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Hopefully they're going to keep this in unreleased alpha form after they do the final wipe, because I don't think it'll be ready for release this year, next year, or the year after.
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Jan 30, 2016 12:49
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Node posted:What don't you like about it, besides the tutorial? It's a very bad game. The graphics, animations, and models are an ugly, low-fidelity mess. The characters look cartoonish, but the armors are supposed to be detailed. Monster models look like they come from a PS1-era game and are re-used tens of times (wolf / large wolf / timber wolf / grey wolf / etc), but player housing has a huge array of unique models. Being as charitable as I can be, I'll say this: the art direction is at the very least unclear. You can scream "ALPHAAAAAAAAAA" in response to the above, which is fair. But the look and feel is so bad, from the bones up, that I don't think the rallying cry of "alpha" is going to work to handwave away those problems. But, sure, let's give them the complete benefit of the doubt here: let's say that there's a massive graphical and animation overhaul coming soon that will fix everything above. The game itself still isn't very compelling. It's not an open-world game. It's based on "scenes", meaning you travel the empty overland map and dive into individual towns, like a JRPG from the 90s. This unnecessary and awkward transitioning does little but force the already-tiny playerbase to divide into even smaller chunks. And each tiny little scene is bordered by more of those ugly setpiece graphics - one person called it a "billboard forest" and that's the best description I can think of. See that mountain in the distance? You can't get to it. It's just painted scenery. Combat feels weightless, and the previously-mentioned animation problems don't help at all. You end up scuttling around trying to mash your character model into the wolf model and hoping that your swing animation plays. Skyrim melee combat has more weight to it, and that's saying something. OK, so combat is bad. So what? Like UO, the majority of the game is about housing and crafting. Combat isn't really the focus of the game. It's all about long-term crafting and housing, right? Much like Star Citizen, though, the whales on the forums R E F U S E to admit that. They claim that you'll be able to bootstraps your way up to a house (ship), and you shouldn't need a house in order to have fun anyway, and housing really is just for the extra special people and you can maybe even rent one of their six houses if you're too poor to buy one. Just like Star Citizen! Now the devs are in that hard place that CIG is in. Housing is a big part of the game, but if they let new players enjoy it, then their whales will feel slighted. If they lock it down to just their whales, then nobody new is going to join the game. It's the exact same goddamn problem. Check out the housing prices on SotA's site: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=35139. The cheapest house is $275. Full disclosure: I didn't back the game, but I bought it on Steam to check it out. So I am not a bitter whale looking at thousands of flushed dollars. I'm just a person following the funny in the Star Citizen thread, seeing really strong parallels to this game. Some positive things: I really like the idea behind the combat system, but I'm one of the few. It's based on "cards", or actions you can slot into your own hotbar. I also like use-based skill systems, which SotA employs. You can unlock more powerful versions of skills by using their lower-level versions. Thursday Next fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Jan 30, 2016 |
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Jan 30, 2016 18:26
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Node posted:What don't you like about it, besides the tutorial? The tutorial doesn't really teach you anything. It took reading though the book in the inventory to figure out I didn't have auto-attack going. Of course the book doesn't say how to turn it on. I had to go in though the menu to find out what the key binding was.
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Jan 31, 2016 00:13
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Thursday Next posted:It's not an open-world game. It's based on "scenes", meaning you travel the empty overland map and dive into individual towns, like a JRPG from the 90s. This unnecessary and awkward transitioning does little but force the already-tiny playerbase to divide into even smaller chunks. And each tiny little scene is bordered by more of those ugly setpiece graphics - one person called it a "billboard forest" and that's the best description I can think of. See that mountain in the distance? You can't get to it. It's just painted scenery.
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Jan 31, 2016 14:11
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Thursday Next posted:It's a very bad game. 
