If done properly Vanguard might steal away WoW's long term thunder. Simply put, MMOs are designed for the hardcore. Theres no exception about it. If its too 'casual' geared, hardcore gamers will simply blow through the content too quickly (hitting level 60 in two weeks in WoW anyone?) Any new 'casual' content will simply be scoffed off by players who don't want to start a new character to get 'the full experience' or will be blown through by people who are loaded up with enough uber-gear that then can solo most of it. (Wheres the new mid-level content in WoW?)
The only problem with current 'hardcore' geared MMOs is the fact that most developers design their systems with the 'ship now, add content later' mentality. This leads to gamers blowing through the early levels so quickly, developers are forced to focus on end-game content and ignore 'mid-game' content. A MMO that can be challenging yet not end-game focused (organizing and planning a 40-man raid is simply frustrating and time consuming) would be an excellent for gamers. Face it, as much as people talk about WoW as 'the best MMO evar!', they generally end their statements with 'I just wish there was more mid-game content.'
Not yet. Current simulations are nowhere near the level of Ender's Game (in the battle room you would 'freeze' completely when 'killed' whereas now we simply have buzzer sounds going off on your vest and you're told to lie down and pretend your dead.)
And then of course, theres the obvious flaws in the book which disregarded chance, morale and the random fact that sometimes things don't always go as planned (maybe your gun jams and suddenly your machine gunner/battleship is dead/destroyed because you didn't shoot your target in time, maybe someone paniced and fired too early/didn't fire at all, maybe the enemy got a lucky shot off and managed to take out your squad leader's radio/flagship radio tower early in the fight.) Only twice in the entire book do things change unexpectedly and in both cases he still manages to pull through the fight with a victory.
Great idea, but nowhere near realistic levels. Even current simulations throw in random occurances just to keep soldiers off balance. (Maybe the door is booby-trapped and you lose your pointman early on, maybe there are hostages you weren't expecting, maybe there are more/less enemies than intel suggested, maybe intel FUBARed and you went into the wrong building and now you have to finish the scenario with the enemy on alert, etc.)
I think such absolute skepticism is impossible to maintain in the face of how much there is in the world to understand.
I don't think its really a matter of there being too much in the world to understand, its more of an issue of which topics people spend their time thinking about. Just look at the mass media as an example.
We have millions of people worldwide comparing George Bush to Hitler, when any historian knows Bush is barely a punk compared to Hitler in terms of aggression (Afghanistan was U.N. sanationed and any politician knows the hardliners were looking for an excuse to go into Iraq for years) and number of dead on account of their policies/wars/actions (Bush's couple thousand to low tens of thousands versus Hitlers 10+ million in the Russian campaign alone). Not exactly logical there, considering how many WWII historians point out the fact that on no less than 3 major occasions could Hitler have been stopped -legally- both domestically and internationally.
If politics is too contraversial, how about something as simple as the conspiracy theory about how the U.S. never landed on the moon, all the videos of space walks were made up here on Earth and all the money that went into funding the space program was embezzled. It'd take a few years worth of high school, maybe a semester of college physics, but anyone whos really interested could figure out its true and the landings did happen.
I can't say any about Joystiq since I don't read it, but as for Slashdot linking to Kikizo, thats simply the problem with user submitted 'news'. Get enough idiots who read your 'news' enough and eventually they'll force other news sites (such as Slashdot) to link to them. Throw in a user submitting system and editors that don't care and this is the result.
I think the absolute max "rested state" you can store up it 1.5 of a level over the course of 2 weeks. (Don't quote on me that though)
WoW however also enjoys the fact that hitting level 60 isn't that hard at all so some friends of mine who play it say its not really worth it since people generally fall into two catagories. A) they play so infrequently or in short periods of time that the xp boost eventually just caps out and is 'wasted' or B) they play 'hardcore' enough that rested bonus just isn't worth the 'downtime'.
Looking at thing from a different angle, America's image as bringers of freedom, fighters against tyranny, and lighthouse of the world for democracy was right at the end of WW2.
