Can we please have the same kind of information for L2 exploits? As far as I'm aware, there hasn't been even a single line explaining the "enchant scrolls duping" exploit which hit the servers recently, for example - neither was its impact or resolution openly discussed.
We ''never'' had an exploit in l2! Btw other companies at least fixing exploits when NCsoft does not see the problem. Good example is that l2 hide still working.
We ''never'' had an exploit-free patch in l2! Btw other companies at least fixing exploits when NCsoft does not see the problem. Good example is that l2 hide still working.
Can we please have the same kind of information for L2 exploits? As far as I'm aware, there hasn't been even a single line explaining the "enchant scrolls duping" exploit which hit the servers recently, for example - neither was its impact or resolution openly discussed.
I played EVE a long time ago and I have no clue what they are talking about :) except that there was a duping exploit and that 134 accounts were banned at the end of the investigation. Interesting to note thet amount of investigation and the length and complexity of the page for a relatively few accounts. In the end the exploit was found and fixed and the involved people banned. I'd love to see the same type of thing for L2.
I played EVE a long time ago and I have no clue what they are talking about :)
Oh well ... to fully understand the article, you not only have to know EVE-specific jargon (like the fact POS stands for player-owned structure - something like a castle in L2, only they can be destroyed by other players, and there's a lot more of them), but also have a firm grasp on programming and economics. But that's ok. It means the article has "meat" and is not just a piece of marketing fluff.
except that there was a duping exploit and that 134 accounts were banned at the end of the investigation. Interesting to note thet amount of investigation and the length and complexity of the page for a relatively few accounts. In the end the exploit was found and fixed and the involved people banned. I'd love to see the same type of thing for L2.
To be more precise: That's 134 out of 150k or so; the current playerbase for L2 NA/EU and EVE west is of about the same size.
Everyone keeps the community posted.. I so wished that NCSoft would as well.
It's because those are good companies, who actually care about their player bases. I'm sure the GMs and Mods actually do care about the playerbase, but they don't own NCSoft.
This is why I get nostalgic about the other MMOs I've played everytime I see another whine thread on these forums.
And L2 NA/EU does not have 150k players. Well... "player" becomes a subjective term in this game. I guess elaboration is necessary.
CCP, and EVE are one of the more transparent (not sure if this is the right word to use) games in existence from a players perspective, all formulas are available to the player, and CCP are very good at explaining how the game works to their players. EVE has a reputation for being a spreadsheet application in space, I personally think that's a good thing, other's might disagree
I played EVE a long time ago and I have no clue what they are talking about :) except that there was a duping exploit and that 134 accounts were banned at the end of the investigation. Interesting to note thet amount of investigation and the length and complexity of the page for a relatively few accounts. In the end the exploit was found and fixed and the involved people banned. I'd love to see the same type of thing for L2.
I still play EVE occasionally. The exploit they are talking about, in short, was where a reactor was endlessly producing stuff without any input materials, including a lot of technical stuff about why it did it.
It's because those are good companies, who actually care about their player bases. I'm sure the GMs and Mods actually do care about the playerbase, but they don't own NCSoft.
This is why I get nostalgic about the other MMOs I've played everytime I see another whine thread on these forums.
And L2 NA/EU does not have 150k players. Well... "player" becomes a subjective term in this game. I guess elaboration is necessary.
EVE has a peak concurrent User record of 51,675 players. I don't even think the L2 servers combined could take that many players before all of them would be showing up as "full"
It's because those are good companies, who actually care about their player bases. I'm sure the GMs and Mods actually do care about the playerbase, but they don't own NCSoft.
This is why I get nostalgic about the other MMOs I've played everytime I see another whine thread on these forums.
And L2 NA/EU does not have 150k players. Well... "player" becomes a subjective term in this game. I guess elaboration is necessary.
Not excactly sure how many players L2 has across the globe atm... but I would guess that its more than 150k. (not counting the Asian markets...) 150k accounts is relatively small in the MMO market.
I don't imagine NCsoft will be making any official statements about its account numbers any time soon, but that not out of the ordinary. Large companies whose proffit is directly proportioned to their number od subscribers do well to keep their figures private, so I can't blame them on the bussiness end.
Contrastingly... L2 simply isn't much a hit in the EU or NA... Compared to a number of other MMOs Lineage II is a bit of an obscurity. Most retailers have absolutely no idea what the game is, and have no clue what the merchandise looks like or where it can be found. Likewise, most gamers in the EU and NA aren't big into MMOs to begin with. The market in these regions are dominated by the FPS and the RTS...
