MMO IP Blocks are the Developers Fault – Not the Publishers

When an MMORPG or an MMO game has IP blocks in place to prevent people from certain regions from accessing the game, it’s the game developers fault, not the publishers. For example – when Gamigo announced that only those in Europe could play Martial Empires and War of Angels, Gamigo didn’t willfully prevent those outside of Europe from accessing the game. The fact is, CR-Space, the Korean game developer behind Martial Heroes, only sold the European license for Martial Empires to Gamigo. They apparently did not sell the North American license to anyone. When gPotato made Aika North America only, the same thing happened. Gpotato only made the game North America only because they didn’t have “permission” from Aika’s developer (HanbitSoft). So gPotato was forced to ban all non-U.S ip addresses. A global version of Aika on the T3Fun service, who also has Cardmon Hero and WYD Global, eventually launched. The global version was open to every country except the U.S, as the U.S version of Aika was being serviced by gPotato.

I honestly think gPotato is the one who got screwed with the Aika licensing shenanigans. The T3Fun version is much more inclusive, as it’s basically global (minus the U.S.) The T3Fun version, thus has many more players than the U.S version, which means the game itself has a larger community, which usually means it’s more fun to play. I kind of wish games like Fiesta Online and Allods Online were also global, instead of being available in multiple regions through different publishers. Fiesta Online is available in the U.S. Through OutSpark, who also has Fists of Fu. The game is available in Europe through Gamigo. As a fan of Fiesta Online, I find it ridiculous that Europeans have their own server and Americans have their own server. Why can’t there just be one big MMO server for both areas? Lag can easily be solved by having multiple channels – the same was Knight Online from GamersFirst or Guild Wars from NCSoft handles it.

The worst MMORPG IP block problems arise when a game launches in one region but not another. Priston Tale 2 is available in Europe through GamerKraft, but because of stupid licensing agreements, they can’t launch Priston Tale 2 in the U.S. Suba Games, the company behind Mission Against Terror, has the U.S. License for Priston Tale 2, but they have labeled the game as “launching soon” for over 2 years now, which basically means it’s never going to release. Suba Games clearly gave up on the game, so why can’t GamerKraft just open their service to everyone? The actual game developer behind the game will certainly make more profit, because as is, no one in the U.S. Can play Priston Tale 2, some people will spend money in the cash shop, and thus the developer would make more money by allowing those in North America to play on the GamerKraft version. GameKraft also publishes FreeJack, but FreeJack is available to both those in Europe and North America. There’s no reason Priston Tale 2 can’t be the same way.

I think too many people are complaining to the wrong people. MMO Game publishers like GamerKraft, Aeria Games, OG Planet and such, aren’t the ones responsible for IP blocks, thus they shouldn’t be blamed. Players should direct their anger towards game developers, as they’re the ones who have the ultimate say in the matter.

Browser MMORPGs Should be Remade with Unity

There are a ton of interesting browser based games out there. Strategy games like Might and Magic Heroes Kingdoms, Caesary and King and Conqueror for example have a lot to offer, but they have really low end graphics. Travian and Tribal Wars are two other strategy MMOs that are both now incredibly old. All of these games remain popular, but these games could benefit from a major graphical overhaul – especially if they were remade using the powerful Unity engine, which allows game developers to make awesome 3D MMOs on the browser. Currently there are only a handful of games that run on the Unity Engine – some of which include FusionFall, Tiger Woods Online and Nanovor. All 3 of these games look gorgeous too!

Aside from strategy games, other 2D and 3D browser based games like Star Pirates and Pirate Galaxy would benefit from being redeveloped on the Unity engine. These games already look pretty solid, but the Unity engine is much more powerful than any of the proprietary systems that these games used when developing their games. I think BigPoint failed pretty hard launching their 3D browser MMO PoisonVille. They spent millions developing the game and its unique Java based 3D engine, but the visuals in the game look much, much worse than what Unity could have done. The entire game could have been done on Unity and it would have been much better for everyone – as the game would have cost less to develop and it would look a lot better. I think Poisonville is going to flop, because it’s trying to do what APB is trying to do, except it has less features. Once GamersFirst, the company best known for Knight Online and Warrock, launches APB as a free to play game in early 2011, Poisonville might as well shut down as it’s going to fail.

I think the entire browser based game market needs a good shake up. Too many games are built on old technologies which are quickly getting out dated. Games like Shakes & Fidget and Adventure Quest Worlds for example would be infinitely more “fun” if they were built on the Unity engine. Transforming these games into Unity powered titles would require a lot of effort though. For 2D MMORPGs, it would be near impossible, but for 3D games, there’s no reason not embrace Unity, as Unity is the future for browser games. I think the biggest problem right now is that very few companies are actually embracing the technology. Luckily, the ones that have so far are having a lot of success with it. Aeria Games recently announced that they will be launching a Unity powered MMOFPS game in the near future. They didn’t reveal too much info about it, but Aeria Games has had a lot of success with Dynasty Warriors Online and Legendary Champions, so seeing them throw their weight behind Unity is definitely a good sign. I’d like to see maybe OGPlanet or Nexon start launching some browser based Unity games in the future too.

Classic MMORPGs That Are Still Popular

Even though new games like Forsaken World, Iris Online and Zentia are all around the corner – it’s worth pointing out that older MMORPGs like Fly For Fun from gPotato and Fiesta Online from Outspark still remain extremely popular. Perhaps saying remain popular is a bit of an understatement, as I would argue that both Fly For Fun and Fiesta Online have rapidly growing playerbases. In fact, these games are growing much faster than some of the newer games out there like Fists of Fu and Legend of Edda. I don’t want to write off either of those games yet, as they’re still too new to judge, but with all the shiny new games coming out, I feel that those newly entering the free to play MMOs from pay to play games should choose their first game carefully.

