DEFINE THE GAME!

[Crazyfingers]

A community is a group of folks with common interest. In our case, the game Horizons. My difficulty is, I cant find the game anymore!! How can you have a community around a game that doesnt exist?

I am presuming we all have a common interest in online gaming and midevil/fantasy/dungeon and dragon style activities. If our interest were bowling and go-carting we wouldnt be here. So as a group(past and present players) that read up on horizons. And based on things we did or didnt like about other MMORPG and the features of Horizons picked thisGameWorld to be in.

Play a half dozen different races including Dragons, No pvp, a vision that crafters will greatly impact the game, construction with the ability to alter the landscape of the world, etc etc.But what is the game?

How I understood it from the beginning:The GAMEwas a battle between the Community of Istaria versus the withered aegis. All races joined together to fight off the BLIGHT. Crafters, Construction, Adventurers all had their role to play in the Game. It really sounded interesting. Inside the game of defending against the WA you had all sorts of training, quests, struggles and goals to obtain. Become a great warrior, learn to be a great support Cleric or Healer. Supply the great warriors with great weapons and armor. Build great structures to fortify and support the crafters and warriors. Then form clans/guilds within the game to support players with even more similar interest. Crafting Guilds, hunting guilds, Dragon guilds. All to better fight against the WA. Maybe have community events where clans could have games within the game. Competitions and parties. And games within the game. Personal rewards for taking risks that aided in the fight against the WA. Epic quest, rare loot, finely crafted gear, a nice plot with nice fluffy stuff.

What happened to the game? Seriously where did it go? How can you have a community built around something that isnt there? This is not a rant. I want to know what happened to the GAME that I wanted to be a part of its community.

Bring backHorizons-The battle verse the WA!

NimKhazad

[imported_Twelvebagger]

If our interest were bowling we wouldnt be here.

That's not true!

[Crazyfingers]

heh, you know what I meant [B]

Some say that community events are the key. I disagree. They help break up the monotony and are fun from time to time. But it is illogical to ask developers to come up with new events all the time. If you had a ongoing war that was put on hold from time to time by events and festivals it would be great. Or an event that added to the story or war.

Vandelia states in another post that she was saddened that many folks didnt participate and help in the building of the Outpost. It was directed towards people like me. I cannot apologize for this. I didnt participate because I wanted others that enjoy construction to have fun. By me staying up till 4 in the morning adding construction materials for 4 nights straight, I felt would hinder other players fun. Although I did group hunt and kill some baddies. It was fun for me. These things are great for bringing the community closer together. But foran eventto make any real difference there needs to be an ongoing struggle/challenge/game to play.

Im more confused now then before I typed this.

NimKhazad

[Theolaerynn]

I don't think I could break it down to any one thing, speaking for myself of course.

If the community wasn't so good, I do not know if I would still be here.

If I could not play my Dragon I am pretty sure I would be gone.

If my wife did not play then I would not, so that complicates things too, since her reasons for playing are required by reference.

And then you have all the things that make the game fun, many of which are often over looked. Certainly too numerous to post. But face it, if it weren't fun on at least some level, who would play? Perhaps it is these things Nim was looking for? Or a combination of all of the above?

[imported_Twelvebagger]

This is a good post.

Lets leave out the underlying problems like lag, only because they've been discussed ad nauseum.

Here are some things that I see that are lacking and/or needed:

1) Crafter/Adventurer co-dependencies. These need to be increased. How?

(Need a comp? Just go to Nadia!)


2) Blight is remarkably static. It doesn't wax or wane, it just sits there.

(Want to avoid the WA? Don't go into hazy green areas with lightning. It doesn't even take a meteorologist. Just walk and if you see green skies, walk the other direction. Bingo, no blight. We know where it is, we know where it will be tomorrow when we log in).

