Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Wow. If you haven't already tried or heard of the new gameplay features in City of Heroes you're really doing yourself as disservice as a die hard gamer. With the hero theme they're able to cater to every character's unique look with thousands of combinations, and environments to multiple types of opponents.
Combat is fairly fluid and fast, not the slow turn based action typical with other MMORPG's.
The game is set to go retail on the 27th or 28th of April. I expect most powergamers however will be cancelling within a couple months after finding the gameplay too PvM oriented with no other options like crafting or PvP to keep them occupied.
They certainly hit a home run in the player versus monster and quest department, only problem is after you make it to 2nd base, you can't see 3rd, and the only way for you to go is back to 1st, and then back to 2nd... Easy answer, suck it up and add the Hero vs. Villain expansion within 9 months if you want to keep this game active with more than just die hard players.
Combat is fairly fluid and fast, not the slow turn based action typical with other MMORPG's.
The game is set to go retail on the 27th or 28th of April. I expect most powergamers however will be cancelling within a couple months after finding the gameplay too PvM oriented with no other options like crafting or PvP to keep them occupied.
They certainly hit a home run in the player versus monster and quest department, only problem is after you make it to 2nd base, you can't see 3rd, and the only way for you to go is back to 1st, and then back to 2nd... Easy answer, suck it up and add the Hero vs. Villain expansion within 9 months if you want to keep this game active with more than just die hard players.
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
As announced officially by Ubisoft and Wolfpack on 3/1/2004, Ubisoft has acquired Wolfpack Studios, developers of the much mal-aligned Shadowbane MMORPG.
While obviously a good deal for the developers to unload this as many has made serious personal investments, the question is what Ubisoft's intentions are beyond good press after the cancellation of URU Online and loss of a publishing deal for Matrix Online.
Due to poor handling of a number of games including Shadowbane the reputation of the company has been severely damaged, a good portion of gamers refusing to buy any title published by UBI.
While obviously a good deal for the developers to unload this as many has made serious personal investments, the question is what Ubisoft's intentions are beyond good press after the cancellation of URU Online and loss of a publishing deal for Matrix Online.
Due to poor handling of a number of games including Shadowbane the reputation of the company has been severely damaged, a good portion of gamers refusing to buy any title published by UBI.
Friday, September 19, 2003
"Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos once again raises the bar for intensity and strategic action in the MMORPG genre," said Jason Rubinstein, general manager of ubi.com. "Wolfpack listened to the Shadowbane community and incorporated many of their wishes into the game. The expansion pack provides players with a host of new features and unlocks new dangerous zones, including ruins and volcanic wastelands, which take Shadowbane to the next level."
Once again raises the bar in the MMOG genre? Shadowbane is still as unstable and buggy as the day it was released from Beta to Retail and they have the cajones' to release a retail expansion pack while ignoring the serious game stopping issues already affecting their declining user base? Apparently contrary to promises a players monthly fee no longer includes stability or bug fixes.
Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos features new high-level content, and a new race, the Nephilim, a chaotic fusion of demon and man that has arisen from the forces of darkness. In addition, the expansion provides new character classes, disciplines, an additional character slot, two new macro zones, and enhanced environmental graphics. Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos is being designed and developed by Wolfpack Studios, based in Austin, Texas, and is operated and supported by Ubisoft's online gaming division ubi.com™, among the top five gaming portals in the world.
Great, "high level content", a must have for a game that takes a week of power leveling to max out your character making it a moot point for the PvP'ers that play the game. Whether it's a level 1 grobold, or a level 100 ub3r grobold it's still boring for PvP players and just comes down to more PvE farming.
Taking into account Shadowbane's drasticly declining subscriber count which is estimated to be in the 40,000-50,000 range, one can only wager this is a last ditch effort to boost paying subscribers and return to profitability. If anything, Shadowbane didn't learn a single lesson from the Anarchy Online beta launch debacle and history repeats itself once again in MMORPG land.
Once again raises the bar in the MMOG genre? Shadowbane is still as unstable and buggy as the day it was released from Beta to Retail and they have the cajones' to release a retail expansion pack while ignoring the serious game stopping issues already affecting their declining user base? Apparently contrary to promises a players monthly fee no longer includes stability or bug fixes.
Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos features new high-level content, and a new race, the Nephilim, a chaotic fusion of demon and man that has arisen from the forces of darkness. In addition, the expansion provides new character classes, disciplines, an additional character slot, two new macro zones, and enhanced environmental graphics. Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos is being designed and developed by Wolfpack Studios, based in Austin, Texas, and is operated and supported by Ubisoft's online gaming division ubi.com™, among the top five gaming portals in the world.
