Upcoming MMO Counterpoints

Heh.

I look at Guild Wars 2, pondering GW and ArenaNet, and I think: That all looks pretty awesome on paper, but there's so many ways it could fall short in practice. I can't fully trust pre-release hype. I hope they can actually live up to all this potential

Meanwhile, I look at Star Wars: The Old Republic after Bioware's treatment of KotOR and I think: Star Wars and Bioware, how can this go wrong? It's got to be awesome. But watching the videos makes me feel like this is just more of the exact same MMO gameplay that's been going on for years. I hope they don't screw up and can make this game something special.

Based on previous experience, I seem to have different expectations of the two companies...

Comments

  1. tashiroMarch 11, 2011 at 2:34 PM

    At least you're aware of it. Have you seen the Thief gameplay yet?

    ReplyDelete
  2. kyn_elwynnMarch 11, 2011 at 3:26 PM

    SW:tOR - I have a bad feeling about this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ajeyaMarch 14, 2011 at 8:42 PM

    I find your TOR comment interesting. "feel like this is just more of the exact same MMO gameplay that's been going on for years. I hope they don't screw up and can make this game something special." Don't you think this is a double-edged sword? You make gameplay with a model the established big-dog on the market uses. Those players feel completely at home in your game because everything seems familiar to them. Haters scoff because you lacked ingenuity! You make gameplay with a model that diverges from what others are doing and "advances the genre". You receive critical acclaim for innovative gameplay and players come to your game because they are tired of the same old big-dog's gameplay. Haters go: yeah it's different but I want my familiar blanket. It would be soooo much better if they did it like the big dog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. marinredwolfMarch 15, 2011 at 9:28 AM

    It is, and they're never please everyone. That is very much true. Gameplay innovation is hard and risky. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And heck, I certainly like a level of familiarity. But it's more than gameplay - and I'll admit that over-simplified my statement. When I look at the actual play videos (which is sort of where I called it "gameplay" to distinguish from cut scenes or simple demo videos), I see "just another MMO with Star Wars trappings." Beyond how you play the game, it's how the game looks and "feels" in play. The character models are okay, but they aren't striking me as notably better than what I'm used to seeing. The animations/attacks/reactions are functional, but don't really seem improved over what I see in WoW. The areas I've seen include some nicely-detailed ship bridges, and a lot of empty-looking cargo hold type rooms and largely-barren fields. For the most part, it keeps looking to me like state-of-the-MMO-art... for, perhaps, three years ago. Of course, that could be a failing of the videos. And even if it's just "WoW in Star Wars," that might be worth playing, and perfectly profitable. But if it doesn't surpass that in some notable way, it'll probably be a temporary game for me because I've a great deal of emotional investment in WoW already.

    ReplyDelete

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