally didn't play EVE very much. I didn't care for the fact that I was a ship and not a person. They needed more 'first-person' walk around the space-dock time. (But not the cheesy excuse for it that EnB was.)
But anyway..yes...EVE is a full-fledged game..non-reduced at all. COH is reduced..and they admit it.
City of Heroes is only fun and addicting for the first couple weeks.
On the third week I was finally admitting that despite my great hopes, there just wasn't anything new coming. On the fourth week, I didn't play at all. And, right before the start of the first 'for-pay' month I cancelled.
City of Heroes did a LOT of things right that other games totally dropped the ball on...but they also forgot about 75% of their game, and there's no chance I'm going to pay a HIGHER premium for a reduced game.
I've read through the comments, and everyone seems to think the auto-copy is a bad thing. I'm sure after you've been stung by it that it is.
I'm in the windows world, and I have the opposite problem. TeraTerm (my emulator of choice) has copied this 'auto-copy' concept. So, if I want to copy something from in the terminal window, I just highlight it and quickly go on my way.
However, nothing else does.:) So, I'm often found highlighting something (especially on web pages) and closing the window only to discover that I never actually hit CTRL-C.
I kept thinking that I'd like every program to do that for me...but I think what I really need to for TeraTerm to stop...so I get out of the habit.
Conflict Zone is an RTS that incorporates the press and public opinion. You build units based on how popular you are and how well you act for the press.
If you have an heroic defense of a bridge or something you get lots of 'popularity' points. If you wipe out a village of civilians with misplaced fire, you lose a lot of points.
Also, they have 'sub-commanders.' You can put entire sections of your army under control of an AI commander, with orders to defend, attack, etc.
Overall, the game wasn't anything special, and never gained any popularity, but it actually incorporates some of the articles jabs.
At the University I went to, there is so much math required for a CS degree that you only have to take 1 or 2 more classes, and you can graduate with a Math minor.
I didn't do that because I hate 'doing' the math. (Failed a couple courses.) I didn't hate the math, and I understand the concepts, and I'd love to put them into an algorythm or program, but I hate DOING the math. I don't like writing it on paper.
Of course, in my graphics class, my atom orbitted the viewpoint rather than the electrons orbitting the nucleus.:) Maybe I'm not as good at math as I thought.:)
There have been many slashdot stories, among other things, asking about superstar developers. Why you can list a million publishers, development companies, etc, but only rarely do you know the name of a lead artist, or AI programmer.
It seems to me, his reference to the movie industry is not about the (grips, gaffers, etc) but the actors.
Their 'plan' is to make super-star developers. So, you get "American McGee's Alice" happening more often.
"Halo Remix, starring John Johnson on AI, with Bill Billiams on Textures, and directed by Tom Thompson. With Special guest in Organic Modelling Nick Nicholby!"
The block buster games will start to be created by the famous 'rock-star' developers....and the dev houses and publishers will be no more important than "Universal" vs "DreamWorks".
You know what would be interesting. If they made a toggle, (in the options, or something that requires a reset, so you couldn't just flip back and forth.)
They could have one that says "Alternate flight physics." One of them would be easy for level flight/ hovering, but you sacrifice speed and manuverability. And the other would be the opposite.
I actually think the 'harder the better.' People can always struggle through and learn to fly, but if it's too 'restricted' to make learning easy, then there is a plateau that can't be surpassed.
It's all academic though....and besides...if I want DC choppers...I can play DC.:)
When I first played DC, I couldn't even fly straight UP. I'd push the throttle, and fly over and die. I tried, keyboard, keyboard+mouse, joystick, joystick+keyboard.. I couldn't fly the things. Finally I just gave up and decided I'd be a tank driver.
I tried again later, and after some practice, I got the hang of it. DC copters aren't simulations of real copters, but they are FUN, RESPONSIVE, and have a physics model that allow you to do anything!
The steep learning curve is WAY more than made up for in the abilities that you have later on. If they made them easy to fly, then there wouldn't be much use to flying them, other than a glorified bus.
DC Copters have completely ruined me for any lesser implementation of a helicopter....the other BF1942 mod, BF:V, DF: Joint Operations. They are all completely boring in comparison.
It makes me sad to hear that they've changed it to make it 'less capable' as I like to put it.
