| |
Site Navigation
Main
News
Forums
Games
Games Database
Top 100
Release List
Support Files
Features
Reviews
Previews
Interviews
Editorials
Diaries
Misc
Download
Gallery
Music
Screenshots
Videos
Miscellaneous
Staff Members
Privacy Statement
|
|
|
|
Wolfie_
Guest
|
| Ultima-X as singler-player game |
|
Do I even make mention of the moral obligation EA owe the Ultima fan community after the abomination that was Ultima-IX!!!
 |
Mon May 05, 2003 9:06 am |
|
|
dukem_eur
Guest
|
ea does nothing else but market researches. the only thing they care about is money (which of course every company should do) but remember what they did to ultima9 for the sake of making money. (compare maybe mythic, blizzard with ea) they wont get a penny from me. |
|
Mon May 05, 2003 9:46 am |
|
|
Dwango
Head Merchant
Joined: 06 May 2002
Posts: 68
|
The companies and investors can be completely wrong. Take a look at the dot com boom of the nineties. How many companies had no plans, no goal, and no business model, only to be rewarded with millions of dollars of investment. That didn't go so well, did it.
Same thing here. MMORPGs are going to be a great part of gaming, and there is going to be money in it. But not as much as the developers think. Eventually, most of the next gen MMoRPGs are going to go broke. A few will survive and make big money. I just hope the survivors are actually good games, and not just the most derivative lowest commone denominator to get the most players.
As for EA, I don't understand why everyone is so shocked. EA has done nothing good for the Ultima trademark. Richard Garriott has stated as much in his latest interviews, criticizing the moves his dev team were forced to make by EA, which led to mediocre games VIII and IX. The last good Ultima was VII, back in 1992-93, the only part of the series to spawn its own sequal. Why EA thought moving away from that model was a good idea is beyond me. And using Ultima X instead of Ultima Online 2 is obviously the lack of understanding of the fan base many game companies have shown lately (Interplay's FO:BoS) Some genius obviously believes using the existing series (which Ultima IX ended) will make more money than re-using the failed UO2 moniker (project still-born). I bet he even has research papers and pretty charts backing him/her up. To me, Origin is dead.
_________________
Ha, Ha, Ha.... Oh, you were SERIOUS?
-Dwango |
|
Mon May 05, 2003 5:23 pm |
|
|
Scoundrel
Head Merchant
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 60
Location: Istanbul, Turkey |
| If there is one right way, why insist.......? |
|
It seems many people think the same way...
Personally, I think an Ultima game must stick to the story and have characters like Shamino, Iolo and Dupre.
I am an old Ultima fan and I like playing whatever Ultima, but this MMORPG idea doesn't sound good.
I don't even like to see Final Fantasy XI as an online game only.
If Ultimas were satisfactory, why are many fans working on Ultima Reconstruction projects hmm?
They just don't make games for our taste anymore...
Personally my favourite was both Ultima7s with expansions.
Also U6 and Savage Empire were similar in style and they were good for their own time....... |
|
Mon May 05, 2003 5:43 pm |
|
|
Drakton
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 14 Oct 2001
Posts: 195
Location: Monterrey, México |
This is how some other peopole sees this issue:
"For years now, game designers and publishers have endeavored to capture the hearts of gamers worldwide. These days, it seems that no genre is more popular than the MMORPG. Sony Online Entertainment leads the world in online gaming with its vast assortment of MMORPG games, most of which receive constant support from their ever-growing community. But, look out Sony - Microsoft Game Studios, Sony's number one competitor on the game market, has kicked off a MMO project, called Mythica"
(Full article here:) http://www.actiontrip.com/previews/mythica.phtml
_________________
"You may win a thousand fights, but you can only lose one" (Zaknafein to Drizzt - The Dark Elf Trilogy.) |
|
Tue May 06, 2003 3:50 am |
|
|
Gharrick
Village Dweller
Joined: 06 May 2003
Posts: 4
|
The MMORPG industry seems to be working like others. First, a couple of companies develop MMORPGs and make decent money with it. Other companies see this market and rush to do the same. That’s where the second generation wave comes in. But the market obviously can’t bear that whole rush of companies so many will fail. Then later it will settle at some stable level.
