Snowblind

The new duty officer assignments within your ship are a great idea, for a Star Trek game, there's always been a complete lack of interaction with the interior of your ship and your crew.

But I don't think they've gone far enough in solving this. The interactions are pointless enough that it can all be handled through the standard menu and the people you interact with are generic NPC's, apparently they couldn't have your actual custom crew in there.. Which destroys the whole point.

The game could easily be great, but their engine seems totally incapable of making the necessary changes and additions.

@(Unverified)
It's a real game, only the name is a joke. And some of that stuff about knee-high walls.

It's probably worth checking the copyright date at the bottom of the page.

@meanicK
Have you played the game, or is that an assumption? The point of the recent beta tests was (at least partly) for them to see how these items will work, they're not going to include anything that will break the game in the final release.

But I don't see why getting a 10% boost to karma affects the game balance in any way, especially if karma boost scrolls can be bought from in game merchants, like XP scrolls can be. It might let you buy better weapons quicker, but in the end, all gear has the same stats.

@The Ogre If you're worried about the cash shop, everything available in it has already been leaked and there's nothing too offensive being sold there.

Not quite "cosmetic only" as they originally stated, but there's nothing that gives stat advantages or anything that would be game breaking. Just a lot of convenience items and quick ways to obtain certain things that can normally be bought with gold anyway.

@Graill440 Unlike TOR, the whole game doesn't revolve around these story missions. Dynamic events affect the world as a whole and dungeons are for serious group play. The personal story missions are to give your character a bit more life and an individual story, they only affect your own personal instances, like your home in your starting region.

@Flicktion
Others have already said it, but this is an actual closed beta. Only a very limited about of players are getting in and it's under a strict NDA. Starting at the end of April, those who pre-purchase the game get access to the beta weekend events, which essentially just to hype up the game and stress test, etc.

They aren't exactly hiding that, and I don't see why it's a "laughable" tactic. The masses will finally get a chance to play the game and Anet get valuable feedback. I'm not sure why you'd have expected them to "redefine" the marketing aspect of MMO development.. that was never really a goal.

Amalur's lore/world was incredibly dry and generic. I can't say I'm particularly excited about this any more, unless the gameplay turns out to be something very impressive.

@byaboy This is open world, so it's a step.

"AAA" is a term publishers use for games that have a lot of money and resources behind them. People need to stop thinking it refers to the actual quality of the game, or anything along those lines.