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We all like gaming, but we also all like particular types of game, like RPGs or Racing or FPS or Sims etc. With the new breed of consoles just released (particularly with regard to XBox and PS2 and their online functionality), we're spoilt for choice as to what sort of games we can get to entertain us.
And yet we still tend to go for the same kind of games. My PS2 collection is mostly Racing and RPG type games, others will have collections mostly of Sports titles or Platformers.
If you like playing online games against human opponents rather than AI opponents, then the new consoles are about to open up huge vistas of opportunity for us to explore.
But when it comes to playing online with your console, you're going to get pigeon holed into one particular genre whether you like it or not. The reason is cost. Estimates at present are around the £8.00 per month mark to subscribe to a particular PS2 online game (Final Fantasy XI in this case), which to most of us is a lot of money to come up with from a tight gaming budget.
The alternative to paying a subscription is to dial up using standard telephone charges (as with Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast), the cost of which was prohibitive, but now overcome by using Dreamkey 3.0 and dialling up for free in most cases to play online.
Everquest is now in development for the PS2, a massive RPG type game that for RPGers is a fascinating prospect, but can they afford both that and Final Fantasy XI subscriptions? It's doubtful, so most gamers, should they decide to play online at all, are going to have to make difficult choices.
At present, for me Final Fantasy XI, should it eventually go online across Europe, seems the logical choice, but I also have nearly a year's gameplay invested in Legend of Mir, another subscription based RPG available for PC gamers. All that gameplay for what? Just jack it all in to start all over again in another RPG? Anyone who has spent hours on end levelling up a character should be able to appreciate the dilemma here.
The same thing could apply to Quake players, CounterStrike players, anyone who has ever spent a lot of time playing one game, and getting their name on the rankings. By switching your loyalty and payments to another game, you're effectively turning your back on all your past achievements in the previous game, allowing others to knock you off the hi-score leaderboard over time.
One solution would be to put all online games under one provider, allowing you to pay one set fee to access all games online. So, for example, if you own a PS2, you just pay a monthly subscription to, say, Telewest, and then you can connect anytime and select your game of choice from an onscreen menu. This would allow you to make a fair appraisal of the games on offer so that you could make a choice as to which is best for you. Perhaps this will happen, who knows?
But the way things seem to be going at present, I'm going to be stuck with the one online game due to cost. And my pigeon hole will have the label 'Final Fantasy XI'. The trouble is, the pigeon hole next door labelled 'Everquest' looks VERY tempting...
And yet we still tend to go for the same kind of games. My PS2 collection is mostly Racing and RPG type games, others will have collections mostly of Sports titles or Platformers.
If you like playing online games against human opponents rather than AI opponents, then the new consoles are about to open up huge vistas of opportunity for us to explore.
But when it comes to playing online with your console, you're going to get pigeon holed into one particular genre whether you like it or not. The reason is cost. Estimates at present are around the £8.00 per month mark to subscribe to a particular PS2 online game (Final Fantasy XI in this case), which to most of us is a lot of money to come up with from a tight gaming budget.
The alternative to paying a subscription is to dial up using standard telephone charges (as with Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast), the cost of which was prohibitive, but now overcome by using Dreamkey 3.0 and dialling up for free in most cases to play online.
Everquest is now in development for the PS2, a massive RPG type game that for RPGers is a fascinating prospect, but can they afford both that and Final Fantasy XI subscriptions? It's doubtful, so most gamers, should they decide to play online at all, are going to have to make difficult choices.
At present, for me Final Fantasy XI, should it eventually go online across Europe, seems the logical choice, but I also have nearly a year's gameplay invested in Legend of Mir, another subscription based RPG available for PC gamers. All that gameplay for what? Just jack it all in to start all over again in another RPG? Anyone who has spent hours on end levelling up a character should be able to appreciate the dilemma here.
The same thing could apply to Quake players, CounterStrike players, anyone who has ever spent a lot of time playing one game, and getting their name on the rankings. By switching your loyalty and payments to another game, you're effectively turning your back on all your past achievements in the previous game, allowing others to knock you off the hi-score leaderboard over time.
One solution would be to put all online games under one provider, allowing you to pay one set fee to access all games online. So, for example, if you own a PS2, you just pay a monthly subscription to, say, Telewest, and then you can connect anytime and select your game of choice from an onscreen menu. This would allow you to make a fair appraisal of the games on offer so that you could make a choice as to which is best for you. Perhaps this will happen, who knows?
But the way things seem to be going at present, I'm going to be stuck with the one online game due to cost. And my pigeon hole will have the label 'Final Fantasy XI'. The trouble is, the pigeon hole next door labelled 'Everquest' looks VERY tempting...
