Who has article author rights on the main page?

**Note** See forum below for computer tech support
Access: Guests, Registered Users, Members
Forum rules
Posts from Unregistered or New users will not appear until moderator approval in this section. Allow upto 24 hours before trying to post again.
Locked
AmigaFan2003
Sakhan
Sakhan
Posts: 5618
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 8:56 pm

Who has article author rights on the main page?

Post by AmigaFan2003 » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:19 am

If you have, can you post this for me? I've requested rights a few times now over the last week and it's not been activated yet.
TNGC - 2008 in review.

Was 2008 the year we all got a reality check? Three big MMO's, three relative failures - maybe we're all just getting old?

We'll start the review, naturally enough, from the beginning, with Pirates of the Burning Sea (PotBS from here on in).

Killerwolf (of Nemetos Order WoW guild master fame) drew our attention to this attractive little game on the forums way back in June 2007. Immediate reaction from the community was very encouraging and we were soon making plans to enter the scurvy ridden world of the 17th century sea farer.

We got a fair few people into the open beta and it seemed to have that magic MMO hook - it was fun, there were places to explore, leveling seemed fun and group play was easy to co-ordinate. Ship vs ship battles were amazing (and will take some time to be bettered by anyone else I imagine). We won’t mention the avatar combat though. It was decided we'd create a TNGC guild with Alastriona at the helm - Avast and shiver me timbers and all that.

The game launched mid Jan and we hit the seas on the French side with a solid guild already formed and all seemed good, days turned into weeks - most people seemed happy with the game. We even helped create the CSNF alliance. We gained new members and even took the front ranks in various port contention battles. But then it started to dawn - it's all a bit "samey". Dodgy game mechanics appeared that let the opposition flip ports in the middle of the night. Economy whilst fun might have been TOO complicated for the average player - leading to it being dominated by massive guilds. Patches came and went and improved things, but very slowly. By late March pretty much everyone from the guild had stopped playing and we retired from the seas - great game definitely, just not quite enough substance I imagine.

Our next foray into an MMO was the hugely hyped Age of Conan.

Alot of the community had been watching AoC with eager anticipation for a long time. Many predicted this to be the next gen WoW killer that would also kill off Warhammer before it started. Cutting edge graphics and an interactive combat system made the game sound attractive to pure gamers. Funcomm stating it would remain faithful to the Conan books (not the film thankfully) made it attractive to the fantasy role playing crowd. Would it live up to the hype?

We managed to get a couple of people into a few of the test weekends in April and initial reports were good. There seemed to be plenty to do in PvE, the dialogues were fun and the areas well designed. Early reports were that PvP just didn't work though - frame rates were through the floor and special combo moves for max DPS required you to stand still - not really an option in PvP. Even though the graphics were only DX9, it looked good, if a little slow. We were promised enhancements and patches.....
Enough enthusiasm was shown by the community that we decided to start a guild. The same names showed up and we basically had another Nemetos Order and Alastriona again offered to lead us forward. The game launched mid May and once again we started with a strong guild. Leveling took most of peoples time, we enjoyed the graphics, the story, the world and we even built our own keep but it soon became apparent that something major was missing - team play. It was pretty much worthless to form a party - most quests could be done solo. I think I only did one instance in all my time playing the game. The grouping issue was compounded by the multiple “instanced” versions of the same area. PvP was non existent and where was DX10?

The guild spluttered on, most people leveled up to around 50 (where there was a MASSIVE content hole), we waited for patches and AoC, for the TNGC at least, died a quiet death, with us signing off for the last time around the beginning of August. A great shame - it really did have the potential to be a WoW killer - if only Funcomm had bothered to finish it.

Now we move onto what was possibly the most anticipated MMO in history bar WoW - Warhammer :Online

You only have to check the forums to see how much we were looking forward to this one - 60+ posts before the game even released. This was going to be big.

To cut a long story short, Aveox (of Starwolf Planetside outfit leader fame) decided to found House Auraxis and whilst it wasn't a dedicated TNGC guild, most of us decided to make it our home for WAR. Aveox had been playing in the beta for ages so knew the game inside out - success was assured.

The game released on 17th September (ignoring the early access farce) and we hit the ground running. Area design was good, classes seemed to work as designed, character progression was swift in the early levels and the game delivered on its promise of making people group up and we got thrown into some serious PvP at the end of the first zone. We were hooked.

A solid month went by with the guild making good progress, some drama and politics (ahem!) and HA sorting out their RvR tactics. We got level 40 players, upped our gear and progressed well. However, the storm clouds were brewing. When a game is centered on PvP, class balance is crucial - this soon turned out to be a problem and something that only worsened with patches! RvR mechanics were also suspect - incentives to attack were non existent in some scenarios, making stalemates common. On top of all this, technical issues made large PvP battles very hard to play, despite the games graphics being relatively untaxing.

