In general, it’s good queuing theory. If you know it will take your players approximately 4 months to get 60% through the content, then if you can meet the schedule of getting the other 40% of the content done in those 4 months, you can let them have the 60% of the content now, avoid nasty(-ier) crunch times, and finish up as your players are doing the first bit of content.
There’s no excuse for outright lying to the players about things that aren’t implemented yet when faced with the question point blank, though.
I wonder if when people say “sterile” they mean “generic”
For EQ2, if you show me an EQ2 screenshot without telling me it’s an EQ2 screenshot, odds are even I’m going to be at a loss to identify the game. It’s just some pretty terrain with some poser models. There’s no character to it; there’s nothing really distinctive about it.
For WoW - love the art direction or hate it, but when someone shows you a WoW screenshot you know exactly what game it’s from.
Look at ut2006 characters: as much as I dislike the art direction, they are technically sound and have some art direction, certainly NOT poser models- they look AWESOME. Look at gears of war shots: NOT poser, actually super kick ass looking. so it isnt going to be every next gen game looking like poser- just the ugly ass ones with technically good graphics because they have high poly models, high res textures and decent lighting. It is manekins versus sculpture. manekins are sculpted at some point, by someone, but they dont compare to most say, comic book hero maquettes by decent artists.
IMO it will be ‘heavy metal magazine cover art ripoffs’ in the AAA games, like we’ve had for years now, and then poser-like models, like second life and eq2, in the lower-effort games. EQ2 should look nicer than it does, IMO, being what it is. (though I’ve only played trial of the isle, maybe only it looks like barbie’s plastic dreamhouse and the rest of the game looks like doom 5 on crack or whatever)
Disclaimer: I play EQ2 and WoW and like them both. :)
The criticisms against EQ2’s art direction are not unfounded, though I find it odd that people pick on the texturing of the characters so much. Could someone point out a MMOG that does skin textures well? I think there are more obvious things to complain out, like the way that the character models are rigged and animated. Every humanoid character in EQ2 has the same ridiculous, bow-legged stance when standing motionless, and the same lurching, jerky motions when running. The animations lack smoothness. Also, despite a multiplicity of sliders for things like facial morphs in EQ2, why do characters of the same race and gender still look more or less alike?
On the other hand, WoW’s customization is even worse.
Chalk one up for Blizzard’s animators, though–they did a great job.
I think EQ2 has some amazing artistic level design. Walking around North Qeynos with view of the castle, plunging down the depths of Stormhold, traversing through the visual insanity of Nek Castle. There’s some very neat stuff filled with atmosphere.
Yeah. The assertion that you can stick to the roads is way way too false to be true. The only thing you can say for sure is that if you stick to the roads you will probably draw less aggro than if you didn’t.
The best rule of thumb is that if you want the least amount of aggro then stick to the rogues.
No, we’re actually open to seeing stuff, rather than closing our minds because we happen to play some other MMO. Jeez, I mean, really; someone likes a particular look and everyone beats on them because that apparently means they dislike the look of what everyone else likes.
I think many of us, who play various games, like aspects of all of them. EQ2 has a lot of great looking stuff in it. So does WoW. Hell, so does DAOC, even still. Different tastes will prevail, but I truly think that a lot of the EQ2 bashing is from people who for some reason find it disconcerting that someone, somewhere, isn’t slavishly devoted to WoW and WoW only.
Blizzard did a superb job on many aspects of the WoW look, but one reason for that is they also included IMO a lot less stuff in their world. That’s not to say the world is lacking in stuff, or that having less stuff but better made stuff is a bad thing, but I really do think Norrath is much more extensive and expansive than Azeroth, and I think that helps account for a lot of the difference. The stuff in WoW is often very finely crafted, making great use of comparatively few polys, and sticking to a very well realized style. The stuff in EQ2 is occasionally breath-taking, covers a wide variety of looks and styles, but lacks consistency and the often the sort of jewel-like polish you get in WoW.
Hell, I have zero loyalty to any game. I play what I like at that particular point in time. For about 18 months, from beta through a year after launch, I played WoW. Now, for the past five months I’ve been playing EQ2. In six months I have no idea what MMO I’ll be playing. It’s not a religion, it’s a freakin’ game…
Not from me, as I played a lot more EQ2 than WoW, and found the graphics in EQ2 really generic and bland. I didn’t see any high level content, but the environments (other than the two cities, which were very good) were really bland, and the small little adventuring areas were really artificially constrictive and “gamey”.
Even though I don’t like WoW’s cartoony style, the art design is sooo much better than in EQ2, and the environments are both more interesting and (for me, this was even more important) more seamless, with boundaries that are more naturally hidden. There’s nothing worse for being “taken out of a game” than when you run into goofy walls that look almost like curtains, rather than natural boundaries.
I played EQ2 for three months about 6 months before I started playing WoW. I quit WoW about three weeks ago after playing for ~5 months because I got bored. I never got to 60. Your rant has nothing to do with me or my point.
The fact is that a very high proportion of people that see EQ2 think it’s ugly. My comment was simply intended as an expression of disbelief that people actually like the visuals in EQ2. I find myself completely unable to understand how people can like the way it looks.
I tried the trail of EQ2, when I was trying to decide between it and WoW. The cartoony look of WoW worried me. However, I found EQ2 too generic and sterile myself. It just lacked aesthetic appeal for me. I felt like I was running around in a game, even though the game looked more realistic than WoW. WoW, OTOH, drew me in right away with its art. I was amazed at how easily I bought into the world. It doesn’t feel like a cartoon at all when you are playing it. It’s very odd, and I still can’t quite pin down my feelings here…I mean put them into words. But EQ2 feels cold to me, and WoW feels like home…and that was from the start.
I couldn’t disagree more. The art direction for Warhammer kicks ass, the art direction for Warcraft reminds me of cartoons and bunny elves just annoy me to no end. They share the same genre, but they go in more or less opposite directions. Where Warcraft is colourful and vivid, Warhammer is dark and gritty.
I find myself completely unable to understand how people can like the way it looks.
I was impressed with what I saw. I’m not saying that calling it Bryce is uncalled for but there are some great moments. If you’ve seen the locations that I mentioned above and disagree well then we are at an impasse. It is a shame however that people can be so turned off by a certain “look” that they’re missing out on a good experience. (Regarding Gabe and Tycho’s comments). EQ2 holds up very well against WOW imo and shouldn’t be overlooked so easily.
Same here. The 3D graphics geek in me prefers EQ2 because of the more advanced tech supported in the game’s engine, and also probably because I’m mentally blind to what constitutes good art. That said, WoW, for being essentially a DX7 game, looks damn good. I have two cousins, both big college football players at Hillsdale U., that play the game when they’re home, and watching them run around in a city, fight, or just harvest, I was surprised at how good WoW looks. I can’t imagine what Blizzard’s artists could do with a truly cutting-edge renderer.
15 months into EQ2 (plus 1 month in its beta), I still find myself oogling EQ2’s graphics at times. I have a pretty high-end rig thanks to reviewing hardware for a website, so I’m able to pretty much max-out the game’s settings for models, textures, etc., and play at 1920x1200 with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.
Holy crap, that must be a crazy high-end set up – my system is high end and I couldn’t even play EQ2 at 1600x1200 with no AA or AF – it was the only game in the past 4 years that I had to drop in resolution (FEAR turned out to be the second).