True, but prior to WWII America was never in a position to challenge Britain's naval power, Russia's massive army size, Germany's military effeciency, or France's (at the time) impressive post-Napoleon military record.
Even post-WWI, the U.S. never fully mobilized for war, German was still militarily impressive, British naval power was challenged but ultimately still dominant, Russia 'lost' but was still impressive in army size and France proved that 'it still had what it took' by holding off the Germans. Post/During-WWII,The only reason the U.S. recieved an image of 'bringers of freedom' and what not, is because every other previously major nation was more or less leveled (Britain blockaded/bombed, Japan nuked/occupied, Germany a wasteland/divided, etc).
As for France's past, even if you count out WWII, France's pre-Napoleon military history is not that impressive. The countless wars/skrimishs/border disputes/colonial disputes between France and Britain are legendary, Germany dominated France in the Franco-Prussian War and the French and Indian War between the French Canada and the British American colonies is not just a simply footnote in history either.
True, but it looks like Lik Sang got off 'as an example to others'. $600K+ isn't that much if you're an international trading company.
But yeah it looks like Nintendo is going after the pirates instead of lumping everyone into one group and assuming they're all pirates. The lack of any major anti-pirating actions since the Lik Sang case seems to support this.
No, cartridges weren't "standard" media for the masses, but...
Yes, cartridges were "standard" but only for industry use due to their high manufacturing costs.
Thats why it was always so easy to pirate Nintendo software. If you 'know who to talk to' you can find generic plugs and hardware needed to burn and rip Nintendo games (for any system). And then of course, theres the hardware inferiorities of the time. CDs couldn't be used to their fullest (and arguably they're artificially filled with voice acting and FMVs), Laserdiscs were massive flops, DVDs are too new and other media such as 3.5" and 5.25" disks were obviously inferior (if cheaper).
You can even see it in Nintendo's Gamecube and GBA (I haven't played a DS so I won't mention it here). GBA cartridges? Painfully old design. People were pirating it weeks after its release. Some websites already sell 4GB rom carts. Gamecube mini-discs? Sony has been selling them for years in Japan. They've been used in everything from music to digital camera storage. Mini-discs are old by tech standards. Nintendo isn't exactly on the forefront of anti-piracy method when you really think about it.
Inside Nintendo, we call our strategy "Blue Ocean." This is in contrast to a "Red Ocean." Seeing a Blue Ocean is the notion of creating a market where there initially was none--going out where nobody has yet gone. Red Ocean is what our competitors do--heated competition where sales are finite and the product is fairly predictable.
I think its safe to say that this strategy is going to be hit-or-miss. If Nintendo fails with "Blue Ocean" the Revolution (or whatever they end up calling it) will flop, simply because the market isn't there. If it does work though, Sony and Microsoft's "Red Ocean" will find themselves overfishing for a depleting market.
Nintendo games have some of the least anti-piracy protection systems out of all 3 current major systems. The only reason why you don't see them pirated so often is because more people would rather simply buy the game and system since they'll generally high quality. (In comparison to Sony's 'quantity over quality' or Xbox's hit-or-miss methods.)
WoW only gets a yellow for violence?! Whoa! I must be playing the wrong version since I've seen Civilian NPCs get killed, theres an outright war going on (especially on the PvP servers) and players are lining up to enter Battlegrounds to bash each other's heads in.
Actually, when in-game marriages were added, there were complaints about the lack of non-gay/lesbian marriages. If you and your girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife were the same in-game gender as you, then you were out of luck. The fact that two of the five races were male only and female only (Galka and Mithra respectively) didn't help either.
But on the flip side, SE really doesn't step in on 'harassment' issues (gay or otherwise) unless its reported and even then the GMs will usually side on the person being harassed. (They usually cite some 'it is forbidden to spam/harass another player' rule.)
From beginning to end, ranging from 5-man grouping, various PvP settings, to difficult large scale raiding instances, WoW manages to keep a steady learning curve throughout while also catering to numerous types of gamers.
