As you may or may not know, Sword of the New World: Granado Espada has recently gone free to play. After only a month of retail, K2 network decided that a monthly fee was not the way to go, and changed to a full micro transaction. this is really a missed opportunity, had the game been advertised as free to play from the very beginning, the game would have probably caught a lot more interest.
Now if you look around on different forums and boards, you will find a lot of "K2 network bashing". K2 network scams, has bad servers, bans posters on forums and will claim your first born child. Now after having played SotNW back in beta and retail, I found out that most of that is not true. But today I found out that K2 network made its first big mistake with Sword of the New World.
Sword of the New World is not really a social game, thats probably because there is really is no reason to socialize. I personally blame this on the lack of grouping content. There is a serious lack of group based dungeons and areas in the game. If the game had some more group focused environments in the game, players have more reason to socialize with each other. Another reason is the competive nature of the game. When you see another player walk into your hunting spot, you don't think "Ohhh, how nice, another player..maybe I should group with him?"No, you think "That bastard is taking MY mobs damnit". There are 3 things you can do. Live with it, Move to another channel (Similar to Everquest 2) or beat the living crap out of him in pvp.
K2 network noticed that the community was pretty quiet, so they decided to live things up a bit.
They thought it was a good idea to close 2 channels and jam all players in one single channel in order to socialize with each other and to establish new friendships. (Really, I'm not kidding: http://forum.swordofthenewworld.com/index.php?showtopic=9508)
Sword of the New world has a very linear world. there are a lot of maps, but each map is really small.There is only one map for each set of levels (Say, map 1 = lvl 1 - 5, map 2 = lvl 5 - 10, etc). thats right, only one. thats why the game has 3 different channels in other versions.
The reason the game is so fast paced is because there are so many monsters to kill due to the high spawn rate. the "goal" is to kill mobs as many mobs as possible with different skills and abilities. Its the fast paced gameplay that makes the game fun. But in order to keep that fast paced action, every player needs enough mobs to kill, If there are not enough mobs to kill, the pace will go down significantly. Because everyone is jammed in one channel, there simply aren't enough mobs to kill.
But as if that wasn't bad enough, K2 network made this change at the same time as the game went from pay to play to free to play. So not only is everyone stuck in one channel, there is also a huge wave of new players joining the world. And to finish the chaos, a whole load of chinese farmer bots made its way to the new world.
Yeah, I'm sure that will establish a whole lot of friendships Mr SotNW producer.
So the result is that the fast paced action is simply gone. whats left is an auto - attack afk grind fest because there is no reason to use skills. there are simply not enough monsters, its to crowded.
I mean, seriously, what were they thinking? The fact that this is done at the same time with the recent free to play change is just a horrible idea.
According to K2 network: "Also, we have currently reduced the number of channels per world to 1. This is so that we can closely monitor and encourage the growth of the in-game community."
I honnestly don't understand why you need to jam everyone in one spot to closely monitor the growth of the community, and I'm sure this change didn't help encourage the growth of the in - game community at all.
Its like K2 network is looking through pink coloured glasses.
What K2 network wants: "Oh joy! I just started playing this wonderfull new game, and oh look, the world is so populated! I can't wait to make all kinds of new friends and donate my entire paycheck to K2 network!"
What they get:"What the hell!? This place is freaking crowded, I lag like hell and I get kill stealed from left and right. you know what, fuck this, I'm out of here"
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
The western and eastern MMO market.
I often discuss the MMORPG market with other people. Which MMO will be the next MMO to dominate the market? Will an MMO do well or will it fail? What company will reigh supreme? Things like that. I often refer to the asian MMO market, and people often ask me "Why?". Why should we, as western gamers, care what happens on the other side of the world? Who cares which games are popular in Korea, China or Japan? Well here is why.
The most obvious answer is ofcourse, without the asian market, we would have less games to play. No Lineage 2, No Ragnarok Online, No Silkroad, etc. Now you can like or hate those games, But they do cause more competition in the western market. But there is more to it.
Lets take NCsoft for an example. Everybody knows NCsoft. NCsoft became the company it is today thanks to Lineage. Lineage is still to this day one of the most successfull MMO's in the world. NCsoft reported that, at one point, Lineage had 3 million active subscribers. To compare, Everquest peak was about 500.000 subscribers. Almost all of those subscribers are from Asia.
Its safe to say that it was Lineage that made NCsoft the biggest MMO publisher in the world.
Because of its success in Asia, NCsoft was able to publish not only asian games, but western games as well, such as Guild Wars, Auto Assault, City of Heroes. There are more companies who let asian companies publish their games. Flagship studios lets Namco publish Hellgate london in the west, while Hanbitsoft & The9 take care of the publishing in korea and china. All points bulletin will be published by Webzen. Tabula Rasa will be published by NCsoft. Gravity Corp made an investment of 8,5 million KWN in perpetual entertainment, the company behind Gods & Heroes.
The Asian market has a direct impact on our market, its that simple. Discussing the MMORPG market without the asian market is like discussing the console wars without including Nintendo.
The most obvious answer is ofcourse, without the asian market, we would have less games to play. No Lineage 2, No Ragnarok Online, No Silkroad, etc. Now you can like or hate those games, But they do cause more competition in the western market. But there is more to it.
Lets take NCsoft for an example. Everybody knows NCsoft. NCsoft became the company it is today thanks to Lineage. Lineage is still to this day one of the most successfull MMO's in the world. NCsoft reported that, at one point, Lineage had 3 million active subscribers. To compare, Everquest peak was about 500.000 subscribers. Almost all of those subscribers are from Asia.
Its safe to say that it was Lineage that made NCsoft the biggest MMO publisher in the world.
Because of its success in Asia, NCsoft was able to publish not only asian games, but western games as well, such as Guild Wars, Auto Assault, City of Heroes. There are more companies who let asian companies publish their games. Flagship studios lets Namco publish Hellgate london in the west, while Hanbitsoft & The9 take care of the publishing in korea and china. All points bulletin will be published by Webzen. Tabula Rasa will be published by NCsoft. Gravity Corp made an investment of 8,5 million KWN in perpetual entertainment, the company behind Gods & Heroes.