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Jan 31, 2016 16:36
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Alexander DeLarge posted:This is the ultimate flaw in design, I understand why they went this route, but it really does suck because any other problems with the game can be fixed. Yeah - this is the thing that kills me. A true open-world exploration can keep me hooked for a long time. Shroud of the Avatar, on the other hand, looks and plays as though it's a PS2 game trying to get around the severe memory and processing limitations of a console. They re-use assets like I said (wolf / large wolf / grey wolf / timber wolf / dick wolf) and every character looks about the same. It only has to load a tiny area (the "scenes") at a time. It's an old-fashioned mess of muddy graphics, poor textures, and bad animations. It's horrible missed opportunity. I played Ultima Online so much. Hell, it - along with MUDs - got me into software development. I'm not too proud to admit I'd probably be a whale in this dumb video game if it were any good. I want it to succeed with all of my heart. But it's just not good. Doctor Schnabel posted:unlike this post, which is v. good 
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Feb 21, 2016 20:09
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I now have all the grand tour hats. Anyone else?
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Feb 24, 2016 11:35
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Thursday Next posted:Yeah - this is the thing that kills me. A true open-world exploration can keep me hooked for a long time. Shroud of the Avatar, on the other hand, looks and plays as though it's a PS2 game trying to get around the severe memory and processing limitations of a console. They re-use assets like I said (wolf / large wolf / grey wolf / timber wolf / dick wolf) and every character looks about the same. It only has to load a tiny area (the "scenes") at a time. It's an old-fashioned mess of muddy graphics, poor textures, and bad animations. It's really a shame that RG didn't just go all in with a proper UO successor instead of this "it's an Ultima successor but it's also an Ultima Online successor, it can be played online, but it can be played offline too, but it can also be played online offline as a private shard for you and your friends but it interfaces with the live server too" nonsense that clearly restricted their design in a significant way. The two million they received was definitely more than enough to get to early access or some sort of extremely impressive prototype to approach Kickstarter with a second funding campaign. I mean, I'll still enjoy the game but not because of the game itself, the community is going to be what saves it all. Oh well, we still have Shards, Albion and Chronicles of Elyria. Alexander DeLarge fucked around with this message at 11:59 on Feb 24, 2016 |
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Feb 24, 2016 11:52
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I dunno, I'd rather he gone with an Ultima successor than a UO successor. Crappy MMO's that goons will abandon after the first month are a dime a dozen. Good single player RPG's are getting hard to find.
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Feb 24, 2016 14:57
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Rhymenoserous posted:I dunno, I'd rather he gone with an Ultima successor than a UO successor. Crappy MMO's that goons will abandon after the first month are a dime a dozen. Good single player RPG's are getting hard to find. That's what I was hoping would happen. I kinda regret pledging so much.
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Feb 24, 2016 15:32
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Rhymenoserous posted:I dunno, I'd rather he gone with an Ultima successor than a UO successor. Crappy MMO's that goons will abandon after the first month are a dime a dozen. Good single player RPG's are getting hard to find. This all feels pretty true to me. Also jesus loving christ I get an email once a week for like three years since I donated and this weeks email is that to support someone with cancer (which is good) they are selling in game bright neon pink furry fetish hats, boom boxes, and some other things (which is really loving awful oh god) Is there really not a better way to raise money for something? And didn't we already raise money for this vaporware game that is literally 3 years away from being playable still? I love Richard Garriot, still play Ultima games as an adult, I love Lum and send him gifts in LoTRO, but this feels like a personal project is becoming so personal that they have given up any hope or intention of actually fulfilling the wants/needs of the general RPG community or even most of the people who personally funded their game. I want to love this game, but I give them 50 dollars or something and years later they're going hey could we get some more bucks??>? Weekly update: We threw a pizza party. You could literally close your eyes, spend five dollars on an RPG on steam during sale weeks, and get a better more complete game than Shroud of The Avatar.
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Feb 27, 2016 20:55
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Rhymenoserous posted:I dunno, I'd rather he gone with an Ultima successor than a UO successor. Crappy MMO's that goons will abandon after the first month are a dime a dozen. Good single player RPG's are getting hard to find. I'd rather play either, to be honest. I like single-player (western) RPGs, and I like the first few weeks of a new MMO before everything has been cataloged, categorized, and captured. If they'd chosen one direction for this game, and stuck with it, they could have gotten funding from people looking for that type of game. But of course, much like Star Citizen, selling dreams to ~everyone~ is more profitable, short term. I don't know what they could do at this point to fix this game, and that sucks. It just isn't fun. They've painted themselves squarely into a corner with the whale-baiting house sales.
