So it's Blizzard's fault that people break into their games and cheat?
Yeah. Pretty much. Why make a press release and a big ruckus to announce to the world that you've done a great justice to the community by deleting 112,000 accounts from your service for a game has been out for 3 years?! Only to admit that nearly their ENTIRE lineup of up games for the past 5-6 years are equally as buggy and delete nearly 4 times as many accounts within a 6 month period of time.
Yes sure it's difficult to figure out if a disconnect is legitimate or not, but about all the Diablo I hacks that gave you insanely powerful items? or the exploit that allowed you to kill people in town? Or the map and macro hacks that existed in Warcraft 2 for years? And yes, they do get a lot of complaints, the real question is if they ACTUALLY do anything about it. I stopped playing Starcraft in 1998 because of the community of cheaters, a fix for that 5 years later is WAY too little WAY too late.
No the bad rep that SOE was from Everquest, back when they were known as Verant. Remember if you claimed that your account was hacked, they just deleted your account? They had a bad reputation to begin with, SWG just added to that weight.
Blizzard also drips with credibility regarding their quality control process, an increasingly important asset for anyone in the MMO market.
I disagree with you there. People often forget about Battle.Net when it comes to Blizzard's portfolio. Battle.net is probably the worst multiplayer community/experience I've ever had (as well as all of my friends). Remember when they had deleted 112,000 Diablo II accounts (June 2003) due to hack and cheating programs? They patted themselves on the back in an effort to drum up more financial competence. Then not even 6 months later they deleted ANOTHER 400,000 accounts(Oct 2003). It only took them what, 4 or 5 years to recognize that the community as a whole sucked? The cheating was so rampant an honest player like me could never enjoy a complete round of Warcraft or Starcraft. When I played people were either cheating or turned off their computer when I was about to annihilate them so the loss wouldn't reflect on their ladder score. It was worse than CounterStrike (another game I hold with disdain).
Yeah. WoW is awesome. I'm in the beta and its tons of fun and I'll probably buy it once it hits the shelves, but I don't trust them any more than I do SOE/Verant for business practices. They may be the lesser of two evils, but are they still far from perfect.
If there is any game that I'm jonesing for it would be Tabula Rasa. Made by Richard Garriott and his team, the same people who practically invented the MMORPG. After seeing everything that E3 had to offer this year TR is probably the most innovative game to hit the MMORPG genre since well... Ultima Online. =]
All the way up the corporate ladder, even the VP of Sales and Marketing for Nintendo knows that they are only playing catch-up to the big boys. "We'll do what Sony does" because god knows we can't afford anything else after fast-tracking the DS.
That's the spirit Nintendo! Cut your morale and business practices down, because everyone knows with that attitude you'll never be on top again.
Sigh...
I like Nintendo, I really do, but I can't help but watch this company fumble and bumble in every aspect of their company down the press releases. What happened to bravado and innovation they once had?
No, the newest range of MMOGs being released today (aka 3rd Generation MMOGs) have stripped that need out. Games like City of Heroes allows a level 2 person to team with a level 30 person and STILL be useful as long as they are sidekicked.
SWG almost had it right, but a recently low "level" person could be useful in a team as long they had scout or entertainment skills.
Tabula Rasa which is being released next year will be the pinnacle of this concept. No traveling times, instant groups, teleportation all of which are concepts made for the working gamer.
Yeah its still around, but the game is basically Everquest with a Sci-Fi twist. The previous Game Director, Gaute Godager, admitted that he loved playing Everquest before they started AO. So did most of the development staff.
I played the game for 2 years and I honestly don't know why. There are so many better MMOGs out than this. If you like camping, Twinking, unfair PVP, and forum full of whiners crying Nerf and begging the "Devs" to fix their profession, then this game is for you. The gameplay is based around how much time you can spend in the game. Which sucks for gamers like me with a job, a house, and bills. The more you play the more twinked you'll become. Unless you are playing 4-8 hours a day most of your friends you play with will leave you in the dust. The graphics are nice and story is interesting, but so is SWG and City of Heroes.
You also have to realize that Playstation 2 was released a year earlier and had tons of games for it at launch, not to mention any playstation 1 game was backwards compatible. That alone is an incredible selling point. Plus there was the whole hype that there were only 500,000 PS2's coming to the states for Christmas of 2000. I think I even remember some people selling their PS2's on eBay for $2000-$3000 that year.
Playstation had the advantage in timing, especially with the DVD Boom. Microsoft knew they couldn't take the market away from them, but after a few years of XBox Live, a slew of XBox-only games that Americans love to play, and better hardware, Microsoft can now go up against Sony in round 2.
