PB4D the other, other new DAOC?

"Prime" is getting some buzz as being a potential new PvP playland.  Supposedly it's being modeled as a 3 Faction PvP game in the mold of Dark Age of Camelot.

Now, before we all get our hopes up, let's just take a breath here. Just because you try to make a game like DAOC doesn't mean it will be any good. My case in point: Regnum. Never heard of Regnum? That's my point.

There are some worrisome issues that jump out at me...

• It's obviously going to have a lot of competition to even get off the ground and build a playerbase. Games coming out have to be ready to go head-to-head with the big boys right out the gate or they're going to get knocked on their ass and never recover. (Also remember that it's not going to be the only 3 Faction PvP game coming out and there's a pretty big-name game hyping 3-way PvP.)

• Visually, it looks a lot like a corny, third-rate Global Agenda. Some of it looks like stuff I'd draw in middle school.

Xylophone Body Armor? He looks like a crazy bum version of the Predator.

• The background lore already makes my head hurt.

• I can't, for the life of me, understand why people keep insisting on near-mirroring of classes.  That was nothing but a headache in Warhammer. Is the game really any better, any more fun if a Fire Wizard on one side has a stun and the Ice Wizard on the other side has a disarm? No. Changing a few skills around doesn't radically make new classes that play differently, it just imbalances the factions and pisses people off.

Just looking at the classes for a few seconds it's already apparent there could be pretty unpopular trade-offs. Like, say a Rodon Primalist has a combat rez and the other healers do not. Couldn't that potentially be a huge imbalance?


That said, I want this game to be good. I really do. I want a fun 3 Faction PvP Game with Open RvR and epic sieges. I love the idea of GM driven content. I like Sanya Weathers saying "[O]ur intent is to focus on balance with PVP. If PVE is unbalanced in the process, we will change the PVE, not the classes."

But let's not make this out to be Dark Age of Space-alot yet.