The Asian market has a direct impact on our market, its that simple. Discussing the MMORPG market without the asian market is like discussing the console wars without including Nintendo.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Audition? For what? the trash can?
So a friend of mine recently pulled me in an online game called Audition online.
Now I'm sure many of you know of a game that dominated the arcades and even some public schools called Dance Dance Revolution. You move your feet on a panel while you follow instructions on the screen in the form of arrows. Simply move your feet to the right place on the pad and you score points. The better you perform, the more points you score.
Now take away the pad, and replace it with a keyboard, and voila, you get Audition Online.
Audition is by far the most boring online game I have ever played.
Hit your arrow keys in a random order then hit spacebar and see if you had any fun.
Thats the entire gameplay of Audition. There is a bar in the center of your screen that shows in you what order you have to press the arrow keys, then hit the space bar at the right moment. Thats all you do in this game. Its frustrating and gets old very, very fast.
Now your character does actually dance in the game, but the goal of the game is to hit the arrow keys in a certain order. It has nothing to do with dancing. In fact, the characters dancing is actually distracting you. The Animations are horrible. In fact, I think I can dance better.
The game has generic looking characters with little to no customization, unless you use the cash shop.
If your planning to spend any money on this.."game", please do yourself a favor and buy some bread and go feed it to the ducks. Not only does it make the ducks happy, its much more exciting then playing Audition.
The fact that the game only plays the worst thing that ever hit the music industry, Hip Hop and R&B, doesn't help either. You have to hear to annoying rappers and whiney R&B singers over and over and over again. Even the lobby music is plagued with an annoying female rapper.
It took everything that was good from Dance Dance Revolution & Beatmania, and took it out.
There really isn't much else to say about this game. Its a bad game, period.
Just don't play it. I played it so you don't have to. If you really are into these type of games, go play a game called O2jam. Its still no classic material, but it has more depth, No Hip Hop and better gameplay.
O2jam can be found here:
http://o2jam.com.my/
Right, Back to Resident Evil 4.
Now I'm sure many of you know of a game that dominated the arcades and even some public schools called Dance Dance Revolution. You move your feet on a panel while you follow instructions on the screen in the form of arrows. Simply move your feet to the right place on the pad and you score points. The better you perform, the more points you score.
Now take away the pad, and replace it with a keyboard, and voila, you get Audition Online.
Audition is by far the most boring online game I have ever played.
Hit your arrow keys in a random order then hit spacebar and see if you had any fun.
Thats the entire gameplay of Audition. There is a bar in the center of your screen that shows in you what order you have to press the arrow keys, then hit the space bar at the right moment. Thats all you do in this game. Its frustrating and gets old very, very fast.
Now your character does actually dance in the game, but the goal of the game is to hit the arrow keys in a certain order. It has nothing to do with dancing. In fact, the characters dancing is actually distracting you. The Animations are horrible. In fact, I think I can dance better.
The game has generic looking characters with little to no customization, unless you use the cash shop.
If your planning to spend any money on this.."game", please do yourself a favor and buy some bread and go feed it to the ducks. Not only does it make the ducks happy, its much more exciting then playing Audition.
The fact that the game only plays the worst thing that ever hit the music industry, Hip Hop and R&B, doesn't help either. You have to hear to annoying rappers and whiney R&B singers over and over and over again. Even the lobby music is plagued with an annoying female rapper.
It took everything that was good from Dance Dance Revolution & Beatmania, and took it out.
There really isn't much else to say about this game. Its a bad game, period.
Just don't play it. I played it so you don't have to. If you really are into these type of games, go play a game called O2jam. Its still no classic material, but it has more depth, No Hip Hop and better gameplay.
O2jam can be found here:
http://o2jam.com.my/
Right, Back to Resident Evil 4.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
SOE haters can cry me a river.
Before one of you start to label me as a SOE fanboi, Keep in mind that I do not play any of SOE's titles. I am not looking forward to any of SOE's titles, including Pirates of the Burning Sea.
Now that we got that out of the way, lets get back on the subject.
Recently Flying Lab software announced a partnership with Sony Online Entertainment. What does this mean? It means that FLS will develop PotBS, it will take care of the community, customer support and it will host the servers, while SOE will take care of billing, distribution, localization, marketing, and they will develop a launcher that nobody really cares about.
As pretty much expected, many forums exploded as SOE haters feel a need to tell everyone they will not play PotBS and preach that SOE will destroy the game.
So for those who aren't really up to date on todays forums and community aspects, what is a SOE hater?
Well, 9 out of 10 SOE haters (If not, all of them) are ex - Star Wars Galaxies players. Or "Veterans" as they like to call themself. It all started with the Combat Upgrade, or "CU".
The Combat Upgrade changed things like combat, armor and weapon systems. It also changed the game from a skill based game to a level based game. It was probably the first time SWG players were in different camps on the direction of which the game was taking.
Some people liked the change, while other people, mainly the ones who were used to the Ultima Online style of gameplay, didn't like it at all.
If you thought that was bad, then you haven't seen the New Game Enhancements yet. The NGE was one big slap in the face. No, it was more then a slap in the face. It was kicking you down, grabbing a hammer and bash your face into the ground. Twice.
If you didn't play SWG NGE, then just try to imagine. Its like playing Half Life , Resident Evil 4 or Final Fantasy for months, then all of a sudden, the game turns into barbie horse adventures, and there is no way to get your game back. Its gone. forever.
Probably the most noticable change is that the game turned into some sort of 3rd person shooter/hack&slasher (depending on your weapon). The playable proffesions went down from 34 to 9, and Jedi Knight, one of the big achievements in the game was now avaible at the start of the game.(Actually it only required a lot of time and patience, but in the MMORPG world, the standards for "Achievement" are a bit lower, don't ask). There are many other changes, but I'm not going over all of them. If you would like to know more about the NGE, surf the web.
