Brenda Holloway

I've been reliably informed by people I respect that MMOs need public quests, open groups, an even leveling path to max level, battleground queues that work from everywhere, low or non-existent traveling times and impact PvP.

Also, they must nerf warlocks.

Can LOVE handle the minimum requirements for new MMOs?

I just thought more people would know about Secret of Mana. But yes, Legend of Mana, with its higher resolution, definitely is more similar to Pi Story in its art style.

Maybe you guys should get together :P

I believe that, similarly with Runes of Magic, that Frogster is handling the finding of a publisher for TCoS. Yes, I've heard they HAVE one... but who is it? My guess is Outspark, but I have no information.

Bards 4 EVER!

80 Troubadour, EQ2
38 Hyb bard, DAoC
35? Alb miinstrel, DAoC
30 Bard, FFXI Online
27 Bard, EQ

Um, how can Asda Story be especially strong among female gamers with only 20% of the player base?

As far as we're aware, there is no NDA covering Project Powder, so you should feel free to say what you like about it. We here are also in the Project Powder closed beta test, and it truly is an amazing game. Unfortunately, now that we have played it for awhile, we're not sure whether or not it really counts as an MMO -- lobby-based racing games with no persistent world don't really match our definition of MMO.

That said, we're having a whole bunch of fun with it. MMO or not, it's a very cool game. The fact that you only rent the gear you buy with the money you earn racing, and don't get to keep it past a week or a month, kind of gives us pause.

... now brown cow?

Well, let's look at the facts. Flash is a closed source application with varying support on different platforms, specifically, Linux. Silverlight has an open source implementation on Linux called Mono. Flash - closed source. Mono - open source. As a Linux user, I tend to prefer the free and open source implementations -- even if they are from Microsoft.

I only use Windows to play games :P

I dunno why everyone keeps saying about MMOs that they require leveling. RAIDING usually requires leveling, but just playing the game does not. There's lots of social stuff to do. Crafting doesn't require leveling (well, in WoW it does... weird...) Putting on player events like the recent Festival of Unity in EQ2 doesn't require leveling. In my EQ guild, we have frozen leveling at level 52, and trust me, we are keeping busy. Keeping low level ensures new people are always welcome, nothing is rushed past, everyone moves together. (Well, you can't turn off xp in WoW).

I read about AoC's "250 hours to max level!" announcement with disgust. MMOs were never meant to be single player games, with an end point. The notion that the levels from 1 to (n-1) are just barriers keeping you from the real game that exists at level (n) is an unfortunate one, and is part of why Loral in the OP is so very wrong. He isn't talking about what improvements to EQ he would like to see, he is trying to think of what he would need to be lured back to EQ, a game he really doesn't want to play anymore. And so he concludes that because he has moved on -- to D&D 4e -- that it is time for everyone else to move on as well, because the people who enjoy EQ are having fun the WRONG WAY.

When I quit EQ the first time, it was because I was really and thoroughly tired of the game. I figured nothing could ever bring me back to EQ. A couple of years later, I'm back, I brought a lot of friends with me, and I no longer buy into the poison mindset that leveling to level (n) and raiding is the optimal way to play EQ or ANY MMO.