Homeless Sims: A good example of using the sandbox

Posted on June 18, 2009 by SynCaine

I saw this excellent use of The Sims 3 thanks to Raph Koster’s blog. Great writing and use of screen shots, and certainly shows the depth a sandbox game can go if used correctly. Looking forward to future updates for sure.

Posted in Random, The Sims 3 | 2 Comments

Why do we still force alts to re-grind, and what about the new guy?

Posted on June 17, 2009 by SynCaine

Starting with the genre’s second major title, EQ1, the solution to raising the level cap without increasing the gap new players must cross to join their friends has been to reduce the time it takes to go from 1 to cap. While this does indeed help new players play with their max level friends faster, it also reduces or at least alters that leveling experience, and in many (most?) PvE MMOs, the leveling experience is a major selling point. WoW might keep its ‘real’ game at the level cap, but I think anyone who has played it can agree that some of the best content is actually before you hit 60/70/80.

It strikes me as odd that this is such an accepted solution; to reduce what was once the selling point of a game in order to funnel everyone to whatever content was added in the latest patch or expansion. Is WoW’s 1-59 content less fun now than it was in 2004-05? Is the content that brought in millions of new players into the MMO genre now only worth being rushed through at greatly unintended speed (and further altered by changing the rules, such as adding mounts to areas they were not designed for)? It’s bad enough that due to level disparity those areas are not as populated as they once were, does somehow pushing the player through it at max speed somehow compensate for this?

Older players like the fact that they can level alts up faster because they have already seen 90% or more of the content. They don’t need to run an older instance multiple times to experience it again, or complete all the old quests in a zone. They already did that and enjoyed it the first time around, and now they need/want an alt to simply fill a spot in a raid, or to have another option for the Arena or BGs. Yet we know that even the best games experience churn (EVE recently reported that only 29% of their population has been playing 2 years or longer, and I believe that number is high compared to most MMOs), and so as veteran players move on, they must be replaced with new ones in order for an MMO to survive, and it’s these new players who are in effect punished by the current solution to level creep.

The issue is not whether or not adding levels to an MMO widens the gap between max level players and new ones, that’s obviously the case, and in the traditional PvE MMO model, adding levels with an expansion is just “what you do”. The issue is what to do about it, and I don’t believe speed leveling players through all your earlier content is the best solution as it does not address the root problem: little to no player population in older zones. Let’s face it, if every zone 1-80 had enough players to keep it lively and make all those group quests and instances possible, would Blizzard still be hard-pressed to reduce the time it takes to get to 80? If anything, each expansion would add further layers to keep a new player interested, so while a vanilla player might burn through the content in 2 months, someone coming in at WotLK might get to enjoy the full leveling experience for 3-4 months before they hit the max level 180 degree switch to raiding or daily grinds. The real issue is not the 3-4 months of time, but that those 3-4 months would be spent in empty zones, dropping any quest that might require more than one person and overall having to suffer through a sub-par experience. That player would be more likely to quit in the first month out of frustration due to population problem than anything directly related to the actual content.

A somewhat related issue is that you are mixing two very different player groups in any lower-level area of a mature PvE MMO. You have the truly new players who are still learning the game and seeing everything for the first time mixing in with veterans looking to power level an alt up. It’s obvious why the two might clash: one group wants to experience the content, the other wants to speed through it, and when you mix them together in a party, it’s asking for problems.

It’s a rather stupid problem to have really, as there is no real reason to keep veteran players in lower level areas against their will. If I don’t want to experience STV for the 15th time, why can’t I simply start at level 80 and be done with it? (The obvious reason is more money for the company as you grind from 1-80 again, but it’s a short-sighted solution that does more harm than good to the player base in the long run, IMO of course) If we are talking about a casual PvE MMO, where what you do at best effects you and your guild, why not just give players the option to skip leveling, and leave leveling from 1 to cap only for those who truly wish to see that content? Go one step further and dedicate a server or two (or 10, depending on the demand) for new or alt characters, one that allows free transfers once you hit the level cap and one that has all max-level content disabled to keep the flow of players moving. This gives all truly new players and those wishing to experience the leveling game a place to go to play with like-minded individuals in still lively zones, and also allows those wishing to join their friends directly to do so by not selecting that server. If I’ve never played WoW or some other casual PvE MMO, the barrier of entry would be much lower if I had the option to experience the full original game plus all post-launched added content on a server that is not 90% max-level characters and is mostly populated with like-minded lower level players, especially since at the end I would be able to transfer to any server my friends or guild might be on to join them for the forced-group stuff like Arena or raiding. If at any point during that leveling process I decide I want to join those friends NOW, I can simply create a max-level character on whatever server they are on and play on the leveling server in my spare time.

