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Reader Comments (40)

Posted: Apr 28th 2010 10:53AM (Unverified) said

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3d gaming is a big maybe, yes it makes the game more immersive but it doesnt do a lick of good for your eyes, too much 3d vision is actually starting to show negative results.

A 3d mmo about Avatar wont work, not enough depth, complete lack of potential classes and its a mmo spawned from a movie, if game creators havent learnt anything yet, you need a cemented genre before you even think about making one. SWTOR and LOTRO are two huge exceptions to this rule, as they have both had years to be completely fleshed out.

Posted: Apr 28th 2010 11:01AM Itanius said

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Blockbuster fantasy movie turned MMO? Who'da thunk it?

Posted: Apr 28th 2010 11:10AM Arkanaloth said

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oh dear... here we go again, when will they learn? This is going to be another MXO.

Posted: Apr 29th 2010 1:37AM Rayko said

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Don't talk about what you have little to no experience with, MXO actually had a lot of good points and was the best game community I have come across in my 10 years of playing MMO's.
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Posted: Apr 29th 2010 8:35AM Arkanaloth said

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nowhere did I say MXO *DIDN'T* have good points.. but regardless of any desire based on rabid fanaticism, it still failed horribly, and more often than not games based on movies be they MMO or not meet a similar fate... Secondarily a good community is never a bad thing but clearly that wasn't enough to keep MXO afloat. Same can be said of Tabula Rasa.

At this point I see nothing to differentiate an Avatar MMO from MxO, which is it's a Movie tie in hoping to ride on the coat-tails. The story of Avatar was not really amazing, and WoW has proven graphics alone don't make the game and really though Avatar was entertaining, it was a visual tour de force, the story was pretty generic.

and finally.. 10 years of MMO's.. I have you beat.
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Posted: Apr 29th 2010 11:52AM Rayko said

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Lumping Matrix Online in with Tabula Rasa is insulting. MXO was a round for 5 years and had a ton of innovate features. The highly repetitive missions and broken promise that the players would affect the outcome of the story is what killed it. I guess I'm getting defensive because 1) I doubt you played MXO long 2) I had some great times on it 3) I doubt a Avatar MMO would even come close to originality or quality of MXO.

Lastly, gratz having played MMOs longer than me. Here's your cookie.
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Posted: Apr 29th 2010 12:07PM Arkanaloth said

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you're the first one that mentioned time playing MMO's like it was a badge of honor... I was merely proving that there's always someone older and quite possibly more experienced.. it's your cookie buddy, I just broke it in half and took my due.

As for MxO, I wasn't impressed enough to stick with it. You yourself mentioned the very things that killed it, failed promises, Hype unrealized... So many movie IP games... hell so many *Games*... fall into this trap. As an unproven IP with a fairly weak content foundation.. this Avatar MMO seems like it's heading down an alllll too familiar road.
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Posted: Apr 29th 2010 3:18PM Rayko said

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You know you and I are the only ones left reading this right ? =) . Ok look, I apologize if I am coming off super defensive but I am sick of people bashing MXO with little to no experience with it. Your points are well stated; but I see MXO as a great and innovative game that had some fatal flaws, and I don't like to see it marginalized as a crap, IP gimmick game that I am sure Avatar will probably will be. The funny thing is we agree about your major point but I just personally find the comparison unfair.
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Posted: May 3rd 2010 12:20PM (Unverified) said

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You're both a bit wrong here. (And I've been playing for 11 years, so hah! Ever since the original Everquest back in '99... THOSE WERE THE GAMES! GET OFF MY LAWN).

The IP has nothing to do with it. Star Wars did SWG which was alright, I played that at launch and off and on after that. But SWG was never really successful, and is barely treading water today.

LOTRO was never horribly successful, and is currently just treading water (with their freeplay options now).

I have high hopes for SWTOR, of course. Now, the cynic would say that "movie MMO's don't do well", but that's not it at all.

The fact is: We don't care about the IP, we care about the gameplay. And these aren't great games -- not in comparison to the games that are succeeding right now.

You cannot just an Avatar MMO before development starts. The game will HAVE to be judged on it's merits as a game and not on the merits of the movie. The game has great potential when you look at the amount of time and effort Cameron and his team spent into researching and developing the world of Pandora.

To me, they've proven they know how to make a great fantasy world -- now they can have a chance to prove they can translate that to an MMO.
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Posted: Apr 28th 2010 11:14AM Valentina said

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Actually i think its one of few movie franchises that I think would make a very good MMO.