As someone who's been playing WoW for the past 4 months, I can safely say the writer has no idea wth he is talking about. '5-man groupings' are alsow done only because people don't want to share to the loot with too many people. 5-man groupings are perfect sizes for most instances (1, maybe 2 tanks, a healer and 2 DD are the norm).
PvP settings are more or less nothing more than town raids (which are nothing more than provoking the other side into sending players to fight back since theres no rewards or long term effects of wiping out a town) or grinding in Battlegrounds (assuming you can get in as an Alliance player or you don't go up against a 'twinked' opposing team).
"difficult large scale raiding instances"? What game is he playing? Like all video games, players have already figured out whats the 'best' way to do an instance, with which classes, with exact spells to be used at what points, etc etc for most instances in the game. Most guilds have it down so well they'll sometimes go on instances with half the recommended number of people. The constant addition of new 'uber gear' instead of mid-level or low level gear doesn't help either.
I like WoW, but some of these 'awards' are just stupid. 'Best PvP'? Wth? From what I hear in comparison to other MMOs, WoW has the worst PvP balance and design. The crafting system is bare bones, exping get lonely and lets be honest, the Horde models are some of the ugliest I've seenen since Quake 1.
Its because Africa is more or less the black sheep of history really. With the exception of Japan and Russia, nearly every single major imperial/regional/military power in history has exploited Africa at one time or another (slave trade, colonies, subjugation of local population, civil wars, colonial wars, 'border disputes', 'skrimishes', colonial fighting during World War I and II, etc.) No political group/government/nation really wants to get involved with Africa since it'll open up a lot of old historical wounds.
U.S. won't touch it since African American sentiments are still touchy especially in the South. Britain more or less wants nothing to do with Africa (usually due to monetary and military cost), same with Russia, China and Japan. Germany is too restricted to help effectively and France has been giving the finger to everyone lately. Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia, Mexico; too weak or lack of interest for whatever reason. The U.N. has been working in Africa but we all know how much of a failure that is (Somalia is still a battleground with the withdrawal of U.S. troops, genocide is CURRENTLY being committed in Darfur, Egypt is tangled in Middle East affairs, theres the widespread AIDS crisis, etc.)
That must be why you can't read a newspaper or watch a newscast without the war and the president being questioned.
Questioned? Most news reports don't even bother questioning Bush anymore, they go straight to the protests, demonstrations, death statistics and/or bashing by so-called 'experts'. Hell, most major news agencies simply wrote off his State of the Union speech as 'a repeat from last year's' then start bashing it with statements like 'its a sign of weakness' or 'it looks like hes just trying to salvage his works at this point.'
Rip-offs are generally meant to classify something as an almost exact copy of a previous model with no improvements or changes and often with nothing more than a name change.
Because Hideo Kojima isn't an idiot. He may not consider movies to be art, but he knows Boll would simply destroy any respect the MGS series has as a very serious story. (I've heard people comparing the MGS(1) storyline to the Godzilla movie storylines.)
Except for the fact that during these 'player interactions' you were normally locked in an area so you were more or less forced to listen to the droning NPC. You could run off to make them shut up, but then you couldn't trigger the follow scripts and proceed with the game. (I once caused HL2 to glitch by bypassing the Bugbait tutorial and had to reload a previous save.)
Its not that unusual when you look at the reviews/rating/reception Civilization 3 and 4 recieved when launched.
Civ 4 is a love it or hate it game (with most hating since it changed the Civilization formula so much). Reviews were positive, but the sheer lack of mass interest in the game simply speaks louder.
Civilization 3 had a whole set of problems on its own. Did not ship with multiplayer, the first expansion was a buggy failure, the second expansion was too little too late and it had been far too long since Civilization 2 (Gold Edition) which had multiplayer.
Having never played the game, I have no way of knowing if they're right, but if the game really does display American Indians as racial stereotypes, they have a valid point.
One thing to note about the game (I have played and beaten it) is that the game IS stereotypical. In the first half of the game, you basically gun down (no pun intended) indians by the dozens almost literally (they're almost always armed with bows or hatchets so its easy to kill 3 or 4 with one shotgun blast).
