Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: EDITORIAL. Horizons: You Either Get it or You Don't

  1. #1

    Default EDITORIAL. Horizons: You Either Get it or You Don't

    Yes, I am quoting Dr. Phil's Life Law #1: You either get it, or you don't.

    What's to get about Horizons?

    Well, let's go back about 18 months to when the game launched. That's when I started playing. Iwas browsing PC games at Walmart and I picked up the Horizons box and based on something I read on the back of the box my imagination was captured, so I put the box in my cart and paid $50 for it and have been following the Horizons saga ever since, though not always playing Horizons or always even very happy with it.

    What was that thing I read? "Player-driven world of quests, invasions and cataclysmic events."

    The thing that stood out to me was the phrase "player-driven world." The phrase suggests to me that players would create the world of Istaria in a big way, and determine the course of its history.

    How is this unlike other games? Well, take Norrath for example, the world of Everquest. That world is NOT a player driven world. The gnome Fuzzlecutter is STILL standing there in his little camp in the East Freeport newby yard, like he was day 1; Fippy Darkpaw still spawns periodically in North Qeynos and tries to make it past the guards; Fiddy Bobbick still fishes off the end of the pier in Rivervale (and gets hung up in the weird swimming bug that still hasn't been fixed). Until a zone is revamped, as some have been recently,it willremain exactly the same as it was the dayit went live, though there are a few tweaks here and there sometimes with expansions. Then after revamp, the zone will stay as it is until the next time it is revamped.

    When you play Everquest, your character doesn't really impact the game world in a lasting way. The interaction of your character with the world is confined to hailing npcs, fighting mobs and chaning your character's armor, appearance and weapons. You can't take an axe and chop down that tree over there. Your character does not add to the world by building in it. You as a player don't have much impact on the look or feel of the world or how it develops. The developers develop content for you, and you either like it or you don't. You take it as it comes, and you play it. It is a passive experience.

    Now, consider Istaria, the "player-driven world." Our interaction with the world is larger than the EQLive interaction because we CAN chop down that tree over there, or gather that ore or flax. But the most obvious way we have a lasting impact on the actual content of the world is plot ownershipand building. It's not instanced!We actually change the world of istaria in a permanent way but being able to build permanent structures in it.

    The less obvious, but far more profound, way that we, the players, DRIVE the world of Istariais by means of our interactions with the developers. Look at how the gamehas changed in the last 18 months in response to our "driving!"Whole continents and islands and categories of settlementshave risen up out of our collective imaginations. Blight anchors and aggro changes and combat systems andresource fields andmonstersand more have come and gone under our collective direction. Our developers have not only been developing 4 games for us (bipeds, dragons, crafting and construction) but re-developing and re-re-developing them over the last 18 months.

    Recently we have been clamoring for even more direct interaction and direction of the game world, and the developers are going to give us the quest tool and maybe a way of authoring textures so that we can change the depth and thelook of the world in yet another way.

    Do we "get it?"

    Well, some of us do. But we all need a reminder that every great power comes with its own great limitation. Take that really big strong guy over there: he's really big and strong, yes, but because he's big and strong he can hurt things he doesn't want to hurt.The great power of Horizons is that it is a player-driven world. But that is also its great limitation. Yes we influence the direction the world takes, yes we buildin it, yes it is OUR world. BUT it is what we make of it!If it has too little content for some of us, thatmay be because we've clamored too much about performance issues, and we are too ready to say "fix what's broken first" whenever anyone suggests new content.

    Moreover, the fact that the world is constantly evolving means that we are constantly testing it. We are, as some say, in a perpetualbetastate. That kindagoes with the "player-driven world" aspect of the game. Every change brings some issues that need fixing. That is just the way of the computer.

    "Player-driven world of quests, invasions and cataclysmic events."When I reread the Horizons box, and particularly that phrase, and when I think about the past eighteen months of Horizons, I can see that the developers have delivered on that claim in a BIG WAY.

