World of Warcraft has been in development for nearly five years. If the PvP is still a foggy design document it means that it won’t deliver anything worthy.
Or you really think that they are able to wrap a whole game on top of the perfect PvE treadmill in 5-6 months?
It sounds like other betas, with devs promising magic patches to fix all the problems. Just around the corner.
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That was my idea at the beginning but I’m starting to see that what Blizzard is covering is an empty space. I know the value of the game because I’m in beta. I’m not going to believe anymore that they still have something interesting to deliver aside that.
In more than two months I’ve just seen a single patch that generally added just a bunch of bugs completely new. The next one is planned for the end of May. Nearly three months.
The beta is surely smooth but it’s proceeding slowly like an elephant. Of 60 levels plus hero classes we just have 39. And no PvP at all. That’s less than half the game.
You really believe they will magically add the whole PvP experience, perhaps two days before release?
Monthly Archives: May 2004
Blizzard: PvP? No clue.
This interview is quite fun:
http://wowvault.ign.com/?dir=events/e32004&content=interview
To summarize: “We aren’t sure what we want, even less how to deliver it.”
Don’t believe me? Here’s the actual quotes:
We want it to be really cool, so we’re kind of going through and deciding how we want to do it.
How we’re going to accomplish doing that we’re not sure yet.
We kind of want to do something like that. We’re not sure that’s going to work yet. It’s something we’re still working on.
We’re not entirely sure.
We have noticed that running into the opposite faction outside the PvP zones is an issue. It feels funky and broken and we’re looking into it.
What those are in the final shipping product, I’m not sure. We do plan to have PvP servers of some kind.
We actually haven’t finished the design on the heroes yet.
The level of design we have on heroes right now is that we know we want them, but we’re not sure exactly how we’re going to implement them.
We don’t know yet.
It’s not decided yet. I would like to, it would be cool.
we’re kind of trying to balance it
We have a lot of ideas for the end game, and we haven’t announced all of them. Of course there’s going to be PvP. There’s also trade skilling and exploration. What it all is we haven’t decided yet.
We’re going to have rewards. What they will be we haven’t decided yet.
What the exact response will be we’re not sure.
I actually have no clue.
We haven’t reached a final decision on it.
So the chances of new and interesting things happening with cloaks are high. What they are I don’t know.
I don’t know.
And I got bored about as I was halfway through it. Perhaps it’s a joke and I took the bait. Or perhaps we have the first example of sincerity.
A thing to notice is that he’s only a level designer, but it still gives a good idea about how well that part of the game is planned. In particular when I read this announce:
– Inter-realm chatting to be added
Camelot Vault previews “Catacombs”
Here.
I don’t know what you read there. It simply another demonstration of how much IGN is subdued and filled with loud fanboys. That’s a real cesspit.
“New Frontier” needs work, it is surprisingly boring and moves at 5 frames per seconds on my computer in a modestly crowded area. Low FPS are the only client problem? No, all the client has a long list of issues and incompatibilities, it’s the worst client I’ve encountered till now, probably only better than Shadowbane. But Mythic doesn’t seem to care. Fact is that the same hardware I have runs both Guild Wars and World of Warcraft at max detail and 20FPS on average.
And what does Mythic work on and show off? Better character models. Surely what I need to have fun in the game. More lag. And what Camelot Vaults fanboy says?
you only need a computer that can run ToA to run Catacombs
Yes, sure. The deadline is approaching, it’s fun watching companies staring at a wall with a dumb smile on their face. Some will find it fun, others will find it depressing.
Let’s see
I have various things to write but I guess I’ll just go see Akira Kurosawa’s dreams.
Perhaps later.
World of Warcraft, E3 tidbits
It’s obvious that Blizzard’s staff is completely drunk at the E3. They launched a minisite dedicated to it: http://blizzard.com/misc/e3/2004/wow/index.shtml And if you look at the FAQ you’ll notice missplaced answers and double questions.
What’s worth the attention, instead, are the two first section, one with the screenshots and another with the artworks. There’s some new stuff to see there. For example the first screenshot of the troll’s mount (a raptor).
I also gave some importance to one of the answers in the FAQ section:
The game is scheduled for simultaneous release in both the United States and Korea at the end of 2004.
A late October release is more probable now, as written below. And it could slip even further.
Vanguard, on X-box and PC
Microsoft has announced that Vanguard will support both X-box and PCs in a similar way to Final Fantasy XI. With an account you are able to play both versions, depending on your choice. The characters will exist in the same server/world, no matter of the hardware you decide to use.
[E3] Anyuzer updates, must read
Anyuzer updated his journal here and here.
The first part is about the Phantom console with the best quote ever: the Phantom (ooOooOooOOO) gaming console.
The second part is about Horizon and David Bowman (each time I read his name I think to Stanley Kubrick and 2001: A space odyssey … ).
As I wrote at QT3 it’s not only fun but also more informative than all the crap that will flow out of the E3.
City Of Heroes hits 100k subs
I don’t really know where all these players are coming from.
There’s a press release about City of Heroes breaking the 100k subscriptions mark, even more surprising is the result of Lineage 2 at 60k (considering the value of the game). Both numbers are referred to North America only.
In the press release there’s a lot of bragging about the smooth launches as well. I tried to track the official one but all I managed to find is the link to Warcry.
Press release on Warcry
I found a better link here.
Tabula Rasa official website goes live
Finally the official website of Tabula Rasa goes live. The game is directed by Richard Garriott, the legendary daddy of the “Ultima” series, from the firsts rpgs till the well known (and still alive) Ultima Online. Perhaps still the first and only attempt at simulating an alternative world online.
This game should present substantial innovations even if the real and basic structure is already largely cloned by many, well known projects like Ultima X and Guild Wars. The fact is that Tabula Rasa has been in development for many years and now it risks to be late.
Has Richard Garriott still something valuable to deliver or we will have to just consider him with a nostalgic sense? We’ll see. The setting of the game is a mix between a fantasy-crazed theme and science fiction, similar to the concept of the lost Ultima Online 2. The website is quite ugly and only a few of the screenshots you can see there are worth the attention.
A closed beta will start later this summer (probably along with the CDs that NCsoft is distributing at the E3), an open beta will follow till the release of the game, planned for this Christmas.