VirginWorlds MMORPG News Host: Brent VirginWorlds is a weekly news podcast covering Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Eve Online, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online and many many more. The VirginWorlds MMORPG Podcast is the flagship podcast of the VirginWorlds MMO Podcast Collective found at http://www.virginworlds.com
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For once, there's nothing special going on and
we have a normal news show. The MMO news this week is not voluminous,
but it is rather interesting. Here is podcast 66. Prepare for a deep
dive today.
Anarchy Online turns 6
Blizzard is building something(s)
EVE Online's Technology
EverQuest II PvP Servers Merge
E for All - Is it really for all?
Lineage 3 heist
Star Wars Galaxies demolition day
Warhammer Online faces a slight delay
Dev Profile of the week and What I'm Playing
VirginWorlds is a weekly news podcast covering Massively Multiplayer
Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft,
EverQuest, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Eve Online, Vanguard, and many
many more. The main site can be found at http://www.VirginWorlds.com
'MxO's combat' by QforQ Submitted on 2007-04-30 02:24:48 CST In pvp MxO's combat is pretty involved...but with NPC's it's very easy.
The game itself was pretty cool except for that it's content sucks. It's content is all reliant on their missioning system which is SOOOO BORING. Leveling to 50 consists of thousands of missions that are all exactly the game. There is no variety of content in the game really at all, except for their limited amount of monthly storyline missions.
I never really had a problem with MxO being too dark at night. It's probably that dark because it really captures the matrix vibe that way.
Overall MxO had great potential, great graphics etc....but the game suffered from it's development team's lack of experience and forward sight. The fact there is really no high level content at all, dungeons arent really that exciting at all, and the game engine restricts the development of the game considerably.
'Great episode just 1 thought' by Gigawatt Submitted on 2007-04-30 03:29:49 CST Excellent cast, just had one thing I didn't agree with...
I believe StarCraft has the potential to have stronger lore and gameplay than even the WarCraft franchise. I have been playing blizz games through the years (WC1, Rock & Roll Racing, Lost Vikings, Blackthorne, etc), and was amazed at how many people were drawn to Blizzard by the StarCraft game. Yes they were well known for Diablo, however when StarCraft came out, they gained even more respect. With the amount of RTS players who are strictly against MMOs, this may be the thing to finally get them to switch over. Perhaps the MMO itself could have RTS elements?
It would be a better choice than Diablo for an MMO because two fantasy MMOs by the same company may compete with each other moreso than a sci-fi MMORTSRPG. I'm assuming the starcraft mmo would be WoW mixed with EVE, mixed with the RTS genre.
The way things have unfolded (with the new Northrend expansion entries showing up in the WoW patch and the new announcement hiring an MMO designer), I can't help but piece the items together in a time frame. Assume the Northrend expansion for WoW would arrive around 2010, and the MMO would be well into development and possible release around 2011/2012. This would not only allow the Northrend Expansion to conclude (although not officially end) the World of Warcraft story, but as soon as the new MMO was released, due to it's timing, many WoW players would flock to the new product.
Just some of my thoughts...well, one more thing...If they screw up the StarCraft title with a horrible sequel, or horrible mmo, I may have to cut them...or hire a ghost to nuke their facilities.
'Lore and Matrix' by scytale2 Submitted on 2007-04-30 05:37:01 CST Firstly I concur with Gigawatt, WoW lore has been manufactured out of more or less thin air, so there's no reason it can't be done similarly for Starcraft. See my comments on Diablo on the Blizzard new game thread.
Re-Matrix On-line, I was really tempted to have another try of the game until QforQ's comment. I've tried it and found it somewhat repetitive and like many people repetitive play doesn't enthuse, so my copy of this game will stay in the box!
Interesting to hear about the supercomputers again and also the "start from scratch" methodology of coding. I don't want to be a cracked record, but it does give some rationale for why the game can't really do a lot, if they wrote the code in the way you describe. It's also somewhat scary to see how much computing power is required for a small niche game. I'd be interested in hearing from a real technical whizz on where they see the future of technology and MMOs, because this type of computing power imho needs to be "spread around" not concentrated in one huge block.
Well done SWG on the demolition plan! Also very pleased to hear Warhammer has the resources to hold fire on delivery (i.e. not make Vanguard's mistake.)
Suggestion - can we get these Dev profiles to actually speak for themselves, rather than have a potted history, as I think this would be much more interesting. It's help Brett to polish his David Letterman/Wogan skills too (!)
Lastly, I miss reader comment too and what about the goldfarming Pt2 - has that gone to the ether now?
'Oh yeah...' by Wilhelm2451 Submitted on 2007-05-01 21:35:48 CST You might be getting a little too picky if LOTRO going live without drama isn't news. I look forward to the day when a smooth launch of an MMO really isn't news.