Posted: May 5th 2010 12:08AM (Unverified) said

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I thought that too, but then I started to think of what those leonine smurfs are all about. I some how don't think that randomly traipsing about the forest, killing animals for arbitrary items would really fit the theme very well. Also, from what I have seen of the movie, any sort of aquired equipment might look somewhat lackluster; "You recieve Brilliant Loin Cloth. -15% chance of causing Indecent Exposure."

If they wanted to do this well, they are going to have to take the MMO genre in a different direction then what we are used to seeing. Who knows? They could come up with something really unique and spectacular, and lets face it, who wouldn't want to explore the world of Pandora.
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Posted: Apr 28th 2010 11:21AM dudes said

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Arrrrrggghhhh!!!

Darth Vader NOOOOoooooo!!!

Posted: Apr 28th 2010 11:36AM (Unverified) said

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They have little understanding of MMOs, especially with their 3 year development cycle.

Posted: Apr 28th 2010 11:45AM elocke said

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A huge emphatic NO! Besides visuals the movie offered NOTHING else worth even remotely turning into an IP. I'm a huge fan of fantasy, scifi, horror, etc. in movies, books and games, but this movie was NOT good. It only made a ton of money because ticket prices for it were double the normal ticket price for non 3D movies. It's that simple.

This news is as annoying as the stupid commercial for the dvd/blueray that keeps saying "the number one movie of all time" hahahahahahaha, pathetic!

Posted: Apr 28th 2010 12:11PM Seare said

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Its really lame to offer up opinion as fact. Avatar is the #1 movie of all time, because a lot of people like it. If it was so bad, as you say, then no one would buy it on DVD/Blueray. The BlueRay sales have already smashed the record set by the Dark Knight. The Dark Knight took 6 months to generate those sales. Avatar did it in 2 days. I didn't see it in the theaters (can't sit in a theater for 3 hours), but I've watched it twice since I bought the BluRay and I love it.
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Posted: Apr 28th 2010 12:35PM Its Utakata stupid said

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This does not mean that an Avatar MMO will gurantee success, Sear. Which is the point of many of our contentions. Star Wars Galaxies and Matrix Online come to mind on MMO's based on box office smashes that haven't done so well.

I will also add, that Avatar may have done really well for itself....there is no disputing that. But will it be a long lasting franchise like Star Wars...or will be a mear foot note in movie history 10 years from now, as James Cameron's other huge box officie smash, Titanic is today? If that's is the case, then Avatar may not be good MMO material to hype a potential game in the long run. Just saying.
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Posted: Apr 28th 2010 2:27PM elocke said

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Number one movie of all time based on what statistic? Money made? Box Office draw? Oscars? Public Opinion? you see it is never stated, the generalization is just thrown out there to make you, the sorry lot who fall for it, but the movie to fill their pockets. Therefore, claiming it is fact is not accurate. I know people who like the movie. I sure don't hear them say its the number one movie of all time.

Oh, and personal opinion will ALWAYS trump facts, why do you think the world is so screwed up? Because the TRUTH hurts!
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Posted: Apr 28th 2010 12:54PM Teki said

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woot for smurfs online!

Posted: Apr 28th 2010 12:15PM tk421242 said

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The Last Dragon....

Whos the Master?!

Posted: Apr 28th 2010 12:21PM Birk said

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While everyone is entitled to their opinion, the popular view of "how avatar sucked" that I keep seeing all over gaming and mmo sites seems unfair to me. Visuals aside, I found the story compelling and original, especially by standards of the drivel that Hollywood is pushing today. Personally, I think Avatar struck a good balance of entertainment and moral critique, but of course that's just my opinion.

As to whether or not the IP would make a good mmo, I say why not? The setting is imaginative enough, but it would really depend on the creative license that the developers put to use. It's a film, after all. Look at LOTRO; the majority of events in that game focus on other things aside from the journey of the ring. Im sure TOR is going to be a result of the creative license that bioware employs; the planets and setting are all that matter.

So before you run screaming through the streets about how the avatar mmo could only ever be a desperate money grab with no depth ( which it very well could be )... Understand that it's up to the developers to shape the content of the game and interpret pandora as THEY want to. And in an industry that survives off the massive capital that investors throw at gaming studios, I'm sure an ip with as much hype as Avatar could bleed a little cash into a well deserving studio that has the ambition and capability of taking the world of pandora and running with it in an innovative way.

When you think about how loosely defined the setting actually is, it's possible to imagine how much creative freedom will be allowed to the deva, as opposed to a strictly defined setting like star wars. Ultimately, the combination of creative freedom and a big budget could result in a genuinely awesome game!

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