The game is not dead yet

Gameloading

As I see a lot of people discussing the death of Auto Assault, I think its necisary to remind everybody the game is not dead yet. the game has not been canceled. Yes, the game has a low subscriber base, and games with more subscribers have been closed in the past, but that doesn't mean Auto Assault will be closed as well.

lets look at an example.


Asherons Call 2. the reason the game closed is because it has a lack of subscribers. in the long run, Turbine would have made a profit of it. but that would take time. Turbine would make a lot more profit if they just closed the game and move the developers to other games, such as Lord of the rings Online and D&DO. Netdevil, on the other hand, doesn't have any other plans for new MMO's, so they can stick to Auto Assault.

donaldduck

This game was dead the moment they decided to release it...

and as I said many months ago, the ONLY thing to save it would be make it free to play and charge for optional expansions.

grimboj

The devs must be pretty bored.... not enough money to make an expansion yet just enough money to pay their wages.

fizzle322

Its dead jim

elitwebb

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Originally posted by grimboj
The devs must be pretty bored.... not enough money to make an expansion yet just enough money to pay their wages.

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Bored?  That is a sweet ass place to be.  Can't afford to work on anything new, lets just chill and solve a problem if it pops up.  I am guessing there is not a lot of actual productivity in the ND offices on any given day.

savingmay

I feel kind of bad for them. Oh wait, no I don't because I paid them $50 dollars for a pretty lame game. Nvm

Smirch

Personally I think this game is a blast. There are almost no worthy MMO's coming out for a while so I was scrambling for something to play, AA will tide me over until Age of Conan or Vanguard come out.

The game isn't as dead as most people think. There are a lot of people playing at any time of the day now that the server merge has gone through.

ClawDruid

The title makes me think of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail part "Bring Out Your Dead" along with the Spamalot song.

I feel happy... I feel happy...

superhero13

I see this game as a failed experiment? What was the hypothesis you ask? "Can an MMO be designed around casual gamers only?"

The answer, of course, was no. There are plenty of casual games that dont cost as much and some are even deeper than AA.

MMOs need deeper design not more superficial. AA was an attempt to cash in on casual gamers that failed.

Vhaln

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Originally posted by superhero13
I see this game as a failed experiment? What was the hypothesis you ask? "Can an MMO be designed around casual gamers only?"

The answer, of course, was no. There are plenty of casual games that dont cost as much and some are even deeper than AA.

MMOs need deeper design not more superficial. AA was an attempt to cash in on casual gamers that failed.

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I agree, I think that was a big part of AA's fundamental design flaw.  Except that there are all different ways of defining "casual."  Some would say casual players are the ones who only play games a few hours a day, but AA seems to be too simple and easy even for them, instead targetting those who only play a few hours a week.  Most people who only game a few hours a week are not going to be looking at the MMO genre at all, or even buying enough games overall to constitute a significant chunk of the pc game market.

To target the casual, but serious gamers - the ones who buy plenty of games, and play them almost every day, without devoting thier lives to them - I don't think would be so bad an idea.  I think they may be the majority.  The ultra-casual gamers though, they barely buy games at all, yet that's what AA seems geared for, to me.

AA may not be dead, but it sure as hell wasn't a success.

Kryogenic

This game was dead before it was even released. Twisted Metal 2 is WAY more fun and engrossing and doesn't cost a monthly fee to play.

Auto Assault just plain sucks. I'm sorry but there is nothing in the world that they can do to make it better. I say scrap that bastard and go back to the drawing board, and don't come back to the market without an original, engrossing, and FUN game.

Midaveg

If Auto Assault have all thier characters in female and allowing characters to zone out of the down and have options to leave the vehicle out at the highway aswell.. think that way.. Auto Assault would have a boost in thier player base.

Since AA is a vehicular MMO.. so ppl wont get interested in it as vehicles cant have bouncing b00bs.

Quoted from a General Chat in Auto Assault

Kryogenic

lol Not even bouncing boobs could saves this game. Boobs are great, but the magnitude that AA sucks is greater than the greatness of boobs.

Say it with me, "The suckitude is greater than the boobitude".

Shadoed

It is a sad day that any MMO starts to get rumours of closure passed around as there are always people that will like it no matter what others may say. Classic example was "Earth & Beyond" which although it had a low subscriber base (turned out to be way bigger than EA said in thier closure statement) was actually making money (despite EA's major 'non-advertising' policy), it just didn't make the major amounts that EA wanted (yet they went on to invest millions upon millions in Sims online, go figure).

The closure of a game will always rely on two factors (unless you work at EA of course, wow i'm still bitter after all this time ), the amount of money that it is making vs the amount of money that it is losing. As far as i can see (and i am willing to concede to anyone that knows better) NCsoft have a very integrated approach to the development and support of their MMO's and auto assault is of course not the only iron they have in the fire. Unlike other companies, the support in their data centres, development etc is shared among all of their projects (although i know that AA will have it's own balance sheet) and this means that AA will not be making as big a loss as maybe first thought. So basically where other companies would have to drop a project of this kind because they could not afford to support it exclusively, NCsoft have a lot more leeway to develop improvements and advertising to grow the player base.

This is not to say that they will get it comepletely right, i was not a big fan of the game when i played the beta, but i think that it is far from dead yet.

Kryogenic

I don't think the game should have been released as a pay to play game. It's too shallow to warrant a subscription. To me Auto Assault represents the begining of the era of the executive games. By that I mean games that are created by some cluess execs who just want money and have no clue how to breath a soul or life into a creative project.

It happens to every genra. The music business is a prime example of this.

