I hate to toot my own horn...well, wait. That's a lie. I'm a shameless self promoter.

http://www.waterthread.org/news/103687892813242.html

Feel free to pitch a few cents into the thread that followed. I've always consider DR closer to mainstream (such as it is) MMOGs then a MUD; MUD always make me visualize something I'd run off my old DOS box.

Oh, one final caveat: This may be a bit more caustic then some folks are used to. Without going through a few pages of exposition about a guy named Lum and an Internet creation theory surrounding 'The one, true website,' most MMOG communities tend to embrace dark, sarcastic humor.

Have fun, and try not to scare the natives.

Larcus' Player

....who at simu said HJ was aborted?

-Jeresis

I agreed with most of the article too, though the author comes across as a graphics biased critic trying not to appear biased toward graphics.

If it makes you feel better, when I mentioned some DR players are upset at the review, first comment I got over IRC was (and I quote) "His review was positively GLOWING"

I had an overarching goal in mind with that short piece: Get people talking about a game I enjoy. This was spurred by the recent emphasis on MUD lists. My chosen medium was the MMOG community, where they're dealing with subscription rates on the long side of hundreds of thousand, and start measuring simultaneous connections at ten thousand during peak.

You may begin to see the problem at that point.

Given that, quite a bit of my review was justification to a cynical readership why a text parser game was worth their time. I did that primarily by making the piece a humor article, while pointing out not only DR's strong points, but where it suffers just like the Big Three. DR is not alone in having class balance issues, a poor economy, and a lack of role-playing. Those aren't slights; they are universal constants as far as this industry is concerned. If DR didn't have those, it would be miraculously exceptional.

If there is something specific you did not like about the review, you may bring it up. Either here, or in the review's own thread (where you don't need to worry about board monitors if you wish to engage in some flaming). I'm actually quite happy with the turnout in that thread. It's been mostly positive, I see two new posters, and an interesting digression into Simutronics' pricing and justifications thereof.

Larcus' Player

Personally, I think it was a very well written piece.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

:)


Solomon

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Vote for DragonRealms as the #1 MUD every day!

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http://www.topmudsites.com/cgi-bin/topmuds/rankem.cgi?id=drealms

G'day,

>As for the rest of the review, I'd have to agree wholeheartedly. The economy really IS going to hell in a handbasket. In hindsight, I think maybe that whole lockpick/forging union thing was a good move.

For what it might be worth, there have been some discussions about possible economy fixes. If they ever happen, I'm not sure how folks would react in the short term since they would likely take some getting used to. I think something will need to be done though, especially as more and more player creation systems come on line, including limited ways to alter the description on items.

And, in an attempt to keep this more on topic to the review that was posted, I have to say I enjoyed reading it, and the thread that is resulting from it. I thought it was a fairly accurate depiction from a player perspective.

Regards,

Godrich de'Finchal
http://webpages.charter.net/plblack/trader.html

The review and ensuing thread were very interesting. It's really neat to hear what "outsiders" think of the game and see all the things they pick up on that we completely take for granted. You start thinking about all the things that they misunderstood, all the details you don't think about that blow them away, and the millions of things that didn't even get hinted at... and you finally begin to really realize the overwhelming scope of DragonRealms.