Wouldn't it be neat to show up tomorrow and port to harro, and see green skies and lightning, the grunts and screams of the Withered Aegis haunting you in the background? They're near... yes, they're near. We'd better organize a defense, attack is imminent.

3) The blight are permanent.

(We kill them but they just respawn!)

Wouldn't it be nice if we brought three fullgroups of badass players into the spiral, and layed the smack down? Blood and sweat littering the floors and walls... corpses everywhere, battle comands being issued and well executed. . .. and when the last witheredbody fell, the skies clear and the sun shines again?

4) The blight don't pose a threat.

(Want to avoid the WA? Don't go into hazy green areas with lightning. It doesn't even take a meteorologist. Just walk and if you see green skies, walk the other direction. Bingo, no blight).

What if you logged in one day and saw the shrine in aughundell blazing with flames..screams of NPC's dying and the crashing sound of the walls being broken---bricks and mortarfalling at your feet. Crushing Ogres, Dwarven Berzerkers, Ebon Arcane Lordsand Druid Commanders destroying structers and killing all in sight. The portal breaks and we can't get toAughundell to save the town! The town must be secured and rebuilt for the consigner to unlock, for the portal to work, and for the blight to realize that they picked the wrong fight. . . . .

The people of istaria immediately drop all of their differences and fight side by side in a common interest to prevent disaster from striking.

This is dynamic.
This is a game.
This is fun.
This is Community.
This is Horizons as it should be.

[Crazyfingers]

Exactly! FUN, a dwarf wife, a pet dragon, and a war to fight!

Thanks Theolaerynn for clearing things up.

[Y]

NimK

[Khoal]

...

What happened to the game? Seriously where did it go? How can you have a community built around something that isnt there? This is not a rant. I want to know what happened to the GAME that I wanted to be a part of its community.

Bring backHorizons-The battle verse the WA!

NimKhazad

******** straight. I want The War!...

...but... (you knew it was coming, heh) In this war, I don't want my client to be a casualty. If the average joe gets a CTD or lags out in the middle of a minor skirmish, then the players would have problems, maybe get frustrated, and maybe leave for another game.

I think The Game is currently in a state of suspended animation. It's in the shop, and the Devs are working with all the resources they've got (and sometimes paying for it, such as Manga in the recent past) to get the client in shape to handle The War, and whatever else they have in mind for HZ. Working on the foundation, trying to make it solid for the rest of the structure.

So that's where I think The Game went. When the client (or whatever is responsible) is ready, hopefully we'll see The Game emerge.

[Crazyfingers]

Your 5 THIS statements are the bread and butter!

See as a community we have nuthing to talk about besides problems with the game. No clans are posting about some great victory or a Tavern owner hosting a big Victory party. No guild competitions, no construction projects completed that blocked off a passageway of the blight. All we have to bs about is whats wrong with Horizons. There is no GAME!

Think about what an ongoing war would do for the developers. It would give them a much needed break! Guilds and players could create their own content.

I dont hate Horizons. I hate that there is no game to interact with friends in Horizons. Nuthing to celebrate, nuthing to defend, nuthing to lose, no drama, nuthing to find.

Wouldnt it have been great if when the mines around the Mithril were finished, out spewed Undead Beasts that had to be driven back into the mine and collapsed?

Mystery and excitement- take those to the bank $$$

NimKhazad

[Crazyfingers]

[img]/Web/Themes/Generic/images/icon-quote.gif[/img]Crazyfingers wrote:

...

What happened to the game? Seriously where did it go? How can you have a community built around something that isnt there? This is not a rant. I want to know what happened to the GAME that I wanted to be a part of its community.

Bring backHorizons-The battle verse the WA!

NimKhazad

******** straight. I want The War!...

...but... (you knew it was coming, heh) In this war, I don't want my client to be a casualty. If the average joe gets a CTD or lags out in the middle of a minor skirmish, then the players would have problems, maybe get frustrated, and maybe leave for another game.