The Game wrote:
Some people have a seperate memory card on
> which they store all their game-complete files... and for what?! So they can
> show their nan? Get over it, people! Gaming is for fun... it's not so much a
> competition.
So you can beat that boss again, so you can prove that you've got to the end... it is something to be proud of... if i deleated my perfect dark file i'd kill myself.
Some people have a seperate memory card on
> which they store all their game-complete files... and for what?! So they can
> show their nan? Get over it, people! Gaming is for fun... it's not so much a
> competition.
So you can beat that boss again, so you can prove that you've got to the end... it is something to be proud of... if i deleated my perfect dark file i'd kill myself.
I see your point about the sentimental value of your character, but it isn't just about your character, it's about the game in general.
You've probably explored all the areas in MIR, am I correct? Your character is very 'hard', and you win most battles. But if this is the case, then surely the challenge is being taken out of the game?!
Some people have a seperate memory card on which they store all their game-complete files... and for what?! So they can show their nan? Get over it, people! Gaming is for fun... it's not so much a competition.
Sure, there's a fair amount of competition in on-line gaming, but at the end of the day, having fun and being challenged is much more important than winning.
MIR has obviously served you well. You've not doubt got many hours of enjoyment out of the game... but with people switching to The Myth of Soma, and your character slowing down in development, maybe it is time to jump the fence.
On-line FFXI is a new challenge, and one that you'll probably enjoy... don't let your sentiments about Rhindwhrl (Or whatever your MIR character is called) get in the way...
A Year or Mir
Is far too much
It's time to kick it
Out to touch
Final Fantasy
Will be the new king
Nothing good to this post
Did I bring...
:)
Game
It's nice to see you back, FM. I suppose you've been stuck in MIR, yes?
You've probably explored all the areas in MIR, am I correct? Your character is very 'hard', and you win most battles. But if this is the case, then surely the challenge is being taken out of the game?!
Some people have a seperate memory card on which they store all their game-complete files... and for what?! So they can show their nan? Get over it, people! Gaming is for fun... it's not so much a competition.
Sure, there's a fair amount of competition in on-line gaming, but at the end of the day, having fun and being challenged is much more important than winning.
MIR has obviously served you well. You've not doubt got many hours of enjoyment out of the game... but with people switching to The Myth of Soma, and your character slowing down in development, maybe it is time to jump the fence.
On-line FFXI is a new challenge, and one that you'll probably enjoy... don't let your sentiments about Rhindwhrl (Or whatever your MIR character is called) get in the way...
A Year or Mir
Is far too much
It's time to kick it
Out to touch
Final Fantasy
Will be the new king
Nothing good to this post
Did I bring...
:)
Game
It's nice to see you back, FM. I suppose you've been stuck in MIR, yes?
What about the Gamecube, with Final Fantasy XI and Phantasy Star Online... looking at Gamenetwork everquest looks to be a waste of money.
Unless of course we're all house bound rich people practically rolling in it I can see the problem here.
I think that in general more people will choose FFXI over Everquest simply because FF is more popular and to your average Bob the gamer it's probably the only one he has heard of so will likely choose to play that online.
That then asks the question is it worth it for Everquest to be online? Let's face it not many people as you say will pay for two subscriptions for online gaming and wouldn't (and shouldn't) have the time to play both either.
You're solution seems like a good idea but let's face it for now it ain't going to happen at least for now, if deverlopers realise that people won't pay for more than one subscription to online gaming then maybe some agrement will happen.
As for the whole building up levels thing, I suppose there's noting really you can do unless it's by the same developer and they decide that they will allocate points/levels/skills/whatever to players who achieved certain points/levels/skills/whatever in their other game but that's abit too far fetched no?
Also the levels things seeing as you play online RPG's a hell of a lot more than me don't you find it gets brong and repetative at all after a while? Don't you ever get the urge to start something new fresh?
Still nice post (and nice to see you, to see you... err anyway be around more dammit) :0)
I think that in general more people will choose FFXI over Everquest simply because FF is more popular and to your average Bob the gamer it's probably the only one he has heard of so will likely choose to play that online.
That then asks the question is it worth it for Everquest to be online? Let's face it not many people as you say will pay for two subscriptions for online gaming and wouldn't (and shouldn't) have the time to play both either.
You're solution seems like a good idea but let's face it for now it ain't going to happen at least for now, if deverlopers realise that people won't pay for more than one subscription to online gaming then maybe some agrement will happen.
As for the whole building up levels thing, I suppose there's noting really you can do unless it's by the same developer and they decide that they will allocate points/levels/skills/whatever to players who achieved certain points/levels/skills/whatever in their other game but that's abit too far fetched no?
Also the levels things seeing as you play online RPG's a hell of a lot more than me don't you find it gets brong and repetative at all after a while? Don't you ever get the urge to start something new fresh?
