@JFink: Remember, despite long months of closed hidden beta on the League system and the trials that use it, dropping something into the live system and having those '42 million characters' dropped into it, is bound to shake the frame of the ship to pieces.
Things WILL get better. They might get worse first, but they WILL get better. This sort of system can't be properly beta tested (other than getting the non-load based defects out of it) as it's the full load it needs to properly work the bugs out of it.
How often was Hami raids, warship raids, rikiti invasions and zombie invasions the source of crashes, graphics lag, server lag, etc? And that's improved leaps, bounds and superspeeds since they were introduced in the way-back-when...
One wonders, if SONY offered anyone that wants their 'money back' over this... how many people would take it? And how many of those takers would be lifetime subscribers...
As to content... it would not surprise me if the developers on sweating bricks right now ANY working like crazy to have their next content update ready to go live as soon as everything is back online and stable.
Oh, and I would totally expect DCUO to have a 'welcome back' period of time where everyone (even people without accounts before) can play the game. Great time to release an extended free trial and get new players into the game as well as old ones back while getting the payment system locked down.
I also would not be surprised if they scrub the system of all credit card info that was previously on file and request 're-registration' including choosing a new password the first time you log in, all in the name of best security practices. The only thing they will likely keep is a record of 'paid for time' + granted free time + grace period.
Of course, I could as easily be widely off base, and it would be the first time for me being that way. I -am- often wrong, after all. :)
I agree with @aurickle and friend because in the real world upgrading to the latest patch 'breaks things' that were NOT broken along the way of correcting things that were broken. So there is usually a lag between release of a patch and installation. That lag is supposedly used to test whether the new patch breaks something you depend on.
In MMO terms, when the new content release comes out, how many times is there some unexpected issue that breaks your favorite power/skill/equipment. Or nerfs things, or suddenly your power build that plowed through the mobs now kills your own party instead.
Those same sorts of issues on a business scale causes 10's of thousands of names and credit card numbers to get out, or your personal health history is dumped onto wikileaks. Even minor 'bugs' that drop Joey Smith's SSN number onto a website by mistake will cost the company a large fine. Multiply that by 100's or 1000's and you have major cost. So companies err on the side of caution. Err too much on the side of caution, and some hacker gets through the holes the patches were meant to fix and BOOM, you are before congress.
Now, if it is proved that Sony or it's contracted outsourced vendor for it's IT and security or network failed to patch known holes merely because of incompetence or outright malfeasance... then SONY -and- said contractors will need to PAY and heads need to roll (not literally, just jobs lost and things put to rights).
Meanwhile, what about the lifetime subscribers to things like DC Online? All they get is the 'hat'. The extra subscription time is meaningless. But then, lifetime subscribers often get the short end of the stick where 'loss of service' or other recompense is concerned.
This all sounds strange. I will admit that I haven't played CO much in the past 6-8 weeks. But I am a 'lifetimer' and play when I get the time.
Isn't there a mechanic in the game called 'equilibrium'. It's the point on the energy bar that you will rebuild energy to when not spending energy. This is WITHOUT your energy builder!
This point on your energy bar is based on your stats. I remember when building my characters in the Powerhouse that if built up my equilibrium. And yes, REC was the one that did the most, but so did the 'primary stats' for whatever framework I selected. So If I chose a Framework that had STR and EGO, then building up my STR, EGO and REC built up my Equilibrium point.
And then there's all those energy drops that mobs were dropping all the time. And the stat boosts from my primary and secondary Utility, Defense and Offense items.
I have no memories of any real pauses in playing the game from lack of energy.
Maybe I need to go back to CO again and see if they have gone and changed something when I wasn't looking and made energy recharging up to the Equilibrium point slower or gone or something... as what you describe doesn't sound like the way it worked when last I was playing regularly.
Forgive me if I buck the trend of the other comments, or at least 1 & 2.
(As an aside, yes, I wish TR had not gone out the way it did, and I feel Lord British gave TR the short end of the stick. AND I expect if he got to do it all again, he'd do the same thing.)
However, despite what he did (or is attributed to him that he did NOT do), he is STILL the Lord British through which Ultima came to us at all. He WAS a person that made things CHANGE in the game world. His accomplishments and contributions to the MMO and RPG and MMORPG worlds can not be denied. (Argued about and disagreed about, but not denied.)
Thank you, Justin, for getting this interview done. And thank you, Lord British for taking the time to answer. No matter what you (Lord British) are today, you were once one of the more worthy persons to look up to in computer gaming of the era. Thank you for being there, and for being someone, at that time, to look up to.