Knowing this, I am not suprised NCsoft simply doesn't see the EU / NA as a priority. Think about it from the other side: IF you owned a company that drew 90% of its revenue from one region, and had a small hand in another, that showed little to no promise of growth... how much would you invest into the later region? Not much if you were clever.
Quite frankly I have been into PC games from the day they were made available. I built my first PC back in the day... before the 3.5 in diskette, back during the times of 8 in, or 5 and 1/4 in floppies. I remeber when I got my first 20 MB hard drive... (not a mistype ... that's 20 megabytes)... your typical game at he time ran in 16 colors (after years of only text-based games with no graphic qualities at all), and had no audio. The advent of sounds in games came along thanks to the "Adlib" Sound card (<3 Creative Labs).
I was there when the CD replaed the Diskette, and when storage media stopped being the streaming source for gaming and was replaced by digital component gears and the current "Hard Drive" technology.
People neglect it now, but the Internet isn't all that old. Before microsoft created the Internet Explorer all the internet had was loads of bulliten boards (not like these in the slightest) and completely unrestriced file sharing.
Games then couldn't have conceived of "3D" graphic porcessing or Smart chips, or Ray Tracing, HDR rendering or any of the complex systems that predate them now.
At that time it wasn't uncommon for a PC to cost thousands of dollars for the absolute minimum. A typical game in the early years could easily run you a 150 USD or more. There were no online features, no subscription, no fees... just the packaging, and the 3-5 diskettes with the game data (which at the time could take an entire day to install on top of the line hardware). (Tandy - Comadore - Apple, etc)
Nearly all of the companies that gave birth to gaming as we know it have completely dissapeared. Sierra was swallowed up by EA games, along with a vast number of others, such as westood (<3 Dune 2). While consoles started gaining popularity with the Sega MegaDrive, and the Nintendo, PC games rocketed out titles like King's Quest, and The Legend of Kyrandia, Space Quest, Quest for Glory, and Wing Commander.
These games sold more copies than most people know, and even now with their creator companies gone, they still sell.
The American history of gaming differs greatly from the Asian hsitory... without looking it up on Wikipedia, I doubt most "gamers" from the EU / NA would even know what the hell a PC-FX was, or a TurboGrafx was. Let alone of the THOUSANDS of titles it supported.
The history of NA gamers all amounts to 1 thing realy... we simply enjoy different things. From the very begining we played different games the Asian markets enjoyed. NA and EU players simply don't have the taste for long adventure based games (look at Shenmue... sold like gamgbusters in Asia... major disspointment in US / EU). The western gaming world likes the instant gratification of FPS' and RTS'... Its explainable... there is no need to earn anything in the modern FPS or RTS... its just log ing- fight- and trash talk your opponents... Most of these games even include optional cheat modes to make the players feel better about themselves. Not shocking... There no need to work.. or spend the hours working toward the next stage in progression or developement.
Its also true of the consoles in the US and EU... look that the available titles... nearly all fighting games / fly-by or 3d shooters / **** 'n slash / or Racing games... RPGs don't even make the list... there is maybe 1 RPG for every 200 other genre of game...
Its just not popular in the western mindset.
Is it so surprising then to know that when a small handful of online games becomes available, that the self proclaimed "gamers" in the EU and NA would log in and try it out? Only to find that they had to actually earn their way within... or is it surprising to learn that the few people who did have interest in working for it, became great at it, and would often defeat the "gamers" at the time... Its no wonder that people deveolpe tools to ****/dupe/hide/exploit or in other ways ruin the game... it evens the playing field and provides a way to the vast majority of western gamers to compete with the players who prefer skill and devotion to a title. It makes the MMO / RPG into a FPS... just pay enough money and BAM!, instant gratification... your there with everyone who worked hard. Its a market in and of itself and won't be easily expunged from the online community.
Quite frankly the problem will never be resolved... it can't be... the players from EU and NA want to cheat... its how they play the game in most cases... and the few EU / NA players that don;t like it, myself included, simply have no way to combat the marketing of it all...
NCSoft and other companies just know it too well... they can't invest their interest into a market like that... the Western world will always lack the options of the east in terms of gaming becouse we want different things from it... supply and demand... we damand things they simply arent supplying. And its their company... that simple.
If NCsoft ever extended themselves so far as to accomodate teh EU / NA players I would be speachless... it wouldn't be a good move as a company, and it would a failed investment in all fronts... it would gain them nothing.
