Horrible pun. HORRIBLE! But it’s staying anyway.
gPotato has their new F2P MMORPG, Allods Online, entering Phase 2 of Closed Beta. Graphically, it looks appealing enough though I’m wary of gPotato’s item shops from past experience but I’m willing to install the full game just to check it out once it’s launched.
Still, is it completely wrong that I have an automatic bias against Allods simply because of two bloggers?
Heartless_ has been raving about Allods but I fear I haven’t quite gotten over his stint as a pre-launch WAR fanboy. I know I should give him the benefit of the doubt “live and learn” thing, but the WAR fanboy effect is still there in the back of my mind.
Second, Keen of Keen and Graev’s has also been raving about Allods. It’s difficult to give Keen the benefit of the doubt because I have yet to ever read that he has “lived and learned.” Keen is notorious for “this next game that isn’t out [AoC/WAR/Darkfall/Mortal Online/whatever] will be the most awesome MMO EVAR!!!” yet within a month he’s canceled, writing how much the game sucks then immediately jumping onto the fanboy bandwagon of whatever other new shiny MMO looms on the horizon.
As I said, I’ll likely check out the final game but it’s nothing I’d stick with. It’s just another F2P DIKU-based MMORPG with two factions, the same ol’ leveling and questing and classes as every other DIKU-based MMORPG. Runes of Magic has possibly the least offensive of the Asian-style item shops, while DDO possibly has the most appealing overall for us Western players. I’m not entirely trusting of gPotato’s mentality of item shops but we’ll see what, if anything, they’ve learned in the past year or two of a handful of AAA-quality F2P titles seeing a measure of success outside the Asian market.
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In Keen’s defense, although he does burn through games like nobody’s business and does hype them up a lot, he does review them rather well in the process and give a well-balanced number of ups and downs for each one. I’m personally going to check the game out once it leaves beta as well, my little sister will probably love it due to the softer art.
To give some positive examples, David Collantes and Tesh are also impressed and inspired by Allods – so maybe it is really good.
Still, not in the mood to test anything right now. Plus I am a bit tired of the comic-cutesy style of graphics. I hope for future games to follow the style of Guild Wars or to come up with their own.
I approve this post
I have been hoping for a more objective voice for this game. I am not much of a fan of f2p games, DDO being the only exception, but I am not opposed to trying something out when it’s free.
I was guilty for being positive about WAR, a game from a developer that had a pretty amazing game with DAoC. I justified my positions, often with pretty solid evidence.
What I regret is not bitch slapping the idiots that bet on WAR failing and succeeding, just so they could say “see, I was right” no matter which way the game went. WAR received a lot of unfair criticism for things that had no effect on its eventual collapse. Most of the doom casters STILL don’t realize why WAR failed, but they sit around and pretend they were right. But that’s a whole different monster to tackle.
As I said in my post about Allods, it surprised me out of left field. And you may have noticed a shift where I try to talk about games after playing them, more than being just another paid off prognosticator. Plus I’ve given up on official marketing for games as it clearly is no longer targeted at me.
For the record, I have a pretty good WAR post saved up and its not going to play nice with anyone.
Yeah, I feel exactly the same way. Tesh was saying some good stuff about the game and I trust his judgement, but at the same time Keen was hyping it, which never ends well. So far the game is in my ‘install and try’ bin and that’s about it. If it doesn’t launch for another year, I’m not fussed.
Hi Scott -
My name is Katelyn and I am the Community Manager for Allods Online. I recently stumbled across your blog and would love to talk to you one on one to see if I could possibly change your mind about Allods Online. Feel free to email me and we can chat a bit! I think your trepidation about checking out Allods is justifiable, but I would love to see if I can change your mind about it.
I look forward to hearing back from you!
Why do you judge a game by it’s reviewers, rather than it’s actual contents??
For clarity’s sake, yes, I’m currently a fan of the game, but I do have a few reservations. I’m less interested in the relatively generic DIKU grind (though the Gibberlings are awesome), and more in the ship-to-ship “endgame” content. They are doing some interesting things in character progression, which may or may not work out, but I’m happy they are trying new things. The business model can really make or break it, though. If they flub the execution, it will kill the game. Microtransactions can be done well, and I hope they do it right, but I’m not pronouncing them competent yet.
Basically, I see a lot of promise and potential in the game. I fully reserve the right to say “ah, they booched it” if they screw up. If they handle things well, it will be a good and maybe even great game. If they screw up, by all means, toss it on the pile and ignore it. I will.
*shrug*
To date, I’m interested and excited because I see potential. It’s enough for me to keep digging and see what I can find, but I’m not jumping into the fanboi pool.
Do you think Kate from above is real?
She’s likely the real deal. At least, someone by the same name with the same message structure has contacted me, and seems on the level so far. I’m putting together a list of questions to interview her with (her idea, as it happens). It should prove interesting to see how she answers.
I’ve never seen that before. I was tempted to make an ‘allods suxors’ post on my blog to see if I could attract her. Just out of curiosity!
That sort of marketing representative is a whole article in itself.