Well I'm holding money too, and I don't want it. You balance a FPS for keyboard/mouse and it's unplayable with a normal controller. Creating a game where it becomes required to use add-on hardware to be able to compete is a great way to kill a games sales. I bet that any Xbox 360 games that require the optional HDD will be few and far between, and will not sell well for this same reason. (Historically look at the 32x, SegaCD, and that N64 expansion cartridge)
Besides, who in their right mind would want to use a keyboard and mouse in their living room?
The Barrens is special for some reason. No matter what server you're on, the local chat in the Barrens is always...colorful. I have a feeling that there is some deep social phenomenon at work in that zone. Perhaps its the level range or something, but you will never see discussions in any other zone like you will there...
Honestly, after taking multiple characters questing in that zone, the discussions are the only thing that make the zone bearable...
Please. This is why all the "something think of teh movie studios!!" crap breaks down. The idea of music/movies/art is to tell a story. Not to make money. FREE Storytelling has been a part of human history since the dawn of man. Just because in the last 150 years people decided that they could make a quick buck off of it doesnt change this fact.
Okay, you're an idiot and know nothing about the history of the arts. Making money for artistic endeavors is NOT some radical new concept. Why did Michaelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel? Because he was comissioned to do so. Bach's massive body of cantatas? Contracted by the Catholic Church.
People use their skills to make a living so they don't starve in the street. Artists are no different.
There is a hunter ability (Eyes of the Hawk, I think) that allows you to focus your vision on any point within sight of your character. While this is pretty much a useless ability gameplay-wise, I've always thought it would come in really handy for movie-making. You can stick the camera just about anywhere: High on cliff walls, on trees, on top of buildings, whatever.
The combat is also somewhat unbalanced at the moment as melee combat DPS is far greater than ranged and magic attacks.
Are you dealing with low level characters, or max? If you're dealing with lower levels, this makes sense. IIRC from my PnP DnD days, the melees had a distinct advantage over casters at first, but as characters progressed the balance shifted decidedly in the casters favor...
I guess this is just a differing of opinions at this point. Personally I think both game types are 'seperate but equal' and enjoy them both. I like a good PvP game (Eve Online) and I like a good PvE game (WoW) In my experience, it is very difficult to get both types of gameplay working together in the same game without diminishing one or the other.
Again, I don't think that PvE is just filler in an MMO. But then I think that people who bitched about the multiplayer in HL2 and Doom3 (single player games FFS) are idiots. I say enjoy it for what it is intended to be, not bitch about what it isn't. DDO is a cooperative PvE game. I hope they make it a GOOD cooperative PvE game. If you want a good PvP game play DaoC, Eve, or Guild Wars. If every game in existance were focused on providing the exact same gameplay, it would get pretty damn boring.
I remember watching the videos of that demo-battle (Featuring 3-D versions of FFVI characters) and drooling over the possibilites. I can't RTFA here at work, but I'm curious if it's got that video linked? I'd love to watch that again...(Nostalgia)
But the better job a game does of giving the players as much PvP conflict as possible without making it too tough on new players, the better the game will be.
Correction: The better the PvP aspect of the game will be. The PvE will still suck. And contrary to popular belief, there are actually people out there who would appreciate a game with a high quality PvE element. Don't get me wrong, I like PvP as much as the next guy. But it is not the ONLY aspiration in the genre. People need to lose the 'PvP > all' tunnel-vision that is so prevalent these days.
Oh, and one more thing I wish MMO developers would realize:
Making encounters require more people is NOT a good way to increase difficulty. It just shows that you can't figure out new ways to challenge a normal group, and just made numbers bigger to compensate. Raids are cool and all, but they should not be the be-all end-all of endgame content.
Without some kind of decent PvP any MMORP is doomed to be filled with nothing by juvenile carebears
Ironically, most carebears peg PvP'ers as juvenile...
IMHO, PvP play is not a substitute for PvE. They are two different game types. I agree that the PvE for MMO's is not very good. However, adding a PvP element to the game is not a solution, it's just distracting your playerbase from the weak PvE. (WoW's battlegrounds are a prime example of this) Making the PvE NOT SUCK is the solution.
Part of the reason that MMO PvE is so boring is because of the basic game design. You have thousands of people interacting in the same world, but all at different points in their own progression. To accomodate everyone, the content has to be very simple and homogonized. Having a quest where you need to destroy a bridge to keep the opposing faction from re-supplying would be interesting, but it would break immersion to see that bridge brought down only to re-spawn for the next questing group. "Bring me 10 bear asses" type quests are easy to accomodate in a persistent enviroment.
This is the one facet of MMO games that instancing really comes in handy. You can have complex, dynamic PvE encounters without breaking the game for other people in the area. From what I have read of DDO so far, they are focusing heavily on instanced dungeon crawls for smaller parties, instead of static world content. I think this will be a good thing for the PvE content, as it is a much more controlled enviroment for the content producers to work with. They have more freedom and can make more interesting stuff for us to do.
Removing kill XP in favor of questing XP is another idea that I REALLY like.
I suppose that depends on how your D+D group played. My group was focused on group cooperation, achieving goals, and creative roleplay/gameplay. You could go an entire session without killing a damn thing and still maker progress.
If you're not going to give ANY useful information as to WHY you were disappointed, then most of us will just write you off as a fanboy and ignore you.
RIght now I expect your next comment to be:
DDO Sucks! Discuss.
If you are complaining about the PvP in DDO, I question how much you played Dungeons and Dragons in the first place. The entire focus of the game is on cooperative play. If your play is focused on PvP, then Dungeons and Dragons in ANY format is not a good game for you. I recommend Guild Wars...
