Hardly seems fair to go into a swamp with forced short drawing distance and presenting it as The Way The Game Looks. :?
I'll play a bit more later and take a screenshot of a place with drawing distance at max. So far I was not impressed at all when I looked over the flowing fields before being sent into a damned swamp to kill crocodiles.
Well, you're stuck on the Isle of Dawn, which is not terribly big. You'll need to either get off it or restart in your home town to get to the full game.
If you prefer an aesthetic, when porting off he isle you're given a choice of continent- Qalia is Africa/Egypt, Kojan is Japan and Thestra is medieval Europe, effectively.
[edit] Oh, and if the max Far Clipping Plane setting isn't enough for you, you can force the default fog setting with /setfog. If you want it to both start and end really far, try something like
/setfog 200000, 400000
or if you want a more uniform fog that just has a really high max distance
/setfog -1, 400000 (start distance, end distance, not actually tried this one myself, I like the previous one)
[edit2] Yeah, they seem to have redone the home town starting areas. I've not finished the Kojan one yet, but I'd probably recommend them simply because they're more recent than Isle of Dawn and as such more polished.
Who's the cutest tiny oppressor for the Emperor? Yes she is.
I don't know if anyone posted this yet but Maestia is now playable in North America playmaestia.com/.
They did a couple changes to the game compared to the european version and seems to be way less grindy. It seems the publishers went out of their way to make it more appealing for the US audience. It's pretty okay for now, they have PvP enabled and it's sorta even... I think the Temple Knights win a little more though.
I'd give it a good 3/5. Solid, nothing crazy innovative, but if you're looking for something pleasant to play I would give it a shot.
I check up on Massively. They do report on the big boys, but also keep up with free ones, be it new, upcoming, updates and so on. They're also good for handing out beta keys and so on, which is how most F2P MMOs seem to begin these days.
so if I wanted a site that sort just keeps up with all the new free MMO types, even if they're all crappy, what do you guys use?
Uh, besides this thread you mean?
I always keep an eye on Massively, I follow most publishers on my Twitter, I am subscribed to dozens of newsletters and I try to keep up with http://www.dotmmo.com/mmorpg
Not really sure if it constitutes an MMO, but Ubisoft is putting out Silent Hunter online. The model is f2p with daily 'time compression' points that you can buy more of to transit to and from mission areas. There's a link to the beta signup on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
f2p isn't going anywhere. How big it gets is debatable, but it's far too profitable to go away entirely.
Oh certainly, I'm convinced that the F2P model has a lot of great things (I wouldn't have started this list if I thought it was shite) but I hate how F2P is tagged to everything now. It makes my job harder and a lot of recent F2P titles in popular/old franchises turned out to be the worst games in series. Consider Need For Speed. The F2P model was so bad they had to relaunch with a less punishing cash shop to even get people to try it. And what people found was the blandest racing game in the series, clearly developed by a B team with a limited budget.
I also hate how every MMO coming out today immediately has smartasses going "huh wonder why they f2p" or how games like SWTOR are going F2P, but in such a way that everyone who would actually enjoy it is still going to pay subscription level prices within no time.
Also, the guy in the article going "95% people are pirates, so F2P means we have 95% less pirates. Science!" as if F2P is some magic bullet against all ills.
0
Options
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
I don't know who you are, and I probably don't like you!
But I have stuff for you.
For some reason I was sent three closed beta keys to the European version of RaiderZ, while I am just a cocky power-hungry Americans. As far as I know, America is still only on the southern end of Europe, where currency is still different.
Therefore, I will just casually leave some keys on the desk for safe keeping, and if they just happen to be used up while I am not looking, that just means I need to get better security.
I sure hope nobody figures out that they can redeem a key on http://www.raiderz-europe.com/account/redeem-code.html to get Closed Beta access, otherwise it can't be used anymore(since they can only be used once, obviously).
Yeah, it has a rabid fanbase, but I've always felt that limiting yourself based not on how good something is but what its fanbase is like is unfair to the developers/producers/authors. You end up punishing them, plus depriving yourself of something high quality, just because of loudmouths.
