Green Monster Games - Curt Schilling

James

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
2,804
7,056
I"ve gotta agree with Curt here. Additionally, I"d pay good money to see a tech guy tell everyone to shove SLI up their ass, and if they don"t like it they can go suck a lemmon.
 

Draegan_sl

2 Minutes Hate
10,034
3
I"ve disabled crossfire on my PC in favor of multi screen support. You won"t need SLI/Crossfire in any MMOG. The graphics in almost MMOG that is built decently should work on a new single graphics card.
 

Quince_foh

shitlord
0
0
Speaking of multi screens, I want to add a 3rd screen (so I can play, surf, and watch TV). Do i just need to install a 2nd video card and connect the 3rd monitor to that or is some voodoo with windows required?
 
Just a few comments on subjects covered recently:

I can appreciate the fact that Ngruk can admit enjoying aspects of WAR despite flaws with design. I dislike certain elements of the game, but overall enjoy it more than most. Perhaps it has more to do with taste than anything, but there are some depth and strategy elements WAR has that WoW just didn"t seem to hold for me (then again, I wasn"t a min/max heavy raider).

He does make a point, though: while a design/gameplay model is important, fun is the most important. I"d agree with some that WoW is the anomaly, not the standard, for MMOs. Look at the massive amount of fail out there other than WoW in general. A lot of the MMOs out there have some strong elements of design, but as a whole are not as enjoyable (or fun).

I"d also have to admit on the other hand that WoW"s model was generally a correct one: distilling the more enjoyable elements of EQ down to be accessible for the masses. Problem is, it removes some of the most enjoyable elements that EQ held. Stealing this from the Evercrack documentary thread:

Fawy said:
EverQuest will always be better then today"s crop of MMOs because...

1.) Stuff was hard and required groups thus creating a community.

2.) Lots of freedom. Your character could move, levitate, jump & swim just about anywhere. And your character could be shrunk.

3.) You could interact with NPCS: Sell them stuff, buy stuff, give them stuff (Weapons) that they would use, you could see when NPCs had a weapon which would drop... etc.

4.) Pulling was a skill.

5.) Crowd Control was a skill and separated good groups from bad. I always preferred the "pull 10 and deal with it" then the "pull singles". Good CC usually meant your group could explore farther in a dungeon then others.

6.) The community. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone knew the bad/good players from each other. Being good at CC or Pulling or tanking or healing was known.

7.) Large raids. Granted, raiding became a job, but the freedom of allowing a large community of players to join in defeating an encounter, or zone, added a ton to build community.

8.) Diversity. Lots of Races & lots of classes & lots of starting areas. Stop giving me only 2 races and 2 starting cities. Talk about going 8 steps backward...

9.) Lots of other miscellaneous community building stuff such as: Teleports, buffs (that you could give to others), no auction house (for a while), traveling in general, lack of quests for leveling (made people group and grind which allowed people to get to know each other)... etc.

10.) Quests in general - the all-quest systems new games are going with I feel greatly detracts from the gaming experience. A quest is not "gather 13 pelican beaks and return them to me". A quest is "Slay the dragon then goto the plane of sky and defeat the sky goddess." If you ask me, EQ did quests right.

11.) EverQuest is built upon a solid, simple, foundation. Most spells, skill, stats, etc.. you knew the basic idea of what they did, and for most people, that was fine. If you desired to get more in depth, there was more info you could dig up. EQ was as simple, or complex, as you wanted it. IMO a lot of newer games try to throw too much at the player. Keep it simple.





In the end, EverQuest will be memorable because it made you feel like you accomplished something.You will remember xx item because you WORKED for it. There was genuine risk vs reward. The game truly rewarded you and made you feel good.Each person helped build the community, and being a part of that community is what kept you going back.

Just like any Message board, interacting with people was/is the key to success. Good players were known about, bad players wanted to be known, thus the bad players strive to be as good as the good players, and the good players continue to stay above the bad, ad infinitum.

For me, EverQuest died off once they started getting away from their core principles, which was past PoP imo. Of course, Kunark and Velious will continue to be the penultimate gaming experience in my mind.

I yearn for the day game makers go back and re-explore some of these traits.
Excellent post. The true WoW killer will come about when an MMO allows accessiblity but also has options (requirements?) for community building, freedom, and challenge to the point of requiring real skill in certain circumstances. The biggest challenge for a designer will be making those elements of involvement a fun incentive and less of a burden to the casual/semi-casual player. Or the possibility of there existing a system where casuals and more serious/dedicated players can co-exist and still find the gameplay enjoyable (apart from simply raiding).
 

Column_sl

shitlord
9,833
7
I ran original eq off of two voodoo cards on SLI back in 1999 lulz.

It was the bomb tho,and all presented on a 21 inch FD trinitron
 

Araxen

Golden Baronet of the Realm
10,254
7,601
Pre-TOA DAOC was the best PVP MMO ever created. Yeah it sucked leveling up the first time for the most part but once they added in the bg"s time flew by while leveling up, imo. There were alot of people that just stuck to the BG"s.

The diversity of classes that game had was pretty awesome and I dare say there was a class for almost every taste in that game. Yeah it had it"s balance issues which every mmo has but they did a pretty good considering how many they had.

And also one of the most overlooked things about the game was 8 man groups. It allowed for alot of flexibility. Personally I think no game should release with no less than 6 man groups.
 

