Yeah, but this is/. we're talking about. When Firefox releases a new version everyone's all raving about how it's a great competitor to IE, that competition is good and that IE is going to die off because of it. Then when MS releases a new blog it's suddenly an attempt to take over the world, and when THEY introduce a little competition it's suddenly a reason to pick up the pitchforks and light the torches.
Re:Excellent criticism of EQ2 written by an EQ MVP
on
Everquest 2 Launches
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· Score: 1
I think it's hard to call for a total revamp of the MMO genre based solely on a single game's flawed take on it. And it's hard to say how EQ2 will be since it's only launching today. I still haven't got ahold of my copy, so I can't speak to how the game actually plays...
That being said, from what I have seen of EQ2 and from what others are saying, it looks like they're sparing no expense to design a game that has an awful lot of detail in its presentation. I imagine a lot of what used to be "half-assed" in previous games will now be presented quite nicely. It seems that the EQ2 development team's put a lot of passion into this, and I think that will come across to anyone playing the game.
Re:Excellent criticism of EQ2 written by an EQ MVP
on
Everquest 2 Launches
·
· Score: 1
It's worth nothing that between the time Lark's review was written and now, a staggering amount of additions and changes were made to Everquest 2, nearing the end of beta. It is an extremely good review, no doubt of that, but I took it into consideration along with a lot of other sources of information.
I wasn't attempting to take a moral stance on the actual theft itself, simply because the parent was indicating the piracy of GTA a week before a highly anticipated launch (seen any counts on the number of preorders?) would cut heavily into profits. THAT's what I'm disputing. Personally speaking, I purchase the games that I play.
Please. Lets come back to this discussion after we see how many copies of Halo 2, Half-life 2, and GTA: San Andreas are sold. I guarantee you they won't be sparing the champagne at the developer's launch parties this year.
Imagine a hockey MMO, where the guy on your team who's supposed to be dealing with a faceoff goes AFK? Or worse, your goalie? For most MMOs, real life intrudes and can often be handled easily by finding a safespot and sitting there, or logging off entirely. How well would that kind of thing affect the enjoyment of all playing a MMO sports game?
Wouldn't seamless integration with everything be more preferable? I would think the successful iPod "killer" (can't we just say competer instead?) would support as many media types as users use, and integrate with all the services and software out there.
Because, frankly, there are plenty of people out there who don't think like you do. There's a HUGE segment of PC users who don't only buy their computers for productivity applications, but also for games. Gaming has been a driving force in hardware/software development, and most importantly: sales. Not everyone wants to have a computer and three consoles to play games, and thus for some people the determining factor of what kind of home computer to purchase is how many different things can it do, including gaming.
Actually, this product isn't being marketed as an accessory to the iPod, but simply as a product to timeshift radio broadcasts. There IS a line on their product page that talks about transferring to an iPod or other such device, but the RadioShark itself is in no way listed as a direct accessory to the iPod.
Just don't walk around with any valuables near the main training areas. A little look near Paragon City Hall and you'll see old ladies getting mugged -- and a whole lot of high level heroes not doing anything about it.:)
Somehow Ballmer forgot that the iPod is but one of many different players out there. I guess that means owners of Creative hardware, showcased on Microsoft's music sales site, are only putting 100% legit content on their players, and that Microsoft has been the key to that?
I agree with you completely, my XP Pro machine at home has two regular users on it constantly with the user switching enabled, so there's two "sessions" active at once. I consider myself a power user as well, I'm always doing at least a dozen things at once. With all that, I can say the only times I've been required to restart my PC is after a critical update that requires a restart to take effect. Otherwise the machine is always on, and always has at least a half dozen programs running actively across two sessions.
12%? I call bullshit.:)
In my opinion, the market was saturated a long time before Galaxies came out. It was saturated around the time the 10th D&D-style MMOG came out, I think. There's very few of these things that are doing something unique with the genre. Neocron comes to mind, as does EVE Online and City of Heroes. I think Galaxies will serve as an excellent warning to others on how not to do a license-based MMOG. Hopefully the Trek Online guys learn from the mistakes that have been made...
A bit offtopic here, but I have to say the 3G ones appeal to me more than the 4G ones. I much prefer the no moving parts version of the scrollwheel to the new clicky one. But that's just me;)
Does it really take that much work? Perhaps in games, but perhaps not in life. When researchers can reproduce the "basic" instinctual behavior of insects (interacting with environment, for instance) with analog electronic components, one has to wonder if we're overthinking artificial intelligence. I'm referring to the guy who first designed small micro-robots using such components and was pretty surprised at the level of basic interactivity they can display. I'm not suggesting games ship with a little block of electronics, just that we might be overthinking a process that shouldn't be.
