DragonCon 2008!

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Originally Posted by Ittledoc

As far as "help" on n00b island... FC whould take a look at the simple game wizard101. My daughters found it (yes free atm) and it talked to you and showed you how to start the game and how actions were done. If FC had a toggled approach as one could toggle this function off after you understand it through the first go round, then it wouldn't be a sore start for us vetrans.

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They did in fact have a talk you through basic controls.. It was called character creation, and they removed it. The CC even had exenstive backstory and by the time you walked out if you had a brain larger than a dust-mite (thus eliminating half of the game playing population) you had a feel for the game before you started. But even then you still had the backyards which have these little floating infocubes that say -shift-click-me. There was voice overs and more in the old CC and backyard that gave you essential game control explanations. That was all removed as being too.. complex....to make way for.. ICC ****typort for the introduction of Alien Invasion.

Course everyone wants stuff spoon-fed these days and the playing population has the attentionspan of a gnat thus anything complex is lost on them. ya know like story and background.. that sorta stuff.

So back to DragonCon, it's not too soon to plan for next year. In fact word on the street is that the hotels are already booking up. So anyone wanting to go, I would suggest you book your room sooner rather than later. You can always cancel up until right before if you change your mind.

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Originally Posted by vallikat

So back to DragonCon, it's not too soon to plan for next year. In fact word on the street is that the hotels are already booking up. So anyone wanting to go, I would suggest you book your room sooner rather than later. You can always cancel up until right before if you change your mind.

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well.. my question is.. just how loud the hotels get during the night. cause i'm one of them odd people who really need silence to sleep. so i'd prolly have to find a hotel a bit away from the crazyness.

I have so far stayed at the Hilton and the Marriott and had no problem getting to sleep in either hotel. Not sure on the Hyatt. A guess would be the Sheraton would be best because it's a couple blocks down from the other 3 so I'm guessing on less craziness. But again, I can't say for sure. No matter which you choose, I'd have to say the higher floors are probably your quieter choice.

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Originally Posted by meatybtz

Course everyone wants stuff spoon-fed these days and the playing population has the attentionspan of a gnat thus anything complex is lost on them. ya know like story and background.. that sorta stuff.

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Thats exactly what i observed too, not only in ao or mmo's but in all other games as well. I personally play fps shooter besides AO and when i think at the old games like doom, system shock and so on..... there were still a challenge even on easy... nearly unbeatable on hard. Now its more like... 2 hours on easy and 6 1/2 on veteran. Seem much like everything is aimed for the casual gamer these days, but this completely suckz. I haven't felt like a casual gamer once sind i was 6 or so.

Well actually I have a rather complex outlook on the direction of games, the rise of casual games and the degeneration of story/depth.

1. Its cheaper to make casual games
2. Story is expensive and time consuming to make consistant.. see 1.
3. People are busy but want something simple and entertaining, the segment this represnts is growing. Making games is a buisness. They are going to court the money. Casuals allow them to get more sales over time for easier to make game(s).
4. Sohpistication of the non-casual gamer. We ourselves have become more proficient at games in general. Some of the old tricks of complexety have become (in our eyes) tedious. Most game companies know this as well. So it becomes ever so much harder to provide challange to us w/o resorting to the cliches and old skool stuff that would bore and annoy the experienced gammer. Further even those who spend time getting a good coherent story and game depth assembled for us fall short in our eyes because we are so proficient at beating what they set before us. We grew up solving puzzles, mysteries, and developing skills directly related to "beating the game".
5.It is a struggle to ballance tedium/challange and yet inject newness and innovation. That struggle represents cost so see 1.
6. Nostalgia only carries you so far. Go back and play some of those games what you find is you appreciate the design of them from a curent setting only insomuch as you view them in the context of how invoative it was at the time and how much fun it was. That brings you some fun back and appreciation of the game... but it wouldnt sell a new game. Not well.
7. Game Longevity is an interesting aspect. A game company doesnt want large game longevity unless the case is an MMO. They would rather make back their production cost and their target profit goal and then have you bored enough to want to buy another of their games thus spending more money with them. This has led to the death of the games that are really really good historicly. The UT series and its absolute insane number of player mods and levels and resources that make playing a 3+ year old game fun and new... but bring in no real profit to the company. See UT3 for what they prefer, locked down, limited modding, total crap on a stick. Overall the UT series was never "one of the best" what made it so was the mod community. I was able to back hack into parts of the old 2k3 and 2k2 game engine to make it do stuff they never intended it too. It was fun. Though somewhat obscure Cavedog Softwares Total Annihliation was a paragon of game design and inovation, a game that if you crack it open even today is FUN to play and not just for nostalgia. It was so popular with those that played it that even though cavedog is history for many years people still mod the game, expanded its engine, gave it 3d.. and more. Sometimes I think the games perfection is what killed the company. In the long haul it hurt their money making because everyone was so fixated on their first product and on improving it. After a certain number of expansions the money well was dry. TA-Kingdoms was a joke, essentially if you make something really good the first go round everyone will demand that from you in the future. TA-Kingdoms died a boring death for a badly thought out game.