It’s not just that companies make money with MMORPGs; it’s that they make regular, consistent revenue because they are subscription-based. This makes operation of the company smoother since you have a more predictable revenue stream than the punctuated kind you have with products that are released every so often. I’m not a marketing-type person, but this is how it seems to work. And it’s not just the game companies, believe me. Companies in other markets have also tried to figure out how they could sell their product on a subscription basis, including companies I’ve worked for. Hey, if you’re playing Dark Age of Camelot now, you’re paying them $132-$156 a year in subscription fees not counting expansion packs. That’s like three single-player games. Could they develop three single player games in a year and sell them to you with the same number of employees? I don’t know but I would doubt it.
I’ve also been an Ultima fan and I hope they don’t make an Ultima X MMORPG. |
|
Tue May 06, 2003 4:44 am |
|
|
Scoundrel
Head Merchant
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 60
Location: Istanbul, Turkey |
So, instead of making really innovative or at least significantly different products, companies choose to develop imitative products, which are much less costly and has a higher chance of survival than something totally new and unknown.
They all try to apply the rule of capitalism: ALWAYS try to make more profit.
It used to be FPS games in the past like clones of doom,quake and now tides are favoring MMORPG games.
Oh well..............  |
|
Tue May 06, 2003 9:41 pm |
|
|
Llama
High Emperor
Joined: 11 Oct 2001
Posts: 509
Location: Earth |
quote:
I also wonder, if Online games are really so popular, as most people here seem not to like them,
Massive Multiplayer games are more popular then anything in the PC market right now. I don't even see how you can question their firm grasp in the PC gaming market. The people here, and your friends are a drop of water in the ocean of PC gamers. EQ still has hunderds of thousands of subscribers, which is much more then any company can say about a game 5+ years old.
With the majority of online gamers being on broadband and the single player market saturated with piracy, how can a company, looking to make a profit turn away from a side of the market that is the strongest right now?
With the freedom found in MMORPG's and the sheer diversity in player choices, the games are much larger in scope then single player games, and are so easy to expand upon that it draws more players in.
quote:
Personally, I think an Ultima game must stick to the story and have characters like Shamino, Iolo and Dupre.
I am an old Ultima fan and I like playing whatever Ultima, but this MMORPG idea doesn't sound good.
I don't even like to see Final Fantasy XI as an online game only.
Yet Ultima Online is one of the most successful MMORPG's in history, right behind EQ.
Final Fantasy XI was so popular in Japan at launch, that the servers crashed out completely when the wave of people started logging in. They had to start all over...
quote:
They just don't make games for our taste anymore...
Yeah, now that we can finally taste a real RPG, people don't like them. Afterall, the very concept of roleplaying is the ability to play the role of someone. In single player games, you are hindered by scripted encounters and NPC's controlled by predictable, boring AI. In a MMORPG you have interaction with people that you can't predict, no silly dialog trees to fumble through and no linear quest set forth infront of you, while the protagonist gets insanely powerful.
_________________
tired of people's shit |
|
Wed May 07, 2003 1:05 am |
|
|
Garrett
Joined: 13 Jul 2001
Posts: 74
Location: Munich, Germany |
Llama, please watch your tongue 
Having a different opinion than everyone else so far does not entitle you to call our opinions 'shit', does it? |
|
Wed May 07, 2003 7:10 am |
|
|
corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
I have never bought or played a MMORPG and I have no intention of ever doing so. Playing NWN online with a group of people is about my limit. When I buy a game, that's it. I won't pay extra for the privilege of playing it. I have all the old Ultimas and I'm currently playing the U4 remake with the NWN engine, though it's VERY buggy. I LOVE the Ultima series and plan to play all the remakes when they're done; I only bought Dungeon Seige so I could play the planned U5 remake using that engine. To see U10 turned into a MMORPG is sacrilege of the highest order!! 