Lets analyze Silkroad Online from Joymax for a minute. The game originally released back in 2006 and today has well over 4 million registered users. In fact, it’s one of the most popular free MMORPGs today, even though it’s 4+ years old. I remember when I first logged into the game years ago, it had like 25+ servers, and every single one was “full”. You literally had to try logging in for 20 minutes to even get into the game. The funny thing is, every time the game tells you “The server is too full, try again later” the game shuts itself down, so you need to relaunch it every time. I think the only other MMORPG with servers this full was Knight Online from GamersFirst – another REALLY old MMORPG, which is extremely popular. MapleStory from Nexon and Hero Online from Netgame are popular too – but these games have enough servers to accommodate the playerbase. I don’t know why Silkroad Online never had enough servers or channels. Vindictus from Nexon has only a handful of servers, but each has 200 channels, so it’s enough. It’s also worth mentioning that Fantasy Earth Zero which GamePot USA launched in North America earlier in 2010, is quite popular. It’s worth mentioning because the game is a Japanese MMORPG which has been available in Asia for 5+ years.

Obviously not every new game is a flop. Games like The Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online and Heroes of Three Kingdoms have all proven to be successful titles. In fact, nearly every game from Perfect World Entertainment from Jade Dynasty to Battle of the Immortals has been wildly successful. My point though is that older MMORPGs still remain quite popular, and well worth checking out. Most of the MOST popular games are MMOs released before 2008. As odd as it is, it’s a fact. One of the main benefits of these older games is that since they’ve been out longer, they have enjoyed more expansion packs and updates, so they feel like more well rounded games.

So which older MMORPGs do you still play? Me? I still play MapleStory and Runescape every once in a while. As for newer games, I’m looking forward to Forsaken World when it gets out into open beta. The new Battlefield game from EA seems neat too, but it has no official release date. How about you? What are you looking forward to?

Waiting on the Iris Online Open Beta

Ever since Iris Online released into closed beta earlier in October, I’ve been waiting eagerly for gPotato to release the game into open beta. Unfortunately, like many other closed beta games, Iris Online will be having a character wipe. I remember leveling my character quite a bit in Legend of Edda and Asda Story from GamesCampus back when those games were in closed beta. I learned my lesson – there’s no point of committing to a game when its still in closed beta. That’s actually the reason I haven’t been playing Forsaken World from Perfect World Entertainment. The game is definitely one of the most interesting and high quality games of 2010, but why should I sink hours and hours of time into it, when it’s going to get wiped? I’d much rather wait till open beta begins. On a side note, i’m actually looking forward to playing Forsaken World, but only when it hits open beta. Until then I’ll stick with Perfect World and Heroes of Three Kingdoms – two other games from the same company.

The reason I’m looking forward to Iris Online is because it’s a really polished anime MMORPG, and I’m a sucker for anime inspired games. Plus the game has a really sleek interface too. Very functional and easy to use. When gPotato first announced the game, I stopped playing Fly For Fun and Luna Online – two other games by the same company. The reason being of course, I’d be moving onto to Iris Online – so why bother playing these two other games when I’m going to start playing Iris anyway? I should mention that Fly For Fun is the most popular free MMORPG that gPotato publishes. I find this little tidbit quite amazing, especially since the game is quite old now. It’s not like Darkeden or Digimon Battle old, but it’s a good 5+ years old now. I think It’s their oldest game after Rappelz. I played the Iris Online closed beta for a good day or so before telling myself that I’ll play it more upon release. I didn’t want to play it for too long, as I mentioned earlier, that there’s going to be a character wipe. I really liked the game’s tarot card system. Like Ragnarok Online and Dragon Saga, players can upgrade their equipment by inserting cards into them. Tarot cards can also be used to transform into monsters, which adds some interesting bits of depth to the game. Players can even turn into boss monsters, but boss tarot cards are much rarer.

Another neat little game that peaked my interested in October is Legend of Edda from GamesCampus. It’s a PvP MMORPG, but with cute MMORPG style graphics. I know this sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, and in a way it is. But it’ actually has hardcore PvP elements, even with its cutesy graphics. The open beta for Legend of Edda began in the middle of October. I guess this game can keep me busy until Iris Online hits open beta later in November hopefully. I just hope the game doesn’t pull a War of Angels or Fists of Fu and take forever to launch. OutSpark is terrible with release schedules – Divine Souls for example STILL isn’t released, how ridiculous is that?

Racing and Sports MMOs

With dozens of high budget MMOs and MMORPGs launching every year, it’s worth pointing out that only a handful of sports MMOs and racing MMOs ever get released. The only sports MMOs to launch in 2010 are FreeJack, Zone 4: Fight District, Lost Saga, Hot Dance Party (Steps) and FIFA Online. But the number of sports games that launched on the PS3 and Xbox 360 are in the dozens! Sports games are big business on traditional platforms like the 360 and PS3, but for some reason they haven’t experienced the same explosive growth in the free to play MMO department. I think this will change in the coming years, because as games begin to transition from products to services, more and more games will relaunch as free to play MMOs. Companies like Electronic Arts and Sony Online Entertainment are already beginning to realize that they can make more money by making their games free to play and by monetizing through optional micro-transactions. Turbine figured this out when they made two of their biggest games free to play – Dungeons and Dragons Online and The Lord of the Rings Online. Zynga figured it out once Farmville began printing money. It’s rumored that Farmville makes over a million dollars a day in revenue. Farmville isn’t the only facebook game printing money though – Playdom has been so successful with games like Market Street and City of Wonder that they got bought out by Disney for over half a billion dollars!

It seems like MMORPGs right now are huge amongst free to play games – as games like Runes of Magic and Fiesta Online from OutSpark are growing like crazy. Perfect World Entertainment’s revenues in North America have also been climbing with the growth of their four core games – Perfect World, Jade Dynasty, Heroes of Three Kingdoms and Battle of the Immortals. Other Chinese MMORPG companies are launching their games in the west too. ChangYou has been super enthusiastic – as they already launched three games within 2 years, with Zentia being their newest title. Chinese browser games are also making their way to the West with strategy MMORPGs like Caesary and Evony leading the charge. Business Tycoon Online from Dovogame has been a huge hit too – so it shows that non-strategy games can also be successful.