Then again, perhaps this is a bit too deep to go into it, after all we are dealing with a game.:)
Was it really all that impressive, given what else can be said about the AI? Things react to the environment much more in HL2 it seems, so I'm sure the progression of thought from the Strider's perspective went a little something like this:
A bit off-topic, but pertinent to your comments about EVE. Check out this link. It's a list of items due to come out in the next major game *patch* in Q3. If you thought the level of detail was high before, this will blow your airlock open. Personally though, I'm not too concerned with the lack of a person-type character present. I'm fine with being just a ship, since that's what the entire game has been designed around, conceptually. However I do remember EnB's character representation, and as horribly underdeveloped as it was, it was still kind of neat to get out of the ship, stretch the legs and chat with guild-mates on the station.
Admittedly I've cancelled my CoH account a couple of weeks ago, for partially those reasons. Mostly though it was the fact that their last patch completely destroyed any group fun I was having with the group of friends I was playing with. It's interesting you use the phrase "reduced game". That's definitely a relative term to each person as an individual.
For instance, content is usually a decent indicator overall for MMOs. CoH doesn't really have a LOT of content, but is decently fun overall. Fun enough to warrant paying monthly for it, for a lot of people. EVE Online has an insane amount of content and detail in it, but doesn't instantly reward the player as games such as CoH do. For me, I've played EVE since beta, and already cancelled my CoH subscription, because I prefer a more hardcore detailed experience that games like EVE offer me.
Definitely sounds like you and I had the same overall experience with CoH (I had less than 24 hours to go before my first official monthly payment).
I played CoH mostly with real life friends, and we all set up a Ventrilo server for voice comms. The chat system never was an issue for us, but yes it ended up being an issue when I was grouping with strangers. A very valid point!
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Yeah, but this is /. we're talking about. When Firefox releases a new version everyone's all raving about how it's a great competitor to IE, that competition is good and that IE is going to die off because of it. Then when MS releases a new blog it's suddenly an attempt to take over the world, and when THEY introduce a little competition it's suddenly a reason to pick up the pitchforks and light the torches.
I think it's hard to call for a total revamp of the MMO genre based solely on a single game's flawed take on it. And it's hard to say how EQ2 will be since it's only launching today. I still haven't got ahold of my copy, so I can't speak to how the game actually plays...
That being said, from what I have seen of EQ2 and from what others are saying, it looks like they're sparing no expense to design a game that has an awful lot of detail in its presentation. I imagine a lot of what used to be "half-assed" in previous games will now be presented quite nicely. It seems that the EQ2 development team's put a lot of passion into this, and I think that will come across to anyone playing the game.
It's worth nothing that between the time Lark's review was written and now, a staggering amount of additions and changes were made to Everquest 2, nearing the end of beta. It is an extremely good review, no doubt of that, but I took it into consideration along with a lot of other sources of information.
If you read TFC you would know he argues that very same point right back at himself.
I wasn't attempting to take a moral stance on the actual theft itself, simply because the parent was indicating the piracy of GTA a week before a highly anticipated launch (seen any counts on the number of preorders?) would cut heavily into profits. THAT's what I'm disputing. Personally speaking, I purchase the games that I play.
According to this there's 36 species of cats. That's about $4600 worth of OSXs before they have to switch to something else. :)
Please. Lets come back to this discussion after we see how many copies of Halo 2, Half-life 2, and GTA: San Andreas are sold. I guarantee you they won't be sparing the champagne at the developer's launch parties this year.
Imagine a hockey MMO, where the guy on your team who's supposed to be dealing with a faceoff goes AFK? Or worse, your goalie? For most MMOs, real life intrudes and can often be handled easily by finding a safespot and sitting there, or logging off entirely. How well would that kind of thing affect the enjoyment of all playing a MMO sports game?
Wouldn't seamless integration with everything be more preferable? I would think the successful iPod "killer" (can't we just say competer instead?) would support as many media types as users use, and integrate with all the services and software out there.
