Will they every get it right?

Orcish-Horde · 18 Sep 2006 at 12:09

Online gaming that is in the form of WOW EQ2 EVE. There is always something wrong with something, ingame lag, game down, server restarts, forums not working or you can't log on cause the main isp in X country....... Extended maintance to fix the problem from the last extended maintance, hardware upgrade bla bla bla.

The games themselfs are great but the support is just subpower. People will always say its because of the shear volume of people logging on and to a degree I would say they are right. Then again you look at the cash flow going into some of these games and I can't help but feeling that we have been short changed. Penny pinching is what it is IMO an exsample Blizzard and their bittorret downloader.

/end of whine

Atari · 18 Sep 2006 at 13:10

The internet will always have problems and servers aren't guaranteed to be up 100% of the time.

Just have to get used to it.

badgermonkey · 18 Sep 2006 at 14:24

I agree they never get everything right, but im talking more in gameplay sense. Eg -

WoW - fantastic game, great pick up and play for a bit, good laugh with mates, and a very friendly world, and SOME communities generaly good. Let down by the fact that you NEED money to do anything useful, and for any of the GOOD parts of the game (epics, steeds etc) you have to grind. And do the same dungeon repeatedly. Such a grind. Grind grind grind.

EQ2 - I really liked it, but i felt it lacked any kind of social aspect in game, i managed to get in a group once, which was fun, but the world itself kind of sucks, very little social aspect, and STILL grinding (though it didnt feel as bad as Wow)

Eve - The scope and potential of this game is astronomical. But to get into the ONLY good bit of the game you need to play for a few months. I dont want to grind mine for 2 months, or sit there watching my ship on autopilot for hours at a time. I never got to the best bit of the game because the first part sucked. And before anyone says about have patience etc, the answer is no. I dont want to pay monthly for a game that i find dull, a game that doesnt feel like im gaming.

Guild Wars - Not an MMO. However il throw it in anyway. It's all about getting gold. The parties suck 9 times out of 10. I played it for a long time, owned a guild etc. But becausse of the low level cap and the fact that it's not a free roaming world makes it very limited. A few months playability perhaps.

Roduga · 18 Sep 2006 at 15:14

Well:

1) They can't please everyone (especially badgermonkey

).
2) Throwing money into things just doesn't help.

badgermonkey · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:39

Roduga said:
Well:

1) They can't please everyone (especially badgermonkey ).
2) Throwing money into things just doesn't help.

Hey i still play WoW

Huddy · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:52

Hmm don't talk to me about Blizzard. In europe they chose Telia to host WoW in Europe, knowing damn well that company had a bad rep from previous MMO's.

The major issue I believe was that Telia were really the only major player to be able to support the infrastructure needed to host the WoW community.

Steedie · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:55

badgermonkey said:
WoW - fantastic game, great pick up and play for a bit, good laugh with mates, and a very friendly world, and SOME communities generaly good. Let down by the fact that you NEED money to do anything useful, and for any of the GOOD parts of the game (epics, steeds etc) you have to grind. And do the same dungeon repeatedly. Such a grind. Grind grind grind.

Be kinda naff if they give you everything on a plate though wouldnt it

I'm pretty confident Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will be absoloutley stunning. As long as they capture the hugeness of the Warhammer world then it has so so sooooo much to offer

badgermonkey · 18 Sep 2006 at 18:20

Steedie said:
Be kinda naff if they give you everything on a plate though wouldnt it

I'm pretty confident Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will be absoloutley stunning. As long as they capture the hugeness of the Warhammer world then it has so so sooooo much to offer

Indeed i cant wait, i've been into both warhammer universes for 7 years (ish)

HangTime · 18 Sep 2006 at 21:10

You gotta remember that MMORPG players are pretty demanding in that they tend to be playing online for longer periods than your standard gamers - most FPS gamers won't be on the same server for more than 3 or 4 hours at a time, whereas these type of gamers think nothing of waking up in the morning and playing until it's time to go to bed.

VeNT · 18 Sep 2006 at 21:16

also, you can try updates out for CS with 16 players etc
you try testing a server cluster with 25000+ people on it?
you just can't fully test things till they are deployed on the server, and sometimes they go wrong.

badgermonkey · 19 Sep 2006 at 03:20

HangTime said:
You gotta remember that MMORPG players are pretty demanding in that they tend to be playing online for longer periods than your standard gamers - most FPS gamers won't be on the same server for more than 3 or 4 hours at a time, whereas these type of gamers think nothing of waking up in the morning and playing until it's time to go to bed.