Non-RPG MMOs such as racing games and sports games haven’t really experienced the same growth that RPGs have though. Games like Company of Heroes Online, Land of Chaos Online and Alien Swarm have been somewhat successful, but again they haven’t experienced the exponential growth of RPGs. I think it’s safe to say the most successful non-rpg MMO is League of Legends right now. It’s worth pointing out too that the game is Western developed. The entire free to play genre emerged in South Korea and China, so seeing an American MMORPG developer be so successful is quite intriguing. I think the most successful non-rpg genre has been MMOFPS games. Games like Mission Against Terror, Alliance of Valiant Arms and Cross Fire have all proven to be very popular here in the West. But that’s not too surprising, as Western gamers absolutely love their first person shooters. Just look at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s success in Europe and North America. The game isn’t popular at all in Asia, but it’s thriving here in the West.

I suspect that Sports and Racing MMOs will push forward and begin growing, but only when gaming itself fully transitions into a service rather than a product.

Linear MMORPGs are Good

Some people like to think that linearity in video games is bad. That’s mostly true, but for MMORPGs, I think linearity is a good thing, as it provides direction. Just look at a game like Lunia. It’s an anime MMORPG that’s broken down into worlds and stages – sort of like a Super Mario game. In order to get to the next stage, you need to finish the current one. It’s probably the most linear MMORPG out there, but it’s also a popular game; definitely one of the more popular games ijji publishes. But too much linearity may not be a good thing. I think games like Lunia take things a bit to the extreme. Look at a game like Fists of Fu. The game is also broken down into stages, but it’s not as linear, because players don’t ALWAYS move from one stage to another. Players can pick which stages within their level range they want to complete first – where as in Lunia you MUST complete level A before moving to level B then to C. Fists of Fu is from OutSpark and it’s actually one of their new MMORPGs. It’s a side scrolling MMORPG that aims to compete with Dragon Saga from Gravity Interactive – as it has the same type of hack-n-slash style gameplay.

The success of Vindictus from Nexon is yet another example of why linear MMOs work really well. Vindictus is broken down into stages the same way Lunia is. The only thing different is that you might have to play the same few stages in Vindictus multiple times to complete every possible quest in that area. The game world is literally broken down into a persistent world town and instanced dungeons. That’s it. It’s hard to get any more linear the Vindictus and Lunia. Other stage based games like Divine Souls from OutSpark and Grand Chase from Ntreev are also extremely linear. Even really popular MMORPGs like The Lord of the Rings Online from Turbine and Heroes of Three Kingdoms from Perfect World Entertainment do this. They’re built in way that their quest lines are linear.

There are games that are a bit more “open”, but still linear. Just look games like Grand Fantasia and Kitsu Saga from Aeria Games. Both games have quests that take players from point A to Point B to Point C while leveling them up in the process. These games wouldn’t be so linear if they had multiple quests that took players to different areas of the game world, but that isn’t the case. These games basically have ONE quest chain which is extremely linear. Everyone goes through it – no matter what class they pick! Another good example of a game that does this is Runes of Magic and maybe Allods Online. Both games are structured so players move throughout the game in a very linear pattern. It’s easy to say EVERY Game is like this, but it isn’t true. More open world games such as Ragnarok Online, Darkfall Online and Uncharted Waters Online are examples of MMORPGs that aren’t linear.

The thing is, I actually LIKE when a game is linear, because it gives me direction. I know exactly where to go and what to do in 4Story, because the questing is structured in a way that players will always have something to do and know where to go.

War of Angels MMO Launching in North America

Well the MMO news is out – War of Angels is launching in North America through WizGames. If the name WizGames sounds a bit familiar to you, it’s because they’re the same company who developed S4 League – a sci-fi themed third person MMO shooter which Alaplaya currently publishes. Seeing a game developer like WizGames launching a game is interesting, as WizGames might eventually launch more of their products in North America. I had a chance to play War of Angels in its closed beta on the Gamigo service and after playing the game for a few hours I really liked it. The only problem was I was worried that Gamigo may not have the North American license for the game, which would mean I couldn’t play the game on their service – only those in Europe could. Now than a WizGames announced that they would be publishing the game in North America, I’m a bit relieved. The reason I was concerned is because Gamigo pulled the old bait-and-switch tactic with their other game – Martial Empires. In the game’s open beta anyone anywhere in the world could play it, but after the game launched the company had put IP blocks into the game preventing those living Outside of Europe from connecting to the game. The reason they had to do this was because the Korean developer, CR Space, only sold Gamigo the European license to the game. The North American license was sold to another company – who never actually launched the game. So even though I want to play Martial Empires, I can’t because the game is EU only.

Gamigo isn’t the only company who had to put IP restrictions in one of their popular MMORPGs because of licensing agreements. Gpotato had to ban all IP addresses outside of North America from connecting to their Aika Online game. Many people outside of North America wanted to play Aika, but they couldn’t because gPotato had blocked all foreign IP addresses. It wasn’t until T3Fun, the game publisher behind WYD Global, launched Aika Online world-wide 6 months later that people outside of North America could play the game. The thing is, because of MMORPG licensing agreements on occasion never get released in certain regions. For example – Priston Tale 2 was licensed to Suba Games in North America and GamerKraft in Europe. The European version launched a year ago, but the North American Version through Suba Games hasn’t and no release date has been announced. Anyone in the United States or Canada who wishes to play Priston Tale 2 cannot because the GamerKraft version is only available to residents in the European Union. Suba Games also publishes Ace Online, Mission Against Terror and Fragoria in North America while GamerKraft publishes FreeJack. Another thing about licensing is that games may release in different regions at different times. Nexon released Vindictus in North America on October 13, but the EU version isn’t scheduled to release for another 3 months. Those living in the EU are upset, and rightfully so. Why should they have to wait 3+ months for a clearly finished product to launch in their region?

Anyway, enough licensing talk. I’m just glad that War of Angels is actually going to launch in the U.S, and I think many other gamers are too. The thing about Gamigo is that you can never really tell if their games are going to be EU Only or EU and U.S. They publish Fiesta Online and Project Powder in EU only, but they have King of Kings 3 and Black Prophecy in BOTH the EU and U.S. So if they release a new game, just hold you breath and hope that it’ll be playable in the U.S.