When I purchase/subscribe to a MMORPG, I'm not renting a movie, I'm not GOING to a movie, and I'm not going out to dinner. I'm buying a GAME. Don't compare prices to other types of entertainment, compare prices to other GAMES!!
I can buy UT2004 for $30. I can play UT2004 for as many hours a day as I want. I can play it online, or offline. I get free content updates from the developers, not to mention there will be a constant inflow of user-created content, and modification. (Expansion packs if you will.)
That initial $30 investment buys me infinitely more than the $50 + 14.95/month that CoH would ever give me.
But then again, I'm comparing two different concepts. If we can't compare to movies, and we can't compare to FPS's, then pretty much we have to look 'within'.
We have to look at the costs involved in producing and maintaining the MMORPG. The problem is...there's no publisher alive that will ever release that information to the general public. (That's because they count on idiots like you thinking that a monthly subscription should cost about as much as 3 movie rentals.)
(I figured this out, making assumptions on pay rates for employees, bandwidth costs, server maintainence and replacement, based on 100,000 subscribers. At the $12 price point, a MMOG makes $50,000 NET PROFIT a month. That's AFTER all expenses (including personnel.)
People keep talking about the 'oversaturation' of the MMORPG market. That's insane. If it was oversaturated, they wouldn't be able to keep making their prices HIGHER. I'm convinced that part of the reason the prices go up is because they want to seem like a 'premium.' "We aren't no discount 9.99 game, we're the real-deal at 15 BUCKS!!"
I'm in the City of Heroes beta, and it's the first MMORPG I think is worth buying in the last 3 years. (I"ve played ever single one of them.) However, $50 + $15/m is way to much to spend on a single game. That's $230 dollars for a game. If you spent that on other games, you could have 5 or 8 fresh new experiences in that same time....
Slashdot Mirror
Get a region unlocker. All the popular windows DVD players have been cracked. You just download a patch and POOF, your windows machine is a region-free player.
I would point you at a link, but that's probably illegal, I'm sure you can find one without much trouble.
It looks like ... Don't want to give away the punchline.
There are reasons why Ultima Online isn't the #1 MMORPG. Those reasons are starting to apply to the current champ.
In other words, don't waste your time on EQ 1. Hop into some current open beta instead.
Not sure what a reception this will get from Slashdot, but Dragon Empires, (http://www.dragonempires.com/) hired Piers Anthony (Xanth, etc) to do their story. He did the framework and foundation of the story.
Then other people keep fleshing it out more and more. It's actually the only MMORPG where I read all the backlog of fiction that goes along with it. This one is actually somewhat interesting, (even if it as well will have nothing to do with the gameplay.)
What they need to do is re-edit 2 and 3.
I -- Was 'the' Matrix movie. They needed no other.
II -- Wasn't a Matrix movie, it was a 'trapped in the computer' movie with some annoying/unrelated stuff about some subterrainian people who are scared of robots.
III -- Wasn't a Matrix movie, it was a 'humans against the machines' war movie with some annoying/unrelated stuff about some people trapped in a computer.
They need to re-edit it and change the titles. All of the 'in-the-computer' parts of 3 should be moved to 2, and it should be called "Tron 2" and be 100% about anthropomorphizing processes in a computer.
All of 'humans-vs-robots' stuff in 2 should be moved to 3, it should be renamed "Humanities Last Stand" and be 100% about a war between humans and their almost sentient AI robot overlords.
In "Tron 2" Neo is either a 'user' jacked into the computer (like in "Tron") or he's just an actual OSS program fighting against the evil DRM overlord (like Tron himself.)
In "Humanities Last Stand" Neo is just a rebellious member of the community with a wild plan to attack the robots at the central brain instead of of fighting the minions at the gates.
I'm pretty sure they could pull it off, with just reditting all the footage, and doing a few pickup scenes.
Done that one....but I did it in a perl script. Just another example of a successful 'perl -c' not meaning 'perfect.'
Don't know if you were hinting at this or what...but Sid Meyer is actually remaking (modernizing?, porting?) Pirates! to the new generation.
g =1
http://www.atari.com/pirates/pirates/home.php?l
It kind of has something to do with Pirates! winning every 'Game of the Century' contest ever held.
CoH deserves almost all the praise people give it. It's very pretty, it excels at what it does, it's execution (coding etc) is more solid than average, it's an excellent game, and the developers did very well....for what they did.
