| Coming from a completely unbiased perspective (well, not completely, I do hope the game succeeds but only because the MMO genre desperately needs some innovation and new blood) I will be happy if the PVE is fun and playable (IE not buggy) on day one. If I jump in on the 17th and it's laggy as heck and Im getting disconnected alot or crashing or cant complete quests etc. I will probably end up cancelling my pre-order. If, however, the game is as fun and playable as it was during the Gamespot weekend I will be satisfied and happily pay my $50.
And yeah, casual is probably the right mindset to go into this one with. There's absolutely no way AoC is going to have enough content online on day 1 to satisfy a hardcore player for more than a couple of days. But hopefully by the time I've leveled a class or two up and the rate of a couple hours a day Funcom will have seiges and keep building and some of the more exciting features ready to go.
Honestly it comes down to expectations. And MMO players are some of the worst in this regard. We buy a game and expect it to become our "life" or at least our gaming life and really, no game can or should be doing that. I, at least, am much happier mixing in some MMO and some on and offline console stuff. Keeps me sane and happy. |