Still nice post (and nice to see you, to see you... err anyway be around more dammit) :0)
We all like gaming, but we also all like particular types of game, like RPGs or Racing or FPS or Sims etc. With the new breed of consoles just released (particularly with regard to XBox and PS2 and their online functionality), we're spoilt for choice as to what sort of games we can get to entertain us.
And yet we still tend to go for the same kind of games. My PS2 collection is mostly Racing and RPG type games, others will have collections mostly of Sports titles or Platformers.
If you like playing online games against human opponents rather than AI opponents, then the new consoles are about to open up huge vistas of opportunity for us to explore.
But when it comes to playing online with your console, you're going to get pigeon holed into one particular genre whether you like it or not. The reason is cost. Estimates at present are around the £8.00 per month mark to subscribe to a particular PS2 online game (Final Fantasy XI in this case), which to most of us is a lot of money to come up with from a tight gaming budget.
The alternative to paying a subscription is to dial up using standard telephone charges (as with Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast), the cost of which was prohibitive, but now overcome by using Dreamkey 3.0 and dialling up for free in most cases to play online.
Everquest is now in development for the PS2, a massive RPG type game that for RPGers is a fascinating prospect, but can they afford both that and Final Fantasy XI subscriptions? It's doubtful, so most gamers, should they decide to play online at all, are going to have to make difficult choices.
At present, for me Final Fantasy XI, should it eventually go online across Europe, seems the logical choice, but I also have nearly a year's gameplay invested in Legend of Mir, another subscription based RPG available for PC gamers. All that gameplay for what? Just jack it all in to start all over again in another RPG? Anyone who has spent hours on end levelling up a character should be able to appreciate the dilemma here.
The same thing could apply to Quake players, CounterStrike players, anyone who has ever spent a lot of time playing one game, and getting their name on the rankings. By switching your loyalty and payments to another game, you're effectively turning your back on all your past achievements in the previous game, allowing others to knock you off the hi-score leaderboard over time.
One solution would be to put all online games under one provider, allowing you to pay one set fee to access all games online. So, for example, if you own a PS2, you just pay a monthly subscription to, say, Telewest, and then you can connect anytime and select your game of choice from an onscreen menu. This would allow you to make a fair appraisal of the games on offer so that you could make a choice as to which is best for you. Perhaps this will happen, who knows?
But the way things seem to be going at present, I'm going to be stuck with the one online game due to cost. And my pigeon hole will have the label 'Final Fantasy XI'. The trouble is, the pigeon hole next door labelled 'Everquest' looks VERY tempting...
And yet we still tend to go for the same kind of games. My PS2 collection is mostly Racing and RPG type games, others will have collections mostly of Sports titles or Platformers.
If you like playing online games against human opponents rather than AI opponents, then the new consoles are about to open up huge vistas of opportunity for us to explore.
But when it comes to playing online with your console, you're going to get pigeon holed into one particular genre whether you like it or not. The reason is cost. Estimates at present are around the £8.00 per month mark to subscribe to a particular PS2 online game (Final Fantasy XI in this case), which to most of us is a lot of money to come up with from a tight gaming budget.
The alternative to paying a subscription is to dial up using standard telephone charges (as with Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast), the cost of which was prohibitive, but now overcome by using Dreamkey 3.0 and dialling up for free in most cases to play online.
Everquest is now in development for the PS2, a massive RPG type game that for RPGers is a fascinating prospect, but can they afford both that and Final Fantasy XI subscriptions? It's doubtful, so most gamers, should they decide to play online at all, are going to have to make difficult choices.
At present, for me Final Fantasy XI, should it eventually go online across Europe, seems the logical choice, but I also have nearly a year's gameplay invested in Legend of Mir, another subscription based RPG available for PC gamers. All that gameplay for what? Just jack it all in to start all over again in another RPG? Anyone who has spent hours on end levelling up a character should be able to appreciate the dilemma here.
The same thing could apply to Quake players, CounterStrike players, anyone who has ever spent a lot of time playing one game, and getting their name on the rankings. By switching your loyalty and payments to another game, you're effectively turning your back on all your past achievements in the previous game, allowing others to knock you off the hi-score leaderboard over time.
One solution would be to put all online games under one provider, allowing you to pay one set fee to access all games online. So, for example, if you own a PS2, you just pay a monthly subscription to, say, Telewest, and then you can connect anytime and select your game of choice from an onscreen menu. This would allow you to make a fair appraisal of the games on offer so that you could make a choice as to which is best for you. Perhaps this will happen, who knows?
But the way things seem to be going at present, I'm going to be stuck with the one online game due to cost. And my pigeon hole will have the label 'Final Fantasy XI'. The trouble is, the pigeon hole next door labelled 'Everquest' looks VERY tempting...