Who plays this garbage?

[Tilted_Logic]

I've never tried one of them, so I'm going purely by the adverts.

Belittling people that would be inclined to play these types of games, as well as calling the games themselves shitty whilst having no first hand experience what-so-ever... I'm sorry, but could you be any more of a prick?

If you honestly made this post looking for people to defend the games, then fine; people have different tastes, big time mmo's aren't always what they're cracked up to be, and there's no harm in throwing some time into something free if it appeals to your interests.

I've tried adventure quest, doesn't appeal to me, but I could see how many people would enjoy it. Same goes for the other games, I have no interest in them, but there are millions of gamers out there, so chances are someone finds enjoyment in worlds created by Taiwanese gangsters.

Still though "sad-sack", really? Not a great way to entice people to respond reasonably, stop being so narrow-mindedly offensive.

 

[similar.squirrel]

I've never tried one of them, so I'm going purely by the adverts.

Belittling people that would be inclined to play these types of games, as well as calling the games themselves shitty whilst having no first hand experience what-so-ever... I'm sorry, but could you be any more of a prick?

If you honestly made this post looking for people to defend the games, then fine; people have different tastes, big time mmo's aren't always what they're cracked up to be, and there's no harm in throwing some time into something free if it appeals to your interests.

I've tried adventure quest, doesn't appeal to me, but I could see how many people would enjoy it. Same goes for the other games, I have no interest in them, but there are millions of gamers out there, so chances are someone finds enjoyment in worlds created by Taiwanese gangsters.

Still though "sad-sack", really? Not a great way to entice people to respond reasonably, stop being so narrow-mindedly offensive.

It's just that when you compare them [again, I'm going on the basis of the adverts] to something like Echo Bazaar, they seem more like uninspired cash-ins than anything else.
Seems a little odd that people would go for something so tacky when there's a wealth of indie fantasy games out there that have considerably more aesthetic value.

Maybe I am just a snob.

 

[Comando96]

but I'm having a hard time trying to imagine the kind of person who's life has reached a nadir where playing one of these things seems like a good idea.

Well I played an online game called "Torn City" (imagine crime game) I WANT TO HIGHLIGHT THE LETTER T, T... for about 2 years (never paid) and quit about 10 months ago.

The reasons I started playing... well... depression and it was quite social but not with anyone I know in life.

I'm now on anti-depressants and haven't been "happy" for a whole day in about 3 years.

-------------------------------

What the fuck.... just what in the name of fuck.

 

[targren]

...Would a Discworld MMO be any good?

Only if they got Nigel Planer (best reader of the DW audio books) to do all of the voice acting.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

Depends on what you mean by "shitty". If maps consist of nothing but grid references, no animation of any kind...well, the game can still be good. TDZK, (sp?) comes to mind. If it's based around dealing with other players...well, the forums here have less sophisticated combat, and no banking system.

If you mean "shitty" as in the game revolves around you becoming the greatest pimp by recruiting drug addicts as sex slaves you get points for abusing, starting with your little sister[footnote]I found one of those after I googled one of my other usernames, turned out the creator used it as well [/footnote]...yeah, there is a large amount of "WTF is wrong with you"?

I've never tried one of them, so I'm going purely by the adverts.
You know the type, though; bad flash animation, derivative fantasy setting, sloppily-drawn animé characters. The one I'm looking at now is called 'Adventure Quest', and it purports to have 300+ monsters.

adventure quest? i remembered back in the days of olde, when my friends and i played that. it is utter crap. unless you are like we were. 9.

 

[iFail69]

I play DDO, which is one of these F2P MMOs that I've seen in adverts on occasion across the internet. Though I will agree that the vast majority are really really bad. But just remember how many people are on the internet, these are low-cost games so they only need a comparatively small number of people to play and buy things to break even.