Players started to drift away and with the promised 1.1 patch slipping further away by the day, HA was wound up on 18th Dec - just over 3 months - a decent run in a game with essentially flawed design.

Now, you may read all the above and feel a bit disheartened at the current state of affairs in the TNGC. But you'd be wrong to do so and let me explain why.

We had the manpower and drive to try each of these games out. We had strong guilds at launch date in each of the games. We recruited lots of new people to the community that are still around. We absolutely got the maximum possible out of each game. In the end however, we were ultimately screwed over by the game designers. Despite all these issues we're all still here, waiting for "the next big thing", enthusiasm undented. We’re more experienced (we can write a guild proposal in 10 seconds flat!), wiser and maybe a little more seasoned as a consequence.

2008 wasn't an entirely bad year for gaming though and there are a certain successes to note.

Medieval 2:Total War - the old stalwart for a fair few TNGC members has been around since 2006. We still hold regular battle nights for this great "pick up and play" RTS.

Left4Dead launched towards the end of 2008 and has proved a fantastic little title for some zombie shredding FPS action. A lot of the community have this game and we've had some great four player sessions trying to save ourselves from the zombie horde. We're looking forward to mods coming out for this one that expands the game play further. I can see this enduring though most of 2009. You really have to get this game. Oh, but don't play it with the lights off!

And finally there is that old stalwart - WoW with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion - released Nov 2008 it's enabled a remarkable rejuvenation of our longest running active TNGC division - Nemetos Order. Raids are being run again but in a casual manner - from reading the forums they're all having a jolly good time as well!

There are countless other games that TNGC members play that aren't mentioned here - they all make up the rich gaming tapestry that this community enjoys and is one of the reasons why we're so strong and another reason why we'll be here for a long time to come.

We're actively planning for the next Total War game - Empire:Total War (article coming soon) and have already created a TNGC division - Black Dawn - for this purpose. If you're interested, PM me on the forums.

I hope you've enjoyed my little year end review and I look forward to playing many more games with (or against) many of you in 2009!

Just leave my archers alone!
Last edited by AmigaFan2003 on Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image

Lews
Star Captain
Star Captain
Posts: 891
Joined: Sun Jul 17, 2005 1:57 pm
Alias: Dragonbane
Location: lat.:52.52828 lon.: -1.21191

Re: Who has article author rights on the main page?

Post by Lews » Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:14 am

i would if i could but i cant so i wont

poke FJ with a sharper stick
Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.
with my coming this thread has perished, if you are reading this, stop.

Image

User avatar
Alastriona
Community Donor
Community Donor
Posts: 2374
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2005 3:00 pm
Alias: Freya
Location: Netherlands

Re: Who has article author rights on the main page?

Post by Alastriona » Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:19 am

I can add an article, but I think an admin needs to approve it when I do.

User avatar
Alastriona
Community Donor
Community Donor
Posts: 2374
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2005 3:00 pm
Alias: Freya
Location: Netherlands

Re: Who has article author rights on the main page?

Post by Alastriona » Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:23 am

I've added it, but it needs to be approved :P.

AmigaFan2003
Sakhan
Sakhan
Posts: 5618
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 8:56 pm

Re: Who has article author rights on the main page?

Post by AmigaFan2003 » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:26 am

Cool - thanks Ala.

Right, time to start work on the Empire:TW article now :-)
Image

prinses
Community Donor
Community Donor
Posts: 4038
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 4:02 pm
Location: Holland

Re: Who has article author rights on the main page?

Post by prinses » Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:44 pm

nice article btw, think it sums up the year pretty nicely!
Image

Firejack
Khan
Khan
Posts: 11309
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2005 3:27 pm
Alias: Irricas
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Who has article author rights on the main page?

Post by Firejack » Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:16 pm

I can't see the article you submitted Niels? I'll add it myself in a bit.

Great article Amiga. I actually tried to write something in the run up to Christmas to tie in with the fact Allicorn was stepping down as Community leader (thats a newsflash for most of you :o ).
Really struggled though as I had so little time to game last year. With all the family problems I had last year I think I only actually bought 5 games, haven't played one yet, barely played 2 others, and the others I was hardly the most regularly of players past the first few weeks. Just couldn't think of what to write.

We will have to think of a way to replace the portal soon. Its no longer going to be developed now. We will have to search for another option. I'm not a fan of any of the CMS's around so thinking of trying the Wiki software on the main page. Thats just a thought though as I have zero free time right now.. grr.
TerraNovaGaming.Community - for like minded gamers
Who you play with is what makes a game fun

ImageImage
Image

AmigaFan2003
Sakhan
Sakhan
Posts: 5618
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 8:56 pm

Re: Who has article author rights on the main page?

Post by AmigaFan2003 » Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:00 am

Why replace it? It's functioning fine and I'm sure if you released the code to me I could have a crack at minor amendments.
Image

Locked

Return to “Help and Support”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 22 guests