2012 MMO Thread

[Thomkal]

Star Wars: The Old Republic Free to Play started today. Off to a bad start with servers and website down for maintenance for a long time, may be up now. Thought I might check it out, but then I saw this: A chart that shows just how little Free to Players get compared to Preferred Status and Subscriber Status. Its the most ridiculous Free to Play conversion I've ever seen.

Features | Star Wars: The Old Republic

[Matthean]

Considering how little I play PC games, I'll still likely check it out since I need so little. For $4.99 you at least get something of a game.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Star Wars: The Old Republic Free to Play started today. Off to a bad start with servers and website down for maintenance for a long time, may be up now. Thought I might check it out, but then I saw this: A chart that shows just how little Free to Players get compared to Preferred Status and Subscriber Status. Its the most ridiculous Free to Play conversion I've ever seen.

Features | Star Wars: The Old Republic

Isn't the story content all that's really worth playing though?

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Star Wars: The Old Republic Free to Play started today. Off to a bad start with servers and website down for maintenance for a long time, may be up now. Thought I might check it out, but then I saw this: A chart that shows just how little Free to Players get compared to Preferred Status and Subscriber Status. Its the most ridiculous Free to Play conversion I've ever seen.

Features | Star Wars: The Old Republic

I played through level 40 before. I didn't do any of that stuff that's below the first peg. Except flashpoints. I tried flashpoints and half the time I was confused and didn't know what to do or else I died. And note it doesn't say there is no access to all that other stuff. Most of emm it says you just get fewer chances to do them. In some cases you can't do them until higher levels. None of that really matters. The story content IS the stuff that's fun in this game. Although there is one item I do wonder about. And that is character creation. 2 slots for characters fine. But only choosing from 3 races blows. They don't even give you more the 5 follars preferred upgrade. The server queue thing might indeed be an issue too.

[Matthean]

Last day for the heroes of Paragon as CoH comes to a close.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Last day for the heroes of Paragon as CoH comes to a close.

:cry

[Matthean]

Logged back on for one final pass. I unlocked as many as I could and did screen shots like crazy. I wrote down so many names for future reference I ended up making multiple columns. I didn't even do missions. I just hung out and got reminded how fun that game was. I even self power leveled a SS/fire brute to 50 beforehand, and I was running around street sweeping on a lower SS/elec. I was reminded how little I played SS and wished I had played an SS brute earlier and really level it up properly, etc. The SS/elec should have been the one. *sigh* I dreaded logging back on, but I think in the end I was glad I did. I still can't believe somebody is willingly taking that game away.

[Matthean]

Author rips on NCSoft in regards to killing CoH. The article backs up the questionable maneuver. The end points out NCSoft's stock is down 50% for the year. Consider the fact that GW2 was released this year. It went down another +7% today as well. At some point they are going to get desperate and have to sell the IP.

'Unethical' game closure

[cuervo72]

Heh, of course the author happens to be spearheading the efforts to save the game. But, good on her, even if I don't know if any of the plans (like getting Disney to buy the IP) will work.

[Thomkal]

SWTOR's F2P gets a little tweak based on "community concerns". Of course you still have to buy something in order to get access to the improvements, but at least its a little more worth it now. I checked the SWTOR forum discussion of the post-couldn't post myself had I wanted to-because F2P players can't post on the boards. Until they stop treating F2P players like a "necessary pariah", I can't see playing the game, even though I would like to.

Star Wars: The Old Republic's free-to-play restrictions tweaked, Bioware stress "an ongoing dialogue" | News | PC Gamer

[Matthean]

I tried out DCUO. It's so close to being awesome, but the console like combat I think simply bugs me too much. I'm going to play around with some other characters to see what fits best and go from there.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Matthean

I tried out DCUO. It's so close to being awesome, but the console like combat I think simply bugs me too much. I'm going to play around with some other characters to see what fits best and go from there.

I'm a big DC comics fan, so if anyone was going to play this game it was going to be me. The console combat system completely drove me away-I've never owned a console, so I just got completely frustrated with how they do the combat there-I mean as the game goes on you get more and more powers and more and more frustration in remembering what combination you need to do to use them. Not a fan of every player having to use a weapon as well. And yet the game continues to get praise. Even if the combat system was different, City of Heroes was much better.

