I'm not too embarrassed, just disappointed. Except for choosing the ship and weapon loadout, there was remarkably little to provide any solid connection with the Privateer-ish game promised by the game's premise. Heck, once all the plot missions are finished, you can't launch at all. That doesn't sound like any "Privateer" I know of.

As for the article, I have high hopes for JGE, but being a JGC (Classic, i.e. current Jumpgate) player (if sporadically, the past year or so), I may be a little bit biased.

imnohbody

r1nce

mcderek3000

Next you'll be telling me my ship can't do J-Turns or, god forbid, Scandinavian Flicks!

kelptocratic

Tiger-Fever

One of those really unimportant things that would make me fall in love with the game, like painting the outside.

Majorasblaze

I find the training model to be superior to all other MMOs -- no online grinding means a more casual player can still advance. And I have'nt done any mining since the tutorials. There are too many other things that are much more fun: missions, trading, exploration, wars, heck even manufacturing is incredibly deep. And I never use Autopilot -- that's the slow afk way to fly.

But yes, the learning curve is VERY steep because the game is VERY deep. Probably ways to improve that, but it might be difficult to do without alienating the existing player base...

qwip

I actually picked up the 14 day trial and am enjoying it. Of course, I'm not currently doing the boring stuff...i went combat and am happy to go on missions and blow crap up!

spinal77

This, on the other hand, I have very high hopes for. I loved Freelancer, and it's rare that an enjoyable space shooter comes along that isn't too complex or difficult to sink your teeth into (X3 was fun, but it was designed for its own niche of the market).

Aye Mak Sicur

kidko

WalkingTheCow

I'm definitely intrigued by this.

fuchikoma

I also agree about the 15 minutes. I got Dark Sector recently, and by the third level I was bored out of my skull, and turned it off. It's the same reason you'll reach a certain point in a game and decide to stop playing; you grabbed onto the hook earlier in the game, and now you've reached the end of its line, and all you can do is wander forward until you find another hook. Most people won't spend more than 15 minutes trying to decide if they really enjoy something, and any kind of game-stopping event (such as death) will cut them off even before the 15. Those first 15 have to be engrossing and enjoyable, but at the same time introducing the player to the concepts and not punishing the player for doing something wrong.

Aye Mak Sicur

If Wow had taken that approach, there might actually be a game to play, there, under the hood. Instead of a nearly noninteractive nightmarish mining simulator. Game first, then you can add the addictive stuff later.

deathbunny

I've been on betas for more than one MMO that tried that, and knowing what they were releasing with, had no desire to buy the game on release. The promised eventual feature set sounded wonderful, but I wouldn't be willing to sit through (and pay for) months of crippled gameplay. And then because everyone else had the same idea, those games never succeeded to the point where they could implement all of their promised features.

icelight

Conversely, sometimes infatuation comes quickly and without warning: when I saw Prince of Persia: Sands of Time at a friend's house, it took only about five seconds for ultimate desire to take seed. It was the Prince doing a single wall-run.

eli

Corncob

Coriform

Space dogfighting action gameplaying is so much better than top down point and clickfests. While I have a joystick personally I would prefer solid mouse and keyboard controls.

Ario Reads Kotaku, Seems Pleased

Guizzy

This is the same device that is used in books like Lord of the Rings. And I like to see it in games.

Anyway this is horribly off-topic as TP has very little in the way of space combat.

dowingba

While I appreciate their dedication to detail, I'm worried we won't be seeing this game until 2025. My last space-sim fix was "Freelancer", and I could never get into EVE... I fear this game may be my "only hope."

itsburnsie

ThisCharmingMan

The beginning of any piece of entertainment doesn't have to suffer for the sake of exposition.

Look at Blade Runner - it's a slow-paced movie with tons of characterization but it begins by drawing you into a VK test and ending with violence.

In TP, they could have dumped you into a dungeon (or some other exciting event) to start with and once you had a firm grasp of the game, eased you into the slower parts. The first part doesn't has to be heroic to establish a hook for less attentive gamers, it just has to be exciting and engaging.

Koztah

I was looking for someone to bring up Freelancer. Amazing game, even now with all the mods people have up and running on their servers.

You haven't lived until you had a huge space battle with 32 vs. 32 fighting over control of an nebula filled star system (player made) that acted as a huge smuggler shortcut and happened to have all sorts of hidden bases with a bunch of rare, user made weapons for sale.

I may just have to go reinstall this when I get home now. Should fill the two weeks between now and the GTA release.

PapaBear434

darvos

However, some games are exceptions to this rule. Lunar Knights had a lackluster beginning, and the only reason I played past 15 minutes was because it got great reviews.

Hopanoe

There have been games I put down after 15 minutes, but it usually takes at least twice as long to at least go through a tutorial.

I usually wait until the tutorial is over before I decide whether to stop or keep going.

Andy D.

It was a great game - twitch controls which meant your aim determined your accuracy, not some dice roll.

Ships were very fragile - you had to be careful flying these things. And a very vibrant community.

Looking forward to returning.

ImmortalZ

However, it was so long ago, I don't even remember what I liked or didn't like about it.

Slatz_Grobnik

lucky_7s

Klaymen

I guess for alot of games, the first 15 minutes are what either hook you or not. But this isn't a universal law. Alot of genres of games start out slowly for a reason and we still play them. Take most RPGs for example. Or take Twilight Princess (which I just recently got re-obsessed with so every comment I make seems to reference it now).

It takes about 1 hour in TP to get to the first dungeon of the game. That is a pretty boring hour. But I find that it's necessary to establish Link's character and it helps bring about a sense of awe in the adventures he's about to partake on. The first hour of the game is incredibly boring and lame, and it only makes the rest of the game seem that much more ridiculously awesome.

It's what establishes Link as the "underdog" character that is necessary for any Zelda game to have legs.

dowingba

z0phi3l

It also sounds like NetDevil is really using the power of feedback to craft their game. Sometimes I really wonder how many game developers are using gamer feedback to make changes to their game, when they come out to poor reviews and lackluster sales.

On the other hand it sounds like this is a much slower process. I hope the game is all the better for it later.

Spoony Bard

Tei

enewtabie

Speaking of, that is an interesting statistic. I'd love to see some quantitative data that supports the 15 minute theory (as pertaining specifically to video games - we've seen television studies before). I would also be interested to see if this applies differently to certain genres. I get the feeling that RPG players tend to be a little more patient.

I know I have been prone to this 15 minute theory. There was a copy of Morrowind that made its way around a bunch of friends until it got to me. I played for 10 minutes, got killed by a crab and turned it off for a year. When I then played an hour, I was hooked for the next 99. But it seems to me that unless your attention is grabbed right away (Silent Hill anyone?), you run the risk of bored gamers with short attention spans putting in something else.

Spoony Bard

I think the "winning us over in 15 minutes thing" mostly applies to bad games as opposed to newer and more interesting games. It only takes 15 minutes to tell you hate a game, but id say it takes a good hour to know you love a game.

Zenian

TaggarT6