Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

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Dumar_sl

shitlord
3,712
4
Can't remember the post, but it was about a WoW investor meeting describing player retention and the "first 20 minute" experience. How they had so many people quitting (like 80%) within the first 20 minutes and they wanted to fix that. Just shows you the shift in focus which prevents any kind of player-negative interactions between players or between player and world.
Yes, and this is precisely the biggest cause of why the industry sucks so bad now. Did Brad have marketing & focus groups dictate the design of the first 20 minutes of the user experience? Fuck, my first 20 minutes was spent drowning in Neriak then lost in Nektulos trying to find where I spawned.
 

sakkath

Trakanon Raider
1,745
1,077
Yes, and this is precisely the biggest cause of why the industry sucks so bad now. Did Brad have marketing & focus groups dictate the design of the first 20 minutes of the user experience? Fuck, my first 20 minutes was spent drowning in Neriak then lost in Nektulos trying to find where I spawned.
Very similar to me. My first hour in EQ was creating a DE SK, walking around Neriak a bit completely lost, accidently attacking a guard, respawning somewhere where I had absolutely no idea where I was or how to get back to where I came from... I actually couldn't work out where to go from there but the hardships didn't discourage me, it made me want to learn about the game even more. So I decided to try from a different angle and made a new character (HE Mage).
 

Laura

Lord Nagafen Raider
582
109
Can't agree more. I really can't emphasize enough how amazing EQs sounds were. Not just the music, but everything- ambient/environment (that hollow wind sound with the strange bird cries), footsteps, mob sounds, fighting sounds. One of the best was spell sounds. In EQ when you cast a spell it really felt like you were calling down the thunder. Even the dying sounds mobs and pcs made were great.

Sound is one if those areas mmos after EQ really neglected and they suffered for it, because it is one of those essential elements at turns a 'game' into a 'world'.
I agree with everything you said.
The sound of the cold wind howling in Everfrost was amazing!

The footsteps were clear. Every thing that should make sound and did make sound was crystal clear. There was almost no sound pollution (which is the unnecessary "perfect sounding" ambient and symphonic heroic music in the background like in every other game). The sound you hear made sense and the BGM when they rarely play in the background they sounded magical (Kelethin Harp Music) no sound that makes you feel you're in our world (modern music/orchestrated music). You don't need a hollywood-like music score to make something sound magical.

Remember those "eerie" background music? They were weird and subtle. Perfect!
The skeletons cracking bones?
That "chunk" sound when you take a heavy blow (a hit that takes more than 20% of your HP) it sounded PAINFUL! Just by the sound you knew you're in trouble.
 

Heallun

Lord Nagafen Raider
1,100
1,073
Whew, I was wondering how many would honestly get what Draegan was saying. Good post. No one at SOE or anywhere else gives a flying shit about one person's vision of a game. Saying that you are a tank and every valid argument is moot (because you're awesome buddy!) doesn't change the fact that this is a MMO and not your single player personal paradise. Once again, even in EQ not everyone played a tank or healer all the time or ever. And these issues were much larger for other classes. And they paid the same money as you! So their opinions are actually...just as valid. And EQ gave a fuck about people quitting. That's the whole reason they changed the game up. Because if it was really succeeding and growing without change...it would have never changed.

Now the conversations about sound, first person, etc are very good and I'd love to see what Mr. Creed is saying. A new variant of EQ based on the immersion, world building, meaningful death and few other things EQ did well.
Right, but when they started making changes for retention reasons (especially EQ2 and the god fucking awful WoW-ish changes) it made a struggling game completely tank.
 

Mr Creed

Too old for this shit
2,385
277
Thing is nobody but the elusive Mr. McQuaid can tell us what kind of game he is planning to make. Is he going to back to his roots or try to branch out artistically and so something different?

Looking at it from another angle I'm already worried this will ever amount to more then a wishful dream. Convo keeps saying he probably learned some valuable lessons, but tbh the fact that he still didnt deliver the kickstarter in time after some serious hints towards a November date points in the opposite direction. Without Microsoft or SOE or whoever feeding money to them without asking questions delays like this will turn the project into a repeat of KoA/38 studios.
 

Quaid

Trump's Staff
11,782
8,267
To be fair to Brad... It's probably the most retarded time of year to launch a kickstarter campaign. It's Christmas, and people don't have the extra money to pledge to pie in the sky projects that are years from release.

If I were him, I'd launch my kickstarter when people are getting their tax returns, and not a day before.
 
86
0
To be fair to Brad... It's probably the most retarded time of year to launch a kickstarter campaign. It's Christmas, and people don't have the extra money to pledge to pie in the sky projects that are years from release.

If I were him, I'd launch my kickstarter when people are getting their tax returns, and not a day before.
That depends, I'm planning on gifting myself a nice pledge so I can enjoy some really nice pink collored nostalgia glasses and really well thought hype blog entries till the day reality mindfuck my gaming dream.

Again.
 

