Anyone tried EQLive with its 50 expansions?

[Arterian]

I can promise you they will not make EQ1 with better graphics.

They are going to invest more money in market research than the game itself, determine that WoW is the most profitable MMO ever, and build a WoW clone in Norrath.

Game over.

[Gadwen]

Originally Posted by Arterian [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I can promise you they will not make EQ1 with better graphics.

They are going to invest more money in market research than the game itself, determine that WoW is the most profitable MMO ever, and build a WoW clone in Norrath.

Game over.

You forgot one detail, a WoW clone with micro transactions.

F2P is shitting all over this genre.

[TarukShmaruk]

Originally Posted by Gadwen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You forgot one detail, a WoW clone with micro transactions.

F2P is shitting all over this genre.

Actually F2P is allowing games to succeed and thus financial investment incentives for new games to be made.

It lets people with money (but no time) pay for the development that the pure F2Pers get to take advantage of.

[t0lkien]

Originally Posted by TarukShmaruk [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Actually F2P is allowing games to succeed and thus financial investment incentives for new games to be made.

It lets people with money (but no time) pay for the development that the pure F2Pers get to take advantage of.

Actually, I know this is the theory, but that's not how it works. Games are designed from the ground up for F2P so that the design is fundamentally changed by the F2P element. It ruins good games. Designers can no longer come up with an idea they think will be fun, they have to come up with ideas that can be monetized. Trust me on this, it's )&*)*ing awful, and creates poor gameplay (which is the real point). As a designer you are no longer concerned with creating fun, delight, depth, charm, joy, challenge etc. You are forced to shoehorn any idea into the format of how it can be leveraged to get the player to spend money on it.

That, my friend, is the death of gameplay as we know it (and one of the reasons the industry is imploding right now, and studios closing down left, right, and center).

[TarukShmaruk]

Originally Posted by t0lkien [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Actually, I know this is the theory, but that's not how it works. Games are designed from the ground up for F2P so that the design is fundamentally changed by the F2P element. It ruins good games. Designers can no longer come up with an idea they think will be fun, they have to come up with ideas that can be monetized. Trust me on this, it's )&*)*ing awful, and creates poor gameplay (which is the real point). As a designer you are no longer concerned with creating fun, delight, depth, charm, joy, challenge etc. You are forced to shoehorn any idea into the format of how it can be leveraged to get the player to spend money on it.

That, my friend, is the death of gameplay as we know it (and one of the reasons the industry is imploding right now, and studios closing down left, right, and center).

It doesn't create poor gameplay when people pay out the ass for cosmetic things and minor boosters.

[Vondra]

I don't know what EQnext will be like but I don't think it's going to be another straight themepark.

Those types of WoW clones have been doing consistently badly for several years now and I think people have noticed.

[t0lkien]

I don't mean to say there are no good F2P games, maybe there are. I wouldn't know because I despise the entire idea where MMOs are concerned, but people keep telling me there are good ones so I have to defer to that. I can say every one I've played, every previous subscription game that went F2P, has been mediocre at best (and in that regard EverQuest is a good example, though it was dying before that for other reasons).

I can also say the money grabbing philosophy behind them has negatively impacted the games industry, and games in general. And that's being thoroughly diplomatic about it [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

... and I'll shutup now.

[Anelion]

Someone said something about Beastlords? Uh ya give me that.

[Ripp]

I really miss spell sets but other than that, live is an ugly mess.

[Vondra]

I started playing on the test server some recently. You get everything except extra merc slots there for free, so it's good for playing on the side.