Having been on Facebook and playing Farm Town before Farmville was introduced, I only have one real comment about Robin's article that is in disagreement.
Farm Town is NOT a Farmville clone. Farmville is a Farm Town clone. ;)
When Farmville first 'came out' there was really only a few differences: Cuter (and less 'real') graphics and more crashes. Farmville then 'improved' on the concepts I had seen in Farm Town and started to diverge from there.
As stated above, Farm Town is social INSIDE the game. (with chatting and getting people to work your farm, etc) Farmville is social outside the game, with any interactions (until recently) limited to that seen in the Facebook feeds (the stated spam) and the occasional 'sign post' with someone's comments plunked down in the middle of the place.
Farmville has recently introduced comments/bulletin boards inside the game to further the ability to be social with friends inside the game.
As to all that spam... there is change coming down the pike. Or so all the app makers have been saying, using that as an excuse to want our email addresses and the like so they can spam our emailboxes rather than the Facebook feeds.
And yes, anything with the 'zygna' name on it is going to be generating a LOT of spam. Special events (like collecting Xmas presents, Valentines, or gold) spam the feed with people bragging about how much presents/valentines/gold they have (one message to the feed for every 20 collected), their having more than a neighbor (which if you have a lot of neighbors, can happen a lot), or wanting MORE of the current special items (once per 4 hours or so, sometimes more often) on top of begging to have their crops fertilized and their chickens fed (daily), or begging for construction pieces to build their latest special building (stables, mansion, etc) or expand the building that is also storage (barns, storage sheds, chicken coops, etc)... and then there is spam from wandering 'lost' critters (cats, cattle, horses, and even penguins). It is a MAJOR spam fest of the Facebook feed.
But you can not deny that all this spamming causes some form of social interaction. But the more neighbors/friends you have, the more spam there is to wade through.
My wife LOVES Farmville. I find it interesting to see what sort of things I can build and just to see the game form grow and evolve. Just want sort of beast are these games going to become. They are evolving FAST and FURIOUS. And they are starting to make MONEY. And not just with ad revenue. People pay REAL MONEY to get some of (or more of) the things in the game. And if even only 1 out of 100 people out of the 82.5 million mentioned is paying the $10 for 55 FV Cash in a month ... you do the math! That's MONEY. And lots of it.
Don't be too surprised if you see YOUR favorite MMO company seeing if they can't move their favorite IP into this gamespace.... and perhaps trying to add one or more features of the farming and social game items and playstyles into their game worlds to try to get those people to spend the money on them instead.
Anyone that has read the posts on the Star Trek Online site about where the game's timeline is on the main timeline for the 'Cannon' Star Trek universe, would know that the Game is set 30 years after the 'Nemesis' movie. And that the destruction of the Romulan homeworld that sends 'old Spock' into the past of the 'new' timeline (caused by said time travel by him and Nero) means that 'old Spock' no longer is present in the Star Trek Online's universe. Any appearance of him in STO would have to be caused by a dimension rift with the 'new' timeline allowing him BACK to the 'old' timeline. (Time Travel makes one's brain hurt. Adding in multiple dimensions makes it hurt WORSE.)
Also, that same timeline explanation means that 'new Spock' is not available in the STO universe without a similar dimensional rift.
That's not to say that such a rift CAN'T happen. After all, there are plenty of parallel universe versions of Spock that could show up (Mirror Mirror Spock, for example) that Mr Nimoy or Mr Quinto could voice. And there's always plenty of Time Plots to blame for almost any possibility.
So, despite my pointing out the nature of STO's timeline... it doesn't mean it CAN'T happen, just that without the use of a 'Time' or 'Parallel Dimension' plot, Spock (in whatever appearance) isn't present to appear. Oh... there is another possibility: Perhaps Star Fleet liked the EMH program so much that they made a ESH (Emergency Science Officer Hologram) for when captains prefer their computers interact in a more 'physical manifestation' form... or you could have Q show up, choosing to LOOK like Mr Spock... or... (the list goes on)
Actually, I have had this happen very recently. My AMD 64 3800+ WinXP system with the Nvidia 7950 in it started up the other week with symptoms very similar to the reported 'Black Screen of Death' where you would get to the windows loading screen with the moving line, then the screen would go black and never come back.