This seriously damaged the playerbase and a lot of players left. Everybody agreed: The NGE sucks
So after reading all this, you might understand where they are comming from, And to be fair, SOE isn't really doing a lot to restore the damage. Sure, they admit that the NGE is a mistake they do not want to repeat, but thats not helping much. The least SOE could do is open up one or two pre - NGE servers so that ex - SWG players could at least play their favorite game again. There are plenty of servers which are low populated. I'm sure you could merge 4 of them and use the remaining 2 servers as pre -NGE servers.
But some SOE haters take it, waay, waaaaaaaay to far. Most SOE haters claim they will never play a SOE game again, but some even take it as far to never buy any Sony product ever again. This is downright stupid, as Sony makes some excellent technical products. besides, the ones responsible for Technical products such as TV's and stereos have nothing to do with SOE. The only one your really hurting is yourself.
Never playing a SOE product again just because of SWG is rediculous. For one, SOE admits that the NGE was a mistake. SOE clearly lost a lot of players due those changes. I mean, what are SOE haters thinking? Do they think SOE devs are sitting in the office at the meeting at 5 pm, saying "Well, We had the CU, we had the NGE, we lost a lots of subscribers.....lets do that again!"
SOE is a company. A company who wants to make profit. They are under more pressure because they are part of Sony. They really won't do another NGE ever again after the flop of CU and NGE.
And remember that SWG is just one game. I think SOE has done a great job on its other titles such as the Matrix Online and Everquest 2. It proves that SOE CAN do a good job.
SOE is not the only company that made mistakes. How about Turbine with Asherons Call 2? Asherons Call 2 was basicly an NGE from AC 1, except it was a different game instead of a revamp. Or how about Blizzard, with the old Honor system? or Gravity corp, who refused to update the international version of Ragnarok Online to the version the korean version of the game was running for more then 6 months.
Companies learn from their mistakes, and a company has to take risks every now and then. Some turn out good, some turn out bad. If it turns out good, great, if it turns out bad, then the company will learn from it.
Now a trump card SOE haters love to use is Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Sigil also told us that Sigil will do the development of the game, while SOE sticks to the publishing, but eventually, SOE got control over the entire game. But Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a poor example.
-FLS clearly says that they have more then enough funds. Sigil didn't.
- Vanguard was taken over because it wasn't very succesfull.
- If SOE didn't take over Vanguard, then Vanguard would have been shut down.
And aside from those points, SOE didn't pull any NGE or CU on Vanguard at all, and according to SOE, its not going to happen. In fact, I went through hell to get my hands on a trial code, made an account, logged into to the most populated Vanguard: SOH server and asked as many players as I could find how they felt about the SOE take over, and both of them said they are satisfied with SOE.
So if your an ex - SWG player who still refuses to touch a product just SOE does the publishing, please get over yourself. The only one who you are really hurting is yourself.
Now that we got that out of the way, lets get back on the subject.
Recently Flying Lab software announced a partnership with Sony Online Entertainment. What does this mean? It means that FLS will develop PotBS, it will take care of the community, customer support and it will host the servers, while SOE will take care of billing, distribution, localization, marketing, and they will develop a launcher that nobody really cares about.
As pretty much expected, many forums exploded as SOE haters feel a need to tell everyone they will not play PotBS and preach that SOE will destroy the game.
So for those who aren't really up to date on todays forums and community aspects, what is a SOE hater?
Well, 9 out of 10 SOE haters (If not, all of them) are ex - Star Wars Galaxies players. Or "Veterans" as they like to call themself. It all started with the Combat Upgrade, or "CU".
The Combat Upgrade changed things like combat, armor and weapon systems. It also changed the game from a skill based game to a level based game. It was probably the first time SWG players were in different camps on the direction of which the game was taking.
Some people liked the change, while other people, mainly the ones who were used to the Ultima Online style of gameplay, didn't like it at all.
If you thought that was bad, then you haven't seen the New Game Enhancements yet. The NGE was one big slap in the face. No, it was more then a slap in the face. It was kicking you down, grabbing a hammer and bash your face into the ground. Twice.
If you didn't play SWG NGE, then just try to imagine. Its like playing Half Life , Resident Evil 4 or Final Fantasy for months, then all of a sudden, the game turns into barbie horse adventures, and there is no way to get your game back. Its gone. forever.
Probably the most noticable change is that the game turned into some sort of 3rd person shooter/hack&slasher (depending on your weapon). The playable proffesions went down from 34 to 9, and Jedi Knight, one of the big achievements in the game was now avaible at the start of the game.(Actually it only required a lot of time and patience, but in the MMORPG world, the standards for "Achievement" are a bit lower, don't ask). There are many other changes, but I'm not going over all of them. If you would like to know more about the NGE, surf the web.
This seriously damaged the playerbase and a lot of players left. Everybody agreed: The NGE sucks
So after reading all this, you might understand where they are comming from, And to be fair, SOE isn't really doing a lot to restore the damage. Sure, they admit that the NGE is a mistake they do not want to repeat, but thats not helping much. The least SOE could do is open up one or two pre - NGE servers so that ex - SWG players could at least play their favorite game again. There are plenty of servers which are low populated. I'm sure you could merge 4 of them and use the remaining 2 servers as pre -NGE servers.
But some SOE haters take it, waay, waaaaaaaay to far. Most SOE haters claim they will never play a SOE game again, but some even take it as far to never buy any Sony product ever again. This is downright stupid, as Sony makes some excellent technical products. besides, the ones responsible for Technical products such as TV's and stereos have nothing to do with SOE. The only one your really hurting is yourself.
Never playing a SOE product again just because of SWG is rediculous. For one, SOE admits that the NGE was a mistake. SOE clearly lost a lot of players due those changes. I mean, what are SOE haters thinking? Do they think SOE devs are sitting in the office at the meeting at 5 pm, saying "Well, We had the CU, we had the NGE, we lost a lots of subscribers.....lets do that again!"
SOE is a company. A company who wants to make profit. They are under more pressure because they are part of Sony. They really won't do another NGE ever again after the flop of CU and NGE.