[Matthean]

So far my ice character can use pure melee but the ice attacks win out and how you can chain some of them together work really nice. Agreed on the combos. My success rate is rather low. Thankfully the game is forgiving in terms of needing them for success. I just want to click on something and it happens. DCUO does a tremendous job of getting players up and running, but there is a significant difference in even the F2P options between the two.

So is TOR more like COH or DCUO? That's the one MMO I can see getting into, but I'm curious about the controls.

[Matthean]

I plugged in a console controller and didn't get all of my options. There's no way to remap it. Awesome. Somebody really needs to be smacked for the control/fight system. I'm basically enjoying the hell out of everything else, but I see little need to level up and pick powers that I can hardly use to due not being able to activate them worth a damn.

[Matthean]

I went and downloaded TOR and made the obvious Jedi Knight. I need to see what the game is like in teams since I basically made a character to solo with, but I like it a lot so far. I need to remap some keys though since at least a couple of deaths were due to the chat window accidently opening up. I could definitely see subbing at some point.

[Matthean]

If you have a client for CoH that was updated to i23, somebody built an app that let's you play around with the costume creator. They are trying to work on getting all of the unlocked stuff to be open as well.

So, I was thinking... costume creator might be possible...

[cuervo72]

That's awesome. Codewalker was involved with the sentinel tool that grabbed character data too - I'm guessing at some point you might be able to import that into this tool.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Matthean

So far my ice character can use pure melee but the ice attacks win out and how you can chain some of them together work really nice. Agreed on the combos. My success rate is rather low. Thankfully the game is forgiving in terms of needing them for success. I just want to click on something and it happens. DCUO does a tremendous job of getting players up and running, but there is a significant difference in even the F2P options between the two.

So is TOR more like COH or DCUO? That's the one MMO I can see getting into, but I'm curious about the controls.

As far as actual gameplay and storydriver, TOR is more like KotOR actually. Ya know, like a standard solo RPG.

You don't need to group for most of it altho there are special quests in every area that it tells you a minimum # that you need to have.

Controlswise it just feels like every other MMO.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

That's awesome. Codewalker was involved with the sentinel tool that grabbed character data too - I'm guessing at some point you might be able to import that into this tool.

I think that is in the works or done. I think they made a tool to where you could make short videos if you had used the extractor.

[Matthean]

Beta trailer for City of Steam a browser based MMO. It's on Steam Greenlight.

[tyketime]

The Secret World has gone "buy to play" (similar to Guild Wars) - no subscription required, although you do get extra benefits if you do. Price was $30 when I bought it a few days ago. Amazon now has the PC Download for half price. If you've ever given it any consideration, it's a steal for $15! If you order & start before December 31, I believe you get the next DLC (Episode 5) for free.

[Peregrine]

Yeah I agree TSW is a total steal for anything less than full price, especially now that it has gone B2P - not sure of what it changes for the game, characters or whatever but I love anything that keeps this incredibly unique game going.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by tyketime

The Secret World has gone "buy to play" (similar to Guild Wars) - no subscription required, although you do get extra benefits if you do. Price was $30 when I bought it a few days ago. Amazon now has the PC Download for half price. If you've ever given it any consideration, it's a steal for $15! If you order & start before December 31, I believe you get the next DLC (Episode 5) for free.

(see the Secret World thread where I already reported it-knew I should have done it here too )

[tyketime]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Yeah I agree TSW is a total steal for anything less than full price, especially now that it has gone B2P - not sure of what it changes for the game, characters or whatever but I love anything that keeps this incredibly unique game going.

My understanding is that there are no limitations for former subscribers and newly minted buyers. Here are the details on the different levels of membership (I guess it is really a hybrid BTP/Subscription model).

One of the first things I'm enjoying with TSW is the fact that it is is a non-fantasy based MMO. It's pretty interesting to have something in the modern world. By that I mean I have already heard references to the Mayan end-of-world prediction and Oprah in the first mission location.

[Matthean]

TOR's first expansion pack.

