My impressions of the game somehow don't quite coincide with yours.
For one, Bloodline Champions isn't the ghost town you're making it out to be. There are near-daily 2v2/3v3 tournaments with dozens of teams participating (total of 52000 participants thus far) and there are always plenty of people in solo queue and 2v2. Right now 3v3 is kind of empty, but that should swing back up when the patch hits. Here's an example: at 11:00 CEST there were 200 players online, 60 in solo queue, 6 active 2v2 teams, and 52 active games. That's plenty if you're looking for some action, and at nights the numbers are much, much, higher.
Secondly the learning curve is actually much lower than you're all making it out to be. In fact, I'd say BLC is the most accessible MOBA game to date. There are two reasons why I say this: 1. Once you've learned how to play a single bloodline, which doesn't take much more than 2 or 3 matches, you can play any other bloodline competently. 2. There are no item purchasing or ability leveling mechanics that form the main barriers of entry for every single other MOBA game out there.
As to why you're able to play every bloodline competently after knowing how to play with only a single one: the skill loadouts are (nearly) identical every time. Space is always a travel skill, left mouse is always a spammy melee attack, right mouse is always a basic ranged attack, and so on. And this is clearly explained in the tutorial. A game like LoL doesn't have this consistency, for example, Leona and Lux have stuns/snares on Q, but Sona on R, Irelia on E, and Caitlyn on W.
Lastly, the cooldown system in BLC is only a problem if you're trying to play it like an action (MMO)RPG. You're not supposed to spam abilities, but to think about when to use an ability at the right time. The cooldown system is an effective method of enforcing such intelligent play. BLC's gameplay would be ruined if the cooldowns were lowered, because that would make it a game of spam instead of a game of skill. The cooldowns may take some getting used to if you approach BLC with the wrong mindset, but it works very well and makes for a much more interesting competitive game.
@Holgranth During that decade of bitter experience, ArenaNet brought us Guild Wars. A game that was no less 'revolutionary' than Guild Wars 2 looks to be and managed to make it all work beautifully. As such, past experience has only told us that ArenaNet is capable of delivering on ridiculous promises.
That doesn't mean they actually will manage to pull it all off this time around, but I think they've earned the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it's certainly the most promising and innovative upcoming MMORPG, so it's nice to see these interesting features explained and to discuss whether such things will actually work in practice.
@Zuljundwumn The party responsible for all of that is Codemasters, not Turbine. Which means that you'll never see any of that, because the last time Codemasters listened to its paying customers was when hell froze over.
Maybe Turbine will pull their DDO trick and take over the European LotRO service. That's the best we can hope for.
I can see how people might be upset that a mediocre game like Star Trek Online came out as the best MMOG of 2010, but I can't honestly recall a superior alternative that was released in 2010.
Only Global Agenda and Perpetuum Online come to mind as potential contenders. One of those is a been-there-done-that small-scale third person shooter that was even more lacking in content and variety at release than STO. The other is a blatant reskin of EVE Online with about half the features thrown out that doesn't even manage to hook mech fans like me beyond the first couple of days.
The rest are even worse! All Points Bulletin, Final Fantasy XIV and Mortal Online manage to make the games mentioned above look vibrant, engaging, varied, inspired and polished by comparison. And unfortunately that's not a joke. LEGO Universe almost makes that list as well, but at least has a modicum of potential hidden in that buggy, unfinished, repetitive and tiny mess ... somewhere.
If I hadn't missed it, I'd have voted for STO as well. It may not be a good game, but it certainly seems to qualify as the least terrible new MMOG release of 2010.
It would be really nice if you Massively guys and girls could give advance notice of these mass-extinction events! So apparently The Netherlands, Belgium, Aruba, Suriname, Curacao and Bonaire ceased to exist everywhere but on the internet today. I hadn't even noticed that we'd all moved on to Second Life, but it sure seems a lot like real-life thus far. I wonder which countries with obscure holidays will follow next.
It's also important to note that you should remove the -image tag afterwards, because Guild Wars wont start from a -image shortcut :)
You definitely do first want to do a -image load, because otherwise you'll be stuck at a download screen for almost every zone. That's especially annoying in PvP or in parties, when other people might be waiting for you to load.
The worst launch day I've ever experienced was World of WarCraft's European launch. It was impossible to even create an account until two days later when some good soul at Blizzard figured out that a 5MB account creation page wasn't such a good idea with tens of thousands of gamers hammering it 24 hours a day. You'd think they'd have learned a few lessons from the utter fail that was the North American launch...
The launch fail continued for months as servers regularly crashed under heavy loads, many servers saw enormous queues and early zones were utterly unplayable for days. I haven't played a MMOG since that saw that much server downtime and free time added to accounts.
As for the smoothest launch day experience: Guild Wars. There wasn't even any overcrowding of early zones, due to the instanced gameplay. Perfect!
Eyric, do you actually believe that or is it just a general statement based out of the commonly held, erroneous, belief that everyone who is decent at a fast-paced game has to be a 13-year old?
I advise you to take a look at the competitive scenes for the most demanding competitive games in terms of reflexes and hand-eye coordination: Quake, UT and StarCraft. These scenes are dominated by people who are well into their twenties, with only a rare lone teenager amongst them. In fact, one of the current top western players in the StarCraft 2 beta is well into his thirties and I count all of two teenagers in the entire professional Quake scene.
In a PUG I don't expect any of the players to have any prior knowledge of the encounter nor any great deal of skill or experience with their class. In part because it's utterly unrealistic, but also because to do otherwise would make me an elitist prick and those are the kind of players that I loathe above all others.
I like to read quest text, watch cutscenes and talk in party chat. And I do a lot of build and strategy experimentation with friends and guildies. So me and elitist pricks, we don't mesh too well.
