The Best Kept Secret
- Thread starter The Wooster
- Start date
This is pretty much the main problem with not only Secret World, but other games as well, like TOR - an awesome premise is watered down to make adhere to the MMO patterns the market demands. SW is IMO just the best example, filling a niche that's basically empty (urban fantasy, lovecraftian fantasy, etc.), but then decides to waste it on an MMO.Grey Carter said:
Because investors like the word MMO.
It makes Blizzard dollars light up in their eyes.
Like with The Old Republic. It never needed to be an MMO. It could never be an MMO as shown by the current failure of a MMO we have. All people wanted was KOTOR3 and now that it's going FTP they made the story entirely free... meaning absolutely no one will actually pay for it. Because that is all anyone ever asked for.
MMO. Sounds good on paper. Only worked Once.
It makes Blizzard dollars light up in their eyes.
Like with The Old Republic. It never needed to be an MMO. It could never be an MMO as shown by the current failure of a MMO we have. All people wanted was KOTOR3 and now that it's going FTP they made the story entirely free... meaning absolutely no one will actually pay for it. Because that is all anyone ever asked for.
MMO. Sounds good on paper. Only worked Once.
I dunno... MMOs do tend to work, just not in the subscription market anymore. Secret World will eventually head to F2P town, much like TOR has. Not sure if it'll happen quicker because the game's bottom line is lower. Still... MMOs will continue to be made until they start to fail and disappear more regularly.1337mokro said:
And no, that's not happening yet. Right now the F2P model is righting every MMO that looks ready to disappear. Champions Online, Star Trek Online, LOTRO, DDO, City of Heroes... these all went F2P and are all doing various degrees better than when they were subscription only.
Bah dirty Lumies! Leave it to the Templars we will sort this mess out without trying to profit from it 
I really enjoy secret world. But you are right the MMO part seems completely unnecessary. The dungeons are pretty good though and you need tactics from the start.
It's a bit different from other MMO's and that's, at least, quite nice.
I really enjoy secret world. But you are right the MMO part seems completely unnecessary. The dungeons are pretty good though and you need tactics from the start.
It's a bit different from other MMO's and that's, at least, quite nice.
Well if we're talking about subscription based MMOs they've technically worked 3 times, once with Ultima Online, twice with EverQuest and thrice with World of Warcraft.1337mokro said:
If we're talking about the F2P market, as Quiotu said there's plenty of MMOs that have been WAY more successful once they went F2P than when they had a subscription.
You know, I read these comments and the pattern I see here is everybody saying "Oh this is a great idea for a game...but 'cause it's an MMO, I hate it!"
If you don't like MMO's, that's fine. But seriously, this attitude that the genre is something that will kill any game concept, no matter how great, is getting stupid. A number of the common problems with MMO's can be blamed not on game mechanics, but on players; people destroying the sense of immersion and enjoyment of the game's content through behavior like teabagging, stripping their characters down to their underwear, spamming the chat channels with garbage, etc.
When the complaints are related to game mechanics, a number of the more common ones I've heard regarding the MMO-du-jour aren't about broken or bugged programs or AI, but more about how cookie cutter the mechanics get. Stationary NPC's handing out your typical kill-ten-rats style missions, combat based around you and a monster standing in place and taking turns wacking each other while waiting for special attack cooldowns to end, repetitive grind of the same activities just to build up reputation with factions are among the most common.
From the accounts I've read (I could be mistaken but it's what I heard), Secret World has avoided a number of the bog-standard-mechanics problems with active combat, skill sets based on equipment instead of class and mission structures that have you actually investigate rather than just follow a pointer on your HUD. For the issues with player behavior, that can't be blamed immediately on the game itself and the solution isn't found in the game, but in the players and the support given by its parent company. Players need to police their own communities and report violations of in-game behavior rules, while the parent company needs to enforce those rules, issuing warnings to people who commit minor violations, suspending people who commit serious violations and banning repeat offenders.