In my case what was happening is the monitor was seeing a ceasing of the video signal. And after a forced shut down and reboot I got the text mode screens with distortion lines and corrupted character set displays... the sure signs of video card failure (or maybe just video card memory failure, but as the memory is not socketed or 'consumer replaceable, it amounts to failure of the whole card).
I removed the video card and went back to the on board Nividia chipset (6150 LE) video and it worked fine... then the Sound Blast XiFi started squawking and buzzing... ut-oh... sure signs of PCI bus controller voltage issues that could have been the cause of the Nvidia 7950 failure... so out comes the XiFi as well, and reactivating the onboard sound chipset...
Long story shortened, I decided the system is not reliable and started (and finished) the process of switching the system out for another one that just happened to be waiting in the wings, but had an inferior video card and power supply.
So the end cost was the $130 for the Nvidia GTS 250 I picked up and lots of time testing components to make sure the Power supply from the doomed system was not faulty so as to move it to the 'new' system. But had I not had the 'summer weather downstairs system' to pull into a primary spot, it would have been around $400+ to replace that game system...
I usually have SOMETHING fail on me about every 18 months or so... a printer, a monitor, a hard drive, a video card... something usually goes belly up or releases the magic blue smoke that makes it all work.
Is this a problem with quality control? The fact that some parts are riding the edge of the envelope in tolerance for heat/dust/power flux etc? I really don't know. Of course, in those years where that DOESN'T happen, there's a OS release, or a game release, or something that 'forces' me to upgrade because something has fallen 'behind the times'...
I MMO weeknights from 7pm to around 10pm, mostly. When I can find the time, I also play on the weekends at odd hours, though most often mid-day on both Sat and Sun.
During my upcoming 'vacation', I expect to be on 'weekend hours' all week. :)
My wife plays the same hours I do, plus during the daytime as she is unemployed. Lucky girl. ;) (Lucky about the getting to play during weekday daytime, not the unemployed part... if I were also unemployed neither of us would be able to afford the current games we play and maybe wouldn't have an internet connection any more so the whole question would be moot, then.)
I think the three biggest turnoffs in a new MMO are (in order of importance for ME):
1. Lots of PvP Content (also 'Faction Play') 2. From the makers of 3. Action-Oriented 4. Free-to-Play/Micro-Transaction Based
#1 because I am into the MMO's for Co-opertive play, and I will openly admit that I don't enjoy being Ganked or otherwise stalked by my fellow players while questing for something that doesn't even ENVOLVE them.
Example of #1: Mostly EVE as the worst example. But World of Warcraft comes into this two unless you stay away from some of the content.
#2 because the mentality of the asian MMO/online game market is very, very, very different from the way the 'western' culture handles things. This includes 'click to move' as that is a very, very basic requirement of many of those games due to the cybercafe style of play in that part of the world.
Example of #2: Linage. There's a locked in style of play to these games. If you want to play the healer, you are locked in to playing a specific looking character, usually female, and usually she automatically doesn't get along with one of the other four. The designers of the game often determine everything about your character, not you, the player. I know I am over simplifying here, but I am just trying for the general idea.
#3 because it usually means things are going way too fast for an old stodgy codger like myself. I am getting old. I can't twitch and jump and do a lot of the funky moves of the 'action oriented' game, and the 13-year-old over in the corner is going to start the game after I have been playing in for months and in a WEEK he is going to be at the level cap.
Example for #3: Sad to say it: Champions Online. They have worked so hard to make sure things are always going on, that they seem to have forgotten about the player's character sometimes. The action in a zone is often totally ignoring the player. Worst example is the Canada choice after 'you' stop the invasion in the city. There's a open mission that spawns zombies in the center of the base, right next to where newbies HAVE to go to get their first new powers and travel power. And those zombies will attack and defeat many newbies that don't yet know what is going on before they can even get those new powers. And then the toon respawns either back up where they entered the zone, or right nearby and the zombies will attack them again! This comes from the attempt to give an 'action' feel to the game, and bad design.
In trying to make things Action-Oriented, they often make game design choices that seem to forget the player is there.
#4 because USUALLY it means, especially when combined with any two of the others, that you can sorta kinda play the game without paying anything, but the FACT is that to properly play the game you are going to have to pay through the nose and keep paying.
Example of #4: Perfect World International. It's free to play. It's rather good looking in the graphics department. And you can actually PLAY the game quite a while without paying a dime. However, you will really NEED to pay for more bank space, more pack space, more and better items, especially if you solo. Oh, and if you want to travel anywhere with any really rate of speed... well, for that you either have to GRIND through majorly tough instances which are really only possible with a group, or pay more real money for a good flying mount.
