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Reader Comments (34)

Posted: Nov 24th 2009 4:38AM (Unverified) said

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As a person who has seen the game literally transform over the course of development through the good and bad, I have to say..the dreaded words that indeed, the game has a massive amount of potential.

You guys will see alot of the word "potential" thrown about here and on the MO forums, and that is because the game is well, still in development.

As beta testers we have seen the shell of a game gradually come to life, and it's because of this that we have so much faith in the devs behind the game. We know they're dedicated to making that "dream" game, and we're willing to follow on them on that journey.

The current state of the game, while already enjoyable, is not there yet. We still have many final systems that have yet to be implemented into the game yet. But even without all the features in game yet, MO has already succeeded in being one of the most immersive games I've ever played.

That's including Darkfall, WoW, GW among other games over the years. Hell, the "place holder" crafting system we have now already puts many other MMOs to shame.

Yes, there are bugs and yes, many features are unpolished or as of yet still to be implemented.

But to be trite again, yes the game has a massive amounts of potential.

Posted: Nov 24th 2009 5:41AM wjowski said

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'Potential'. A word rendered all but meaningless by MMOs.

Posted: Nov 24th 2009 5:43AM (Unverified) said

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It sounds like it could be fun. I don`t think I`d like being locked into a first-person view though.

Posted: Nov 24th 2009 6:33AM (Unverified) said

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The good:

Tough death penalty - lose everything you carry, but worse still, no instant respawn at some lifestone. You got to find your way back to a priest in an eerie netherworld that ain't easy to navigate.

AWESOME view distance. Seriously the best I've ever seen. And I'm refering to scenery and player/mobs.

Lots more to do than just killing people . Subsequently griefing has been surprisingly low but of course not non-existant, we need some.
Stat loss penalty for reds also helps to keep people on the good side.

Skill and attribute capping. You got some hard choices to make. e.g. want to be tops at melee? It's not just a matter of putting all your points into str, dex, con because your magic defence will be for shit

The bad:

Although speedtree 5 is planned, it doesn't look like it's going to make launch so current trees and landscape look blocky.

Not enough mobs so hopefully a lot more coming.

Still no day/night cycle. Possibly next week's patch but it bums out that it's been so long coming. World just feels so static, as it literally is, without it.

Posted: Nov 24th 2009 7:38AM Atnor said

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First person view only? Ugh

Posted: Nov 24th 2009 8:07AM (Unverified) said

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All of these hardcore or ffa pvp droppable item mmos that are coming out these days all fail at one of the most important things. They lack the incentive to not randomly gank. Meaning when I see someone in the world that could be a potential enemy or friend, which weighs more and why?

A good example of this is how EQ was in it's early years. In EQ you pretty much had to group to gain levels. Thus lets say you are at a stage in the game (early on mind you), when you can't really solo npc's thus your ability to level is bad. There are however good spots to exp at and progress your character but you need a group to kill the npcs efficiently. This simple process forces players to either group and make some friends to level with or gank and possibly not level fast or have opportunities later on to group easily in the community. It basically makes each player think twice before going on a pk spree because they know that once they do, there will be zomg consequences.

This super simple idea of balancing consequences and rewards depending on your decision in pvp is how to make these games work. The base must be laid correctly in order for ffa pvp with loot to work in mmorpgs period. It amazes me how this slips past developers when games that are 10 years old did much better than the current designs.

Posted: Nov 24th 2009 9:08AM Aganazer said

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Well said, and I agree 100%. I was about to post something similar, but you beat me to it.
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Posted: Nov 24th 2009 10:40AM (Unverified) said

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sikk, read the latest interview about earth rise. looks like they have that in mind
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Posted: Nov 24th 2009 10:11AM aurickle said

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I agree as well. No society has ever succeeded by being such anarchy that murder is a way of life. Now in the real world, two things have kept people in check:

1) Laws. Most societies have laws against murder, theft and the like. All societies that grow to a level of creating towns or which survive more than a short time certainly do.
2) Death is final. The fact that if you die it's forever also helps to discourage you from putting yourself at risk by attacking random people.

Games do not typically have permadeath, and there are very good reasons for this. But that also means that in order to counterbalance its absence, the game must also implement some sort of very harsh laws. Otherwise, the in-game society will spiral down into something that only would-be sociopaths will be happy in.

I believe that the more a game goes toward free for all PvP and full loot systems, the more sever the penalties for these behaviors must be. An ideal game really should allow these things. Give people the freedom to act that way if they want. But the game must also make it clear that such decisions come at a steep price. Some people will see that as just another level of challenge within the game. Good for them. But they will be kept in check so that they can't gratuitously ruin the fun of the 99% of the rest of the community that does not share their mindset.
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Posted: Nov 24th 2009 10:43AM Brian said

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I love UO because they care beared it with taking away PVP. I was so excited about Darkfall and waited years for it only to find out that the game play and interface is just horrible. One of the worst I have seen. I am interested in MO, but don't like the idea of first person. I think it takes away from the feel of the game as like with armor and how it looks on me. If I don't see myself it means less to me.

So with the people who have played it, how does it compare to Darkfall and UO?

Posted: Nov 24th 2009 11:26AM Brian said

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Sorry, I mean I loved UO UNTIL they carebeared it.

Posted: Nov 28th 2009 3:22PM (Unverified) said

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http://moleaks.blogspot.com

Just so people don't get taken advantage of by bothering to pay for beta access.

Wait until the full release, or actually -- well after it.

Posted: Nov 29th 2009 3:26AM (Unverified) said

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One of the ways to restore law and order is to have a somewhat bounty hunter system in place designed so a class can excel in hunting down the unjust. This could also be a job path that leads to being apart of the judicial system of a player made town sorta speak. Those who wish to set foot on this path could have a choice to help police their towns (guild towns) and rake in substantial amounts of cash for successfully taking out the trash. Just a idea as I havent been apart of the MO beta.

I think theres a host of ways to deal with gankers as a whole but if this game is to be a true sandbox MMO then the justice system needs to be community driven to some extent with rewards for taking a path as a law enforcement or bounty hunter over a community based town or guild. While there would be rewards to being a law enforcer/bounty hunter, there would also have to be drawbacks as well, I assume one would be that once in that position you may have to sacrifice certain privys of play in able to get better than usual rewards for upholding the law. Not sure how that would pan out but a idea none the less for a sandbox MMO to be fully community driven without the need for NPC to some extent.

Posted: Dec 6th 2009 12:42AM (Unverified) said

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there is currently a flagging system that marks players as either blue, grey or red (and some other intermediates i believe). players who attack others are marked as grey, and players who do so frequently within a certain amount of time (5hours i think) get marked as red.
grey or red players can be attacked without consequence. and red players get a stat penalty of some kind. i also read that they may change the rules to make it hard for murderers to get revived by priests.

so i think that what Ambushmartyr was saying will fit perfectly into the rules that are already in place. rather than penalize those who kill, make it acceptable, and rewarding to hunt other killers.

the guys making this game are obviously thinking well outside the box on this game, and so i would not be surprised if there were some very original, and fitting punishments for those who dare to break the rules.
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