Anyone Else Tired of All These Tactical MMOFPS Games?

You guys know the drill. Swat gear. AK-47s and M16s. That describes
just about every single MMOFPS currently available. They all seem to
mimic counter-strike with a few MMO
elements (experience and shopping). Games like Operation 7, Mercenary
Wars, Soldier Front and Sudden
Attack are all practically identical. Heck, just about every
MMOFPS is identical to every other MMOFPS. It’s safe to say once you’ve
played one, you’ve played them all.

As a big fan of FPS in general, I’m always looking for new games to
try, but I’m constantly disappointed by the lack of innovation out
there. Only after learning about Battlefield Heroes
did I regain some of my lost confidence in the free to play shooter
market. For those that haven’t heard of Battlefield Heroes, it’s a f2p
cartoony game based off the incredibly popular Battlefield franchise
from Electronic Arts. The game is both light hearted and fun. It both
looks and feels genuinely different from all the tactical Counter-Strike
clones out there, which in and of itself respectable. Aside from
Battlefield Heroes the only other genuinely ‘unique’ games in the free to play
MMOFPS genre are Quake Live and America’s
Army. Quake live is different because it doesn’t try to be realistic.
It’s a bit sci-fi themed and crazy. America’s Army is different because
it focuses on realism and teamwork.

On the other hand, the Operation 7’s and Soldier Front’s of this
world are carbon copies of each other. I’m actually convinced that
every single one of these tactical MMOFPS games are built off of Sudden
Attack. Developers just grab the Sudden Attack source code and modify a
few things here and there and label their modification a new game. I
used Sudden Attack in this example because as far as I know it’s the
oldest MMOFPS game out there. In fact, if you look at the interface in
games like Combat Arms and
practically every other MMOFPS, you’ll notice how similar the interface
is to Sudden Attack, especially in the ‘equipment’ and ’store’ areas
of the game. The fact that all of these games are copying Sudden Attack
reminds me of how nearly every MMORPG is a WoW clone.

Anyone else here tired of all these generic tactical MMOFPS games? I
know I am. I guess I can still look forward to Huxley:
The Dystopia, Genesis A.D and Metal
Rage as those games are supposed to be different (based on the
screenshots I’ve seen and info I’ve read).

Few Big Budget MMO Games

There are surprisingly only a handful of really big budget free to play MMORPGs.
Nowdays, it seems like every big console game costs tens of millions to
develop. Premium pay to play MMORPGs like World of
Warcraft and Eve Online are also
costly to develop. In fact, Bioware’s upcoming pay to play MMORPG ‘The
Old Republic’ is rumored to cost nearly 100 million to develop. When it
comes to free to play games, the only ‘really’ big budget game is Allods
Online, which is a 3D Fantasy MMORPG
developed by a Russian game development firm, and that had a 12 million
dollar development budget. $12 million may seem like a lot of money,
but compared to the cost of developing console games, $12 million really
isn’t that much. The latest Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy XIII,
cost Square-Enix at least 40 million to develop. Now, it isn’t exactly
fair comparing apples to oranges, but what I’m trying to get at is $12
million isn’t a lot of money compared to console games.  I’d also like
to point out that Allods Online was one of the most expensive free to
play games ever developed.

So if Allods Online costs $12 million to develop, how much did it
cost to develop MapleStory? Or Dungeons and Dragons Online or something
less known like Rappelz? Who knows. These companies never reveal their
actual development costs. My guess is that most of these games cost
peanuts to develop. I say peanuts compared to console games. Millions
of dollars is not peanuts =].  On the other hand though, there are
many… many low budget free to play MMORPGs as well. Games like Magic World Online,
Great Merchant and Mercenary
Wars are all low budget titles. Now, this doesn’t make them ‘bad’
games, as Mercenary Wars is a pretty interesting MMOFPS
game. What I’m trying to get at is that there are a disproportional
amount of ‘low budget’ games in the free to play MMO space and only a
handful of moderate to high budget titles.

I’d like to see more ‘big budget’ free to play games, as Allods
Online is awesome and I’d like to see more games like it. For those
that haven’t heard of Allods, it’s basically a WoW clone, but a damn
good one.

