What do you like and don't like about pvp mmo's

[Mem]

The difficult bit the way I see it is that in the gameplay section, really the "rater" needs to divulge their preferences, so something akin to the Socializer, Killer, Explorer and Achiever categories. That can be measured by how they weight the other categories across a range of titles.

It boils down to the atmosphere of the thing from similar users experience.

The more different experiences it caters for, the more widespread its fun and appeal.

The old "Gee, Whizz!" factor.

Would you like us in the Aion community that want to and are playing it to rate the game on this scale and graph the feedback to you from the spreadsheet as a trial?

Would that assist people like merwood who find the hype doesn't meet results often as well ?

DFO and MO are special cases, and honestly merwood I do not think you would find DFO appealing, since change is the diet in this one, you turn from feeder to fodder in an instant, and vice-versa.

[Reoh]

Well it wasn't finished. The problem is, just how much do you attribute to each factor. What sections get covered? It was trying to break down various things some of which would give points for X or Y which might be contradictory and are more important in various permutations that if you took it right down it'd be nigh impossible imho. heh.

[Mem]

Thats because your a human being mate, its trends, not absolutes.

What a user attributes is based on what they enjoy in a game, overall. Their bias. And a good journalist like you understands what factors will bias people away and towards a title, and comments intelligently about how critical those things are likely to be. And how enjoyable other parts or new features are.

It just answer the question of what do people with a similar bias think. No more, no less.

Other people who enjoyed those features, scored like this. Profiling. With data just get people to weight the list of traits to sample on, and confine it to that. Commentary and opinion needs training, experience and common sense.

Thats why I try to collect information and data and put it in a framework for the experienced to comment on. If the traits chosen dont match the target audience you get an unfair bias, like the low rating DFO got from standard reviewers.

Like the TOG age bias for healing classes theory from Aion I saw someone post. I wouldn't have thought of that angle, till it was said.

Being healer rich, tanks and DPS classes and mad looters are in for good support and groups. Especially nice is that the cleric turns into the "PvP tank", the chanters filling the gap.

[Reoh]

Ultimately what I was leaning towards was citing the games features for what sort of a gamer would be attracted to it. Because some like being guided through, others like sandbox, some like pve, pvp, blends, whatever. Well these are the features the game has and this is how well they did them. That way if you like that sort of game you can look into it more about how well they did it.

[Mem]

You are already answering the critical questions from experience.

What features appeal to what type of gamer in this title.

Being old fashioned I have always found that its the decisions on characters, when graphed that tell you what audience is being attracted to what features of a game.

If you give me the list of what people like, I can easily ask the Aion community to rate on what they traditionally have liked and you can see what audience exactly its appealing to. i.e. guided through, pve 80-pvp 20, pvp20-pve80, 50-50, sandbox.

One method is to list titles and ask them to give a 1-10 if played, and a weighting based on how long they played it, selecting popular titles from the genres you class as sandbox etc.

Asherons Call
World of Warcraft
Age of Conan

and what class do you normally tend to play ?

healer
tank
hybrid
archer
mage
etc

you can also factor in reputation in the general weighting applied to their contribution if you wish, but that would give spammers too much power maybe. lol

But in your case I am willing to bet you already know most of the answers. And that intuitively thats what you write about.

TOG melee/hybrid classes who liked world of warcraft are attracted to Aion... for example, because of the gladiators all-round ease and Templars amazing durability as a classic tank....

Anyway you get the idea. It really puts it in the context of the reader imo. Using mmo's they did and didn't like and characters they did and didn't to answer what they might and might not like in the subject. Sorry for the ugly sentence and long posts

[merwood]

aye and thanks membrain i appreciate your feedback and dfo you're prolly right it wouldidnt suit me and i was more or less using that game and mortanl online as example .

But i think what would be great for any new future mmo's that are coming out if there are official tog guilds in them that would be if tog did there own official reviews it might help people let me and others . just to see what are the pros and cons . cause tbh that is what happened with me in warhammer .

there was too much hype and that hype didn't meet the results just look at the over hype of not only war but age of conan although that game has tremendously improved but for me personally and others if tog here took the initiave to do a review after the opening month of launch in mmo that they have a presence in it would certainly save alot of toggers not only money but frustrations to see if that game is actually worth playing based on their expectations

[Mem]

Yes merwood, 100 % correct. The challenge though is being able to review and comment without allowing single factors like getting the game, or personal taste get in the way of allowing the reader to form a reliable picture of whether or not they are likely to enjoy the title.

The contradictions Reoh mentioned, or paradoxes are what makes it hard.

People like and hate things for the same reasons, depending on their own mindset, the circumstances, and the actions of others. And the boundaries of the interaction.

Thats what makes your initial question hard, its subjective, and you would like something more objective and reliable. That means eliminating subjective ratings per se and looking at what the trends tell you, and where the trends are flawed.

[Reoh]

Thing is even if we know things about a game, we might be bound by NDA agreements. I'd like to do a review from my experienced on CO for example but until I get their written consent to do so I'm bound by my agreement to not discuss any privileged information.

(I think we derailed the thread here a bit though)

[merwood]

Aye i hear ya on that but there are a few things that can be done and that can accomdate everyone's opinion likes and dislikes.

One idea i had is for every future mmo that tog is apart of would to have some basic categories and then in those categories each togger for that mmo can give their feedback through a pm to oneor two toggers that will oversee the review for example i think the basic categories should be something like this .

Gameplay:
Pve:
Pvp:
Social
:Interface:
Technical:
Crafting:
Community
Communication
Focus:

Also i think if we rose a point rating system from a scale of 1 to 10 1 being very poor to 5 being Good to 10 being Excellent .

But feel free to come up with a rating system that is simple and straight forward and when toggers release their submissions for the review make sure they state their reasons for the score they gave in each area . And the best i and others can hope for is that two two that are charge in overall of that review is to compare each submission and meet a consensus and give a general rating on each area based on the most reasonable reason .

I know this might be hard to do and it might be asking a bit much from tog but i will say this , I trust a review from tog more then any other game publishing website because unlike those sites , were all gamers here and gamers make the best reviews cause they have played those games and know the pros and cons to those games based on their own feedback .