The Latest Free-to-Play Faction-Based Action-Oriented MMO from the award winning makers of Linage would make me cringe. I might still play it for a couple of weeks, but I would likely never stick with it.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Seven years in the city, part two
May 5th 2011 5:50PM (Massively)Things WILL get better. They might get worse first, but they WILL get better. This sort of system can't be properly beta tested (other than getting the non-load based defects out of it) as it's the full load it needs to properly work the bugs out of it.
How often was Hami raids, warship raids, rikiti invasions and zombie invasions the source of crashes, graphics lag, server lag, etc? And that's improved leaps, bounds and superspeeds since they were introduced in the way-back-when...
DC Universe Online players getting a new mask as a consolation prize
May 5th 2011 5:32PM (Massively)As to content... it would not surprise me if the developers on sweating bricks right now ANY working like crazy to have their next content update ready to go live as soon as everything is back online and stable.
Oh, and I would totally expect DCUO to have a 'welcome back' period of time where everyone (even people without accounts before) can play the game. Great time to release an extended free trial and get new players into the game as well as old ones back while getting the payment system locked down.
I also would not be surprised if they scrub the system of all credit card info that was previously on file and request 're-registration' including choosing a new password the first time you log in, all in the name of best security practices. The only thing they will likely keep is a record of 'paid for time' + granted free time + grace period.
Of course, I could as easily be widely off base, and it would be the first time for me being that way. I -am- often wrong, after all. :)
Expert says Sony knew of PSN security weakness
May 5th 2011 5:20PM (Massively)In MMO terms, when the new content release comes out, how many times is there some unexpected issue that breaks your favorite power/skill/equipment. Or nerfs things, or suddenly your power build that plowed through the mobs now kills your own party instead.
Those same sorts of issues on a business scale causes 10's of thousands of names and credit card numbers to get out, or your personal health history is dumped onto wikileaks. Even minor 'bugs' that drop Joey Smith's SSN number onto a website by mistake will cost the company a large fine. Multiply that by 100's or 1000's and you have major cost. So companies err on the side of caution. Err too much on the side of caution, and some hacker gets through the holes the patches were meant to fix and BOOM, you are before congress.
Now, if it is proved that Sony or it's contracted outsourced vendor for it's IT and security or network failed to patch known holes merely because of incompetence or outright malfeasance... then SONY -and- said contractors will need to PAY and heads need to roll (not literally, just jobs lost and things put to rights).
Meanwhile, what about the lifetime subscribers to things like DC Online? All they get is the 'hat'. The extra subscription time is meaningless. But then, lifetime subscribers often get the short end of the stick where 'loss of service' or other recompense is concerned.
Behind the Mask: Pushing buttons is fun
Jul 16th 2010 5:45PM (Massively)Isn't there a mechanic in the game called 'equilibrium'. It's the point on the energy bar that you will rebuild energy to when not spending energy. This is WITHOUT your energy builder!
(The game manual reference for this is http://www.champions-online.com/manual#equilibrium )
This point on your energy bar is based on your stats. I remember when building my characters in the Powerhouse that if built up my equilibrium. And yes, REC was the one that did the most, but so did the 'primary stats' for whatever framework I selected. So If I chose a Framework that had STR and EGO, then building up my STR, EGO and REC built up my Equilibrium point.
And then there's all those energy drops that mobs were dropping all the time. And the stat boosts from my primary and secondary Utility, Defense and Offense items.
I have no memories of any real pauses in playing the game from lack of energy.
Maybe I need to go back to CO again and see if they have gone and changed something when I wasn't looking and made energy recharging up to the Equilibrium point slower or gone or something... as what you describe doesn't sound like the way it worked when last I was playing regularly.
The Game Archaeologist and the Ultima Prize: Richard Garriott
May 18th 2010 1:07PM (Massively)(As an aside, yes, I wish TR had not gone out the way it did, and I feel Lord British gave TR the short end of the stick. AND I expect if he got to do it all again, he'd do the same thing.)
However, despite what he did (or is attributed to him that he did NOT do), he is STILL the Lord British through which Ultima came to us at all. He WAS a person that made things CHANGE in the game world. His accomplishments and contributions to the MMO and RPG and MMORPG worlds can not be denied. (Argued about and disagreed about, but not denied.)