Yeah, "I'll play this when it's F2P" annoys me no end. It's literally wishing a game will fail so you don't have to pay money for it.
Eeeeh. I don't personally know that wishing a game will go F2P is wishing it to fail anymore. Certainly, there are a lot of F2P games, but these days I'm looking at most sub fees and just saying "No." I don't really care how good the game is - The landscape of gaming is changing and with all the incredibly cheap games on Steam, the proliferation of really competitive F2P games like LoL, and the abundance of fun small games on mobile devices paying $15 a month just to access a single game is an increasingly unpalatable offer. I'm at the point now where due to the state of my server when I quit, if I want to really get into WoW again I'm looking at dropping $40 on MoP, $15 on a sub, and $25 for a server transfer. I am not paying $80 just to play WoW again when I have spent that much on at least 10 Steam games I have barely sunk my teeth into.
With something like League of Legends though, there was a time period of about two months where I just got burnt out on it and stopped playing. I was tired of it, I was done, I washed my hands of it. And then two months later I went "Naw I'd like to play that again", and all it took was entering in my login information. All my stuff was still there, everything I had earned, my friends lists were preserved. It was easy to pick up and play.
Traditionally sub fees have been justified with two major reasons. The necessary upkeep on servers/paying constant content updates, and the value proposition for a poor gamer. The former, unfortunately, has been in a state of being disproven since the first Guild Wars was released in 2005. Since then more and more subless online games have come out and been successful. If something like WoW or TOR truly needs sub fees for its server upkeep costs (and clearly TOR does not), then it would behoove them to figure out what arcane technology other games are utilizing that they can subsist purely off of microtransactions. And as for the notion that a poor gamer can simply drop their $15 a month to sate their entertainment, well, how about dropping no dollars a month on a F2P game?
It may be that going F2P is a byproduct of a game realizing it can make a greater profit margin by abandoning the sub fee, but that is merely a failure to recognize the proper pricing structure for the game, not any sort of poor design on the game's part. Now, poor game design may add to the reasons that it fails as a sub game, but it is not the sole reason. Games like WoW and TOR are competing for my attention with games that I do not have to pay money to play. They have to compete with free. I've spent good money on LoL - too much money, I would probably say! And I do that because the price tag allowed me to get into the game to a great degree, when if it had a cost associated I would probably have not even tried it.
So, yeah. I'll play TOR when it's F2P - or rather, I'll finish playing TOR when it's F2P as I bought it to play with friends but could not justify the sub fee for what felt like a worse WoW, which I already did not want to pay the sub fee for. But it's not because "Oh I hope TOR will fail because fuck Bioware", it's because "Other companies are offering me better deals on gaming, and I am not so attached to the MMO genre that I find it necessary to pay the sub fee."
The landscape of the market is changing and MMOs are welcome to continue trying to charge subscription fees, just as Blockbuster was welcome to continue renting DVDs while the internet existed. It may not be the best business move.
I think the subtle difference comes between "I'll play it when it's free" and "I'll play it if it goes free". The former, especially when said in a thread of a new game, is not exactly free of implications.
And while we're comparing subs to the Guild Wars model, the game faces a new/returning player with the same problem WoW does- there's a whole tonne of expansions and they're not included in the base game. That's a problem with both models. In fact, I'd say it's more a problem with a box+expansions model, since that's how they make their money and they're less likely to make past ones free. WoW made some of them free. EQ2 made all except the last one free. Guild Wars? Not sure, to be honest, but I'm not seeing GW2 making any expansions free for years down the road.
The landscape of the market is changing and MMOs are welcome to continue trying to charge subscription fees, just as Blockbuster was welcome to continue renting DVDs while the internet existed. It may not be the best business move.