2D MMORPGs Age Better Than 3D MMORPGs

One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that 2D MMORPGs
seem to age much better than 3D MMORPGs. This
is likely because 2D games don’t rely too heavily on realistic ‘good’
graphics. This is definitely a good thing, because as graphics get
better and better, games like Runes of Magic and Dungeons and
Dragons Online which once had ‘top notch’ graphics, now only have
‘decent’ graphics. In a couple of years, these games will have ‘bad’
graphics. Games like MapleStory and Wonderking
on the other hand had ‘decent’ graphics when they were first released,
and still have ‘decent’ graphics today and will have ‘decent’ graphics
in the future. If I were an MMORPG
developer, I’d opt to do something 2D, as it’s guaranteed to survive
longer, provided that my game is actually decent.

I don’t mean to bash on 3D games, as I love games like Allods
Online and Aika, but in five years time, so many people won’t even
try these games because they’ll have such lousy graphics. It’s awesome
that technology is advancing so fast, but it’s also a bad thing for
these games. Big budget pay to play MMORPGs like World
of Warcraft can afford to update their graphics engine every couple
of years, but for free to play games, it’s a rarity. I actually prefer cute
MMORPGs or Anime MMORPGs,
as I just find games with brightly themed graphics to be easier on the
eyes.

There are so many older 3D MMORPGs that looked great when they first
came out, but look terrible today. I know it’s hard to imagine people
saying “Dungeons and Dragons Online has bad graphics”, but in the
future, when graphics improve, it’s going to happen.

Well, what does everyone else thing? Do you folks prefer 2D or 3D
games? any why?

Nintendo Should Make an MMORPG

How awesome would it be if Nintendo released an MMORPG? They have so
many well known game franchises to work with, so they could definitely
release something awesome. Just imagine how cool a Pokemon MMORPG
would be or even a casual Mario Party MMO. It seems like there are
hundreds of Korean
MMORPGs and Chinese MMORPGs
on the market but not that many Japanese ones. I know Square Enix has
Final Fantasy 11 and Final Fantasy 14 (In development), but both of
those are pay to play. Final Fantasy 11 does have a free trial though.

Come to think of it, very few mainstream video game publishers have
their own free MMORPG. Electronic Arts, the second biggest game
publisher in North America, only has two free to play MMOs – Battleforge
and Battlefield Heroes.
Sony only has ONE – Free Realms. Activision
Blizzard only has one game, and it’s pay to play. There are 200+ free
to play MMOs available to gamers in North America, but very few of them
are published by traditional game publishers. Outspark – the guys
behind Fiesta Online, Erebus
and Secret of the
Solstice, are starting to get bigger, but they’re nowhere near
mainstream. Nexon has proven with the success of MapleStory and Mabinogi
that free to play ‘works’, so why are western developers and publishers
ignoring this space all together?

Guys seriously. Nintendo should make an MMORPG. I know for a fact Nintendo would
make a killing off of a Pokemon MMORPG. A company called WeMade
released Digimon Battle in the
United States a few months ago, and the game is fairly popular. The
game is like 8+ years old, but people play the game because they like
the Digimon franchise. Pokemon is 1000x bigger than Digimon, so the game
would definitely be instant hit. Heck, the Pokemon MMORPG could even
be a browser
game, and it would still be awesome. Nintendo could even make an MMOFPS
with their Metroid franchise.

What do you guys think? How amazing would it be if Nintendo made
their own MMORPG?

MMORPG File Sizes Are Getting Bigger!

As free to play MMORPGs
and MMO games get better and better, their file sizes also seem to get
bigger. I remember just 3-4 years ago when the only popular
MMORPGs were Ragnarok Online, GunZ and MapleStory
most games were under 1 GB. Today, most games are well over 1 GB. It
seems like even the newer ‘cartoony’ games are huge as well. WonderKing
and Fantasy Earth Zero
which both have pretty lame graphics are well over 1GB. This isn’t
exactly a big deal for most people, but some folks have small hard
drives, so every megabyte counts.

The 1GB games aren’t really a big deal though. The problem is that
some games are over 4GB! That’s HUGE! A lot of the ‘great’ games tend
to be big as well. Newer epic 3D MMORPGs like
Runes of Magic and Karos
Online are big games. They have gorgeous realistic graphics, so
it’s fine that they’re big. I just wish game developers utilized a sort
of ‘download as you go’ system, so those with slower internet
connections don’t have to wait days to download one game. The problem
with today’s system is that most people will never reach the super end
game for most MMORPGs, so there’s no point in ‘downloading’ all of that
content. Instead, players should download content as they progress in a
game.