Thank you, Justin, for getting this interview done. And thank you, Lord British for taking the time to answer. No matter what you (Lord British) are today, you were once one of the more worthy persons to look up to in computer gaming of the era. Thank you for being there, and for being someone, at that time, to look up to.
The Fringe: Farming games
Mar 22nd 2010 1:11PM (Massively)Farm Town is NOT a Farmville clone. Farmville is a Farm Town clone. ;)
When Farmville first 'came out' there was really only a few differences: Cuter (and less 'real') graphics and more crashes. Farmville then 'improved' on the concepts I had seen in Farm Town and started to diverge from there.
As stated above, Farm Town is social INSIDE the game. (with chatting and getting people to work your farm, etc) Farmville is social outside the game, with any interactions (until recently) limited to that seen in the Facebook feeds (the stated spam) and the occasional 'sign post' with someone's comments plunked down in the middle of the place.
Farmville has recently introduced comments/bulletin boards inside the game to further the ability to be social with friends inside the game.
As to all that spam... there is change coming down the pike. Or so all the app makers have been saying, using that as an excuse to want our email addresses and the like so they can spam our emailboxes rather than the Facebook feeds.
And yes, anything with the 'zygna' name on it is going to be generating a LOT of spam. Special events (like collecting Xmas presents, Valentines, or gold) spam the feed with people bragging about how much presents/valentines/gold they have (one message to the feed for every 20 collected), their having more than a neighbor (which if you have a lot of neighbors, can happen a lot), or wanting MORE of the current special items (once per 4 hours or so, sometimes more often) on top of begging to have their crops fertilized and their chickens fed (daily), or begging for construction pieces to build their latest special building (stables, mansion, etc) or expand the building that is also storage (barns, storage sheds, chicken coops, etc)... and then there is spam from wandering 'lost' critters (cats, cattle, horses, and even penguins). It is a MAJOR spam fest of the Facebook feed.
But you can not deny that all this spamming causes some form of social interaction. But the more neighbors/friends you have, the more spam there is to wade through.
My wife LOVES Farmville. I find it interesting to see what sort of things I can build and just to see the game form grow and evolve. Just want sort of beast are these games going to become. They are evolving FAST and FURIOUS. And they are starting to make MONEY. And not just with ad revenue. People pay REAL MONEY to get some of (or more of) the things in the game. And if even only 1 out of 100 people out of the 82.5 million mentioned is paying the $10 for 55 FV Cash in a month ... you do the math! That's MONEY. And lots of it.
Don't be too surprised if you see YOUR favorite MMO company seeing if they can't move their favorite IP into this gamespace.... and perhaps trying to add one or more features of the farming and social game items and playstyles into their game worlds to try to get those people to spend the money on them instead.
Leonard Nimoy lending deep, soothing voice to Star Trek Online
Dec 22nd 2009 5:56PM (Joystiq)Also, that same timeline explanation means that 'new Spock' is not available in the STO universe without a similar dimensional rift.
That's not to say that such a rift CAN'T happen. After all, there are plenty of parallel universe versions of Spock that could show up (Mirror Mirror Spock, for example) that Mr Nimoy or Mr Quinto could voice. And there's always plenty of Time Plots to blame for almost any possibility.
So, despite my pointing out the nature of STO's timeline... it doesn't mean it CAN'T happen, just that without the use of a 'Time' or 'Parallel Dimension' plot, Spock (in whatever appearance) isn't present to appear. Oh... there is another possibility: Perhaps Star Fleet liked the EMH program so much that they made a ESH (Emergency Science Officer Hologram) for when captains prefer their computers interact in a more 'physical manifestation' form... or you could have Q show up, choosing to LOOK like Mr Spock... or... (the list goes on)
The Daily Grind: Here comes your nineteenth system meltdown
Dec 14th 2009 6:13PM (Massively)My AMD 64 3800+ WinXP system with the Nvidia 7950 in it started up the other week with symptoms very similar to the reported 'Black Screen of Death' where you would get to the windows loading screen with the moving line, then the screen would go black and never come back.
In my case what was happening is the monitor was seeing a ceasing of the video signal. And after a forced shut down and reboot I got the text mode screens with distortion lines and corrupted character set displays... the sure signs of video card failure (or maybe just video card memory failure, but as the memory is not socketed or 'consumer replaceable, it amounts to failure of the whole card).
I removed the video card and went back to the on board Nividia chipset (6150 LE) video and it worked fine... then the Sound Blast XiFi started squawking and buzzing... ut-oh... sure signs of PCI bus controller voltage issues that could have been the cause of the Nvidia 7950 failure... so out comes the XiFi as well, and reactivating the onboard sound chipset...