_________________
If God said it, then that settles it!
I don't use Smileys, I use Emoticons!!
 |
|
Wed May 07, 2003 9:13 am |
|
|
Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
quote:
Originally posted by Llama
Massive Multiplayer games are more popular then anything in the PC market right now. I don't even see how you can question their firm grasp in the PC gaming market.
I have to disagree with you. There are 4 or so large online games with UO and Everquest having something around 400k players down to DAoC with around 220k. Most other MMOG are languishing with figures like 30k being common. I'm excluding the Korean Lineage numbers because I don't believe it's representative of the rest of the market.
There are many, many games that have sold more than every MMORPG added together from Diablo to The Sims to Rollercoaster Tycoon. RPG's like Baldur's Gate and NWN have sold over a million copies. My guess is the total MMO market (excluding Asia) is around 2 million players - Enter The Matrix has 4 million copies on order to ship to retail next week.
I can certainly understand that developers like the idea of a regular subscription income over 3-5 years so a whole slew of them are in development. However, I think in most cases new games will simply steal players from existing titles rather than expanding the genre by any significant amount. The exception to this may be rare games like Star Wars Galaxies. |
|
Wed May 07, 2003 9:44 am |
|
|
Scoundrel
Head Merchant
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 60
Location: Istanbul, Turkey |
I agree with Garrett.
Llama, you didn't have to attack my thoughts. I just like the rpg games the way they are. I don't say "ban all the MMORPGs" or "all MMORPGs are bad games". It is just wrong not being able to play a new game offline. I like playing games both single and multiplayer. Don't forget that MANY people also like to play singleplayer games, including the ones that like to play MMORPGs.......You get the point. |
|
Wed May 07, 2003 5:15 pm |
|
|
Llama
High Emperor
Joined: 11 Oct 2001
Posts: 509
Location: Earth |
quote:
Llama, please watch your tongue
Having a different opinion than everyone else so far does not entitle you to call our opinions 'shit', does it?
That's been in my sig for a year or so. Why is it just now being noticed?
quote:
I have to disagree with you. There are 4 or so large online games with UO and Everquest having something around 400k players down to DAoC with around 220k. Most other MMOG are languishing with figures like 30k being common. I'm excluding the Korean Lineage numbers because I don't believe it's representative of the rest of the market.
...
Have you looked at top sales charts? The massive online games are the ones selling like crazy. BF1942 is still the #1 PC game. Regarding EQ, how many games can you say 400,000 people still play on a daily basis, with as much passion as they did when they first opened the box? Just because fewer people play the game now, versus when it was released doesn't mean it wasn't more successful then nearly every other PC game to date. Look at Diablo 2, millions of units sold, yet Bnet only get 20k-50k logins a day. You can see this statistic when you log onto Bnet. Most of the time it's around 10-12 thousand people with a thousand or so games in progress, the rest are just people sitting in channels while they are away from home.
Face it, online games dominate the market regardless. Single player games simply do not generate the interest, or profit that an online game will. Simply due to piracy, and the short, boring unexpandable nature of a single player module.
quote:
There are many, many games that have sold more than every MMORPG added together from Diablo to The Sims to Rollercoaster Tycoon. RPG's like Baldur's Gate and NWN have sold over a million copies. My guess is the total MMO market (excluding Asia) is around 2 million players - Enter The Matrix has 4 million copies on order to ship to retail next week.
There are way more then 2 million online gamers. Currently, MMOG generates $500,000,000 a year, worldwide. By 2005/2006 that number is estimated to be at 2.7 billion dollars. At $10 a pop that's a ballpark figure of 50,000,000 online gamers...PAYING TO PLAY right now. Enter the Matrix has a whopping 4 millions preorders, yet it will be played for a month or two, then put on a shelf and rarely see the light of the laser in the console again. Hell, Vice City had 6 million preorders and even that game can be found in the hundereds on the "used" shelves in stores all over the US (I don't know about other countries, cause I don't live in them).
quote:
agree with Garrett.