Great Browser MMORPGs

I’m always on the lookout for good MMOs and MMORPGs to play, but ever since I started going to Rutgers University, I couldn’t sit at home and play MMORPGs all day. I could of course bring my laptop with me, which is what I did, but I couldn’t download and play big client based MMORPGs like The Lord of the Rings Online, Runes of Magic or even Fists of Fu. This sort of sucked because I just started playing two new MMORPGs which I really liked – Uncharted Waters Online and FreeJack. I began playing both of these games in early September, but since University started up, I had to change gears. My laptop isn’t exactly an Alienware beast or anything, it’s only powerful enough to browse the net and play some low end graphical games. This means I couldn’t download 3D MMORPGs and instead had to stick with more casual MMORPGs. The obvious choice was to switch gears to browser based MMOs.

I’ve written about browser based MMOs in the past a bit unfavorably, but the fact is there are A LOT Of browser based games that are actually quite fun to play. Obviously many of you have already heard of Tribal Wars and Travian – the two strategy MMORPGs that newer games like Grepolis and Caesary are based off of. If you haven’t played either Tribal Wars or Travian I think you should because both were some of the earliest browser based strategy games ever. They were the two games that really got the ball rolling on browser based strategy games. Strategy games got so big on the browser that even Electronic Arts jumped on the bandwagon with Lord of Ultima and Jagex jumped on board with War of Legends.

The neat thing about browser based MMOs is that there are so many different kinds of games. If you’re looking for something that doesn’t actively require your attention maybe a game like Shakes & Fidget or The West would peak your internet. If you’re looking for something much more “hands on” a trading card game MMO like Urban Rivals would be great or an active skill based MMORPG like Dark Orbit or SeaFight. If you feel you’d like to play more of a traditional MMORPG on the browser then Adventure Quest Worlds and Shadow Tale are worth checking out. Both games look and feel like a traditional persistent world style MMO.

Personally, I think 3D browser based MMOs on the browser powered by Unity are the best. Games like Pirate Galaxy and FusionFall for example use Unity to achieve graphics on the web browser that rival client based games. Heck, I would argue that Pirate Galaxy has better visuals than say an old MMOPRG like Hero Online from Netgame. The beauty about most browser games is that they can be played on and off without a big time commitment. The same applies for social games on facebook like Farmville from Zynga and Market Street from Playdom. Browser based games that don’t require a huge time commitment will only continue to get bigger and better.

New MMORPG Releases

It’s only October 3 and the month is already off to good start. Why you ask? Well FreeJack – the parkour themed racing MMO just entered into open beta on October 1. Netmarble, the company behind Mini Fighter Online, launched their new title Uncharted Waters Online into open beta as well. That’s not all, ChangYou released Zentia into open beta on October 1^st too! How crazy it that? Three new free to play 3D MMORPGs launching into open beta (basically full release) on the same day! It shows that the free to play sector of the video game biz is doing great! Sure, not all games are a success, as Bright Shadow is joining the MMO Graveyard in late October as GamePot USA shuts it down, but for every game that closes, a half dozen games take its place.

Out of the three new games that launched in early October, Uncharted Waters Online is the most interesting in my opinion. It’s one of the only Japanese MMORPGs available in North America. I mean aside from CosmicBreak, Florensia and Pandora Saga, Uncharted Waters Online is one of the only Japanese developed games in the U.S. Unfortunately, Uncharted Waters Online isn’t a new game. In fact, it’s an old one. The game has been out in Japan for well over 5 years now. Heck, it’s even playable on the PlayStation! I bet that the Japanese version of the game is several years ahead of the Netmarble version in terms of updates and expansion packs too. Even so, the game is interesting because it has unique gameplay which helps differentiate it from the dozens of WoW clones and browser based strategy MMOs. It’s a bit like Voyage Century from IGG, except much more in depth. Since it’s in-depth, you shouldn’t be surprised to hear that it has a pretty steep learning curve. It’ll take a good few hours of playing before you even know what’s going on. This can definitely turn a lot of people off from the game, but my advice is stick with it. So many people told me the they love the game after I introduced it to them.

FreeJack launched on October 1^st too and it’s a pretty nifty little racing MMO. The game marketed itself as some sort of revolutionairy new game as it was the first “Parkour” themed game, but in my opinion the game is a lot like Tales Runner from gPotato, except with a different art-style and different kinds of stages. Both games have players racing on foot rather than a vehicle. I would say that FreeJack is unique for this bit alone, but Tales Runner already did this like a year ago. I guess you can say it’s different than traditional racing MMOs like Need for Speed World Online and Heat Online, but that’s about it. On the positive side, the level designs are intense and the art style in the game is awesome. I actually like the visuals in FreeJack more than the graphics in TalesRunner. The races in the game take a lot of skill and the game’s housing system gives players an additional incentive to keep on racing.

Zentia from ChangYou is a surprisingly good game too. I say surprisingly good because I wasn’t a big fan of Dragon Oath or Blade Wars – two other MMORPGs published by ChangYou. Zentia unlike the other 2 games from the company, is actually 3D. The whole top down style somewhat 3D graphics in the game weren’t my thing. Dragon Oath reminded me too much of Conquer Online and even JX2 Online, as the art styles are definitely a bit similar. What I liked most about Zentia is the games large variety of playable classes. I think more MMORPG classes are more important than MMO class balance, as variety is always better than balance – so long as things aren’t too ridiculously imbalanced. Perfect balance is impossible anyway – so devs shouldn’t bother trying to achieve it.

Anyway October should have some more awesome releases too. Vindictus enters full release on the 13^th while Dynasty Warriors Online should hopefully hit CB by the end of the month. Legend of Edda and Kitsu Saga both entered into closed beta early in the month too. Hopefully we’ll get some more neat announcements too!