 

[tahrey]

Looks like Shakes & Fidget's days may be numbered, if the reason for their existence is "no Discworld mumorpuger yet": http://www.thudgame.com/taxonomy/term/463

Plus there's been a DW MUD around since before I got online in the mid 90s. That sort of thing technically fits the bill of "massively multiplayer online role playing game", even if it doesn't include immersive full-motion 3D graphics (...which S&F probably doesn't anyway - looks more like hokey wacom-scribbles)

But in any case I would respectively put these forward
http://www.lspace.org/games/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld_(video_game)

Maybe not mumorpugers but still full fat videogames and would probably be quite easily to port to some kind of flash based browser game in an afternoon. The latter having voice acting by Eric Idle, who trumps Planer (even if for no other reason than seniority and sitting on a higher rung of the comedy idol ladder; I bro-love them both equally , along with John Pertwee, Rob Brydon and Tony Robinson who are all perfect for DW type roles. And Kate Robbins, who I'll admit to never having directly heard of, but her classic cult comedy CV is certainly commendable.

Admittedly that feature would make it a bit slower to download, but hell, you can stream an entire CDROM-sized TV episode in a quarter hour these days so it's all relative. Plus the original game probably used ADPCM at best, converting it all to AAC (and PNG or SVG for the graphics) would massively reduce the data load.

Myth, busted?

 

[tahrey]

...Shakes & Fidget advert pops up

/me *clicks on it for the lulz*

*creates character* - M/F, range of races and classes with tweakable appearance (remarkably unsexist on the whole, too), with a "random" function. Roll up a pretty fugly looking female goblin scout. Name her Fargle and set out on a quest for ADVENTURE!

Landing up in something that looks for all the world like a cross between one of the generic "outdoor, town, main street, daytime" scenes in all good adventure games, and some Zynga/etc competitive flash game (actually I'm thinking most of "Battle Stations" but I can't remember who made it).

Can't even go outside the city gates, because I have to do a job for a wizard or the city guard first - which will run for a WHOLE HOUR of REAL TIME - or down into the dungeons, because that requires a "key". I don't even know where the hell to get one of those.

Items from shops require money, which I have very little of. Thankfully, the Mushroom Shop allows me to trade my real-world bank credits for far more valuable in-game gold coins.

Get discouraged and just head for the arena to hopefully beat up on some other noobs. Get my ass handed to me by some level 2 dark elf in one of the least graphically rich battle scenes since the original Pokemon, or maybe Tank Battle (no, not "battlezone", the other, older one) on the Atari 2600.

Quit.[footnote]But only after changing her character description to "arglegegelhaglegle". Hey, aren't footnotes fun?! I didn't even know you could do this![/footnote]

Haven't found the humour yet, or the fantasy element beyond "oh look there are dwarves and elves and so on"... Or the MMORPG element. I coulda sworn that required other people to be online at the same time and to interact with you in some meaningful way. Hmm.

Can someone please port that Discworld game, then? If I have to exchange real money for pretend, I'd rather it go towards the respite care and charitable works of a true genius author than whoever hacked this highly derivative bit of fluff together.

 

[Tilted_Logic]

It's just that when you compare them [again, I'm going on the basis of the adverts] to something like Echo Bazaar, they seem more like uninspired cash-ins than anything else.
Seems a little odd that people would go for something so tacky when there's a wealth of indie fantasy games out there that have considerably more aesthetic value.

I don't know from first hand experience, but I'd assume people would be more inclined to try something if they saw an ad for it, versus actually going out and looking for decent games. Personally I had never heard of Echo Bazaar until an Extra Credits episode mentioned it, so even if a game is fantastic if it doesn't have good advertising or widespread word of mouth, it's less likely to be looked at then these small time games that advertise like crazy.

Just my take on it though. Sorry to be so hostile in my last post, just assumed you were baiting people as opposed to actually looking for valid insight. I'm definitely not denying a lot of the games advertised look rather silly though.

 

[taylorton147]

Have you ever heard of the phrase "only a dumbfuck judges a book by its cover?"

simmer down, if a man with a machete wearing only a leather jacket was walking down the street, you wouldnt walk up to him. you can say dont judge a book by its cover to me all you want but its instinctive to us, its called first impressions, so why do you think games and dvds and books, all have covers that try to pop out at us, and yes its true, the machete wielding man could be nice....im not risking it

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Adventure Quest is fun! It was a neat little RPG made by some non-professional indie devs, yeah, it's cheap, but it's free and made by passionate developers. The game doesn't even take itself all that seriously. Although, I enjoyed their MMO, Adventure Quest Worlds, I may just start playing that again in spite (Not really, I just think I'd love to try it again).