It doesn't bode well for the genre. They sold off Asherons Call too. Sounds like MS thinks the market is saturated.

It certainly seems to me like the market is canabalizing itself. The Sims Online and SWG failed to bring in the casual player like everyone thought they would. That leaves a lot of companies dividing a shrinking pie.

The second and third iterations of the genre have been "evolutionary rather than revelotionary." They've just refined the gameplay some what and in the case of SWG, they've "refined" the fun right out of it. Technology is going to have to take a few steps up before any real innovation occurs and before we see mass acceptance.

I have a feeling AO is about as good as MMO's will get

It's true. AO is a great game. There's no excuse for any MMORPG to launch in the state AO did but they've more than made up for it. It looks good, it's stable, it's got the most imaginative production design of any MMORPG - no elves or dwarves, combat is fun and takes team work to succeed. In short, if you can look past their initial mistakes Funcom will reward you with a ton o' entertainment.

I played it for 2 years and quit to play SWG. Big mistake. I may go back for this expansion.

I guess they couldn't find any WMD in the patch so they canceled it

Never stopped them before

Ah dammit, do I have to do everything myself!? Ok here goes:

Valve sucks,
Half Life 2 is gonna suck
They only claim the source code was stolen because the game wasn't ready yet.
THey actually leaked it.
I've played it and it sucks
Steam will make it suck more
Valve is a bunch of greedy SOBs only looking to line their own pocket books rather than give me a quality gaming experience
Uh...is that all? Did I catch everything? Oh yeah Doom 3 is gonna rHul3zOrz

There, now everything seems right with the world. I feel better now, thanks.

you babies that whine obviously need games spoon fed to you

If by spoon feed you mean:

having mission objectives and npcs spawn as they're designed

interesting cooporative play combat requiring several different professions to meet any one goal

Not having to suffer through 5 or 10 different professions, (some of which the developers admit don't work - like squad leader)just so I can be a jedi

playing through "theme park" dungeons that have interesting dialoge and mission types beyond "deliver the buggy npc with bad pathing" for a reward that makes it all seem worth while

Being able to talk to my guild for the entire evening without the guild chat channel dying.

If thats the sort of thing "spoon feeding " means then, yeah I'd like to have my games spoon fed to me. With a silver spoon. The one with Mickey Mouse on the handle please. You shouldn't have to suffer or work to play a game. You should start it up and your first steps into the world should entertain you in some way. Spoon feed me please and could you make the choo-choo-goes-in-the-tunnel sound while you do it?

Hmm the stars must be out of alignment or something because there hasn't been a "Steam sux ass!" comment so far

I've been staring at this post for awhile now wondering the same thing. Would someone please post the obligatory Half Life 2 rant now too? Maybe throw in those bits about a conspiracy!? I always love that part.

Why no one has seen fit to make a Star Trek MMORPG is beyond me.

Oh god, please, no! They can't even get a tv show right these days, how can we expect them to get a game right?

Anarchy Online is a great Sci-fi MMORPG. There's no space flight but it looks good and is entertaining to play. I don't play it any more simply because I played it to death.

Eh, Damn...
I'm looking for a new game to play and Eve keeps calling to me. Every time I start to download it though, I read something similar to Tumbler's comments and it talks me off the ledge. I'm about half way through Freelancer and it makes me want to play a game just like it - only deeper and more interesting.

I downloaded Alligence the other day but I can't seem to log onto the free servers. Maybe I'll try again tonight.

This game is such a huge disappointment. It will be at least a year before it's ready to play - if that. It may just be fundamentally broken or perhaps so derivative of other MMORPGs that SWG will never be any fun. It's such a shame too, I think that MMO gamers are desperate for something new, something that will start to realize the potential that this sort of game has.

Eve Online is a great looking game but is it any fun? I spent a lot of time mining in beta. Has it gotten any better?

These games all encourage obsessive compulsive behavior - Click a button, get a pellet. All video games are like that on some level but when you couple it with a community of equally obsessive people all reinforcing one another’s behavior, it's only natural that addictions will form.

It's just a matter of time before someone sues - if they haven't already - and SOE seems like the most likely target. You can make all the arguments that you want about individual responsibility but the tobacco industry lawsuits have proven that American courts hold companies that profit from negative behavior as least partially responsible for the effects of that behavior.

I think you can tell SOE is concerned about it at least a bit. Throughout the ingame documentation of SWG, they've sprinkled little reminders to "take a break" and to remember it's "just a game."

