NCsoft Q3 2009 Results - Aion looks to do well...

[schild]

Haha fair enough. I like accountability or I wouldn't blog under my real name, but I'd best just go back to lurking if my employer's name is going to be emblazoned across my every post.

I'm pretty sure every human in every forum everywhere would eventually get fired under those circumstances  

You've said twice that you lurked, but uhhhhhh, it strikes me that you haven't done much lurking if you haven't seen a pile of people with their company as a custom title. But you'd also know about proper grammar, capitalization, etc. >_> Basically, it's just a reminder to not be a moron. Letting developers roam free here would be counterproductive and frankly, they're posting on a gaming forum and work in the gaming industry - it's a serious accountability issue. I hate having to remind people they always represent the company they work for in real life and it bothers me even more on the internet.

[MikeD]

Yep, I think it's pretty safe to say I fail at the internet this week and should just mind my own business.

Sorry to derail an interesting conversation.

[Falconeer]

Except now your FPSes have levels too.

So that's win for everyone, right?  There haven't been too many FPSs lately that have multiplayer that seem desirable.  Do they really have levels?

I miss Blood.

Blood was so so so awesome.

Anyway, levels will be patched in and hardcoded to Real Life pretty soon. Which will become more DIKU and less sandboxy. It's already happening.
Games without levels will be soon considered blasphemy, or clownshoes, or both.

[Merusk]

MMm.. RL Caste system.

"Goddamnit why wasn't I born an engineer caste!"

[Venkman]

Except now your FPSes have levels too.

So that's win for everyone, right?  There haven't been too many FPSs lately that have multiplayer that seem desirable.  Do they really have levels?

I'm no expert of FPSes, so I'm really only going by the CoD and newer Battlefield games (and of course TF2). But CoD4, 5, and 6 all have persistent levels and abilities. You gain levels by XP and levels unlock a new set of abilities (weapons and attachments) you can skill up in. And when you skill up an ability, you gain XP at milestones. The levels/abilities carry with you between multiplayer matches.

And yea, I consider it a win for everyone. Not that it makes people better at FPS games. But it's the kind personal measure of achievement that makes games more inclusive than just for those who fall into clans.

[ghost]

I don't particularly care for FPS online play.  My primary multiplayer experience was when we used to have LAN parties with blood.  I'll never forget listening to people curse when they got napalmed or flamed up with the spray paint can. 

"It burns, it burns!!!!!"  Ah, reminiscing is fun.

[Venkman]

Coincidentally, I only really started online FPS when they added levels. Building characters is something I'm used to, and CoD4 felt like an actual alternative to WoW.

Nothing like almost a decade of grind conditioning to be ready for when the rest of the games started adopting grind mechanics 

[Soln]

marketing wonk or CS?  how long will it take?

[Draegan]

Which brings up another interesting point.  Instead of having a large world and 1000's of people being able to access that server, how about having smaller worlds with a more limited playerbase to increase "community" recognition?

APB.  We'll have to see how it works, since I think you will be able to change areas, but it should help foster this smaller community feeling.

True, but I thought in APB you could switch servers whenever you start a new game?  I'm talking about permanent server choices where each server is incredibly small.  Not sure how much extra this would cost to run.

[Mrbloodworth]

F13 made me better at typing. Not even joking.