This would work remarkably well in linear games like Lunia and Dungeon
Fighter Online. As players complete stages, they can download the
next stage as they play. This would allow new players to enter the game
right away, without ever having to download an enormous file. This
could DEFINITELY work. I know a few games that do this, but not nearly
enough. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Wizard101.
The game downloads new areas as you progress.

What do you guys think? Wouldn’t this just be… better?

Is Huxley Ever Going to Come Out?

It looks like Huxley: The
Dystopia is going to join Priston Tale 2 and Dreamland Online
in the ‘never going to be released’ club. I remember YEARS ago, Huxley
was announced as an MMO shooter for consoles, but has since transformed
into a free to play MMOFPS
for the PC. ijji, the folks behind GunZ, Lunia, Soul of the
Ultimate Nation, Soldier Front and Drift City,
were supposed to publish the game. Unfortunately, Huxley has remained
in closed beta testing for over a year now without ANY updates. As a
big fan of MMOFPS games, I’m a bit disappointed that Huxley may never
get released. Obviously, this is only speculation, but from what I’ve
observed, games that go years without any real production updates are
the games that never come out.

The concept of an MMOFPS with an actual persistent world sounds
awesome. Huxley was supposed to have many more ‘RPG’ elements than
other shooters. The game was supposed to be a bit like Planet Side, a
relatively unknown subscription based MMOFPS by Sony Online
Entertainment. If you’ve ever played Planet Side, you’ll definitely
agree with me that it was an awesome game. Even if you didn’t like the
game’s mechanics, the concept of a persistent world MMO shooter is awesome. Huxley is still
being developed by Webzen and uses the Unreal Engine 3 – so the
graphics are definitely top notch.

Come to think of it, there are a numerous games in the ‘never going
to be released’ club. Kart Rider, by Nexon (The same guys behind Mabinogi, Combat
Arms and MapleStory), had its
open beta back in 2007 and has since disappeared without any formal
announcement. Dance Groove Online
has been ‘coming soon’ on Outspark’s (Guys behind Fiesta Online,
Erebus: Travia Reborn and Secret of the
Solstice), portal for ages. Priston Tale 2 has also
been coming soon forever.

I don’t really care too much about the other delayed
MMORPGs, but I really want to see Huxley get released. I’m
confident that if ijji just launches the open beta for the game, it
could be hugely popular.

Diablo 2 Style MMORPGs

One thing I’ve noticed in the free to play space is the growing
number of MMORPGs that
try to mimick Diablo 2’s incredible gameplay. Just yesterday, Perfect
World Entertainment released Battle of the
Immortals, which both looks and plays like an improved version of
the hit classic. Before Battle of the Immortals, there were numerous
other free to play MMORPGs that were similar to Diablo 2. Mu Online for
example is a fairly old game, but generally plays a lot like Diablo 2.

TQ Digital also has a few games that play a bit like Diablo 2. Conquer
Online and EuDemons Online for
example have the same general isometric Diablo 2 look and action
oriented gameplay, but the visuals are lacking. I find it fascinating
that even though Diablo 2 has been around for 8+ years, modern games are
still typing to copy its success. As a gamer, I actually like seeing
Diablo 2 style games, as I feel there aren’t enough action
MMORPGs out there. Come to  think of it, the only really good
action MMORPGs I can think of off the top of my head are Dragonica Online
and GhostX.

What do you guys think of Battle of the Immortals? I’m quite excited
about it. I logged on the other day and I made a level 20 Magus
character in a matter of a few hours. The experience rate is quite fast
and the maximum level is 90+. One thing, I don’t like about Battle of
the Immortals is its in game ‘bot’ system. The bot system works like
the bot system in Magic World Online
and Godswar – in that the game plays itself. Luckily, players are only
given the chance to use the bot only 30 minutes or so each day.

Diablo 2 Style MMORPGs

One thing I’ve noticed in the free to play space is the growing
number of MMORPGs that
try to mimick Diablo 2’s incredible gameplay. Just yesterday, Perfect
World Entertainment released Battle of the
Immortals, which both looks and plays like an improved version of
the hit classic. Before Battle of the Immortals, there were numerous
other free to play MMORPGs that were similar to Diablo 2. Mu Online for
example is a fairly old game, but generally plays a lot like Diablo 2.

