Schtix

"In restructuring the development team, GamersFirst reduced the number of developers by 90% to make it more agile..."

I'm not sure how nearly completely dissolving a dev team makes it more agile. At least, the said outcome certainly doesn't follow the action without evidence. Having people working more than one job doesn't necessarily mean you have a more agile work force. =/

Companies really need to ditch the idea of making mobile gaming platforms, I think. Nintendo and Sony have their products out there, and I just don't think consumers are -craving- for anything new or more, especially when it's so difficult to get handheld machines to even begin to compare to the average desktop (or laptop, really.)

Will be interesting to see how many units this thing sells though, when it comes out...three or four years from now?

This is a game I'll definitely be giving a try once free trials start coming around. I've bounced between AoC, EVE, WoW, and made forays into tons of other MMOs in-between. My main fear is that I'm a gamer who really loves classes, and from this article I almost feel like I can be anything whenever I want. That's not necessarily a negative thing, but for someone who really likes classes with distinct lines, it is.

I'm not really a fan of Asian games either, just because I normally don't catch on with the characters or gameplay (lots tend to be grindier than western MMOs, it seems), but with FF XIV coming out, I feel like its my best opportunity to try one out when it'll be most active. ^^

If people want the MM out of MMORPG, who's to stop them?

Certainly not Guild Wars. Obviously there's arguments for practicality, but I prefer the argument that the point of MMORPGs is that you're playing a game with people. I think Blizzard's way of cross-server grouping and PvPing is the better alternative to having NPCs follow you around. Or, in EVE, it's one massive server, so someone is -always- online.

In the end, players that value experiencing the game with other players the most will go for that, and players that value convenience or whatever their reasoning, will go for that if the option is available. Whatever's the more rewarding experience I guess.

Also sir, that was hardly trolling. ;P

I thought last week's Massively podcast said it wasn't coming out in 2011. Maybe it was fiscal year 2011 instead?

Oh well.

You know, learning about the game is cool and all, and I don't mean to bash anyone or anything, but since SWTOR isn't coming out in 2010 or 2011...who cares? :x

Right now is definitely the time to try the game if you played at launch and then quit, or just want to give it a shot. I've seen a lot of grouping in leveling areas, and there's obviously a lot of activity in Khitai. Everyone's pretty well-natured, if not a bit blood thirsty on PvP servers. But that's good. :)

There are lots of technical issues and Funcom is definitely still figuring out how to implement alternate advancement. But coming from a player who experiences soul-crushing lag and client crashes on a daily basis, I can still oddly enough say it's very much worth it. You just have to really be into what makes AoC different.

Good article, as I thought for the most part it was very accurate about what's been going on in AoC lately.

Jusk has it. The issue is apparently only with EU servers, so NA players are unable to play because...(?)

Anyone who's played enough MMOs knows not to expect a game to be functional on patch day, and definitely not on an expansion day. Hopefully things get going later tonight so we can at least look at character creation or some such. ;)

Curious as to why the patching server(s?) is down though. Seems like one thing Funcom could do to lighten the load on their system is to let people download throughout the day, rather than storm it as soon as it's opened.