Rift and ToR - A Comparison of Worlds

Yes all it is me once again, and I know I haven't had much in the way of posts recently due to the fact of being completely sucked in with Star Wars The Old Republic. Recently though I had gotten quite "bored" with ToR and many of the systems that were in place for PvP Gear and such. Yes I know that they do have all intents to fixing and stream-lining this in the near future, but I needed a break from the grind fest that was taking place in game.

So - I left ToR and trotted on over to Rift. Mainly at first I was only going to sub for the "wedding" feature that a certain someone who will remain nameless wished for me to partake in. I went ahead and got the marriage and all that jazz done, which from an RP perspective (though I am not much of an RP'er) it was really cool and interesting to see how all this went about.

Now on the flip side (switching topics again), ToR has stated that the legacy system in 1.2 will allow you to "create a family tree" of sorts. Now my thought on the matter is this - does this mean that there will be certain RP aspects here as well, such as weddings between others in game or is the "family tree" merely another thing to get bogged down with and spend precious time doing (as there are many many time sinks in SWToR).

So, back to Rift now - I had started doing some PvP in game (mostly warzones) and saw that they had adjusted some of the mechanics in Whitefall for one (yes, I haven't played Rift in awhile), and to top it off you get double experience, favor, and prestige for the weekend. I enjoyed this very much as it made the "grind" somewhat easier then most games.

I am hoping that when 1.2 comes out for ToR, that some of these mechanics will be available in the game - like picking which warzone you want to do, giving some benefits to Ilum again (as it is now worthless for any melee character to go do), and possibly the ability to get "double rep" on certain days. This would make it less of a "grind-fest" so that players can focus on other things while they play.

Now - sure ToR has all the story elements and such that make the game great, but honestly comparing ToR's graphics to Rift's is almost a joke (and before you ask - I run everything on the highest settings in both games, I also can run both at the same time on two different monitors and not experience any lag what-so-ever). I know that me saying this next phrase will cause the "fanboi's" and "trolls" to spring forth from the nether, but, I really think ToR's graphics are a "better" version of World of Warcraft's graphics.

I mean, once you turn everything up on Rift (and I mean everything to max), ToR almost looks comical! Yeah sure the game looks nice, but, Rift has a feel of "realism" that many other games do not have (at least visually). And as I said, the story in ToR is what set's it apart from everything else - but once you take that out (all the voice overs) and put in a quest box that you "need to read", you basically get a WoW in Space sort of game.

Now I'm not saying that Rift is better then ToR or vice versa, as I enjoy both games equally. I love Star Wars and ToR, but I am also a die hard fantasy fan also (same with the sci-fi genre). So I can't really say one is better then the other, it is just that both games have different visuals and art styles that will adhere to many different audiences and make the game enjoyable.

I had just wanted to speak of a few items that I had seen that were quite different in both games. If you have any comments on the subject please respond down below and leave me your thoughts. Otherwise, have a great time doing what you do in your virtual worlds, and I hope to see you all in game soon!

Cheers All,

~SV

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SW:ToR Open Beta Weekend - Some Thoughts

As always I am very happy to play a great MMO (or any game for that matter) when I get the chance to. Sadly though - I was slightly disappointed by the build that was made available during ToR's Open Beta Weekend, though I am not disappointed by the game one bit!

The build that was put up this past weekend had a few bugs, that for me, made the game unplayable for the most part. I do however have faith in the BioWare team that they will be fixed by launch. As of now ToR has its release candidate build up and ready to be played on (though none of the servers are up currently). So to me this is a very GOOD sign in how far this game has come over the years.

I have every bit of faith that the game will be one of the greatest MMO's to date, and seeing how fast the team in Austin stomps out many of the issues - I have to say this game will be very playable for almost all of us come Early Access and Release.

I have played in enough Beta Weekends to not be aggravated by the few bugs that occurred (clipping issues for both graphics and terrain, crafting issues, and some other very minor things). For the most part I let these slide, as at the moment I am not completely interested in playing beta - I am waiting for launch to do my playing right now.

I know there is (and was) a fair amount of talk about how ToR is just like WoW - but for the most part, I feel as if ToR is a breed of its own. Yes there may be things from WoW, but honestly how many things did Blizzard and WoW take from all of the other popular games at the time Vanilla came out. For the experienced gamer, you could easily point out the items that came from games like EQ, DAOC, UO, AC1 - the list goes on.

For people to say ToR is anything like WoW is ridiculous. In the market of creating online games - a lot of thought processes are "rehashed" as many of the developers either come from the previous company where these ideas worked in sustaining a player base, or they know the ideas work and use them to score and all out success for the game (hopefully - I've already seen how things went with SWG trying to do the same).

My theory on this is - lets put all of the stuff about how a game is like another, and just play it! If you don't like it, cancel your account or STFU. It's not worth it in a community aspect to gripe and complain about how something is or was - unless someone in that game actually CARES about your degrading thoughts of the game.

