"Potential" is such an overrated word.

[Cynical Jester]

I also think that "old school" devs made such good games because the technology was easier to manipulate. It's a lot easier to program a plumber that runs and jumps on enemies, and occasionally spits fireballs, then it is to create and maintain a AAA MMO on two international servers, on three different platforms.

Not to mention you have to code everything in about 10 different languages these days, which requires a much bigger team with individuals who specialize in certain areas. Also a lot bigger chance for things to get messed up somewhere.

I think people also don't realize programming languages are ever evolving too, which can break things that may have not been broke before due to a new way the language handles it.. Granted you can look at all the change logs etc.. but you might miss something in that huge *** flow chart.

[Mrobusto]

Typing on a phone sucks. Makes me immediately seem like a 10 year engrish speaker. Yes, I said engrish.

[Insanityplea]

As bad as it sounds, it has a lot to do with the player base now compared to then.

Back in the day the player base for MMOs was vastly smaller and had patience because the older (age) gamers were around for C-64 and a number of them had coding backgrounds themselves and they would speak and younger gamers would listen. This would inform the younger folks like myself with no coding background or knowledge that "**** happens, give them time to fix it" and we would listen because back then, kids respected their elders a hell of a lot more.

Now gamers have no patience, no tolerance towards devs and things going wrong. They dont listen to people who may have a general idea of whats going on based on their own knowledge and background.

Now its not ALL player base issues. Some companies pandered WAY to much to their player base and the whiny children when making their games or changing things around in patches. This caused new-gen gamers to go "Oh, if we ***** enough, we can get our way!" and now people that are willing to give games time are stuck with a majority of gamers that ***** and moan until they get their way.

What these issues did was make it nearly impossible for any game that does not hold to the low standards of new-gen gamers nearly impossible to launch. Reason being, if it has any form of challenge, they whine, if it has any form of content that requires brain activity, they whine...If they game does not conform to the standard "GIMME SHINIES NOW!" system, they whine. Thus making many games with potential die in conceptional phases or within 3-6months after launch. All because devs try to do new things, get *****ed down by gamers and then as players leave, the executives waltz in and say "MAKE A WOW CLONE, WE WANTS MONIES *******S!" and we are left with a shell of a game.

Its how it is now and its ******ed. Only indi companies have balls but they cant get the player base support they need to make a large enough game to show the world "HAHA! WE DID IT YOU PRICKS!".

Lifes a *****, aint it?

[Malachi]

This thread has Potential. I hope it delivers.

rofl

You guys are forgetting that the "old" mmorpgs such as EverQuest and Ultima Online didn't actually have that large of a playerbase. They were incredibly grindy, required unbelievable amounts of time to get anything done in them, were only intended for hardcore players who had no life, and were not actually all that filled with features, graphics, or any other goodies we have today. SWToR at it's smallest playerbase had more players than Ultima Online ever did.

And btw, one of the most legendary game developers, Richard Garriot - creator of Ultima Online, is a horrible game developer. Just look at Tabula Rasa. I don't want the 'old school' developers anywhere near Defiance.

[Adryn]

Way, WAY too much blame is placed at the dev's feet for the most part, every game forum you go to they are horrendously insulted. They can only work with what resources they are allocated.
True that great devs can produced fantastic results with limited resources but there is a line, more accountability needs to be given to publishers and the like.

[bobinsen]

dont know what that games like now it was dieing on its feet when i unsubscribed. (swtor)
what i meant to say was any mmo that simply want to steal warcrafts sucess by replicating it, is in trouble.

[Cynical Jester]

As bad as it sounds, it has a lot to do with the player base now compared to then.

Back in the day the player base for MMOs was vastly smaller and had patience because the older (age) gamers were around for C-64 and a number of them had coding backgrounds themselves and they would speak and younger gamers would listen. This would inform the younger folks like myself with no coding background or knowledge that "**** happens, give them time to fix it" and we would listen because back then, kids respected their elders a hell of a lot more.

Now gamers have no patience, no tolerance towards devs and things going wrong. They dont listen to people who may have a general idea of whats going on based on their own knowledge and background.

Now its not ALL player base issues. Some companies pandered WAY to much to their player base and the whiny children when making their games or changing things around in patches. This caused new-gen gamers to go "Oh, if we ***** enough, we can get our way!" and now people that are willing to give games time are stuck with a majority of gamers that ***** and moan until they get their way.

What these issues did was make it nearly impossible for any game that does not hold to the low standards of new-gen gamers nearly impossible to launch. Reason being, if it has any form of challenge, they whine, if it has any form of content that requires brain activity, they whine...If they game does not conform to the standard "GIMME SHINIES NOW!" system, they whine. Thus making many games with potential die in conceptional phases or within 3-6months after launch. All because devs try to do new things, get *****ed down by gamers and then as players leave, the executives waltz in and say "MAKE A WOW CLONE, WE WANTS MONIES *******S!" and we are left with a shell of a game.

Its how it is now and its ******ed. Only indi companies have balls but they cant get the player base support they need to make a large enough game to show the world "HAHA! WE DID IT YOU PRICKS!".

Lifes a *****, aint it?

Very well said... I was going to approach this post like this.. no point now..

[Kettlewell]

Most failures have the word potential thrown about haha