Tabula Rasa

Originally posted by Lateris

 I am willing to give ncsoft 2 million for the game. 

You may want to call them, I doubt they are looking here for bids.

 Instead of giving that clown a ride in space, they should have used the money on something else like fixing bugs or creating more content. I don't think the game deserves to be saved. It was all right, but let's face it: even Auto Assault was better. 

Originally posted by Mortemia

 Instead of giving that clown a ride in space, they should have used the money on something else like fixing bugs or creating more content. I don't think the game deserves to be saved. It was all right, but let's face it: even Auto Assault was better. 

NCSoft did not directly pay for the space trip, that came out of his pocket, which of course NCSoft filled in the first place.

Originally posted by Mortemia

even Auto Assault was better. 

Let's get not into the discussion what games are good and which are not, or you'll have a lot of people ask for closing WoW right now...

Whether a game is good or not, in the opinion of hardcore MMO players (like, say, the people reading and writing here) doesn't really matter. What matters is whether it caters to the masses. Unwashed or not. MMOs live and die by their subscriber numbers. And when I take a look past a few MMOs that flourished and perished, "quality" isn't the main deciding factor.

Originally posted by Chlodwig

Originally posted by Mortemia

even Auto Assault was better. 

 

Let's get not into the discussion what games are good and which are not, or you'll have a lot of people ask for closing WoW right now...

Whether a game is good or not, in the opinion of hardcore MMO players (like, say, the people reading and writing here) doesn't really matter. What matters is whether it caters to the masses. Unwashed or not. MMOs live and die by their subscriber numbers. And when I take a look past a few MMOs that flourished and perished, "quality" isn't the main deciding factor.

There are reasons some games never get a lot of subscribers, quality is one. Content or lack thereof is another. Some games only appeal to a smaller number say DDO. TR was never supposed to be that. TR was supposed to be the next generation of MMOs, instead it became the next major flop of MMOs. WOW obviously has appeal that TR was never going to have and it is not fair to TR to compare it to a game it never was going to be or beat.

WoW mostly had a solid base of a well known game IP to stand on. Warcraft has been a name in the gaming world for years, over a decade if I'm not mistaken. It had a dedicated fanbase long before it was turned into a MMO. I dare say that helped it through those critical first 6 months after release.

I played WoW during beta and a short time after release, although not as a Warcraft fan, more as a fan of MMOs. Bluntly, it was by no means any better than the average MMO at release. Buggy quests, questionable balancing, threadbare endgame content, frequent and lengthy downtimes and so on, all the problems that even a well done MMO has at release, and all the problems that caused many good MMOs to go down, even MMOs that were technically or systematically superior to WoW.

WoW had a fanbase already, though. Fans of the Warcraft series that enjoyed meeting their known and loved characters again and stories being expanded to epic size, especially with them being able to participate in them.

So if anything sets WoW apart from all the other MMOs it is that it already had a gaming history long before the MMO was even in the concept stage. You can't create something like this from scratch.

TR could have been there if it wasn't TR but something like "World of Command and Conquer". :)

Originally posted by Chlodwig

WoW mostly had a solid base of a well known game IP to stand on. Warcraft has been a name in the gaming world for years, over a decade if I'm not mistaken. It had a dedicated fanbase long before it was turned into a MMO. I dare say that helped it through those critical first 6 months after release.

I played WoW during beta and a short time after release, although not as a Warcraft fan, more as a fan of MMOs. Bluntly, it was by no means any better than the average MMO at release. Buggy quests, questionable balancing, threadbare endgame content, frequent and lengthy downtimes and so on, all the problems that even a well done MMO has at release, and all the problems that caused many good MMOs to go down, even MMOs that were technically or systematically superior to WoW.

WoW had a fanbase already, though. Fans of the Warcraft series that enjoyed meeting their known and loved characters again and stories being expanded to epic size, especially with them being able to participate in them.

So if anything sets WoW apart from all the other MMOs it is that it already had a gaming history long before the MMO was even in the concept stage. You can't create something like this from scratch.

TR could have been there if it wasn't TR but something like "World of Command and Conquer". :)

While this is true Warcraft was a known name I give you Dungeons and Dragons online to defeat the arguement that a premade fanbase means success. What game has a bigger name in RPG(Warcraft not really an RPG but you get the point)?

TR had RG, with the Ultima series he is as well known as Warcraft and UO is still going as an MMO long after his involvement ended. The reason these other games lived and TR died is simple. TR offered very little as an MMO. It had a small world, very limited content and was so easy to solo it lead to very little group options and no group content, in a game about a war solo is really not the best way to generate buzz. TR generated none.

Originally posted by Rokurgepta

While this is true Warcraft was a known name I give you Dungeons and Dragons online to defeat the arguement that a premade fanbase means success. What game has a bigger name in RPG(Warcraft not really an RPG but you get the point)?

TR had RG, with the Ultima series he is as well known as Warcraft and UO is still going as an MMO long after his involvement ended. The reason these other games lived and TR died is simple. TR offered very little as an MMO. It had a small world, very limited content and was so easy to solo it lead to very little group options and no group content, in a game about a war solo is really not the best way to generate buzz. TR generated none.

WoW had a large GAMER fanbase. Computer gamer fanbase. P&P roleplayers aren't necessarily the most avid online players. While I give you that D&D has been feeling like a Diablo like hack-and-slash item collection game since version 3.x, P&P players aren't necessarily the crowd that jumps on an MMO.

If Ultima and RG show anything then that gamers don't give too much about names. Or at least not as much as they used to. At best, a name may create some buzz and hype, but it doesn't compensate for a poor game. Not to mention that (and I know I'll get some angry replies for that) UO wouldn't succeed today. UO puts a lot of emphasis on "role playing" in the good ol' fashion sense. That's not necessarily what people playing MMOs today are looking for.

TR also has a quite dense story, for an MMO that is. I'm pretty sure RG put a lot of focus on the storyline, and it shows. Unfortunately that's not really what the majority of players are looking for in an MMO today. A contemporary MMO has to offer item hunts and high level group based content. And TR delivered neither. Barely any high level content, no compelling reason to group (actually it was pretty hard to play sensibly in a group, if anything the game hindered you to cooperate instead of faciliating it) and no item hunting whatsoever. Yes, there were "purple" items and they were superior to the normal stuff, but any of those dropped as random loot from random encounters. There was little if any "boss loot" that people are appearantly asking for today.

Still, I don't think the game failed because of its interface or its out-of-the-box controls and backdrop. It failed because, as you pointed out already, it lacked group content, it lacked high level content and a lack of item farming. Yes, I know everyone complains about the treadmill of instance running for boss items, but that's what makes MMOs successful these days.

Originally posted by Chlodwig

Originally posted by Rokurgepta

While this is true Warcraft was a known name I give you Dungeons and Dragons online to defeat the arguement that a premade fanbase means success. What game has a bigger name in RPG(Warcraft not really an RPG but you get the point)?

TR had RG, with the Ultima series he is as well known as Warcraft and UO is still going as an MMO long after his involvement ended. The reason these other games lived and TR died is simple. TR offe