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Mar 2, 2016 00:13
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lol if u believed this was more than a kickstarter me-too
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Mar 2, 2016 00:14
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Blazing Zero posted:lol if u believed this was more than a kickstarter me-too Color me fooled, I guess. I think he is one of two names I would almost always give support to (Brad McQuaid being the other  .) Unless Shroud of the Avatar 3: My Little Pony Returns is REALLY bad.
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Mar 2, 2016 00:57
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Blazing Zero posted:lol if u believed this was more than a kickstarter me-too Fortunately, I didn't pledge anything on Kickstarter. I stopped that poo poo years ago. I'm only out the Steam game fee - which I'd still rather see refunded, but ah well.
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Mar 2, 2016 01:34
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Thursday Next posted:I'd rather play either, to be honest. I like single-player (western) RPGs, and I like the first few weeks of a new MMO before everything has been cataloged, categorized, and captured. If they'd chosen one direction for this game, and stuck with it, they could have gotten funding from people looking for that type of game. But of course, much like Star Citizen, selling dreams to ~everyone~ is more profitable, short term. While I've been off an on this game for every other release I think that with every release (which is roughly every month) they bring more features and more fine-tuning into the game. It is still a long way before you can release this but at least I'm seeing some kind of direction. I was one of the first backers, but did not spend any other money besides the starters $30 or $40... In the current release after like 5-9 Hours you have enough Gold to buy a house and can go grind to get all the items you want in... without any further money spent. Since both (SC and sota) started roughly the same time, I think that sota made way more progress and completed way (!) more features. The basics, economy, fundamental gameplay features and general looks are all there and will be only altered. with star citizen though we only got a non-working wireframe of a non-specified hull of a game.
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Mar 5, 2016 10:11
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drluv posted:While I've been off an on this game for every other release I think that with every release (which is roughly every month) they bring more features and more fine-tuning into the game. It is still a long way before you can release this but at least I'm seeing some kind of direction. I was one of the first backers, but did not spend any other money besides the starters $30 or $40... In the current release after like 5-9 Hours you have enough Gold to buy a house and can go grind to get all the items you want in... without any further money spent. Since both (SC and sota) started roughly the same time, I think that sota made way more progress and completed way (!) more features. The basics, economy, fundamental gameplay features and general looks are all there and will be only altered. with star citizen though we only got a non-working wireframe of a non-specified hull of a game. Keep in mind that they're not doing anything outside Unity's limitations. Anyone could make this, while Star Citizen is this crazy sandbox MMO in space where they're doing phasing multiplayer on a massive scale, seamless space to ground environments/gameplay, modifying the engine to the extent that it's hardly CryTek's thing anymore. Not to mention Squadron 42 which is something else entirely. You can justify what's going on with Star Citizen given the scale, but I really can't justify how this still looks/feels/plays like a pre-alpha when they're not going above and beyond what they're working with, especially with that kind of a budget.
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Mar 5, 2016 12:04
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Alexander DeLarge posted:Keep in mind that they're not doing anything outside Unity's limitations. Anyone could make this, while Star Citizen is this crazy sandbox MMO in space where they're doing phasing multiplayer on a massive scale, seamless space to ground environments/gameplay, modifying the engine to the extent that it's hardly CryTek's thing anymore. Not to mention Squadron 42 which is something else entirely. Engine hold-backs is nothing I care about as a customer/backer. Right now SC is more about funding coders to modify an engine to get anything to work. (which, in my opinion, wont happen). There is virtually no gameplay, no core game mechanics (like economy, grind, respawning etc.) nothing at all. If you back SOTA now you will see what you get wenn it is released (or what you get after the final wipe). You see where this is getting because the rest is (compared to SC for example) getting some minor add-ons working: Some prettiert animations, more character customizations, GUI overhaul etc. It's mostly based on already existing and working features. And you get a ton of more content / features /add ons on a monthly basis. Of course, maybe I'm playing it wrong, but I wont invest more into this game than the $40ish dollars and from what I see at this very moment: I wont need to pay more to enjoy the game. (and it is still 3 months before the final wipe)
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Mar 5, 2016 13:18
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Alexander DeLarge posted:Keep in mind that they're not doing anything outside Unity's limitations. Anyone could make this, while Star Citizen is this crazy sandbox MMO in space where they're doing phasing multiplayer on a massive scale, seamless space to ground environments/gameplay, modifying the engine to the extent that it's hardly CryTek's thing anymore. Not to mention Squadron 42 which is something else entirely.  I like how the ships twitch and clip into the ground when you approach them in Star Citizen. They are truly pushing Crytek's engine to the limit.
