What MMO/s are you looking forward to?

[Ortchel]

Despite the fact that they won't be including Orcs as a playable race, Middle-Earth Online is topping my list at the moment. My adoration of Tolkien's work runs too deep to even consider passing up the chance to explore it firsthand, Orcs or no. Sure, there'll be countless fanboys/girls, but I've already survived Star Wars Galaxies, I'd say I'm prepared. At any rate, this screenshot pretty much sealed the deal for me. I can't wait to play it myself.

You can find the official website here.

I've also got my eye on Star Trek Online, though precious few details have reached the surface as of yet. However, they have revealed the playable races. It appears that Humans, Vulcans and Klingons will be available at launch, with 'more on the way'. I had my hopes up for Andorians, perhaps I'll get my wish eventually.

So what are you rabble anticipating?

 

[Sol Invictus]

Guild Wars, but it's not an MMO.

I'd be looking forward to MEO if Chris Taylor or the original Turbine members were still on it, but they aren't.

 

[Ortchel]

I don't follow the politics much, who are they?

 

[Sol Invictus]

Turbine are the original developers of Asheron's Call, Asheron's Call 2 and MEO. Most of their original staff left. I don't know what they're doing now.

Chris Taylor was the original lead designer on MEO. He was also the lead designer for Fallout and he created SPECIAL.

 

[Ortchel]

Ohh, right. What the hell was he doing making MMOs in the first place? What made them leave?

I'll have to figure out who these new guys are ..

 

[Seven]

Yeah, I always assumed that ChrisT preferred to make strategy games?

Notwithstanding his work on FO.

 

[Ortchel]

"An upkeep-cost is required so that houses owned by people no longer actively playing, will be available to the market again. In most cases you can pay the upkeep with money depending on the size and location of the house. For elven houses this will not work because they do not have something like money, it will require you to maintain your role in the elven society. To deal with longer holidays you can pay the upkeep ahead of time though not as long as 6 months in advance. Lack of upkeep will not show: houses will not look badly maintained because the extra textures will cost too much to make."

 

[Shagnak]

Guild Wars, but it's not an MMO.

It is an MMO.

It is massive
It is multiplayer
It is online

IT IS AN MMO

It just happens that it is rather different from existing MMOs

 

[Sol Invictus]

It's not massive, so therefore it can't be an MMO. Unless you think Counterstrike's 32 player games are 'massive', too.

It's online, but not necessarily multiplayer either. You can play all the way through the game as I did in the open beta with AI mercenaries as companions.

Therefore it is not an MMO.

Play the game first before you open your mouth. Until then, shut the hell up and don't try to sound like you know what it's about when you don't.

 

[Trash]

None whatsoever. The idea of a monthly fee appals me. The idea to see a character in a game say something like roxors or pwned terrifyes me. The idea that the only real goal I have is to get rich or level 999 bores me. The idea that I could have to wait in a que for a spawn would instantly destroy any fun or immersion I ever had in a game. Fuck mmorpg's, we need more quality single player stuff!

 

[Ortchel]

You haven't played any MMOs have you?

Monthly fees suck, I'll give you that, but you won't find gameplay like this for free and you won't find it in Guild Wars either. No one has ever said 'roxors' or 'pwned' to me (seriously anyway) in an MMO, ever. In fact 90% of the time you'll have trouble getting people to pay attention to you at all, let alone have a conversation with you. If your only goal were to get rich and powerful, then I'd probably find you pretty boring, myself. It's certainly never been my goal.

Only a select portion of the MMO community are power-gamers such as you describe, and no one likes them who isn't one themselves. I've never waited in a queue, ever. Not that I'd be so obsessed with progression that I'd bother to begin with. In addition, all modern MMOs have instancing, so even if crowding would be a problem hypothetically, it isn't one in practice. Finally, any MMO worth it's salt let's you play alone. I wouldn't touch a game that forced grouping, you can trust me on that.

No one ever sits to watch the sun rise in single-player RPGs because it's canned and isolated. It would feel strange. I do it all the time in Star Wars Galaxies because it's real, it's in fluid time. The same sun rising for me is rising for thousands of other people at the exact same moment. Even if you play alone, you know you're not alone, just like real life. That's the MMO appeal.

I recommend you try one of the numerous free trials available to you, you might be surprised what you find. I was, at any rate. Let me know if you want links.

 

[dunduks]

From the current ones that are in development maybe Imperator, at least its concept looks fun and its being made by Mythic so they might be able to bring what they promise into the game.

On other hand I'm very interested how DarkSign's project turns out, that is if it ever leaves design doc state

 

[Screaming_life]

Middle Earth online looks interesting but i generally don't like the idea of MMO's - i feel like i'd be too obliged to get my money's worth and spend too much time on it.

Entropy looks interesting, it has single player as well and not sure if it really qualifies as MMO but looks good!

 

[Ortchel]

I doubt you'd feel obliged, but you would spend too much time on it. By that point, you wouldn't have it any other way though. MMOs are intentionally highly addictive.