I think The Game is currently in a state of suspended animation. It's in the shop, and the Devs are working with all the resources they've got (and sometimes paying for it, such as Manga in the recent past) to get the client in shape to handle The War, and whatever else they have in mind for HZ. Working on the foundation, trying to make it solid for the rest of the structure.

So that's where I think The Game went. When the client (or whatever is responsible) is ready, hopefully we'll see The Game emerge.

I understand Khoal. But we are paying customers. If they want the community to support their work in progress through subscriptions, fine. I just want to know the truth.Any sort of thing that is factual. Then see some results. I dont want to play WoW or EQII. I want to play Horizons.

[imported_Twelvebagger]

Nuthing to celebrate, nuthing to defend, nuthing to lose, no drama, nuthing to find.


NimKhazad

Those are all very, very solid points.

I couldn't possibly agree more.

[evilkarl]

How can you have a war when you can not effectively fortify a position because your foes will pass through the walls..
how can you have a war when no matter how many of them you kill they will respawn and attack again,
how can you have a war when your own side won't die.

In order to have a sucessful feeling of war there needs to be something to show for efforts on both parts. Killing 5 million WA mobs should have more effect than holding bunch of tech comps and coin it should drive them back and stop them spawning in that region until they can claim it again.

Just my 2c

[imported_Leannae]

As a crafter, or at least that's what I set out to be in the beginning, I often wondered why the enemy didn't destroy or at least attempt to destroy the walls, gaurd huts, even the towns we built up. Granted, it would upset a LOT of people, but isn't that also part of being at war?

How would I define Horizons? (leaving out any mechanical problems)

A graphically rich world, where you can own land, build upon that land whatever your heart desires... within the world of Istaria that is. [;)] A place where you can let your bardic spirit out and speak your poetry at the monthly Bardic Gathering. (On Order at least) A place where you can escape the horrors of the outside world and disappear for a few hours in solitude or enjoy the company of newfriends.

That's how I'd define Horizon's as it stands today and not adding anything negative.

If Horizon's was what it was supposed to be, my definition would include.. A place where you defend your home from the onslaught of The Withered Ageis who is constantly trying to claim your homelands. A place where you can reclaim and rediscover the lands taken over by the Ageis, pushing them back deeper into the deadlands.

If I recall correctly, the map we currently have was only supposed to be a small part of Istaria, and as we pushed back the WA, more land opened. *shrugs* I could be wrong...

[Crazyfingers]

How you define Horizons, IMO is fairly accurate. A bit boring to me but to many I'm sure they enjoy it alot. For those folks, I really dont think a war against a dynamic WA would effect them all that much. IF it was done right. It would give them more things to talk about and participate in thou.Also would regain players that feel Horizons is boring and without reason to really do anything. Durand brought up a discussion of Prosperity where player towns are defended by crafters and defeated by Adventurers. The WA attacks a town shrine, sort of thing. This idea wouldnt effect Carebears at all, they could just avoid it for a few hours.

Im just saying there needs to be some sort of game in Horizons. Right now there isnt one. I feel it is by far the most missing part of Horizons. Without it, I dont see investing much more time and effort into a world without a reason to play. Its all about investing time. At some point people decide to invest their time and effort into something more fun and entertaining.

NimKhazad

[PJ]

Bring backHorizons-The battle verse the WA!

Enough Said

[Thalak]

I have to very much agree too. The game needs purpose in a bad way.

We may not need events that run every two weeks, but a nice story arc to present some lore with player content (adv & crafting) to follow it though really needs to happen.

Asheron's Call did a very good job with story arcs. If TG could pull off a few of these I think things would turn for the better.

[Bulgrim StoneCleaver]

Developers need to take note on this thread and do something soon!

The Outpost was a nice first step, now bring on the war!


Bulgrim

[Illi]

A game is something you do in your leisure time. It is not your life. Horizons is not unlike any other game.