But on the other hand, in the second half of the game, you start killing 'the white man' complete with raiding and destroying a fort and a mine. You kill the local mayor, a business tycoon, wipe out a rouge Confederate unit, U.S. marshals, bandits and mercenaries. All of whom are fairly stereotypical (the mayor is put into power by money, the business tycoon is a local crime boss, the rouge Confederates are seenen as oppressive and in one point in the game outright torture indians which you rescue, U.S. marshals are on the payroll etc.)
Stereotypical? Yes. More or less true in historical context? With the exception of the 'search for the golden city' sub-plot, yes.
That WOULD fit logically if SE didn't have a release strategy of spacing games out every 6 or so months. Don't forget, before (and even now) SquareSoft and Enix merged, they were THE #1 RPG developers in the world. The Ultima series has/had been more or less destroyed, the Elder Scroll series are too few and far between and most other RPG series have either created a niche for themselves ('Tales of' series, Xenosaga series, etc) or flat out died out. SE now more or less has a monopoly on the RPG market.
SE releases DQVIII arguably THE most anticipated console game in years and then is unable to maintain the high profits enjoyed by the games initial launch? Gee, wow. I didn't see that coming.
There are mods that'll let you have a little bit of text when people click on you. Generally these are done only for role playing purposes (made up backstory, general info, etc), but its not hard to imagine it being used to admit being gay.
And then theres always the option of running around naked whenever you aren't out fighting something. (Which no one does due to the fact that the character models look ugly and on PvP servers theres always the threat of being ganked.) The incredibly bad fashion designs in the game don't help either. (On some forums players try to out do each other in 'whos character looks the ugliest' contests. Rainbow colored, scaled patterned, robe two sizes too big wearing players are common. And thats equiping themselves for the best stats increases.)
However I think that WoW proves that it may at least be possible to create a good Star Trek MMORPG game: again, a lot of lore, single universe, many main characters so it's a relatively "unfocused" story.
When's the last time you watched a Star Trek show? Theres at LEAST three different time periods a Star Trek MMO could take place in, each with with its own different quirks (Enterprise would have to be very strategic due to low tech and slow engines at the time, original Star Trek would be focused more on exploring thanks to new engine tech, and Next Generation/Deep Space Nine/Voyager would be more trading/war/conflict based depending on the exact setting.)
Next, FFXI. I take exception to it being called "among the most successful MMORPGs around" because if you ignore Japan, it was hardly successful worldwide. Yes, it was a runaway success in Japan. But we're talking about western gamers, western universes, and western MMORPGs.
About 40% of FFXI players are located within the U.S. and Canada, 20% for Europe (although the late release for that area didn't help). I think the parent post is just trying to say that with the exceptions of WoW and FFXI (and to a lesser extent EQ and Lineage and 2) just about every MMO GLOBALLY has recieved a lukewarm reception at best. (UO never took off outside of the U.S., AC at its highest never came near EQ's numbers and The Sims Online and The Matrix Online are more or less considered to be failures with AC2 being the biggest having shut down recently.)
Except that when Blizzard releases the new expansion raid zones, THOSE new raid zones will only be for the hardcore. And Blizzard (MMORPGs in general) typically doesn't raise the level cap too often. Don't forget, WoW initially launched with a level 50 cap and was only bumped up to level 60 because people were hitting the level cap literally a week after the launch (I think the current record is something like 4 days playtime from level 1 to 60.)
Slashdot Mirror
The only problem with current 'hardcore' geared MMOs is the fact that most developers design their systems with the 'ship now, add content later' mentality. This leads to gamers blowing through the early levels so quickly, developers are forced to focus on end-game content and ignore 'mid-game' content. A MMO that can be challenging yet not end-game focused (organizing and planning a 40-man raid is simply frustrating and time consuming) would be an excellent for gamers. Face it, as much as people talk about WoW as 'the best MMO evar!', they generally end their statements with 'I just wish there was more mid-game content.'