Oh, but I do expect newcomers to listen and learn. You can't make the same kind of newbie pull ten times in a row and wipe the party after being told what to do to prevent it, that's just being willfully ignorant. But a newcomer who makes a wrong move and wipes the party once... so what? As long as (s)he's being a good sport and listens to advice, then it's fine.
The Daily Grind: What MMO have you recently deleted from your hard drive?
Mar 3rd 2012 9:31AM (Massively)I also still have Guild Wars and SWTOR and those will definitely be staying.
Not So Massively Extra: Our impressions of Bloodline Champions
Sep 13th 2011 6:12AM (Massively)For one, Bloodline Champions isn't the ghost town you're making it out to be. There are near-daily 2v2/3v3 tournaments with dozens of teams participating (total of 52000 participants thus far) and there are always plenty of people in solo queue and 2v2. Right now 3v3 is kind of empty, but that should swing back up when the patch hits. Here's an example: at 11:00 CEST there were 200 players online, 60 in solo queue, 6 active 2v2 teams, and 52 active games. That's plenty if you're looking for some action, and at nights the numbers are much, much, higher.
Secondly the learning curve is actually much lower than you're all making it out to be. In fact, I'd say BLC is the most accessible MOBA game to date. There are two reasons why I say this:
1. Once you've learned how to play a single bloodline, which doesn't take much more than 2 or 3 matches, you can play any other bloodline competently.
2. There are no item purchasing or ability leveling mechanics that form the main barriers of entry for every single other MOBA game out there.
As to why you're able to play every bloodline competently after knowing how to play with only a single one: the skill loadouts are (nearly) identical every time. Space is always a travel skill, left mouse is always a spammy melee attack, right mouse is always a basic ranged attack, and so on. And this is clearly explained in the tutorial. A game like LoL doesn't have this consistency, for example, Leona and Lux have stuns/snares on Q, but Sona on R, Irelia on E, and Caitlyn on W.
Lastly, the cooldown system in BLC is only a problem if you're trying to play it like an action (MMO)RPG. You're not supposed to spam abilities, but to think about when to use an ability at the right time. The cooldown system is an effective method of enforcing such intelligent play. BLC's gameplay would be ruined if the cooldowns were lowered, because that would make it a game of spam instead of a game of skill. The cooldowns may take some getting used to if you approach BLC with the wrong mindset, but it works very well and makes for a much more interesting competitive game.
What's your style? Guild Wars 2 game designer elaborates on the combat system
Feb 2nd 2011 5:54PM (Massively)That doesn't mean they actually will manage to pull it all off this time around, but I think they've earned the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it's certainly the most promising and innovative upcoming MMORPG, so it's nice to see these interesting features explained and to discuss whether such things will actually work in practice.
Turbine: LotRO revenue tripled since going F2P
Jan 6th 2011 4:17PM (Massively)Maybe Turbine will pull their DDO trick and take over the European LotRO service. That's the best we can hope for.
Captain's Log: STO was the best MMO of 2010?
Jan 6th 2011 3:54PM (Massively)Only Global Agenda and Perpetuum Online come to mind as potential contenders. One of those is a been-there-done-that small-scale third person shooter that was even more lacking in content and variety at release than STO. The other is a blatant reskin of EVE Online with about half the features thrown out that doesn't even manage to hook mech fans like me beyond the first couple of days.
The rest are even worse! All Points Bulletin, Final Fantasy XIV and Mortal Online manage to make the games mentioned above look vibrant, engaging, varied, inspired and polished by comparison. And unfortunately that's not a joke. LEGO Universe almost makes that list as well, but at least has a modicum of potential hidden in that buggy, unfinished, repetitive and tiny mess ... somewhere.
If I hadn't missed it, I'd have voted for STO as well. It may not be a good game, but it certainly seems to qualify as the least terrible new MMOG release of 2010.
The Daily Grind: What do you want from Cyber-Santa this year?
Dec 6th 2010 2:27PM (Massively)Ask Massively: Buy Guild Wars now! edition
Jul 2nd 2010 1:59PM (Massively)You definitely do first want to do a -image load, because otherwise you'll be stuck at a download screen for almost every zone. That's especially annoying in PvP or in parties, when other people might be waiting for you to load.
The Daily Grind: Launch day blues
May 12th 2010 9:06AM (Massively)The launch fail continued for months as servers regularly crashed under heavy loads, many servers saw enormous queues and early zones were utterly unplayable for days. I haven't played a MMOG since that saw that much server downtime and free time added to accounts.
As for the smoothest launch day experience: Guild Wars. There wasn't even any overcrowding of early zones, due to the instanced gameplay. Perfect!
The Daily Grind: Twitch reflexes or slow strategy?
May 4th 2010 9:54AM (Massively)I advise you to take a look at the competitive scenes for the most demanding competitive games in terms of reflexes and hand-eye coordination: Quake, UT and StarCraft. These scenes are dominated by people who are well into their twenties, with only a rare lone teenager amongst them. In fact, one of the current top western players in the StarCraft 2 beta is well into his thirties and I count all of two teenagers in the entire professional Quake scene.
The Daily Grind: How much do you expect from people?
Apr 20th 2010 3:55PM (Massively)I like to read quest text, watch cutscenes and talk in party chat. And I do a lot of build and strategy experimentation with friends and guildies. So me and elitist pricks, we don't mesh too well.
Oh, but I do expect newcomers to listen and learn. You can't make the same kind of newbie pull ten times in a row and wipe the party after being told what to do to prevent it, that's just being willfully ignorant. But a newcomer who makes a wrong move and wipes the party once... so what? As long as (s)he's being a good sport and listens to advice, then it's fine.