TQ Digital also has a few games that play a bit like Diablo 2. Conquer
Online and EuDemons Online for
example have the same general isometric Diablo 2 look and action
oriented gameplay, but the visuals are lacking. I find it fascinating
that even though Diablo 2 has been around for 8+ years, modern games are
still typing to copy its success. As a gamer, I actually like seeing
Diablo 2 style games, as I feel there aren’t enough action
MMORPGs out there. Come to  think of it, the only really good
action MMORPGs I can think of off the top of my head are Dragonica Online
and GhostX.

What do you guys think of Battle of the Immortals? I’m quite excited
about it. I logged on the other day and I made a level 20 Magus
character in a matter of a few hours. The experience rate is quite fast
and the maximum level is 90+. One thing, I don’t like about Battle of
the Immortals is its in game ‘bot’ system. The bot system works like
the bot system in Magic World Online
and Godswar – in that the game plays itself. Luckily, players are only
given the chance to use the bot only 30 minutes or so each day.

Browser MMORPGs Will Get Better

Browser based MMORPGs are
going to get better and better. Right now, the only real drawback to
playing a browser game is the poor graphics. Personally, I like playing
strategy MMORPGs like Kingory and Empire
Craft, but at times I do want a bit more from my games. I’m tired
of downloading MMORPGs, because my hard drive is starting to get full.
Games like The Chronicles of Spell Born, Runes of Magic and Allods
Online are all 4+ GB big. If I install just one MMORPG a day, I’ll
my 120GB hard drive will fill up in less than a month.

The good thing about browser MMOs is that they don’t take up any
space. They aren’t all ‘dull’ either, as games like RuneScape
aren’t text based. Plus, games like Quake Live and Earth Eternal
have great graphics, and they run entirely on a web browser. I suspect
in the coming years, more and more MMORPGs will run on the browser.
Browsers games will get more and more sophisticated. Even demanding
games like Chrysis will run fluidly on web browsers, because all the CPU
and graphics processing occur in some computer farm in a remote
location. All of the visuals will be streamed through the net onto a
users web browser.

2D MMORPGs
will likely be the first to run on browsers and then 3D MMORPGs.
Flash based MMORPGs are also starting to appear. I had the chance to
play Pet Forest the
other day, and the game is remarkable. It actually looks a lot nicer
than both Myth War 2 Online
and Fairy Land Online, which are downloadable games. Browser games are
definitely the future.

Better Fighting MMOs Please

I’m a huge fan of the Super Smash Brothers series on the Nintendo
consoles. As a fan of MMOs
as well, I’d love to see some more high quality free to play MMO
fighting games. As is, the only fighting MMOs out there are Rumble
Fighter, PlanB
and Splash Fighters.
That’s it. With over 200 free to play MMOs and MMORPGs, there are only 3 fighting games.
What’s worse is that none of these games are popular.

I can’t quite understand why there aren’t any good ones. After all,
there are tons of awesome MMOFPS games
like K.O.S. Secret
Operations and Soldier Front, which
are a lot like Counter-Strike, but no fighting games. The folks behind
Splash Fighters are releasing an ugpraded version of the game called -GetAmped 2,
but that doesn’t look great either. I really can’t understand why some
MMO Developer can’t just copy Super Smash Brothers. Anyone that did
that would certainly create a hit game. Sure, it’s a bit sleazy to copy
another game, but it hasn’t stopped games like Runes of Magic
and Allods Online from
copying World of Warcraft.

It seems like the only really ‘great’ MMOs are either shooters of MMO Sports
games. Everything else tends to suck (At least in my opinion). The
only really popular MMOs are MMOFPS games, which is probably why no
one’s rushing to develop a fighting game. It’s actually quite fun.
Nearly 70% of all games ijji publishes are MMO Shooters – and they have
like 4 new MMO Shooters coming out.

Am I the only one wanting a good fighting MMO?

Browser MMORPGs Going Mainstream

It seems like free to play browser based MMORPGs are
going mainstream. Just last week Electronic Arts released their very
own strategy MMORPG – Lord of Ultima.
The game is based in the same ‘Ultima’ universe as the previous Ultima
games. The only real difference here is that Lord of Ultima is
strategy game that aims to compete with Evony and Empire
Craft. The studio behind Lord of Ultima, Phenomic, is also
responsible for numerous other free to play games that Electronic Arts
publishes. So Lord of Ultima is published by the same dudes behind Battleforge
and Battlefield Heroes.
We all know that most of these browser based games are published by
various Chinese companies, so seeing a big Western developer like EA
release their own game in the space is quite interesting.