    But you either get it, or you don't.

  2. #2

    Default Re: EDITORIAL. Horizons: You Either Get it or You Don't

    yes but that tree ore and flax respawns.

    I think you need to use google and search back what Horizons was once supposed to be the one that Bowman preached it to be.

    Some people in the here and now like horizons as it is. More power to them.

    But other than that this is the same dribble that has been repeated many times. It is an opinion and whether or not it is valid is totally up to the reader.

    So one might ask then ( I remember your posts from Tazoon and specifically the ones when you left the first time ) do you get it as well ?

    I just love those that try to smash one opinion in favor of their own. Espically with this game because quite frankly no one opinion is wrong niether are they right as well. The difference is that one side can see this and the other cannot. Do you know which is which ?



  3. #3

    Default Re: EDITORIAL. Horizons: You Either Get it or You Don't



    I would agree overall, but we have not seen enough of the grand war with the Withered Aegis imo. There should be a moving front at all times, blighted behind it, normal terrain otherwise. We should be able to push it back with craft cleaning or monster cleaning of said blighted areas.

    Now that would be player impact! Have all players mechs in a blighted city be under a -25 penalty, and NPC's sick and impaired in some wayand you'll get a ton of players together to clear that mess! Especially if there are player owned plots nearby! Heck, "blight" plots too! (Don't destroy them, that was a promise from long ago).
    Foxfire Godspell, Ice Queen of Istaria, Dark Defenders
    Manta Guild Community @ Collinswood
    Knoc/Conj, Mastercraftswoman -and-
    Ravagice, Horde Fueled WunderWyrm

  4. #4

    Default Re: EDITORIAL. Horizons: You Either Get it or You Don't

    Quote Originally Posted by Foxfire

    I would agree overall, but we have not seen enough of the grand war with the Withered Aegis imo. There should be a moving front at all times, blighted behind it, normal terrain otherwise. We should be able to push it back with craft cleaning or monster cleaning of said blighted areas.

    Now that would be player impact! Have all players mechs in a blighted city be under a -25 penalty, and NPC's sick and impaired in some wayand you'll get a ton of players together to clear that mess! Especially if there are player owned plots nearby! Heck, "blight" plots too! (Don't destroy them, that was a promise from long ago).
    Aye, maybe handle it similar to what we had to do to free feladan.

    GhostRdr -
    100- RVR, SPRT, HLR, CONJ, SHMN, GRD
    100- BLK, WPN, FIT, MSN

    Fayde- 69 Adult Lunus/35 craft
    82nd Level Hoard
    Member of the Dark Council
    Nana & Gerard Guild Communities

  5. #5

    Default Re: EDITORIAL. Horizons: You Either Get it or You Don't

    this is a reach even for an editorial.

  6. #6

    Default Re: EDITORIAL. Horizons: You Either Get it or You Don't

    the closest we actually go to a dynamic world wa sthe end of the world as we know it before the servers shut down for merge and move of the shards it was interesting to see the advance of the blight greaying and taking out the entire world as we new it hopefully that and what i saw in new trismus back in beta where when i ran back towards town the town didnt exist and what i did se was so altered that i couldnt recognise it that was an interesting night but i dont think we will se that kind of massive change until they get over the current staffing hump and start making money again
    Given enough time and the proper temperament anything doable in game is possible
    Confectioner first last and always

  7. #7

    Default Re: EDITORIAL. Horizons: You Either Get it or You Don't



    I just wonder how to do it. It would not be good to permanently screw up people's actual property.

    But maybe they could take over a town or two -- some of them are not used much these days (kira, sslanis, new rach?) andany uniqueservices they offer could be "exiled" to other cities. And then we'd have to fight to liberate those cities.

  8. #8

    Default Re: EDITORIAL. Horizons: You Either Get it or You Don't

    NIce post Arse, lots of major things that have been player driven have effect are world..how can we forget the stary or the dryad enslavemnt or building bridges and making new populated comunites in the frontier

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •