So I got on the NCSoft train a long time ago, one of the very first beta's I was involved in like ever was the beta for Lineage 2.
Since then I followed NCSoft through a lot of different games.
But over the last ten years ago, NCSoft has systematically become stupider and stupider.
Most currently in my complete frustration with NCSoft has been the fact that they were more than willing to publish Wildstar in the US, which has been a complete MMO dud which is simply a so called "action combat" retread of World of Warcraft...in SPACE...while continuing to maintain that localization and adaptation of Blade And Soul Online for the Western Market has required them over three years to not even get to a beta status.
Now let me clarify, I'm no weeaboo, I'm not even a fan of anime really. But recently I had the opportunity to try out Blade and Soul Online with a friend of mine that is from Taiwan who has it and I didn't even fully understand what was going on because I don't speak or understand Mandarin, but the game play, while not entirely ground breaking in every way from the standard MMO dynamic...was almost immediately fun and I felt powerful and like I wasn't just Paladin #165936193166178361763363169136316515913 the minute I started playing.
Even in the tutorial levels...where the test character I was trying out literally knew almost nothing, I felt like I was immediately somewhat special due to the way the game handled adapting you to understanding its movement schema. Name one MMO that has made you go..."oh thats cool" in its controls tutorial....cause I can't name any other ones that have ever achieved that.
Even without the ability to really understand what was said in the tutorial level, my friend and my basic understanding of story telling filled out what I needed to know about the spectacular visuals I was being shown...great fighting school that is past its glory days but still training students gets attacked because its mysterious but powerful master is protecting a great artifact, baddies kill your master, you are then on a game long quest to resolve the death of your friends and teachers....its a story thats so typical from the genre the game is in that its almost generic, any number of 1980's spaghetti eastern's did it better...but the way its presented in BnS is so well done that even a generic origin story is more than enough to make sense in regards to why you're doing what you're doing.
As we played more through the evening and my character grew in strength, I literally felt something I had not felt in an MMO in a long time....I felt bigger than NPCs I was fighting. I felt like a hero, I felt like a kung fu badass....I was literally enjoying the hell out of myself because the game play was just that fun...even just getting around the game world was this epic feeling of OMG look at how fucking badass I am.
But NCSoft spent everything on trying to push GW2 to the moon, and failed, they then attempted a rebound with Wildstar and failed again...and why? Because apparently BnS is too "Eastern" for the Western market and there are too many things about the title that we "wouldn't enjoy".
Well I also have some friends that work for Gamestop and they joke about not being able to GIVE AWAY copies of Wildstar. And that was the game we were supposed to "enjoy".
Now this isn't to say, from an educated gamers perspective, that there aren't things about BnS Online that don't seem like they'd get a bit grindy or repetitive. The quest system is no more inspired than any other hub based quest system in any MMO, and the single origin path for everyone does seem like it would make the game extremely samey and lack much in the area of replay value for leveling multiple characters for anyone other than the true MMO fanatic....but in those things, its almost forgivable because the game is over three years old now and its not as if there is much out there on the level of say....SWTOR in regards to games with a lot of origin specific content anyways. In many MMO's the only thing thats really different about every new character you make is where they might start in the game world and thats about it. So even where BnS Online doesn't really innovate at all, its somewhat acceptable because it is, after all, an MMO and almost all MMO's are similar in that aspect.
Overall, NCSoft has a game they could easily engage me with, a game, that much like City of Heroes did (til NCSoft shut it down), actually makes me feel like a hero...but instead...they keep trying to push crap down the tube that is supposed to trigger my "WoW feels".
And thus, this is yet more evidence that NCSoft is stupid, and hates fun, and money, apparently.
(I should add that yes, I'm aware the representation of females in BnS is quite ridiculous but thats not really what engaged me about the game, though I will not deny that I was somewhat impressed by the Korean ability to maximize on eye candy without putting a boob window on EVERYTHING).
Since then I followed NCSoft through a lot of different games.
But over the last ten years ago, NCSoft has systematically become stupider and stupider.
Most currently in my complete frustration with NCSoft has been the fact that they were more than willing to publish Wildstar in the US, which has been a complete MMO dud which is simply a so called "action combat" retread of World of Warcraft...in SPACE...while continuing to maintain that localization and adaptation of Blade And Soul Online for the Western Market has required them over three years to not even get to a beta status.
Now let me clarify, I'm no weeaboo, I'm not even a fan of anime really. But recently I had the opportunity to try out Blade and Soul Online with a friend of mine that is from Taiwan who has it and I didn't even fully understand what was going on because I don't speak or understand Mandarin, but the game play, while not entirely ground breaking in every way from the standard MMO dynamic...was almost immediately fun and I felt powerful and like I wasn't just Paladin #165936193166178361763363169136316515913 the minute I started playing.
Even in the tutorial levels...where the test character I was trying out literally knew almost nothing, I felt like I was immediately somewhat special due to the way the game handled adapting you to understanding its movement schema. Name one MMO that has made you go..."oh thats cool" in its controls tutorial....cause I can't name any other ones that have ever achieved that.
Even without the ability to really understand what was said in the tutorial level, my friend and my basic understanding of story telling filled out what I needed to know about the spectacular visuals I was being shown...great fighting school that is past its glory days but still training students gets attacked because its mysterious but powerful master is protecting a great artifact, baddies kill your master, you are then on a game long quest to resolve the death of your friends and teachers....its a story thats so typical from the genre the game is in that its almost generic, any number of 1980's spaghetti eastern's did it better...but the way its presented in BnS is so well done that even a generic origin story is more than enough to make sense in regards to why you're doing what you're doing.
As we played more through the evening and my character grew in strength, I literally felt something I had not felt in an MMO in a long time....I felt bigger than NPCs I was fighting. I felt like a hero, I felt like a kung fu badass....I was literally enjoying the hell out of myself because the game play was just that fun...even just getting around the game world was this epic feeling of OMG look at how fucking badass I am.
But NCSoft spent everything on trying to push GW2 to the moon, and failed, they then attempted a rebound with Wildstar and failed again...and why? Because apparently BnS is too "Eastern" for the Western market and there are too many things about the title that we "wouldn't enjoy".
Well I also have some friends that work for Gamestop and they joke about not being able to GIVE AWAY copies of Wildstar. And that was the game we were supposed to "enjoy".
Now this isn't to say, from an educated gamers perspective, that there aren't things about BnS Online that don't seem like they'd get a bit grindy or repetitive. The quest system is no more inspired than any other hub based quest system in any MMO, and the single origin path for everyone does seem like it would make the game extremely samey and lack much in the area of replay value for leveling multiple characters for anyone other than the true MMO fanatic....but in those things, its almost forgivable because the game is over three years old now and its not as if there is much out there on the level of say....SWTOR in regards to games with a lot of origin specific content anyways. In many MMO's the only thing thats really different about every new character you make is where they might start in the game world and thats about it. So even where BnS Online doesn't really innovate at all, its somewhat acceptable because it is, after all, an MMO and almost all MMO's are similar in that aspect.
Overall, NCSoft has a game they could easily engage me with, a game, that much like City of Heroes did (til NCSoft shut it down), actually makes me feel like a hero...but instead...they keep trying to push crap down the tube that is supposed to trigger my "WoW feels".
And thus, this is yet more evidence that NCSoft is stupid, and hates fun, and money, apparently.
(I should add that yes, I'm aware the representation of females in BnS is quite ridiculous but thats not really what engaged me about the game, though I will not deny that I was somewhat impressed by the Korean ability to maximize on eye candy without putting a boob window on EVERYTHING).