PhoneticHalo_sl

shitlord
153
0
To be fair to Brad... It's probably the most retarded time of year to launch a kickstarter campaign. It's Christmas, and people don't have the extra money to pledge to pie in the sky projects that are years from release.

If I were him, I'd launch my kickstarter when people are getting their tax returns, and not a day before.
The optimal timing was Just after EQN pissed on the IP and before landmark looked to offer anything. About the time he said he was aiming for. People were in the mood to give Sony the finger. Also before Landmark Alpha Beta packages came and the Star Citizen sale would have been a good idea. But Im less concerned about when the Kick-starter comes and more interested when brad can stop with the silly tweets a carrots(TM) and make an official forums and release details about the game.
 

Tol_sl

shitlord
759
0
Did anyone see last weeks south park, with George RR Martin constantly promising people that the "dragons are coming!" and then pushing black Friday back for a week? That's Brad now.

rU39HEp.png

Probably a really cheap shot.
 

Laura

Lord Nagafen Raider
582
109
Did anyone see last weeks south park, with George RR Martin constantly promising people that the "dragons are coming!" and then pushing black Friday back for a week? That's Brad now.

rU39HEp.png
Should I expect plenty of wieners though?
tongue.png
 

Kharza-kzad_sl

shitlord
1,080
0
EQ sound was great for the first few months, then they changed it so that sound falls off much faster and it kind of ruined it. In the first few months of the game you could hear a giant walking from quite a distance, or running around you'd hear a fight going on nearby. After the patch you had to be right on top of something to hear it, and inching forward would almost double the volume as you got really close.
 

Convo

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
8,768
617
Thing is nobody but the elusive Mr. McQuaid can tell us what kind of game he is planning to make. Is he going to back to his roots or try to branch out artistically and so something different?

Looking at it from another angle I'm already worried this will ever amount to more then a wishful dream. Convo keeps saying he probably learned some valuable lessons, but tbh the fact that he still didnt deliver the kickstarter in time after some serious hints towards a November date points in the opposite direction. Without Microsoft or SOE or whoever feeding money to them without asking questions delays like this will turn the project into a repeat of KoA/38 studios.
yet here everyone is.. talking about it.. Does it suck he missed his deadline? Yep, but projects like a KS tend to grow early on.. I'm betting that's all this is about. I could counter you by saying he did learn and this is an example.. What he had wasn't good enough and instead of running with it, he decided to give it more time to come together.. He only gets one shot at this. I'm guessing there are a lot of moving parts this early on and the hold up might not be just about the game but the structure of the business as well. I know people are going to be pointing at every turn of this project and screaming failure but I'm just not that eager to it. Certainly not over a missed KS deadline.
 

PhoneticHalo_sl

shitlord
153
0
You would think there has to be a reason to strongly hint of it dropping then nothing. Maybe some investors? or some new options have come Brads way and he has had to rethink the whole target and format of the kick-starter. I just think he needs to come out and say something, Name the game a quote from the lore. cause the only thing it feels like he announced is trolls.
 

Mr Creed

Too old for this shit
2,385
277
yet here everyone is.. talking about it.. Does it suck he missed his deadline? Yep, but projects like a KS tend to grow early on.. I'm betting that's all this is about. I could counter you by saying he did learn and this is an example.. What he had wasn't good enough and instead of running with it, he decided to give it more time to come together.. He only gets one shot at this. I'm guessing there are a lot of moving parts this early on and the hold up might not be just about the game but the structure of the business as well. I know people are going to be pointing at every turn of this project and screaming failure but I'm just not that eager to it. Certainly not over a missed KS deadline.
Well I am not so sure he has turned a new leaf, hence the general mistrust. I also acknowledge this as the last chance for like another 5-10 years at a game that's possibly more in line with what I want from an MMO. 'Possibly' ... because right now we know nothing specific, just vague references. In a perfect world the TES MMO would be a pinnacle of immersive gameplay with a focus on discovery. Since that ship sailed it's either this or Wow clones in the forseeable future, with a hint of storybricks at the far horizon.
 

Convo

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
8,768
617
I understand.. Youre not on the ship so I guess there will never be a point where you jump off so to speak.. For me.. I'm not about to jump off b/c of a missed KS date. As always, let's wait and see what the KS has to offer.. Who knows what has evolved since he began the project. I wouldn't write this off bc of a missed time frame.
 

Bruman

Golden Squire
1,154
0
There isn't one. Brad said something like "We hope to have it out in a few weeks", or maybe he said 2-3 weeks even, which was a date that passed a week or two ago?
 

zzeris

King Turd of Shit Hill
<Gold Donor>
20,299
86,111
Brad has always been piss poor at managing his time. I don't see the issue right now because there just isn't anything else to really pine after for a certain segment of the population. There will be a few games to piddle around with until he gets some kind of beta going. The real issue is trying to get into beta. Because what you see there, is a great sign of what the final unfinished product will look like. Which still isn't the worst deal because they all do it to an extent.