"5 years ago, before WoW was launched, getting 200k subs in a year was already great. Today, it's a reason to fold."
This is an important point. Everquest peaked at around 500,000 subscribers. Many successful games of the time such as City of Heroes had numbers a lot less than that. Everquest was the monster MMO at the time. WoW expanded the number of players in the MMO market significantly - particularly in the US and European markets. The truth is a lot of these people are just WoW players. Most of them have never played another MMO. I do meet quite a few that leave WoW usually for another MMO such as Guild Wards or Conan only to end up returning after a few months. The same goes with players leaving WoW and then returning on the expansion release dates. Trying to outdo WoW on its turf is probably pointless. Trying to do what WoW did and get new players who haven't played a MMO before interested in your game might be a better idea.
There were a lot of complaints about Naxx being too easy. Blizzard's intention was to make it an entry level raid probably to allow more people to get exposed to raiding content. Aside from the from the first boss, Ulduar is definitely a notch up in difficulty.
In all my years of buying PC games I haven't had a single game that the CD-Key was already in use when I bought them."
I had this happen with a key from SimCity 3000. It was after the game had been out for over a year though. The company (Maxis?) completely ignored my email requests to fix the problem.
As long as you have a limited number of skillchips useable at one time it isn't a game breaker. Of course using a class based system is easier to design and test. Most skill systems (like SWG) had problems because players tended to come up with overpowered skill combinations which would need to be nerfed.
Pre-Burning Crusade you could also get into the Hyjal zone. There was a green entrance portal that was non-functional. To get in you just needed to die by the portal and walk your ghost form through it. You could resurrect inside Hyjal. The zone was mostly empty although there was a giant crater and the skull of Archimonde on the world tree. Also where the road ended their was a construction barricade that said something like "Blizzard Construction Co" on it.
After the video game console crash in the 80s no one wanted to stock or sell video games. This is why Nintendo's initial NES bundle included the robot addon. They had to push the NES not as a video game console but rather as an electronic toy. Semantic difference but important for marketing at the time.
How about a Core 2 quad iMac? Is that too much to ask for? I mean Core 2 quad systems start at about $600 anyway. It's not like those CPUs are high end parts nowadays.
"It's a drawback to using Macs, they will never have as much hardware variety as all other PC OEMs combined."
Oddly enough in the late 80s and early 90s Macs came in a quite a variety of configurations with the most common model being a standard desktop computer. I seriously doubt Apple would have much trouble making a standard desktop model. What I see is that Apple wants to keep the Mac Pro as a high ticket item. Offering a non-Xeon based Core i7 desktop would seriously cut into their top end sales. Many of the jobs that Mac Pro's are used for do NOT need dual Xeon processors, FB-DIMMs and the like.
you have to aim the a crosshair by moving the wiimote instead of just aiming
I ended up putting a pillow on my lap and resting the wii remote on it. I only needed to make small movements of the remote to move the reticle about the screen. Much less arm strain than trying to hold the wii remote out in from of you during a long gaming session.
The processor is under powered. Where is a quad core option? The video card is under powered and not upgradeable. You have to buy the expensive 24" version to get a better video card. The video card in the 24" version won't handle newer games at the native res with effects turned all the way up.
"ignoring the problem entirely since macs don't really "do" games"
Unfortunately, I do games. So do a lot of other Mac users. Recently with the World of Warcraft expansion a lot of Mac users had to turn down their graphic levels to play the game acceptably. This is on fairly recent machines such as the previous generation Macbook Pros and iMacs. Sadly there is no upgrade path aside from getting a new Mac. I guess ultimately that benefits Apple. I switched back to using my 2 year old PC because the performance was better with a more powerful video card.
There were a lot of reasons. Probably the number one overall was the same reason Mac market share dropped: the large prevalence of cheap PC clones from different vendors. The average user didn't see a real difference between Windows and another OS. As far as the technical side, you are correct in that the custom chips ultimately held the Amiga back. The updated AGA chipset machines (more or less comparable to VGA at the time) were pricey for the power they offered. For example the A1200 was released with a 68020 at a time when 486s were becoming common on PCs.
While 9 Dragons is superficially a similar game to WoW it has all the bad things about MMOs and none of the good things. Comparing the two is like comparing Doom with Extreme Painbrawl.
Terms like this mean that what they are after is not doing fan service but rather attempting to expand the appeal of the franchise to new audiences. I agree, it will probably suck but I believe it is obvious that there intention is to grow the audience rather than appeal to hardcore fans who are notorious for being hard to please.
Slashdot Mirror
"5 years ago, before WoW was launched, getting 200k subs in a year was already great. Today, it's a reason to fold."
This is an important point. Everquest peaked at around 500,000 subscribers. Many successful games of the time such as City of Heroes had numbers a lot less than that. Everquest was the monster MMO at the time.
WoW expanded the number of players in the MMO market significantly - particularly in the US and European markets. The truth is a lot of these people are just WoW players. Most of them have never played another MMO. I do meet quite a few that leave WoW usually for another MMO such as Guild Wards or Conan only to end up returning after a few months. The same goes with players leaving WoW and then returning on the expansion release dates.