And remember that SWG is just one game. I think SOE has done a great job on its other titles such as the Matrix Online and Everquest 2. It proves that SOE CAN do a good job.
SOE is not the only company that made mistakes. How about Turbine with Asherons Call 2? Asherons Call 2 was basicly an NGE from AC 1, except it was a different game instead of a revamp. Or how about Blizzard, with the old Honor system? or Gravity corp, who refused to update the international version of Ragnarok Online to the version the korean version of the game was running for more then 6 months.
Companies learn from their mistakes, and a company has to take risks every now and then. Some turn out good, some turn out bad. If it turns out good, great, if it turns out bad, then the company will learn from it.
Now a trump card SOE haters love to use is Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Sigil also told us that Sigil will do the development of the game, while SOE sticks to the publishing, but eventually, SOE got control over the entire game. But Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a poor example.
-FLS clearly says that they have more then enough funds. Sigil didn't.
- Vanguard was taken over because it wasn't very succesfull.
- If SOE didn't take over Vanguard, then Vanguard would have been shut down.
And aside from those points, SOE didn't pull any NGE or CU on Vanguard at all, and according to SOE, its not going to happen. In fact, I went through hell to get my hands on a trial code, made an account, logged into to the most populated Vanguard: SOH server and asked as many players as I could find how they felt about the SOE take over, and both of them said they are satisfied with SOE.
So if your an ex - SWG player who still refuses to touch a product just SOE does the publishing, please get over yourself. The only one who you are really hurting is yourself.
Monday, May 28, 2007
My rant on Playonline and Final Fantasy XI.
Warning: Still needs grammar check. I had a few complaints about my grammar from previous posts. Please keep in mind that english is not my native language. Also, I usually write my articles at night. I can't just write whenever I want. Sometimes I get a writing kick and I just need to write or type my thoughts somewhere, thats what this blog is for.
Play Online is the worst thing that ever hit MMORPG gaming. Ever. its slow and completely useless. Want to know why? Keep reading.
The chore starts with the instalation of the damn game. I bought the package which comes with the full game and the first 2 expansion packs. Thats 7 freaking CD's! why can't they just use one or two DVD's, or use an updated download version?
That would actually save them some costs. Take the Chains of Promothia expansion for example. 88% of the content is on CD 1, the other 12% is on CD 2. This requires Square to produce thousands of extra CD's just for 12% content. Props to them for actually doing it though, if it was SOE, they would have just removed the 12% content and only deliver 88% of the expansion.
Anyways, I have to keep swapping CD's. On top of that, its impossible to download the game anywhere (or at least, I never found a download). So I start by installing the PlayOnline launcher. After installing the launcher, I open it and make an attempt to login. I found out that my PlayOnline account has been de-activated, I'll assume its because its been a while since I logged in. My question is, why was it de-activated in the first place? In fact, why do I need a PlayOnline ID anyway? its not like I'm going to use any of its features. but anyway, I re-activate the damn account, and I start installing the actual Game. I insert Final Fantasy XI CD 1. After a while, I get a message: "Please insert Final Fantasy XI CD 2". okay, no problem. "Please insert Final Fantasy XI CD 3" sure thing. after a while, I get this message: "Please insert Final Fantasy XI CD 1".
Why? I already gave you CD 1. Why do I need to insert CD 1 twice? Are they scared I got rid of it or something? like "Oh, I used CD 1, No need for it anymore, might as well throw it in the trash can.......oh fuck"]
Its the same thing with Chains of Promatathia expansion. This expansions is 2 CD's. First I have to insert CD 1, then I insert CD 2 and when its done installing, I need to insert CD 1 again. thats rediculous, why should I have to do that?
well anyway, I continue to install the game and its expansions. If its your first time playing FFXI, then you will have to register for PlayOnline, which requires a key code. this will hold your accounts for both Final Fantasy XI and Tetra Masters, which is nice. PlayOnline has some other features.
Your own PlayOnline Email. Why the hell would I want a POL email? I can get one with much more free space for free, and it takes much longer to login to POL then it takes to login to other email providers such as Live and Gmail. but you'll need it anyway.
Chatrooms: Most of them are empty or near empty. you probably will never use these.
other stuff: Change your POL wallpaper, E - Cards, that sort of thing.
So that sums it up.The thing is, you will probably never use any of them. Next you have to use the keycodes to activate your games. One for Final Fantasy XI, one For the Rise of the Zilart expansion, one for Chains of Promathia, and another one for Tetra Masters. Along with the Play Online key, thats 5 freaking Key codes. I bought this as a package, why do I need to input 5 different key codes? Why can't it just be one? So after you set up your account and keycodes, you can play two different games. Tetra Masters and Final Fantasy XI.
You might Remember Tetra masters. its the card game from Final Fantasy 9. I personally would have prefered the card game from Final Fantasy 8, or Blitzball from Final Fantasy 10.
I have 2 questions about Tetra masters
1: Why isn't this in the actual game? Why is it a game outside the game? In Final Fantasy 9, you can card battle with NPC's in the game. it was in the actual game in FF9. It would have been much more fun if this was part of the game. This would actually allow SE to hold ingame events and prizes with Tetra masters. There are very few people playing, so most of the time you'll be playing against the computer.
2: Why does this game requires an additional monthly fee? I have to pay another dollar for each month of Tetra Masters. Why? its just a small minigame. Its not even a part of the real game, why should I have to pay for it? Its not like its anything special. There are only a few players online at any given time, most of the time its less then 50. That 1$ isn't going to make you rich Square.
So, on to Final Fantasy XI. first you have to login to Play Online, then you have to patch the game, (If you bought an older version, go to your TV and go watch a movie or two. Patching can easily take up to 5 hours) then you have to go through an agreement, a warning not to play too much (Like anyone gives a crap), and then the game actually starts up. From desktop to the actual game takes roughly 30 to 45 seconds. Its playOnline that is seriously slowing things down. I can go from my desktop to World of Warcraft in less then 5 seconds. Why does it need to take so long?