When you turn on your XBOX, those opponents you just beat 6 hours ago are still there. In Hz, we fight an enemy until the devs decide to change them. I've noticed that most people take this thing WAY too seriously. Just an observation.

I for one, am not angry with the game at all. It has problems yes, but I enjoy it anyway.

[Khoal]

...I understand Khoal. But we are paying customers. If they want the community to support their work in progress through subscriptions, fine. I just want to know the truth.Any sort of thing that is factual. Then see some results. I dont want to play WoW or EQII. I want to play Horizons.

"Any sort of thing that is factual" is kind of vague. I mean, factually, we knowthat they've got people hunting down the root cause of the memory issues in the client. We also know they're doing ARoP. And we know they're doing Lairs. Those are facts. Two of those three were originally promised at or near release.

Same thing for wanting to know "the truth." I don't know exactly what that means.

Perhaps we shouldcome at this from another direction to arrive at the same destination (The Truth). If you could ask the Devs, or Bowman himself, some specific questions, what would they be? (Note: I'm assuming that The Truth may be revealed through questions and answers with the Dev Team.)

For instance, here's a short (and incomplete) list of questions I'd like to have answered:

1) Since the formation of Tulga Games, what has been the trend in subscription numbers?

2) Does the Development Team have a priority list of things to do/fix?

3) If #2 = true, what are the top five items on this list?

[HratLi]

See as a community we have nuthing to talk about besides problems with the game. No clans are posting about some great victory or a Tavern owner hosting a big Victory party. No guild competitions, no construction projects completed that blocked off a passageway of the blight. All we have to bs about is whats wrong with Horizons. There is no GAME!

NimKhazad

Hahaha... this is the EXACT summary of my feelings since merger. :)
There is no other COMMON enemy to fight. Don't want to be killed by undead? Don't GO there. So all we have is each other to bicker at. It's nothing personal, just that people
get bored.

Patch day? Who even BOTHERS to talk to all the NPC's? *I* sure as heck don't any more. They never change, even the typos in their text stay the same. 7 months after Feladan's release the bozo in Tazoon's fountain finally stops talking about how he wishes he could wash the blood of his regret away. Not much changes. As Nim says, no mystery, change and excitement. Patch days are now a game of See what made it from blight (announced or not) and what's wrong with it. What will Pillage spirit/DeamonGearxxx/abilityX do now? Does it even still work, or how is it broken THIS time?

Hehe... something to do would be definitely a plus. BTW Props on the Burning Archer story! THAT was awesome. One of the best progressions in the game. Wish I didn't have to live it vicariously since it was ONLY for ELARS. Stuff like that that everyone could do would be AWESOME.

-HratLi

[Crazyfingers]

Lots of nice posts here [Y]

To Illi - I understand your point of view, but fromit, I come to the conclusion you havent been around Horizons for very long. I am very happy that you enjoy it. The simple truth is most choose to spend their leisure time doing something else.

How can Horizons become a game that people like to spend their leisure time participating in? A game that grabsplayers by the nuts and makes them want to log in again and again. The pretty stadium with lights and music and good hotdogs and brats and cold cold beer is there. But theres no game being played! Just a bunch of fans(community) stumbling around the stadium waiting for the Game.

I want to enjoy the atmosphere, maybe jump on the field and become a hero, maybe be a hotdog vendor for awhile, or maybe just sit back and drink cold beer with my friends and enjoy the show.

Doh Im describing a baseball stadium with fans but no baseball game. Once the heros and villains hit the field and the game begins, the community has things to cheer about, get involved in, and raise hell about.

Horizons has the stadium, beer, hotdog vendors, baseball bats, talented warriors but no foes to compete against. We just clunk around training more and more stuff to be more prepared for the Game(War).

Thats where I feel horizons is at now. An outdated baseball stadium that has character, fans, and heroes ready to take the field and kick some ******.

Bring on the Undead Hordes!

NimK