MMO tidbits from today are quite interesting (SG-Worlds is toast and WAR finally has tokens)

First, let us pay our respects with a moment of silence….

Stargate Worlds is doomed.   It’s never a good sign when Brad Wright, a big name for us Stargate fanboys, says, “They had an opportunity and they got our support, and they obviously had significant funding, and it didn’t happen. It’s kind of a drag for the fans and the time that we invested — what little of it there really was, in comparison to what they did — was still a shame that it was wasted, because it should have happened.”

That’s a shot at Cheyenne Mountain right there.  Read between the lines.  Dooooomed.  I’m actually sad though.  I was really looking forward to playing SG-Worlds. :(  I’m as big a SG fan as they come and the thought of playing a Goa’uld truly brought tears to my eyes.  Now the thought of not being able to enslave Jaffa and roleplay an egotistical narcisitic maniac bring a whole new set of tears.

Next up, Warhammer Online is adding a Token system.  It’s. About. Time.   The proposed system isn’t an end-all-be-all solution, but one can’t look a gift horse in the mouth.   There are a few points which I want to make:

“Help offset “Bad Luck”, allowing players to obtain items they may not have gotten out of PQ’s due to unlucky rolls”

You mean help offset a broken “random” system. 😉

“These are the medallions that are handed out frequently and in larger quantities for most RvR events.”

Define “frequently” and “most”.

“Every player kill has a fairly reasonable chance to drop a medallion appropriate to that players level, this medallion can then be rolled on by group members participating in the kill (or master looted).”

So will it be an all out race to first hit everything?  How is kill ownership determined?  This could suck.

“ANY player who participates in a keep capture will be rewarded 2 common medallions appropriate for that tier content. Players who win a PQ bag will have the choice of taking the item out of the bag or a medallion reward instead. Players who do not win a PQ bag will automatically be awarded medallions directly into their inventory.”

Kudos on going this route.  Everyone needs to be rewarded.

All these ideas sound as good now as they did when I came up with most of them in January.  I’m very pleased to see that the system has been thought through, adapted to fit the game how Mythic wants it to, and hasn’t fallen victim to poor thinking (pending answers to my questions).  I would like to see the token system for Land of the Dead come through just as gracefully (assuming this token system is implemented gracefully).  My subscription was up March 17, but I just might be renewing soon if all goes according to plan.  I’ll be waiting to see how this turns out.

  • heheh – well 3 months to implement your suggestion isn’t a bad time line given it took 2 years and 10’s of thousands of DAoC subscriptions to fix the damage the ToA expansion wrought on DAoC. I hope MJ realizes WaR doesn’t have that long to fix it’s major issues.

  • Fyi – the token system Mythic described fits nicely into an RvR dungeon setting. Of course it’s just one of the many systems their going to have to borrow from 6yr old DAoC to make WaR a successful mmo.

  • To be fair about SGW based on everything I have read in the community Brad’s comments don’t seem to hold a lot of weight. I do believe there is some trouble there but I don’t think the game is near the “toast” stage just yet. Just a day or 2 ago more video and pics were posted so there is still activity going on. Keep in mind that Brad is not employed in any way by any of the companies involved with the actual game itself so most of what he says is really just his opinion.

    Me personally I have no clue if it is coming out, but I just thought I would post some of what I have read on their forums to provide a view from the other side.

  • Are you on MMO Welfare duty? I doubt that this change alone is going to make you play WAR again.

    Regarding SGW: Adaptions usually have problems. Filming a succesful book is common nowadays, but it still often fails more or less, making games out of succesful movies or series often yields even worse results.

    I think we need new and innovative MMOs, I have no idea if SGW is supposed to be the next step in MMO design, but creating a MMO very close to an established series/franchise is a huge burden and smells indeed of disaster.

  • This implementation of tokens is interesting, especially if people fight more. If it promotes an anti zerg culture, then I will view this a massive success.

  • @Copper: Agreed and agreed.

    @Mark: The tense of his comments is the scary part.

    @Longasc: SGW never looked like the next step in MMO design, but one would be way off-base to assume or want every new MMO release to be innovative and take the industry leaps forward. Some games will simply release that bring nothing shockingly new aside from a fun IP and interesting content. I was/am looking forward to SGW because it is about a series that I love.

    As for MMO Welfore Duty… trying to figure out wth that means. I stopped playing WAR because of three things: 1) The PQ system pervading the entire game and 2) All of my friends quit and 3) Lack of content. #2 isn’t going to be resolved, #3 is in the works with LotD, but #1 was keeping me from ever going back because of how awful the system has been for me. LotD (Darkness Falls with PvE Tokens), Tokens in RvR, and more to do = I am happy. I’ve always been a fan of WAR, remember.

  • I agree Keen the tone of the interview wasn’t a good thing but I hope that some of that is lost since he isn’t actually employed with the companies. I am a huge Stargate fan as well and am hoping the game does see the light of day.

  • SG-Worlds has been DOOMED for a long long long time.. Probably started when they stopped paying their developers.

  • No surprise unfortunately that SGW is a no show. Brad Wright’s words read like a eulogy.

    /begin rant
    There’s a lot to be said for financial responsibility from developers. The subscription MMO model especially expects a certain amount of stability to keep customer’s trust. One developer dropping the ball badly has ripples for the rest.

    I know that development is hard (MMO development especially). Budgeting is hard. Milestones are hard. I gather they assumed they could get more capital if they reached a certain point and it’s quite possible they might have in a different economy, but still draining your resources dry waiting for the next money tree isn’t
    /end rant

    On the game itself, in the wake of Tabula Rasa who knows how well another MMO-pseudo-shooter would have been received? I love the Stargate universe, I think it’s as ripe as Star Trek for a good MMO, I just don’t know if this one was the right approach.

  • I think that I’m in agreement that the approach was wrong. I’ve had a few friends in the beta as well who have shared details they probably shouldn’t. If the NDA ever drops I’ll share them.

  • Keen, these ideas sounded good when Mythic came up with them for Darkness Falls in DAoC a few years ago (trumping your January posting).

  • heartless_, I’m referring to the ideas with tokens for keep sieges. No such token system existed for keep sieges, or Darkness falls, in DAOC.

    I didn’t invent the token system but I did come up with a nearly identical system (using tokens) to the one they’re going to use.

    There is an obvious and significant difference.