And then of course, theres the obvious flaws in the book which disregarded chance, morale and the random fact that sometimes things don't always go as planned (maybe your gun jams and suddenly your machine gunner/battleship is dead/destroyed because you didn't shoot your target in time, maybe someone paniced and fired too early/didn't fire at all, maybe the enemy got a lucky shot off and managed to take out your squad leader's radio/flagship radio tower early in the fight.) Only twice in the entire book do things change unexpectedly and in both cases he still manages to pull through the fight with a victory.
Great idea, but nowhere near realistic levels. Even current simulations throw in random occurances just to keep soldiers off balance. (Maybe the door is booby-trapped and you lose your pointman early on, maybe there are hostages you weren't expecting, maybe there are more/less enemies than intel suggested, maybe intel FUBARed and you went into the wrong building and now you have to finish the scenario with the enemy on alert, etc.)
I don't think its really a matter of there being too much in the world to understand, its more of an issue of which topics people spend their time thinking about. Just look at the mass media as an example.
We have millions of people worldwide comparing George Bush to Hitler, when any historian knows Bush is barely a punk compared to Hitler in terms of aggression (Afghanistan was U.N. sanationed and any politician knows the hardliners were looking for an excuse to go into Iraq for years) and number of dead on account of their policies/wars/actions (Bush's couple thousand to low tens of thousands versus Hitlers 10+ million in the Russian campaign alone). Not exactly logical there, considering how many WWII historians point out the fact that on no less than 3 major occasions could Hitler have been stopped -legally- both domestically and internationally.
If politics is too contraversial, how about something as simple as the conspiracy theory about how the U.S. never landed on the moon, all the videos of space walks were made up here on Earth and all the money that went into funding the space program was embezzled. It'd take a few years worth of high school, maybe a semester of college physics, but anyone whos really interested could figure out its true and the landings did happen.
I can't say any about Joystiq since I don't read it, but as for Slashdot linking to Kikizo, thats simply the problem with user submitted 'news'. Get enough idiots who read your 'news' enough and eventually they'll force other news sites (such as Slashdot) to link to them. Throw in a user submitting system and editors that don't care and this is the result.
WoW however also enjoys the fact that hitting level 60 isn't that hard at all so some friends of mine who play it say its not really worth it since people generally fall into two catagories. A) they play so infrequently or in short periods of time that the xp boost eventually just caps out and is 'wasted' or B) they play 'hardcore' enough that rested bonus just isn't worth the 'downtime'.
True, but prior to WWII America was never in a position to challenge Britain's naval power, Russia's massive army size, Germany's military effeciency, or France's (at the time) impressive post-Napoleon military record.
Even post-WWI, the U.S. never fully mobilized for war, German was still militarily impressive, British naval power was challenged but ultimately still dominant, Russia 'lost' but was still impressive in army size and France proved that 'it still had what it took' by holding off the Germans. Post/During-WWII,The only reason the U.S. recieved an image of 'bringers of freedom' and what not, is because every other previously major nation was more or less leveled (Britain blockaded/bombed, Japan nuked/occupied, Germany a wasteland/divided, etc).
As for France's past, even if you count out WWII, France's pre-Napoleon military history is not that impressive. The countless wars/skrimishs/border disputes/colonial disputes between France and Britain are legendary, Germany dominated France in the Franco-Prussian War and the French and Indian War between the French Canada and the British American colonies is not just a simply footnote in history either.
But yeah it looks like Nintendo is going after the pirates instead of lumping everyone into one group and assuming they're all pirates. The lack of any major anti-pirating actions since the Lik Sang case seems to support this.
No, cartridges weren't "standard" media for the masses, but...
Yes, cartridges were "standard" but only for industry use due to their high manufacturing costs.
Thats why it was always so easy to pirate Nintendo software. If you 'know who to talk to' you can find generic plugs and hardware needed to burn and rip Nintendo games (for any system). And then of course, theres the hardware inferiorities of the time. CDs couldn't be used to their fullest (and arguably they're artificially filled with voice acting and FMVs), Laserdiscs were massive flops, DVDs are too new and other media such as 3.5" and 5.25" disks were obviously inferior (if cheaper).
