Was the prologue NCSoft's idea? Just curious...

Sure as hell didn't stop myself, you or every other person in the game from playing now did it? No.

Stop complaining over non-issues.

When the beginning of the game was Isle of Dawn, all devs heard was "let people try the game at level 20".

Now that they've given people that opportunity, all they see is "Nobody knows how to use these skills".

Proof positive that devs should not listen to the forum community whatsoever.

There were only two things I didn't like about the prologue:

1. The initial talk to him, talk to her, talk to her, talk to him, when they are about 20 meters away from each other.
2. The skill tooltip spam.

Otherwise, the prologue is fine in my opinion.

Quote: mrjak01 on 06/08/2012, 07:28 AM - view
If the OBT ended at the prologue I never, ever would have subscribed.
It was the Island of Dawn that sold me, personally.

Quote: Trizamp on 06/08/2012, 07:21 AM - view

Quoted for truth!
I have almost 2 characters at 60 and I hate that prologue. It puts out all these skills I have no idea what to do with, sets them in positions I do not like and sends me to battle so i feel completely useless using wrong skills at the wrong time. Completely different experience from the real game, which is sad for first impressions. I told all my friends to skip the prologue when they started the game.
The Island of Dawn beginning is much more rewarding, accessible and shows off game mechanics much better.
Every seasoned MMORPG player know they will get a truck load of skills eventually and newcomers don't need to be overwhelmed with 20 skills when they can barely use 2.
The prologue is interesting to have but not a good game selling tool.

Quote: Weaver on 06/08/2012, 07:32 AM - view

If I hadn't gotten past the island of dawn, and seen Velika and Lumbertown, I never would have bought the game. Besides, those of us who ARE playing are not the issue. You can bet there are tons of people who don't play, because of their first impressions. That's true of any MMO, these days, but some a lot more than others.

The Prologue sucks, there's really no question about it. It's dark, dreary, graphically isn't a good showcase for TERA's engine, shoves 20+ skills in your face without any explaination and doesn't even let you configure their placement, sends you on a bunch of boring "go talk to this guy standing next to me" quests for the first five minutes before thrusting you into combat with ZERO guidance, expecting you to figure out a flow for the aforementioned non-configurable and unexplained skills before throwing you headlong into a BAM fight while you're still trying to figure out the combat mechanics and then ends with a sudden and unexplained fade to black mid-battle. And, on top of that, it introduces some pretty hefty and confusing plotholes into the story, like how and why your character left the Island of Dawn just to come right back again, why you don't know what happened to Elleon when you were fighting right beside him at the end and why your level has suddenly dropped from 20 to 1 and you've lost all your equipment. I literally cannot think of a worse way to introduce a new player to TERA.

I don't understand what people have against the Island of Dawn. It's a starting zone. It has starting zone quests. It's job is simply to introduce you to the mechanics of your class's abilities in a calm and relatively safe environment. And, on top of that, it's BEAUTIFUL. It's one of the more gorgeous areas in all of TERA, making it imo the perfect place to introduce new players.

Had I based my entire opinion of TERA on the Prologue during open beta, I would've canceled my pre-order. That's a fact.

Quote: Smegative on 06/08/2012, 07:14 AM - view

This.

When I 1st played the game I was pissed thinking I bought a Guild Wars 1 clone...Just let them play the Island of Dawn untill level 20 or somthing. Lets them learn a class. Fight at least one boss/bam..and get to touch the surface on the games mechanics.

The prologue is pretty good once you have some familiarity with the game. It lets you sort of test out different classes and get a good feel for them once they have some of their major abilities.

But, it's confusing to a brand new player. And it's a terrible initial introduction to the game, and a bad choice for a demo.

Peeps, don't get hung up only on "The Prologue". I know it's an issue and that's why I brought it up.

But the FATAL issue with that free no download demo is how poorly it showcases what should be TERAs biggest strength: it's laggy, poorly responsive, grainy/fuzzy - in terms of performance I would make it a point of not buying it if that is all I knew about the game.