Posted January 26, 2010
hm, Square Enix leads to Eidos which leads to Thief 3 !!!!!!111 And I can get it for 9.99$ instead of 20€ on Steam. Bliss :D
JediEagle
New User
Registered: Sep 2008
From Slovenia
cogadh
Banned? Never.
Registered: Oct 2008
From United States
Posted January 26, 2010
Which is why you won't see it come here. As long as any game is still legitimately selling for substantially more than $10 anywhere, we are unlikely to ever see it here. That doesn't eliminate the possibility of Squee coming to GOG, it just eliminates Thief 3... at least until its price drops at other retailers.
MacReiter
Grumpy Old Fart
Registered: Oct 2008
From United States
Posted January 26, 2010
Firstly, I've not read the last ~200 posts, so I apologize if someone's already hit on this...
Back quite a ways, someone mentioned UO (Ultima Online), and it occurs to me: "What if GOG decided to support Good Old MMO Games (GOMMOG?)?" Not just patching them up and providing new installers, BUT ACTUALLY RUNNING THE BACKING SERVERS... The older games wouldn't have the kinds of usage numbers that, say, WoW servers have to deal with, and a nominal ($1-5) monthly fee would still provide them with some roughly predictable monthly income (more predictable than game sales, at least). They could even support several different games on the same servers through virtual machines, and then if particular games started heating up, move the server's virtual machine to dedicated box(es).
I think the launch of GOMMOG would qualify as the biggest change to GOG, though probably not the biggest announcement.
(I also feel I should point out that I loathe and detest MMOs, but I know that I'm in somewhat of a minority about that)
Support:
Karma -> Ultima family (among others)
Past/Present -> Ultima had time shifting stuff, but I don't know if UO did
Two chars/complement beautifully -> The standard logo combines U and O into a fairly neat symbol, as can be seen at Wikipedia:
[url=]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Online[/url]
Back quite a ways, someone mentioned UO (Ultima Online), and it occurs to me: "What if GOG decided to support Good Old MMO Games (GOMMOG?)?" Not just patching them up and providing new installers, BUT ACTUALLY RUNNING THE BACKING SERVERS... The older games wouldn't have the kinds of usage numbers that, say, WoW servers have to deal with, and a nominal ($1-5) monthly fee would still provide them with some roughly predictable monthly income (more predictable than game sales, at least). They could even support several different games on the same servers through virtual machines, and then if particular games started heating up, move the server's virtual machine to dedicated box(es).
I think the launch of GOMMOG would qualify as the biggest change to GOG, though probably not the biggest announcement.
(I also feel I should point out that I loathe and detest MMOs, but I know that I'm in somewhat of a minority about that)
Support:
Karma -> Ultima family (among others)
Past/Present -> Ultima had time shifting stuff, but I don't know if UO did
Two chars/complement beautifully -> The standard logo combines U and O into a fairly neat symbol, as can be seen at Wikipedia:
[url=]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Online[/url]
MrDOS
New User
Registered: Dec 2008
From Canada
Posted January 26, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTdU2i4-tY
The thought did occur to me somewhere around page 30, although I didn't post it. It would be remarkable to see, and not entirely unfeasible. I know I'd sure like to play Ultima Online, given what I've heard about it. I think the biggest issue with this might be player base: if only GOG players were on GOG's servers, it'd be a fairly small community. Not that that's a bad thing in general, but it's possible that some MMO's rely on a large player base for the game mechanic to work. (Not that I'd know; the only MMO I've ever played is Guild Wars, and that's not as player interactive as I understand many to be.)
Ultima in general has been brought up many times already.
--- MrDOS
Post edited January 26, 2010 by MrDOS
Thiev
Tech Commander
Registered: Jan 2009
From Other
Delixe
Not Merry
Registered: Sep 2008
From Ireland
Posted January 26, 2010
Back quite a ways, someone mentioned UO (Ultima Online), and it occurs to me: "What if GOG decided to support Good Old MMO Games (GOMMOG?)?" Not just patching them up and providing new installers, BUT ACTUALLY RUNNING THE BACKING SERVERS... The older games wouldn't have the kinds of usage numbers that, say, WoW servers have to deal with, and a nominal ($1-5) monthly fee would still provide them with some roughly predictable monthly income (more predictable than game sales, at least). They could even support several different games on the same servers through virtual machines, and then if particular games started heating up, move the server's virtual machine to dedicated box(es).
I think the launch of GOMMOG would qualify as the biggest change to GOG, though probably not the biggest announcement.
(I also feel I should point out that I loathe and detest MMOs, but I know that I'm in somewhat of a minority about that)
Support:
Karma -> Ultima family (among others)
Past/Present -> Ultima had time shifting stuff, but I don't know if UO did
Two chars/complement beautifully -> The standard logo combines U and O into a fairly neat symbol, as can be seen at Wikipedia:
[url=]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Online[/url]
I hate everything you just suggested. If an MMO is popular it will still be around. O hallo WOW! If an MMO dies its because no one is playing it anymore.
Arteveld
Vote colour.
Registered: Dec 2009
From Poland
Oriza-Triznyák
garbage features like achievements.
Registered: Apr 2009
From Other
MacReiter
Grumpy Old Fart
Registered: Oct 2008
From United States
Posted January 26, 2010
Actually, I've read the first ~1000 posts. It was just the ~200 or so since this morning that I've not read :)
After some more research, UO is apparently still running and supplying money to EA. So that either shoots that one out of the water, or provides another vote towards EA moving "legacy" support over to GOG.
As for the small user base, I suspect that a smaller, more focused user base (only the people who really have a good reason to be playing that particular MMO, instead of "the hot MMO of the moment") would probably make the game more enjoyable for everybody. MMO's always have NPCs to fill up the cracks, but a smaller and more focused player body would avoid the "so, what's a hot lizard chick like you doin' hanging around here?" and arbitrary breakdancing, while letting people who really care about the setting still interact. If that actually worked, I might even become interested in trying some of them out...
Delixe
Not Merry
Registered: Sep 2008
From Ireland
Posted January 26, 2010
IT WILL NOT BE AN MMO!! God give me strength..
MacReiter
Grumpy Old Fart
Registered: Oct 2008
From United States
Posted January 26, 2010
Not strictly true. There have been several MMOs that closed up shop because the owners couldn't continue to pay for the huge server farms that they set up during peak usage, but which still had enough fan base that various lawsuits have been filed to try to wrest the server applications away so that players could continue to play.
The only way I'd see it as economically feasible is if the server farm that GOG presumably already has could be extended through virtual machines to carry low-load MMO servers for marginal effort. If so, it could bring in a bit of regular cash for relatively low effort. If any of the MMOs required large loads, the monthly fees might need to go up, which would either support the extra load or drop the usage rates back down to where it could be wedged back into the background...
Just thinkin'...
cogadh
Banned? Never.
Registered: Oct 2008
From United States
Posted January 26, 2010
No no no no no no no no! No MMOs on GOG! Bad MacReiter! Don't you dare suggest that again!
MacReiter
Grumpy Old Fart
Registered: Oct 2008
From United States
Delixe
Not Merry
Registered: Sep 2008
From Ireland
Posted January 26, 2010
It will not be an MMO. It will not be an MMO. I don't know how many times I have to repeat that. If GOG ever charge a monthly fee to play a game I will eat my own shit live on webcam.
MacReiter
Grumpy Old Fart
Registered: Oct 2008
From United States