The technology for character transfers has been around for quite some time, and WAR has show that it’s both fast and relatively painless now, so that aspect of the solution is no longer a barrier. And since once you are at the cap, the grind switches from XP to items/rep/whatever, a fresh max-level character will fit right in to that mode, especially if you give them basic starter gear so they can jump into the lower levels of the instance/raid circuit. The PvE MMO model is built around keeping players grinding for as long as you can (and if you don’t like the grind, you are in the wrong genre); would that grind not be more enjoyable if it was presented in its original form and environment, rather than in the ever-increasing speed version that each expansion brings? How many new players quit before they ever get to the ‘real’ content because they struggle through under-populated zones and deal with the frustration of being unable to find a group for content they are interested in seeing? Unless the number of quitters is lower than the number of months you force older players to re-grind, perhaps it’s time to move on from the old “add levels and increase XP gain” formula that has been in place since EQ1?

Posted in EQ2, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 43 Comments

The wait for NA-1…

Posted on June 15, 2009 by SynCaine

…unbearable.

This is worse than waiting for a beta to go live, because at least in beta everyone is playing like its beta and you know it does not count/matter. This is worse because half the population is in “I don’t care, I’m rerolling” mode, and the other half is still going full-time because they are staying. Stuff is still happening, but you kinda half-care about it. Plus like many other guilds, Inq is less active, and vent shows most people playing other games just to pass the time.

It’s also worse because we now know DarkFall IS a solid game, one that we will be playing for a while, and so we want NA-1 up asap so we can actually get back to having fun with the game as a group full time.

God help us if the release is delayed. Luckily this is the MMO genre, and Aventurine in particular, so the odds of a delay are next to nil, right…?

Posted in Darkfall Online, Rant | 4 Comments

The Sims 3: Taking some notes from the MMO genre.

Posted on June 15, 2009 by SynCaine

I know I’ve already done an extensive, professional game journalist Sims 3 review here, but despite my high Eurogamer standards back then, I’ve got a few more things to say about the game and how it relates to the MMO genre.

For starters, the MMO-like launcher is a great tool for getting user-created content into your game. With a few simple clicks you download and install whatever you want, without having to fuss with multiple websites, finding the right folder to download to, or making sure everything unpacked correctly. Just find an item, click download, and within the launcher install it. Done. Along with the paid RMT shop items there is already a slew of user-created content. I’ve yet to poke around the paid stuff, but since I have $10 worth of credit on the account thanks to Direct2Drive, I’ll need to take a look at some point soon.

Technology advancing has really helped The Sims 3 to get closer to the vision of what the game should be all about. Beyond the graphics and sound simply being better, a huge change is the fact that your house is no longer an instance but part of the much larger ‘zone’ that is the town. The impact of this change goes far beyond removing the annoyance of a loading screen when leaving the home, and adds a ton of options and depth to the game that previously was simply impossible. From small impacts like being able to explore side areas for stones/metal/plants (that sounds familiar…) to the huge change of allowing you to control multiple sims in different locations. It’s now possible to have one sim playing music for tips at the local park, another competing in a cooking contest on the beach, and a third cleaning the house; and you can switch back and forth between all three without any hassle or loading. If you have played previous Sim games, you know how huge of a change this really has on gameplay and overall enjoyment, moving the game away from a house simulator and closer to the life simulator it aims for.

In terms of gameplay changes, The Sims 3 feels less like a chore manager and more ‘gamey’ than previous games, with your sims having a lot more time to do the fun/interesting stuff in life rather than always trying to keep up with eating/washing/sleeping. Along with more time, there is also a lot more to do, thanks in part to the achievement-like system that pops up goals big and small as you go. These goals are based of your sims traits and current skills/activities, and give points which can be spent on permanent upgrades. (déjà anyone?) They can be ignore or passed on, but are a nice tool to give you things to aim for and keep you out of the usual routine. The various side challenges like collecting bugs, becoming a chess champion, or fishing up all the rare fish add another good and fully optional layer of ‘stuff to do’. For me at least, this version of the game is far more about developing your characters rather than trying to buy all the best stuff, which goes a long way in terms of having stuff to do and not growing bored.