BigPoint is Launching Many new MMOs

BigPoint – the MMO publisher behind numerous browser based games including SeaFight, Dark Orbit and Deepolis announced many new free to play MMORPGs recently. BigPoint is probably best known for their simple 2D browser based games, but they’ve recently begun embracing more complex 3D MMORPGs. Maestia is one of these games. I’m pretty sure BigPoint didn’t actually develop Maestia, but they will be the company publishing the game in Europe. Maestia finished its closed beta testing in August and launched into open beta on September 15, 2010. Unfortunately, Maestia seems to be EU only – so North American players won’t get a chance to play it.

BigPoint also launched Poisonville into open beta recently. Poisonville is a game fully developed and published by BigPoint. It’s actually their most expensive MMO ever developed – clocking in at around $2 million in developments costs. The game isn’t too impressive visually, even though its 3D, but its gameplay looks like a lot of fun. Poisonville is trying to capture the “fun” of Grand Theft Auto and APB and bring it to a much more accessible level on the web browser. Unfortunately APB shut down recently and was a big MMORPG flop, so hopefully Poisonville doesn’t meet the same fate. Aside from these two games though, BigPoint has been expanding like crazy.

They launched a slew of new games in 2010 including Farmerama – a browser based farming MMO that was designed to compete with Farmville which Zynga makes. So it looks like BigPoint is entering Zynga’s turf. Farmerma isn’t exactly a social game the same way Mafia Wars, Pet Society and NightClub city is, but it still competes with FarmVille – which is Zynga’s most popular game. I’d like to see BigPoint launch some facebook games too – as browser based MMOs can easily be integrated into facebook.

So with BigPoint rocking the browser game space, launching 3D games and publishing popular third party MMORPGs like Maestia – what’s next? I’d like to see BigPoint focus more on launching and licensing games globally though. I Feel that’s what made Dark Orbit and SeaFight super popular – global access. Maestia is EU only at the moment – the same way Martial Empires from Gamigo is EU only. Also the same way GamerKraft has Priston Tale 2 in EU only and Suba Games has it in the U.S. One large server would definitely have been better for both the developers and players.

Older Free to Play MMORPGs Are Still Alive and Well

With legend of Edda, Iris Online, CosmicBreak and a ton of other new MMORPGs coming out, a lot of people forget about the older MMORPGs that are still alive and kicking. Archlord and Mu Online on the Webzen gaming portal for example are still alive and kicking. Mu Online is actually a really old Diablo inspired MMORPG with a sizable playerbase. Battle of the Immortals and even Erebus Travia Reborn are both newer and better titles – but people are still sticking with the game. Archlord is an old 3D fantasy MMORPG that used to be pay to play, but went free to play. The game has been out for well over 4 years now and it’s still around. Ace Online and Luminary: Rise of the Goonzy both borrowed the whole “Rule the server” feature from Archlord.

Other older MMORPGs like AstroN, 9Dragons and Cabal Online are around too. AstroN is published by GameIs the same company behind the Carom3D billiards MMO. It’s a sci-fi MMORPG thats been around since 2006 or so. 9Dragons used to be published by Acclaim, but it’s now being published by GamersFirst – as they bought the license for the game after Acclaim went bankrupt. Cabal Online used to be published by Ogplanet, but the developer of the game yanked the license from them. Now it’s being published world-wide on the developer’s own website. Which is sort of neat I guess.

Newer MMOs are fun and all, but I think too many people are ignoring some of the great older games. New doesn’t always mean better either. The Fists of Fu game from Outspark and Mission Against Terror FPS from Suba Games for example are two brand spankin new MMOs that are absolute trash. Both games releaed in late 2010 too! Some newer games are great, but I like to stick with some of the classics that helped re-define the genre. Maplestory and RuneScape are two such games. They were really the first mega popular free to play games. After they had huge success in North America – other companies starting launching their games here. Nowdays we have all sorts of free to play MMOs from the golfing MMO Pangya to a DotA like Avalon Heroes. There are well over 200 free to play titles out there – not counting browser based games.

So which game should you play? Old or new? Both.I personally like to play games with large playerbases, as I feel that an MMO isn’t worth playing if it doesn’t have a large and growing playerbase. So I like to play all sorts of games. I’m looking forward to that new action MMORPG from Nexon though – the one everyone really wants to play – Vindictus. Any new MMORPGs you guys are looking forward to?

We Need More Indy MMORPGs

I think independent game developers can be very successful if they make free to play MMORPGs. Forget developing regular PC games or console games – MMOs are the way to go. Why? Because one successful game can bring in a steady stream of revenue. Just look at Eternal Lands – the 3D fantasy MMORPG that looks a lot like RuneScape from Jagex – the game is very popular. It has some 400+ users online at all times. That’s more than ACTUAL MMORPGs like Robo Smasher from KRU Interactive and Outer Galaxies – a sci-fi themed browser based game. So how is it that an indy game like Eternal Lands can have so many players while commercial games can’t? Well – it’s simple. Indy developers tend to pay more attention to what their community actually wants. Companies like Aeria Games, Uforia and gPotato can’t always do this – especially since they publish more than one game. Just look at gPotato – they publish Luna Online, Aika Online, Allods Online, Fly For Fun, Iris Online and numerous other free to play games. They can’t just focus on one game – they’re always looking to launch new games and try to make more money, so it’s hard to focus on just one thing.

So where are all the indy game developers? They’re off making games for the Xbox-live arcade or launching flash games on sites like Newgrounds. I think they can be much more successful if they focus on free to play games. There are quite a bit of Indy browser based games like Fallen Sword and Dragon Fable, but there are very few client based indy MMOs. Earth Eternal is like the only one. Dreamlords and Saga are two others, but that’s it. All the major games, such as Battlefield Heroes, Rappelz, Metin 2 and Wizard101 are all developed and published by major companies. Games by big companies aren’t bad, but indy games tend to bring more innovation – as major game studios have been releasing the same old wow clones over and over again.