Because, frankly, there are plenty of people out there who don't think like you do. There's a HUGE segment of PC users who don't only buy their computers for productivity applications, but also for games. Gaming has been a driving force in hardware/software development, and most importantly: sales. Not everyone wants to have a computer and three consoles to play games, and thus for some people the determining factor of what kind of home computer to purchase is how many different things can it do, including gaming.
Actually, this product isn't being marketed as an accessory to the iPod, but simply as a product to timeshift radio broadcasts. There IS a line on their product page that talks about transferring to an iPod or other such device, but the RadioShark itself is in no way listed as a direct accessory to the iPod.
Just don't walk around with any valuables near the main training areas. A little look near Paragon City Hall and you'll see old ladies getting mugged -- and a whole lot of high level heroes not doing anything about it. :)
Somehow Ballmer forgot that the iPod is but one of many different players out there. I guess that means owners of Creative hardware, showcased on Microsoft's music sales site, are only putting 100% legit content on their players, and that Microsoft has been the key to that?
I agree with you completely, my XP Pro machine at home has two regular users on it constantly with the user switching enabled, so there's two "sessions" active at once. I consider myself a power user as well, I'm always doing at least a dozen things at once. With all that, I can say the only times I've been required to restart my PC is after a critical update that requires a restart to take effect. Otherwise the machine is always on, and always has at least a half dozen programs running actively across two sessions. 12%? I call bullshit. :)
In my opinion, the market was saturated a long time before Galaxies came out. It was saturated around the time the 10th D&D-style MMOG came out, I think. There's very few of these things that are doing something unique with the genre. Neocron comes to mind, as does EVE Online and City of Heroes. I think Galaxies will serve as an excellent warning to others on how not to do a license-based MMOG. Hopefully the Trek Online guys learn from the mistakes that have been made...
Congrats, you just figured out the basic premise to picking almost any lock, including that deadbolt that keeps your house secure. :)
A bit offtopic here, but I have to say the 3G ones appeal to me more than the 4G ones. I much prefer the no moving parts version of the scrollwheel to the new clicky one. But that's just me ;)
Actually, I rather prefer to think they're helping children to learn to share, which is something we should all be encouraging.
Automatically installs crummy DVD player software that totally takes control away from the good one you alread had. That's just my guess though :)
I'm not entirely confident Microsoft can even come up with types of games that appeal to Japanese gamers. :)
Does it really take that much work? Perhaps in games, but perhaps not in life. When researchers can reproduce the "basic" instinctual behavior of insects (interacting with environment, for instance) with analog electronic components, one has to wonder if we're overthinking artificial intelligence. I'm referring to the guy who first designed small micro-robots using such components and was pretty surprised at the level of basic interactivity they can display. I'm not suggesting games ship with a little block of electronics, just that we might be overthinking a process that shouldn't be.
:)
Then again, perhaps this is a bit too deep to go into it, after all we are dealing with a game.
Was it really all that impressive, given what else can be said about the AI? Things react to the environment much more in HL2 it seems, so I'm sure the progression of thought from the Strider's perspective went a little something like this:
Not bad. Not shockingly great, but not bad.
A bit off-topic, but pertinent to your comments about EVE. Check out this link. It's a list of items due to come out in the next major game *patch* in Q3. If you thought the level of detail was high before, this will blow your airlock open. Personally though, I'm not too concerned with the lack of a person-type character present. I'm fine with being just a ship, since that's what the entire game has been designed around, conceptually. However I do remember EnB's character representation, and as horribly underdeveloped as it was, it was still kind of neat to get out of the ship, stretch the legs and chat with guild-mates on the station.
Admittedly I've cancelled my CoH account a couple of weeks ago, for partially those reasons. Mostly though it was the fact that their last patch completely destroyed any group fun I was having with the group of friends I was playing with. It's interesting you use the phrase "reduced game". That's definitely a relative term to each person as an individual.
For instance, content is usually a decent indicator overall for MMOs. CoH doesn't really have a LOT of content, but is decently fun overall. Fun enough to warrant paying monthly for it, for a lot of people. EVE Online has an insane amount of content and detail in it, but doesn't instantly reward the player as games such as CoH do. For me, I've played EVE since beta, and already cancelled my CoH subscription, because I prefer a more hardcore detailed experience that games like EVE offer me.
Definitely sounds like you and I had the same overall experience with CoH (I had less than 24 hours to go before my first official monthly payment).
I played CoH mostly with real life friends, and we all set up a Ventrilo server for voice comms. The chat system never was an issue for us, but yes it ended up being an issue when I was grouping with strangers. A very valid point!