I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not good at blogging.
Quite out of the blue the developers wanted to survey people on pet dyes. This was apparently part of the Stygian Abyss expansion, yet did not come out during open beta even though it was implemented. We were also informed that closed beta testers had been polled on this potentially explosive content addition, yet not a single one posted about it once the NDA was lifted.
There was not any magic behind it, it was straight pet dying. Same as you could with a dye tub on test center except the number of colors were restricted. You were shown a Dragon, Giant Beetle and Llama to base your judgment on. Besides Trammel, the most repeated put down I think there is for UO is the bright colors. It is often mentioned in discussions I see in various forums.
I was opposed to this. Having a dozen different color Dragons is going to just look terrible. Then there are the ~80 other creatures in the game you will get to dye. I can imagine a Harrower with 9 different color Greater Dragons on it and it is just horrid.
Apparently I was not alone in this assessment. A seemingly crushing amount of people were opposed to this. Yet the developers claimed that only 40% were opposed. Do you really want to tick off 40% of your player base over something that is just pet dyes? I think the other 60% will get along just fine without pink Dragons.
I posted earlier today that the developers should consider shelving this addition. It was detracting focus from the expansion which is just over a week away. Do they really want to tie such a blemish to their first expansion in literally 3 years? A little while later it was announced that they were doing just that. They are also going to consider doing more than just adding dye tubs for pets.
August 31, 2009
August 13, 2009
Promoting Stygian Abyss
I updated the Wikipedia page on the Stygian Abyss expansion. While it could be considered poor form to make Wikipedia articles on your own products, I think it would be a good idea for companies to fill out pages with the general information if it isn't already there. It is free advertising after all. And where do people usually go when they want to learn about something? Oh yeah, the Wikipedia page on your program which listed the publisher and a link to your home page. =/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Online:_Stygian_Abyss
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Online:_Stygian_Abyss
July 8, 2009
Makin' A Game
Wow, one whole month without a post.
For a very long time I have had many, many ideas on games I would like to make. Well I am finally going to do it. The other night I had new revelations on how to deal with certain problems. For example the game I am going to be making is a MMO and the single biggest issue was how to prevent new players from being utterly crushed by existing ones without adding in arbitrary restrictions, such as anyone level 50 can only attack down to level 40.
I have half a dozen solid ideas which throw off normal MMO conventions. These ideas I have not seen anywhere in the market I am targeting. In fact the entire game premise is something I've not seen done yet.
Of course I won't be able to make this game on my own. Well I could, but it would take much too long. I am going to have to hire some people and form a real company. No idea what to call it yet.
The initial team is only going to consist of 3-5 people. Of course there is myself who will be doing a lot of the design and programming. I'll need to find a writer, server architect, and up to two other programmers. Later on I expect to bring on someone to do interface design, graphic design and customer relations. I'm not exactly sure how to go about finding these people yet. With the economy the way it is I'm sure there are tons out there who would be interested in doing something like this.
I'm sure over the coming weeks I'll have a lot more to post on this..........if I get to it.
For a very long time I have had many, many ideas on games I would like to make. Well I am finally going to do it. The other night I had new revelations on how to deal with certain problems. For example the game I am going to be making is a MMO and the single biggest issue was how to prevent new players from being utterly crushed by existing ones without adding in arbitrary restrictions, such as anyone level 50 can only attack down to level 40.
I have half a dozen solid ideas which throw off normal MMO conventions. These ideas I have not seen anywhere in the market I am targeting. In fact the entire game premise is something I've not seen done yet.
Of course I won't be able to make this game on my own. Well I could, but it would take much too long. I am going to have to hire some people and form a real company. No idea what to call it yet.
The initial team is only going to consist of 3-5 people. Of course there is myself who will be doing a lot of the design and programming. I'll need to find a writer, server architect, and up to two other programmers. Later on I expect to bring on someone to do interface design, graphic design and customer relations. I'm not exactly sure how to go about finding these people yet. With the economy the way it is I'm sure there are tons out there who would be interested in doing something like this.
I'm sure over the coming weeks I'll have a lot more to post on this..........if I get to it.
June 7, 2009
Online Distribution
Blizzard may be patching every day but I am certainly not posting that quickly.
Recently there was an uproar in the UO community about how Stygian Abyss is going to be distributed online online. In other words, it will not be sold in retail stores. Some UO players feel this hurts the game due to a lack of shelf presence. What they do not realize is that the video game business is at a point now where having a box on the shelf no longer equals game success.