I think the future for indy free to play MMOs is with the Unity Web Player. The Unity Web Player is capable of rendering gorgeous 3D graphics on web browsers and game developers can use the Unity Web Development platform to design their games for free. That’s right, game developers can develop full 3D games entirely for free on the Unity Web player. This isn’t some cheap game development software like RPG Maker either. This is the real deal. It’s the same platform Captains of Darktide and Fusionfall use – two major browser based MMOs. Both with top notch graphics too.

Anyway. Indy game developers… you guys need to start embracing the free to play MMO model.

OutSpark – The MMO Publisher is being Bought

Well, It looks like it’s official OutSpark
will be bought out by another company. Well, the deal hasn’t been
inked yet, but they did confirm they were in late-stage talks with their
suitor. Yeah, I’m talking about the same OutSpark who’s best known for
publishing Fiesta Online – an anime inspired 3D MMORPG and Secret of the Solstice – a Ragnarok Online like game. Of course they publish other games too – like the upcoming Erebus Travia Reborn and Divine Souls
– but I wanted to focus on their two most popular games which are
Fiesta and Secret of the Solstice. Word on the street is that Shanda
Games – a large Chinese MMORPG developer and publisher will be acquiring them.

Why is this company buying OutSpark? To expand into the free to play
market most likely. OutSpark is a pretty big publisher too. Aside from
the games they currently have on the market – they’re releasing Luvinia Online
and Divine Souls soon. Plus, they announced that they would release
many more games in the near future. The fact that they’re being bought
out is a big vote of confidence for free to play games in North America.
These games have always been popular in Asia, but the concept of free
to play with micro-transactions is still fairly new to the West. In
fact, these games are so big in Asia, that there really aren’t any pay
to play games in Asia, aside from a few really high quality games. One
game in South Korea – Kart Rider from Nexon is so popular that nearly a
third of South Korea’s entire population has played the racing game at
least once. It’s much more popular than more realistic racing games
like Need for Speed World or Ray City from Electronic Arts. So for those that say Graphics do matter, Why is Kart Rider – a much worse looking game than Need for Speed so successful?

Aside from OutSpark being bought, EverQuest II re-launching as a free to play game has also been a big vote of confidence for the industry. The Lord of the Rings Online from Turbine is also set to go free to play on September 10. Remember when Turbine launched Dungeons and Dragons Online
as a free to play game? I remember their CEO saying something like
their revenues have increased over 500% since going free to play. I
really hope that they have success with The Lord of the Rings Online, as
if it does well – it would pave the way for Lineage 2 and Warhammer Online to go free to play. Regardless of its success, I actually thing Lineage 2 will go free to play. Even Warhammer Online will go free to play in the not so distance future. That’s a story for another day though.

I think Electronic Arts will soon be focusing more on free to play games. Their Lord of Ultima browser MMO and Battlefield Heroes MMOFPS have done quite well so far. I Can’t say the same for FIFA Online or Battleforge,
as they both have very few players. I think the blame there lies in EA
though for not properly marketing these games. I bet if more people
played them, they would be hooked.

GameForge Rockin the MMO Industry

I’ve always been a fan of fighting games. I remember playing Tekken
games in the arcades back in the day and more recently I remember
playing rounds of Soul Caliber 2 on my gamecube with buddies hours on
end. Luckily for me there are a boat load of free to play fighting MMOs
out there. One of the oldest ones being Rumble Fighter. Another being Splash Fighters. One of my favorite fighting MMOs though is Lost Saga
from OG Planet because of its incredible variety. The game has a lot of
characters to choose from. They also each level up in a persistent
world, so you can actually advance the characters you want to play and
switch them around if ever get bored.

Aside from Lost Saga though, there are a bunch of other fun fighting games. OG Planet recently released Zone 4: Fight District
– which is a fun cage wrestling / fighting style fighting game. It’s
much different than Lost Saga, but I think Lost Saga is a bit more fun.
When I get bored of playing traditional MMORPGs like 4Story, Runes of Magic and Grand Chase – I like to mix things up and play some random MMOs. I actually play a lot of MMOs from sports MMOs like MLB Dugout Heroes and FIFA Online to MMOFPS games like CosmicBreak and Battlefield heroes.

But enough about that! This is supposed to be about fighting MMOs! GetAmped 2 is a neat little fighting MMO by CyberStep.
Unfortunately the game shut down for nearly 6 months in early 2010,
but the game is back into open beta finally. It’s cartoony and plays a
bit like Splash Fighters, except with much more variety. Between Splash
Fighters and Getamped 2 there’s no argument. GetAmped2 is much more
fun. Some MMORPGs – mostly action brawler MMORPGs like Dungeon Fighter Online, Vindictus and Soul Master actually feel like fighting games, as the gameplay is action packed.

If you’re looking for a fun fighting MMO to check out – I would
probably recommend Lost Saga over anything else. Fighting MMOs are
always a good fun distraction when you’re bored of playing traditional
MMORPGs or browser games. Personally, I like browser games like War of Legends, Grepolis and Deepolis – but I like to mix things up and play a bit of everything.

GameForge Rockin the MMO Industry

Yesterday the German MMORPG publisher GameForge
announced that they agreed to purchase 60% of Frogster Interactive in a
deal that valued the company at around $80 million. That’s a lot of
money. I’m not even sure if Frogster Interactive is profitable. It’s
sort of hard to tell though because both GameForge and Frogster are
private companies – meaning they don’t release their financial
statements to the public.

Source: GameForge Buys Frogster

What I found interesting about this deal is that Frogster at the moment is a one trick pony. They have ONE game on the market – Runes of Magic,
which is extremely popular. If the game fades away in the next 2 years
GameForge will have gotten burnt on the deal. GameForge itself is a
pretty large company and they can afford the risk. They’re big on browser games like Ogame, Ikariam and Gladiatus. They also publish a bunch of 3D MMORPGs like 4Story, Gates of Andaron, Metin 2 and Ace Online.

I’ve actually been playing Runes of Magic for the last few months
and I absolutely love the game. I just hope with GameForge at the helm,
Runes of Magic doesn’t go south. From what I’ve heard GameForge’s
MMORPG Gates of Andaron is “pay to win”. I’d hate to see Runes of Magic
become pay to win, as it would ruin the game for me. The most likely
scenario will be that the two companies merge and Frogster ends up
doing its own thing while GameForge ends up doing its own thing.
Frogster will run independently as a subsidiary of GameForge.