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Mar 5, 2016 13:23
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Richard Garriot could totally beat up Chris Roberts
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Mar 6, 2016 00:23
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Node posted:Richard Garriot could totally beat up Chris Roberts Absolutely agree. Even if Shroud of the Avatar is no longer a game I really can defend, I still respect Richard Garriot.
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Mar 6, 2016 01:55
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Node posted:Richard Garriot could totally beat up Chris Roberts  Garriott seems like a guy who would have at least pretended to fight at some point, possibly with wooden swords. He's practically Conan the barbarian compared to Roberts.
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Mar 6, 2016 02:08
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Richard unironically lived in a real castle in Texas and then sold it so he can goto space.
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Mar 6, 2016 02:24
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I said come in! posted:Absolutely agree. Even if Shroud of the Avatar is no longer a game I really can defend, I still respect Richard Garriot. I unironically agree.
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Mar 6, 2016 03:06
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There's videographic evidence of LB and Starr Long swordfighting.
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Mar 6, 2016 03:10
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I've been to a bunch of LB's dragoncon panels and honestly he seems like a really chill cool guy who palys up his weird Ren Fair persona as a goof
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Mar 6, 2016 05:27
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Unctuous Cretin posted:There's videographic evidence of LB and Starr Long swordfighting. There was also the time a crazy guy invaded Richard's castle and Richard literally held him off with an Uzi (because, of course, it was RIGHT THERE) while waiting for the cops to arrive. quote:Richard Garriott is watching comets from the observatory atop Britannia Manor, his home in Austin, when he sees a shadowy figure scale the security fence and cross the lawn. The gargoyles with the glowing eyes on the roof don't deter the intruder; neither does the working cannon at the front door. Then the prowler hurls a large stone through a glass door leading to an indoor grotto, the one with hot-and-cold-running rain showers. Although the foyer under the observatory stairs is filled with crossbows, battle axes, armor, and swords, Garriott reaches for his Uzi. ("It's the only weapon I know how to load," he explains later.) The intruder is climbing the stairs, ignoring warnings to stop, so Garriott fires a warning round above the intruder's head. The bullet blows a hole clean through the house. http://www.fastcompany.com/60790/do-you-want-play (The same crazy guy later died naked in a Sea World tank after trying to molest a whale.)
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Mar 6, 2016 05:47
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Lum_ posted:There was also the time a crazy guy invaded Richard's castle and Richard literally held him off with an Uzi (because, of course, it was RIGHT THERE) while waiting for the cops to arrive. Holy loving poo poo that is amazing edit: Obviously I'm glad he was okay but that story is incredible on multiple levels
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Mar 6, 2016 06:37
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quote:Garriott reaches for his Uzi. ("It's the only weapon I know how to load," he explains later.)
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Mar 6, 2016 07:25
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Stefan Prodan posted:I've been to a bunch of LB's dragoncon panels and honestly he seems like a really chill cool guy who palys up his weird Ren Fair persona as a goof I've always figured he was a very chill person considering the sort of hobbies he is into and what he does for a career. I really miss Origin Systems though and wish Ultima was still a thing. Ultima Online is still going but it really sucks now.
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Mar 6, 2016 17:18
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I said come in! posted:I've always figured he was a very chill person considering the sort of hobbies he is into and what he does for a career. I really miss Origin Systems though and wish Ultima was still a thing. Ultima Online is still going but it really sucks now. It's tempting to subscribe for a month just to see how different everything is. But it might just be sad for that very reason. The years of early UO are easily the best years of my gaming life and I'd give almost anything to experience it all over again.
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Mar 7, 2016 06:56
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Node posted:It's tempting to subscribe for a month just to see how different everything is. But it might just be sad for that very reason. Have you considered some of the Freeshards? Some of them try to bring back the t2a Experience...