For me, its clear.
Once you get through all that, you can finally create your characters, and your starting town. You can pick any of the three towns, but I recommend that you start in the town of your race. you will receive a pretty nifty ring. As you probably noticed, you can not chose which server to play on,
Dear Square enix, did you notice that you are the only game company that forces its players to play on a server? There is probably a good reason for that!
This is the worst idea ever. If I want to start this game with a friend, we're screwed. Chances are big we will land on different servers. Yes, you can invite friends to your server with world passes, but these things cost Gil, which is something new players won't have. So your best bet is to look around on forums, hoping that somebody is kind enough to give you a world pass. World passes only work 5 times, and it only lasts for a short while.
Edit: I found out that they actually changed it and you can now pick a server when you create a new character......4 years after release.
Speaking of characters, you can only create one characters. If you want to create another one, you have to pay an additional 1$ each month! That is rediculous! I can live with a one time payment 1$ for an additional character slot, but 1$ each month!? what the hell Square enix? No seriously, What..... the.... Hell?
Once ingame, you will find out that the controls are very different from other MMORPG's. It also uses a strange menu system in combat that takes some time to get used to.A new player will already be overwhelmed by the huge city they start in, the least you could do is have a normal interface and control scheme. There are some other newbie things that bother me of Final Fantasy XI. There is no tutorial whatsoever, and the mobs Square Enix picked for new characters to fight is just rediculous. A proud Elvaan Warrior should not have to run in terror from a sheep or haze!
I'd like to go into more detail about Final Fantasy XI, but right now, I wanted to give you some information about the more technical side of Final fantasy XI.
Play Online is the worst thing that ever hit MMORPG gaming. Ever. its slow and completely useless. Want to know why? Keep reading.
The chore starts with the instalation of the damn game. I bought the package which comes with the full game and the first 2 expansion packs. Thats 7 freaking CD's! why can't they just use one or two DVD's, or use an updated download version?
That would actually save them some costs. Take the Chains of Promothia expansion for example. 88% of the content is on CD 1, the other 12% is on CD 2. This requires Square to produce thousands of extra CD's just for 12% content. Props to them for actually doing it though, if it was SOE, they would have just removed the 12% content and only deliver 88% of the expansion.
Anyways, I have to keep swapping CD's. On top of that, its impossible to download the game anywhere (or at least, I never found a download). So I start by installing the PlayOnline launcher. After installing the launcher, I open it and make an attempt to login. I found out that my PlayOnline account has been de-activated, I'll assume its because its been a while since I logged in. My question is, why was it de-activated in the first place? In fact, why do I need a PlayOnline ID anyway? its not like I'm going to use any of its features. but anyway, I re-activate the damn account, and I start installing the actual Game. I insert Final Fantasy XI CD 1. After a while, I get a message: "Please insert Final Fantasy XI CD 2". okay, no problem. "Please insert Final Fantasy XI CD 3" sure thing. after a while, I get this message: "Please insert Final Fantasy XI CD 1".
Why? I already gave you CD 1. Why do I need to insert CD 1 twice? Are they scared I got rid of it or something? like "Oh, I used CD 1, No need for it anymore, might as well throw it in the trash can.......oh fuck"]
Its the same thing with Chains of Promatathia expansion. This expansions is 2 CD's. First I have to insert CD 1, then I insert CD 2 and when its done installing, I need to insert CD 1 again. thats rediculous, why should I have to do that?
well anyway, I continue to install the game and its expansions. If its your first time playing FFXI, then you will have to register for PlayOnline, which requires a key code. this will hold your accounts for both Final Fantasy XI and Tetra Masters, which is nice. PlayOnline has some other features.
Your own PlayOnline Email. Why the hell would I want a POL email? I can get one with much more free space for free, and it takes much longer to login to POL then it takes to login to other email providers such as Live and Gmail. but you'll need it anyway.
Chatrooms: Most of them are empty or near empty. you probably will never use these.
other stuff: Change your POL wallpaper, E - Cards, that sort of thing.
So that sums it up.The thing is, you will probably never use any of them. Next you have to use the keycodes to activate your games. One for Final Fantasy XI, one For the Rise of the Zilart expansion, one for Chains of Promathia, and another one for Tetra Masters. Along with the Play Online key, thats 5 freaking Key codes. I bought this as a package, why do I need to input 5 different key codes? Why can't it just be one? So after you set up your account and keycodes, you can play two different games. Tetra Masters and Final Fantasy XI.
You might Remember Tetra masters. its the card game from Final Fantasy 9. I personally would have prefered the card game from Final Fantasy 8, or Blitzball from Final Fantasy 10.
I have 2 questions about Tetra masters
1: Why isn't this in the actual game? Why is it a game outside the game? In Final Fantasy 9, you can card battle with NPC's in the game. it was in the actual game in FF9. It would have been much more fun if this was part of the game. This would actually allow SE to hold ingame events and prizes with Tetra masters. There are very few people playing, so most of the time you'll be playing against the computer.
2: Why does this game requires an additional monthly fee? I have to pay another dollar for each month of Tetra Masters. Why? its just a small minigame. Its not even a part of the real game, why should I have to pay for it? Its not like its anything special. There are only a few players online at any given time, most of the time its less then 50. That 1$ isn't going to make you rich Square.
So, on to Final Fantasy XI. first you have to login to Play Online, then you have to patch the game, (If you bought an older version, go to your TV and go watch a movie or two. Patching can easily take up to 5 hours) then you have to go through an agreement, a warning not to play too much (Like anyone gives a crap), and then the game actually starts up. From desktop to the actual game takes roughly 30 to 45 seconds. Its playOnline that is seriously slowing things down. I can go from my desktop to World of Warcraft in less then 5 seconds. Why does it need to take so long?
For me, its clear.
Once you get through all that, you can finally create your characters, and your starting town. You can pick any of the three towns, but I recommend that you start in the town of your race. you will receive a pretty nifty ring. As you probably noticed, you can not chose which server to play on,
Dear Square enix, did you notice that you are the only game company that forces its players to play on a server? There is probably a good reason for that!
