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Originally Posted by kohl  Where is this magical potential everyone keeps talking about? I mean honestly - tell me what VG brings to the table that makes it this revolutionary game that offers what no other game can offer.
Is it the size of the game world? You can't seriously believe that is still a major plus.
Is it the crafting? That doesn't really score huge points.
Is it the Lore? rofl
Is it the graphics? Again, rofl.
Is it because it runs well on most computers? see above...
Brad's track record is that he developed a 3D MMO at a time when there were none. EQ was in the enviable situation of being new and having basically no competition. It couldn't have failed unless they actually unplugged the servers. |
I think VG brought a few things to the table that should be copied/built-up in future MMO's...
1.) Being able to cast while moving, awesome. It slows your move speed down a bit but doesnt ditch the whole spell.
2.) Being able to loot and do other simple activities while casting.
3.) Classes. I think they definitly took a step forward in class design. Healers are fun and all classes seem to stack well(some minor issues). The classes in VG are, and I guess this is opinion, fun to play and unique without being dependant on a single class. I would give them a A in this aspect of the game.
4.) Diplomacy. I don't know much about the VG specific diplomacy as I only did the "newbie" quests for it, but the idea of using something other than a giant sword to defeat a mob is creative, fun and should be built upon in future MMORPG's.
5.) Attempt at a real seamless world. Ignore the problems particular to VG for a moment relating to chunking etc and this is an awesome idea. Unlike every other game(I have played) before it this is really a world. Moving weather patterns(are those actually in?), terrain that doesnt just change from jungle to snow in 10 meters, flying creatures that swoop down at you, and more. Did VG master this large world, I don't believe so. But I think games in the future should expand/perfect this idea/model.
6.)AES, sadly not in VG or in but only in small samples. This sounds like an amazing idea to instancing while keeping a balance. Again, perhaps the VG system is not perfect, but the idea behind AES are very very interesting and should also be expanded upon for any game choosing to not use instancing.
7.) Harvesting, I won't touch on this much as I have never it once done in VG. But the way I understand things harvesting as a team is BETTER than harvesting alone...no more competing for the resources(is this true?). I am also under the impression it can(will?) affect the terrain. Cutting down a tree means that the tree really falls, mining an area may cause a cave in preventing access to a cave. I'm not sure if this was all just bullshit media or if it is in game, or planned to be, whatever. The idea is again very cool.
8.) Ocean shit. Building your own ship and having battles sounds cool. Sadly again don't think this is in VG at the moment, but I've heard it talked about. And yes, I realize it's in EQ now.
The only point I am trying to make here is that VG can be a fun game to some, and it's not an absolute horror like made out to be. I also wasn't on the dev team for VG so whether it was false promises, mismanaged resources, being lazy or arrogrant, whatever. I don't know. I do believe however that VG did present an interesting take on the MMORPG worlds that we are familiar with.
I also admit they did reinsert tedium where other games have previously removed it. Such as travel, lfg system a few others. Combined with all the bugs its perfectly understandable to see how it would drive people away. But to say VG brought nothing to the table, in my opinion, is a naive and biased point of view. I hope they finally get in anything they said would be in game that's not and work out all the damn issues they are having, and even then it may be too little too late and never quite recover ala EQ2, though that is doing much better I hear it will never be as good as if it started on the proper foot.
