Goblin Squad Member
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In case fans of Sandbox MMOs have not noticed, there are a lot of Sandbox MMO’s on the horizon, and many of them have some very innovative ideas out there. In fact Pathfinder Online has some stiff competition on two upcoming MMOs that are in the early stages. One is in it’s Kickstarter now and the other has a Kickstarter (may be on a different fund raising platform) in the very near future.
The first one is “Trials of Ascension” whose Kickstarter began on October 23rd. It has Permadeath (100 death counters), no minimap, no fast travel, alternate playable races. So far a spider race called the “Raknar” has been unlocked, but other possibilities include Gryphons, Dopplegangers, Pixies and Dragons. They have a nicely designed website and with lots of detailed information and are hitting the PR scene pretty hard right now.
The other contender is “Life is Feudal” featuring full, unlimited terraforming, free building (skill based) which can be destroyed, local banking only, full PvP and looting (will surely scare of any casuals), realistic combat physics and body damage featuring organ and bone damage, also requiring detailed doctoring skills to heal and cure such wounds, and open territorial control. The game also has a nice website that has links to several videos and lots of detailed information on skills and features.
Goblinworks has an awesome blog. I am there every two weeks to read the latest blog and comment on these forums which I have been doing almost a year now (and I was late to the party). But GW’s website needs some webmaster love to show the cool stuff Pathfinder Online has to offer. You are getting trumped by new competition and these games also have alphas that are supposed to be starting pretty soon (in 2014 if they remain on schedule).
Get someone on website design and drop some of the “Work in Progress” on there, show us a few videos, list some prospective skills, some fancy screenshots. Announce some of the unique features of PFO to get other gamers who might not have heard of PFO excited to play. Gain more followers and get some fresh blood on these forums. You may be doing this already in preparation for the long awaited “Fulfillment Period”, but you have some stiff competition right behind you!
Let's not forget Camelot Unchained...
Very similar to PFO in the crafing/resourcing gathering and building sense. I.E The players are the content... crafting is the only way to get good gear... you have to gather important resources for crafting, etc.
You can also build large structures and housing which thy enemies can destroy. The major difference is that instead of player-created factions and politics, you have 3 set factions: The Tuatha De Danann (based on Irish mythology), The Arthurians (Olde English), and the Vikings (Norse Mythology).
Red is dead.
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Goblin Squad Member
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It may not be the same target audience (Though it is an Open World PvP Sandbox) but... well... it's so damn good that every game should be scared of it.
Star Citizen by Chris Roberts.
Last time this guy built a game Microsoft forced forward the release date and launched it way earlier than it should have been... and it was still the best game ever made. Yay for Freelancer.
It may not be the same target audience (Though it is an Open World PvP Sandbox) but... well... it's so damn good that every game should be scared of it.
Star Citizen by Chris Roberts.
Last time this guy built a game Microsoft forced forward the release date and launched it way earlier than it should have been... and it was still the best game ever made. Yay for Freelancer.
Lol. Microsoft pulled that same $hit with Vanguard.
Edit: No sorry, Microsoft pulled funding for Vanguard and then SOE bought it and pulled that s*%&. The memory is finally fading thank the gods.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Around fulfilment tool or alpha they could update it might make sense. Before then it is a long way until EE, still. Got to align info delivery with buy-in which needs real footage/evidence of features promoted is my guess?
Star Citizen, World of Darkness, Eternal Crusade, The Repopulation are "mmo" 's I'm thinking will be interesting.
Camelot Unchained, Shroud of the Avatar I think will be popular but unsure how they are going to have that x-factor I feel the above might have.
McQuaid is coming up with a kickstarter mmo, Trials of Ascension looks brilliant feature wise but I am not sure they will reach their goal.
There's a few other indie mmos but I am unsure how they will do or fear they will have to much uphill to go eg Embers of Caerus, Citadel of Sorcery, Greedmonger and one or two others. Some eg Neo's Land appear to have already failed.
I think PFO is a different proposition to most of these; it seems much more about the innards of the game system than the compelling visual dynamics displayed in the above. That said because Star Citizen will be a big big experience it I think it will be very popular an it has dual-avatar gameplay and even coop players on one ship (turret). It also seems to take the single player, coop, mmo approach to a playerbase, which should work.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I just want our own forums...
What are these? Chopped liver?
The reason I mention the two I did is they follow the same theme, general setting and territorial control features as PFO. There are some people that are looking right now for a game to play, and PGO, Trials and LiF are quite similar. My big issue is they have very nice websites extolling the virtues of their games with videos, screenshots, lists of skills and good write-ups of what their games bring to the table. I Know Ryan has said they are working on the game instead of building the GW website. Got it. But there other guys are already done with the website piece and have a lot of game completed as well. Don't let them snatch away PFOers as you are coming down the final stretch.
(This thread is less about ALL the cool looking MMOs on the horizon, but more about the MMOs that are similar in theme to PFO that have a better website and are marketing hard right now. Ryan was a marketing guy. Market the game on Goblinworks. As of November 2nd, 2013, the "News" page has a story dated December 12th, 2012. I KNOW there's been stuff going on since then, but first time visitors may not!)
(EDIT: Come to think of it, I bet there are 25-30 regular posters that would put some nice features on your website free of charge as long as they got credit for it on the site itself. You have hundreds of Goblins rooting you on. Use them!)
