Franky Digital

I think the point you touch on about personal worth is really a key point in the whole backlash to Lumines. For many people, a puzzle game is hardly the type of game that you'd expect a boundary-pushing price tag on. For me, and a few other Lumines addicts, it was really a fair price to pay for the HD Lumines experience - especially for those of us who either don't have a PSP or have long since gotten rid of it in the stead of some other handheld.

Man, I'm never going to get to win any cool shit on this site.

T.T

The problem with this kind of rudimentary rubric is that some games actually offer good content for the money. This little mapping of what's been offered does not reflect the quality of the contextual content. For example, GRAW would be pretty high on that list, but the content pack is definately a worthwhile purchase, as it expands the game in a meaningful direction (unlike, say, Oblivion's content).

There's nothing inherently wrong with microtransactions - PC gamers know this. There's also nothing wrong with developers offering shitty content for top dollar. The only real fundamental flaw with microtransactions is that dumb people fuel and proliferate the distributions of subpar supplementary content.

I don't think Gears has been praised about it's innovation - by anyone. Besides that, good read. I like editorial-style writing on these blogs; wish there was more of it.

@ Richard: "Ah, but you're assuming people use logic when they complain about things :)"

lol. That's why I always lose the internets.

@ Richard: "I understand your statement, but that's not the point. The point is that a lot of Xbox Live users, especially the ones who want MMO games, *already* have Xbox Live Gold. Such people may be reticent to pay more on top of that. It's doubtful they would ditch Gold just to play an MMO for less."

Right, but to turn around and buy it on another system is riduclous: the MMO has nothing to do with Xbox Live or even Microsoft at all beyond being released on the system and thus, as I said, the two fees have no correlation. If a given gamer finds paying for both atrocious, it would follow that he or she wouldn't play MMOs at all - so yea, the people who don't want to pay for an MMO aren't going to play it, regardless of what's system it's on.

The problem here is that people are complaining about the price in addition to a fee that has nothing to do with the MMO. That's like complaining that you're already paying a heating bill so you shouldn't have to pay for your phone.

Now, if Microsoft was publishing the MMO and maintaing the servers, I would have a different opinion, but as it stands, there's no reason to complain about an additional fee because it's inherent and consistent throughout the genre.

I don't understand the rationale of people complaining about paying a game fee on top of the Xbox Live Gold fee: the two have no correlation at all - hence the reason you don't need Gold to play all MMOs.

Moreover, the people who say "well then I'll just get it on PC" don't seem to realize that they aren't saving any money: your just paying out to a different person on two different platforms.

If this game comes to 360, I will definately be jumping aboard. If there is anything that can dethrone the WOW Nazi War Machine, it's a Warhammer MMO.

@ Autocrawler: "Ok, one final point before I shut up: as far as I know, Microsoft does not allow XBox game developers to add in keyboard/mouse support."

PSU works with the keyboard, though not entirely. Plus, the functionality is there: the entire Dashboard can be controlled with a keyboard. I'm sure the drivers are a click away from being patched in, they're just waiting for a reason. At the least, we know typing will be in the games as it already is in both FFXI and PSU.

@ Autocrawler: "No. You don't compare Operation Flashpoint to Doom because they belong to different subgenres. Neither can you compare EvE Online to WoW because they don't have anything in common besides lots of people playing simultaneously in one game world. Same here, don't compare a designed-for-console-PvE-MMORPG to a PvP-oriented WoW clone."

And so, the point was completely by-passed for the second time. I'm just trying to appease your innane worries from your original post. No need to attempt to start a debate you can't possibly finish. Take a second to reread what you wrote and try to compute the discussion again.

The fact of the matter is putting the MMO on the console will surely not affect any game design decisions, as the game is already approaching beta with PC in mind. If this rumour is even true, I'm sure the support for the game will go the same route as FFXI: tacked on 360 control support that really does nothing to obstruct the experience given the fact that a keyboard can be plugged in.

Moreover, it seems obvious that a 360 release would only serve to increase the playerbase, as it just gives more players more options. Some, like myself, who refuse to keep their computer constantly up-to-date would surely rather pick up the 360 version and enjoy the power of the console they already own.

@ Autocrawler: "FFXI doesn't even have a well-done implementation of PVP in it, while WHO claims to have PVP as its main focus, so the comparison between the two is invalid."

Except by merit of the controls and the implementation of handheld controller versus keyboard layout, which is what you were complaining about. FFXI successfully meshes a very complex battle system, full of macros and scripts, with the ease-of-use inherent in a controller. It works great with both the PS2 controller and the 360 controller, albeit after a slight learning curve. Moreover, older games like Everquest Online Adventures (PS2) worked just fine with a controller only - though conversation makes a keyboard a necessity. A speech-to-text function for MMOs on the 360 would be nice, though voice chat support is adequate.

And as an icing on the cake, any comparison between MMOs (or any games of an qual genre) is perfectly valid.