Llama, you didn't have to attack my thoughts. I just like the rpg games the way they are. I don't say "ban all the MMORPGs" or "all MMORPGs are bad games". It is just wrong not being able to play a new game offline. I like playing games both single and multiplayer. Don't forget that MANY people also like to play singleplayer games, including the ones that like to play MMORPGs.......You get the point.
You didn't make one... 
_________________
tired of people's shit |
|
Wed May 07, 2003 10:03 pm |
|
|
Loremaster
Village Leader
Joined: 31 Mar 2002
Posts: 88
Location: Hampshire, England |
Let's be honest, Morrowind is the only really decent offline RPG to appear in several years. Baldur's Gate 2 was a good game, but the isometric engine has been flogged to death and games like Icewind Dale and Pools of Radiance are tedious to exteme. Meanwhile the traditional market leaders like Might and Magic, Wizardry and Ultima all failed to deliver updated sequels of real quality. Pale immitations like Warriors and Wizards (or was it Wizards and Warriors?) have come and gone. NWN looked dated the day it was released.
What the online games have brought is a sense of immersiveness coupled with a sense of community. Even playing Morrowind - which I love - I find it empty because there is no-one else around and everything becomes predictable. The unpredictability of an online game is its other strength. You may plan on logging in to do one thing but find yourself headed in a totally different direction by events you hadn't foreseen.
Online games are here to stay, and none more so than SWG which is looking great and playing really well - more on that no doubt once the NDA has been lifted but it's already clear from public information that the game moves graphics-based RPGs and text-based MUDs much closer together in terms of depth of skills etc than anything before it.
Of course, some online games also fail to deliver, and I doubt that AC2, Eve Online, Earth and Beyond and Shadowbane will all see the year out. At least one of those will fail.
Sadly, the offline games have largely failed to deliver, and until they do - the cumbersome controls of Gothic being replicated in Gothic 2 is a classic example of a developer shooting himself in the foot - they simply won't be able to compete with online games which have the advantage of being constantly evolving so that monthly updates/patches can tweak and fine-tune the game in a way that offline game developers can't begin to dream of. The fact is that only Morrowind has updated graphics worthy of a modern offline release, whilst even Rubies of Eventide which has been 9 years or so in the making as an online game has graphics that kick most offline games into the dust.
Now if Sirtech and New World Computing were still making RPGs and bought the use of the Morrowind engine things might be looking up a bit... |
|
Wed May 07, 2003 10:56 pm |
|
|
Scoundrel
Head Merchant
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 60
Location: Istanbul, Turkey |
Good thing I learned about your character, I didn't know that you like to get on people's nerves. Perhaps you just want to draw yourself attention. Whatever, I don't totally disagree with your thoughts. BUT I DON'T CARE HOW MANY PEOPLE PLAY A GAME DAILY or I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH PROFIT COMPANIES MAKE...
All I want and care is this:
Ultima-X SHOULD be single-player with optional mp support.
This is not a fact, it's a wish. ( I hope you got the point NOW )
It is not a bright idea to quote this paragraph and say: "but there are some million people playing online everyday paying some million dollars"... I said I just don't care what other people like and do...
Do you even like old Ultimas, the way they were?
Why do you care about the capitalized info I wrote above?
Do you work for EA or something that makes you pursue profit? 
Oh by the way I agree with Loremaster's ideas about Morrowind that it's the only really decent offline RPG to appear in several years. Maybe I accept the idea of SWG as MMORPG, but not Ultima-X. Just make it sp first. Then do whatever you want with it. I would really love to see another grand sp from Ultima series.
AND WHY DON'T WE MAKE A POLL AND SEE HOW MANY PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO SEE ULTIMA-X: AS A SINGLE PLAYER GAME OR AS A MMORPG???????? |
|
Wed May 07, 2003 11:54 pm |
|
|
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next
All times are GMT. The time now is Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:27 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
