SoG Thingy

[Ixxit]

I'm amused that anyone associated with this site pre-orders anything anymore.  I wouldn't preorder Massive Multiplayer Pong if it was developed by Jesus Christ, Inc. and beta tested by Vulcans. 

Preordering sweetens the hatred.  Ooooooh so exquisite.

[HaemishM]

I only pre-order single-player games that I KNOW I will want to buy and that have a decent chotchsky for preordering, MMOG's I'm already in beta for, or MMOG's that give me a beta for pre-ordering. So /sadf.

[Nija]

Keep in mind that "beta" has been in progress since Feb 04.

The only thing they've added is a couple shitty models, about a month ago. Oh, and before you could sled down hills on your shield. Now you pull a snowboard out of your pocket.

Also, they have reskinned the UI about 100 times, and it's worse every new version. Other than that there has been no content added or any progress anywhere. It's like the stereotypical asian mmorpg "eternally beta" game. Like Conquer Online.

PS: You guys are fools for preordering this. You should get special symbols next to your usernames so people can disregard your advice in the future.

[Righ]

Of course we hear  of the "double secret beta build" that has all the features and content that is under heavy testing.   :-D   

I think the fact that they are making even more inflated promises than David Bowman did.

They have clearly been to Bowman training school. Legal Smeagols, let me riddle you this: at what point does telling lies about what you are developing become consumer fraud?

[HaemishM]

They have clearly been to Bowman training school. Legal Smeagols, let me riddle you this: at what point does telling lies about what you are developing become consumer fraud?

I suppose at the point you make it to the country with a non-extradition treaty after having fled your home country to avoid the charges of sodomizing young boys.

[Signe]

I'm amused that anyone associated with this site pre-orders anything anymore.  I wouldn't preorder Massive Multiplayer Pong if it was developed by Jesus Christ, Inc. and beta tested by Vulcans. 

I would pre-order that!

And... DnL has been in development for six or seven years?  Bloody hell... I thought I was stretching it at 4 or 5!

[schild]

I'm amused that anyone associated with this site pre-orders anything anymore.  I wouldn't preorder Massive Multiplayer Pong if it was developed by Jesus Christ, Inc. and beta tested by Vulcans.

I preorder almost every game I might have remote interest in. Just to guarantee I get it if I decide I want it. I probably cancel 1/4 of my preorders. However, you couldn't have paid ME to preorder DnL.

[Akkori]

O ye of little faith.

You guys are just a bunch of bitchy whiners. 

I had to smack around a friend of mine who was complaining he ran into lots of lag and bugs on the first day. Jeez, its free, and its only been live for a few hours, and already people are trashing it! This, iMO is due to SO.Enterobiasis disease. (look it up, its funny). People are still itching from SOEnterobiasis that they look on most other new games as a source of another infection.

The explorer aspect alone will make this game awesome. Free flight at 4k feet is just the first thrill of this terrain model.

[Nija]

Shut up.

From:   "Dark and Light Team" <webmaster@darkandlight.com>
To:   nija@r33t.org
Subject:   DnL : You have been Selected!
Date:   Wed, 4 Feb 2004 17:25:07 +0400

Dear Nijasan,

We are very glad to inform you that you have been selected to contribute to the first stage of Dark and Light's Beta Test: The Stability Test.

You’ll receive in few minutes a mail concerning your NDA. Please follow instructions.

Thanks for your support and have fun in Ganareth,

The DnL Team

IT HASN'T BEEN LIVE FOR A FEW HOURS LOOK AT THE DATE ON THAT EMAIL.

[HaemishM]

O ye of little faith.

My faith got sodomized by the Shadowbane development team in the bathroom of a highway Texaco. On this I'd have to agree with Nix. If it ain't stable and working on beta, no amount of beta testing will ever make it right by release.

[Ixxit]

The explorer aspect alone will make this game awesome. Free flight at 4k feet is just the first thrill of this terrain model.

Well, that may be cool, but it certainly doesn't make an good  game.  Don't you think the thrill factor will wear off pretty quick? Aren't you just flying over vast open vistas with no content?   Deer hunter offers a reasonable facsimile of a "walk in the woods" on a nice autumn day complete with stunning vistas and  soothing forest sounds, however it could by no stretch of the imagination be considered a product with any gameply of note.

You guys are fools for preordering this. You should get special symbols next to your usernames so people can disregard your advice in the future.

Glad I could fuel your  schaedenfreude   

[Righ]

Glad I could fuel your  schaedenfreude   

That word has been all the rage on the Intarweb since Spader's character used it in Boston Legal. Yes, I know, everybody was using it long before that, and nobody saw that episode.

[schild]

I've never seen a full episode of boston legal. I do watch House though, and generic black principal #47 was a guest star on House in season 1. Who is Spader? Why does he have schaedenfreude?

[Signe]

I have a character named that in City of Villains. 

