Thread Ideas

[Shari Tana]

The Sith in KotOR were a large, militaristic force. They continued to be that way until Darth Bane instituted the Order of Two. That order, meant to preserve the Sith and thier ideals, stated that there would be only one master, and and apprentice, as well as a few dark side adepts which would aspire to be an apprentice when the current one succeeds his master. If you've played KotOR, the Sith are the dudes that run around in the silver armor everywhere. They're not all force users, and most are just normal military men. If you haven't played KotOR, first off, wtf is wrong with you? and second, play it. Buy an Xbox 360 if you have to (only $200 now) and play both games. The story they tell is awesome, though the gameplay is a bit... unpolished. It's like Mass Effect or Jade Empire, only slightly slower paced and not as fun... but for a Star Wars fan, it's a blast.

[LordKain]

I know, I've played 1 and 2 :p
I was just wondering cause it sounded like you meant in the post-Bane Sith era that there were a lot of Sith lol
I just wanted to clear that point up ^^

[Vagrant]

I object to WoW being the standard that all new MMOs need to aspire to, because frankly it's so entrenched that it's going to be all but impossible to dislodge it. The sooner developers realize that, the better. While Age of Conan really did fail (server merges are imminent from what I hear and tales of Funcom's inept management of the game are hilarious) I didn't know Warhammer Online had failed? I thought it had a pretty solid, thriving base? And look at Lord of the Rings Online - it doesn't have a huge playerbase that competes with WoW, but it does have a solid subscriber base. The game is far from feeling empty and far from "failing", it just isn't going to be a WoW killer.

The only WoW killer will be WoW2, and even that's dubious. (See: EQ1 and EQ2)

I guess basically I would be happy if SW:TOR turned out with a level of success equal to LOTRO or better. It doesn't need to kill WoW, it just needs to not all but collapse like Vanguard/Age of Conan/Star Wars Galaxies.

[Diaskeaus]

To Wildfire: what is your idea for an FF thread?

To LordKain: I'd be happy to join in any adventures you start, once they get going. Maybe that's a little incentive. :)

Speaking of NJO, I haven't read much of them, but I did read Traitor which was awesome. I love Matt Stover.

[Fizban]

I didn't get past the first 50 pages of NJO. I just didn't like it. The Vong didn't do it for me.

I liked what little I remember of the Thrawn series. Dark Force Rising was a good one. I liked Timothy Zahn's ideas for the most part. Though the writers did basically do fanfic, Lucas gave the yea or neigh on it overall for what they could do. That's why Mara Jade ended up with Luke romantically instead of someone else. Lucas forbade it except for Mara. *shrug*

Co-sign on the Vong. Can't say if I didn't like the NJO books because of them or the kids though. Really wish they would've cut down on the characters early. Had one of the twins die in Crystal Star or something. They only add to the list of lame ass Jedi along with bleep bleep 187 or whatever the hell his name was. :P Sucked that his death had to come with the onion of Dala turning into garbage. Empire/Storm Troopers are my favorite part of the books. Anyhow..thinking on it.

That said. Since I've only gotten through 4-5 NJO books, I can't say it's too bad. Luke & Lando = Comedy gold. Like the war and all that. Might go back to it. Fingers crossed there's no more slapping on full body condom like skins and jumping in freezing water.

[Shari Tana]

I didn't say WoW should be the standard, but that it is. Blizzard has made a game that will never die. Even years after Blizz's next-gen MMO is released (be it WoW or an original title) people will still play WoW and will continue to play it, just like those that still play EQ1 and Diablo 2 (though D2 players will likely ascend to D3). Any game development studio wants that success, and they want to emulate WoW without being the exact same as it.

It's not impossible to have a successful MMO, because certainly you can be successful with only 40-50 thousand players. Just look at RuneScape... The difference is, game developers dont just want success, they want dominace. They want to kill WoW and take all its players.

