Random Stuff

PotBS - NDA is lifted and lots of reviews to be found. Not a bad game at all and definitely a change of pace from current offerings, but not everyone's cup of tea. And that is how it turned out for me. I didn't enjoy flying ships in SWG and even less so enjoyed the ship combat here. Guess I'm a landlubber at heart. Unfortunately, the land options weren't fun for me either, so I'll be passing on this one.

STO - "I personally think that MMOs need to be a better deal. Paying $200/year is a good deal for some but I don't think that is sustainable for the category and certainly rules out a lot of people who don't have the time to get enough value out of that expense." Ok I see where this is heading now. Removed this game from my radar.

Zuroth Online - This was the game that sounded very much like pre-NGE SWG and had many vets excited. That is, until they released this statement a couple weeks ago:

"One of the main things that plague an indie developer is time, money, and developers. Currently our goals are set very high (which isn't always a bad thing) but what we currently have planned is a very, very, very big undertaking (infact though any mmo is a big undertaking, what we're going for is even bigger). This leads to not enough time and it scares away potential developers.

What we're going to do to alleviate this problem is pretty simple - scale it down. Scaling it down will require many sacrifices that you all are probably here for and are expecting (all the prior SWG people especially).

So what are a few of the changes?

- Sandbox status is gone. We're moving to a more stream lined game.
- Move to a Leveling System

Some other features are getting changed to fit with the above. But... This doesn't mean we're going to become a carbon copy of what's already out there - we're pretty sure we're going to have some unique, and fun features that todays MMO's seem to have forgotten about..

Also I'd like to apologize to all the people out there expecting another SWG Pre-CU. It's just not possible with an Indie team... But you have my word if we ever get into a position where we can make a Pre-CU like game we WILL in a heart beat. But, right now we're going to work on the game, and hopefully make a game a few people would enjoy playing."

Citadel of Sorcery - Another MMO in very early stages. Will be keeping an eye on this one to see how it progresses.

Same Old, Same Old

I don't know how many times I've seen the "same old, same old" comment, or even worse "WoW clone", on every game released since WoW. Here's some comments seen on the forums today:

Its more of the same but very polished........... its basically WoW with better graphics. Its a good game but I cancelled my preorder because ive seen it all before.

If you are looking for the next big innovation, you will not find it in here.

If you're looking for innovation, skip this one.

LOTRO just emerged but although I haven't seen it I can only guess it's just more of the same Mages, Tanks type game so I won't even try this one.

This game imo is just another WoW clone

Why is it, that NO ONE can make a GOOD MMORPG?

From when EQ2 and WoW were launched, there has not been 1 MMO that has been unique. They all offer the same things.

I really have to wonder what players are expecting. Every game I've played (and I've tried almost all of them) has had unique aspects to them. But isn't the basic core of an MMO always going to remain somewhat the same?

I saw a post a few days ago stating that developers were just lazy and just taking the easy route in making games. Maybe I'm naive, but I really do think developers put their heart and soul in a game and want to put out a great product. But they also want to be successful. So what other directions can you go with an MMO that hasn't been done already?

SWG was very unique. It was the first game I played that wasn't level based. You could pick and choose abilities from various classes and create something unique. They had entertainers, which brought in a lot of people that wanted nothing to do with combat. The housing was great, and you could set up your own shop. While many people loved it, apparently there were not enough subscribers to SoE's liking, so they scrapped much of what made it unique.

Then there's Anarchy Online. Although they have levels, they have a similar system to original SWG in that you could put skill points wherever you wanted so that you could build your character differently from someone else. I believe they were one of the first to offer instances. They offered missions, much like CoH/CoV does now. This game was fairly unique, yet it never raked in the masses either.

So, looking at past games that did things differently and seeing how they fared, and considering how much it costs to make an MMO these days, do developers really want to try something risky?

Looking ahead at all the upcoming titles, Pirates of the Burning Sea certainly seems to steer away from the same old, same old more than most. I'm really rooting for these guys and hope they do well. Will be curious to see if their innovation pays off, and if so, if it has any effect on future games.

Speaking of "innovation", I came across something today that I really thought was a joke at first. What do you get when you stick a bunch of Lego's on a Bryce image? Welcome to Block Realm!!

Beta registration started a couple days ago and dangit it's full already. Ah well :)