In many ways The Sims 3 is just an evolutionary step from previous games, but the combination of technology improving and the ‘fun stuff’ being refined makes it a very enjoyable game. Like sandbox MMOs, you can’t really ‘win’ the game, and in many ways you have to set your own goals and find the entertainment rather than have the game pull you around by the nose and show it to you. My preferred style, but one that might not work for everyone (oddly enough it DOES work in the single-player realm, with the Sims being the best selling franchise in history, yet in the MMO space the sandbox is called niche, funny how that works)

Just in full disclosure, I have run into a few rather noticeable bugs, the most major being two sims getting stuck sitting on the floor, with no way of moving them short of selling the house. Very annoying, and hopefully patched soon.

Posted in The Sims 3 | 6 Comments

Why your MMO is dying, and EVE is still growing

Posted on June 11, 2009 by SynCaine

EVE Online has a mile-long list of unique features that set it apart from all other MMOs, including being the only MMO with a constant and ever-increasing player base. WoW grew faster and bigger than any MMO before or after (in terms of profits anyway, other games hold the honored records for most pink bunnies clicked in a month, or total number of identical twins to download the app on a Thursday), and UO is the longest running major MMO (M59 went down and back up), but only EVE Online has recorded grow since its launch, and now sits within the top 5 subscription MMOs in terms of overall population.

In many ways this defies the normal trends we see in the genre. It’s the only truly successful Sci-Fi MMO among a slew of failures (SWG is debatable based on expectations vs reality), it’s a sandbox game in a genre that has all but declare sandbox games a one-way ticket to niche status, and unlike everyone else in the top 5 it’s endgame consists of negative sum PvP where 99% of the participants are little more than foot soldiers in the grand war. Top it all off with a steep learning curve and brutal punishment of mistakes, not to mention gameplay being called “Excel in space”, and on the surface its amazing EVE is still online, let alone thriving.

Part of the explanation for its success is certainly due to how involved and active CCP has been through the years, releasing free major expansion packs regularly and going above and beyond with a major graphics overhaul. Certainly another reason would be the overall solid design at the games core, and how the multitude of features all come together to create the most dynamic and interesting virtual world in the genre. No game has had as many truly epic stories as EVE, and it’s unlikely anything currently out or in development will challenge that.

Yet great design and top-notch support are not what this post is about. (I know, it’s only been three paragraphs and I’ve yet to get to the point, bear with me) I believe its EVE’s horizontal character growth and self-regulated pacing that is the true reason EVE is able to not only draw so many people in, but also keep them around for so long. As many of you know, ISK and skill points are the only two real measures of your progression in EVE, and out of the two, a player is only really able to influence the growth of ISK. Skill points are gained in real time, whether you are logged in or not, and no amount of grinding or casual play will change when a skill is complete (implants aside). This not only limits how fast a hardcore player can burn himself/herself out, but also provides a huge incentive for older players to keep playing. Unlike in a themepark which resets every expansion, any skill trained in EVE is a permanent improvement to your character regardless of what future patches may bring. Along with regulated and constant skill gain is the fact that you can NEVER have enough ISK, no matter how rich you become. This factor acts as the ever-enticing and never reachable carrot, a key factor used to keep players interested. You might not always be trying to collect ISK, but how much you have is always relevant, and the methods to gain more are incredibly varied and challenging. (mining, market, PvE, PvP, spying, theft)

Those two factors act like a vice to keep you going. The more time you invest in your character, the harder it is to give up that huge pool of skill points you spent all those months/years training, and the more skill points you have the more varied your options are in the game. It’s a slowly unfolding puzzle, and CCP continues to add more pieces before anyone ever fully completes the previous version. Toss in the fact that certain activities, primarily skill training and market activity, can be done without a huge time commitment, and it’s easy to see why a good number of players might be paying their monthly fee while not really playing the game. Many call this a problem, but since CCP is still collecting your money, and with a one-server world making player population a non-issue, it’s more of strength than a weakness.

