|
Post by BtizeF200 on Jul 22, 2011 9:15:28 GMT
WTF? EPIC WALL OF TEXT! Was that the matrix? lol But seriously I couldn't agree with this statement more: These days, you cannot have a poor MMO launch. In the past, you could get away with a ropey launch, people gave you the benefit of the doubt - it doesn't happen these days. It sucks for week 1, people leave and don't come back.
Remember Rift? ;D I see both sides of the fence on this one. I suppose you have to try something new. Stu, you should post that um... post on a relevant reddit. Get some Karma!!
|
|
|
Post by si on Jul 22, 2011 9:25:44 GMT
I agree that the launch needs to be perfect, else everyone will fuck off back to WoW.. I think that'll happen anyway. most MMO's receive great traffic at start, but then people go back to what is familiar to them -- Citation needed.
You'll find a LOT of companies never buy servers, they mearly lease them - So leasing more servers than required and then removing them isn't that expensive.
Also, they roughly know how many copies of the game they'll sel thanks to a rabid fanbase and pre-orders - From this they can roughly know how many servers they'll need -- We do this with websites we host -- Obviously it's a MUCH smaller scale, but if one of our sites has a lot of visitors we migrate it to a dedicated server, so that it doesn't affect other smaller sites on a shared server.
Amazon is a great example of load balancing servers - And they get stupid amounts of traffic around about Christmas time, but there site never suffers as they have enough servers to cope with the demand - If I'm paying a monthly fee for a game, I'd expect the company to invest that in additional servers at the very lease.
Also, on the note of Amazon.. They've had to cancel everyone's pre-order of Star Wars MMO and get them to re-order at the higher price because there supply is charging a MUCH higher price than expected for the release.
You know shit's bad when the giant Amazon can't soak up the additional cost to pass savings on the customer like they've done so many times in the past :/
|
|
|
Post by si on Jul 22, 2011 9:27:20 GMT
"post on a relevant reddit. Get some Karma!!"
OMG! What if we started our own Reddit post, and just constantly posted any old shit to it!? Would people like it, upvote it? Would it get to the front page!?
hmm... *wonders*
|
|
|
Post by sovietstu on Jul 22, 2011 9:31:59 GMT
I agree that the launch needs to be perfect, else everyone will fuck off back to WoW.. I think that'll happen anyway. most MMO's receive great traffic at start, but then people go back to what is familiar to them -- Citation needed. You'll find a LOT of companies never buy servers, they mearly lease them - So leasing more servers than required and then removing them isn't that expensive. Also, they roughly know how many copies of the game they'll sel thanks to a rabid fanbase and pre-orders - From this they can roughly know how many servers they'll need -- We do this with websites we host -- Obviously it's a MUCH smaller scale, but if one of our sites has a lot of visitors we migrate it to a dedicated server, so that it doesn't affect other smaller sites on a shared server. Amazon is a great example of load balancing servers - And they get stupid amounts of traffic around about Christmas time, but there site never suffers as they have enough servers to cope with the demand - If I'm paying a monthly fee for a game, I'd expect the company to invest that in additional servers at the very lease. Also, on the note of Amazon.. They've had to cancel everyone's pre-order of Star Wars MMO and get them to re-order at the higher price because there supply is charging a MUCH higher price than expected for the release. You know shit's bad when the giant Amazon can't soak up the additional cost to pass savings on the customer like they've done so many times in the past :/ Well Si, every pre-order now gets early access - so they'll have exact numbers and will be able to gauge exactly how much server capacity they need for early access. Once this promotion ends in, what, a couple of weeks? And all pre-orders are purely for launch, they'll again be able to semi-guesstimate how much additional capacity they need for launch day (with some extra to account for boxed copies bought on the day). I've just pre-ordered from Amazon for £39.99, have received my pre-order code, redeemed it on the TOR site and am now ready to play early access when it starts. I know I said I wouldn't pay £39.99, i'd pay £34.99 and I stand by that if it had been a standard MMO launch, but that was before I analysed this setup and understood what they were doing with the staggered launch. An extra £5 so that I can be in the "first wave" is alright with me, but I don't expect you guys to do the same. Barnett - go ahead and post it for me if you like, just make sure to credit me and you can have the karma.