 

[Screaming_life]

By that point, you wouldn't have it any other way though. MMOs are intentionally highly addictive.

Yeah thats what i'm afraid of! i'm too obsessive as it is!

It can get ugly... very ugly!

 

[Ortchel]

Ah, you're preaching to the choir ..

MMOs are something every gamer should try at least once, that's my opinion. It'll eat your brain for a few weeks, but I've never seen any of those horror cases you always hear about, firsthand. It's mostly hot air.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Guild Wars has no monthly fee.

 

[Ortchel]

Are you talking to Screaming_life or Trash? It's not an MMO, so none of this applies to it, I suppose.

 

[xemous]

I hate hobbits.

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

I can't play as an orc in MEO?

Well, that is the shitters. I want to kill some elves, dammit.

 

[Human Shield]

City of Villians. The PvP mite be crap but I'll read the reviews, I enjoyed the CoH beta a lot until it got boring at high levels.

 

[xemous]

Yeah that I don't get, why leave out orcs. Only reason I can think of is there lazy and don't want to balance the races, if you include orc (I know next to nothing about lord of rings) you would have to include a host of other races for the evil side, and thus can't just include a single race for evil, and four for good.

The graphics are impressive and enough to sway me, I give it a go on release.

 

[callehe]

Auto Assault looks interesting. It's supposed to be PA MMO:

Auto Assault is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) that combines vehicular combat with role-playing elements. You explore a Post-Apocalyptic future in customizable cars, motorcycles, semis, and even tanks.

Three surviving factions — Humans, Mutants, and Biomeks — battle each other for control of the world, using tricked out vehicles as their primary weapons.

Do you love the smell of radioactive mutant fusion bombs in the morning? Do you enjoy the company of oversized, toxic, hungry xenomorphs? Did you ever wish that the world would just come to a crashing apocalyptic end, after which heavily armored, tricked out combat vehicles were the only means of survival

from
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setV ... gameID/149

 

[DarkSign]

First of all, Guild Wars IS an MMORPG. Multiple parts of the world will exist persistently...as will the characters. The size of the servers and the number of people playing the game is different from CounterStrike...and the RPG sets it apart as well.

Sorry, Ex you are wrong on this one.

Secondly...several MMOs coming out have promise:

1. DarkFall - while rumored to be vaporware, Im holding out for this because it has a good mix of PvE, PvP, a seige system, and integrated RTS-like resource system (that I THOUGHT OF FIRST!!) and even some innovative features like being about to hire and script bots to buff, heal and fight for you.

2. GuildWars - maximum output for least amount of time. Nuff said.

3. Imperator - Could be decent but Im merely watching this one.

Otherwise....the MMO Im working on is the one Im watching the most

 

[Sol Invictus]

First of all, Guild Wars IS an MMORPG. Multiple parts of the world will exist persistently...as will the characters.

Sorry, Ex you are wrong on this one.

It just looks to me like you misread the articles and made a wrong assumption based on what you read. Listen, I've been playing the game for months now so I know what the hell I'm talking about.

No part of the world exists persistently for everyone at any given time. The game world changes according to what your character experiences and the quests your character completes.

For instance when you enter the game and go through the first town, and first wilderness areas, everything is fine and dandy and the kingdom is at peace. As soon as you 'join the army' you'll learn that war is approaching and do your first instanced quest. Upon doing so, all of the previous areas you visited will be replaced by a new, war-torn zone as an aftermath to the war. Whereas players (and characters) who haven't progressed to this stage will still be in the happy fun kingdom. This, however is just an example of one of the larger scale changes you'll see in the game.

On a smaller scale, completing a quest in one wilderness area will mean that if you re-enter this area in the future, it will reflect your actions, so if you killed a bunch of bandits you might see them hanging on on a noose. Any players who join you to this wilderness area will see the same thing. Now, if one of these players were to enter the wilderness area by himself, he will still have to face the bandits, and he won't see them on the gallows until after he completes the quest.

Every area in the game is INSTANCED. There are no persistent zones whatsoever so the actions of one player will NOT affect the world for everybody else. What he experiences is his own personal game, much like a single player game.

Towns are just lobbies.

The size of the servers and the number of people playing the game is different from CounterStrike...and the RPG sets it apart as well.

The game is not split into servers, nor shards, nor realms. The game consists of one giant network, the same as Battle.net. Players enter lobbies to perform instanced missions with other players or with AI henchmen. Instanced missions allow for 2-8 players and NO OTHER PARTY IS IN THE INSTANCED MISSION, ONLY YOURS. Wilderness areas are the same. 500 players can enter a wilderness area but they will not see each other. The game is completely instanced for each of these 500 players. Parties, as I said, are limited, so a few players (this depends on the area) may share an instance.

There are no 'hunting zones' where 500 players are attacking monsters.

There is no massively multiplayer gameplay.

Guild Wars is not an MMO. 8 players does not constitute massively multiplayer.