Overlord

One of the best articles I have read on Massively. Excellent points that show the MMO genre's history and offer a sensible suggestion for the future.

I've seen the arguments and conflicting opinions about what defines a casual player on forums. It does make sense for all of us to just agree that the term casual is an obsolete term that should be abandoned.

One point should have brought up was that the group of players who wanted to play MMOs without all that insanity were actually the vast majority of gamers. Old school MMOs were a small, niche market that may have gathered thousands of players, but it was still in an era when other game genres were bringing in millions.

The player market that WoW tapped was always there, gamers avoided those early MMOs for exactly the reasons brought up in this article. Now the MMO genre has evolved to offer different games where a broader range of players can enjoy them, thus rendering old-school terms as out-of-date as the subscription model is becoming.

Aside from playing for the fun of it, my carrots are generally exploration and storylines, not so much gear. I sometimes go for one or two items that catch my eye but I never care about full sets or such.

I wonder if ArenaNet has left out leaderboards and titles for PvE content to keep people from rushing through it for the 'server-first' BS that shows up in gear-based MMOs. That seems like the kind of gameplay they don't want to encourage so that might be why dungeons rewards are being kept as skins.

I have to say Funcom has improvedtheir monster designs. They've been pretty poor IMO but it seems like they're getting the idea of how to do horror mobs now.

It's nice that they are offering permanent in-game items like the pets unlike Guild Wars 2 which only offers temporary buffs or abilities with their pre-purchase/pre-orders. Knowing you'll have something you can see in the game down the road is really a big draw.

But I'm not sure I would ever dish out for a life-time subscription on a new MMO. Too much uncertainty regarding games that were supposed to be hits (Garriott's Tabula Rasa anyone?)

@dlambert2 - An MMO is more than just the game, it's the company too. It's about how that company treats and supports their community. CCP has made their choice on how they want their community to be.

I respect your decision to no longer support CCP because of that. If only more EVE players would do the same rather than make excuses then perhaps the reputation that surrounds the EVE community might change.

@KDolo A very good question.

It is nice to hear, however, to hear an EVE vet admit that it is a niche game. By definition, niche means that the game is unappealing to most but the EVE community just can't seem to accept that. We constantly see these articles and doomed efforts to get more people to play. These are really just veiled insults implying everyone else can't understand what they're missing.

Most people don't want to play EVE, most people wouldn't have fun in EVE. Once EVE players figure that out and stop insulting the intelligence of their friends and other people who choose to avoid the game, the better off we'll all be.

@Mr Blunt - Thank you for so eloquently proving my points. You are indeed a perfect example of the kind of player who would find EVE appealing. Enjoy your pew pew.

All the excuses in the world won't change that EVE has been judged by the gaming market. It is getting old hearing about what all of the rest of us are missing. We are missing nothing.

We just have higher standards.

So this wasn't an April Fool's joke?

It really isn't a surprise, this kind of BS from Mittens fits exactly in line with his actions. Massively's coverage was netiher unjustified or unfair. Mittens just continues to show his true colors with his reactions.

And EVE players wonder why they get the reputation they have. It doesn't matter if you think you're decent person, you are choosing to play a game where this kind of behavior is not only tolerated but encouraged. You have chosen to pay CCP money to foster this kind of immature and repugnant behavior.

The only ones who can change this is the EVE community. You need to decide if you're going to support a company that will give a one year ban to somone for illegally buying ISK and only 30 days when someone tries to get another person to kill themselves *in real life*.

CCP supposedly listens to their community. If that community wants to rise above the toxic reputation that surrounds them, they need to take the effort and let their voices be heard.

And if that community doesn't think this is worth the effort, then the rest of the gaming world will decide what kind of reputation they should have.

@Plastic The sad thing is that we honestly do not know. This kind of harassing behavior seems precisely in line with what started the entire thing.

If it is a joke, kudos to Massively for so expertly tailoring it. I'll come back Monday and hopefully this will all be a good laugh.

I'm disappointed to hear this, I would have liked to see a Warhammer 40K MMO. Ah well.

This game continues to keep my interest. It looks very promising.

I'm particularly excited about the vehicle combat. I gave up on World of Tanks and it looks like PS2 might be able to help fill that lol