Civ as MMORPG?

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Adagio
Hmmm.... looking at 'his' games, it doesn't sounds like this game will be very Civ'ish then

But atleast he is one of the old timers in the industry(i'm suspicious of the post 1990 brigade - they are all seduced by the evil graphics card manufacturers ) - as long as his role will be hands on in the developement it stands an even chance of being atleast ok and trying to do a decent civ type game?

[Verto]

Doesn't matter, I'm not forking out 15$ a month to play it.

[pg]

i wish all these mmorpgs would die. especially stupid ones like this. they probably can't even solve the most basic of problems a game like this has - what happens when you are logged off but your nation is still there?

[duke o' york]

You're never allowed to be logged off damn it!
You must play all the time.

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Verto
Doesn't matter, I'm not forking out 15$ a month to play it.

Yes i find this the biggest issue for me as well, and i guess i could be termed a hard core game player(in that i'm very hard to please and its a full time hobby for me). So i imagine most MMORPG's are played by the ultra-hardcore.

When i buy a game i dont mind spending £50, but then its all mine and i can play it as and when i like for the rest of (my) time.
A monthly fee just seems a bit expensive in comparison? I supose if the game was so good it was the only game i wanted to spend time playing, then i might splash the cash? But it would have to be one hell of a game.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by pg
i wish all these mmorpgs would die. especially stupid ones like this. they probably can't even solve the most basic of problems a game like this has - what happens when you are logged off but your nation is still there?

Well, assuming it's like Shadowbane, your 'nation' is really just a collection of buildings, NPCs, and other player characters. They will probably look after themselves while you are off line, but you would also want to promote other people to positions of power so that they can tend to the NPCs and take charge of any political issues that might happen.

[DrSpike]

I've seen a lot of people say that (edit: to CoT), but mainly young people who have to beg mummy and daddy for extra pocket money.

I thought this would be something you'd go for CoT. I mean, just how much is £10 per month? You go with your gf (wife actually right?) to the cinema it costs more than that for 2 hours entertainment.

Most SP games have a limited lifespan, except the very best like Civ which I always return to. £10 just isn't very much to play a game that's always changing, with new content added and in a dynamic environment with other players.

Thus I've decided I have to fill this last real gap in my MP knowledge by playing WoW when it comes out.

[Kuciwalker]

I've never found MMORPG's to be particularly varied. It (being a MMORPG) provides maybe about as much variation as the random map generator in civ, at most. The games always seem to be poorly designed so that they are extremely formulaic.

[pg]

mmorpgs don't have gameplay they have a level treadmill(powergaming) and socializing. that's it. exception being pvp but other than planetside and the new daoc thingy it usually isn't worth playing. you're better off playing a fps/rts for a pvp type experience.

[pg]

Originally posted by General Ludd


Well, assuming it's like Shadowbane, your 'nation' is really just a collection of buildings, NPCs, and other player characters. They will probably look after themselves while you are off line, but you would also want to promote other people to positions of power so that they can tend to the NPCs and take charge of any political issues that might happen.

yeah but that's not really solving the problem. that just means making sure you are in a clan with enough catasses that someone is always online to take care of business. i see that as a bad thing. didn't catasses do raid/sieges/whatever in shadowbane at 3 am all the time? i'd hardly call that solving the problem.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by pg


yeah but that's not really solving the problem. that just means making sure you are in a clan with enough catasses that someone is always online to take care of business. i see that as a bad thing. didn't catasses do raid/sieges/whatever in shadowbane at 3 am all the time? i'd hardly call that solving the problem.

"Catass" is not a term I've heard before.


But these are different problems. Problems of 1) NPC guards being useless 2) Some people being able to play at all hours of the day (which is not really a problem) 3) The server needing to be reset every day.


The three of those together made for a bad situation in Shadowbane where there would be early morning "ninja raids" that attack cities and destroy any unprotected assets while facing no defense, or defenders settning the bane times to go off in the early monring in hopes of fewer attackers showing up, or even setting it right before the server resets so that the attack has no time at all to prepare the siege and has to race to the city from their tree once the servers comes back up.

These problems are all easily adressed, though. Realms of Tormet, for instance, plans to make NPCs much more powerful, to the point where they could make the majority of a nation's power. This would mean that as long as you have your army of NPCs defending your city, those 'ninja raids' are impossible.

(where as in Shadowbane you could have upwards of 200 fully level NPC guards that still can't defend the city from 10 or so people)

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by pg
mmorpgs don't have gameplay they have a level treadmill(powergaming) and socializing. that's it. exception being pvp but other than planetside and the new daoc thingy it usually isn't worth playing. you're better off playing a fps/rts for a pvp type experience.

Don't forget roleplay.... I know, it's hard to find in a MMORPG, and it's a definate minority, but it can be fun when you find the right people.

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by DrSpike
edit.....
You go with your gf (wife actually right?)

well it sure feels like it sometimes (had to put that old chesnut in!)

And yes in theory a MMORPG should i suppose be my ideal game type(Pirates of the Burning Coast looking like an interesting one for me at the mo).

I guess in a way i find the sound of them a bit too shallow, they always nealry just come down to killing stuff and leveling up.
I don't mind that in a one off payment game, but in something i may want to really get into and spend constant money on i'd prefer something a little 'more'.
Not sure what exactly that 'more' is, but i havent been inspired enough by any MMORPG yet to give it a go(Star Wars Galaxies came close).

And half of me just finds the whole losing ones self in a virtual world a little disturbing - real life should be the one that interests us more no? There will plenty of time for our descendents to live under the control of the silicon terror

[Grumbold]

Originally posted by child of Thor
I think one of the things that made Civ a success was that at heart it was also an educational game to some extent(ok it was wrapped up in a fun game, but i still felt like i was learning about history while playing it).

I just dont think the current climate for producing games has any appetite to really cary on that tradition - educational has almost become a dirty word in game development.

None of them have been runaway smash hits, but the Paradox games are very educational. EU1 and 2 especially are brimming with historical events that fascinated me.

The problem with 'Edutainment' seems to be that anybody that starts by trying to turn education into a game format fails miserably. The ones that succeed are really fun games that manage to add a layer of information on top without ruining the playability.

[vovan]

RPG without Magic

Civilization RPG

I don't like to bash new ideas, they drive innovation, but a Civ RPG?