Replicating what CCP has done is clearly far more difficult than trying to reproduce WoW, as evident by the amount of WoW-clones in the market compared to the lack of any challengers to EVE. The fact that until recently EVE was firmly in the niche is also a major factor, but soon that will no longer be the case, which makes me wonder when we will start to see EVE-clones. DarkFall certainly takes some of its design influences from EVE, along with UO and SB, yet while perhaps the best example it is still not all that close.

Being able to replicate WoW’s success would be the top goal of any studio, but as I don’t believe we will ever see another WoW sized success in the genre (including whatever Bliz is currently working on), the next best thing would be to follow EVE’s pattern, and collect the type of long-term profits CCP is enjoying now and for the foreseeable future (hopefully launching a bit bigger/better than EVE of course). I don’t believe any themepark-styled MMO is capable of this due to the linear nature of that design and the lack of long-term hooks to keep players going. As good as WoW was at release, even it has reached its peak and is now starting the inevitable decline, following the similar pattern of EQ1 and all games after.

Of course the other option is to create short-term properties that peak and die, hopefully capturing enough players during their prime to give a nice ROI, but what fun is the genre going to be if we can only live in our virtual world of choice for a year or two before the lights are turned off?

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, PvP, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 34 Comments

Subscription vs RMT: Who will save the poor noobs with no time to play?

Posted on June 10, 2009 by SynCaine

It seems it’s been too long since everyone’s second favorite topic (hardcore vs casual being #1), RMT, has been discussed. Tobold has two posts about it and recently DDO went F2P.

As readers here know, I’m not a huge fan of RMT games, and it’s certainly not because I could not afford to keep up with the Joneses. I have more than enough disposable income that I could devote to an RMT shop and become a top player in a game like Atlantica Online (just for kicks I did the calculation back when I played, and it was more than affordable for me), but I don’t game to see how much money I can convert into fun. I game because, and this might sound crazy, I actually enjoy playing the games I play. (Except for DarkFall, I play that to further my crusade of the miserable)

I waned off from Atlantica Online because the further I got, the more obvious it became that spending money, rather than playing, was the way to go if you wanted to stay competitive. Being overly-competitive by nature, that was a deal breaker for me. Had AO been a sub game, I would have stuck with it far longer, and actually gotten into its end-game of politics and guild warfare. But I went into it knowing it’s a F2P game, and so was not all that surprised when my time with it ended before I had exhausted the actual content.

In a similar vain, I know DarkFall won’t be determined ultimately by who buys more boxes of random uber gear. I fully understand that those on top will likely be those who spent more time (with some degree of player skill influencing this as well, and more so in DF than other games, which is a major draw), but since spending time = fun for me, that’s a good exchange. If I’m only half-interested in a game (like WAR currently), I accept that I won’t be near the top, and I know I can’t legally spend X amount of dollars to make up for that fact. If you as a player simply don’t have the available gaming time to stay near the top in a sub game, for whatever reason, and you are someone who needs to be at that level, RMT games are a possible solution. (Assuming of course you have the cash, if you are someone without time AND money, well then you are F’ed)

Complaining that it’s unfair that people with more time are ahead in a sub game is about as valid as complaining that those with more money are ahead in a F2P game. Right from the start, you know exactly what determines ultimately who ‘wins’ (and all this assumes you care about that) in each model; sign up for the one you prefer more, as luckily now the market is diverse enough to support almost any style of game under both payment methods, in much the same way the market now supports many styles of MMO gaming. (hardcore PvP, carebear PvP, hardcore PvE, carebear PvE, etc)

When UO was the only game in town, raiders had a valid reason to ask for more hardcore PvE content, just like pre-RMT those with money but not time had a valid reason to complain that raiding was only for those with more time. Now that options covering everyone exist, move on from the games that don’t fit your particular style or time/money situation, or just stop bitching about it and accept you play in an environment that is ‘unfair’ to your particular situation.

As for illegal RMT, the problem is not the demand but the methods to stop it. In RL the demand for people to be rich is rather high, yet crime is controlled because the enforcement around robbing a bank works more often than not. That certain subscription games are more susceptible to RMT influence is both a design issue and a reflection of how well the methods to stop it are working. If Blizzard banned gold farmers fast enough to make it unprofitable to sell gold, or banned players buying gold with a high enough frequency to discourage future buyers, the problem would be solved. Illegal RMT would still exist of course, just like banks still get robbed, but it’s the frequency that is the issue, and currently in many MMOs the banks get robbed before they even open for business.

