Blizzards next MMO is........

[Morat20]

Like that quest where I had to kill boars and bring some part to a town so they could eat? oh, wait! THAT WAS EVERY FUCKING QUEST

In their defense, wild boar is quite tasty.

[Ragnoros]

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/21412

Another rumor hinting @ Starcraft Online.

My guess is something got lost in translation and they meant SC2's Online bits. AKA multi player.
That or just good old publicity stunt and/or someone talking out his ass.

[Mrbloodworth]

Like that quest where I had to kill boars and bring some part to a town so they could eat? oh, wait! THAT WAS EVERY FUCKING QUEST

Thats only in the overland, And LOTRO isn't wow, where daemons roam the countryside. Boar quests are meant to be done while traveling to real questing areas, and to stimulate the crafting portion of the game, you may not be a crafter, but someone will want the pelts, They also started replacing them (The boar quests) with other quests as of book 11.

[tmp]

Like that quest where I had to kill boars and bring some part to a town so they could eat? oh, wait! THAT WAS EVERY FUCKING QUEST

They know. To the point where one of the quests has you investigate "striking absence of boars" in one of game zones.

[Dren]

WoW does use cutscenes, like WCIII where it's a scripted event that happens within the game world. That's even more immersive than the AC2 style. Not sure how it does things in FFXI though, but I hear it works well there too.

Actually, I would rate the way FFXI does cutscenes for completing the big quest the nicest out right now.  You are basically wisked off into your own little dreamstate (much like an instance that is scripted) where you are looking at your self in the context of the event.  This is done in the style of most Japanese RPG on consoles really.  It sure felt that way to me anyway.  It would also incoporate the people in your group so it was actually quite immersive.

I really looked forward to seeing them each time I knew I was coming close to ending a string of quests.  I never had to repeat anything since they had the whole one character with multiple jobs method, but I could see myself enjoying them even after the 3rd or 4th time.  You always had the option of ending the scene with a keystroke, so if you got bored with it you didn't have to wait long.

*Edit:  I seriously suggest doing a trial of FFXI if you have never played it.  It has some of the best components of a MMO and really good ideas that nobody else is doing.  So, it is a nice journey to look outside the box.  I've often said that if FFXI just hadn't made the game centered around a very group oriented and grindy leveling system, it might have rivaled WoW today.  Hell, they were leading the pack for awhile and still had the grind.

[Aez]

I hate story driven quest/mission.  I would prefer a game with dynamic content and random wilderness.   Bunch of towns with npc merchants who simply want merchandises escort and far away ressources.  Add some random invasion and dynamic spawn and you have a winning formula.  Of course, most players would say random is meaningless.  Can't please everyone.

Right now, every quest I do in a mmorpg is tickling my bullshit sense.  Yeah, right, Kenny needs to be rescued for the 545 000 time.  Great.

[Lantyssa]

*Edit:  I seriously suggest doing a trial of FFXI if you have never played it.  It has some of the best components of a MMO and really good ideas that nobody else is doing.  So, it is a nice journey to look outside the box.  I've often said that if FFXI just hadn't made the game centered around a very group oriented and grindy leveling system, it might have rivaled WoW today.  Hell, they were leading the pack for awhile and still had the grind.

FFXI makes me a sad red panda because it has so much I like about it, but not being able to solo (or duo) past level 10 kills the game for me.

[Signe]

I completely agree with that.  I probably would have given the game a good go if I knew I knew I wouldn't have to worry about finding a group if I wanted to play for an hour or so.  I've very nearly bought the game several times but I know that the lack of very casual play would get to me after a while. 

[LK]

I can get over grind.  I can get over group-oriented game play.  I cannot get over a death penalty that removes experience.  That makes the grind and the group-oriented game play take unnecessarily longer.

Switching to an XP Debt system.  If I'm logged off, debt is slowly removed.  Slower XP gain while online with debt.

I'd resubscribe if they made that change.

[Venkman]

After so many subsequent games from the early EQ1 days, it still continues to surprise me that anyone uses an XP-loss system at all. I'd have though even the legacy games had that sadistic part of the loss-corpserun-delevel trifecta beaten out of them by now.

That's some serious whack right there.

[WindupAtheist]

Loss, debt, same difference.  Give me the WoW "corpse run, maybe dura loss, but otherwise nothing" death penalty, or eat my shit.

[LK]

Loss, debt, same difference.  Give me the WoW "corpse run, maybe dura loss, but otherwise nothing" death penalty, or eat my shit.

I'm trying to work with their game design when I mentioned the XP Debt system.  But if they removed it completely, all the better.  But I can understand a need for their overall game design to have ways to limit XP acqusition.  The problem I have is when they allow XP loss.  A good death penalty for me is one that doesn't remove already-obtained progress with my penalty.  The most severe I'd like it is a debt that wears off if I'm offline.

[Murgos]

FFXI makes me a sad red panda because it has so much I like about it, but not being able to solo (or duo) past level 10 kills the game for me.

Catgirls, am I rite?   