This time they are releasing a year earlier like the PS2 was in hopes to grab more market share. Its a risky move, but if anyone can afford to pull it off Microsoft would be the one.
Am I the only person who actually enjoys owning the packaging and instructions?
The deal sounds mediocre to me, but definitely not something to fork over my credit card right now. Like the guy a few threads up said, I'd rather drive to the store, stand in line, and drive home with the game in my hands.
I wonder if my AT&T cell phone will make my computer speakers make farting noises whenever it rings now...
I had a Cingular phone and got rid of it because everytime it would receive information or a phone call, my computer speakers would erratic and start sputtering.
This is in response to the article entitled "GIVE BACK TAKE-TWO" (http://www.nypost.com/seven/12292003/business/146 40.htm)
Wow. Just wow. I don't think I've ever read a more uninformed, uneducated, opinion in the BUSINESS section of any print or online publication in my entire life. Please explain to me how playing a videogame where violence is SIMULATED in a virtual world is worse than endangering someone's life with second hand smoke, or molesting a child in the REAL world.
Secondly, what does the founder's father have ANYTHING to do with the company's profits? I'm surprised that Ryan Brant hasn't already threatened to sue you and the New York Post for defamation of character.
Thirdly, Take Two didn't develop the game. They just published it. Rockstar Games are the developers. They have also developed and published several controversial games in the past few years. You obviously have no clue as to how the industry works and did absolutely zero fact checking. It's hilarious, your article is so terrible that you didn't even blame the right people.
I can't believe that a publication such as the New York Post would allow such garbage to even tarnish their name. I could perhaps see an article of such low caliber posted in the columnists section, but even that is a stretch. This article will be sent Take Two Interactive and posted on numerous news sites including my own (www.jivemagazine.com).
I hope Christopher Byron and the New York Post have fun with all the inflammatory emails you'll be receiving from both gamers and lawyers alike.
Have a happy new year.
Try not to inhale any second hand smoke.
I also notified Ryan Brant (Chairman of Take Two Interactive) of this story. His assistant spoke with me over the phone briefly and I emailed her a link to the story. I'd really like to see the author and the NYP sued for defamation of character.
I'd also really like to know where the author got his facts about Ryan Brant's father and what relevance it has to how GTA:VC is 10,000 times worse than child molestion.
Slashdot Mirror
Wait wait wait... You mean I missed Street Fighter 3?!
Someone please tell them that Deus Ex 2 came out in 2003.
Does anyone know this guy's win/loss (or if he's ever won) record for these video game lawsuits he keeps pulling from his ass?
Awesome.
Now we all know which email address to sign up for spam with...
jackpeace@comcast.net
A wise man once said
"When the money runs out, its time to launch!"
So it's Blizzard's fault that people break into their games and cheat?
Yeah. Pretty much. Why make a press release and a big ruckus to announce to the world that you've done a great justice to the community by deleting 112,000 accounts from your service for a game has been out for 3 years?! Only to admit that nearly their ENTIRE lineup of up games for the past 5-6 years are equally as buggy and delete nearly 4 times as many accounts within a 6 month period of time.
Yes sure it's difficult to figure out if a disconnect is legitimate or not, but about all the Diablo I hacks that gave you insanely powerful items? or the exploit that allowed you to kill people in town? Or the map and macro hacks that existed in Warcraft 2 for years? And yes, they do get a lot of complaints, the real question is if they ACTUALLY do anything about it. I stopped playing Starcraft in 1998 because of the community of cheaters, a fix for that 5 years later is WAY too little WAY too late.
the bad rep that SOE got was from SWG
No the bad rep that SOE was from Everquest, back when they were known as Verant. Remember if you claimed that your account was hacked, they just deleted your account? They had a bad reputation to begin with, SWG just added to that weight.
Blizzard also drips with credibility regarding their quality control process, an increasingly important asset for anyone in the MMO market.
I disagree with you there. People often forget about Battle.Net when it comes to Blizzard's portfolio. Battle.net is probably the worst multiplayer community/experience I've ever had (as well as all of my friends). Remember when they had deleted 112,000 Diablo II accounts (June 2003) due to hack and cheating programs? They patted themselves on the back in an effort to drum up more financial competence. Then not even 6 months later they deleted ANOTHER 400,000 accounts(Oct 2003). It only took them what, 4 or 5 years to recognize that the community as a whole sucked? The cheating was so rampant an honest player like me could never enjoy a complete round of Warcraft or Starcraft. When I played people were either cheating or turned off their computer when I was about to annihilate them so the loss wouldn't reflect on their ladder score. It was worse than CounterStrike (another game I hold with disdain).