However, they are also charging more than any other MMORPG to date, and from my perspective offering less.
What does CoH offer? An excellent costume designer and an unprecedented degree of activity and action in combat. But what else? That's the problem, there's nothing else.
The way CoH is designed, it could actually work just fine in a NWN type of customer hosted mini-server scenario.
You form up a group of 8-10 people and someone starts a 'listen' server. Then the 10 of you fight random battles in randomly generated missions, for random rewards of disposable power-ups, etc and so forth.
The only 'persistance' in the game is that the numbers (dmg dealt) get higher, and the mobs have different names.
I'm not saying it's a bad game. I think it's an excellent game, but I don't think it's worth MORE than actual persistant online worlds, where you have services that can't be duplicated by customer s hosting thier own small game.
That, I consider a universal flaw. I think CoH should have come out with a monthly charge LESS than the normal MMORPG to match it's bragging about a reduced and refined feature set.
I also thing there are other flaws in it's design, but I think these are more preferential. I cancelled my subscription because there was no way I was going to pay $15/month for the equivalent of a co-op quake server, but I actually stopped playing the game before my free month was up.
The problem is that this action that it does so well at is ALL IT DOES. There is NOTHING short of of that action, and very quickly, that action turns into 'wrote memerization' (sp). Depending on your character type, the keystroke to defeat your first enemy are exactly the same as the keystrokes to defeat your hundredth enemy, and your thousandth. Target, perform attack A,B,C, repeat if necessary, find new target. Some archetypes are more interesting than others.
I found myself creating new characters and playing 2 levels and then creating again. Then, I skipped the levels, and just started playing full-time with the character editor, only saving the characters that looked really good.
To follow up my long story with a short story...they did some things VERY VERY well, but they left out too much, and it makes their MMORPG only half of what it needs to be to be worth the monthly fee. (The same thing happened with ATITD. It was EXCELLENT at what it did...but it's what it didn't try to do that made it 'not worth paying for' to the majority of it's would-be audience.) (gee, that statement's quite broad.)
My prediction...this rapid build-up of subscriptions will shortly be followed with a rapid decline in subscriptions. I also predict that the follow-up game "City of Villains" will see all those people coming back. They will be thinking, (like I am) 'It was a good game, if only...' and they'll check out CoV to see if the 'only' is there. Whether they stay depends on CoV.
Probably not. You have an 'endurance' meter. You can 'sprint' (ie extra speed burst).
In the article is said there was a 15% run speed increase, and a 30% run duration increase. So, I'm guessing they are just talking about sprinting. That means normal movement is probably unaffected.
It's this continual cancelling of UO sequels that reaffirms that MMOGs are insanely profitable.
Can you show me in my post where I expressed my political leanings? Are you serious in that you think I should get my 'facts' from the Daily Show instead of Fox News? Did you really mean to say that?
I didn't express any of my personal politics. I just said that Moore and the Daily Show do NOT take themselves seriously, so neither should anyone else. Rather, they take current events and skew them in the name of entertainment.
I'm not trying to get everyone to kish Bush's feet, I'm just saying that basing your world view on someone's comedic routine isn't really the best idea.
I didn't say specifically that he did that in this film. I said he did that he DOES that. He has made other things you know.
And just to be clear, I even gave an example of it in something that's from this film. (The golf thing. It's in the trailer...it may or may not be in the film.)
Calm down, there are already too many high-horses on Slashdot.
I can't beleive no one's mentioned this. Moore's movies remind me exactly of the kind of stuff you see on the Daily Show.
:)
They take real things, real people, and somewhat real interviews and just totally twist the heck out of it to make it sound ludicrous.
I don't have anything against Michael Moore, I think he's really funny, like Bill Maher, but I'm certainly not going to base my 'politics' on anything he says.
Haven't seen this movie yet. Just the trailer. Saw a bunch of underhanded jabs, like coming to interview the President when he's playing golf, and then making fun of him for playing golf? Excuse me, he was there first.
Anyway, there's nothing wrong with the movie...as long as no one takes it seriously.
I hold Ground Control up as THE greatest RTS.. (even if the 'S' (strategy) is more of a T (tactics). So far it's the only one to pull off a truly accessable and useful 3D interface. (I don't know why the other games don't just copy it.)