I have always disliked the aspect of "Chuck Norris" jokes in a chat or things hateful toward the game (but they always happen). Again, if you don't like what you see - cancel your account and save yourself an extra $15 every month instead of ruining the atmosphere fro everyone else trying to play.

I pretty much hated that in the Weekend Test - yet I know all the "kiddies" are coming out of the wood work now (from WoW) and are testing the amount of patience the CSR Staff has (and also the players who enjoy the game).

Lets hope a lot of these "tards" will be gone by launch - off the forums and from the game itself.

Here's to a successful launch and smooth running early access! I for one hope to see everyone at launch and have the chance to play with them! As for now - I'm out. See you all sometime soon!

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SW:ToR Closes in on 1 Million Boxed Pre-Orders

As one of the most anticipated MMORPG's this year closes in on its December 20th release date, it is also gradually closing in on the fabled "1 Million Mark" for Pre-Orders alone. Now many of you will say, "Man that's nothing! World of Warcraft has 13 Million subs!" Well there is one thing to remember here Children of the Panda - this number is strictly North America Only, it also does not include Digital Download Pre-Orders, and it DOES NOT take account for ANY of the Pre-Orders from Europe.

So with that said, can this game be the "WoW Killer" so many of us have dreamed about and longed for since the release of that game? I will say - we will have to wait and see. As far as industry leading innovations, the team at BioWare has pretty much set the standards now with ToR. If it is any indication from what Blizzard will be doing with their upcoming "Panda Bear and Sparkle Pony" Expansion (voice overs and no auto attacks), I think this shows how much Blizzard wishes they were BioWare and thought of this stuff first.

Sadly though, they didn't!

No, I really am not sad about that (./insert lulz here) - because honestly I want ToR to be a HUGE competitor to a game that has become one of the EASIEST MMO's on the market where even a 4 year old child can successfully do level 85 raids as a Main Tank (Yes! I was in a guild where the guild leader let his youngest son tank raids, he was 4 years old)!

I want there to be a challenge - I want SKILL to dominate! I do not want the factor of GEAR to set the standard for what you CAN and CANNOT do in a game!

The MMO's of old used this concept to its fullest extent - people loved it! Personally, I believe that ToR (with what has been shown and said) - is very well going to accomplish this style of play, and once again make me feel like I have a game I can make my "home" for some time to come.

I know the stakes are high for BioWare, as we the fans are coming up on the very final "Beta Weekend". Then after that it will probably be time for that one blissful moment of "Early Access". If the cards are right - BioWare is going to win one of the largest pots of all time! It just seems like everyone here is waiting for that river card to turn so we can see who wins the big bucks in the Battle of MMO's.

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Some Game Talk and Live Stream Info (Part 2)

Ok so we have officially set up our twitch.tv account and have a load of video equipment and new "gamer" stuff on the way to boot!

The word around here is we may quite possibly be ready to record or first live stream broadcast either this week sometime (with all of our crazy antics and personalities), or right after the next beta weekend in ToR (whenever that may be - possibly by the first week of November). No I am not saying this is when a beta weekend will be - so before anyone goes off speculating it will, I really have no clue. I am simply saying we should be ready to shoot by then.

As far as gaming content for this week - I still am somewhat disappointed about the WoW update from BlizzCon, Guild Wars 2 seems like a promising little gem (proverbial diamond in the rough stuff), Skyrim looks freaking awesome, and all of you should by now know how I feel about ToR (I will come back to that in a second)!

As far as things with Battlefield 3 go - I'll have an update about that pretty shortly from one of the other members of the team. Black Ops (for those that like FPS Titles) also looks promising, but not something I would play very long.

And of course I will come back to ToR now, as far as I am concerned this game is going to be the major trend setter in the market for YEARS to come - it is just going to take some more of a push to get the numbers into the game and playing. The Gold Master version (rumor has it) has been produced and ready for distribution, so we should see early access close to approaching (or at least another wave of huge numbers into beta). The testers who get to test this version should be testing the most recent update that will bring to head many of the patches you will have to download upon launch day. This is in fact after the internal test and code lines are looked over by man of the QA Team and then we can have a playable game by Dec 20th.

For all of you who are still in doubt about this title, do in fact give it a fair look - it would be worth the free month you get at purchase, you may even find out some things you enjoy about the game. Of course I can't say much about this as I know nothing about the end product, final copy, or even builds that are being tested. As an avid Star Wars fan, from the things I have read and seen on other sites - it could be one of those games that sticks with us for years to come, much like those of old (like EverQuest).

I am looking forward to this title the most this holiday season and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I will. Even if you do not give it a look, I'm sure we will discuss your game that you play in the future.

