Someone should bring to market a MMORPG game where the client is free but allow people to purchase the server version and charge admission. As long as the server owner could make small modifications to the game (exp, prices, etc...) you could have some hard-core servers and some fun servers running the game.
It's called a MUD. Nothing stops you from running a MUD server and charging admission.
Someone should bring to market a MMORPG game where the client is free but allow people to purchase the server version and charge admission. As long as the server owner could make small modifications to the game (exp, prices, etc...) you could have some hard-core servers and some fun servers running the game.
It's called a MUD. Nothing stops you from running a MUD server and charging admission.
Someone should bring to market a MMORPG game where the client is free but allow people to purchase the server version and charge admission. As long as the server owner could make small modifications to the game (exp, prices, etc...) you could have some hard-core servers and some fun servers running the game.
It's called a MUD. Nothing stops you from running a MUD server and charging admission.
Just to put the word out, there is a Front Row Crew Guild on a PVP horde server Lethon. It's a small friend based guild, that plays the game for fun, not obsessively. So if your looking for a nice little guild, it maybe for you.
All the cool kids roll Horde on Ysera. If you don't want to be part of a guild called Kung-Fu Scientists then you are SMOKING THE POT.
I played WoW for a couple of months early last year. But I got to level 25 and realised that the grind would never end. The novelty factor was wearing out, and it began to feel like a chore. Thankfully I'd done a course at uni that taught me the concept of escalating commitment, and how some times you just have to accept your losses and quit. So I quit. And I haven't looked back. You made the right choice, dutopia, good for you.
At that level you need about 25,000 exp for your next level, past 60, your talking 540,000.
At that level you need about 25,000 exp for your next level, past 60, your talking 540,000.
Yeah, but that's out of context. You're also getting ten times as much experience for a quest. QQ more, to use the lingua franca. Final Fantasy XI was a glaring example of horrifying grind and THAT'S an MMO I regret wasting time on. (at best) around 250 xp a kill. That's 250 at level 10 and 250 at level 60. I have comparatively little complaints about WoW's grind, which is less noticable than some SINGLE player games I've been hitting up recently. It's a grind, yeah, and you have to be a person can get some pleasure out of it, but we hit Outlands this weekend and got a level in less than three hours. Any MMO player would kill for that kind of progression.
At that level you need about 25,000 exp for your next level, past 60, your talking 540,000.
Yeah, but that's out of context. You're also getting ten times as much experience for a quest. QQ more, to use the lingua franca. Final Fantasy XI was a glaring example of horrifying grind and THAT'S an MMO I regret wasting time on. (at best) around 250 xp a kill. That's 250 at level 10 and 250 at level 60. I have comparatively little complaints about WoW's grind, which is less noticable than some SINGLE player games I've been hitting up recently. It's a grind, yeah, and you have to be a person can get some pleasure out of it, but we hit Outlands this weekend and got a level in less than three hours. Any MMO player would kill for that kind of progression.
A faster grind is still a grind. Even if you got 10 levels ever time you clicked the mouse, it is not a fundamentally different game.
*puts in small word for Guild Wars* I find Guild Wars quite superficial, however their game model really suits a very casual style gamer. For that, they beat WoW.I'm part of a GW guild that plays fairly regularly on Thursday evenings (EST) if anyone here wants to join.
Maybe a little, but my point is still valid. This is an example, as I can't remember the exact numbers from that level but it should be about right. At level 25, you need 25,000xp to level up. Monsters award you about 250xp and quests grant you an average of 4500xp. At level 60 you will need about 500,000 to get your next level. Monsters award about 550xp and quests about 9800xp. The margin is still huge! I remember leveling to about level 30 is about a week, but it took me over 2 weeks to get from 60-62.
This reminds me of the old days of AD&D when hitting second level took 2K XP and it pretty much doubled for the next ten levels. The suck part was that monsters only gave you a pittance in XP. I remember it taking four or more adventures to hit second level and from there it could take even more to go higher. A high level game for us was level 5! Level 10 was unheard of.
Ahh... the good old days, when we were scared of kobolds...