Deathstrike2

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Originally posted by savingmay
I feel kind of bad for them. Oh wait, no I don't because I paid them $50 dollars for a pretty lame game. Nvm

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Amen.  I bought this game with high hopes, got it home, and tried (really hard) to enjoy it for about a half an hour, before tossing it aside in disgust.  Never again will I buy a MMO without trying a free trial out first.

Nymandus

I was fortunate in the fact I just did the free trial...and forced my self to play it to level 10...forced.

Net Devil is the worst developer out...by far...imho.

I remember the first event in Jumpgate where a GM was to be escorted to another system. As soon as he left the station in his ship he was insta-gibbed by PC's. Took about 20-30 minutes of him talking to everyone in the station, but as soon as he left dock...5 seconds later he was dead.

And that was the end of the "event". Thats how Net Devil operated at  Jumpgates release, and they are still smacktards...

Gorukha

 Well that's what you people get for buying a title by the maker's of Jumpgate
btw I bought JG out of boredom and it actually increase my level of boredom.

Scaris

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Originally posted by Gameloading
As I see a lot of people discussing the death of Auto Assault, I think its necisary to remind everybody the game is not dead yet. the game has not been canceled. Yes, the game has a low subscriber base, and games with more subscribers have been closed in the past, but that doesn't mean Auto Assault will be closed as well.lets look at an example.Asherons Call 2. the reason the game closed is because it has a lack of subscribers. in the long run, Turbine would have made a profit of it. but that would take time. Turbine would make a lot more profit if they just closed the game and move the developers to other games, such as Lord of the rings Online and D&DO. Netdevil, on the other hand, doesn't have any other plans for new MMO's, so they can stick to Auto Assault.

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Auto Assaults launch numbers I beleive are one of the lowest launches ever. AC 2 had alot more initial subs at game launch, Turbine just did a real good job at killing it over the next few years peice by peice.

There is nothing wrong with AA as a game, it didn't excite anyone though and it didn't make it out the gate because of it.

pengerman

This game still has a future. They are improving it and adding content, and it is still fun. If they can attract more people to it then even better. So many people complain about the quests being repetetive, but really that is all WOW is. Kill x number of y things or kill these things until you get x number of items. WOW is a serious grind to 60 and then boring.

Kryogenic

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Originally posted by pengerman
This game still has a future. They are improving it and adding content, and it is still fun. If they can attract more people to it then even better. So many people complain about the quests being repetetive, but really that is all WOW is. Kill x number of y things or kill these things until you get x number of items. WOW is a serious grind to 60 and then boring.

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WoW is one of the most repetitive games out, that's why it sucks. AA sucks because it doesn't have any substance, no meat and potatoes... it's just kale garnishing an empty plate.

The difference between WoW and AA is that WoW is a treadmill with a carrot on a stick.

Adewulf

I actually resubscribed for AA to check out the update and it still is as fun as it was when I left. I left mainly because there was not enough people and goals for pvp and there still is not enough goals, but the pvp has increased with the server merge.

I also play the other game with millions upon million subscribers mainly for the pvp, but that crap of a game makes me wait atleast 5-15 minutes before letting me kick some butt. That is a waste of my time as is 90% of the actuall gameplay (admit I have not yet checked out the world pvp, resubscribed with the new patch).

That is the main advantage of AA, fast and furious (thou unbalanced) action.

And about the lack of depth... pff.. in AA atleast there is a hard cap of attribute points and a crafting system that takes some thinking..

It still has a long way to be a great game, but as long as it is fun and they keep on updating I will be there occationally.

Peace out!

Ferrox

The idea of this game, Car Wars, was a great one. But in my opinion it just should have been more like an Interstate '76 styled MMO with real cars from the 50's - Present instead of the cartoonish crap it has. Such a shame.

Hope someone makes a proper Car Wars MMO, though i doubt it now after seeing the failure of this

grinreaper

This game is like pugatory...there is nothing really bad about it. There just isnt anything great about it.

Parapsycho

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Originally posted by Ferrox The idea of this game, Car Wars, was a great one. But in my opinion it just should have been more like an Interstate '76 styled MMO with real cars from the 50's - Present instead of the cartoonish crap it has. Such a shame. Hope someone makes a proper Car Wars MMO, though i doubt it now after seeing the failure of this

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You should check out DarkWind: War on Wheels. Its a MMO being developed by a CarWars fan. It's the closest thing to a CarWars computer game I've seen yet.

Sure, it's not as flashy as AutoAssault, but I like the gameplay in it alot better. You can check out the forums for it on MMORPG.com by going here. Another thing is that CarWars-style gameplay is transfered over, meaning it is turn-based, but with the physics of the game engine determining the outcome of the turn instead of rules and dice-rolls.

Vyktor

AA has started to see an increase of the number of players, including myself.  Though not exactly hyped about it after I was done with beta, recently I decided to give it another shot.  There is as much depth in the game as you look for, including storylines, and as stated prior, the crafting system is amazing.  What other game gives you the opportunity to come up with custom equipment that noone but you can design?  If you take the time and put the effort in anyways.

So while not as popular as some of the other MMO's, it's definitley got it's upside.  There's not another MMO like it as far as it's theme goes, or none that I've seen so far.  The cars themselves can be tricked out and customized, and what gamer doesn't like going out and causing random destruction on a large scale, which can be done just about everywhere in the game.

*shrugs* glad I went back and gave it another shake, having alot of fun with it.  I'm just guesing it's not for everyone, just like any other MMO, and it has it's ups and downs, just like every other MMO, it needs a bit more content, just like...ok, you get the idea.  But, the game is running smoother, they've added more toys and quests for PvP'rs (as of Update 2), and if you think you might want to try it, I definitley recommend giving it a shot, I don't think it's dead, just getting a slow start out of the gate and thinks it is starting to get better on a whole.  So yeah, I'm one of those you'll see in the badlands, most definitley.