Alarian Darkwind's page

Gadareth wrote:

I will be perfectly willing to give the game a chance when it is released however in its current development direction I am not willing to invest in the possibility that it will truly manage to do what no PvP centric game has managed to date. So far it sounds like they are going for the Ultima Online approach to PvP and to be honest that was one of the ost grief intensive PvP systems I have ever encountered.

Just so we're clear, PFO's design approach is the exact opposite of the UO approach. Ryan has explicitly and at length laid this out, where he uses UO as the example of the opposite of what they are doing, and why.

Of course UO was the most grief-intensive game ever--their (lack) of social design made it that way. That's why GW is doing the literal, exact opposite.

Glad to hear this about PF. I was a long time Beta Tester for UO and to be honest, during the Beta it was the best MMO I have ever played. Once it went open, it turned into the biggest nightmare MMO I have ever played. The masses surrounding towns ready to gank any and everyone was truly depressing. I went from love to hate in about 2 weeks and never logged in again.

I also want to say I hold no ill-will to the designers of this MMO. I wish them well, I just have no interest whatsoever in it's current direction. For me, getting PK'ed even once is a non-starter (that's how much I hate PK). Any remote chance there was of me playing went out the window when I heard they could loot your body after killing you. It's basically a way for them to bend you over and then give it to you not once, but twice.

If nothing else I hope they avoid the "random weird useless monster" tangent that DDM went off on towards the end.

This! I can't tell you how many monsters I have that as soon as I saw them I knew I would never use them. Don't make weird useless monsters unless there is a good reason for it. I would much rather have several different versions of Orcs that that would get used over and over vs. s Norwegian Kleep Flicker with an extra elbow on his nose.

I'm very excited about the news. I've been playing since 1977 and own pretty much every 1st-3rd edition product ever produced for D&D by TSR/WotC. I hate 4th with a blinding fury. As to have I given 4th a fair try? I've been playing weekly in two 4th edition campaigns for the past 2 years, so yes, I think it's safe to say I've given it a fair try. I dislike it as much now as I did when it first came out. As to why I'm still playing if I hate it so much? I live in a small town and gaming opportunities aren't great, and I strongly believe the players are more important than the system. I enjoying playing with my current group quite a bit so the social aspect outweighs the system we play. As a tactical minitures war game, I give it great marks, as a RPG all I can say is it looks like a heck of a lot more people must dislike the game than like it to be already replacing it.

As to where they go from here? I do hope for the best for them. I've never been one to wish ill on them for 4th. Thanks to the internet I can get my fair share of non-4th gaming thanks to tools like MapTool and the like. If 5th steps away from the MMO roots of 4th and goes back to embracing role playing over tactical combat scenario generators, I'll be back full force with my wallet in hand.