People often complain that NCsoft doesn't care abotu the NA audience. Duh! would you if you were them? Its not making them sub-par... its makes them normal.. smart even... If they wnet out of their way to appease me, I wouldn't say "finaly!" I would say "Holy Crap, thank you!"
Please, I am not saying it just to rant (although I seem to have... sorry for the long post), but try to have at least a modicum of respect for the compay that lets you play their game... for designing a product so great and fantastic that you didn't think twice about paying 15 USD a month to log into...
After re-reading my post I feel compelled to appologize for the aweful errors in spelling and contect... far to many to find and edit, lol. try to read it without them driving you mad.
Nearly all of the companies that gave birth to gaming as we know it have completely dissapeared. Sierra was swallowed up by EA games, along with a vast number of others, such as westood (<3 Dune 2).
Don't forget Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers...
As of Septembre 2008: Highest number of concurrent users: 25308, accounts being online at least once in the last month: 63674 (only NCSoft Thailand is smaller). (Roughly) 150k subscribers is a generous estimate. Basically, L2 NA/EU and EVE West have roughly the same user base in the tens of thousands concurrently online people.
Don't forget Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers...
GK FOREVER!!!
Where do you think my nick is from ? While I am indeed Gabriel, the K comes from Knight, Gabriel Knight the schattenjaeger :p. One of my favorite quest series, the Gabriel Knight series. Woot !
As of Septembre 2008: Highest number of concurrent users: 25308, accounts being online at least once in the last month: 63674 (only NCSoft Thailand is smaller). (Roughly) 150k subscribers is a generous estimate. Basically, L2 NA/EU and EVE West have roughly the same user base in the tens of thousands concurrently online people.
Correct, and when you take into account that 3 out of 5 players have 2 accounts (boxed Buffer) and 1 out of those 3 has 2+ boxed buffers the number of real players in the game is quite low.
Where do you think my nick is from ? While I am indeed Gabriel, the K comes from Kknight
I knew that your name was GK the moment I saw it (really hard to miss)... yeah, played them all, beat them all, and sometimes play the again. One of the best series of games ever made.
As of Septembre 2008: Highest number of concurrent users: 25308, accounts being online at least once in the last month: 63674 (only NCSoft Thailand is smaller). (Roughly) 150k subscribers is a generous estimate. Basically, L2 NA/EU and EVE West have roughly the same user base in the tens of thousands concurrently online people.
EVE has a PCU record of 51,675. before that it was 48,000 something. how does that become "roughly the same" as 25,000? That's double my friend. (also worth mentioning. RIGHT NOW EVE has over 35,000 users online, not even peak time and it's got 30% more than L2's NA/EU peak)
I dont remember where it was posted here on the forums (or if it even was here, but I think so), but there was an article somebody linked about a trip that was taken to Korea and what gaming was like there compared to here...where games Half Life 2 for example are nothing there and MMO's and Starcraft are king. Interesting read.
From a business standpoint it does make sense that any gaming preference would go to the market that gives the company the most money and has the most exposure...it just sucks that we arent that market and pretty much have to take what we are given :)
GK was fun, Phantasmagoria also..and a bunch of other Sierra games...Activision waaaaay back was awesome also
I'm sorry. but you're quite simply wrong in saying they're about the same.
I'm thinking of orders of magnitude (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_magnitude). And yes, 25k and 50k are of the same order of magnitude (10^4). Top MMOs (MapleStory, for example) reach 10^6, top MUDs 10^2 and so on.
GK was fun, Phantasmagoria also..and a bunch of other Sierra games...Activision waaaaay back was awesome also
I haven't thought of Phantasmagoria in a long time. Was a great game. Sucked though that the husband died at the end and the last thing you see was her walking away. I always though the GK series had better endings to the games... except Blood of the Sacred... WHY WOULD GRACIE LEAVE?!?!?!?
I'm thinking of orders of magnitude (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_magnitude). And yes, 25k and 50k are of the same order of magnitude (10^4). Top MMOs (MapleStory, for example) reach 10^6, top MUDs 10^2 and so on.
In the big picture, only the exponent counts. :)
By that logic 10.000 and 90.000 are closer than 90.000 and 110.000
By that logic 10.000 and 90.000 are closer than 90.000 and 110.000
You misunderstood. It's not about which two numbers are closer to each other, but into which bracket the numbers fall. 25000 and 50000 happen to fall into the same "5 digits" bracket, as do 10000 and 90000.
Since a lot of things - amongs them, subscriber and player numbers in MMOs - follow a power low, it makes sense to use such brackets based on orders of magnitude.