gurgi said:
Impressions from those that have actually played it say the game is very accessable, and has good flow. As opposed to camping spiders/snakes or worms/bees for hours on end in the same place, you move around. People that have quests for you have big exclamation points above thier heads.. lots of stuff to do in different places.. stuff that moves you around the world and rewards you with items.
Which DAoC tried from the beginning to promote as well. (A steadily lowering "camp bonus" which makes moving around worth more XP than squatting one location.) Without utterly fundamental differences, though, (like enormous-distance respawn areas and programming to not pop near people, sprinkled with slow respawn times) there will ALWAYS be places where camping is more worthwhile. And most alternatives will carry incedental impact elsewhere as well. SWG, in fact, has much more "wandering hunts" with little being static. You can always find "stuff" and you can generally find certain creatures in certain areas, but you deplete areas and have to move on. People have their own dislikes of that as well. Just how WoW implements it in general is unknown.
Questing in almost EVERY game makes you travel long distances. The questions for them are "who can get them and when" and "is the time spent worth the reward"? Every game has various levels of success, and lots of quests get "burned out" over time--being useful when the game is fresh and new, but not worth it as the game matures. (More of the reward item is on the market, better items are available, cash rewards get out of proportion to the economy or are supplanted by better options later on...) Most of the time it's hit-or-miss. DAoC had many solid quests (and many unbalanced ones or producing useless results), but many have been utterly supplanted by spellcrafting and new drops. I think the main problem is that the games just don't take the time to update THEM as the game changes. They add more and ignore the previous.
IMHO I'd like to see a game with at least a good set of quests that are less static (not just "targets can pop in random locations" like SWG), and rewards that can take on various forms and be more personalized (not just "class geared" like DAoC's). And most importantly a system that can be adjusted over time as the game matures so that people won't feel that quests USED to be good but shrug them off in the future except for a few stand-out ones. I don't advise one system take over EVERYTHING, though--but there's plenty of room for variety in MMORPG's. Much more than other games.
gurgi said:
Instancing, while maybe not liked by old skool mmorpgers, is a great idea IMO. I am so sick of competing for mobs for a chance for some lame quest item to drop. Instances create an instance of a dungeon just for your party.. you aren't pressured by any other players, you have privacy. But at the same time.. plenty of the world and dungeons AREN't instanced to still allow for meeting new people.
Instancing
can be good. It was one of the biggest new concepts AO brought to the table, and SWG has shades of it (missions that don't exist until you get close enough to them and don't have static spawns). Instancing, depending on how leaned upon, can also be BAD. I found AO to be a HORRIBLY under-socialized game, since soloing was easy and popping random missions was basically "the way to hunt" after newbieville. I would only meet and interact with people in cities when shopping, really. You know when I'd actually be able to meet others in the field, finding pick-up hunting groups... around the static dungeons when they added them. Popular hunting grounds. ^_^ (And on top of that, specific level ranges so you're meeting people you can hunt with in general.) Nearly everyone I met in DAoC and eventually guilded with I met while on the hunt in dungeons. The world is not just filled with people "competing for X drop" but also people hunting near each other for mutual support, forming larger groups to go deeper and try more, rushing to the aid of others and to defeat the enemy (Darkness Falls could be GREAT fun with that)...
Instancing
can also be detrimental. Just how much focus and importance it has can be harmful to a MMORPG as it was in AO. It'll take more experimentation to determine how to balance them well can gain the
advantages of it without severe disadvantages. Both WoW and EQ2 are going to be experimenting with it (EQ2 mentioning wanting to try "scripting" and dramatic events that can reshape where you are, which couldn't be done except by instancing--which at least sounds interesting in concept), so we'll see how their attempts go. Not a new development though, and not something to be "excited" about by itself.
gurgi said:
I also REALLY like the idea of alliance vs horde. The idea that certain areas in the game are A v H, and that huge battles could take place is so awesome to me. Not only should there be good PVP (though limited to pvp areas) there should be some good strategy on an army level.
Been very little said about it so far. And I have no idea how this would be fundamentally different or better than DAoC Realm combat. (Or even Shadowbane's, since it pushes large-scale city sieges.) Considering what we've seen so far, the important thing is not "that it's there," but "that it doesn't get trivialized" in one form or another. (Not being worthwhile after the newness wears off, affected by hideous bugs [like Shadowbane's "stacking"]...)
gurgi said:
I do have one worry (though I shouldn't, knowing blizzard).. and that is teamplay. I've been really impressed by FFXI in this regard.. the way skills and magic chain. I hope WoW and other future MMORPG's learn from this. A games MECHANICS need to be fun, the PROCESS of becomming uber.. not being uber itself. And one of the ways that is accomplished IMO is through well thought out team mechanics.
Indeed, chaining, and "new abilities/experiences/XP itself" for merit of skillfully hunting with others is something I hope catches on, instead of "more people = kill more/bigger stuff, get more/better XP/loot." Certainly effective class combinations have existed over time, but nothing that a character doesn't do ALL the time by themselves--just better in conjunction with others. But unique abilities gained only WHEN hunting with others... Certainly lends more appeal and more options when hunting in general.
Basically, though, it's the same as always. I look forward to WoW the same way I do every other MMO to come along, pretty much. There's just an utter fervor surrounding it from SO many people that I can't attribute to any of its proposals. (Sea combat...? Ooook. I mean it's good that games since EQ are finally
doing something in water aside from swimming, but...) Proof comes through implementation--and
full proof pretty much ONLY comes after launch, as no beta can fully read what hundreds of thousands of frenzied gamers can pull off.