GC2 on the other hand made some poor decisions, and as far as I can tell they lost the magic.
If I signed up for one of these new keys...I'd have the original warez, the purchased box version, and finally the free-download version. (heh).
The question I have, (which I know the answer, but I pretend it confuses me.) On the freely downloadable one...why didn't they just DROP the cd-key requirement et all and make it easily downloadable and freely distributable....they totally detroyed their chances as getting the game into the hands of people who haven't played it by doing this stupid FilePlanet thing.
I used to have pigs. You can't hurd them like cows. What we did was pull on their tail. Grab on to their tail, and they are as easy to direct as if they had a steering wheel. Problem is, the most you can do it 2 at a time.
Just corroborating your story.
I don't look for 'content' in the terms of different monsters, I look for 'content' in the terms of different activities.
With CoH, if you closed your eyes and played the game, you'd notice that you were always hitting the exact same keystrokes. I had nice patterns, "jab, punch, swing" then again, "jab, punch, swing". Occasionaly I'd throw in a 'brawl' if my jab wasn't back yet.
There's nothing else to do...find monster, (missions were good because it was easier to find a monster). Run through your attack sequence till it was dead. Find another monster.
A 'non-reduced' MMOG would have other option. I could find a monster to beat up. I could try some lucrative money making activity (run errands?). I could make something to sell. (crafting).
And the funny thing, it's not so much WHAT you're doing, just that you have another option. (Of course..if it's completely stupid it doesn't count.)
That's why I called it 'reduced.' There's only one option for gameplay.
It's funny that you mention Eve. I read some of the beta diaries, and I was amazed to hear nothing but talking about their trade empire, and the hierachal structure of the corporations, and fleet management, and bulk orders of supplies and ships.. It seemed to be more of an economical simulation than your typical MMORPG.
I personally didn't play EVE very much. I didn't care for the fact that I was a ship and not a person. They needed more 'first-person' walk around the space-dock time. (But not the cheesy excuse for it that EnB was.)
But anyway..yes...EVE is a full-fledged game..non-reduced at all. COH is reduced..and they admit it.
City of Heroes is only fun and addicting for the first couple weeks.
On the third week I was finally admitting that despite my great hopes, there just wasn't anything new coming. On the fourth week, I didn't play at all. And, right before the start of the first 'for-pay' month I cancelled.
City of Heroes did a LOT of things right that other games totally dropped the ball on...but they also forgot about 75% of their game, and there's no chance I'm going to pay a HIGHER premium for a reduced game.
I've read through the comments, and everyone seems to think the auto-copy is a bad thing. I'm sure after you've been stung by it that it is.
:) So, I'm often found highlighting something (especially on web pages) and closing the window only to discover that I never actually hit CTRL-C.
I'm in the windows world, and I have the opposite problem. TeraTerm (my emulator of choice) has copied this 'auto-copy' concept. So, if I want to copy something from in the terminal window, I just highlight it and quickly go on my way.
However, nothing else does.
I kept thinking that I'd like every program to do that for me...but I think what I really need to for TeraTerm to stop...so I get out of the habit.
I'm in Logan, Utah, home to one of the 'non BYU' Universities in the state. They have a reputation of being....non-tolerant. :)
Anyway, given that reputation, and that I'm at an in-state rival. I really expected this to be a "Your Rights Online" story.
No, I think they are going to keep the guy who plays Palpatine. But they are just going to call him "The Emporer."
I'm having a hard time finding a web-page. But here's a review.
1 .h tml
http://www.cgonline.com/reviews/conflictzo-01-r
Conflict Zone is an RTS that incorporates the press and public opinion. You build units based on how popular you are and how well you act for the press.
If you have an heroic defense of a bridge or something you get lots of 'popularity' points. If you wipe out a village of civilians with misplaced fire, you lose a lot of points.
Also, they have 'sub-commanders.' You can put entire sections of your army under control of an AI commander, with orders to defend, attack, etc.
Overall, the game wasn't anything special, and never gained any popularity, but it actually incorporates some of the articles jabs.
And, there is a demo....if you can find it.
At the University I went to, there is so much math required for a CS degree that you only have to take 1 or 2 more classes, and you can graduate with a Math minor.
