Arabica

Laying it the problem as the feet of "Kids + mortgage + job = less time to play" is disengenuous. It was easy to make more gold in WoW than you need. It is easy to make mroe gold in Warhammer than you need. The problem comes when people decide that they want to play on a certain level and that kind of commitment simply cannot be met with their schedule. Buying gold and botting are ways to *think* that you can keep up with people who play all day and raid all night...but you can't. The solution is not to try to play an MMO above the level that you can reasonably commit to.

Hey, we've all been there. We've all wanted to play WoW, Counter-Strike, Starcraft, or whatever your game is at the next level. You get to thinking that a lot more time, a little more practice, or a little more gold and that dude what wtfpwned you won't be the one doing the pwning. You're just never going to win that battle because there will always be someone else who is even more skilled or better geared and if YOU are that person who has sacrificed everything to get to that point then you find that it's simply not sustainable.

Good selling is a lie. Botting is a lie. Fitting in a few Counter-Strike matches before you head to work is a lie. Just play to have fun.

To piggy-back on what djpostman1 said, for better or for worse, MMO players have become savvy enough to know when all avenues of communication and improvement are being exhausted. Gamers have come a long way from accepting the idea of "Blue" coming into a forum to critique a piece of fan-fiction while exploits are the norm in PVP.

Developers and community managers might have thought it was absurd to give daily updates as to the state of the game and what is being down to alleviate player issues...but what does it really take to post once per day? Some players are hustling to produce add-ons and provide tech support to pretty much everyone that needs it. I have seen some community managers posting in forums and e-mailing players directly while away from the office...much in the way that "normal" people spend the weekend in the office or give clients their personal numbers because we genuinely care.

It's a new day. Hopefully Funcom can find the time to continue communicating as djpostman1 alluded to. Going an entire year without seeing a Blizzard employee post anything of significance in the Hunter forum might just end up being an old joke that has no basis in reality anymore.

Phobic,
As much as I loathe this term, those people are "Fanboys". If you like a game that they don't, well then you suck. If they like a game and it just doesn't happen to be your cup of tea, well then you suck.

The truly hilarious part is that all of these people:
- Will be dwelling on Funcom for years to come because they have nothing else to do
- Will bail from game after game when they get done overhyping it/sucking the life out of it and rappel into WarhammerAlliance screaming that, "MYTHIC DOESN'T LISTEN TO ITS CUSTOMRERSR!!!1shift-one!!1!"
- Will swear at the top of their lungs that whatever the next MMO over the horizon will be perfect. You know...because it's hard to disappoint people when the MMO only exists in euphoric dreams(read: Darkfall). Once the game is released the cycle will repeat itself.

People like "david" aren't gamers. Games are just strawmen they can build up and then knockdown. The same type of person could just as well like sports, movie stars, or any other hobby that allows them to build something up on a forum and then tear it all down.

Why? David gets to attach himself to something as it rises...and then curb stomp it. It's probably a gratifying experience for him.

Mark Jacobs reaffirms my belief that:

A. Games don't necessarily need official forums, but there needs to be at least one centralized source of official information and that source needs to be on top of shit.

B. Anyone who has interaction with customers needs to be informed to an almost super-human level and there termperment should be better than that of your average forum troll. Flipping out is not an option.

Mark Jacobs is, sad to say, in violation of that last part. I can understand why he wants to lash out and defend his folks...but you just don't do that. This is not the first time either. He has shown a consistent willingness to get down into the pit and throw elbows with customers over harsh things that were said. When you engage your player base on that level then everyone loses. Whatever it was that he did want to communicate when the thread was started is now lost in a sea of flames and drama. The people that wanted to be informed lose. The people that wanted civility lose.

Welcome to the internet Mark. Thanks for being just another forum troll. No, having a title doesn't make you any different.

Take a look at Lineage 2. It was released four years ago and it still looks amazing. NCsoft has never had a problem ponying up the art. The issues come from them being asleep at the wheel for after the game is released. In L2 class balance is a joke, bots run rampant in almost every hunting ground. Ebay and powerleveling services are the so out in the open that NCsoft doesn't even try to keep up the pretences that they are still actively combating those issues.

My entire time in WoW(just over a year) I saw three bots out in the open. L2? Bot groups run almost every room in Catacombs/Necropolises(sought after hunting areas). It's a fun game and I am sure that Aion will be, but NCsoft has shown itself to be capable of producing a modern AAA MMO...but wholly unable to manage one.

I love AoC' graphics, but the MMO gaming community seems to love the idea of using 6 year old PC's even though a lot of people seem to spend 12 hours a day at them. So I *like* AoC visuals, but I *understand* why MMO's go the WoW route.

"[...]and it's not full of farmers and 'spoiters"

This is NCsoft we're talking about. The game will have bot trains set up before the servers go live.

I have to agree. While it would be cool to see more developers push the limits of home computing technology the artist has more to do with the overall look and subsequent feel of the game than polygon count ever will.

A little off topic, but since this shows MMO staff at work:
The video was lots of fun, but rverytime I hear about how hard developers work I kind of chuckle a little. A lot of people working in QA, game development, customer support, and administration keep some ridiculous hours but the way a lot of them tell it, that goes for the entire industry. Right. Sure.

Some of the weirdest experiences I've had while playing MMO's is during the realization that the staff behind some titles are either all gone during some hours or even days at a time. On the other hand you can open a ticket to get something resolved and you're talking to a CSR that you know damn well hasn't left the office in at least 2 days and they got your e-mail because all support e-mail is forwarded to their PDA.

Hustle is personal. Subscribers can tell who is going to the mat to hold things down. No one HAS to work like that, but it's easy to tell who is and who isn't.

As opposed to every developer simply adopting the auto-attack model and not trying to innovate away from it?

Genius.

Funcom had decent ideas when they tried to inject some life and interesting wrinkles into a traditional attack system that has been a crutch for MMO's of all shape and size. If someone else thinks that they can do it better then by all means they should give it a shot. To dismiss the idea in its entirety simply on face value is ludicrous especially considering how little innovation takes place in the MMO medium and how few titles have actually tried to expand beyond, "I hit attack button. My toon attacks. Mob takes damage. My toon attacks. Mob takes damage. My toon attacks. Mob takes damage. I use a "special". Mob takes damage. My toon attacks. Mob takes damage. My toon attacks. Mob takes damage. The mob dies."

All of "THIS"? As opposed to the industry stamping out WoW clones?