Topic: Dawn of War III

[MysterD]

Newest - 8/19/2010:
DOW 3 unofficially announced and might be Free-To-Play.

[sirean_syan]

More important is that announcement of the next DoW II expansion. Why? Fucking pirate Orks! You have to wonder: was he a total badass before he found the hat, or was it the hat that gave him the confidence to be a warboss?

[idolminds]

If the magic in that top hat could bring Frosty the Snowman to life, just imagine what would happen if a living person put it on.

I bet thats what happened here.

[MysterD]

This thread's the DOW3 Thread, not the DOW2 Thread.

[sirean_syan]

Don't lecture me on where I can talk about Warhammer. I own this shit.

[MysterD]

Yeah, I dunno if I like this idea for DOW3...

"It may be a more digital free-to-play experience with all the depth and quality of a Relic RTS," he revealed, similar to Relic's Company of Heroes Online. Currently in beta and launching this fall, CoH Online is free to play but supported by microtransactions.

"It all depends on how COHO does, and how it works and how people respond to it," Bilson said. "If they do that would definitely drive us to... Now Dawn of War III, either way, is going to have a much larger strategic component to it, more of a global battle going on with little tactical things, sort of MMO-like."

[idolminds]

Could be cool, it just depends on what they do.

[MysterD]

Could be cool, it just depends on what they do.

It seems like since nobody wants to really compete w/ WOW, the whole idea of free-to-play w/ micro-transactions for extra-content thing for MMO's is getting very popular, since it helped Turbine out majorly and kept them alive and kicking...

[Pugnate]

You have to wonder: was he a total badass before he found the hat, or was it the hat that gave him the confidence to be a warboss?

*steps back slowly*

[W7RE]

It seems like since nobody wants to really compete w/ WOW, the whole idea of free-to-play w/ micro-transactions for extra-content thing for MMO's is getting very popular, since it helped Turbine out majorly and kept them alive and kicking...

I think a lot of it is the result of facebook games that use microtransactions. Now every console game comes with small costume packs or item packs that cost a couple bucks to download. DLC is in some cases really small and cheap, because it's not about making a lot of money per user, it's about getting those people who think, "well, it's just a couple dollars."

I spent a few weeks playing a free to play MMO with some friends once. It was Allods Online, which uses an in game item shop. You spend real money on an in-game currency called gpotatoes, which can only be spent in the item shop. Item shop items included larger backpacks, long term buff potions, tradeskill tools, permanent character buffs (every 10 levels you can get +10% damage and HP). To make it seem like you don't have to pay, each item would have a questable version, which was usually not quite as good. But when you're looking at a 36 slot backpack for $15 or a 28 slot for free, the 28 slot looks really nice. So you spend 3 days straight grinding mobs for super rare drop quest items, and then realize you only have 25% of the quest done. You get fed up and realize it's more worth your time to spend the $15 for the bigger bag. (and trust me, they do a great job of making the 12 slot bag you start with pretty useless. Tons of quest items to carry, and most quest locations are far from town and NPCs.)

In WoW, I feel the pressure of the daily grind of needing to run instances and do dailies. It feels like everything is a long grind to keep you playing. In Allods, everything was bait for the item shop. The entire game was a long string of lures to get you to buy stuff with real life money. As soon as you buy something, there's something else the game is telling you that you need. It really turned me off of the whole free-to-play item shop setup.

[PyroMenace]

15 bucks to open up more inventory?! Holy fuck.

[W7RE]

15 bucks to open up more inventory?! Holy fuck.

It might have been $10, not sure. It doesn't matter, the smallest amount of gpotatoes you can buy is $20, so you're spending at least that much anyway. If you went into the game with the idea of spending money in the item shop, you would probably easily spend $50+ in the first 2-3 weeks of play, more if you level faster.

The game also has something called Fear of Death (which I hear has been removed). There are 1-2 hour duration potions you can buy from the item shop that increase your stats. If you die without this potion on, you get Fear of Death, which is like resurection sickness. -90% to all stats for 2-3 hours, only removable by spending a lot of gold. Also instead of being able to resurrect near where you died, you're send back to the mainland. PvP takes place on player controller airships, and this potion makes the difference between rezzing there, and your friends making a trip back to the mainland to get you after death.

[scottws]

This reminds me.  I bought DoW II Gold but never opened the box.

[idolminds]

Thats the problem with microtransactions, they design the game to really push them to the point of requiring them. That makes sense but it also pushes a lot of people away from your game.

[PyroMenace]

I think once Tyranids were properly done in a Dawn of War game, theres really nothing more that needs to be done.

[W7RE]

I actually booted up DoWII the other day and started playing. I did about 4 missions, and despite being terrible at RTS, I was having fun. I also finally ordered the Ultramarines Omnibus today.