|
|
|
Post by BtizeF200 on Jul 22, 2011 9:32:07 GMT
"post on a relevant reddit. Get some Karma!!" OMG! What if we started our own Reddit post, and just constantly posted any old shit to it!? Would people like it, upvote it? Would it get to the front page!? hmm... *wonders* hahah. yeah! we could be sitting on a fracking karma GOLDMINE!! tcwnn.proboards.com value just went up 9001% will need context and relevancy though
|
|
|
Post by sovietstu on Jul 22, 2011 9:33:57 GMT
Also, everything I said was pure speculation, but at least based on what I've read from EA and what I know of MMO launches.
Kinda makes sense, though.
|
|
|
Post by BtizeF200 on Jul 22, 2011 10:22:53 GMT
|
|
|
Post by BtizeF200 on Jul 22, 2011 11:45:52 GMT
unrelated: anyone got a google+ pass?
|
|
|
Post by sovietstu on Jul 31, 2011 23:21:05 GMT
This is the latest video of The Old Republic, showing gameplay from the very first "instance", around level 9, narrated by one of the senior producers. You see about 4 classes and get a look at some of their abilities in action.
This game is fantastic. I don't want to hear otherwise.
You see lots of conversations and crucially, one of the very clear cut light or dark side options where the story can take a turn one way or another.
Just like in a single player RPG like Mass Effect or Dragon Age - but in an MMO. Brilliant.
Watch and see, it's one of the better actual gameplay videos you'll see and it's making me just want it now...
|
|
|
Post by si on Aug 1, 2011 9:03:33 GMT
No. Simply no. I've gone off MMO's and this doesn't make me want to play it.. The shooting looks ridiculous with both parties standing still, hitting each other and doing minimal damage.. (Similar to Star Trek which I disliked) .. Makes me wonder how "Dark Crusade" will pull it off... I don't think they will .. PS. Viewed at work - Can't rate story, voice acting, sounds, etc
|
|
|
Post by sovietstu on Aug 1, 2011 9:10:10 GMT
No. Simply no. I've gone off MMO's and this doesn't make me want to play it.. The shooting looks ridiculous with both parties standing still, hitting each other and doing minimal damage.. (Similar to Star Trek which I disliked) .. Makes me wonder how "Dark Crusade" will pull it off... I don't think they will .. PS. Viewed at work - Can't rate story, voice acting, sounds, etc Yeah, so you unfortunately missed all the important stuff like the story, the voice acting, the decisions, etc, etc...
|
|
|
Post by sovietstu on Aug 1, 2011 9:19:26 GMT
Actually, this is just lol.
You watched the video with no sound, so no narration telling you whats going on and what abilities the characters are using, what the abilities do and what's going on in the instance, none of the story sections voice work, none of the big decisions voice work, and none of the music.
No wonder it seemed shit.
Think I might go watch Leon with no sound and then comment on how poor an experience it was and that the director needs to learn to make movies before trying again ;D
|
|
|
Post by si on Aug 1, 2011 9:29:37 GMT
Your fanboy arguments fail.
The medium of cinema is light and sound. You need both for the true experience.
And whilst both are evident in computer games.. Interactivity and mechanics are much more important - By watching the video I could see what was going on and I could tell I didn't like that style of gameplay that was presented. -- I'm spoiled after playign Witcher 2 - This looks so wooden and formulaic.
