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Reviews!

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Jan 26, 2005 roguelazer link
Wow! Lots of people have been reviewing VO! I just wanted to bring this fact to all of your respective attentions, just in case anyone else wanted to read some. Do a google search for "Vendetta Online Review" and enjoy the 156,000 results. IGN Hammered us pretty hard (not enough players, not enough storyline content in the missions), but a lot of other people liked VO. Sound gets hit pretty bad too.

Some of these reviewers are quite funny, though. One complained that it takes 15 minutes to fly the 3000m necessary to leave the sector. I guess nobody told him about Turbo.
Jan 26, 2005 Tyrdium link
IGN is right, when you think about it... Vendetta could definitely use some more storyline-driven missions. Devs, any chance of using player-submitted missions? I know we've got a number of good roleplayers...
Jan 26, 2005 Shapenaji link
WEll, you know, (and we saw this done not too long ago)

Guides could play more of a role than just assistants. They can, through their own creativity, add substance to the game. Recently it was a Rogue Aputech-17 with an unreal engine. But who knows what they could come up with.
Jan 26, 2005 Tyrdium link
Still reading through the IGN review... WTF?!?

"PvP (Player versus Player) is almost entirely consensual."

Edit: Hmmmm... Someone should ask IGN to come back in a few months or something, and review Vendetta again. :P
Jan 26, 2005 Shapenaji link
Well, as consensual as in any game that has a specifically defined area for combat. If you stay in your nation space, you need never get involved.
Jan 26, 2005 Moofed link
Actually, searching for "Vendetta Online Review" nets only 67 results. Searching without the quotes gives the 154k figure.

I'm curious how the sound could be improved enough to get a better grade than 6/10 like most the reviewers gave it. Text-to-Speech never works out well in the end from what I've seen. VOIP ought to be placed under the multiplayer rating rather than sound. I guess if VO supported 5.1 channel (4 would be nice), 24bit/96kHz sampling (sounds the same to me anyway), and environmental effects (...in space, yes i know we shouldnt be able to hear explosions, but still...) it'd get a better score despite not improving gameplay at all (except for the 4 channel sound perhaps).
Jan 26, 2005 yodaofborg link
Simply, I think the Devs themselvs have admitted the sound system sucks.

But saying that, its not entirely a bad start, VO is an ever evolving game, so in 6 months who knows? It's what will keep me here... (unfortunatly, reviewers dont have the same background with V/time spent here that I do)
Jan 26, 2005 Fnugget link
I don't think these reviewers explore enough. That is because you can't explore much at a newbie level. Most of what we may disagree upon probably comes from only looking at game mechanics, rather than actual wide and varied experience.
Jan 26, 2005 yodaofborg link
Maybe we should pettion them, get them to play a lil, find out who they are and blow them up! heh
Jan 26, 2005 godsize_dwo link
Shape,

That was the kind of thing we did in Everquest as guides.

That's what made EQ fun for me in the begining and what made me want to be a guide. Every weeked or so there was a new adventure or quest that would be a GM event. Whenever the word of a GM event went around the server you had people leaving groups, raids and what not so that they could go play.

Alot of the GM's/Guides had some great ideas, like having a dragon from one zone attack another dragon from another zone in a newbie zone. That was fun! The awards that the GM's were able to give also made it fun and worth your time.

You are right though Shape Guide/GM events would help alot.

http://www.dooworldorder.com
Jan 26, 2005 Forum Moderator link
This is actually something we've been talking about amongst ourselves. We're kind of hashing out the rules with the devs on this. I expect you'll see more of this type of thing in the near future.
Jan 26, 2005 Starfisher link
The IGN review mostly nailed it. I have to agree with just about every point, except I'm still paying for the game ;)

Guild is the best dev team of any game I've ever played in terms of community commitment and vision, but they've been hamstrung by reality. Hopefully a tester will win the lottery and fund the game, but unless they get money the game is going to continue to grow in little trickles that might not bring in enough for them to continue.

I hope they make it. I love this game more than any other I've ever played. Unfortunately, I also understand where these reviewers are coming from. For those who stick with the game long enough to become addicted, supporting Guild seems like a no-brainer decision. For those that were looking for a game now and not a potential game six monthes or a year off, NOT supporting Guild seems like a no brainer decision. Reality sucks. I really hope Guild can beat the odds, but these reviewers are reviewing the game, not the game in six monthes.

Maybe we can get them to do an update to their reviews once some more stuff comes out.
Jan 26, 2005 sarahanne link
Well many of these sites do allow you to post responses to reviews. I strongly encourage you to post your own replies as long as the responses are well reasoned, with concrete examples,honest representations of the game, and without name calling or rude language.

I've always been impressed with the linguistic ability of this player base; it is apparent there are many eloquent writers and posters. I hope this will come through in the counter-replies.
Jan 26, 2005 hooksrusty link
Just curious, anyone an insider on IGN?

Anyways, IGN is right. This game has the potential and can be good, if the devs do there stuff. But it's not there now.
Jan 26, 2005 wylfing link
I'm with Starfisher. The IGN review was spot on, with the single, glaring exception of Capture the Cargo. CtC is, in my mind, about 50% of the fun of the game. The other 50% is the new trade missions, so this might be another exception: the trade guild missions weren't in when this review was written.

But in general the comments were accurate. Look for the good points the revewier made: high marks for style and potential. We all want VO to be as great now as it we know it will be in the future.

That said, I believe I'll write a player review on IGN when I get back to my own computer to point out the CtC and trade mission bits.

[edit] One more glaring exception: near-weekly updates. That rocks [/edit]

[edit again] Devs take heed -- there are too many sectors. [edit]
Jan 26, 2005 Tyrdium link
"[edit again] Devs take heed -- there are too many sectors. [edit]"

Definitely correct. The old universe felt a lot more alive, even if there were less people on.
Jan 26, 2005 Fnugget link
Eh, we will have enough players to fill these sectors sometime
Jan 26, 2005 roguelazer link
I daresay that I would not play any longer if the devs reverted to the old universe or anything even vaguely resembling it.
Jan 26, 2005 Tyrdium link
Well, yeah, the old universe would be too small. However, I think the current one is way too big. What is it? 8x8 per system? Methinks something like 5x5 per system would work better...
Jan 26, 2005 roguelazer link
It's 16x16, actually. 256 sectors in each of the 30 systems for 7,680 sectors. Which I think is just about right, since that gives about 60 "choke-points" (wormholes) and about 90-120 stations.