Last I remember Frogster was supposed to be relaunching The Chronicles of Spellborn
as a free to play game, but I think that project got axed recently.
Sucks to see a game like TCOB disappear, but at least people will be
able to enjoy it for a few more months on the Acclaim
Games portal. I’m pretty sure Playdom, who bought acclaim games
recently, will be shutting down many more games on the Acclaim portal. 2Moons, 9Dragons and Dance Online will likely all shut down in the coming months. Playdom already shut down RockFree – which was one of the most popular MMORPGs on the portal.

So what’s next for GameForge? Who knows. Maybe they’ll acquire another big MMO in the future.

MMORPG Developers Shouldn’t Worry About Balance

Should classes in MMORPGs
like Fighter, Mage, Thief and Archer be balanced? Well, balance is
important, but know what’s more important? Having LOTS of somewhat
balanced classes. Example. I prefer games like EverQuest II and Vanguard from Sony Online Entertainment which each have over 15 playable classes to more “balanced” MMORPGs like Florensia from Alaplaya and Fiesta Online from Outspark
which have 4-5 classes. Sure balance is good, but again, I’d rather
play a game that gives me more choice. This is ESPECIALLY true for PvE
MMORPGs like MapleStory and Cloud Nine
which have very limited PvP options. When a game isn’t too PvP
intensive, why should you or I even care if say a Warrior is over
powered a Mage is a bit weaker? It’s not like it’s a competition or
anything. I can see a need for balance in highly competitive PvP MMORPGs like Aika Online, Metin 2 and 4Story.

I’m not saying that MMORPG developers should TOTALLY ignore MMO class balances,
as that would be stupid. I’m suggesting that game designers try to
make the classes as balanced as possible, but instead of trying to
achieve “perfect balance” through time consuming and expensive testing,
they should simply let the dice fall where they may – even if one or
two classes are a bit more powerful than others. If any class is TOO
weak, they can get buffed in future patches. The point is to make all
the classes “somewhat” balanced, while focusing on introducing new
classes to the game regularly. The only two games that takes this
approach, I feel, is League of Legends and Avalon Heroes
– two aion of strife MMOs which each have 30+ playable characters.
Sure, they aren’t all balanced, but who cares? Both games are fun, and
their respective game designers are tweaking the classes as they go
while also introducing new ones regularly. I think League of Legends is
actually up to 40+ heroes now.

What I want from a game is constant variety, which is why one MMORPG just isn’t enough for me. After I play through all of the archetypes in a game, I move on to the next. Perfect World only has like 8 classes, so after trying each class and leveling them all up to 20 or so, I went ahead and downloaded Battle of the Immortals and played that for a while. Then I moved on to Heroes of Three Kingdoms.
MapleStory kept me occupied for over a year because it has 15+ classes
and many different job advancements. By the time I got done with fully
trying out one character, Nexon would release another one! Which is why I love Nexon games. They’re on the ball with updates. I only played Valkyrie Sky for a short period of time, as it only has a handful of classes, though I loved it. It’s an original MMO.

Anyway. Anyone here agreew with me on the whole “wanting more classes” thing? Or is that just me?

Facebook games vs Browser Games

Which free to play games are better? Facebook Games or Browser Games?
I never really gotten into the whole “social game” / “Facebook game”
scene, but I do know a lot of people who are hooked. I have friends and
family that play Farmville and Mafia Wars from companies like Zynga
and Playdom, but I never found these games to be fun. The thing I’ve
noticed though is that these “casual social games” are surprisingly
addictive. Just as addictive as any client based MMORPG or hardcore
MMORPG like Dungeons and Dragons Online. Most of my friends that do play these social games play either Farmville or Frontierville, which are for some odd reason incredibly popular.

Which genre is better? Well, both are extremely convenient and accessible. You can play strategy MMORPGs like Evony and Caesary for 10 minutes here and there, and you’re good to go. You can do the same for games like Cafe World and Fishville. The beauty of these games is that they can be played in short 10 minute bursts. Traditional client based MMORPGs on the other hand cannot. Games like 4Story and Atlantica Online
for example are usually played in bursts of 3+ hours at a time. More
casual gamers can play for an hour here and there, but that’s usually
the minimum – because just logging in and getting to a hunting spot can
take up to 15 minutes. MMOs like League of Legends and Avalon Heroes
are even worse, because you cannot play these games for 10 minutes here
and there, because the average game takes upwards of 35 minutes at a
time. Some games can take over an hour.

Facebook games on the other hand appeal to a much broader audience,
because they can be played in very short bursts. Browser games have the
same appeal as I mentioned before – at least for the most part. Actual
MMORPGs like RuneScape from Jagex and FusionFall
from Cartoony Network cannot be played in short bursts, as these kinds
of games play more like actual client based MMORPGs than anything else.
Whats surprising is that there aren’t any popular social games on
facebook that play like actual client based MMORPGs. Just about every
facebook game is designed to be played in short intervals. If say, the
browser game Earth Eternal were ported over to Facebook, It could do very well.

Anyway. Which kinds of games do you prefer? Browser based games or
facebook games? And which kinds of games? Personally, I’m sick of all
the strategy games on browsers, so I play actual MMORPGs on it like
Earth Eternal and RuneScape.

New MMORPGs in July

The last few weeks of July have been pleasantly surprising for the
free to play MMO / MMORPG scene. Valve released the free to play
top-down shoot-em-up Alien Swarm, which is incredibly fun. It’s a
completely free to play game that anyone can download and play right on
steam. It plays a lot like Left 4 Dead, except with top down camera
angle. It’s actually different than more traditional MMO shooters like Operation 7 from Netgame and Wolfteam from Softnyx,
as its not first person and it’s a co-op game rather than a
competitive one against other players. If you’re a fan of Valve’s work,
there’s no reason not to give Alien Swarm a try. It was released in
late July 2010, making it a new game.