Just to put the word out, there is a Front Row Crew Guild on a PVP horde server Lethon. It's a small friend based guild, that plays the game for fun, not obsessively. So if your looking for a nice little guild, it maybe for you.
Horde or Alliance? Just curious.
All the cool kids roll Horde on Ysera. If you don't want to be part of a guild called Kung-Fu Scientists then you are SMOKING THE POT.
For the Horde! ^_~
... I'm still gonna buy WoW shortly after New Years... >>; It looks like a lot of fun.
If you do, I suggest researching to whatever faction you want to be as well as server. If you aren't into PVP, go for a normal server. Also, join a server/guild with people you know. Maybe not in RL, but friends on the internet. It's more fun to play with people you know, in my opinion. Plus they can help you get started out hopefully with large slot bags, some gold, help with harder quests, etc.
Project Daedalus has a nice research article on player lifecycle and burnout -check it out.
As for Rym and Scott, we've given them free 10-day trials before to test out the game so that they could do a WoW show. Neither of them has made the effort to use them yet.
Project Daedalus has a nice research article on player lifecycle and burnout -check it out.
Cool article.
As for Rym and Scott, we've given them free 10-day trials before to test out the game so that they could do a WoW show. Neither of them has made the effort to use them yet.
And a very nice idea indeed, although they would have to take the time to install the games - patches included, and it takes ages.
And a very nice idea indeed, although they would have to take the time to install the games - patches included. It can take a while...
I recently had to reinstall it all on my new computer that is running with 2 gigs of RAM. It was like an hour tops, including installing UI & customizing them. One hour isn't that bad, imo.
And a very nice idea indeed, although they would have to take the time to install the games - patches included. It can take a while...
I recently had to reinstall it all on my new computer that is running with 2 gigs of RAM. It was like an hour tops, including installing UI & customizing them. One hour isn't that bad, imo.
Lucky you, I don't even dare to think of all the time the updater downloaded stuff.
It takes no longer to install and patch WoW with TBC than it does to, say, download and install the Orange Box from Steam. Granted, the latter requires less user input, and is consequently a lot smoother, which is why I like Steam so much.
You're talking about people who have installed Gentoo. They're no stranger to long installs.
Expansion-pack-mindedness sucks, though, no matter what it's applied to. Valve's concept of "expansion packs" is the best idea I've seen. HL2: Episode 1 and 2 are just independent games. I don't even know if they require HL2, because I don't know or care about any non-Steam-bundle version of said games.
Technically, any expansion pack is the same way: it's just a bunch of files and a new executable, that usually relies on files from the original game.
The pain in the ass is that, like every other MMO, they make you install from a million CDs, and then make you watch as they re-download almost the entire game, making all the time you spent copying data from CDs irrelevant.
It's a problem that doesn't reflect on the game of WoW at all, but rather it's just one of those nagging annoyances. Why the hell does Blizzard make you buy a box to play TBC? Why are all the boxes stuffed with CDs instead of DVDs? The installers never change, so all they have to do is go ahead and make those DVDs, and they're done forever.
The day every single game is available for download, and automatically kept up-to-date, I will be happy.
The thing about giving Rym and Scott the 10 day trial is that, well, it really DOESN'T let you play the game, at least not fully. You really have to go through the grind to get the gist of the game, and the end-game content is where all the fun is. Personally, I think PvP is really where the most fun can be had, particularly the arenas. The raids and other such static encounters are cool the first couple of times, but they do become solved, and once they're routine, it's no longer fun. The arena is always mixing it up at least a little, and it's the only place in the game where you can really test your skills against other players.
I've noticed a similarity between WoW and TF2: both are easy games overall, but somehow, 99% of players SUCK HARD.
That's a tangential rant, though. The point is, if they're both strapped for time, they're never ever going to be able to actually play enough WoW to really give a solid opinion on it. You can't really judge an anime by watching the first 30 seconds of the first episode (well, OK, sometimes you can), and you can't really judge a game without having really played through it. I mean, 9 million people play this damn game; there's probably more to it than any other MMO in history.