And unless the industry as a whole decides the winners in an MMO are those willing and able to spent more money than time, or that one method is always the optimal way to turn a profit, both the subscription model and RMT will continue to cater to their audience, each having its share of success stories and failures.

(RMT also has to get out from under it’s stigma as a ‘cheaper’ product than a sub game in the west, but that’s another topic entirely)

Posted in Atlantica Online, Darkfall Online, DDO, MMO design, Rant, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 14 Comments

The lost DarkFall EuroGamer review is found!

Posted on June 9, 2009 by SynCaine

Beau from Spouse Agro found the missing 8.5 hours of the EuroGamer review, and for great justice has posted it. For anyone looking for a good breakdown of what DarkFall is all about, especially from the perspective of someone who is not a basement-dwelling mouthbreather (that would be everyone else playing DF, in case you don’t know), check it out.

Reading his post, and also anticipating rerolling for the North American server, reminds me just how much info players DON’T know when they first enter Agon, in part because DarkFall is so different from the usual EQ clones, and also because it rough around the edges and does not always explain everything up front, kinda like EVE.

Usually not understanding something can lead to frustration (like if you did not know that at launch daggers were terrible, focusing on daggers and gimping your character would be frustrating), but that unknown is also a huge part of playing an MMO. Discovering things on your own, figuring out YOUR way of doing something, learning from mistakes; that can all be great fun if you have the right attitude. If you just have to be l33t from day one, and any minor setback sends you packing, obviously this won’t be a selling point. People get pulled into always referring to Thottbot (or whatever the WoW scum use these days) before they do anything, making sure that the shiny at the end is ‘worth the effort’. We all know the only ones discovering a raid boss are the world first players; everyone after is just following the youtube guide, which completely removes the entire ‘discovery’ aspect.

Beau also states “ironic that in a “hardcore” game, death means nothing”, which is funny because death in DF is why so many avoid it in the first place. The whole “ooh nooz, my pixels” fear. The natural reaction is “Dude, death IS hardcore, you loss all your gear!”, but that only has meaning if you care about the gear in the first place (most of us do, but clearly not all). I’m sure the concept of e-rep for not dying, or the kill/death ratio also don’t factor into Beau’s opinion of death, but for some it does. Even so, I think even Beau would agree death has more meaning than in WoW or WAR, where you simply respawn and run back into the meatgrinder. And certainly a player’s death has a bigger impact on a siege or PvP fight than in those games as well, which is after all half the point.

And while DarkFall is first and foremost a PvP MMO based around city control and guild warfare, let’s not forget that it’s not JUST that. It’s a sandbox after all, and allows you (to some degree obviously) to make of it what you will. Merchants, crafters, role-players, and PvE’ers all exist and play their part.

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Mass Media, MMO design, PvP | 8 Comments

DarkFall update, in which PvP happens.

Posted on June 8, 2009 by SynCaine

The last patch for DarkFall fixed my memory crash and resolved the sound = lag issue, the two things really putting a damper on my enjoyment of the game from the tech side. This, combined with the “We are moving, lets just PvP for the F of it” attitude thanks to NA-1 coming soon has lead to some really fun times recently.

For the majority of my in-game time, I’m out with one or two guildmates PvP’ing, more to work on our player skills than for the loot. The loot is still nice of course, but we go out in decent gear and don’t mind losing it, and this in turn gets us into fights we might otherwise have avoided, like initiating a 2v4. Perhaps its just random luck, but it seems we are running into similar-minded players, and instead of long mounted chases with little action, the last few days have featured some incredible fights to the finish. The Tribelands area in particular has been a lot of fun, and we have been getting some good action from the current residence of our old hamlet (The Fringe) and the NPC town Moonclaw. It seems they are always up for a fight, and don’t always just naked zerg. (Everyone does this at times, so you can’t really fault them when it does happen)