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

Answer to "Who is Spader"

"Boston Legal" (2004) TV Series .... Alan Shore
Shadow of Fear (2004) .... William Ashbury
"The Practice" (1997) TV Series .... Alan Shore (2003-2004)
Alien Hunter (2003) .... Julian Rome
I Witness (2003) .... Douglas Draper
... aka Nur tote Zeugen schweigen - I Witness (Germany: DVD title)
The Pentagon Papers (2003) (TV) .... Daniel Ellsberg
Secretary (2002) .... E. Edward Grey
Speaking of Sex (2001) .... Dr. Roger Klink
The Stickup (2001) .... Parker
Slow Burn (2000/I) .... Marcus
The Watcher (2000/I) .... Joel Campbell
Supernova (2000/I) .... Nick Vanzant


Curtain Call (1999) .... Stevenson Lowe
Critical Care (1997) .... Dr. Werner Ernst
Driftwood (1997) .... The Man
Keys to Tulsa (1997) .... Ronnie Stover
2 Days in the Valley (1996) .... Lee Woods
Crash (1996/I) .... James Ballard
Stargate (1994) .... Dr. Daniel Jackson
... aka Stargate, la porte des étoiles (France)
Wolf (1994) .... Stewart Swinton
Dream Lover (1994) .... Ray Reardon
The Music of Chance (1993) .... Jack Pozzi
Bob Roberts (1992) .... Chuck Marlin
Storyville (1992) .... Cray Fowler
True Colors (1991) .... Tim Gerrity
White Palace (1990) .... Max Baron
Bad Influence (1990) .... Michael Boll


Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) .... Graham
... aka Sex, Lies... (USA: short title)
The Rachel Papers (1989) .... Deforest
Jack's Back (1988) .... John/Rick Westford
Greasy Lake (1988) (V) .... Digby
Wall Street (1987) .... Roger Barnes
Less Than Zero (1987) .... Rip
Baby Boom (1987) .... Ken Arrenberg
Mannequin (1987) .... Mr. Richards
Pretty in Pink (1986) .... Steff
The New Kids (1985) .... Eddie Dutra
... aka Striking Back
Tuff Turf (1985) .... Morgan Hiller
Starcrossed (1985) (TV) .... Joey Callaghan
Family Secrets (1984) (TV) .... Lowell Everall
"The Family Tree" (1983) TV Series .... Jake Nichols (1983)
A Killer in the Family (1983) (TV) .... Donny Tison
Diner (1983) (TV) .... Fenwick
Cocaine: One Man's Seduction (1983) (TV) .... Buddy Gant
Endless Love (1981) (as Jimmy Spader) .... Keith Butterfield


Team-Mates (1978) .... Jimmy
... aka Young Gangs of Wildwood High (USA: reissue title)
... aka Youth Gangs (USA: reissue title)

[Righ]

A link to imdb would probably have sufficed, but I guess it left them one more click away from RSI.

[Akkori]

Well, its certainly NOT impressive that their server has been down for approaching 36 hours less than 24 hours after it went public. And to top it off, it took them over 24 hours to make ANY statement to the public about it. Am I unreasonable to expect the Dev team for a game to be a little more forthcoming with news and updates? Maybe I'm just over-compensating for the treatment I got from the assholes in Public relations at SOE, but I'd love to get twice daily updates when things like this go wrong.

[Signe]

I finally made it in this morning and wasn't the least bit impressed.  The graphics aren't great, even at the highest settings.  The character models are terrible and movement just looks wrong.  Everything was in English, however, but there is nothing to explain how the game works.  No tutorial, no literature, nothing.  The official forums are down, so there is no info to be found there and I can't be arsed to try and figure out their lousy UI.  I tried for 15 minutes to suss it out and I think that's long enough to tell me it's unsussable.  I did note that I can change my keybindings, but it doesn't really work properly.  I changed the strafe keys and assigned new actions to those and when I use the new bindings, it still strafes.  Chat is hard to see because they made it yellowish coloured and it just sort of blends in with everthing.  People are just all standing in the place where you start and crying, "What do I do?", "How do I draw my weapon", "Why is water wet?"... I feel sorry for them and wish I could help them, but I couldn't figure out how to kill them.  I don't think I'll be playing this "prelude".

[Akkori]

Yeah, even tho the server is up, I'm not going to bother loggin in much. I got a good handle on flying, so if I get bored, I'll log in and do that. Otherwise, I wont bother. THere are a LOT of bugs. You're right tho, keybinding doesnt always stick. Chat is pretty solid, once you figure out what all the tiny 3x3 pixel buttons are for. Not sure about your graphics tho. THis is the one thing they did right, I think. try using "/setenginequality high" while in-game. There is no guarantee the settign in the launchpad carry's through. To see the difference, switch beween that and "/setenginequality low". Its a big diff. Get over the water, at about 20 feet or so. The waves are actually breaking onto the beach.

When I feel they have gotten the bugs worked out, I'm going to set up my gamepad so I dont have to use the keyboard much. So keybindings wont matter too much. And I firmly agree that documentation is WAY too scarse. Couple that with a fairly crappy forums and its a train wreck. As much as I hate Lithium, I would galdly see them running the forums than the current one. We need a real Dev Tracker.

I'd give it a couple weeks. Well, make it a month, what with the holidays and all. By the end of January I think we'll begin to have a better idea if DnL will be worth it.

[Signe]

I think the DnL graphics are passable, although some of the art isn't.  The scenery can look ok and bits of it are lovely in screenshots.  I've not seen any of those beautiful places or anything like them which appear in the screenshots in SoG.  I've seen a LOT of SoG screenshots now and someone made a movie.  (It's 116 megs tho!)  The character models and the way they move, especially during what they refer to as "combat", are terrible. 

Remember, anyone can play SoG now... you don't need to pay Fileplanet for a key.  You just need to register.  In the meantime, EgoMonster from Mourning has posted he is thinking of giving ANYONE who asks for one a key to his game for free.  Whadda deal!