When you look at Samus in a game, you have no idea what gender she is. It's obscured by armor. Not so with Lara Croft, so it really isn't a good comparison.
Slashdot Mirror
Well I'm holding money too, and I don't want it. You balance a FPS for keyboard/mouse and it's unplayable with a normal controller. Creating a game where it becomes required to use add-on hardware to be able to compete is a great way to kill a games sales. I bet that any Xbox 360 games that require the optional HDD will be few and far between, and will not sell well for this same reason. (Historically look at the 32x, SegaCD, and that N64 expansion cartridge)
Besides, who in their right mind would want to use a keyboard and mouse in their living room?
IIRC they specifically choose NOT to support Keyboard and Mouse in games to keep the playing field level.
It's a console, not a PC. Play it like one.
This isn't Star Trek.
I'm all for the 'episodes that take place before the movie' plan. Although it would be hard to adjust to River being just mysterious again...
I'd love to see animated versions of JTHM show up on Cartoon Network. Hell, just gimmie 'Meanwhiles...' at commercial breaks.
The Barrens is special for some reason. No matter what server you're on, the local chat in the Barrens is always...colorful. I have a feeling that there is some deep social phenomenon at work in that zone. Perhaps its the level range or something, but you will never see discussions in any other zone like you will there...
Honestly, after taking multiple characters questing in that zone, the discussions are the only thing that make the zone bearable...
People use their skills to make a living so they don't starve in the street. Artists are no different.
More complicated and less flexible != more advanced.
Keep in mind that Blizzard has a huge Asian market with it's other games. Just imagine if they produced an MMO based on Starcraft...
ONOES! Nintendo is attempting to reach a market that their competitors are ignoring! DOOM!
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
There is a hunter ability (Eyes of the Hawk, I think) that allows you to focus your vision on any point within sight of your character. While this is pretty much a useless ability gameplay-wise, I've always thought it would come in really handy for movie-making. You can stick the camera just about anywhere: High on cliff walls, on trees, on top of buildings, whatever.
I guess this is just a differing of opinions at this point. Personally I think both game types are 'seperate but equal' and enjoy them both. I like a good PvP game (Eve Online) and I like a good PvE game (WoW) In my experience, it is very difficult to get both types of gameplay working together in the same game without diminishing one or the other.
Again, I don't think that PvE is just filler in an MMO. But then I think that people who bitched about the multiplayer in HL2 and Doom3 (single player games FFS) are idiots. I say enjoy it for what it is intended to be, not bitch about what it isn't. DDO is a cooperative PvE game. I hope they make it a GOOD cooperative PvE game. If you want a good PvP game play DaoC, Eve, or Guild Wars. If every game in existance were focused on providing the exact same gameplay, it would get pretty damn boring.
Another up and coming priest here. (lvl 51) Trust me, there are worse class decisions.
My first char was a lvl 60 hunter. My time as a priest has been a dream compared to that...
I remember watching the videos of that demo-battle (Featuring 3-D versions of FFVI characters) and drooling over the possibilites. I can't RTFA here at work, but I'm curious if it's got that video linked? I'd love to watch that again...(Nostalgia)
Oh, and one more thing I wish MMO developers would realize:
Making encounters require more people is NOT a good way to increase difficulty. It just shows that you can't figure out new ways to challenge a normal group, and just made numbers bigger to compensate. Raids are cool and all, but they should not be the be-all end-all of endgame content.
IMHO, PvP play is not a substitute for PvE. They are two different game types. I agree that the PvE for MMO's is not very good. However, adding a PvP element to the game is not a solution, it's just distracting your playerbase from the weak PvE. (WoW's battlegrounds are a prime example of this) Making the PvE NOT SUCK is the solution.
Part of the reason that MMO PvE is so boring is because of the basic game design. You have thousands of people interacting in the same world, but all at different points in their own progression. To accomodate everyone, the content has to be very simple and homogonized. Having a quest where you need to destroy a bridge to keep the opposing faction from re-supplying would be interesting, but it would break immersion to see that bridge brought down only to re-spawn for the next questing group. "Bring me 10 bear asses" type quests are easy to accomodate in a persistent enviroment.
This is the one facet of MMO games that instancing really comes in handy. You can have complex, dynamic PvE encounters without breaking the game for other people in the area. From what I have read of DDO so far, they are focusing heavily on instanced dungeon crawls for smaller parties, instead of static world content. I think this will be a good thing for the PvE content, as it is a much more controlled enviroment for the content producers to work with. They have more freedom and can make more interesting stuff for us to do.
Removing kill XP in favor of questing XP is another idea that I REALLY like.
I suppose that depends on how your D+D group played. My group was focused on group cooperation, achieving goals, and creative roleplay/gameplay. You could go an entire session without killing a damn thing and still maker progress.
If you're not going to give ANY useful information as to WHY you were disappointed, then most of us will just write you off as a fanboy and ignore you.
RIght now I expect your next comment to be:
DDO Sucks! Discuss.
If you are complaining about the PvP in DDO, I question how much you played Dungeons and Dragons in the first place. The entire focus of the game is on cooperative play. If your play is focused on PvP, then Dungeons and Dragons in ANY format is not a good game for you. I recommend Guild Wars...
Personally, I'd love to see studies like this done in Eve, where social interaction is much more pronounced. (and much more interesting)
When you look at Samus in a game, you have no idea what gender she is. It's obscured by armor. Not so with Lara Croft, so it really isn't a good comparison.
1) "Beauty is on the inside" is a stupid excuse to not take care of your body.
2) What is idealized as 'attractive' in mass media is often far from healthy as well.
3) There are plenty of guys and girls in the world who have realistic preferences, and dislike the supposed ideal human form.
Basically, there are extremes on either end of the spectrum, and lots of normal people in between.