The List : The Best and Worst of Neverwinter BetaThe List : The Best and Worst of Neverwinter Beta

 

 

We’re breaking down the best and worst aspects of our experience in the Neverwinter beta this past weekend as part of this week’s The List.
If there’s one thing that Cryptic Studios has always done well, it’s combat. Go as far back as City of Heroes or even as recently as Star Trek Online. Cryptic Studios knows how to do active combat with fun, flashy visual effects and Neverwinter is no different in this regard. Neverwinter’s combat takes things a step further for Cryptic with free form targeting similar to TERA; though not everything is perfect (we’ll get into that a bit later). Still, the visceral feeling of smashing your shield into an enemy’s face or lunging across the room, striking and knocking them away, is incredibly satisfying.

 

 

The Secret World : Joel Bylos Takes on New Role at FuncomThe Secret World : Joel Bylos Takes on New Role at Funcom

 

 

 

 

Funcom has announced that Joel Bylos will be taking on a new role with the company. He will be the Creative Director for the centralized live team in charge of Age of Conan, The Secret World and Anarchy Online.

The establishment of a joint, centralized live team comes as a result of the organizational restructuring process Funcom recently went through following the launch of ‘The Secret World’. It is the company’s ambition that each of the three live games will benefit greatly from a shared pool of the incredible skill, competence and creativity that makes up this highly experienced group of developers. The centralized live team is situated in Funcom’s North Carolina studio, which gives the developers the advantage of working closely with the company’s quality assurance, community, customer service and billing teams which are located at the same studio.

 

Tingle’s Touchy Subjects : Tingle’s Touchy Subjects: MMORPGsTingle’s Touchy Subjects : Tingle’s Touchy Subjects: MMORPGs

 

 

 

 

 
In a new column debuting today at MMORPG.com, Adam Tingle takes on some of the genre’s most over-discussed or completely avoided topics and dissects them in front of a live audience. See what he’s got to say in his inaugural column and then head to the comments to continue the discussion.
So why are we here? Well, in lieu of starting this piece by urinating on a World of Warcraft Battle Chest, this is a place where I will air my online gripes, groans, and grumbles; it is a veritable soapbox where I, King of the Snark, will say and do the bad thing: if said bad thing is about level caps, PvP, and swords of +112 strength.

 

What I’m saying is: I’m the making the words that really count.

 

 

  

Camelot Unchained : No Hand Holding AllowedCamelot Unchained : No Hand Holding Allowed

 

 

 
The latest developer blog has shown up on the Camelot Unchained site. In it, the team reveals that they do not believe ‘hand holding’ of their players is required. It’s an interesting look at what the team has in mind as compared to the vast majority of today’s MMOs.
As an independent developer of a lower-budget, lower subscription target MMORPG (using today’s inflated scale), we retain more than our fair measure of creative freedom that I wouldn’t trade for a larger budget and longer development timeline (been there, done that).  I want the freedom to take some risks with this game without enduring sleepless nights as I worry about whether a feature (or lack thereof) will alienate too many players, anger the boss, piss off the investors, etc.  I like waking up thinking “This is a really freaking cool idea let’s try it!” or “Wasn’t it cool when you were wandering around in the dark not knowing what might jump out at you?” rather than having to endure conversations like “Mark, if we do this we can sell-in another 100K boxes.”  We need to look at the evolution of these games and see what features (or again, lack thereof) made older MMORPGs seem more immersive and/or challenging and dare I say it (dare, dare!), realistic, even if a minority of players complained about them in the past and might still complain about them now.

 
 

 

General : F2P and the Consumer Choice NarrativeGeneral : F2P and the Consumer Choice Narrative

 

 

 
Free-to-play games have swiftly become the norm in the MMO space in the last year. In a new column, we take a look at the phenomenon and what it means to we, the consumer. Read on before heading to the comments to tell us what you think.
I think there’s no longer any argument about the direction in which the MMO market is heading, with the proliferation of free-to-play titles and decline of subscription-based games over the past five years.  In fact, while there are still more than a few MMORPGs out there that employ a subscription-only payment model — you can find most of them on our game list — only a handful can continue to boast “blockbuster” success.  This trend doesn’t necessarily suggest that subscriptions are completely going the way of the dodo, or that there is no room in the genre for pay-to-play monetization, but it does indicate that developers have been increasingly required to think differently about how to implement subscriptions within free-to-play and freemium models.