Also.. Are they playing with a game pad - Movement looks VERY stiff!
|
|
|
Post by sovietstu on Aug 1, 2011 9:35:06 GMT
Your fanboy arguments fail. The medium of cinema is light and sound. You need both for the true experience. And whilst both are evident in computer games.. Interactivity and mechanics are much more important - By watching the video I could see what was going on and I could tell I didn't like that style of gameplay that was presented. -- I'm spoiled after playign Witcher 2 - This looks so wooden and formulaic. Also.. Are they playing with a game pad - Movement looks VERY stiff! No, try playing wow with a gamepad.
|
|
|
Post by si on Aug 1, 2011 10:11:06 GMT
Your fanboy arguments fail. The medium of cinema is light and sound. You need both for the true experience. And whilst both are evident in computer games.. Interactivity and mechanics are much more important - By watching the video I could see what was going on and I could tell I didn't like that style of gameplay that was presented. -- I'm spoiled after playign Witcher 2 - This looks so wooden and formulaic. Also.. Are they playing with a game pad - Movement looks VERY stiff! No, try playing wow with a gamepad. Could be easily done. When demo'ing the Witcher 2 on stage, they used a control pad -- Purely because it was easier than handing mouse/ keyboard on stage -- They mapped the actions they wanted to show to buttons and used the analog stick to move around. I was just trying to establish this fact, to see if they did this, or if the games view is really so restrictive :/
|
|
|
Post by sovietstu on Aug 1, 2011 11:11:22 GMT
No, try playing wow with a gamepad. Could be easily done. When demo'ing the Witcher 2 on stage, they used a control pad -- Purely because it was easier than handing mouse/ keyboard on stage -- They mapped the actions they wanted to show to buttons and used the analog stick to move around. I was just trying to establish this fact, to see if they did this, or if the games view is really so restrictive :/ It's too cumbersome for a proper PC MMO. Think of all the possible moves your class has, all the GUI functions and environment interactivity. Too much for a gamepad. However, until I play it, the space sections might lend themselves better to a gamepad...I used to use a Joystick for the space parts of Galaxies.
|
|
|
Post by sovietstu on Aug 1, 2011 11:32:33 GMT
Also, call me a fanboy all you want - what you need to understand are 3 things;
- This game is the third in a series of RPG's, of which the previous two I'm a huge fan of. Two of the best RPG's I've ever played. I want to see how the story has continued. Also, since SOE ruined Galaxies, we've been waiting for a decent Star Wars MMO. It just so happened that LucasArts make the decision to hook up with the best RPG studio in the business.
- I like this style of MMO, the "WoW" style, for lack of a better term. I like the gameplay, I like the co-op and PvP opportunities.
- I like Star Wars.
You'll fap like a neck-beard over the inevitable Witcher 3, so don't make out i'm some blind devotee to Star Wars. There's a lot of bad Star Wars games, I'll be the first to point them out. But this game is pure win.
Everything I see of it, it's gonna be a huge success, get brilliant review scores and I can see our little posse playing it for a long time. You'll join us some time after launch when you've seen a bit more and read reviews and probably play a Smuggler. Bet you £500 to all of the above.
Bookmark this post and we'll review it in 6 months time.
|
|
|
Post by si on Aug 1, 2011 12:24:05 GMT
I agree Stu.. Nothing wrong with liking it because you're interested -- It's just not a game for me .. for many reasons. I'll stick with the following (thread-hijack) Anno 2070 From Dust (2 weeks to go) Space Marine Stronghold 3 Battlefield 3 Modern Warfare 3 Tropico 3
|
|
|
Post by sovietstu on Aug 1, 2011 12:30:40 GMT
Couple of interesting facts - So far, Battlefield 3's pre-orders are up ten times that of what Bad Company 2's were, making it at the time EA's biggest pre-ordered game. That was, until The Old Republic became available for pre-order. In one week it surpassed Battlefield 3 by a very, very large margin, becoming EA's biggest pre-ordered game ever Si, i'll always take your gaming opinions with a grain of salt. All those games look good, but i'll never forget one thing; You're the man who spent £30 on Hotel Giant ;D
|
|
|
Post by si on Aug 1, 2011 13:00:21 GMT
I don't remember spending £30... More like £25. Plus I sold it on Ebay shortly after and got most of my money back That was the downfall of the "tycoon" type games They started churning out complete shit because it was a popular genre.
|
|