Pfft, i play a couple hours of WoW a day, and that's it

vent said:
you try testing a server cluster with 25000+ people on it?
you just can't fully test things till they are deployed on the server, and sometimes they go wrong

Problems etc i understand. It's when game devs do stupid things to the universe i dont like

VeNT · 19 Sep 2006 at 12:04

badgermonkey said:
Problems etc i understand. It's when game devs do stupid things to the universe i dont like

Hell is paved with good intentions.

Stiff_Cookie · 19 Sep 2006 at 13:02

So far, I havent really seen anything in WoW that really struck me as bad in terms of gameplay. As a casual gamer I am having fun and as long as I accept that I am not going to be the biggest and best (because I dont have the time to run the high lvl instances) than its worth it to me.

I do wish that blizzard would invoke some sort of system where they refund some money when a server your playing on goes down because I dont like the idea that I am paying for something that I CANT use.

VeNT · 19 Sep 2006 at 13:22

Stiff_Cookie said:
So far, I havent really seen anything in WoW that really struck me as bad in terms of gameplay. As a casual gamer I am having fun and as long as I accept that I am not going to be the biggest and best (because I dont have the time to run the high lvl instances) than its worth it to me.

I do wish that blizzard would invoke some sort of system where they refund some money when a server your playing on goes down because I dont like the idea that I am paying for something that I CANT use.

most games have "downtimes" with EVE its 11:00-12:00 gmt, every day without fail.
with WOW its whenever they feel like it.

fastwunz · 19 Sep 2006 at 15:22

im pretty sure that when Warhammer online comes to the shops, ill drop WoW like a lead balloon lol

fastwunz · 19 Sep 2006 at 15:24

VeNT said:
most games have "downtimes" with EVE its 11:00-12:00 gmt, every day without fail.
with WOW its whenever they feel like it.

nah, its always on a wednesday that they have maintenance in WoW old chap

VeNT · 19 Sep 2006 at 17:17

fastwunz said:
nah, its always on a wednesday that they have maintenance in WoW old chap

sorry didn't know that, I played WoW on and off for a bit but never realy liked the whole killing-NPCs-to-level-so-I-can-use-that-next-spell/weapon/armour stuff.
maybe I'm just used to the whole EVE thing of offline skills.

Phalanx · 19 Sep 2006 at 17:50

VeNT said:
sorry didn't know that, I played WoW on and off for a bit but never realy liked the whole killing-NPCs-to-level-so-I-can-use-that-next-spell/weapon/armour stuff.
maybe I'm just used to the whole EVE thing of offline skills.

That's exactly what WoW doesn't encourage, though some people think grinding monsters is fast. Stacking quests is less boring i find

Pookie Bear · 19 Sep 2006 at 18:40

badgermonkey said:
EQ2 - STILL grinding (though it didnt feel as bad as Wow)

I know it's how you felt it was, but I feel the complete opposite. EQ2 was a horrible grind, whereas I always felt with WoW that I could do something for 90 minutes, then move somewhere else for an hour, then go have a laugh in IF and still move forward - every time I logged into EQ2 it was a matter of finding a group (and forced grouping does my nut in) and camping a spot for as long as possible. If I didn't, I felt like I'd gotten nowhere.

Horses for courses, I guess

Paramount · 19 Sep 2006 at 18:49

Stiff_Cookie said:
So far, I havent really seen anything in WoW that really struck me as bad in terms of gameplay. As a casual gamer I am having fun and as long as I accept that I am not going to be the biggest and best (because I dont have the time to run the high lvl instances) than its worth it to me.

I do wish that blizzard would invoke some sort of system where they refund some money when a server your playing on goes down because I dont like the idea that I am paying for something that I CANT use.

A nice idea but lets work it out. £8.99 gets you a months worth of play, lets say 28 days to make it simple. Therefore, your 8.99 is buying you 672 hours with which you can play the game. This means you are paying a whole 1.3 pence per hour. Bank breaking or what. I never get why people throw hissy fits because of mmo fees, they're so much better value than buying a normal game from the shelf (unless its a replayable classic like CS or C&C). But anyway, if Blizzard did feel kind enough to refund you for every hour the servers are down, you would only be receiving about 5p a week.

Would that be better?

Will they every get it right?

Man of Honour