Now if you'll pardon me I have to get back to the game. I have to craft 5 billion pairs of socks before I go to bed so I can qualify for Stealthy Sock 2.

All licensed games are doomed to suck. THe developer is spending money and valuable resources on gaining and maintaining the license so there's less money and resources to spend on the actual game. They rely on the license to sell the game and not the gameplay so it's not as important to make it any good.

I know there are a few exceptions but not many.

I'm looking at buying a few of these and some land several years down the road.

http://www.pacificdomes.com/

Very cool and I have no problems with the military auctioning off some of it's less lethal hardware but to have just anyone purchase what is still one of the more advanced fighter aircraft in the world is disturbing

If this auction is like most military aircraft auctions the plane is sold stripped -- no electronics (radar, fire control, avionics), no engines, and sure as hell no weapons. You basically get the airframe and 3 tires.

I hope that's true. The ad said this though:

WE WILL DELIVER FOR FUEL COSTS. DELIVERY MOST ANYWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES IN HOURS.

Their caps, not mine.

This comment was edited on Feb 4, 13:30.

Is it just me or in this age of airport strip searches should you really be able to buy military grade aircraft on Ebay? And so cheaply?

Who needs a box cutter or Nikes loaded with C4 when you can just run an F-A-18A into the side of any old landmark that suits your fancy?

I've always thought that the players of SWG should band together one day and quit en-masse - then sign right back up again. I bet it would cost SEO a ton in credit card transaction charges but at the very least, it wold give their billing server a hick up. It would also show up on what ever monthly report that upper management at Sony reads, then maybe we would see a little action.

I don't know which is worse, the fact you DON'T want to see boobs or the fact you have your head so far up your ass you come off as a Grey Poupon spokesman. GET OFF THE INTERNET

See enough of them and suddenly they aren't that big a deal. Get laid once in awhile will ya?

I do, however, enjoy the vevety texture and tangy flavor of a quality dijon mustard from time to time.

Are we such a society of ass hats that we can't see boobs on tv without every getting their panties in a twist? Calm down people, its a boob. Your mother has them, your wife might have them, and you're lucky you got to see that. American standard TV needs more nudity. Give me naked females over violence any day of the week.

I applaud Janet Jackson's initiative to show more boobs on tv. Anyone who doesn't want to see that is either a female or a gay hair dresser from New Jersey. So shut your yaps and on with the boobage!!

That's not it at all - it's such a cheap shot. Borish and heavy handed. I'm sure everyone involved with the event knew it was coming and did it to generate the exact sort of buzz that it has. Just like the Britney/Madonna kiss - the media creators are so lazy and think so little of their audience that they will only provide the most base and crude sort of spectacle. Couple that with the less than clever advertisements this year and it just shows we haven't gotten any farther than the Romans did. Sweaty men beating the crap out of one another while naked women jiggle about and the court jester tells fart jokes while getting kneed in the crotch.

It's not that what they did was so offensive just that it was so boring. Those people get paid a ton of dough and this is the best thing they can come up with? A thirteen year old kid could give you the same thing at half the price.

One company I really like is Ritual entertainment, they know how to patch and support a game. After activision pushed SiN out, Ritual patched it up pretty quickly and fixed most issues. Not content, and with no funding from activision, they kept patching it for about another year or 2, both for minor bug fixes and to add CTF to the game. Heck, they even threw in a gamespy ingame browser. All on their own, no funding from activision.

Derek actually did this after the original debacle with Take Two.

My heart goes out to him. He's just another example of how developers get drummed out of business by the distribution chain. I'm sure Dreamcatcher and Best Buy are going to get their money out of the deal.

Derek actually represents what we say we all want from a developer - he's trying to make a game that's not deriviative of Doom or Warcraft and he's trying to do it his way, without compromise. I know it's hard to get past his bluster but I think he deserves my support.

Battlecruiser is actually a fun game. It has a huge learning curve but once you play it for a bit it's pretty cool.

This is of course a prequal to their next "highly - anticipated" expansion pack - Everquest:Give Us Another $30.

Let me re-iterate that....
I had to clean up POOP that had been THROWN UP.

I once walked my dog off leash in a park that had just hosted an equestrian event. Before I knew what had happened, he had gourged himself on horse manure. Immediately afterwards he seemed none the worse for wear but the moment he returned home he jumped up on our bed and proceeded to vomit it all up.

Dogs are great, aren't they?