This is the worst idea ever. If I want to start this game with a friend, we're screwed. Chances are big we will land on different servers. Yes, you can invite friends to your server with world passes, but these things cost Gil, which is something new players won't have. So your best bet is to look around on forums, hoping that somebody is kind enough to give you a world pass. World passes only work 5 times, and it only lasts for a short while.
Edit: I found out that they actually changed it and you can now pick a server when you create a new character......4 years after release.
Speaking of characters, you can only create one characters. If you want to create another one, you have to pay an additional 1$ each month! That is rediculous! I can live with a one time payment 1$ for an additional character slot, but 1$ each month!? what the hell Square enix? No seriously, What..... the.... Hell?
Once ingame, you will find out that the controls are very different from other MMORPG's. It also uses a strange menu system in combat that takes some time to get used to.A new player will already be overwhelmed by the huge city they start in, the least you could do is have a normal interface and control scheme. There are some other newbie things that bother me of Final Fantasy XI. There is no tutorial whatsoever, and the mobs Square Enix picked for new characters to fight is just rediculous. A proud Elvaan Warrior should not have to run in terror from a sheep or haze!
I'd like to go into more detail about Final Fantasy XI, but right now, I wanted to give you some information about the more technical side of Final fantasy XI.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Top 5 most overhyped games
Warning: still need to proof read and grammar check the whole thing. Too tired now, going to bed.
Hype can be good thing and a bad thing. When a game is hyped, people will expect the world from a game. If a game lives up to the hype, you have a solid game with a big playerbase. however in most cases, the game won't live up to the hype. It isn't what people expect it to be. You will see a lot of dissapointed faces.
Over the last few years we have seen a lot of games who did not live up to the hype. So here is a top 5 of the most hyped MMORPG's.
5 - RF Online: RF Online was supposed to be an epic mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Its been a while since a Sci-Fi game was released in the western market, so it would be a breath of fresh air from all the fantasy clones. Unfortunatly, RF Online did not really live up to its expectations. It didn't make much use of the Sci fi elements at all, aside from the guns and mechs. No real sci-fi area's to level in, No Sci-fi vehicles, and most of the time, you were fighting monsters that might as well fit in a Fantasy based MMORPG. The gameplay was shallow, especialy in the PVE area. Because of its instant potion spamming, there was absolutely zero challenge in PVE, making the game feel even more like a grind.
The PT system was a nice idea, but it was poorly executed, forcing you to kill lower level mobs just to keep your PT's up.
It doesn't really help that it takes you to reach up to level 30 before you can finally reach the PVP content either. If your willing to put in alot of time, then RF online is a decent game and can be an enjoyable experience. However, I think most people will drop the game before they get that far.
4 - R.O.S.E: Rush On Seven Episodes, perhaps one of the worst titles you could think of. But I guess it fits with one of the worst MMORPG's ever made.
R.O.S.E was published by Gravity, The company behind the smash hit Ragnarok Online. Sure, R.O.S.E had this little icon named "Triggersoft" (the development company behind R.O.S.E) on the bottom left of every advertisement, but that didn't stop us fans of Ragnarok to hope that R.O.S.E would become the next Ragnarok Online. we were hoping for new, refreshing gameplay that took the best elements out of Ragnarok Online. This game would be the next Ragnarok Online, the true Ragnarok Online 2!
Unfortunatly, R.O.S.E Online turned out to be a shameless Ragnarok Online rip off that was inferior to RO in every possible way. Movement and combat was slow and clunky, especialy at the start of the game. it took forever to get somewhere. It simply missed the fast paced gameplay of RO. The questing was poorly done, none of then had a slightly intresting storyline, and were little more then "Go kill XX or go find XX". Foruntatly, there were few quests avaible, so most of the time you spend your time grinding mobs over and over again. The Graphics were horrible, It had this "cute" look, which made every character look like a 7 year old. Enviroment lacked detail, and was actually quite repetive. R.O.S.E backs up my opinion that its better to make a good looking 2D Game then a bad looking 3D game.
There isn't much else to say about this game. It did pretty well back when it was in beta, mainly because it was free. However as soon as the game started to charge a monthly fee, the servers became quite empty. The European version crashed soon. Recently, the korean version shut down and the developers were placed in other sections of Gravity. I can imagine the others versions will pull the plug any moment now. The Philippine version is empty (Ragnarok Online is still domination in south east asia), and I can't imagine the NA is that full either.
Pity.
3 - Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Not a surprise to anyone, main reason its on this list is because the hype it got. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is made by the big man behind Everquest. Vanguard was supposed to bring the old Everquest feeling back. It turned out to be a loooong grind that was bugged beyond oblivion, required a NASA computer, with a world that felt lifeless and dull. Vanguard didn't bring anything new to the genre (no, I'm not going to bother with that "diplomacy" minigame) nor did it improve on anything.
Its easy to see Vanguard was released way to early, and this might have been an excellent title if it was pushed back a couple of months. And to be fair, Vanguard: Saga of heroes isn't one of the worst mmorpg's ever created. But this list is about the most overhyped MMO's, not the worst MMO's.
2 - Realms of Krel, Mourning, Age of Mourning, Thrones of Chaos or whatever you would like to call this pile of scrap, this is by far one of the, if not THE worst MMORPG ever created. The game was one big bug, NOTHING worked. One of the biggest problems was actually being able to play the darn game. the servers had to be reset manualy, and the staff members weren't avaible at the office 24/7. If the server crashed friday night: Tough luck, try again next monday.
The game had some epic quests. well, make that quest actually. There was one quest in the game....and it was broken. it didn't work. Also, None of the features promised by the company were implanted in the game. Looking at the features promised, its easy to see why so many people were hyped about Mourning. The idea was there, its just that the company clearly had the intention to scam its fans all along. those who pre-ordered the game received a blank re-writable CD with an old client on it. No box art, no manual, no CD art, nothing. According to the company behind Mourning, It should be considered a "collectors item". Nice.