If you would like us to review a game for you or even give you a heads up on a certain genre - feel free to look us up on FaceBook @ www.facebook.com/tsotg or look for us on twitch.tv (we are still getting sorted),

www.twitch.tv/deeceecreator
www.twitch.tv/xenocypher
www.twitch.tv/thestateofthegame

Hope to see you all in the virtual world sometime soon. As always - keep it real, stay IMBA, and May the Force be With You!

BlizzCon 2011 - Kung Fu Panda: The Game?!

So it seems like the much anticipated children's movie is coming to life in a video game much like Hello Kitty Online has spawned from the depths of Hell onto the internet and somehow became a fully playable world in the video game sense. Yesterday afternoon Blizzard had announced that they would be adding the much anticipated (?) Pandarian race to World of Warcraft in an upcoming expansion. And in my my fits of laughter and tears (yes I really was laughing that hard), I found out they really were serious!

In my previous write up about BlizzCon I had spoke of how I thought Blizzard would step forth into the world with some news of "great things", but really- walking, talking Pandas? Is that what you spend your multi-million dollar budget on? How hard was it to get an old model of a character and put a panda skin overlay on top of it? Oh yeah and put a voice .mp3 file in there too! Great job concept team - that must have taken you about 30 minutes to come up with and another hour to put the skin on top with how hard it is to figure out what colors BLACK and WHITE are in your code base.

I'm glad you guys have a bunch of nerf guns and XBox 360's on Campus because you all must have spent a great deal of time celebrating your new expansion and successful creation of a new player race by playing Forza 4 and doing some Multi-Player in Halo afterwards. I call this one a great success for you and the team - as well as the droves of your targeted market 9 -15. Well done, lets give you all a pat on the back once again, just like we did with Cataclysm!

And now with the annual subscription model World of Warcraft is surely looking to try and "fatten up" its figures in how many active subscriptions they have when they sucker people into they game and then when the players decide the game is crap - they still get to record those numbers for a whole year (i.e. the annual marketing report). This is undoubtedly a way to make the numbers of players look and seem like there are way more in game then there actually are. I mean - 12 million subscribers looks really darn nice when you see it on a sticker when you buy a game, it really lures you in and makes you think that there are tons of knowledgeable people playing the game right?

WRONG!

Most of these people are in fact dumb as nails or are the most obnoxious elitist trolls in any game around. And when you tell me that there are youngin's in my guild and in voice chat with me (around 10 or so) and you are in fact their PARENT and are being an obnoxious elitist tard, that some how does not instill the confidence I have in the marketing potential of said game - or even its community.

So I will let Blizzard have their Kung Fu Panda Expansion. I just hope next year that they don't come out with a Finding Nemo one.

Why SW:ToR can Surpass WoW - The Break Down

***ToR Can Easily Surpass WoW - Simple Subscription Basics***

Ok I'm sure not all of you know my background in the MMO Genre - but I do have a nice little tidbit of info for you concerning "The Big MMO" that is out there today (since BlizzCon is looming on our doorstep).

As of 2008 Blizzard has stopped recording the numbers of EU and NA subscribers that that are receiving and losing, and have began just tallying the "Global" sales numbers. Why do you ask? For one reason - it makes the figures a little more "bloated" when you take it to a global level.

Back in 2008 (at last recording) World of Warcraft only had about 2.5M active subscribers in the NA region. For comparison SW:ToR just in the NA region currently has about 675k Pre-Orders Sold from Vendor Clients (aka Amazon, GameStop, BestBuy, etc.), those numbers do not currently include what has been ordered digitally from Origin or any other online retailer as they cannot currently be added into the mix until the point of sale takes place.

http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/WoW.png
WoW Subscription Chart

If you take a look at the big dip in the chart above there was a massive loss in the player base between 2009 and 2010, this was right around the time the the third expansion "Cataclysm" had launched and many of the players had left for other MMO's. Yet as the chart shows once again many of those players were not held for very long in the games they played and had all come back to their beloved World of Warcraft.

Currently in 2011 it seems that there is once again a slow decline in the amount of players who are currently active in WoW - but what do the trends show (most likely that many will come back).

But as for the case on ToR being able to take on the "Big Stage" and competing with WoW in the NA and EU markets - I do believe they will be able to with the current numbers and innovations the game has shown so far and have left in the dust (such as a very redundant leveling and grinding system many games have, and the introduction of interactive character stories that immerse you in the world). Many of these features should keep players playing for quite some time and enjoying the systems in place, unlike many other games in the past.

I know many of you probably will not read this due to its length, but I do think it may provide some valuable insight into the state of the gaming community and trends in the market base if you go and take a look around the blog.

http://mmodata.blogspot.com/
MMOData Blog

Cheers All - I hope I provided some useful info for you all ;)

***ADDED***

http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/PCU-1.png
Peak Current Users

World of Warcraft's Peak users Online at one time is around 2M out of the 12M Global Subscriber Base - which to me seems slightly low for a game such as WoW with 12M active Subscriptions.

But this does not take into effect multiple accounts per single user household, just the subscriptions that are active at a given time.