Articles in the MMO Category
Games, MMO »
The Star Trek Online Official Site posted 3 gorgeous new screenshots. This is the one MMO, I cannot wait to play, and with every new image, my desire grows.
These new screens prove 2 things about this game:
- They have figured out how to make space look compelling.
- They are breaking new ground for planet-side graphics in an MMO.
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Featured, Games, MMO »
I am excited to share the news that City of Heroes is going Rogue!
In the Going Rogue expansion, hero and villain characters will become immersed in the new parallel universe known as Praetoria, which is governed by Tyrant™, the evil incarnation of the game’s main protagonist, Statesman™. As gamers search for Tyrant and the rest of his Praetorian guard, implacable foes and fierce resistance will arise to face them from all sides, causing heroes and villains alike to question their loyalties.
City of Heroes Going Rogue will introduce a new alignment system that helps players explore the shades of gray that lie between good and evil. For the first time, hero characters can become villains and vice versa, enabling hero archetypes to cross over to the Rogue Isles™ and villain archetypes to experience Paragon City™. Clearly marked missions, in addition to behaviors and decisions made by the player, will move a hero’s or villain’s moral compass, which could eventually change the hero’s or villain’s alignment. Going Rogue will also introduce two primary new fictional characters representative of this alignment shift in the game’s lore: Maelstrom, a pistol-wielding hero gone rogue, and Desdemona, a demon-summoning villain who has been redeemed (NCsoft).
I can’t wait to play a mastermind in Paragon City. There are a lot of things we don’t know:
- When the expansion will be released
- How much it will cost
- How the are implementing the alignment system
- Will there be 2 Paragon Cities and 2 Rogue Islands.
- Will a rogue hero or villain at 50 unlock their respective epic classes or will they count toward their alignment?
- Will rogues be locked in the parallel world or will they be able to cross over?
I hope to have annswers to those questions soon, but it sounds interesting.
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Games, MMO »
This City of Heroes video is just too funny, but side kicks are one of the things that makes City of Heroes work so well. It allows a low level character to run around with higher level character who by making the side kick one level lower than their mentor so long as they stay close to your mentor. A brilliant idea every MMO should have.
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Games, MMO »
I love the City of Heroes day jobs system. The ability to gain bonuses while offline is a great thing. I only wish they incorporated day jobs into the storylines more. The video is great though.
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Games, MMO »
City of Heroes is my favorite MMO right now, and this ad for their new Mac version of the game is well done and funny. I really makes you wonder how the heroes get through the day.
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Games, MMO »
City of Heroes has started getting us excited about Issue 14, the Mission Architect which will allow players to create missions and storylines of their own and earn rewards based on the participation of other players.
You can read the early details here. I cannot wait to play around with the Mission Architect. I already have a bunch of ideas.
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Convention, Costumes, Fandom, Games, MMO, RPG, Table Top »
One of my absolute favorite aspects of fandom is the costuming and roleplaying, and I would have to say they are the two most maligned and stigmatized things that we do. Let’s start with the most accepted by the popular culture and proceed to the least understood.
Computer Roleplaying Games
Mass appeal of video games have normalized RPGs on the computer, and why not. Final Fantasy, Mass Effect, and Knights of the Old Republic were all such brilliant games, it is hard to see how they couldn’t have had a mass market appeal, but in the one place where Roleplaying should flourish, it is all but extinct.
There was once a type of game known as the Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG). The problem is that these too entered the popular culture, and they spawned a new bane: badge collectors. A sizable number of the MMORPG players became obsessed with their statistics, what badges they earned, and what loot they could get. The software companies saw these players as their core audience and in some cases, there only audience.
The games were increasingly designed for these players and not for the fans of story. Coinidentally, the acronym was shortened from MMORPG to simply MMO. Players have done what they can to keep roleplaying alive, but they are generally isolated to a specific server or guild, and they are not aided by the software designers who more and more are crafting games that challenge your prowess with a keyboard and mouse and don’t require any thought whatsoever.
This is one of the reasons I am so excited about Star Wars: The Old Republic and Stargate Worlds. They are trying to bring story into the games and make it front and center. I wish them the best of luck.
Table Top Role Playing Games
- Image via Wikipedia
Table top RPG fans are the geeks that geeks love to hate. Don’t believe me? Listen carefully to a lot of the podcasts out there. It won’t take you too long to find people having a geeky conversation about their favorite tech and occationally mocking TTRPG players.