So, to that end, I'm giving Rym and Scott an open invitation. If you'd like to not be shit-talkers, you're welcome to play the game with my account. I have a level 70 PvP-oriented warrior (see above armory link) with decent gear and enough stuff left to do that you could really explore the game's options without having to go through a tedious level grind. It would require that you have access to a computer with the game installed, but I think that can be arranged eventually. Of course, being my very best friends and all, I would expect you not to abuse this trust and, say, sell all my character's stuff and delete him. You've complained about not wanting to grind, so if you'd like to, I have a character already ground for your enjoyment.
But that's not really playing the game, is it? The biggest part of the game is the grind, no?
Well, there's also the social aspect. Imagine if you could talk to other people on the Internet. It's like that. So no, the grind isn't the entire game. There's also the talking.
Comments
Maybe a little, but my point is still valid.
This is an example, as I can't remember the exact numbers from that level but it should be about right. At level 25, you need 25,000xp to level up. Monsters award you about 250xp and quests grant you an average of 4500xp. At level 60 you will need about 500,000 to get your next level. Monsters award about 550xp and quests about 9800xp. The margin is still huge! I remember leveling to about level 30 is about a week, but it took me over 2 weeks to get from 60-62.
Ahh... the good old days, when we were scared of kobolds...
As for Rym and Scott, we've given them free 10-day trials before to test out the game so that they could do a WoW show. Neither of them has made the effort to use them yet.
Horde of course!
Front row crew guild on Lethon (Horde)"
You're talking about people who have installed Gentoo. They're no stranger to long installs.
Expansion-pack-mindedness sucks, though, no matter what it's applied to. Valve's concept of "expansion packs" is the best idea I've seen. HL2: Episode 1 and 2 are just independent games. I don't even know if they require HL2, because I don't know or care about any non-Steam-bundle version of said games.
Technically, any expansion pack is the same way: it's just a bunch of files and a new executable, that usually relies on files from the original game.
The pain in the ass is that, like every other MMO, they make you install from a million CDs, and then make you watch as they re-download almost the entire game, making all the time you spent copying data from CDs irrelevant.
It's a problem that doesn't reflect on the game of WoW at all, but rather it's just one of those nagging annoyances. Why the hell does Blizzard make you buy a box to play TBC? Why are all the boxes stuffed with CDs instead of DVDs? The installers never change, so all they have to do is go ahead and make those DVDs, and they're done forever.
The day every single game is available for download, and automatically kept up-to-date, I will be happy.
But I do agree, having multiple disks to install a game is annoying. All-in-one disc would be great.
The thing about giving Rym and Scott the 10 day trial is that, well, it really DOESN'T let you play the game, at least not fully. You really have to go through the grind to get the gist of the game, and the end-game content is where all the fun is. Personally, I think PvP is really where the most fun can be had, particularly the arenas. The raids and other such static encounters are cool the first couple of times, but they do become solved, and once they're routine, it's no longer fun. The arena is always mixing it up at least a little, and it's the only place in the game where you can really test your skills against other players.
I've noticed a similarity between WoW and TF2: both are easy games overall, but somehow, 99% of players SUCK HARD.
That's a tangential rant, though. The point is, if they're both strapped for time, they're never ever going to be able to actually play enough WoW to really give a solid opinion on it. You can't really judge an anime by watching the first 30 seconds of the first episode (well, OK, sometimes you can), and you can't really judge a game without having really played through it. I mean, 9 million people play this damn game; there's probably more to it than any other MMO in history.
So, to that end, I'm giving Rym and Scott an open invitation. If you'd like to not be shit-talkers, you're welcome to play the game with my account. I have a level 70 PvP-oriented warrior (see above armory link) with decent gear and enough stuff left to do that you could really explore the game's options without having to go through a tedious level grind. It would require that you have access to a computer with the game installed, but I think that can be arranged eventually. Of course, being my very best friends and all, I would expect you not to abuse this trust and, say, sell all my character's stuff and delete him. You've complained about not wanting to grind, so if you'd like to, I have a character already ground for your enjoyment.
Well, there's also the social aspect. Imagine if you could talk to other people on the Internet. It's like that. So no, the grind isn't the entire game. There's also the talking.