[Lantyssa]

I do think Mithra are cute, however I was referring to the game systems and the overall style.  A class based system which lets one switch freely between them is the next best thing to a skill system to me.  (And has some advantages to various implementations of such.)

The Star Onion Brigade was awesome.

[tmp]

however I was referring to the game systems and the overall style.

I was mildly interested in FFXI, then i saw chart describing their group combo system.

http://www.roeszler.org/akaitsuki/Misc/Renkai_Chart.htm

that kind of shit makes SWG look intuitive and preschooler friendly...

[Lantyssa]

that kind of shit makes SWG look intuitive and preschooler friendly...

The new version is.

[Hutch]

that kind of shit makes SWG look intuitive and preschooler friendly...

If you only look at a single weapon's possible combos, it gets a lot simpler. Once you've done a few combos, they become second nature. Especially at low skill levels, where only a few of the moves are even available.

The complexity (to me) came in knowing which creatures are vulnerable to which combo types. If that valkurm crab resists water attacks, then your water renkei is wasted effort.

[Typhon]

[...] If that valkurm crab resists water attacks, then your water renkei is wasted effort.

... and if you spurt your renkei water impotently, you're really only playing with yourself.

Dammit! I should be working!

[Yegolev]

I agree with the womens about FFXI.  I played it until I could no longer advance solo or duo.

[SnakeCharmer]

Send Grunk a PM.  He can give you the keys to the castle.  Or something.

[Nonentity]

Send Grunk a PM.  He can give you the keys to the castle.  Or something.

Watch out, Grunk is a Galka. He will SIT ON YOU.

[Margalis]

It's a lot easier to duo now, and soloing is more viable for at least some classes. It's also a lot easier to do well with less than optimal and smaller-sized groups. That said it's still very much a group-centric game.

Many many great things about FFXI, but yes the overall game is very group-centric and grindy.

[AngryGumball]

reason i failed at FFXI was the UI, i would be ok with the death exp loss, the corpse run, the grind until I spend two weeks not finding teams then I QQ.
Tarutaru for the win.

[Dtrain]

FFXI: I've never been stabbed in the cock by a prettier more narrative MMO.

[tmp]

FFXI: I've never been stabbed in the cock by a prettier more narrative MMO.

Asian MMOs don't just stab you in the cock. They tap into ancient art of acupuncture to permanently insert hundred of needles into your appendage.

[cmlancas]

Cockpuncture? I think we may have struck gold. 

[WayAbvPar]

Cockpuncture? I think we may have struck gold. 

This truly made me spit onto my monitor. Well played.

[Teleku]

Shouldn't it be cockupuncture or something?

[Lantyssa]

Who cares how it's spelled?  I just like the thought of guys squirming when they think about the subject.

[Simond]

Dragging this thread back onto topic: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/21872

From the "OMG Blizzard is making Starcraft Online" dept., Xinhua (the People's Republic of China's people's state press agency of the people) is reporting that Netease.com won it's bid to operate Blizzard's next MMORPG, which the article names as (drumroll please) Starcraft Online. Neither Blizzard nor Netease would confirm the rumor, which must of course mean that it's true. When asked if the move was just a propagandist attempt to drive up stock prices piecemeal in the face of the 100-year snowstorm that paralyzed parts of China's economy in January, the anonymous industry insider reportedly said, "Hey, look over there!" and scampered off.

[Tannhauser]

It's a no-brainer to me it would be SC.  Vivendi I am sure would like a "WoW in space" grabbing another 9 million players.  The space MMO market is wide-open (assuming Bioware isn't make a KOTOR MMO) and the biggest competitors are Eve (Niche) and SWG (well you know).

Koreans+SC+MMO=Money hats wearing money hats.

It would be cool if all the Terran worlds had a southern flavor, lots of stuff there for Blizzard to make fun of (I'm a Southener btw).

This post brought to you by parenthesis (apparently).

[cmlancas]

Fuck, I hope there's a Texas zone where I can fight GW as an end boss. That'd be fucking righteous. 

[Falwell]

The only real question at this point is what order are they coming out in? Starcraft Online first and then Diablo the MMO or vice versa. It's a "When" not "If" question.

Blizzard has an even bigger opportunity to ramp up the hype machine this time around because now they can plan the story of SCII around the release of SCO (assuming this is the winner) and have it transition much more smoothly then WCIII did to WoW.

Hell the official announcement could be as simple as a five second title screen at the end of the SCII credits saying "To be continued in Starcraft Online." The gaming world would collectively shit itself in anticipation and the hype machine would go into Robot Jesus mode.

[Ratman_tf]

I could totally see Diablo 3 done like Guild Wars, as a "free" mmorpg over battle.net.

[Dtrain]

The gaming world would collectively shit itself in anticipation and the hype machine would go into Robot Jesus mode.

Sadly, I'm sure it would - but why? Don't get me wrong, I think Blizzard makes great games and I enjoy them a lot. But there are scads of other games out there that I enjoy just as much, and many I enjoy a lot more.

I just don't get the whole Blizzard-mania thing.