What are some examples of games that had especially troubled or controversial launches (WoW is not one of these) that went on to be successful?
MrDenimChicken wrote: »but I want to know...did WOW have flaws that were inherently in the way the game was designed, rather than just server issues and bugs?
This game has problems that stem from the designing decisions of the developers, and pretty much require a remaking of the game.
What are some examples of games that had especially troubled or controversial launches (WoW is not one of these) that went on to be successful?
That's not quite the case actually. WoW had a very troubled launch - they suffered from very bad server instability and bugged quests up until around patch 1.3 or 1.4 from what I remember. It's also worth noting that each expansion they've released even up to MoP has suffered from problems for at least a few days following launch.
A lot of people seem to see WoW with very rose-tinted glasses but trust me it has its fair share of problems.
MrDenimChicken wrote: »Everyone keeps saying, "well WOW had problems at launch too!!"
but I want to know...did WOW have flaws that were inherently in the way the game was designed, rather than just server issues and bugs? I'm genuinely asking cause I didn't play WOW at the beginning.
MrDenimChicken wrote: »Everyone keeps saying, "well WOW had problems at launch too!!"
but I want to know...did WOW have flaws that were inherently in the way the game was designed, rather than just server issues and bugs? I'm genuinely asking cause I didn't play WOW at the beginning.
This game has problems that stem from the designing decisions of the developers, and pretty much require a remaking of the game. People can wait for bugs and lag to be fixed imo if the game has a good design at it's core. But I don't think people will wait for you to remake the game.
Did WOW have design problems that don't make sense? Anything equivalent to the VR system, stamina build/anything other than light armor and staves being irrelevant, and group phasing?
@srfrogg23
Ehh.. BG's were introducted about 6-7 months later. Wasn't a full year. You are correct they had UO and EQ to compete with (less UO) but don't we expect a little more from our games 9 and a half years later?
Can you really imagine Blizzard stopping by Carbine's offices with their "list of lessons learned" and telling the guys from Carbine, "Hey, here's some of the problems we ran into while trying to implement these features... by the way, we're sick of paying the bills, why don't you go out there and make the best MMO you can! Good Luck!"
MrDenimChicken wrote: »but I want to know...did WOW have flaws that were inherently in the way the game was designed, rather than just server issues and bugs?
Yes, they didn't really get the class balance sorted out until TBC, and even then there were still issues up until the present day.
In vanilla WoW if you were a Paladin the only role you could perform in end-game was healing because the tank & dps specs were laughable. They sorted out pally tanking in TBC and dps further down the line.
There were issues with other class\builds as well. Sometimes it just takes a while to figure out how to make all the competing elements of an MMO work, and its often a bit of a moving target anyway.This game has problems that stem from the designing decisions of the developers, and pretty much require a remaking of the game.
I just can't bring myself to agree with this statement. Sure there are problems that are being worked on but a whole "remaking" of the game? I'm finding lots of aspects of the game that I enjoy and it way outweighs any of the problems I've hit so stating that they need to "remake" the game is a massive over-exaggeration of the issues.
ShedsHisTail wrote: »Can you really imagine Blizzard stopping by Carbine's offices with their "list of lessons learned" and telling the guys from Carbine, "Hey, here's some of the problems we ran into while trying to implement these features... by the way, we're sick of paying the bills, why don't you go out there and make the best MMO you can! Good Luck!"
Didn't really have to since something like 15 of the Devs for Wildstar were on WoWs original development team.
@ers101284b14_ESO
I'd still call FFXIV a success.
Like you said, it has its issues.
But this thread isn't about ''perfect/fantastic/radical'' mmos, it's about ''Other games that overcame troubled launches & went on to be successful''.
FFXIV is a valid example of that.
ers101284b14_ESO wrote: »@ers101284b14_ESO
I'd still call FFXIV a success.
Like you said, it has its issues.
But this thread isn't about ''perfect/fantastic/radical'' mmos, it's about ''Other games that overcame troubled launches & went on to be successful''.
FFXIV is a valid example of that.
Yeah and I still can't figure out why. Their design is so terrible and people eat it up. It's like Bieber fans. You just sit back and think "WTF is wrong with you people"
ers101284b14_ESO wrote: »@ers101284b14_ESO
I'd still call FFXIV a success.
Like you said, it has its issues.
But this thread isn't about ''perfect/fantastic/radical'' mmos, it's about ''Other games that overcame troubled launches & went on to be successful''.
FFXIV is a valid example of that.
Yeah and I still can't figure out why. Their design is so terrible and people eat it up. It's like Bieber fans. You just sit back and think "WTF is wrong with you people"
Regardless, I'm afraid that this thread isn't about our personal opinions or extended analysis of the problems of other mmos.
It is about
1. mmos who are alive and kicking in spite of their problematic release
2. the positive aspects/factors that contributed to their current successful status, and
3. what can ESO developers learn from that.
fyendiarb16_ESO wrote: »When I really got into mmo's for the first time I was extremely forgiving to all the problems. I had played Ultima Online which bored the crap out of me and it wasn't until WoW came that I really got into the genre. I was not alone, as we all know or at least should know is that there was a huge inlfux of new mmo players thanks to the warcraft franchise and user friendly game play and most of all the massive amount of cash Blizzard spend on commercials on just about every medium they could get their hands on.
The game was flawed, very flawed. Many problems were related to the fact that it was far more successful than anyone could have expected, but many other problems were not.
One bug for example that stayed a long time was getting stuck trying to loot a resource node. There was no other solution than to relog and rejoin the many hours long queue to get back in. Another was the balancing of classes, something ESO gets they most complaints about. If you are in any doubt just google the very funny World of Roguecraft series that showed how insane the imbalance was for a long time, far longer than ESO has been released.
I could of course mention all the problems WoW had in the first couple of years (we got months worth of free game time over the first few years from Blizzard because of the massive downtimes and bugs). However all this happened in an entirely different mmo environment as we are in today.
Back then people were far more forgiving. I don't remember ever being angry over the fact that I lagged so much that it took over a minute for an action to actually take place. I laughed myself to tears, I was just too happy being inside Azeroth instead of viewing it topdown in another RTS game. The forums went crazy, but the majority kept flowing into their first mmo ever thanks to the massive marketing Blizzard gave the game.
These days we are long past the new massive influx of gamers into this genre. Most of us have played more than one mmo before and lose track of the bad things that happened when wow released and frustrated with all the bad releases since. The general tolerance for problems with mmo's is nowhere near what it was.
As has been said; if wow had released today it would have been a massive flop.
The Elder Scrolls Online has had a very decent release. There has been little downtime compared to many other releases and the bugs get fixed much faster than happened in the past. A very small example is the fact that to this very day Blizzard has not fixed female dwarf mounted position which is way too far to the back.
It took WoW years to get the game kinda bug free, years of loads of bots and goldsellers which in comparison Zenimax is doing a very good job with. We have just entered the third month and most bots are gone and the goldsellers are also less annoying than in the beginning.
You ask what other games have overcome troubled releases and thus say that ESO's release has been so troublesome that it has to overcome it fast or it will die off. I say the release has been rather smooth. I say the balancing is not good, but nowhere as bad as I have seen before.
Again I advice you to watch World of Roguecraft, you can find it anywhere.
So lighten up, enjoy the game and see the problems get fixed. Don't expect the impossible, however tempting that is and don't read too much into the doom and gloom posts on the forum.
Enjoy the game.
P.s. Sorry for the spelling mistakes and such and most of all the length of this post.