Blockbuster's a little bit different. That failed not because the internet existed, but because of Red Box. A super-convenient little kiosk that you could land right outside of any old supermarket or convenience/drug store, just walk right up to, put in your credit card, rent whatever was available in the booth, pay a small fee by the day with no late fees, and just pop it back into any other Red Box kiosk when you're done - all without a convoluted membership process. Red Box is still flourishing, which means people are still plenty willing to rent DVDs and Blu-Ray, so it's not internet streaming that killed Blockbuster. It's a case of "as usual, convenience and value won out in the end". That's probably a more apt comparison to sub vs f2p.
Donnicton on
+2
Options
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
If TOR had released for $50, and a few months later said "Hey, new PvP expansion, bunch of fantastic competitive stuff, new planet, $15-$30" I'd be over that. 3-6 months later "Hey, new space expansion, just like dogfighting in X-Wing or Tie Fighter/EVE for bigger ships, customize your ships, big frigates that are moving guild bases, $15-$30" and then another few months later "Hey, new faction expansion, new planets, new neutral faction with new classes,that can fight for whoever or themselves, $15-$30" I would be more inclined to buy and buy at least one or two of the expansions.
I imagine it wouldn't be that great for late comers, though. I know I ended up paying like $120 to catch up to Cata and I can't be bothered even trying GW1 because it costs too much to get The Works and it feels like I'm getting short changed if I just get one of them. "Thank you for your money, here's 10% of the game."
The landscape of the market is changing and MMOs are welcome to continue trying to charge subscription fees, just as Blockbuster was welcome to continue renting DVDs while the internet existed. It may not be the best business move.
Blockbuster's a little bit different. That failed not because the internet existed, but because of Red Box. A super-convenient little kiosk that you could land right outside of any old supermarket or convenience/drug store, just walk right up to, put in your credit card, rent whatever was available in the booth, pay a small fee by the day with no late fees, and just pop it back into any other Red Box kiosk when you're done - all without a convoluted membership process. Red Box is still flourishing, which means people are still plenty willing to rent DVDs and Blu-Ray, so it's not internet streaming that killed Blockbuster. It's a case of "as usual, convenience and value won out in the end". That's probably a more apt comparison to sub vs f2p.
Blockbuster also had terrible customer service. So terrible a machine was better.
I imagine it wouldn't be that great for late comers, though. I know I ended up paying like $120 to catch up to Cata and I can't be bothered even trying GW1 because it costs too much to get The Works and it feels like I'm getting short changed if I just get one of them. "Thank you for your money, here's 10% of the game."
If TOR had released for $50, and a few months later said "Hey, new PvP expansion, bunch of fantastic competitive stuff, new planet, $15-$30" I'd be over that. 3-6 months later "Hey, new space expansion, just like dogfighting in X-Wing or Tie Fighter/EVE for bigger ships, customize your ships, big frigates that are moving guild bases, $15-$30" and then another few months later "Hey, new faction expansion, new planets, new neutral faction with new classes,that can fight for whoever or themselves, $15-$30" I would be more inclined to buy and buy at least one or two of the expansions.
A real bounty system for Bounty Hunters would have ensured I'd have stuck with the game.
Did you play Star Wars: Bounty Hunter? Well, there was a system in that game where your helmet had a built-in scanner that uplinked with a bounty board, and you could scan pretty much any NPC in the game to find out whether there was a bounty on it. If there was, you could enter combat with them in order to take them in either alive or dead(alive was tougher, but typically provided better rewards).
That would have been perfect for the game.
0
Options
KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
I just wish SWG stayed but got rid of the sub in favor of a turbine or Sony model. Lots of cool stuff in that game.
I'll be sad to see CoX go, I still fired it up a couple of times a year and played it for a few weeks. I really thought the F2P transition would save it, but I guess NCSoft is having issues.
Posts
-Bounty Bay Online is shutting down. http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/10/bounty-bay-online-shutting-down/
-Maple Story has become available on Steam
-Universe has issued an announcement claiming pink is the only colour acceptable for underwear.
One of the above is not true.
I also love the totally non-invasive cash shop stuff they've incorporated. Smooth SoE, smooth.