One particular string of encounters stands out as a good example. Riding between our old hamlet and Moonclaw, a guildie and myself spot two mounted players, and ride towards them to engage. They see us and ride in our direction, and soon we clash in a 2v2. It seemed both character and player skill was about even, and after some very close calls we eventually killed both of them. (I forget the names now, but credit goes to the second fighter, who instead of running when things went south went down fighting, and almost killed one of us in the process) A few minutes later, near the same area, we again see two mounted riders, and sure enough, it’s the same two guys, re-geared and looking for another fight. We engage again, and this time they get the upper hand quickly as my guildmate got sandwiched and lost his mount quickly. We managed to down one of their mounts, but at this point my mount was near death, and my stamina/health was at about 50%. They focused my guildmate who was on the ground with a bow, and managed to kill him after some good coordination between the rider and the guy on foot. I knew my only chance was to finish the guy on foot, and hopefully get into a 1v1 with the mounted guy in decent shape, but just after the killing blow on the ground player, the mounted guy struck me from behind and insta-killed me off my mount. After the red swirl and shock wore off, I checked my combat log and sure enough, a hit for 50ish damage did me in. (I was getting hit for 15-20 normally) Had that hit not been delivered, I could have stalled the fight a bit and recovered, and who knows how the 1v1 would have gone. Both fights took about 10-15 minutes to resolve, and the entire time it was great ‘edge of your seat’ fighting rather than hit and run stuff.

This type of scenario is just an example, and becoming the norm rather than the exception for PvP recently, making DarkFall really enjoyable and allowing me to refine my PvP skills quickly. Just from the last week, I’m much more comfortable going into a small scale situation and knowing my role in it, and feeling like I have a good chance to come out on top. This all makes the wait for NA-1 that much harder, as many of the early issues with the game are now resolved, yet the effects linger on EU-1. The only major addition still missing is the hard cap for the skill system, and I’ll be shocked if that’s not patched in before NA-1 goes live.

Posted in Darkfall Online, PvP | 1 Comment

Sims 3 Review (EG style)

Posted on June 5, 2009 by SynCaine

The Sims 3: Fun game. 9/10.

Posted in Mass Media, Random | 10 Comments

WAR: The casual PvP MMO

Posted on June 4, 2009 by SynCaine

Playing WAR again after having played DarkFall is changing my mind about what WAR might be all about. Pre-release, WAR was being positioned as a great RvR game with a lot of great ideas. (ToK, PQs, Scenarios) While I think WAR is a very good game, it failed rather hard in the ‘impact PvP’ area, because individual battles don’t matter, and even the eventual winner of the campaign wins some gear and a server reset. Even DAoC had more ‘impact’, since at least relics were not reset and one side could continue to dominate the others with good numbers/strategy.

Now it’s no secret the masses don’t like impact PvP, as most can’t handle losing and would much rather quit than fight back, hence that style of MMO is a niche. The previous problem with that niche was it had a good start (UO), a nice follow up (AC-DT), and then a string of disappointments, most notably Shadowbane. DarkFall fixed that problem, and for me, removed the need for WAR to fill that void, a void it never set to fill anyway. (impact PvP fans just hoped it would) I have my impact PvP option, and now WAR sits nicely as a casual PvP option.

And I’m not saying casual PvP as an insult, but rather just a comment on the overall time/effort needed to get enjoyment out of it. You can’t log in for 30 minutes and have a complete PvP experience in DarkFall (usually), while you can log into WAR and jump into a warband or scenario and get your PvP fix. At the same time, I don’t get that ‘continual build’ feeling from WAR that I do in DarkFall, and I’m far more attached to what happens overall in DarkFall than I am in the current status of WAR’s RvR campaign.

At rank 40, you can only improve on your gear (and even that is rather easy to get now) and your renown rank (which has a rather limited impact the higher you go), and so the majority of the progression stops. With the progression aspect minimized, the actual gameplay is left, and in this I think WAR is a success. It’s genuinely fun to queue for a scenario with some friend, or jump into a guild/alliance warband and push/defend the RvR campaign a bit. The rank 40 dungeons make for a nice PvE diversion, and Land of the Dead will only further increase all of the options available to players. In this regard, I think WAR stacks up well as the PvP version of WoW, where the barrier of entry is minimized and what remains is just the actual gameplay.

As always, it’s nice to have options, and in the last few years the MMO genre has expanded well in that regard, giving the masses their titles, and also filling in the gaps those games fail to address. We don’t need a WoW killer, we need more WoW filler. (+1 corny rhyme for me)

Posted in Asheron's Call, Combat Systems, Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, MMO design, PvP, RvR, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 23 Comments