:) Maybe I'm not as good at math as I thought. :)
I didn't do that because I hate 'doing' the math. (Failed a couple courses.) I didn't hate the math, and I understand the concepts, and I'd love to put them into an algorythm or program, but I hate DOING the math. I don't like writing it on paper.
Of course, in my graphics class, my atom orbitted the viewpoint rather than the electrons orbitting the nucleus.
There have been many slashdot stories, among other things, asking about superstar developers. Why you can list a million publishers, development companies, etc, but only rarely do you know the name of a lead artist, or AI programmer.
It seems to me, his reference to the movie industry is not about the (grips, gaffers, etc) but the actors.
Their 'plan' is to make super-star developers. So, you get "American McGee's Alice" happening more often.
"Halo Remix, starring John Johnson on AI, with Bill Billiams on Textures, and directed by Tom Thompson. With Special guest in Organic Modelling Nick Nicholby!"
The block buster games will start to be created by the famous 'rock-star' developers....and the dev houses and publishers will be no more important than "Universal" vs "DreamWorks".
Yeah, I can live with that.
:)
You know what would be interesting. If they made a toggle, (in the options, or something that requires a reset, so you couldn't just flip back and forth.)
They could have one that says "Alternate flight physics." One of them would be easy for level flight/ hovering, but you sacrifice speed and manuverability. And the other would be the opposite.
I actually think the 'harder the better.' People can always struggle through and learn to fly, but if it's too 'restricted' to make learning easy, then there is a plateau that can't be surpassed.
It's all academic though....and besides...if I want DC choppers...I can play DC.
""infinately easier to fly than those in DC""
You mean "infinitely dumbed-down"?
When I first played DC, I couldn't even fly straight UP. I'd push the throttle, and fly over and die. I tried, keyboard, keyboard+mouse, joystick, joystick+keyboard.. I couldn't fly the things. Finally I just gave up and decided I'd be a tank driver.
I tried again later, and after some practice, I got the hang of it. DC copters aren't simulations of real copters, but they are FUN, RESPONSIVE, and have a physics model that allow you to do anything!
The steep learning curve is WAY more than made up for in the abilities that you have later on. If they made them easy to fly, then there wouldn't be much use to flying them, other than a glorified bus.
DC Copters have completely ruined me for any lesser implementation of a helicopter....the other BF1942 mod, BF:V, DF: Joint Operations. They are all completely boring in comparison.
It makes me sad to hear that they've changed it to make it 'less capable' as I like to put it.
I hate you and everyone like you. Are you insane?
When I purchase/subscribe to a MMORPG, I'm not renting a movie, I'm not GOING to a movie, and I'm not going out to dinner. I'm buying a GAME. Don't compare prices to other types of entertainment, compare prices to other GAMES!!
I can buy UT2004 for $30. I can play UT2004 for as many hours a day as I want. I can play it online, or offline. I get free content updates from the developers, not to mention there will be a constant inflow of user-created content, and modification. (Expansion packs if you will.)
That initial $30 investment buys me infinitely more than the $50 + 14.95/month that CoH would ever give me.
But then again, I'm comparing two different concepts. If we can't compare to movies, and we can't compare to FPS's, then pretty much we have to look 'within'.
We have to look at the costs involved in producing and maintaining the MMORPG. The problem is...there's no publisher alive that will ever release that information to the general public. (That's because they count on idiots like you thinking that a monthly subscription should cost about as much as 3 movie rentals.)
(I figured this out, making assumptions on pay rates for employees, bandwidth costs, server maintainence and replacement, based on 100,000 subscribers. At the $12 price point, a MMOG makes $50,000 NET PROFIT a month. That's AFTER all expenses (including personnel.)
People keep talking about the 'oversaturation' of the MMORPG market. That's insane. If it was oversaturated, they wouldn't be able to keep making their prices HIGHER. I'm convinced that part of the reason the prices go up is because they want to seem like a 'premium.' "We aren't no discount 9.99 game, we're the real-deal at 15 BUCKS!!"
I'm in the City of Heroes beta, and it's the first MMORPG I think is worth buying in the last 3 years. (I"ve played ever single one of them.) However, $50 + $15/m is way to much to spend on a single game. That's $230 dollars for a game. If you spent that on other games, you could have 5 or 8 fresh new experiences in that same time....