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Goblin Squad Member
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The games could be the EXACT same as PFO for all I care, they wont be in Galorion though, and that's one of the biggest things for me. The Lore/Theme of the game.
(This thread is less about ALL the cool looking MMOs on the horizon, but more about the MMOs that are similar in theme to PFO that have a better website and are marketing hard right now.
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Goblin Squad Member
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(This thread is less about ALL the cool looking MMOs on the horizon, but more about the MMOs that are similar in theme to PFO that have a better website and are marketing hard right now.
Thank you for pointing that out :D. although I read it in the OP, and I just wanted to throw a thought out there, being that the others can have cooler websites, and be just like PfO or whatever, but they can't beat the link we already have with Galorion (by we I mean others like myself who really enjoy the Galorion world.)
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Goblin Squad Member
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Those two games are not competition.
Permadeath is lame for an RPG you pay for.
Over complicated damage system will bog down the other game.
I will have to agree with Andius, Star Citizen is the only thing coming that is competition for everything. If only for a time.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Face of Mankind: Fall of the Dominion might not end up as huge as some of the games already listed (since it is a reboot of a 2009 game, which was a reboot of a 2006 game :D ), but it will very much be a sandbox: player-run factions with territory control and politics, player-run economy, open PvP etc. I'm keeping an eye on it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Its good to at least have some back up games if God forbid Pathfinder Online takes a Generals 2 turn of event... Everything looks good, alpha is fun and then BAM! Development is shutdown while EA executives laughs while torturing puppies.
Pathfinder online has a adventurer appeal to me that no other upcoming mmo has. Star Citizens is scifi and Eternal Crusade will be more like planetside 2 than a traditional mmo.
Another thing pathfinder has which no of the other mmo's has is the guts to really make a true free sandbox mmo, camelot unchained still has the Elder Scrolls online formula. The new Everquest looks beautiful and I think will be interesting, but for longevity I think Pathfinder will survive all the other fantasy sandbox mmo's just because it got more liberty for players than all the other competitors from what they have said, I just hope they are able to implement it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Thank you. I write, and had to make a choice whether to write science fiction or fantasy. I will have to make that choice again, though it may not be for another book or maybe two.
Can you tell what it is about fantasy that more attracts you, if you don't mind my asking?
Does that element of fantasy that most attracts you also comprise most of your attraction to PFO?
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Being: In general it's the standard:
Fantasy = millenia of evolution for our brains to relate to as well as historic contexts to draw from history, culture and literature then add imagination to.
Sci-Fi = very challenging not to end up resorting to fantasy sci-fi and when you do come up with something strange and suitable very challenging to be able to convey/communicate it so people can relate or are intrigued by it instead of "what the... ?"
Does that help? Or maybe you are more curious per individual?
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Goblin Squad Member
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Can you tell what it is about fantasy that more attracts you, if you don't mind my asking?
Not that you were asking me, but I'm going to give you my opinion anyway :)
For my part, I think that Sci-Fi often gets tangled up in spectacle rather than themes, and I'm all about the themes, not the spectacle. It's the same problem I have with Marvel - they focus more on the "super" than on the "hero", whereas DC (Batman, Superman) is much more clearly about the "hero".
That's not to say Fantasy can't get bogged down in spectacle. The first part of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy had an absolutely ridiculous sleigh ride through Goblintown that really turned me off. But, more often than not, good Fantasy is more focused on themes.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The question should be universal: I am very interested for very selfish reasons. I strongly wish my creative works to be deeply enjoyed. If I can gain insight what it is that is enjoyed by others I will gain great advantage.
It is very challenging to present speculative fiction rooted in current science/cosmology without burdening the reader with vast explanations. Fortunately challenges are not impossibilities ;)
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Goblin Squad Member
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Yeah, it does seem to derive from our prehistory.
I think with humans, our ability to anthropomorphically (phew!) interprete the natural world perhaps is part of our adaptive ability to exploit new niches ie we think how the animal we are tracking is feeling and might do next. I think this led to believing nature spirits in rocks and pool and big gnarly old trees etc that is possibly the basis for animism and a short step to magic and explanation for nature (all sorts of things from the milky way in the sky etc). And we've had a lot of time to formulate these "unseen worlds".
What I really am thankful to Tolkien for is that he was able to return a large part of this mythos heritage to the UK (and of course beyond) from the Church and it's replacing with the scriptures of the bible of the lands of the middle east far away. :) A lot of his work was able to revitalize such things as Orcs, Trolls from particularly Nordic sources and "Albion".
And a lot of fantasy derives from these same sources in fairy tales (oral tradition of knowledge)
But this tendency still persists today. An eg the Japanese Shintoism they like little spirits to be everywhere around them, eg a spirit that lives in a little corner somewhere and they put some sort of decoration there for it. And you know what it adds something to the house!!
Sci-Fi: If you follow science, the saying Fact stranger than Fiction. And of course it's our raw material for Fiction I suppose so I guess that's why it's really difficult to pull off but if done well can be amazing of course.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I prefer science fiction to high fantasy when I read, though I do like low fantasy fiction.
But when I play RPGs or MMOs, and the game has been designed so the melee is balanced with personal slug throwers and beam weapons... There's something about futuristic missile weapons with a 15-25m max range. That requires more suspension of disbelief than my gunpowder era mind can handle.