Great, "high level content", a must have for a game that takes a week of power leveling to max out your character making it a moot point for the PvP'ers that play the game. Whether it's a level 1 grobold, or a level 100 ub3r grobold it's still boring for PvP players and just comes down to more PvE farming.
Taking into account Shadowbane's drasticly declining subscriber count which is estimated to be in the 40,000-50,000 range, one can only wager this is a last ditch effort to boost paying subscribers and return to profitability. If anything, Shadowbane didn't learn a single lesson from the Anarchy Online beta launch debacle and history repeats itself once again in MMORPG land.
Tuesday, September 02, 2003
In yet another unique twist to improving MMORPG customer service trends Sony Online Entertainment has announched the following:
"Greetings, There have been many improvements made within Star Wars Galaxies recently that have corrected many of the issues that have generated a large volume of Customer Service tickets. Currently, a high percentage of CSR time is spent answering solved issues, limiting their ability to spend time on unresolved issues that need immediate attention. In order to increase the response time for current customer service issues, all existing tickets will be purged from the system today. Our end goal here is to give faster response time for those who have active problems. We encourage you to resubmit any open issue you may have and we will work towards addressing it as fast as possible. Please check the website for a full post complete with details. Thanks!"
This takes the cake as they wipe hundreds of thousands of trouble tickets from their customers, many for serious issues of players like myself that have had player structures stuck, couldn't be redeeded, kept eating maintenance fees, and lets not mention the fact I've yet to get any service from Customer Service after a week in queue (Do they exist?).
"Greetings, There have been many improvements made within Star Wars Galaxies recently that have corrected many of the issues that have generated a large volume of Customer Service tickets. Currently, a high percentage of CSR time is spent answering solved issues, limiting their ability to spend time on unresolved issues that need immediate attention. In order to increase the response time for current customer service issues, all existing tickets will be purged from the system today. Our end goal here is to give faster response time for those who have active problems. We encourage you to resubmit any open issue you may have and we will work towards addressing it as fast as possible. Please check the website for a full post complete with details. Thanks!"
This takes the cake as they wipe hundreds of thousands of trouble tickets from their customers, many for serious issues of players like myself that have had player structures stuck, couldn't be redeeded, kept eating maintenance fees, and lets not mention the fact I've yet to get any service from Customer Service after a week in queue (Do they exist?).
Monday, August 25, 2003
Just a quick rant. Yet another MMORPG has been announced in the form of Ultima X: Odyssey.
Now as part of the announcement for this "Diabloesque" (In Diabloesque they mean they couldn't think of any other way to describe the revolutionary game play other than referencing a 5 year old isometric game) MMORPG utilizing the latest Unreal Engine.
Now here's the kicker and I quote:
Speaking of player-vs-player combat, it's entirely consensual in this game, so you can't get attacked unless you mutually initiate a duel with someone (you can even wager gold or items on the victor.) Guilds can get together and create a multiplayer duel, as well. Best of all, they have the option of starting a multiplayer duel in a private realm free of interruption from griefers. It's like having your own private medieval deathmatch server. How big a part these bouts will play in the final game is really up to the players and whether they want to participate in them.
Since when exactly can you categorize a cheap dueling system as PvP? A duel between one or more parties is simply a duel, it is NOT a PvP system. Are they really that desperate to bring out their marketeers to exaggerate and lie about game features that they're going to start calling duels PvP? Whats next, a robust virtual economy will be half assed loot system and a npc vendor in every city to buy your junk.
Now as part of the announcement for this "Diabloesque" (In Diabloesque they mean they couldn't think of any other way to describe the revolutionary game play other than referencing a 5 year old isometric game) MMORPG utilizing the latest Unreal Engine.
Now here's the kicker and I quote:
Speaking of player-vs-player combat, it's entirely consensual in this game, so you can't get attacked unless you mutually initiate a duel with someone (you can even wager gold or items on the victor.) Guilds can get together and create a multiplayer duel, as well. Best of all, they have the option of starting a multiplayer duel in a private realm free of interruption from griefers. It's like having your own private medieval deathmatch server. How big a part these bouts will play in the final game is really up to the players and whether they want to participate in them.
