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Stradden 1/06/07 9:44:45 AM
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Managing Editor
Joined: 7/08/05 |
Dan Fortier and Garrett Fuller re-ignight the spark of the Staurday Debate to talk about the benefits and detractors of the fantasy genre in MMORPGs.
Read the debate here. |
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nomadian 1/06/07 9:45:54 AM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 8/18/05
fanbois,haters,hypocrites. It gets very dull. |
link doesn't work. |
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Anofalye 1/06/07 11:39:10 AM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 11/19/03
The enemy is so dumb! They believe that WE are the enemy! - A famous orc commander. |
More fantasy and elves please! I like them a LOT!
Personnally, I don't think such a thing as too much elves is possible!
There is a reason why there is MORE subraces of elves in old D&D than all other races put together...peoples like elves...a LOT! |
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| - "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - René Levesque about the denial NO on the poll to his dream, project and goal. (Free translation) |
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Jumonji 1/06/07 12:08:26 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 9/10/05 |
I realy had my hopes up for two potentially break-out games - Neocron - remember that one? A cyber-punk world that started out with having the players - get this - kill rats!! What brainiac thought that would capture cyberpunker attention???) And City of Heroes. Great concept, great art, great super powers and costume custimization... but it fell down in content. Nothing to do besides kill things. Repetative, instanced "dungeons" and really nothing to do aside from running around beating up crooks.
I don't think WoW is so successful because it's a fantasy game - it's so successful because:
1) It's accessible. You can have real fun and feel like your in a real world from the very beginning.
2) It caters to all the major play styles with activities for Achievers, Killers, Adventurers, and Socializers.
3) It WORKS. Simple to say - but it runs on anything and just doesn't break. How many games can say that?
The one thing that no MMORPG has really done right yet is immersion. Why can't we get a Deus Ex or even Oblivion level of content richness? There's still a killing to be made for the developers that get it right, and that doesn't necessarily mean fantasy or non-fantasy, it just means a deep, involving, rich game that captures your attention from day one and keeps you involved. Oh, and it has to have fantastic graphics that run on a 5-year old pc. :)
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K'Dah 1/06/07 12:25:56 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 2/28/04 |
Have you both forgotten about EVE? Yes, it started slow, but it has grown quite large. It may not have been marketed as overwhelmingly as the big fantasy MMOs, but it's still a non-fantasy MMO doing quite well.
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angrybee 1/06/07 12:54:46 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 1/02/07 |
Well, maybe if Interplay gets its corporate act together they will get the Fallout MMO on the rails. IMHO, Fallout is THE sci-fi themed RPG IP out there that has a lot of dormant fans. Just think about how much excitement gets stirred up over any shred of news about a Fallout 3 title. I would drop every MMO subscription I have to play a Fallout MMO if it didn't totally suck.
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DrowNoble 1/06/07 1:29:33 PM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 1/12/05 |
EVE would be more popular if the pvp wasn't so .. hardcore? Guess, that's a good word for it. The possibilty of being "podded" and losing hours. or perhaps days. of skill training really puts off a lot of american gamers. Yes, I know there is more to the world than america but america has a good percentage of gamers too. Another problem is many non-fantasy MMOG's are either poorly supported or well , uh, suck. Earth & Beyond was an excellent scifi small ship MMO but EA failed to support it. SWG had great potential but SOE royally botched the implimentation of it. Matrix Online of course seemed perfect for an MMOG, yet it didn't live up to the hype (plus it was very buggy early on). Probably another reason for so many fantasy based MMOGs is that games are supposed to be an escape. What is farther from Real Life than a magic wielding, sword swinging, dungeon crawling elf? Since most fantasy movies suck, exceptions being LOTR/Narnia, fantasy fans need to get their "fix" from other sources. |
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kanalit 1/06/07 2:09:57 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 4/27/06 |
I was one of those souls who spent a lot of time on the SWG servers. I admit there was a lot problems with the game, but I have to say there really wasn't much of a change from your standard fantasy RPG.
Replace blasters with bows, lightsabers with swords, jedi with mages, and twilecs with elves and what do you have? All the basics of a fantasy RPG are there, but carefuly (or not so carefuly) hidden. I was a fan of the series and I had to jump on board. What am I looking for now? I say one of the following franchises: Fallout: The post apocalyptic setting can offer some interesting visuals, but I wont hold my breath. Developers may not feel there are many fans still out there since its been years since the last game. Star Trek Online: A good mix of what EVE is and ground "Away Team Missions" will be fun. Also giant fleet battles will be one of the big draws for me. Mechwarrior: Oh well, thats just a lot of shooting but maybe we can convince our Japanese counterparts to throw out a Gundam game. Warhammer 40k: As in other posts, I'd like to see this one too. As for games I think gave the MMO storyline a good diversion away from the fantasy genre I have to give credit to CoH/CoV, EVE Online, and even The Matrix Online (it may have fallen into the same cracks as SWG above but the setting gave me a break from choosing platemail from leather armor). So in conclusion what am I looking for? I say I'd pick up a fantasy based RPG again as long as it has something different in terms of gameplay or a hook. I'm looking at you Conan. 
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delateur 1/06/07 2:13:19 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 8/06/04 |
I think Anarchy Online was the first real attempt at a sci-fi MMO, and it was far from unsuccessful. Maybe Garrett is new to the MMO genre, relatively speaking, to have missed such an obvious title? Or heck, maybe I just give AO more credit than it deserves for being both innovative and fun. Yes, it's a bit dated by today's standards of graphics, but it has an amazing musical soundtrack, decent sound effects, and the graphics are still passable, even today. If anyone out there has missed out on Anarchy Online, Garrett included, I highly encourage you to give the basic game a try. It's totally free, for one (not a free trial, actually free!), and it's got numerous expansions out there to build on an already great experience. As to the debate, to me it's irrelevant. Wrap your world in whatever trappings you like, but make it enjoyable. I don't care if it's a break from the grind or the best darned grind experience to ever consume my bandwidth, just let me enjoy it, and you can fill the world with elves, robots, or blobs of protoplasm. |
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spankybus 1/06/07 2:18:12 PM
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See, the Wood elves, the aquatic elves, the drow, the shadow eleves, the sun elfves, the moon elves, the wyld elves, the half-elves, the grey elves...and I am sure the list is merely starting. hehe.