Please don't forget the infamous Bnetd case.
Yeah. WoW is awesome. I'm in the beta and its tons of fun and I'll probably buy it once it hits the shelves, but I don't trust them any more than I do SOE/Verant for business practices. They may be the lesser of two evils, but are they still far from perfect.
If there is any game that I'm jonesing for it would be Tabula Rasa. Made by Richard Garriott and his team, the same people who practically invented the MMORPG. After seeing everything that E3 had to offer this year TR is probably the most innovative game to hit the MMORPG genre since well... Ultima Online. =]
All the way up the corporate ladder, even the VP of Sales and Marketing for Nintendo knows that they are only playing catch-up to the big boys. "We'll do what Sony does" because god knows we can't afford anything else after fast-tracking the DS.
That's the spirit Nintendo! Cut your morale and business practices down, because everyone knows with that attitude you'll never be on top again.
Sigh...
I like Nintendo, I really do, but I can't help but watch this company fumble and bumble in every aspect of their company down the press releases. What happened to bravado and innovation they once had?
No, the newest range of MMOGs being released today (aka 3rd Generation MMOGs) have stripped that need out. Games like City of Heroes allows a level 2 person to team with a level 30 person and STILL be useful as long as they are sidekicked.
SWG almost had it right, but a recently low "level" person could be useful in a team as long they had scout or entertainment skills.
Tabula Rasa which is being released next year will be the pinnacle of this concept. No traveling times, instant groups, teleportation all of which are concepts made for the working gamer.
Yeah its still around, but the game is basically Everquest with a Sci-Fi twist. The previous Game Director, Gaute Godager, admitted that he loved playing Everquest before they started AO. So did most of the development staff.
I played the game for 2 years and I honestly don't know why. There are so many better MMOGs out than this. If you like camping, Twinking, unfair PVP, and forum full of whiners crying Nerf and begging the "Devs" to fix their profession, then this game is for you. The gameplay is based around how much time you can spend in the game. Which sucks for gamers like me with a job, a house, and bills. The more you play the more twinked you'll become. Unless you are playing 4-8 hours a day most of your friends you play with will leave you in the dust. The graphics are nice and story is interesting, but so is SWG and City of Heroes.
Apparently according to this, it will be backwards compatible (At least according to Microsoft)
e ct ion_name=dev&aid=3669
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?s
What a terrible interview. Not only could he not answer each question with more than a handful of words, but he was not interested at all.
I agree though, who is letting this guy direct again?
You also have to realize that Playstation 2 was released a year earlier and had tons of games for it at launch, not to mention any playstation 1 game was backwards compatible. That alone is an incredible selling point. Plus there was the whole hype that there were only 500,000 PS2's coming to the states for Christmas of 2000. I think I even remember some people selling their PS2's on eBay for $2000-$3000 that year.
Playstation had the advantage in timing, especially with the DVD Boom. Microsoft knew they couldn't take the market away from them, but after a few years of XBox Live, a slew of XBox-only games that Americans love to play, and better hardware, Microsoft can now go up against Sony in round 2.
This time they are releasing a year earlier like the PS2 was in hopes to grab more market share. Its a risky move, but if anyone can afford to pull it off Microsoft would be the one.
Because they are too busy illegally copying and distributing our software and macro-crafting in our MMORPGs...
Am I the only person who actually enjoys owning the packaging and instructions?
The deal sounds mediocre to me, but definitely not something to fork over my credit card right now. Like the guy a few threads up said, I'd rather drive to the store, stand in line, and drive home with the game in my hands.
This card game almost makes me want to appreciate Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh cards...
I wonder if my AT&T cell phone will make my computer speakers make farting noises whenever it rings now...
I had a Cingular phone and got rid of it because everytime it would receive information or a phone call, my computer speakers would erratic and start sputtering.
The real question most MMORPG gamers would ask is "When is a MMORPG not in beta?"
That's an easy one. To quote a developer of one of the currently largest MMOGs I met last year, "When the money runs out, its time to launch!"
I also notified Ryan Brant (Chairman of Take Two Interactive) of this story. His assistant spoke with me over the phone briefly and I emailed her a link to the story. I'd really like to see the author and the NYP sued for defamation of character.
I'd also really like to know where the author got his facts about Ryan Brant's father and what relevance it has to how GTA:VC is 10,000 times worse than child molestion.
You know I think people said the same thing about internet porn when it started to get big. What's wrong with mental masturbation?
At least with this contraption we don't have to unzip our pants.
http://www.jivemagazine.com/music-reviews/2002/051 92002-moby_18/index.shtml
Now I can sleep better at night knowing that the universe is actually beige...