Topic: Game Acceptance

[topher]

The current crop of major publisher MMORPGS seem to pass or fail based on

1.) rollout (how smooth it went from beta to prod)/first month of release
2,) content
3.) game play
4.) customer interaction

I'll try and address this one by one-

Rollout Anarchy Online is a prime example of an awesome game that people had to write off because of constatnt bugs, slow servers, crashes, and a lot of other things that were just ammateurish.  There are two exceptions to this, one is Everquest the other is World of Warcraft.  Both were so anticipated and ground breaking that people could see through some of the problems.

Content One of the few games I never tried was Shadowbane, mostly because it was pure PvP and they relied on that as their content.  Another game that had piss poor content, again becase of a reliance on pvp was Lineage.  The first time i played eve, wow, eq i felt immersed because of the rich towns and npcs.   To this end we need static content and dynamic content to keep people going.  This is where we have an opportunity to really shine!

Game Play This one is a given.  The major benefit we have upgront is the different styles of play.  Not only that but we allolw actual flying in space, something which has never been done before.  <derail of my own thread> I was just thinking how cool it would be to have tests of skill for pilots, like a race, obstacle course, etc that would be pitted against others as some kind of an event.</derail of my own thread>

Customer Interaction All of the current MMORPGS have a customer relations face person who handles press, message boards, and generally acts as a buffer between the development team and the players.  The worst part about everquest early on is they did not have this, only the two producers, who rub a lot of the community the wrong way.  Keep customer apprised of upcoming changes, answer questions that are not detremental to the game, and help keep them happy are all roles this person/people who have to do.

Ok, my brain is finally switching gears from creative mode to programmer mode (it's early) so i'm out =)

[Morgul]

These are a very good points. I think that we do have a chance to shine in these areas.... I don't have the time right now, but I will reply to how I think this applies to us (currently) in the next few days.

[Infernal]

The current crop of major publisher MMORPGS seem to pass or fail based on

1.) rollout (how smooth it went from beta to prod)/first month of release
2,) content
3.) game play
4.) customer interaction

I'll try and address this one by one-

Rollout Anarchy Online is a prime example of an awesome game that people had to write off because of constatnt bugs, slow servers, crashes, and a lot of other things that were just ammateurish.  There are two exceptions to this, one is Everquest the other is World of Warcraft.  Both were so anticipated and ground breaking that people could see through some of the problems.

Content One of the few games I never tried was Shadowbane, mostly because it was pure PvP and they relied on that as their content.  Another game that had piss poor content, again becase of a reliance on pvp was Lineage.  The first time i played eve, wow, eq i felt immersed because of the rich towns and npcs.   To this end we need static content and dynamic content to keep people going.  This is where we have an opportunity to really shine!

Game Play This one is a given.  The major benefit we have upgront is the different styles of play.  Not only that but we allolw actual flying in space, something which has never been done before.  <derail of my own thread> I was just thinking how cool it would be to have tests of skill for pilots, like a race, obstacle course, etc that would be pitted against others as some kind of an event.</derail of my own thread>

Customer Interaction All of the current MMORPGS have a customer relations face person who handles press, message boards, and generally acts as a buffer between the development team and the players.  The worst part about everquest early on is they did not have this, only the two producers, who rub a lot of the community the wrong way.  Keep customer apprised of upcoming changes, answer questions that are not detremental to the game, and help keep them happy are all roles this person/people who have to do.

Ok, my brain is finally switching gears from creative mode to programmer mode (it's early) so i'm out =)

Very interesting but space flight has been done in ( no one has every seem to have ever heard of this game) X-com intercepter. In that game you basicly fly around space killing aliens, researching improvements, and building bases(Very fun  )