You can even see it in Nintendo's Gamecube and GBA (I haven't played a DS so I won't mention it here). GBA cartridges? Painfully old design. People were pirating it weeks after its release. Some websites already sell 4GB rom carts. Gamecube mini-discs? Sony has been selling them for years in Japan. They've been used in everything from music to digital camera storage. Mini-discs are old by tech standards. Nintendo isn't exactly on the forefront of anti-piracy method when you really think about it.
I think its safe to say that this strategy is going to be hit-or-miss. If Nintendo fails with "Blue Ocean" the Revolution (or whatever they end up calling it) will flop, simply because the market isn't there. If it does work though, Sony and Microsoft's "Red Ocean" will find themselves overfishing for a depleting market.
Nintendo games have some of the least anti-piracy protection systems out of all 3 current major systems. The only reason why you don't see them pirated so often is because more people would rather simply buy the game and system since they'll generally high quality. (In comparison to Sony's 'quantity over quality' or Xbox's hit-or-miss methods.)
WoW only gets a yellow for violence?! Whoa! I must be playing the wrong version since I've seen Civilian NPCs get killed, theres an outright war going on (especially on the PvP servers) and players are lining up to enter Battlegrounds to bash each other's heads in.
But on the flip side, SE really doesn't step in on 'harassment' issues (gay or otherwise) unless its reported and even then the GMs will usually side on the person being harassed. (They usually cite some 'it is forbidden to spam/harass another player' rule.)
As someone who's been playing WoW for the past 4 months, I can safely say the writer has no idea wth he is talking about. '5-man groupings' are alsow done only because people don't want to share to the loot with too many people. 5-man groupings are perfect sizes for most instances (1, maybe 2 tanks, a healer and 2 DD are the norm).
PvP settings are more or less nothing more than town raids (which are nothing more than provoking the other side into sending players to fight back since theres no rewards or long term effects of wiping out a town) or grinding in Battlegrounds (assuming you can get in as an Alliance player or you don't go up against a 'twinked' opposing team).
"difficult large scale raiding instances"? What game is he playing? Like all video games, players have already figured out whats the 'best' way to do an instance, with which classes, with exact spells to be used at what points, etc etc for most instances in the game. Most guilds have it down so well they'll sometimes go on instances with half the recommended number of people. The constant addition of new 'uber gear' instead of mid-level or low level gear doesn't help either.
I like WoW, but some of these 'awards' are just stupid. 'Best PvP'? Wth? From what I hear in comparison to other MMOs, WoW has the worst PvP balance and design. The crafting system is bare bones, exping get lonely and lets be honest, the Horde models are some of the ugliest I've seenen since Quake 1.
U.S. won't touch it since African American sentiments are still touchy especially in the South. Britain more or less wants nothing to do with Africa (usually due to monetary and military cost), same with Russia, China and Japan. Germany is too restricted to help effectively and France has been giving the finger to everyone lately. Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia, Mexico; too weak or lack of interest for whatever reason. The U.N. has been working in Africa but we all know how much of a failure that is (Somalia is still a battleground with the withdrawal of U.S. troops, genocide is CURRENTLY being committed in Darfur, Egypt is tangled in Middle East affairs, theres the widespread AIDS crisis, etc.)
Questioned? Most news reports don't even bother questioning Bush anymore, they go straight to the protests, demonstrations, death statistics and/or bashing by so-called 'experts'. Hell, most major news agencies simply wrote off his State of the Union speech as 'a repeat from last year's' then start bashing it with statements like 'its a sign of weakness' or 'it looks like hes just trying to salvage his works at this point.'
Rip-offs are generally meant to classify something as an almost exact copy of a previous model with no improvements or changes and often with nothing more than a name change.
Because Hideo Kojima isn't an idiot. He may not consider movies to be art, but he knows Boll would simply destroy any respect the MGS series has as a very serious story. (I've heard people comparing the MGS(1) storyline to the Godzilla movie storylines.)
