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If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Google's "pick an ad before you can watch anything"
They don't appear to be screening the ads that get into the system. Two of the three possible selections were ten minute long-form infomercials.
Needless to say this worries me.
Comments
Wait, they let you pick ads?
*checks this out*
Huh. This is what they have tailored for me:
Arts & Entertainment - Comics & Animation - Comics
Arts & Entertainment - Movies - Science Fiction & Fantasy Films
Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio - ... - Musical Instruments
Games - Computer & Video Games - Strategy Games
Games - Online Games - Massive Multiplayer
Travel - Air Travel
Demographics - Age - 18-24
Demographics - Gender - Male
...Not too accurate (I can see the comics part as I love reading webcomics and wish there was a comic store here, the films part fits well, Musical instruments... Not sure where that came from. I love strategy games. I haven't played an MMO in ages. And I rarely travel =/)
For reference: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/
Huh. My Firefox has cookies disabled, so it doesn't show me anything.
No, I'm talking about where videos with will force you pick one of however many ads before it'll actually start playing. Usually long videos.
Oh
I use Adblock so yeah
A fair representation of my interests, apart from the rock music, which... I don't even know
Heaps of stuff are missing from mine too. Where's the in-depth examination of my gaming habits? Where's the mentioning of my gardening stuff? Where does it mention comics, manga and anime? WHERE DOES IT MENTION COOKING ;-;
Presumably they got it mixed up with my stuff.
And where's all of the various anime/torrent searches on mine dammit? Where's the web original stuff? Where's the weird part of Youtube? Where is -trails off-
MMO's aren't swordy enough for Alex. Either that or they're too swordy.
Turn-based or faux real-time = not swordy at all
you see
needs moar realistic sword-combat simulation elements with real-time reflexes and complex interfaces to satisfy Alex
Aren't complex interfaces kinda the problem, since they're partly responsible for turning real-time play into a turn-based system?
no
we just need new controllers
and probably new brains to handle the complexity
More seriously, it'd be not too difficult to get a somewhat realistic combat simulator with relatively simple controls, but where's the fun in that?
Everywhere!
^^No, no, you're missing my point. The complex interfaces are why most MMOs aren't realistic.
As for this:
Play the Souls games. They're a pretty okay start. Maybe something midway between that and Skyward Sword...
no u
I think there are more important things to work on in MMO's than combat interfaces, and problems that run too deep for that to really count for anything.
They really need to hire decent writers so they can get some good quest lines in, for one. Making the worlds less static, so they can actually change significantly as you play, would be cool but isn't likely to happen.
I dunno, the combat isn't high up on my list of things that need changing, is all.
Yeah, that's true. My second bit wasn't really about MMOs, though, more about games in general. Though the Souls games do have MMO elements.
^^ The main advantage of changing combat to be more realistic is to provide a more tactical and cerebral basic combat experience. What if, for instance, your warrior class had access to a true real-time combat system, but the mage class didn't? With that in mind, a warrior would hardly need special abilities to defeat mages up close, and duels between warriors would be tense and exciting.
I would still get bored and quit because the quests all suck.
Making good quests and improving combat aren't mutually exclusive :P
No, but they're two seperate issues <----> that Alex didn't address.
See?
There are a lot of things that MMO's need to address that a better combat simulator wouldn't address.
I've mentioned quests before, and that static worlds aren't necessarily the best way to go although they are an OK think I guess.
But there's a lot of problems inherent in the formula that has been established. For example-
> Quest Systems- very few games, let alone MMO's, have quests and stories that I would really consider good the same way I may consider a storyline in a novel good. There's very little complexity or depth to most of them, and even when taken as a whole, very few games have questlines that are interesting. This is one thing Dungeons and Dragons Online does right- it has quests that actually tell a good story.
Furthermore, most quests follow one of two established formula- "Go and kill X of Y" or "Go and talk to Alice over there". There are variations on this, sure- escort quests wherein you're getting Bob from A to B instead of talking to Alice at B, fetch quests wherein you're given a nominal item then go talk to Alice at B and Charlie at C, and so on, so forth. For all the flak it gets, quests are one thing Runescape does not do too badly. While they're really just elaborate fetch quests, they're a lot more entertaining than the usual fare.
> Grinding. Near every MMO out there has grinding as a core mechanic, and it sucks. Runescape and most Asian MMO's have earned their notoriety here; they require huge amounts of grinding, sitting for hours on end doing monotonous tasks.
I mean, there's prolly more, but I can't think of them at the moment.
There are a lot of things that would make MMO's... more complex, at least, than they are now. Take the core mechanic, combat- most MMO's rely on this to the exclusion of all else, while most standalone games these days have puzzle mechanics/platforming mechanics too, or more mechanics, even. Hell, the concept of teamwork inherent in an MMO would lend itself fairly well to complex dungeons and the like.
I dunno. Combat just ain't the most important thing they need to focus on.
Oh well.
Actually, I have some Google cookies enabled, some enabled only for session, and some blocked. I wonder which ones affect this feature.
Yay I cause a derail
^ Come on. At least you could to see actual porn rather than oogling the underwears catalogue!
Sounds like someone's got something to hide. :P
^ Says the person whom Google tells us spends time oogling underwears (Since you don't buy any by your own words :-P)
Hrrrm.