If you prefer an aesthetic, when porting off he isle you're given a choice of continent- Qalia is Africa/Egypt, Kojan is Japan and Thestra is medieval Europe, effectively.
[edit] Oh, and if the max Far Clipping Plane setting isn't enough for you, you can force the default fog setting with /setfog. If you want it to both start and end really far, try something like
/setfog 200000, 400000
or if you want a more uniform fog that just has a really high max distance
/setfog -1, 400000 (start distance, end distance, not actually tried this one myself, I like the previous one)
[edit2] Yeah, they seem to have redone the home town starting areas. I've not finished the Kojan one yet, but I'd probably recommend them simply because they're more recent than Isle of Dawn and as such more polished.
Who's the cutest tiny oppressor for the Emperor? Yes she is.
They did a couple changes to the game compared to the european version and seems to be way less grindy. It seems the publishers went out of their way to make it more appealing for the US audience. It's pretty okay for now, they have PvP enabled and it's sorta even... I think the Temple Knights win a little more though.
I'd give it a good 3/5. Solid, nothing crazy innovative, but if you're looking for something pleasant to play I would give it a shot.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
I always keep an eye on Massively, I follow most publishers on my Twitter, I am subscribed to dozens of newsletters and I try to keep up with http://www.dotmmo.com/mmorpg
So this launches into open beta on the 28th. Same day as Guild Wars 2.
Your Steam Wallet can now buy flying dildos and other magical things.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/22/ubisoft-boss-declares-f2p-is-because-of-95-piracy-rates
f2p isn't going anywhere. How big it gets is debatable, but it's far too profitable to go away entirely.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Oh certainly, I'm convinced that the F2P model has a lot of great things (I wouldn't have started this list if I thought it was shite) but I hate how F2P is tagged to everything now. It makes my job harder and a lot of recent F2P titles in popular/old franchises turned out to be the worst games in series. Consider Need For Speed. The F2P model was so bad they had to relaunch with a less punishing cash shop to even get people to try it. And what people found was the blandest racing game in the series, clearly developed by a B team with a limited budget.
I also hate how every MMO coming out today immediately has smartasses going "huh wonder why they f2p" or how games like SWTOR are going F2P, but in such a way that everyone who would actually enjoy it is still going to pay subscription level prices within no time.
I just wish I had to buy the game for a set price and expansions to play an MMO. I don't like subscriptions.
Probably, but I'm tired of everyone declaring it the god-king of MMOs. It's got a shit ton of good stuff, but it also has a few bad things to it.
I don't know who you are, and I probably don't like you!
But I have stuff for you.
For some reason I was sent three closed beta keys to the European version of RaiderZ, while I am just a cocky power-hungry Americans. As far as I know, America is still only on the southern end of Europe, where currency is still different.
Therefore, I will just casually leave some keys on the desk for safe keeping, and if they just happen to be used up while I am not looking, that just means I need to get better security.
CBTW31_OTMjOGZhOGQjMjAjMjA
CBTW31_MTIjMjAjOTkyNGYjMjk
I sure hope nobody figures out that they can redeem a key on http://www.raiderz-europe.com/account/redeem-code.html to get Closed Beta access, otherwise it can't be used anymore(since they can only be used once, obviously).
Eeeeh. I don't personally know that wishing a game will go F2P is wishing it to fail anymore. Certainly, there are a lot of F2P games, but these days I'm looking at most sub fees and just saying "No." I don't really care how good the game is - The landscape of gaming is changing and with all the incredibly cheap games on Steam, the proliferation of really competitive F2P games like LoL, and the abundance of fun small games on mobile devices paying $15 a month just to access a single game is an increasingly unpalatable offer. I'm at the point now where due to the state of my server when I quit, if I want to really get into WoW again I'm looking at dropping $40 on MoP, $15 on a sub, and $25 for a server transfer. I am not paying $80 just to play WoW again when I have spent that much on at least 10 Steam games I have barely sunk my teeth into.