So frankly, I think immediately saying Secret World sucks just because it's an MMO is seriously jumping the gun. The game isn't even a half-year old yet; let's give it some time before calling it a lemon.
If you don't like MMO's, that's fine. But seriously, this attitude that the genre is something that will kill any game concept, no matter how great, is getting stupid. A number of the common problems with MMO's can be blamed not on game mechanics, but on players; people destroying the sense of immersion and enjoyment of the game's content through behavior like teabagging, stripping their characters down to their underwear, spamming the chat channels with garbage, etc.
When the complaints are related to game mechanics, a number of the more common ones I've heard regarding the MMO-du-jour aren't about broken or bugged programs or AI, but more about how cookie cutter the mechanics get. Stationary NPC's handing out your typical kill-ten-rats style missions, combat based around you and a monster standing in place and taking turns wacking each other while waiting for special attack cooldowns to end, repetitive grind of the same activities just to build up reputation with factions are among the most common.
From the accounts I've read (I could be mistaken but it's what I heard), Secret World has avoided a number of the bog-standard-mechanics problems with active combat, skill sets based on equipment instead of class and mission structures that have you actually investigate rather than just follow a pointer on your HUD. For the issues with player behavior, that can't be blamed immediately on the game itself and the solution isn't found in the game, but in the players and the support given by its parent company. Players need to police their own communities and report violations of in-game behavior rules, while the parent company needs to enforce those rules, issuing warnings to people who commit minor violations, suspending people who commit serious violations and banning repeat offenders.
So frankly, I think immediately saying Secret World sucks just because it's an MMO is seriously jumping the gun. The game isn't even a half-year old yet; let's give it some time before calling it a lemon.
The trailers gave the impression of a spooky atmospheric modern fantasy horror game kind of aesthetic. Everything about being an MMO defeats that feel, whether it's killing three dozen blue ghosts to appease a quest dispensing npc, or teaming up with a dozen human players to take on a dozen other human players, or teaming up with two dozen people you don't know to raid a boss in the hope of rare loot drops. It's hard to be scared when there's so many of you, and it's hard to get immersed in the setting when the nature of the game requires you to be completely aware of how everything in it works lest your team call you a 'newbtard' and boot you from your guild for using a less than optimized DPS rotation.
It's not that being a WoW-style MMO ruins any great game concept. It doesn't, for instance ruin a tongue in cheek high fantasy affair - like, say, WoW or LoL. But it certainly ruins this one.
It's not that being a WoW-style MMO ruins any great game concept. It doesn't, for instance ruin a tongue in cheek high fantasy affair - like, say, WoW or LoL. But it certainly ruins this one.
That sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry far as I'm concerned.
However, on a more positive not Critical Miss appears to be back to the normal joke format rather than the "character arc" that very nearly pushed me away for good. Hopefully it'll stay that way.
Also: Was anyone else expecting this to be a reference to the old Robocop cheat code? No?
However, on a more positive not Critical Miss appears to be back to the normal joke format rather than the "character arc" that very nearly pushed me away for good. Hopefully it'll stay that way.
Also: Was anyone else expecting this to be a reference to the old Robocop cheat code? No?
Simple solution to make a profitable MMO.
Make a Pokemon MMO like people have wanted for years.
Make it F2P with Microtransactions for aesthetic things or to help buy more actual in-game items (potions, pokeballs, etc.)
Charge $10 for each subsequent region released after launch.
Profit!
Make a Pokemon MMO like people have wanted for years.
Make it F2P with Microtransactions for aesthetic things or to help buy more actual in-game items (potions, pokeballs, etc.)
Charge $10 for each subsequent region released after launch.
Profit!
Doh!Nikolaz72 said:
How the hell did I forgot EVE, if there's one MMO I'm 100% certain it will never go F2P it's definitely EVE, I would bet WoW would go F2P before EVE does.
And also add Lineage to the list of successful sub based MMOs, which back in the day actually had more subscribers than EQ.
Thanks for reminding me.