Soul Master from GamesCampus is another really impressive new MMORPG released in Late July. Well not technically “Released” as the game’s closed beta began in late July, not the full release. Soul Master is a unique 3D anime inspired action MMORPG with strategy elements. Sounds pretty interesting, right? It’s actually a mix of GhostX from GameKiss, Pikmin on the GameCube and Age of Empires on the PC. Like Lunia,
progression in Soul Master is completely linear. Players must complete
a stage before being able to advance to a new one. Each stage can be
played numerous times on different difficult settings, just like in Dragonica Online.
Where the game really shines is its innovation though. No other game
mixes action MMORPG gameplay with Pikmin like strategy. The game’s pvp
is certain to be interesting with its original combat system.

Two other awesome upcoming MMORPGs which released their closed betas in late July are Zentia from ChangYou and King of Kings 3 from Gamigo. Legend of Edda from GamesCampus look awesome to. Wow, there are a lot of upcoming MMORPGs! Zentia is made by ChangYou who also makes Dragon Oath and Blade Wars while Legend of Edda is made by GamesCampus. They are the company behind Asda Story, MLB Dugout Heroes
and a few other free to play games. Zentia is currently in closed beta
as is King of Kings 3. These games should enter open beta within a
month or two at most. Lets hope GamesCampus doesn’t pull a Camon Hero
and delay indefinitely, as seeing a good game get delayed / cancelled
is the worst feeling in the world. Well, one of the worst.

Great MMORPGs on the Horizon

It’s a great time to be an MMO gamer. Why you ask? Because there are
a boat load of awesome upcoming MMORPGs. OutSpark
announced a few weeks ago that their action MMORPG
Divine
Souls will be entering closed beta on July 14. Unlike Outspark’s
other games, Divine Souls has cool realistic graphics and intense
combat. Their other game’s are largely anime inspired, think Fiesta
Online and Secret of the Solsitce. Outspark also should be
releasing Erebus: Travia
Reborn, soon. Outspark isn’t the only MMOPRG publisher with some
good upcoming games. OGPlanet announced Zone 4: Fight
District on July 9, which is a fast paced fighting MMO that looks a
bit like Lost
Saga. Netmarble will be
releasing Uncharted
Waters online and GameHi is working on a
cool kart racing MMO called Transpee. There are no set
release dates on either of these games unfortunately, so I’m not going
to talk too much about them.

The most exciting new
MMORPG without a doubt is Vindictus from Nexon.
Nexon actually announced a definitive release date for the game as
well. It should be releasing sometime in fall, 2010. Those who want to
try it out early can apply for the closed beta on the official Vindictus
site though. I sort of hate closed betas, because characters get
wiped. I’ll likely wait till open beta to jump into it. I think a lot
of people are excited about Vindictus because it looks really
different. The gameplay, especially its combat system, is supposed to
be much different than traditional MMOs. It’s all action oriented and
involves skill. MMORPG Players
will actually need to aim attacks and dodge enemies. Nexon is also an
incredibly high quality developer, so my expectations are high. I really
enjoyed both MapleStory and Mabinogi,
so I’m sure Vindictus will be fun. Another reason I’m excited about
Vindictus is because Nexon isn’t known for “bloody” games. Vindictus
will be reated M for mature, so I’m curious if Nexon call pull it off.

Obviously Vindictus is the most anticipated free to play game, but
there are a bunch of other titles coming out soon that I look forward
to trying. Games like Luvinia Online from
Outspark and MKZ Online from GamersFirst.
I want to try MKZ mostly because it’s an FPS game and I’m a total
sucker for MMOFPS games
for some reason. I don’t know why, but I find myself playing these
kinds of games all the time.

I look forward to playing Vindictus the most. But MKZ Online looks
neat too. I guess I’ll be able to play them eventually!

Legendary Heroes – Yet another Dota MMORPG?

Aeria Games recently
announced Legendary Heroes, a DotA inspired Fantasy MMORPG.
Sounds interesting right? After playing and enjoying both League of Legends
and Heroes of Newerth, I’m actually looking forward to Legendary Heroes.
There’s one thing that concerns me though. These games set the Aeon of
Strife genre bar really high, so it may be a bit tough to beat. I also
played Avalon Heroes from Alaplaya,
but that game was a total disappointment, but Alaplaya redeemed
themselves with Land of Chaos
Online (Loco) which is also like DotA, but with a unique action
MMORPG style twist.

It’s not too surprising that Avalon Heroes was a disappointment. The
game was developed by WeMade – the company behind Digimon Battle
and Mir 2.Avalon
Heroes has a very old interface and lousy graphics as well as totally
unbalanced gameplay. One of the most important aspects of a DotA like MMORPG is balance, which
Aeria Games better not screw up. DotA has some 75+ playable heroes which
took 5+ years to balance. Legendary Heroes is expected to launch with
60+, so there’s bound to be some serious balance issues. I know Lost Saga
from OGPlanet
also launched with a bunch of balance issues, but luckily those were
hammered out. The game also launched with very few heroes and OGPlanet
added new ones gradually, as they made sure each class was balanced.

It’s fascinating to see how fast the Aeon of Strife genre has grown.
DotA has been popular for a while, but other game developers only
began copying it recently. I believe Heroes of Newerth and League of
Legends were the first “DotA Clones”, but there are many more on the
way now. Games like Runes of Magic and Allods
Online copied World of Warcraft,
so it’s no surprise other companies are copying the success of DotA.
What makes Legendary Heroes cool though is that its playable heroes
won’t be from a generic fantasy setting. Instead, it’s characters will
be a random cast from Dracula to Beowulf. Based on the game’s official
trailer, Beowulf apparently uses a Chainsaw, which in my book is
awesome.

Aside from Legendary Heroes though, there are a bunch of other
awesome upcoming
MMORPGs on the way. ChangYou announced Zentia, GamesCampus
is launching Soul Master soon and Uforia
will be releasing Camon Hero in the coming
weeks. The free to play MMORPG universe is heating up for the Summer.