Thursday 7 July 2011

Sceptically optimistic

It’s been quite entertaining reading the various reactions from around the internet to yesterday’s visit/skype video with Mythic by myself and a selection of other bloggers. People do so love a drama. First off, I find the NDA and the way information is released as frustrating as anyone, it’s not something I’ve ever had to care about before, but at the same time I can understand why things are done that way sometimes, certainly I can in this situation. Mythic have been badly hit by over-hype in the past, so they’re trying to be cautious, while at the same time share some info and get some opinion on other things before moving forward at the end of this month. Is the way of doing this right now correct? I don’t know really, I’m not annoyed by it enough to cry, but obviously I’m well aware that I am a bit biased as I got to take part in something that most don’t. Though to be frank, over nearly 3 years of writing shite here I have chosen to not put annoying adverts up, so make no money from blogging and other than any enjoyment I glean from writing, the only thing I get back from this place is some extra info on games, invites to things like yesterday and a few more beta invites than normal. If that’s a problem for you, well I don’t give a toss, get over yourself you twat.

That’s the problem with every MMO really, there’s always a little army of forum trolls and bitter ex-players that will pour derision on anything and everything the developers do, whilst at the same time there’s the blinkered brigade that will go on about how great everything is regardless of reality. In WAR’s case if you’re rational about it you can see that both of the extremes are wrong. The ever decreasing server list over the last 2 years is a clear testament to the game’s problems, you can not argue with that decline, but the fact that it is still going when others are not, that yesterday’s events happened at all and that patches continue to be developed show it’s far from dead in the water.

In light of what I learnt yesterday I am not leaping round in excitement for WAR’s future, but neither am I packing my bags and remember I have quit the game before when things pissed me off. Regular readers know the things that would make me excited, they also know what would make me quit. If you’re expecting WAR to either collapse or rise to the top of the MMO charts like some acetylene fuelled phoenix, then you’re wrong. I would recommend taking a more middle view, don’t get pulled into hype and expect too much, but don’t listen to the doomsayers and instead I would recommend accepting that WAR does have a future.

I am sceptically optimistic, but no more or less than that.

In other news, I'm gonna be pimping some old KF vids prior to a future event ;)

11 comments:

  1. Yeah.. staying sceptically optimistic is the best way, well..not only for WAR, but especially for WAR ;)

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  2. Hah I see what you did there :D

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  3. In-jokes as well!?! Enough! :p

    Thanks for getting as much info out as you could as quick as you could. Checked your Twitter loads on the way home from work :D

    I'm getting the impression that the major news is something that's not been speculated on much (at all?). Intriguing.

    I'm finding it hard to speculate. Will just wait for the announcement I guess. Overall I'm just pleased people are discussing new WAR developments and that the game is alive and kicking.

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  4. Okay so it looks like they are doing some dev work on the Tomb kings then... Interested to see what pans out.

    VonPP

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  5. "Mythic have been badly hit by over-hype in the past, so they’re trying to be cautious"

    Yes, but It is exactly this thing, that creates expetations and If the real announcements are month far, the expectations will only grow and become hyped. And then they release something that can not withstand that hype. But It is their fault. They should just stimply without a warning release new exciting things on some games day or so, but not this way, not this way. But they still keep doing It over and over again.

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  6. Must be smthg related to account management as it is down since almost three days now and no idea when it shall be restored.

    Another WAR blogger wrote this :

    http://www.weritsblog.com/2011/07/back-from-mythic.html

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  7. Dragnor - I agree. I do think inviting people like us there is a good thing, it does mean we can really give some feedback direct and is good for the community, they can also be assured of feedback that isn't just bile for the sake of it. But it should be done so that we can either talk in full, or with an NDA from the very invite so we don't say ANYTHING at all about even going and don't start the hype machine simply by us turning up.

    VPP - not even close.

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  8. whaaaat! but there was the latest Tomb Kings army book on someones desk!

    Fair point Bootae. I think Mythic get alot of feedback from you guys reaction to the new stuff.

    VonPP

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  9. lol, like that wasn't a marketing ploy. Any company intent on avoiding hype would have simply got on with what they were going to do.

    The frustrating thing is that it worked because even I (one of the bitter ex-player twats you mentioned) couldn't help but have one last rant/post about it.

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  10. Gankalicious - You are most probably right. Inviting bloggers just for our feedback alone? Yeah right :P

    All I can say is give it a couple of weeks to learn more, but seriously don't expect the world. The title of this post was Sceptically optimistic with good reason.

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  11. How about bitter current players? Or people who know and understand mythic's culture of inadequacy? Any time I am posting a negative comment, which are most of my comments, I mean every word.

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Half man half pixel. Music obsessive, likes a drink, occasional bastard.