This has been further reinforced this week by Sony's and Microsoft's commitments to online publishing. Sony has gone so far as to have no physical media at all in their latest handheld, the PSP-GO. Until very recently Eve Online was online distributed via online sales. They were growing subscriptions the entire time, up to around 400,000 now I think.
The industry has evolved, just as nearly everything does. Anyone heard of a thing called newspapers? They are in big trouble because most people get their news through the internet. It is faster, cheaper and more convenient. Just as downloading a video game can be.
Whether the Stygian Abyss expansion is a success depends on the content. Unless they decide to release a Nintendo Wii version, which then a box on the shelf would make a difference.
Recently there was an uproar in the UO community about how Stygian Abyss is going to be distributed online online. In other words, it will not be sold in retail stores. Some UO players feel this hurts the game due to a lack of shelf presence. What they do not realize is that the video game business is at a point now where having a box on the shelf no longer equals game success.
This has been further reinforced this week by Sony's and Microsoft's commitments to online publishing. Sony has gone so far as to have no physical media at all in their latest handheld, the PSP-GO. Until very recently Eve Online was online distributed via online sales. They were growing subscriptions the entire time, up to around 400,000 now I think.
The industry has evolved, just as nearly everything does. Anyone heard of a thing called newspapers? They are in big trouble because most people get their news through the internet. It is faster, cheaper and more convenient. Just as downloading a video game can be.
Whether the Stygian Abyss expansion is a success depends on the content. Unless they decide to release a Nintendo Wii version, which then a box on the shelf would make a difference.
May 27, 2009
Blizzard Publishing Every Day
I stumbled across a link to some WOW publish notes. It appears that Blizzard is now pushing out fixes virtually every day. And it isn't just one or two critical things needing fixing, it can be a dozen of fixes. They must feel very confident about their publishing process to be able to do it every day. Well with a game that has 12 million people playing, I guess you need to ramp up publishing to that speed.
On the subject of Blizzard, it appears they are over the "we have how many subscribers?" shock and are getting down to business. They were making so much profit per year but were not working on anything. Now they have Starcraft II, Diablo III and a secret MMO project all in the works. Plus with all that money coming in they have an unlimited amount of time to polish their games. These titles will probably be the most refined in the history of video games. Starcraft II likely would have been released up to a year or more ago from a publisher such as EA who likes to rush things out the door (Warhammer Online). As long as World of Warcraft keeps going, in four or five years Blizzard could be a one studio game producing powerhouse. Their no longer restricted in terms of time and money with a gravy train such as WOW under their belt. But who knows how long that will last.
Plus what is up with taking 18 months for an expansion? They should be able to knock that down to a yearly release. As time goes on players are going to get more and more bored. With no news on an expansion yet it doesn't sound like they'll have one ready. Who knows, maybe it will be a big surprise.
On the subject of Blizzard, it appears they are over the "we have how many subscribers?" shock and are getting down to business. They were making so much profit per year but were not working on anything. Now they have Starcraft II, Diablo III and a secret MMO project all in the works. Plus with all that money coming in they have an unlimited amount of time to polish their games. These titles will probably be the most refined in the history of video games. Starcraft II likely would have been released up to a year or more ago from a publisher such as EA who likes to rush things out the door (Warhammer Online). As long as World of Warcraft keeps going, in four or five years Blizzard could be a one studio game producing powerhouse. Their no longer restricted in terms of time and money with a gravy train such as WOW under their belt. But who knows how long that will last.
Plus what is up with taking 18 months for an expansion? They should be able to knock that down to a yearly release. As time goes on players are going to get more and more bored. With no news on an expansion yet it doesn't sound like they'll have one ready. Who knows, maybe it will be a big surprise.
May 25, 2009
I need to post something
I am so bad at this. I need to try and post more often.
So what should I post about? I guess I should comment about Darkfall. The game is in an obvious downward spiral. The shop to purchase the game has finally been opened for several days, perhaps permanently. I don't play the game so I have no idea what the population situation is, but with the developers sticking with a one server implementation, it appears they have exhausted their backlog of players iching to play. That certainly does not bode well if the amount of people quitting is as estimated.