Since when exactly can you categorize a cheap dueling system as PvP? A duel between one or more parties is simply a duel, it is NOT a PvP system. Are they really that desperate to bring out their marketeers to exaggerate and lie about game features that they're going to start calling duels PvP? Whats next, a robust virtual economy will be half assed loot system and a npc vendor in every city to buy your junk.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
The (sad) State of MMOG Communities
Is it just me or are MMORPG game communities seriously suffering from a lack of planning and attention by their developers?
Other than the actual gaming experience, service stability, communites are right up there as a must have but are one of the most neglected aspects along with customers service.
This isn't to say they don't "try", most companies make a concerted effort hire hire staff and put basic community elements in place such as forums, chat, basic command or object based guild features, and as of late the push to give players the ability to create "virtual player run cities".
This process for the most part has had a negative side effect on the player base as a whole, and a major disapointment for those of us that thrive on being part of and building communities such as guilds.
Hang in there as I try to bring this together. In a typical MMORPG you have your server, your entire player base on that server, and various cities or towns where the players start our their virtual lives and use as a base of operation.
:: more to come ::
Is it just me or are MMORPG game communities seriously suffering from a lack of planning and attention by their developers?
Other than the actual gaming experience, service stability, communites are right up there as a must have but are one of the most neglected aspects along with customers service.
This isn't to say they don't "try", most companies make a concerted effort hire hire staff and put basic community elements in place such as forums, chat, basic command or object based guild features, and as of late the push to give players the ability to create "virtual player run cities".
This process for the most part has had a negative side effect on the player base as a whole, and a major disapointment for those of us that thrive on being part of and building communities such as guilds.
Hang in there as I try to bring this together. In a typical MMORPG you have your server, your entire player base on that server, and various cities or towns where the players start our their virtual lives and use as a base of operation.
:: more to come ::
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Welcome,
I've started this BLOG as an outlet for creative expression against the current state of the industry for Massively Multiplayer Online RPG's which has severely veered off track ever since the post Ultima Online era.
If you're wondering about my experience I've been gaming online since the mid nineties playing pay to play dialup games on services like Compu$erve, up and through my college years where I discovered netrek and MUDs/MUSHs over the university internet connection. Since the demise of popularity for those 8bit graphic or text only games I began playing games such as Ultima Online and haven't stopped since.
My opinions as they say are purely my own, while I'll hit upon topics affecting the industry, rant against the games that continue to ignore good game design, my own opinion is just that. I whole heartily welcome well thought out discussions and comments by the whopping 4 or so readers that I may have. ;)
Frankly, while there have been some positive changes in the current generation of MMORPGS, the frightening trend of catering to the lowest common denominator attempting to grab as much subscription revenue as possible has come at the cost of player bases and game quality.
If that wasn't enough, add insult to injury by continuing to release titles from beta 4-8 weeks before they're completed with major bugs and incomplete features still to be addressed. Not only is a defective product being released and sold to the gaming public, customers are forced to pay another $24-30 in subscriptions until the game is working as advertised.
And what do we as customers do? We buy it right off the shelf all wide eyed and slack jawed in hopes that this will be the latest greatest online game ever made, or as least that's what the marketeers said about it...
I've started this BLOG as an outlet for creative expression against the current state of the industry for Massively Multiplayer Online RPG's which has severely veered off track ever since the post Ultima Online era.
If you're wondering about my experience I've been gaming online since the mid nineties playing pay to play dialup games on services like Compu$erve, up and through my college years where I discovered netrek and MUDs/MUSHs over the university internet connection. Since the demise of popularity for those 8bit graphic or text only games I began playing games such as Ultima Online and haven't stopped since.
My opinions as they say are purely my own, while I'll hit upon topics affecting the industry, rant against the games that continue to ignore good game design, my own opinion is just that. I whole heartily welcome well thought out discussions and comments by the whopping 4 or so readers that I may have. ;)
Frankly, while there have been some positive changes in the current generation of MMORPGS, the frightening trend of catering to the lowest common denominator attempting to grab as much subscription revenue as possible has come at the cost of player bases and game quality.
If that wasn't enough, add insult to injury by continuing to release titles from beta 4-8 weeks before they're completed with major bugs and incomplete features still to be addressed. Not only is a defective product being released and sold to the gaming public, customers are forced to pay another $24-30 in subscriptions until the game is working as advertised.
And what do we as customers do? We buy it right off the shelf all wide eyed and slack jawed in hopes that this will be the latest greatest online game ever made, or as least that's what the marketeers said about it...