Table Top games are not as easy to play as their computerized bretheren, but they are a lot more fun. There are more requirements to play:
- The Rule Books
- Friends who have free time to come over
- Dice
- Creativity
- Imagination
I didn’t stutter at the end, and no, I am not padding the list. Creativity is the ability to think originally, and imagination is the ability to see with the minds eye events as they are described to you.
I think those last two more than anything else makes people not like tabel top games. Personally, I love them. I run an Earthdawn game at the house every Sunday. Nothing brings friends together for a good time like a shared adventure built from the collective imaginations of everyone there.
Live Action Role Playing
- Image via Wikipedia
Live Action Role Playing (LARPing) is penultimate expression of role playing. There are numerous systems for LARPing and they all generally involve renting a location, playing in a park, or the storyteller’s home. Most LARPers dress up in elaborate costumes and carry props to aid in game play.
I used to play Vampire: The Masquerade both as a table top game and as a LARP, and I have to say, the LARPs were always more fun. We played at local conventions and I ran a chronicle that spanned various players homes, parks, and a few businesses who allowed us to use their establishment.
Who doesn’t enjoy getting dressed up and spending a night as someone else?
One aspect of the LARPs I’ve played that made them so fun was that they were locked to the locations they took place. The story was handled through notes given to the players to explain what happened between sessions, and a couple players who agreed to play according to the scripted motives I provided for them. To this day, some of my favorite memories took place at LARPs.
We were a part of a LARP network where storytellers coordinated large scale events between cities, and at conventions our players would play through pivitol stories. The largest LARP event we threw had 500 players in attendence. 3,00o players made up the network. We coordinated through a email list.
LARPs are emense fun, and I miss them terribly. I had hoped that MMOs would provide a platform for virtual LARPs, but so far, they haven’t.
Costuming
Some people just love dressing up. They don’t roleplay at all, they just wear the costume for enjoyment. For some, it is an uniform. For others, it is an expression of their identification with the character or race they are recreating. And others do it for the challenge of recreating the costume.
Steampunk is an entire movement built around costuming for the sheer fun of it.
Fans who Play together Stay together
Most of the deep, personal relationships I have developed with fans over the years has been between fans I have roleplayed with. We share an experience that is truly unique to the players who were there. Memories of events that are not replecatable in real life.
All these years later, I still run into people at the conventions who remeber the night my Taleison should have seen his reflection in the mirror and went mad. We talk about it like a moment from a movie or series that we loved, but our connection to the event is so much more personal because we were there when it happened.
So if you haven’t before. I hightly recommend to gather up your friends and play a game with them. Feel free to choose the type, but make sure it is one that will build those memories that will last a lifetime.
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Despite the dreaded “Micropayments,” videos like this make me fall in love with Star Wars: The Old Republic before I have played it. I know that is wrong, but since the Sony Online Entertainment destroyed Star Wars Galaxies, I have dreamed of a day when I would have a replacement. This could be the one.
The video looks really good. I hope I can get into the beta when it launches.
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LucasArts and BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., today announced the development of Star Wars®: The Old Republic™, a story-driven massively multiplayer online PC game set in the timeframe of the Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ franchise. Star Wars: The Old Republic, being developed and published by BioWare and LucasArts, represents an innovative approach to interactive entertainment, featuring immersive storytelling, dynamic combat and intelligent companion characters (Star Wars: The Old Republic).
It is nearly impossible for me to contain my excitement about this game. I heard the rumors for ages, but I never dared to believe they could possibly come true.
I am not new to Star Wars MMOs. I have been an off and on player of Star Wars Galaxies for years. The love/hate development cycle Sony Online Entertainment has maintained for years has kept me falling in and out of love with the game. I often joked with my friends that a day would come when someone other than SOE would one day make a new game. That day has finally come.
I am not sure I would be as excited as I am if anyone other than Bioware were making the game. Knights of the Old Republic is one of the best games I have ever played, rivaling Final Fantasy VII for the top slot on the list. Add to that their success with Mass Effect, and my hopes are exceedingly high. Now, I will be the first to admit that Knights of the Old Republic II was not the best game and could have used much more time in development before release, but the potential was still there, and even though it was incomplete, it was still enjoyable.
What excites me the most about Bioware making an MMO is that they are masters of story and setting. Two things often missing from most MMOs. Even better is there goals for the game:
“Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder and General Manager/CEO of BioWare and General Manager/Vice President of Electronic Arts Inc., “In Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’re fusing BioWare’s heritage of critically-acclaimed storytelling with the amazing pedigree of Lucasfilm and LucasArts, and adding a brand-new fourth pillar to the equation – story. At the same time, we will still deliver all the fun features and activities that fans have come to expect in a AAA massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, Star Wars: The Old Republic is set in a very exciting, dynamic period in the Star Wars universe (Star Wars: The Old Republic).”
