Watch: NC Soft starts push...

[JonnyG]

NC Soft announced that servers for both Lineage 2 and City of Heroes have gone live. It's unusual for a company to have 2 MMORPG's competing, much less going live at the same time.

NC Soft is putting on a big push, with these 2 games, Guild Wars, Auto Assault, and Tabula Rosa. It seems like they plan on dominating the genre. Do you think it's good for the genre? What about NC Soft, will competing with themselves hurt them or help them in the long run?

Interesting times we're in.

[BigJonno]

The games seem different enough to be able to co-exist, but it remains to be seen what the "level cap" for MMORPGs is. I know a lot of people who like playing MMORPGs, but only a fraction of those are playing one right now, simply because none of them appeal to them at the moment. (Though I will admit that most of them are roleplayers who tried EQ, quit when they realised there was no roleplaying and are currently waiting for a MMORPG that fulfills the potential of the medium.)

As for City of Heroes and Lineage 2, I think it comes down to this: Lineage has big boobies and panty shots, CoH has big boobies, panty shots AND is hellafun to play.

[esion]

I think that NCSoft has hit a big part of the mmog community, with good graphics, fun game play, and repeatablity. Thier games are reliable and fun to play. So its understandable that they can do this. Its like SOE...they tried to do this with EQ and SWG, but they failed in the aspect that they werent fun enough.

I found it quite odd that NCSoft was backing so many games awhile back, but then I realized, well if you have the money and the support might as well do it. L2 will do well in both the american and asian markets, COH seems to be doing well in the american market, I think GW will do well with the D2 type players, and the others are a little to early to tell but I am sure they will do fine as well.

Cornering a market isnt bad until you start to canablize your own market, ie spread yourself so thin that you dont get a large enough return on your products. Its like Starbucks Coffee, good stuff, millions of locations, still number 1...NCSoft is becoming the Starbucks of MMORPGS.

[JonnyG]

NCSoft is becoming the Starbucks of MMORPGS.I'd put "trying to become" instead of becoming. I'm really interested for more information on their new Auto Assault game, but I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay a monthly fee for it. If they really want to succeed, I think that a combined fee for all their games is called for.

[esion]

Yes...sorry, NCSoft "is becoming" or "trying to become."
I'm really interested for more information on their new Auto Assault game, but I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay a monthly fee for it. If they really want to succeed, I think that a combined fee for all their games is called for.
Truthfully I think this all depends on how well GW does without a monthly fee. Who knows if it works out well maybe all games will move towards a no monthly fee experience...and we would all say things like "Remember when we had to pay to play these game?! lol"

Is there no monthly fee for GW because of ArenaNet's participation? or did NCSoft have a say in that?

[Jotun]

early buzz on CoH launch is very positive.

[BigJonno]

Apparently they had a whole HOUR of login server problems.

[JonnyG]

Truthfully I think this all depends on how well GW does without a monthly fee. Who knows if it works out well maybe all games will move towards a no monthly fee experience...and we would all say things like "Remember when we had to pay to play these game?! lol"Been there, done that. I used to pay $90/month for my gaming network for the 1st 90 hours, then $3.50/hour about 90. Then I switched to pay $120/month for unlimited hours as I was spending about $150/month.

[Yigg Yous]

they might be spreading themselves too thin. Thing about lineage 2 is that its VERY VERY VERY boring and its a leveling treadmill of non stop grindage untill about level 60, which would take you around 5 months-1 year i think for a average player. And remember, it really is non stop grindage and camping.

[Jotun]

As far as Lineage goes, you may be forgetting that the bulk of the development cost has probably already been paid for by players in Korea.

As far as NCSoft spreading themselves too thin, they aren't the developers of CoH...just the publisher.

[Vali]

Apparently they had a whole HOUR of login server problems.

We had an hour of problems with the 3 day head start on COH. It doesnt surprise me that they would have something similar on launch.

But come on, 1 hour is miniscule compared to the problems most other mmo's have had. You can claim that any downtime is unacceptable, but I think thats somewhat unreasonable.

An hour is awesome in this MMO community.


The games seem different enough to be able to co-exist

So very true BigJ. COH, Lineage 2 and GW are all fundamentally different. They can and will coexist peacefully.

Lineage 2 is a PVP friendly game- I like PVP but it really isnt my style. Id say its a so so game, but one that definately has a hardcore following.

COH is a RPG/ community friendly game. Its a very solid game- one that if, and only IF- they continue to produce the same level of quality through their expansions, you can play and be happy for a long period of time. A game that has a good foundation, but completely different focus from Lineage 2.

GW - The wildcard. I havent played it but from the reviews Ive seen its going to be one heckuva game. One I can play for months and be happy- but because of gameplay and the one time payment, I can strap this puppy on behind a COH or Lineage 2 subscription. In fact, and from what Ive read Im going to want to (nothing against GW). So is this really a competitor? Naa! Its full bank for NCsoft.

Looks to me like NCsoft is coming along quite nicely. I havent really been a part of the Lineage 2 or the GW community but I have been around COH for a bit. I have to say that the Dev support has been great, the community service has been better than average. They really have put alot into the game. If this is indicitive of NCsoft then they have a bright future indeed.

-V

[Snorii]

Originally posted by BigJonno
Apparently they had a whole HOUR of login server problems.

I think BigJonno is kidding about an hour of problems. If not, for those of you who were playing SWG during launch, that was a whole mess of problems.

[Jotun]

Yeah, BJ was being facetious...that'll teach him to use a miley next time.

[BigJonno]

Actually, I was going for sarcastic. What gets me is that if the launch went terribly with hours of problems and the whole thing was a bug-ridden mess, then it would've been all over the place. No-one is writing freat long news reports saying what a smooth launch they had. It's not like good MMORPG launches are exactly common.

[JonnyG]

I read one (http://www.mythicahq.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2605).

[Snorii]

Originally posted by JonnyG
I read one (http://www.mythicahq.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2605).

lol :P