Trying to outdo WoW on its turf is probably pointless. Trying to do what WoW did and get new players who haven't played a MMO before interested in your game might be a better idea.
The MMO Ryzom added user created content with the Ryzom Ring update back in 2006.
There were a lot of complaints about Naxx being too easy. Blizzard's intention was to make it an entry level raid probably to allow more people to get exposed to raiding content. Aside from the from the first boss, Ulduar is definitely a notch up in difficulty.
In all my years of buying PC games I haven't had a single game that the CD-Key was already in use when I bought them."
I had this happen with a key from SimCity 3000. It was after the game had been out for over a year though. The company (Maxis?) completely ignored my email requests to fix the problem.
As long as you have a limited number of skillchips useable at one time it isn't a game breaker. Of course using a class based system is easier to design and test. Most skill systems (like SWG) had problems because players tended to come up with overpowered skill combinations which would need to be nerfed.
And they're trying again, maybe this time it will work:
Fallen Earth
Auto Assault honestly wasn't a very cohesive game. Some elements were pretty cool but things like the crafting system were horrible.
If you consider Star Trek IV as an eighties comedy rather than a sci-fi movie it is pretty entertaining.
And oh sweet irony that Mr Pegg plays Scotty in an odd-numbered Trek film.
Pre-Burning Crusade you could also get into the Hyjal zone. There was a green entrance portal that was non-functional. To get in you just needed to die by the portal and walk your ghost form through it. You could resurrect inside Hyjal. The zone was mostly empty although there was a giant crater and the skull of Archimonde on the world tree. Also where the road ended their was a construction barricade that said something like "Blizzard Construction Co" on it.
Who cares how crappy the site is? They have a transvestite that looks like Garth modeling how fun their console is. It's sure to be a huge success.
After the video game console crash in the 80s no one wanted to stock or sell video games. This is why Nintendo's initial NES bundle included the robot addon. They had to push the NES not as a video game console but rather as an electronic toy. Semantic difference but important for marketing at the time.
How about a Core 2 quad iMac? Is that too much to ask for? I mean Core 2 quad systems start at about $600 anyway. It's not like those CPUs are high end parts nowadays.
"It's a drawback to using Macs, they will never have as much hardware variety as all other PC OEMs combined."
Oddly enough in the late 80s and early 90s Macs came in a quite a variety of configurations with the most common model being a standard desktop computer.
I seriously doubt Apple would have much trouble making a standard desktop model. What I see is that Apple wants to keep the Mac Pro as a high ticket item. Offering a non-Xeon based Core i7 desktop would seriously cut into their top end sales. Many of the jobs that Mac Pro's are used for do NOT need dual Xeon processors, FB-DIMMs and the like.
you have to aim the a crosshair by moving the wiimote instead of just aiming
I ended up putting a pillow on my lap and resting the wii remote on it. I only needed to make small movements of the remote to move the reticle about the screen. Much less arm strain than trying to hold the wii remote out in from of you during a long gaming session.
Yeah just so long as you realize that most games that suck still receive a rating of 7 in the magazine.
As for the iMac - at the price point:
The processor is under powered. Where is a quad core option?
The video card is under powered and not upgradeable.
You have to buy the expensive 24" version to get a better video card. The video card in the 24" version won't handle newer games at the native res with effects turned all the way up.
"ignoring the problem entirely since macs don't really "do" games"
Unfortunately, I do games. So do a lot of other Mac users. Recently with the World of Warcraft expansion a lot of Mac users had to turn down their graphic levels to play the game acceptably. This is on fairly recent machines such as the previous generation Macbook Pros and iMacs. Sadly there is no upgrade path aside from getting a new Mac. I guess ultimately that benefits Apple.
I switched back to using my 2 year old PC because the performance was better with a more powerful video card.
There were a lot of reasons. Probably the number one overall was the same reason Mac market share dropped: the large prevalence of cheap PC clones from different vendors. The average user didn't see a real difference between Windows and another OS.
As far as the technical side, you are correct in that the custom chips ultimately held the Amiga back. The updated AGA chipset machines (more or less comparable to VGA at the time) were pricey for the power they offered. For example the A1200 was released with a 68020 at a time when 486s were becoming common on PCs.
Um. Kittens and cats ARE self washing.
While 9 Dragons is superficially a similar game to WoW it has all the bad things about MMOs and none of the good things. Comparing the two is like comparing Doom with Extreme Painbrawl.
"but, New Orleans is not a man made city."
Ummmm. So it's just a naturally occurring city? Or was it built by another animal species? Particularly industrious ants perhaps?
GHz does not equal performance. Which is why a 2GHz Core 2 CPU can beat out a 3.6GHz Pentium 4.
Please don't bring back the myth.
Extra weird considering he served with Captain Pike before Kirk.
Except that every time he goes to mind meld I'm going to thin that he is about to suck someone's brains out.
"reboot the franchise"
"re-imagine"
Terms like this mean that what they are after is not doing fan service but rather attempting to expand the appeal of the franchise to new audiences.
I agree, it will probably suck but I believe it is obvious that there intention is to grow the audience rather than appeal to hardcore fans who are notorious for being hard to please.