Except for the fact that during these 'player interactions' you were normally locked in an area so you were more or less forced to listen to the droning NPC. You could run off to make them shut up, but then you couldn't trigger the follow scripts and proceed with the game. (I once caused HL2 to glitch by bypassing the Bugbait tutorial and had to reload a previous save.)
Civ 4 is a love it or hate it game (with most hating since it changed the Civilization formula so much). Reviews were positive, but the sheer lack of mass interest in the game simply speaks louder.
Civilization 3 had a whole set of problems on its own. Did not ship with multiplayer, the first expansion was a buggy failure, the second expansion was too little too late and it had been far too long since Civilization 2 (Gold Edition) which had multiplayer.
One thing to note about the game (I have played and beaten it) is that the game IS stereotypical. In the first half of the game, you basically gun down (no pun intended) indians by the dozens almost literally (they're almost always armed with bows or hatchets so its easy to kill 3 or 4 with one shotgun blast).
But on the other hand, in the second half of the game, you start killing 'the white man' complete with raiding and destroying a fort and a mine. You kill the local mayor, a business tycoon, wipe out a rouge Confederate unit, U.S. marshals, bandits and mercenaries. All of whom are fairly stereotypical (the mayor is put into power by money, the business tycoon is a local crime boss, the rouge Confederates are seenen as oppressive and in one point in the game outright torture indians which you rescue, U.S. marshals are on the payroll etc.)
Stereotypical? Yes. More or less true in historical context? With the exception of the 'search for the golden city' sub-plot, yes.
That WOULD fit logically if SE didn't have a release strategy of spacing games out every 6 or so months. Don't forget, before (and even now) SquareSoft and Enix merged, they were THE #1 RPG developers in the world. The Ultima series has/had been more or less destroyed, the Elder Scroll series are too few and far between and most other RPG series have either created a niche for themselves ('Tales of' series, Xenosaga series, etc) or flat out died out. SE now more or less has a monopoly on the RPG market.
SE releases DQVIII arguably THE most anticipated console game in years and then is unable to maintain the high profits enjoyed by the games initial launch? Gee, wow. I didn't see that coming.
And then theres always the option of running around naked whenever you aren't out fighting something. (Which no one does due to the fact that the character models look ugly and on PvP servers theres always the threat of being ganked.) The incredibly bad fashion designs in the game don't help either. (On some forums players try to out do each other in 'whos character looks the ugliest' contests. Rainbow colored, scaled patterned, robe two sizes too big wearing players are common. And thats equiping themselves for the best stats increases.)
When's the last time you watched a Star Trek show? Theres at LEAST three different time periods a Star Trek MMO could take place in, each with with its own different quirks (Enterprise would have to be very strategic due to low tech and slow engines at the time, original Star Trek would be focused more on exploring thanks to new engine tech, and Next Generation/Deep Space Nine/Voyager would be more trading/war/conflict based depending on the exact setting.)
Next, FFXI. I take exception to it being called "among the most successful MMORPGs around" because if you ignore Japan, it was hardly successful worldwide. Yes, it was a runaway success in Japan. But we're talking about western gamers, western universes, and western MMORPGs.
About 40% of FFXI players are located within the U.S. and Canada, 20% for Europe (although the late release for that area didn't help). I think the parent post is just trying to say that with the exceptions of WoW and FFXI (and to a lesser extent EQ and Lineage and 2) just about every MMO GLOBALLY has recieved a lukewarm reception at best. (UO never took off outside of the U.S., AC at its highest never came near EQ's numbers and The Sims Online and The Matrix Online are more or less considered to be failures with AC2 being the biggest having shut down recently.)
Except that when Blizzard releases the new expansion raid zones, THOSE new raid zones will only be for the hardcore. And Blizzard (MMORPGs in general) typically doesn't raise the level cap too often. Don't forget, WoW initially launched with a level 50 cap and was only bumped up to level 60 because people were hitting the level cap literally a week after the launch (I think the current record is something like 4 days playtime from level 1 to 60.)