In the long run I dont think I would ever want to be a game company. The challanges are huge, the rewards small, and the chance for failure big. Though I vent at Funcom on the forums sometimes I also know exactly what they have to deal with and why certain failures have always come back up in respect to AO, AoC, Customer Service. I can forgive them those mistakes and I do understand why they come about again and again... and why perhaps they simply cannot get beyond them. But it doenst mean they shouldnt be reminded of them in such a way as to prompt them to improve beyond the 3/4 of a decade of scorn and bitterness a goodly part of the player base feels.

Good post.

I have to agree with meatybtz on this.

Software design is challenging and full of trade off's. Game design is always a balance of features versus capabitilies. A MMO adds story to this.

Despite the enjoyment of the game current/long term players get from it. It comes down to features and story content being able to bring new players to the game and retain them. AO has many story arc's and sadly the main theme seems to be of little focus these days. Omni vs Clan was a big draw in the beginning as it was two clear sides with oppisite view points. The side could be related to as they reflected real world issues that people take sides on.

AO added Notum Wars which expanded the base story line and did a good job of it. SL was in my view a story line failure. Introducing a new story line that wrapped around the current one tying Omni to the unredeemed and Clan to the redeemed and focused the story on a good versus evil theme. It took the real world relations of small group versus coropate power away.

And for a time the Omni/Clan peace was believable because in the end it fell apart making matter worse for than before it.

Then came AI. A common enemy for us to fight. Rise up together and fight. But yet no peace accord between omni/clan. The newbie island had cland and omni side by side working together yet as soon as you leave it is bitter hate once more.

Now comes LE. BS revive player divide of Omni vs Clan. But it also gives us more alien content that we have to work together on. The conflict with the base story is getting out of hand.

From a true newbie starting point AO is a game without direction. From a seasons players view it is a content rich game even if it is not truly sided content. At one time each side had advantages and quests based on the side you chose. It was a nice choice to have.

So I agree that the more social games are cheaper to develop. Social games have the advantage of dynamical generating their storyline and content as the game is played. The players create it and it gets as indepth or shallow as it needs to be.

Lastest numbers on the sites that track game subscriptions has AO at 12000 subs for July 2008. If they are all paying $14.95 in US dollars that is $179,400 USD a month or $2,152,800 USD a year. While the actual number is going to different that is a good starting point to get an idea if the games value to FC. With account upgrades and boost packs and paid points I would bet AO is generating $3,000,000 USD a year for FC right now before Froob advertising revenue.

I think AO would be viable down to a subscription level 4000 to 5000 accounts.
So enjoy the game and worry not about when the doors will close.

But... finally any news about AO after Dragoncon?! Booster pack, new engine, anything?

Silirrion, please, it's impossible that there was nothing to say?! We want to hear you! :D

OMG! Pics!!

http://www.codysplace.com/gallery/v/dragoncon/2008/

Funy pics but still nothing about AO. :confused:

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Originally Posted by Marketguy

Funy pics but still nothing about AO. :confused:

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Go back one page. I made a posting about the new engine and the booster pack. It's not a whole lot of info I'm afraid, though. but it's better than nothing.

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Originally Posted by vallikat

Go back one page. I made a posting about the new engine and the booster pack. It's not a whole lot of info I'm afraid, though. but it's better than nothing.

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I saw your two lines already, thanks really Vali, but:

- you are not Silirrion ;)
- they contain the fact FC showed a few things but that your were too asleep at that time :)

So the point is: could Silirrion post here now what they showed / told publicly?! :D

Taken from another thread:

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Originally Posted by Silirrion

I don't know, take a little while out to visit the states and the world is ending apparently ;)

As has been mentioned in this thread 17.10 has been developing on test all this time, with quite a few new versions. It is getting closer to being ready for the live dimensions but there are a few things that the folks here are still looking at. We hope that it will be good to go very shortly.

As mentioned before it's likely that we will keep working on instancing Pandemonium separately and push out the new system with the three alien sectors instanced. Pandemonium will take a little extra work that we will most likely complete in a follow up patch (whether thats a 17.10.x or a future update remains to be seen).

As the folks who got to meet and chat with us at Dragoncon found out the work on the booster pack is continuing and shaping up nicely. It shouldn't be too long before we are in a position to start some form of public testing of that content (not going to put a date on it yet, but it is progressing nicely)

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Originally Posted by Marketguy

Funy pics but still nothing about AO. :confused:

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http://www.codysplace.com/gallery/v/...geViewsIndex=1

Looks like RL AO tho ;)

I dont get you guys.
When i started playing AO, the ONLY problem i had was to find the ladder after the ship broke :)
The intro into the game was perfectly understandable, everything was smooth and i saw no problems with anything at all...not even recognizing NPC's.

I really would like to see the arrival hall back :(

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Originally Posted by vallikat

Lazy hell! That was after being up until 6:30 that morning. You just want an excuse to spank me!

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No one would ever want that!! /sneaks a swat :eek:

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Originally Posted by Xaun

No one would ever want that!! /sneaks a swat :eek:

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/me purrs

/moon

More More!!

*chokes on his coffee*

*coughs non stop for 4min*

Ok girls play nice, your killing me here...