Wow, no offense, this is the most ignorant statement I've ever read in my entire life browsing forums. Seriously, you've clearlynever played an MMO. You've relinquished your credibility pertaining to any MMO discussion and should really see yourself out the forum door because this is incredibly ignorant and misleading. An MMO is ONLY as good as its endgame. I can't stress enough, how over-the-top dumb this statement is.
This game has slight potential but just slight. Every year we're less and less forgiving of a miserable launch like this. You can't compare this to WoW at launch because that was NINE years ago. This is NINE freaking years later and this game is LESS polished, more buggy, more broken, and more lacking in content than MMOs made 9+ years ago? This launch was embarrassing, anyone excusing it or calling it "The norm for MMOs" has simply not played enough MMOs. They should be learning from those mistakes, not committing worse offenses.
Where this game ultimately fails is zero community options. Mics are so limited and restricted that you basically end up making a task out of simply hearing your group mates. And even then only for a short matter of time. Virtually no group quests or more difficult quests that encourage teaming up. Arkfalls are fun but silly and easy. This game offers no challenge, requires no skill, rewards no teamwork, and encourages none of the community aspects that makes an MMO successful. Questing is extremely flawed and limited and discourages you from randomly grouping with buddies as you level up. There has never been a successful MMO model, in history, that doesn't feature PROGRESSIVE loot. The fans of this game are usually the loudest ones on the forums and give the false illusion that people are "Content" with the experience, but this has clearly been a disastrous first month for the game that could spell its doom before it survives a year.
I hope they figure it out. This game could be so fun. Fix the ridiculous voice issues, make loot more progressive, fix the endless crippling bugs. Anyone who thinks its a GOOD thing that you can jump right in and compete with top level players, have clearly never been a part of a successful MMO community before. There is no potential to survive when you don't reward your hardcore players with rewards that distinguish them from an hour-a-day guy, or a new player. I got a lucky legendary Rifle on one of my first 10 Tier 2 boxes around ego 36 and I'm still using it at ego 796. Its sickening.
The bugs are also insane. My screens almost always take 5-10 seconds to load during Arkfalls (Which makes switching loadouts mid-fight next to impossible sometimes), so many random disconnects, enemies and players can take minutes to pop up despite their presence on your radar, the voice issues, I even have to close my character screen and reopen it for each loadout I want to replace a grenade for (as in, if I change loadout 1's grenade, then try Loadout 2's, Loadout 2 will keep reverting back to the previous grenade until I close and reopen the menu). Enemies losing track of players standing right in sight, disgusting enemy AI that reaches your proximity but somehow misses their melee when you back up? I can fight a Hellbug Monarch at lvl 1 with a white rifle and never ever come close to getting attacked simply by backpedaling (and easily sidestepping the roll/stomp). When an enemy reaches melee and stops to swing, you should not be able to simply step away. Strictly melee mobs are literally harmless (Like cleavers) by virtue of backpedaling. Less of a bug and more of a terrible design decision.
This is one of the smallest MMOs ever released at launch, the lack of end-game content is borderline staggering and you truly can accomplish virtually every single bit of content the game offers within 4-5 days.
Theres innovation, and theres simply missing the mark. Most of the design decisions unique to Defiance missed the mark. The developers have a choice to make this game a quick cash cow that dies this year, or a genuine front-runner in the console-MMO landscape. It will take incredible amounts of time and manpower to fix the endless list of bugs and flaws plaguing this game. I truly think they might just accept they shipped it with way too many bugs and simply milk the game long enough to honor their season pass commitments. This game was just a greedy backhanded slap to our faces, this was not ready for launch or ready to justify a 60 dollar purchase (let alone the endless encouragement to spend additional real money). This game is a brilliant business model but I truly sense no concern from the developers regarding player satisfaction.
TLDR, I know. I like to make my first post a good one
