Since I didn't really play HOrizons except for in the beta, I asked a friend what he thought of it. He gave me a very indepth answer. Not only did he talk about what was wrong with Horizons, but he talked about what was wrong with the whole genre. It's definately worth posting here.

I played for about a week. Thats all it took for me to be disgusted. I tried a dragon, should have known better but I wanted to try their selling point. If they couldnt make the dragon game interesting I knew the rest would be the same old.

Your article hits it right on the head. Though I wasn't looking at the "home" aspect at the time, I was noticing the same old when it came to stupid monsters littering the countryside waiting to be harvested. The cities being just stupid big empty places you teleported to in order to find your one type of trainer. They werent places you visted to find the hustle and bustle of civilization, they are just drive-thru perscription pickup centers. In fact, the cities of horizons arent even a step above the original eq ones, AC1 cities are better.

I've read through your page a couple of times, its really good and sad. I gave up way before you did on horizons but I knew how much you kept putting into it. I'm still activing in posting at mmorpg boards but not like you were active. You've always been positive, creative and inspirational to others. I go there to tear dev's and fanbois down.

I recently made a post at CoH about role playing and what it meant. I became so tired of the "new breed" of mmorpg'er who never played a paper and pencil rpg and completely misunderstands the concept of rpg completely. These people dont think beyond the treadmill. They don't think beyond competition in accumulated items and levels. I started out by saying people who think role playing is "talking in character" are mopes and those who say "the dev's don't create an rp experience, they just give us the enviroment to rp in IF we choose" are even worse. Surprisingly I had quite a few people who not only understood my point but agreed with me. We had the thread going for a decent time but those who are too thick to comprehend beyond "you dare say I don't know how to rpg" outnumber common sense like zombies outnumber the living.

What you said about homes goes right to the point i was making in coh. The mmorpg has to do half the work WITH you. Give you a home, make you defend it, make you be part of the community. If it just throws you into a lifeless world with town halls and brainless enemies and then says "now go out and pretend with your friends that you are making a difference" well.. I can do that in irc and skip paying the $15 a month now can't I.

I'm tired of these sissy gloves every mmorpg puts on. "We don't want to FORCE the players to play this or that way. We are OPEN to ALL play styles so no one should feel left out or pushed away." Well la-dee-da lets all live in shangrala and be happy go lucky hippies hugging trees. If you don't take a stand with your game and try to actually have a goal then you end up attracting no one instead of everyone. Look at AC2 now with its 4 total servers condensed from like 12 and 1000 total players from who knows how many there used to be. Look at the immediate joke swg became.

The technology for the things you talk about exists. Instanced homes are no big deal. And towns that players defend from actual enemies is hardly ground breaking considering the sieges and the like that mmorpgs already use. But that would require direction, that would require pushing characters to play a certain way and be penalized for failures. Two untouchable third rails of mmorpg'dom.

My biggest pet peeve with CoH is this. The origins mean NOTHING. A magic based character has exactly the same powers and abilities as a natural based character, or a science based. They have no different powers, no different weaknesses (no one has weaknesses actually) no different missions, no different outcomes. The only difference... your STARTING enemies you face. Yes this is exactly like having different starting towns in eq or every other mmorpg. Oh, wow, different starting towns. Woopee, places I start and then forget about and never revisit because in mmorpgs there is no sense of belonging to the game world, no sense of home or kinsmen. Just which player type kicks the most butt and groups want the most. I mention this in CoH and people yell at me "that is better, it means we can RP our origins however we want! Its OPEN ENDED!" hahahah. What delusional fools. No one will be rping anything in 6 months when all an origin does is grant you different item drops. Just wait and see.

What I would add to your articile is this. The most important thing an mmorpg should offer is real difference. Real difference in character roles, real difference in player choices. You don't even need to get into pvp to get there. If I want to be a healer it should mean that I cant fight at all. That im a pacifist and without a group to protect me I couldnt even venture out into the wilds. If I want to be a craftsman it should mean i never have to fight. If i'm a mage then half my time should be spent in study and conversing with powers and being that other mundane player characters never even see. My mantra is "if your going to make a mmoRPG make bloody ROLES to play." Different types of characters and players should play different games in the same world.

That was my original draw to horizons. That crafters would craft. That explorers would explore. That dragons would horde and goblins skulk about. That lizardmen would be slow and weak in the cold but dynamos of destruction in the heat. Not yet another "choose what character model you want to LOOK like but don't worry, none really grant any advantadge or dissadvantage over any others, you will all be doing the same things anyway."

Thats what I thought of horizons. A place where everyone plays the same booring game of "kill the mobs". I can't even credit it for having great crafting since the crafting isnt help to drive a dynamic game world.