Zehnpai

Molten Core Raider
399
1,245
Quince said:
Speaking of multi screens, I want to add a 3rd screen (so I can play, surf, and watch TV). Do i just need to install a 2nd video card and connect the 3rd monitor to that or is some voodoo with windows required?
Just connect. It"s pretty straightforward after that.
 

forge_foh

shitlord
0
0
Ngruk said:
Um, ya, sure....
*Looks for some tech dude to answer that*
What engine are you using for your game again? For whatever reason I thought it was unreal3. If thats the case there should be a good increase in sli for those wondering.
 

Citten_foh

shitlord
0
0
I keep thinking this game is going to use FPS style elements. mmorpg + fps style combat.

I could think of so many ways that could be ridiculously awesome.
 

Flight

Molten Core Raider
1,229
285
Blackguard said:
The primary game engines associated with the game are Unreal (client) and BigWorld (server).

More about all the technology we"ve announced:
[*]morpheme- Animation
Are you guys using v2.0 with NVIDIA PhysX ?
 
Hehe I ran EQ on a 2mb Diamond Monster (4mb total only 2 for 3D).

X)

Was lovely... that card costed me like 200 bucks.

As for SLi there"s ways of letting it help (using both GPU"s) without getting much in the way of the devs I believe, but it only uses the memory of the first card so it"s sorta of a energy waste (at least for MMO"s so far).

WAR was a lot of fun for like 3 months, played the heck of it, maxed a b wizard, a knight when they released and there"s not much left to see so I quit. But the concept of PQs and having any-time scenarios/bgs got Bliz to change their own design I think (at least WoW was just like WAR, anytime battlegrounds, by the time I returned).
 

Azrayne

Irenicus did nothing wrong
2,161
786
Yeah I was glad to see Blizzard implemented the ability to queue from anywhere in the world, made BG"s a whole lot less of a pain in the ass, especially on alts.

I"d like to see them steal the public quest idea for their next expansion, and in fact I"ll be amazed if they don"t.
 

Tropics_foh

shitlord
0
0
Citten said:
I keep thinking this game is going to use FPS style elements. mmorpg + fps style combat.

I could think of so many ways that could be ridiculously awesome.
God that would suck. I seriously get too much of that in WOW, I want a slow paced combat game with strategy on which spell to cast, not some twitchy "try to shoot the eyes!!!" experience. If they make a interesting world with lore written by Salvatore and overlay that with a FPS style of play I am gonna cry for one of my last hopes on a true online "Role Playing Game" ever being released again.

I will also say, EQ was probably too group requirement heavy but WOW went too far to the other direction and not one server in the entire of WOW has a fraction of the sense of community that EQ servers created. There needs to be alot more group content in these games then WOW offered at the leveling stage.

And honestly alot more of a reason to do that group content like dungeons due to not getting 5 levels in 10 hours of play and trivializing that loot already. AKA a more reasonable level curve as well in the middle between EQ and WOW, probably leaning more towards EQ"s TBH. There was a slew of cool content that people simply skipped or missed in WOW due to the level curve being so bloody quick. A game does not need to take 50 days played to max out the level but it does not need to take 5 days played either.
 

Zehnpai

Molten Core Raider
399
1,245
Tropics said:
I will also say, EQ was probably too group requirement heavy but WOW went too far to the other direction and not one server in the entire of WOW has a fraction of the sense of community that EQ servers created. There needs to be alot more group content in these games then WOW offered at the leveling stage.
Seriously? Have you not been paying attention during the last 159 pages?
 

Flight

Molten Core Raider
1,229
285
Please include options to just grind mobs rather than questing all the time.

Playing EQ1 again the last couple of months its amazing how much I don"t miss doing any quests. At all. Not even a little bit.

Thnx
 

Cadrid_foh

shitlord
0
0
Flight said:
Please include options to just grind mobs rather than questing all the time.

Playing EQ1 again the last couple of months its amazing how much I don"t miss doing any quests. At all. Not even a little bit.

Thnx
It"s nice to have some structure and cohesiveness to leveling with quests, and the option for greater rewards by exploring and paying attention to the NPC environment, but I agree with your sentiment; sometimes I just want to log in and grind out a level or two with minimal running around or seeking groups when I run out of solo quests.

Old School Example: LGuk. As a Necro in EQ I could grind mobs solo for decent xp and some loot drops. In a group we could grind a larger part of the zone for more xp and more loot drops (sorry guys trying to camp Hand/Lord/Frenzied). LGuk also held a number of quests of interest (Hi2U Raster!) so it wasn"t only xp grinding and loot farming going on, but quest-seekers too.

(Of course, EQ"s stupidly-long spawn timers/rotations/KS"ing sucked, but that"s beside the point).

It would be nice to have places in the game where folks with out-of-game priorities could park their butts and still advance in the game at a good clip (even if "active" players, doing quests and such, level faster).
 

Zehnpai

Molten Core Raider
399
1,245
Actually, grinding in WoW is faster then questing. And if you have the option for powerleveling (and who didn"t in EQ, don"t lie), instance boosting and tap grinding is insane xp.

If all you"re going to do with quests is have them reward xp, then I see no reason to not make both valid paths of progression. I"d like to see 38 do a little bit more with the questing experience then just making it a standard McMMO "Cash + XP + vendor loot /yawn" system.