There was nothing even remotely fun about this game. The combat was a joke and...well, thats it. There is nothing else in the game. It even missed actual players, and I believe its peak is somewhere around 30 players.
Few people played longer then 5 minutes.
After much kicking and screaming, Mourning closed down and the game was sold to Loud Ant Software. LAS had the intention to publish the game under a new name: Thrones of Chaos. but they never did, and according to the CEO, they were more intrested in the engine then the actual game. Right now it seems the game is dead. Lets hope it stays that way.
1: And number one, the most overhyped MMORPG in history is....
*drumrolls*
*even more drumrolls*
Well lets cut the crap, this won't be a surprise to anyone.
Dark and Light was the most overhyped game ever. This game had an enormous following, and I believe all of its beta spots were away in a matter of seconds. They clearly messed with the screenshots and gametrailers, as the real game looked nothing like the screenshots, and most of the game was broken. The world was pathetic. Yes, its indeed the largest playable world in an mmorpg, they kept the promise, but 99% of it is computer generated. No detail, nothing. endless masses of unused land. Characters were often broken, such as stats disapearing, unable to equip or unequip armor, characters disapearing, stats stacking up with items and more of those nasty things. combat wasn't fun. it simply wasn't, neither was its pvp. Come to think of it, there was only one thing that was fun about Dark and Light, and thats flying. Its the only enjoyable thing to do in Dark & light.
The game also had some serious out of game problems. Dark & light scammed hundreds of people by charging credit cards of canceled accounts, sending emails saying that they owed money from them, and more nasty tricks like that. Even its GM team, Alchemic Dream ditched Farlan and D&L.
Dark & light is in my opinion the 2nd worst mmorpg ever created, right after mourning. The reason it is number 1 is because of insane amount of hype the game received.
Dark & light and Mourning are proof that a feature list doesn't say anything. If its too good to be true, it usually is. *nods at Darkfall*
Hype can be good thing and a bad thing. When a game is hyped, people will expect the world from a game. If a game lives up to the hype, you have a solid game with a big playerbase. however in most cases, the game won't live up to the hype. It isn't what people expect it to be. You will see a lot of dissapointed faces.
Over the last few years we have seen a lot of games who did not live up to the hype. So here is a top 5 of the most hyped MMORPG's.
5 - RF Online: RF Online was supposed to be an epic mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Its been a while since a Sci-Fi game was released in the western market, so it would be a breath of fresh air from all the fantasy clones. Unfortunatly, RF Online did not really live up to its expectations. It didn't make much use of the Sci fi elements at all, aside from the guns and mechs. No real sci-fi area's to level in, No Sci-fi vehicles, and most of the time, you were fighting monsters that might as well fit in a Fantasy based MMORPG. The gameplay was shallow, especialy in the PVE area. Because of its instant potion spamming, there was absolutely zero challenge in PVE, making the game feel even more like a grind.
The PT system was a nice idea, but it was poorly executed, forcing you to kill lower level mobs just to keep your PT's up.
It doesn't really help that it takes you to reach up to level 30 before you can finally reach the PVP content either. If your willing to put in alot of time, then RF online is a decent game and can be an enjoyable experience. However, I think most people will drop the game before they get that far.
4 - R.O.S.E: Rush On Seven Episodes, perhaps one of the worst titles you could think of. But I guess it fits with one of the worst MMORPG's ever made.
R.O.S.E was published by Gravity, The company behind the smash hit Ragnarok Online. Sure, R.O.S.E had this little icon named "Triggersoft" (the development company behind R.O.S.E) on the bottom left of every advertisement, but that didn't stop us fans of Ragnarok to hope that R.O.S.E would become the next Ragnarok Online. we were hoping for new, refreshing gameplay that took the best elements out of Ragnarok Online. This game would be the next Ragnarok Online, the true Ragnarok Online 2!
Unfortunatly, R.O.S.E Online turned out to be a shameless Ragnarok Online rip off that was inferior to RO in every possible way. Movement and combat was slow and clunky, especialy at the start of the game. it took forever to get somewhere. It simply missed the fast paced gameplay of RO. The questing was poorly done, none of then had a slightly intresting storyline, and were little more then "Go kill XX or go find XX". Foruntatly, there were few quests avaible, so most of the time you spend your time grinding mobs over and over again. The Graphics were horrible, It had this "cute" look, which made every character look like a 7 year old. Enviroment lacked detail, and was actually quite repetive. R.O.S.E backs up my opinion that its better to make a good looking 2D Game then a bad looking 3D game.
There isn't much else to say about this game. It did pretty well back when it was in beta, mainly because it was free. However as soon as the game started to charge a monthly fee, the servers became quite empty. The European version crashed soon. Recently, the korean version shut down and the developers were placed in other sections of Gravity. I can imagine the others versions will pull the plug any moment now. The Philippine version is empty (Ragnarok Online is still domination in south east asia), and I can't imagine the NA is that full either.
Pity.
3 - Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Not a surprise to anyone, main reason its on this list is because the hype it got. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is made by the big man behind Everquest. Vanguard was supposed to bring the old Everquest feeling back. It turned out to be a loooong grind that was bugged beyond oblivion, required a NASA computer, with a world that felt lifeless and dull. Vanguard didn't bring anything new to the genre (no, I'm not going to bother with that "diplomacy" minigame) nor did it improve on anything.
Its easy to see Vanguard was released way to early, and this might have been an excellent title if it was pushed back a couple of months. And to be fair, Vanguard: Saga of heroes isn't one of the worst mmorpg's ever created. But this list is about the most overhyped MMO's, not the worst MMO's.
2 - Realms of Krel, Mourning, Age of Mourning, Thrones of Chaos or whatever you would like to call this pile of scrap, this is by far one of the, if not THE worst MMORPG ever created. The game was one big bug, NOTHING worked. One of the biggest problems was actually being able to play the darn game. the servers had to be reset manualy, and the staff members weren't avaible at the office 24/7. If the server crashed friday night: Tough luck, try again next monday.