On MxO, it lost me when I was winning fights unarmed against guys shooting M-16s at me at point blank range. I wasn't able to suspend disbelief... is suspension of disbelief the red pill or the blue pill?
'blashphemer' by Burro Submitted on 2007-05-02 13:58:34 CST minnesota rules you traitor!! not many snakes and small bugs :) winter is ok too, then you don't have to feel guilty when you stay inside playing games all day.
'MxO's combat' by QforQ
Submitted on 2007-04-30 02:24:48 CST
In pvp MxO's combat is pretty involved...but with NPC's it's very easy.
The game itself was pretty cool except for that it's content sucks. It's content is all reliant on their missioning system which is SOOOO BORING. Leveling to 50 consists of thousands of missions that are all exactly the game. There is no variety of content in the game really at all, except for their limited amount of monthly storyline missions.
I never really had a problem with MxO being too dark at night. It's probably that dark because it really captures the matrix vibe that way.
Overall MxO had great potential, great graphics etc....but the game suffered from it's development team's lack of experience and forward sight. The fact there is really no high level content at all, dungeons arent really that exciting at all, and the game engine restricts the development of the game considerably.
'Great episode just 1 thought' by Gigawatt
Submitted on 2007-04-30 03:29:49 CST
Excellent cast, just had one thing I didn't agree with...
I believe StarCraft has the potential to have stronger lore and gameplay than even the WarCraft franchise. I have been playing blizz games through the years (WC1, Rock & Roll Racing, Lost Vikings, Blackthorne, etc), and was amazed at how many people were drawn to Blizzard by the StarCraft game. Yes they were well known for Diablo, however when StarCraft came out, they gained even more respect. With the amount of RTS players who are strictly against MMOs, this may be the thing to finally get them to switch over. Perhaps the MMO itself could have RTS elements?
It would be a better choice than Diablo for an MMO because two fantasy MMOs by the same company may compete with each other moreso than a sci-fi MMORTSRPG. I'm assuming the starcraft mmo would be WoW mixed with EVE, mixed with the RTS genre.
The way things have unfolded (with the new Northrend expansion entries showing up in the WoW patch and the new announcement hiring an MMO designer), I can't help but piece the items together in a time frame. Assume the Northrend expansion for WoW would arrive around 2010, and the MMO would be well into development and possible release around 2011/2012. This would not only allow the Northrend Expansion to conclude (although not officially end) the World of Warcraft story, but as soon as the new MMO was released, due to it's timing, many WoW players would flock to the new product.
Just some of my thoughts...well, one more thing...If they screw up the StarCraft title with a horrible sequel, or horrible mmo, I may have to cut them...or hire a ghost to nuke their facilities.
'Lore and Matrix' by scytale2
Submitted on 2007-04-30 05:37:01 CST
Firstly I concur with Gigawatt, WoW lore has been manufactured out of more or less thin air, so there's no reason it can't be done similarly for Starcraft. See my comments on Diablo on the Blizzard new game thread.
Re-Matrix On-line, I was really tempted to have another try of the game until QforQ's comment. I've tried it and found it somewhat repetitive and like many people repetitive play doesn't enthuse, so my copy of this game will stay in the box!
Interesting to hear about the supercomputers again and also the "start from scratch" methodology of coding. I don't want to be a cracked record, but it does give some rationale for why the game can't really do a lot, if they wrote the code in the way you describe. It's also somewhat scary to see how much computing power is required for a small niche game. I'd be interested in hearing from a real technical whizz on where they see the future of technology and MMOs, because this type of computing power imho needs to be "spread around" not concentrated in one huge block.
Well done SWG on the demolition plan! Also very pleased to hear Warhammer has the resources to hold fire on delivery (i.e. not make Vanguard's mistake.)
Suggestion - can we get these Dev profiles to actually speak for themselves, rather than have a potted history, as I think this would be much more interesting. It's help Brett to polish his David Letterman/Wogan skills too (!)
Lastly, I miss reader comment too and what about the goldfarming Pt2 - has that gone to the ether now?
'Oh yeah...' by Wilhelm2451
Submitted on 2007-05-01 21:35:48 CST
You might be getting a little too picky if LOTRO going live without drama isn't news. I look forward to the day when a smooth launch of an MMO really isn't news.
On MxO, it lost me when I was winning fights unarmed against guys shooting M-16s at me at point blank range. I wasn't able to suspend disbelief... is suspension of disbelief the red pill or the blue pill?
'blashphemer' by Burro
Submitted on 2007-05-02 13:58:34 CST
minnesota rules you traitor!! not many snakes and small bugs :) winter is ok too, then you don't have to feel guilty when you stay inside playing games all day.