The Old Republic's Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion revealed - GameSpot.com

[Thomkal]

And in the "Out of Nowhere" Department, Asheron's Call 2 has returned!

Welcome to the return of Asheron's Call 2! - Asheron's Call Forums

It's kind of a bizarre situation-you have to activate your old/or create a new Asheron's Call 1 account which gets you into the beta server for AC2 "free". Not sure how they can call it free when you have to pay for a AC1 subscription ($9.99) I think. But might be worth checking out for fans of the game (as I was)

[Peregrine]

I've been having quite a bit of fun this week playing Pirate 101 - the followup to Kingsisle's very successful kids-oriented title Wizard 101. It's primarily oriented at younger players but it's fun for adults as well - it's certainly slower paced than your average MMO but the pirate theme, tons of pop culture references and amusing cartoon style art have drawn me in. Your pirate is one of five different classes, essentially, and you accumulate companions who are your crew and join you in combat - many/most of the characters in the game are animals which are pretty amusing when dressed up as pirates, and I find the voice acting quite good.

You have a ship, of course, and sail the skies doing various quests and battling enemy ships as well. The game is F2P - there are crowns to be bought if you wish to spend in the cash shop, which has a lot of very helpful items.

Anyway, easy to play and check out if you have some spare time.

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

I've been having quite a bit of fun this week playing Pirate 101 - the followup to Kingsisle's very successful kids-oriented title Wizard 101. It's primarily oriented at younger players but it's fun for adults as well - it's certainly slower paced than your average MMO but the pirate theme, tons of pop culture references and amusing cartoon style art have drawn me in. Your pirate is one of five different classes, essentially, and you accumulate companions who are your crew and join you in combat - many/most of the characters in the game are animals which are pretty amusing when dressed up as pirates, and I find the voice acting quite good.

You have a ship, of course, and sail the skies doing various quests and battling enemy ships as well. The game is F2P - there are crowns to be bought if you wish to spend in the cash shop, which has a lot of very helpful items.

Anyway, easy to play and check out if you have some spare time.

Funny enough, I've been pretty deep into Wiz 101 over the past couple of weeks because my girls love to play it. It's a pretty nice, relaxed system where you can take things as they come. I pretty much have avoided MMO and multi-player games in general because I feel like too many people either take it all too seriously or are a bunch of amoral teenage griefers who think it's fun to ruin everyone else's. Since the target audience for this is kids, mostly, you don't get that sort of issue and it's just a nice way to have fun with my kids. I've actually been pondering sampling Pirates 101 to see if there's anything there for me. Your post is pushing me into it.

[Peregrine]

Yeah I have played Wiz101 a good bit in the past - so far I think I like the Pirate game a bit better - mainly because the combat feels a bit more strategic since it doesn't use the card and deck based system that Wiz101 does. Some people feel that Wiz101 has a better story, however - I have not played the pirate game enough to know if that's true or not.

[spleen1015]

Thanks for posting about these 101 games, guys. My daughter is getting her first computer for Christmas and these will be a nice was to introduce her to MMOs.

[Peregrine]

Yeah Spleen, that's a good idea I think - there are extensive options to make the games totally kid-safe, you can read about them on the game websites - things like having pre-moderated chat phrases instead of open conversations, limiting where they can go, etc.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by tyketime

The Secret World has gone "buy to play" (similar to Guild Wars) - no subscription required, although you do get extra benefits if you do. Price was $30 when I bought it a few days ago. Amazon now has the PC Download for half price. If you've ever given it any consideration, it's a steal for $15! If you order & start before December 31, I believe you get the next DLC (Episode 5) for free.

The Secret World is now -25% off on Steam ($22.49) thru Jan 5. Don't know if it will go any lower that during the Holiday sale or not.

[Matthean]

Trying to buy a 2 month sub for TOR and it won't let me. I hit up the forums, and it looks like nobody is able to buy anything right now and there essentially is no support due to the holiday. Awesome.

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Trying to buy a 2 month sub for TOR and it won't let me. I hit up the forums, and it looks like nobody is able to buy anything right now and there essentially is no support due to the holiday. Awesome.

Lousy Mayans couldn't end the world so they are fucking up 2013 - nice.