The game had some epic quests. well, make that quest actually. There was one quest in the game....and it was broken. it didn't work. Also, None of the features promised by the company were implanted in the game. Looking at the features promised, its easy to see why so many people were hyped about Mourning. The idea was there, its just that the company clearly had the intention to scam its fans all along. those who pre-ordered the game received a blank re-writable CD with an old client on it. No box art, no manual, no CD art, nothing. According to the company behind Mourning, It should be considered a "collectors item". Nice.
There was nothing even remotely fun about this game. The combat was a joke and...well, thats it. There is nothing else in the game. It even missed actual players, and I believe its peak is somewhere around 30 players.
Few people played longer then 5 minutes.
After much kicking and screaming, Mourning closed down and the game was sold to Loud Ant Software. LAS had the intention to publish the game under a new name: Thrones of Chaos. but they never did, and according to the CEO, they were more intrested in the engine then the actual game. Right now it seems the game is dead. Lets hope it stays that way.
1: And number one, the most overhyped MMORPG in history is....
*drumrolls*
*even more drumrolls*
Well lets cut the crap, this won't be a surprise to anyone.
Dark and Light was the most overhyped game ever. This game had an enormous following, and I believe all of its beta spots were away in a matter of seconds. They clearly messed with the screenshots and gametrailers, as the real game looked nothing like the screenshots, and most of the game was broken. The world was pathetic. Yes, its indeed the largest playable world in an mmorpg, they kept the promise, but 99% of it is computer generated. No detail, nothing. endless masses of unused land. Characters were often broken, such as stats disapearing, unable to equip or unequip armor, characters disapearing, stats stacking up with items and more of those nasty things. combat wasn't fun. it simply wasn't, neither was its pvp. Come to think of it, there was only one thing that was fun about Dark and Light, and thats flying. Its the only enjoyable thing to do in Dark & light.
The game also had some serious out of game problems. Dark & light scammed hundreds of people by charging credit cards of canceled accounts, sending emails saying that they owed money from them, and more nasty tricks like that. Even its GM team, Alchemic Dream ditched Farlan and D&L.
Dark & light is in my opinion the 2nd worst mmorpg ever created, right after mourning. The reason it is number 1 is because of insane amount of hype the game received.
Dark & light and Mourning are proof that a feature list doesn't say anything. If its too good to be true, it usually is. *nods at Darkfall*
Monday, April 9, 2007
The Lord of your Credit Card
I'm sure many people are looking forward to the release of Turbine's new MMORPG: The Lord of the rings Online. And, it has to be said, the game is actually a pretty good game. Its not groundbreaking, its not innovative, But its well polished, its finished and its fun to play.
But thats not the point of this post. The subject of this post is about the so called "Lifetime membership" deal. By purchasing this special subscribtion, you pay "just" 200$ (actually its 199$, but who are we kidding?) on top of the 50$, and you will never have to pay a monthly fee ever again for Lotro.
MMO's can be around for many, many years so a one time payment of 200$ might seem a good investment. However, I feel that its important to show you what exactly you are getting yourself into, as 200$ is a lot of money.
First, lets take a look at the things you should consider. 200$ is equal to roughly 13 months of 15$ a month gameplay.
When you play this game, ask yourself this question: "is this REALLY something I want to play for 13 months?". Let alone, how many MMO's did you actually play for 13 months or more? Probably your first or second mmorpg, but how many more? is it worth the risk?
Also, look at how the game is build. You depend on Turbine to entertain you, since Lotro is not really a strong sandbox enviroment. besides questing and crafting, there is not much to do in Lord of the rings Online.If Turbine turns out to be very slow with releasing content, your pretty much screwed. You can't wait and see how it turns out, since the lifetime deal is pre-order only. You can't cancel, they already got your money.
Then there is the endgame, which not many have reached yet. if you don't like it, again, your screwed.
Another thing to consider are the other games released in a few months from now. WAR, Age of Conan, Aion and more, there is a chance you will switch to one of those games, but you already paid for at least 13 months of Lotro.
One Arguement I have heard to justify the lifetime membership is "Well, I can jump back whenever I want to". I find this a silly arguement, you can jump back into any mmorpg whenever you want to, you just have to pay a fee of 15$. You will save a bunch of money.
Ofcourse the decision is yours, not mine.
But make sure you take these things into consideration when you decide if you take the offer or not.
But thats not the point of this post. The subject of this post is about the so called "Lifetime membership" deal. By purchasing this special subscribtion, you pay "just" 200$ (actually its 199$, but who are we kidding?) on top of the 50$, and you will never have to pay a monthly fee ever again for Lotro.
MMO's can be around for many, many years so a one time payment of 200$ might seem a good investment. However, I feel that its important to show you what exactly you are getting yourself into, as 200$ is a lot of money.
First, lets take a look at the things you should consider. 200$ is equal to roughly 13 months of 15$ a month gameplay.
When you play this game, ask yourself this question: "is this REALLY something I want to play for 13 months?". Let alone, how many MMO's did you actually play for 13 months or more? Probably your first or second mmorpg, but how many more? is it worth the risk?
Also, look at how the game is build. You depend on Turbine to entertain you, since Lotro is not really a strong sandbox enviroment. besides questing and crafting, there is not much to do in Lord of the rings Online.If Turbine turns out to be very slow with releasing content, your pretty much screwed. You can't wait and see how it turns out, since the lifetime deal is pre-order only. You can't cancel, they already got your money.
Then there is the endgame, which not many have reached yet. if you don't like it, again, your screwed.
Another thing to consider are the other games released in a few months from now. WAR, Age of Conan, Aion and more, there is a chance you will switch to one of those games, but you already paid for at least 13 months of Lotro.
One Arguement I have heard to justify the lifetime membership is "Well, I can jump back whenever I want to". I find this a silly arguement, you can jump back into any mmorpg whenever you want to, you just have to pay a fee of 15$. You will save a bunch of money.
Ofcourse the decision is yours, not mine.
But make sure you take these things into consideration when you decide if you take the offer or not.
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