With something like League of Legends though, there was a time period of about two months where I just got burnt out on it and stopped playing. I was tired of it, I was done, I washed my hands of it. And then two months later I went "Naw I'd like to play that again", and all it took was entering in my login information. All my stuff was still there, everything I had earned, my friends lists were preserved. It was easy to pick up and play.
Traditionally sub fees have been justified with two major reasons. The necessary upkeep on servers/paying constant content updates, and the value proposition for a poor gamer. The former, unfortunately, has been in a state of being disproven since the first Guild Wars was released in 2005. Since then more and more subless online games have come out and been successful. If something like WoW or TOR truly needs sub fees for its server upkeep costs (and clearly TOR does not), then it would behoove them to figure out what arcane technology other games are utilizing that they can subsist purely off of microtransactions. And as for the notion that a poor gamer can simply drop their $15 a month to sate their entertainment, well, how about dropping no dollars a month on a F2P game?
It may be that going F2P is a byproduct of a game realizing it can make a greater profit margin by abandoning the sub fee, but that is merely a failure to recognize the proper pricing structure for the game, not any sort of poor design on the game's part. Now, poor game design may add to the reasons that it fails as a sub game, but it is not the sole reason. Games like WoW and TOR are competing for my attention with games that I do not have to pay money to play. They have to compete with free. I've spent good money on LoL - too much money, I would probably say! And I do that because the price tag allowed me to get into the game to a great degree, when if it had a cost associated I would probably have not even tried it.
So, yeah. I'll play TOR when it's F2P - or rather, I'll finish playing TOR when it's F2P as I bought it to play with friends but could not justify the sub fee for what felt like a worse WoW, which I already did not want to pay the sub fee for. But it's not because "Oh I hope TOR will fail because fuck Bioware", it's because "Other companies are offering me better deals on gaming, and I am not so attached to the MMO genre that I find it necessary to pay the sub fee."
The landscape of the market is changing and MMOs are welcome to continue trying to charge subscription fees, just as Blockbuster was welcome to continue renting DVDs while the internet existed. It may not be the best business move.
And while we're comparing subs to the Guild Wars model, the game faces a new/returning player with the same problem WoW does- there's a whole tonne of expansions and they're not included in the base game. That's a problem with both models. In fact, I'd say it's more a problem with a box+expansions model, since that's how they make their money and they're less likely to make past ones free. WoW made some of them free. EQ2 made all except the last one free. Guild Wars? Not sure, to be honest, but I'm not seeing GW2 making any expansions free for years down the road.
Blockbuster's a little bit different. That failed not because the internet existed, but because of Red Box. A super-convenient little kiosk that you could land right outside of any old supermarket or convenience/drug store, just walk right up to, put in your credit card, rent whatever was available in the booth, pay a small fee by the day with no late fees, and just pop it back into any other Red Box kiosk when you're done - all without a convoluted membership process. Red Box is still flourishing, which means people are still plenty willing to rent DVDs and Blu-Ray, so it's not internet streaming that killed Blockbuster. It's a case of "as usual, convenience and value won out in the end". That's probably a more apt comparison to sub vs f2p.
Blockbuster also had terrible customer service. So terrible a machine was better.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
i bought the gw1 campaigns for 10€ each...
A real bounty system for Bounty Hunters would have ensured I'd have stuck with the game.
Did you play Star Wars: Bounty Hunter? Well, there was a system in that game where your helmet had a built-in scanner that uplinked with a bounty board, and you could scan pretty much any NPC in the game to find out whether there was a bounty on it. If there was, you could enter combat with them in order to take them in either alive or dead(alive was tougher, but typically provided better rewards).
That would have been perfect for the game.
I want to know more PA people on Twitter.
http://www.curse.com/betas/planetside-2-beta-key
Speaking of, new updates ahoy for Age of Conan. http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/03/age-of-conan-heralds-secrets-of-dragons-spine-update-series/
EDIT: Huh, just doesn't like Firefox. Worked fine in IE.