I have been skeptical about claims like this in the past, but since it is Bioware. They are the one company that have the long track record making brilliantly enthralling role playing games. A track record is of course no guarantee. Square Enix did not do the best job with Final Fantasy XI.
What they are hoping to accomplish is a game with few instances where the choices of the players dictate the events in the setting. Many have tried this in the past, and I have heard good things about Warhammer Online.
Dr. Greg Zeschuk, Co-Founder and Vice President Development Operations, BioWare and Vice President, Electronic Arts Inc. [added], “Star Wars: The Old Republic is set roughly 300 years after the events of Knights of the Old Republic, a timeframe that is completely unexplored in the lore. BioWare has been able to add to the Star Wars history in developing the game’s story and has created an overarching narrative that players can enjoy, regardless of their play style. Our goal is to offer players an emotionally rewarding experience that combines the traditional elements of MMO gameplay with innovations in story and character development (Star Wars: The Old Republic).”
This is the dream, whether or not it can become a reality will have to wait to be seen. They have only a released a few hints at what they are working on.
1) The lightsabers in the screenshots will shrink – but not by much.
2) They really, really, really mean it when they say that there is story in this game and it is what sets Old Republic apart from every MMO out there.
3) You don’t pick good or evil right off the bat
4) There will be crafting, there will probably be guilds, there will definitely be PvP and there won’t be a whole lot of instancing
5) Star Wars: Galaxies is not getting shut down (Kotaku)
Yes, you will be able to travel to many of the planets featured in the Star Wars movies and in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. There will also be a number of new planets and star systems to explore (SWTOR FAQ).
There are many questions that need answering:
- What races will be available for play?
- How many factions will be represented in the game? Republic? Jedi? Sith? Hutt?
- What classes will be playable other than force sensitive?
- What planets will be included?
- Will there be space battles?
- How will squad based play work in game?
- How will they incorporate lightside/darkside meters into the game?
For more information see:
You may want to sign up for their community to try to get into the beta when it starts.
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Books, Games, MMO, Writing »
I know it is becoming popular to give extras to people to entice them into reading your book, but I have to think that this is a bit over the top:
When PJ Haarsma wrote his first book, a science fiction novel for preteenagers, he didn’t think just about how to describe Orbis, the planetary system where the story takes place. He also thought about how it should look and feel in a video game (NYTimes).
I realize that games are very popular, but the margins on print fiction are very slim. If you had to figure in the cost of game development into the price of publications, books, which already cost too much for the average person, will become even more expensive.
New writers will be left out of this model completely and their books will remain unread or popular in the limited spheres they are already confined to.
Five Reasons Why Game Tie-in for Novels is a Bad Idea
- Too many books are published every day.
- The quality of the book will be prejudged by the quality of the game, adding too much to the production costs.
- If more people opt in, this will be like the book trailer fad and these games will be quickly ignored.
- The audience for games and book are not necessarily the same.
- The writer now has two products to market instead of just one
Five Reasons Why Game Tie-ins for Novels could be a Good Idea
- Many science fiction/fantasy settings would be fun to play as an MMO or other type of roleplaying game.
- The identification of a player to their character could foster an identification with the setting, and then the books.
- A Game could provide the writer with an good avenue to fill in back story that does not fit easily into the narrative of their book.
- The reader would be able to visualize the world as the writer does because of the game visuals
- The writer has a playground to test ideas with their audience.
For any of these advantages to be realized, the cost would be more than any publisher could justify.
I don’t believe that simple, web-based flash games would be able to offer enough of an immersive experience to convert into a sale of the book.
If we dance off with the magical fairies into a utopian dream world where this could be done on such a mass scale it would be feasible, there would be a few minimal requirements.
Dream Wish List to Make this Possible.
- A basic MMO/Roleplaying framework with predefined physics and game mechanics that is cheap to license, alter, operate, and distribute.
- Character, terrain, and mission builders that are easy enough to use that interested writers can create their own games without the expense of hiring a development team.
- A central service with a good interface and rating system that will allow users to switch between games without having to pay extra for the new game (in the case of MMOs), or a good demo service that will easily make expansions available to players (in the case of stand alone rpgs/rts).
Right now, the only place I have seen that comes anywhere close to this level of functionality is Multiverse, who are currently developing the Buffy MMO, but their software would still require a development team to create the terrains and characters.
I would love to see my settings given this treatment, and I am not against the idea, but the financial hurdles that still have to be over come are too high.
What do you think? Do you know of a service that offers these features? If so I would love to know.