Long story shortened, I decided the system is not reliable and started (and finished) the process of switching the system out for another one that just happened to be waiting in the wings, but had an inferior video card and power supply.
So the end cost was the $130 for the Nvidia GTS 250 I picked up and lots of time testing components to make sure the Power supply from the doomed system was not faulty so as to move it to the 'new' system. But had I not had the 'summer weather downstairs system' to pull into a primary spot, it would have been around $400+ to replace that game system...
I usually have SOMETHING fail on me about every 18 months or so... a printer, a monitor, a hard drive, a video card... something usually goes belly up or releases the magic blue smoke that makes it all work.
Is this a problem with quality control? The fact that some parts are riding the edge of the envelope in tolerance for heat/dust/power flux etc? I really don't know. Of course, in those years where that DOESN'T happen, there's a OS release, or a game release, or something that 'forces' me to upgrade because something has fallen 'behind the times'...
Entropy Loves Us!
The Daily Grind: When's your MMO time?
Nov 17th 2009 5:29PM (Massively)When I can find the time, I also play on the weekends at odd hours, though most often mid-day on both Sat and Sun.
During my upcoming 'vacation', I expect to be on 'weekend hours' all week. :)
My wife plays the same hours I do, plus during the daytime as she is unemployed. Lucky girl. ;) (Lucky about the getting to play during weekday daytime, not the unemployed part... if I were also unemployed neither of us would be able to afford the current games we play and maybe wouldn't have an internet connection any more so the whole question would be moot, then.)
The Daily Grind: What kills your confidence in a game before you play it?
Nov 2nd 2009 3:23PM (Massively)1. Lots of PvP Content (also 'Faction Play')
2. From the makers of
3. Action-Oriented
4. Free-to-Play/Micro-Transaction Based
#1 because I am into the MMO's for Co-opertive play, and I will openly admit that I don't enjoy being Ganked or otherwise stalked by my fellow players while questing for something that doesn't even ENVOLVE them.
Example of #1: Mostly EVE as the worst example. But World of Warcraft comes into this two unless you stay away from some of the content.
#2 because the mentality of the asian MMO/online game market is very, very, very different from the way the 'western' culture handles things. This includes 'click to move' as that is a very, very basic requirement of many of those games due to the cybercafe style of play in that part of the world.
Example of #2: Linage. There's a locked in style of play to these games. If you want to play the healer, you are locked in to playing a specific looking character, usually female, and usually she automatically doesn't get along with one of the other four. The designers of the game often determine everything about your character, not you, the player. I know I am over simplifying here, but I am just trying for the general idea.
#3 because it usually means things are going way too fast for an old stodgy codger like myself. I am getting old. I can't twitch and jump and do a lot of the funky moves of the 'action oriented' game, and the 13-year-old over in the corner is going to start the game after I have been playing in for months and in a WEEK he is going to be at the level cap.
Example for #3: Sad to say it: Champions Online. They have worked so hard to make sure things are always going on, that they seem to have forgotten about the player's character sometimes. The action in a zone is often totally ignoring the player. Worst example is the Canada choice after 'you' stop the invasion in the city. There's a open mission that spawns zombies in the center of the base, right next to where newbies HAVE to go to get their first new powers and travel power. And those zombies will attack and defeat many newbies that don't yet know what is going on before they can even get those new powers. And then the toon respawns either back up where they entered the zone, or right nearby and the zombies will attack them again! This comes from the attempt to give an 'action' feel to the game, and bad design.
In trying to make things Action-Oriented, they often make game design choices that seem to forget the player is there.
#4 because USUALLY it means, especially when combined with any two of the others, that you can sorta kinda play the game without paying anything, but the FACT is that to properly play the game you are going to have to pay through the nose and keep paying.
Example of #4: Perfect World International. It's free to play. It's rather good looking in the graphics department. And you can actually PLAY the game quite a while without paying a dime. However, you will really NEED to pay for more bank space, more pack space, more and better items, especially if you solo. Oh, and if you want to travel anywhere with any really rate of speed... well, for that you either have to GRIND through majorly tough instances which are really only possible with a group, or pay more real money for a good flying mount.
The Latest Free-to-Play Faction-Based Action-Oriented MMO from the award winning makers of Linage would make me cringe. I might still play it for a couple of weeks, but I would likely never stick with it.
Okay, that's enough for my rant on this subject.