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Mar 7, 2016 14:25
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There are places I can go where disco never died, but when I show up I'll still be an old and gay dinosaur. Short of falling asleep and waking up 20 years ago, there's no way to recapture the ~*original UO*~
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Mar 7, 2016 15:02
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Fun things I did in Ultima Online: Made a tinker character who could make amazing traps, the best of which were explosion and deadly poison traps. With these I was able to.... -----make a bunch of treasure chests and trap them. Then I would take a trip to the dungeon that had a lot of dragons. At one point in the games life when you killed a dragon it would drop an actual treasure chest with loot inside. If you were fast enough you could swap out the real chest for a trapped chest after someone killed one and the unknowing victim would blow themselves up. It was even better to do this while in plain sight because it looked like you were stealing their loot so they would run up with the quickness and grab poo poo not even thinking. -----run a casino with trapped boxes at brit bank. "Let's play Shell Game. One in three is a winner!" Actually all 3 are deadly poison trapped. Hilarity ensues when some smartass steals your box and table thinking they're being a dick and they get out dicked. -----kill asian players with 100% success and certainty. For some reason, on asian shards it was a crime or something to throw random items on the ground. If someone littered, there would immediately be 10 or more people moving to pick that poo poo up and dispose of it. The cities were pristine compared to the NA shards and in a lot of places were decorated differently. So I would throw out garbage and sneak trapped boxes in and sure enough someone would instantly trigger them. Constantly. Even right after witnessing someone dying to poison right in front of them. -----trap the personal chests of the people I used to play with because they were being dicks IRL at work that day. Especially their chests that contained reagents because they would always open that without thinking. Kill people on boats and.... -----loot all of their belongings and send the ship off in a random direction out to sea and their ghost was powerless to stop it. Odds are it would run aground on some random landmass that would never be found. -----steal so many small boats from people we could fill the entire river by brit bank with them. Then load them all with piles of fish which would lag the poo poo out of the server. Break into peoples houses. -----camped inside the house of a bunch of dudes that PKed one of my tradeskill characters as a ghost only to respawn *stat loss* and open the door for my 5 friends waiting outside. -----stack boxes so high it was possible to fall down inside a tower or keep. -----hide outside peoples houses, steal their housekey as they came out the door, loot their poo poo and "sell" the house later to someone else, shifting all blame to them.
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Mar 7, 2016 15:20
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And that's precisely why UO can never really be recaptured. You need people willing to subject themselves to your rear end in a top hat behavior.
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Mar 7, 2016 20:03
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I too miss griefing in UO 
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Mar 7, 2016 21:23
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Freakazoid_ posted:And that's precisely why UO can never really be recaptured. You need people willing to subject themselves to your rear end in a top hat behavior. The real problem is that you have to have an actually good game in the first place.
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Mar 8, 2016 04:03
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Mazreal posted:The real problem is that you have to have an actually good game in the first place. Yep. UO was an incredible game, and since this was the first large scale MMOG, Origin had no idea what the "rules" were. It turns out, people hate being PKed, having thieves (like me) steal keys, weapons, and deeds (if people were stupid enough to put them in bags. Which happened a lot.) I could find someone in the middle of loving no where, mining ore, and putting it in their pack horse. If I didn't want to take a murder count, I'd just kill their horse. It was the freest world ever made in a video game. But Origin realized that this amazing freedom turned a lot of people away, which is why they made the Renaissance and created Trammel, where you couldn't attack or steal from players. This paved the way for MMOGs like Everquest, where PVP was the exception, and not the rule. Anyone that worked on UO gets a permanent Get Out of Jail Free card from me that can never be taken away.
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Mar 8, 2016 04:54
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5X1gC3BLq2w Fuckin oath UO was a great experience. The crew making this game are good folks and they mean well; star citizen is, by contrast, a dumpster fire being live-commentated by a coked-out has been and his merry band of idiots. I *like* Lum and LB. But that doesn't make sota a good or compelling game.
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Mar 8, 2016 07:35
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Lum the Mad's site was always in the background when I was playing UO. Other than making me laugh all the goddamn time when it came to UO and EQ, the infamous World War 2 Online launch chatlog put me in tears. https://web.archive.org/web/20050924071704/http://www.brokentoys.org/ww2o-irc.html And holy poo poo, would you look at that: quote:[20:30] <@Lum_> this is derek smart bad The fifth line in the chatlog. And Derek Smart is here on the forums now, fifteen years later, fanning the flames in the Star Citizen dumpster. I just, I mean, w
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Mar 8, 2016 09:08
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