So your very considerable experience in the genre would pick Borderlands 2 as one of the 2 best new free mmos? What genre are we talking about again? Plus these games are old now! I've already got bored of them both VERY quickly. BL2 almost instantly and PoE I played in alpha days and have been meaning to try again some time. I like how they don't use gold in the game and its great to see a game from NZ… But I digress!
I don't know what genre YOU are talking about. I was specifically talking about shallow combat driven action RPGs - exactly like I said.
Borderlands 2 and PoE are both fantastic in that specific way. You asked me what game I would pick if I was looking for that kind of gameplay - and I answered your question. Whether they're "old" to you or not is completely and utterly irrelevant.
As for being "free" - I already explained to you that I don't care if a game is free or not. A game is a game - and I have no interest beyond that when evaluating whether it's worth my time. If it cost a million dollars - I'd get my hands on it some other way. It wouldn't matter.
Also, I think Borderlands 2 has a surprisingly strong narrative. Sure, it's not a serious story - but it's executed very, very well. I'm very entertained when I'm in the mood for it.
Imagine I went and posted on a puzzle game site about something like tetris and said, "bad animations, bad voice acting, bad story. I'd probably be enjoying it too if it wasn't for my considerable experience with the genre"
So?! Does tetris NEED these things? Do I REALLY understand the genre here? Do you play diablo3 or POE3 for the great narrative?
But…. ARE YOU SURE? You're talking about cosmetic additions that don't change the core gameplay. Add these things to tetris and you still have tetris with some extra bullshit attached. If you understand the genre then why are you looking for a good narrative?! It's about killing monsters, leveling up and getting loot. Do you ragequit out of space invaders because the developers fail to properly explain the motivations behind the invasion?
I'm afraid you need to think about these things first.
Neverwinter is an MMO, right?
I went looking for an MMO, right?
Turned out, Neverwinter was nothing but a shallow combat driven action RPG - and a bad one at that.
I really don't know why you think narrative is irrelevant in an MMO - but I don't think it's irrelevant. It might not be the primary focus of the genre - but it needs to be there, and I need to feel engaged by SOMETHING in the story - or it will be a major negative.
Incidentally, I feel the same way about story in non-MMO action RPGs - which is why I'm not playing PoE. It's just a better game than Neverwinter if we're exclusively talking about combat driven action RPG gameplay. Not just in terms of character development and loot mechanics - but because I can't stand stretching that kind of gameplay thin over hundreds and hundreds of hours. Such gameplay is best when you can experience the bulk of powers and toys within a shorter timeframe. There's not enough meat for an MMO timeframe on such gameplay. Not for me, anyway.
Anyway, enough with this. It seems what it comes down to is personal preference.
I've played the game, leveled to 52 so far, have my own map with unique narrative to the main game(and there are 100s of unique quests that may contain an interesting story!). I played STO free2play and leveled both characters to max without paying a dime. I say Neverwinter will be enjoyable to many people. I'm sure of it. A lot of people will love it.
Yes, indeed - it's about personal preference. Which is why there's absolutely no reason to get so upset.
You like it and you enjoy it - and you have your reasons. I don't like and I didn't enjoy it - and I have my reasons.
If we'd been in a room together, socialising - I probably wouldn't bother talking the game down. I wouldn't want to disrupt your enjoyment.
But this is a public forum dedicated to discussing games - and that includes the good and the bad.
There will always be detractors to any game - it's just a fact of life. Lots and lots of people are already loving it - and lots are not. Many detractors have the exact same issues that I have - and you need only open your eyes to find that out. Maybe we're all creatively bankrupt without imagination? Sure - that has to be the case
You've not played it, are jaded cos you wasted too much cash on STO and/or mmorpgs in general, don't care to create anything with the foundry (cos clearly you have no imagination and creativity anyway if you need voice acting to imagine the voices, etc
) and you say "I don't even need a single player-made dungeon to feel completely full of what this piece of crap has to offer."
Yes, I've played it.
I haven't spent a dime on STO - and money is not really a concern.
As for not having imagination and creativity - well, I'm not sure if that's relevant. But if you think all people who appreciate good voice acting (as opposed to bad voice acting) - are like that, then you might want to take a look inside yourself before pointing fingers.
Oh, I like the foundry in theory - and I wish something like that existed in every game. Problem is that it's just an editor - it's not a game and it's not content. It's a praise-worthy feature - but releasing an editor will never amount to much in and of itself when I'm evaluating the game as is.
An editor can never replace quality game mechanics or quality long-term design. If the core gameplay doesn't appeal to me - then no amount of player-created content will change my mind.
Again, are you sure about that? I think maybe you do because until what you say comes from experience you're just working with assumptions, I'm dealing with the experience and facts.
Facts? Hardly.
As for me - I'm using my experience with Neverwinter (I played closed beta) - and I'm using my experience with Cryptic - and I'm using my experience with F2P and the genre in general.
The game absolutely SMACKS of the F2P plague - and Perfect World being behind it only reinforces my claim - if you have any experience with them.