Darkfall promised a lot and has utterly failed in almost every field a MMO can possible fail in. Poor user interface, bad lag and disconnections, a multiple of hacks, unending amounts of exploits, substandard graphics, no community management, a website with the latest announcements about beta, no marketing, unfun PvM, sparse PvP, unbalanced mechanics favoring huge numbers and alliances, etc. It just goes on and on.
Darkfall is in such bad shape that quite possibly it could end up shutting down by the end of the year. Aside from some current die-hard players, no one has any faith in the future of the game. People who cite potential are only fooling themselves. Everything has potential. UO has potential. Shadowbane had potential. Potential is only worth something if it can be utilized, which Aventurine has demonstrated an inability to access. They can't even update the main website for the game after 3 months of release. Darkfall is likely to go down as the worse MMO in history unless by some miracle the game can be salvaged.
So what should I post about? I guess I should comment about Darkfall. The game is in an obvious downward spiral. The shop to purchase the game has finally been opened for several days, perhaps permanently. I don't play the game so I have no idea what the population situation is, but with the developers sticking with a one server implementation, it appears they have exhausted their backlog of players iching to play. That certainly does not bode well if the amount of people quitting is as estimated.
Darkfall promised a lot and has utterly failed in almost every field a MMO can possible fail in. Poor user interface, bad lag and disconnections, a multiple of hacks, unending amounts of exploits, substandard graphics, no community management, a website with the latest announcements about beta, no marketing, unfun PvM, sparse PvP, unbalanced mechanics favoring huge numbers and alliances, etc. It just goes on and on.
Darkfall is in such bad shape that quite possibly it could end up shutting down by the end of the year. Aside from some current die-hard players, no one has any faith in the future of the game. People who cite potential are only fooling themselves. Everything has potential. UO has potential. Shadowbane had potential. Potential is only worth something if it can be utilized, which Aventurine has demonstrated an inability to access. They can't even update the main website for the game after 3 months of release. Darkfall is likely to go down as the worse MMO in history unless by some miracle the game can be salvaged.
May 5, 2009
Suspended from Darkfall's Forum
I've been meaning to write something about Darkfall for a while. Well today a review came out that gave the game a 2 out of 10. That is pretty bad. Anyway, I post on the Darkfall forum asking if this is the first review of Darkfall and get suspended for it. Here is what I recieved:
That was almost immediately after I posted it. Aventurine appears to be in full damage control mode. Their developer Tasos wrote a rebuttal almost as long as the review itself. He claims that the reviewer spent almost no time in the game. No play session lasted more then a few minutes. Eurogamer replied saying the reviewer spent around 9 hours. I'm sure more details will come out soon.
Someone replied to my post saying there is one on MMORPG.com. But there isn't, the closest is an opinion piece. No review with a score. After almost a full page of responses later, no one has replied to that person and stated this. The vast majority of replies are just remarks dispariging the reviewer and investigative posts of his MySpace or other reviews. I think this event shows the current Darkfall community in its true light. And that light isn't very bright at all.
Dear JC the Builder,
You have received an infraction at Darkfall Forums.
Reason: THREE - You may not excessively communicate the same idea, phrase, or create spam within the community; you may not create any thread or post for the sole purpose of causing unrest in the community; you may not cause any sort of disturbance within a thread with the intent of ruining it; and you may not make one line posts such as IBTL, IBTB, BUMP, etc. Moderators are at their full discretion to enforce the spirit of this rule.
-------
Please refrain from trolling, thank you.
-------
This infraction is worth 10 point(s) and may result in restricted access until it expires. Serious infractions will never expire.
Original Post:
http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=3345212All the best,Quote:
Can someone link to another review of Darkfall? I am having trouble finding any. Does this mean the first official review of Darkfall by a gaming website gave it a 2 out of 10? That is not good.
Darkfall Forums
That was almost immediately after I posted it. Aventurine appears to be in full damage control mode. Their developer Tasos wrote a rebuttal almost as long as the review itself. He claims that the reviewer spent almost no time in the game. No play session lasted more then a few minutes. Eurogamer replied saying the reviewer spent around 9 hours. I'm sure more details will come out soon.
Someone replied to my post saying there is one on MMORPG.com. But there isn't, the closest is an opinion piece. No review with a score. After almost a full page of responses later, no one has replied to that person and stated this. The vast majority of replies are just remarks dispariging the reviewer and investigative posts of his MySpace or other reviews. I think this event shows the current Darkfall community in its true light. And that light isn't very bright at all.
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