Age of Conan, in my opinion, stood a very good chance of doing that. The problems came when people started playing it live (from beta). The game looks incredible, runs smooth, and the combo system is really fun to play. The excruciating monotony of the quests and the removal of NPC voices after the starting island made the game very old very fast. When I installed the 30 gig game, and then realized the musical score was fantastic, and saw that NPCs had voices, I thought I was convinced. Little did I know it was apprantly 30 gigs of the entire item and quest database (things better left on the servers) instead of voice clips and client data.

Back on topic, though. I mean only that studios can't release an MMO without it being compared on some degree to WoW, and since this is a Star Wars MMO, it will also suffer from skepticism due to how things went with Galaxies. BioWare makes the best RPG's I've ever played (KotOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect) and I would love to see their style adapted to an MMO. Thier games are deep and interesting, and adding other players to run around with instead of a party of NPCs will make for a great experience, I think. Like I said, I will buy and play it for at least 2 months. If BioWare doesn't screw the pooch with oddball experiments in gaming or take too long getting their servers/client to work properly, SW:OR will steal some players from WoW and may even hit 1 million, due to the sheer number of gamers who are Star Wars fans (plus all those still clinging to Galaxies in lue of it flaws).

[Diaskeaus]

I do have some other thread ideas, besides the FF: Villains thread. I've been developing a couple different worlds to play in over the last couple years, and I'd be open to trying those out with some people.

Basically, one is a medieval/mythological world, and the other is a "steampunk" fantasy world. The fantasy world is more suited to people who like to play heroes and characters with fantastic powers, while the steampunk world is more suited to people who like to play ordinary people endowed with extra, quasi-magical gifts. The fantasy world would be more suited to a story about a group of heroes on a quest (typical stuff) while the steampunk would be more open to creative enterprise, writing about the particular lives of characters in a set scenario. I've also got a space world I've been developing (with different species, similar to Wes Platt's Otherspace or even in some ways, Star Wars). It doesn't have a lot of development except for the species, but I'd be willing to GM or part-GM an adventure in that world as well.

[Wildfire]

To Wildfire: what is your idea for an FF thread?

Well Basicly I came up with this idea after playing FFIII( I think it was 3)any way it was the one with all the different Crystals that you had to save. So I created a story baised on these crystals, only I wanted to throw in some key elements from FF7 and FF8. From FF7 I wanted to take the ideas of these Weapons.They would not actually be the weapons from 7, just the concept of them coming from the earth and protecting it. From 8 I wanted the GF system to be the same where you actually have to battle it to get it.

I dont remember every thing I had but I rememeber loving the villain of my story. It never got far in thread form though. lack of participation.

[LordKain]

You mean FF2? With Baron and Cecil and such? (aka FF4 in Japan) That game was the hotness!

[Wildfire]

Honestly I am so confused as to which games where which. I just now it had Cystals that you had to save from being distroyed.. or something like that.

I know I Have played Crono Trigger, Crono Cross(are they the same thing?), FF1(on PSP in America), FF7,FF8,FF9,FF10, FF12( Still in progress)

[Darlok]

FF6 (in Canada, 3 in Japan I believe) with Saban is by far the best one. Also one of the few able to hold my attention right to the end. (Though I haven't played from 9-12)

[alucard]

I have to agree with Darlok on that one. FF3 was the best IMO and I have played them all, beaten most of them too. ;P

[Drice]

If you all really want a tactics based thread I could start up my idea. It's loosely based on FFT based several years in the future...

[Shari Tana]

I have Tactics lying around somewhere in my PS1 collection... the story was great, like all Square games, but they should have waited a couple years. Full 3D on a game like would have been nice. I might just have to dig it up and dust off my PS2. Since I got a 360, all other consoles are, for all intents and purposes, large worhtless paperweights.

Whatever the case, if someone makes a new thread, I would be pretty nice if we could go a while without one of the players or the GM going poof on everyone >.<

[Diaskeaus]

I was playing Tactics 2 on the DS for awhile. That system might translate well for message board RPing. Is that what you were thinking, Drice?