Monday, October 19, 2009

Random Shots: Link Of The Day

  • The big link that's making its way around the MMO blogging community today comes from Eric from Elder Game. This month's post (I kid!) takes a poke at the oddities in Champions Online's profanity filter. Very funny stuff. But like his prior post about the game, a little disturbing as well.

  • In his post, he posits a chain of events that might lead to the hilarious implementation of a profanity filter that is so far reaching that it even standard game text is expurgated. That's the funny part. What follows, though, is his theory that this is another sign of an MMO launch failing to achieve orbit. Essentially, such shoddy work is a sure sign that Cryptic has already washed its hands at CO and has moved its primary developers over to finish off Star Trek Online.

  • Eric already raised everyone's hackles once (What the %&@! is a hackle anyway?) with his post about WoW's live production going over to the second string. He's obviously not a man afraid to talk with authority about things into which he has no direct insight. However, he has a lot more MMO production experience than most and that gives his presumptions a lot more heft.

  • Like Scott Summers, I'm still wearing the ruby quartz sunglasses about this game. I can tell there are problems, but it's pretty easy for me to overlook them when I'm having fun. That is very much not the case for everyone if instance numbers are any indication. Champions still has a chance to right its course before it founders on the shoals of apathy. But they had better move fast and move decisively. Otherwise this kind of statement will be accepted as fact instead of the fable Eric intended it to be.

5 comments:

  1. That was a great read, thanks for highlighting it.

    Would you say that CO is really in its death throes? I expected it to settle into comfortable 200K or so territory. This is one I'm really looking forward to firing up again, I really did dig it in the OB.

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  2. @ Yeebo - No, I really don't think the game is doing that badly. The possibility is there, as it is in all games, but Cryptic is moving in the right direction. CO is like a premie: born too early, it'll will take some time before it can reach the same maturity as full term babies, er, MMOs.

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  3. I think it's expected that the population will decline after the first month, specially with all the other options available. What will matter is what Cryptic does to keep the dedicated player base as well as try to draw more in.

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  4. @ Jayedub - You are exactly correct. That's why I feel it's too early to call Forest Lawn for a burial plot and headstone. Honestly, if AoC is still running and releasing an expansion, you can't count any game out based on its early performance.

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  5. I know that when Rise of the Godslayer comes out, I will be returning to AoC, if not sooner!

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