Jagex, the guys behind RuneScape, released
their very own browser based strategy
MMORPG as well a few months ago – War of Legends.
So it’s obvious that browser based games are getting more and more
popular. What i’d like to see though is some variety. Personally, I’m
getting a bit sick of playing the same old browser based strategy game.
After you’ve played one, you’ve played em all. Nearly every single
browser based strategy game is identical. I’m glad though that more
Western developers are entering the MMORPG space, as Western companies are
known for innovation.

What I’d like to see someday is for epic client based games like Dragon
Oath, Runes of Magic and Dungeons and
Dragons Online, and Fiesta Online to one
day run smoothly on a browser. That would be awesome. Having to download
games are quite annoying, especially for those on slower internet
connections and older PCs.

MMORPGs Need Better Music

What do you guys think? I’ve been playing single player RPGs for a
long time and have grown accustomed to having great music in the
background. The background music in most free to play MMORPGs are
pretty bad. Maybe I’m just a bit spoiled after playing games from the
Final Fantasy Series (Loved the music in Final Fantasy X, IX, and XIII)
and the Tales series, but music in MMORPGs definitely have room for
improvement. I can safely say the music in 9/10 MMORPGs are uninspiring
and cheap.

Don’t get me wrong though – not all MMORPG
music is bad. The music in MMORPGs like Sword of
the New World and more recently Aika are downright amazing. Ragnarok
Online, one of oldest and most popular MMORPGs, also has some top
notch music. I actually own the Original Sound Track for Ragnarok
Online, and it’s the only soundtrack I own for an MMORPG (Do other
MMORPGs even have soundtracks?). Games like Allods Online, Fiesta
Online and Gates of Andaron
are quite fun, but they have some lame music. What surprises me most is
that Allods Online is a pretty big budget game. I read somewhere that
it costs some 30 million USD to develop, so you’d imagine they’d have
all their bases covered when it comes to quality, but apparently they
cut some corners in the music department.

MMOs also tend to have low quality music. Most MMOFPS games these
days, even the newer ones like Alliance of
Valiant Arms and K.O.S. Secret
Operations have generic boring music. The only MMO i’ve played that
had genuinely good music that ‘fit’ the theme of the game is Project
Powder. Project Powder is an intense snowboarding MMO by Outspark.
What made the tunes in the game so good was that it actually fit the
game.

Am I the only one who really cares about music in games? I feel that
music is one of the most important aspects of an MMORPG – as if I’m spending 5+ hours a
day ‘grinding’ in a game, I might as well be listening to some catchy
tunes to help pass the time.

High System Requirements Are Bad for MMORPGs

I’ve noticed over the years that MMORPGs, both pay to play and free, are
getting better and better. Unfortunately, better and better also means
that gamers will need ‘better and better’ computers just to be able to
play these newer games. I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t always
keep up with the latest technology when it comes to my PC. I’m used to
playing free to play MMORPGs like Fiesta Online and Grand
Fantasia – which have ‘nice’ graphics that aren’t too demanding. I
usually have other programs running as well on the background as well
(like AIM, Skype and Firefox) – so my PC doesn’t run graphically
intensive games like Alliance of
Valiant Arms or Dungeons and
Dragons Online too well. I mean, I can usually get them to launch,
but it’s too laggy to really enjoy.

I really don’t know why so many games are increasing their system
requirements. After all, the most popular free to play MMORPGs on the
market right now are simple games like MapleStory and RuneScape,
which have low system requirements. Having lower system requirements,
means more people can actually run the game, which translates into more
profits for the game developers and publishers. I read that Square
Enix’s new MMORPG – Final Fantasy 14 will require an 8800GT graphics
card to even run. That’s just absurd. So many people will have to
upgrade their PCs just to play it. Higher system requirements usually
means lower playerbase.

One easy way to address this issue would be for newer games to
support extremely low end graphics / resolutions. If higher end games
just had an option to make the graphics terrible, but not laggy, that
would fix the program. I’m also quite sure a lot of gamers would
appreciate this.

Maybe it’s just me ranting, but what do you guys think?

Free to Play MMORPG Face Off

With so many free to play MMOs and MMORPGs to chose from, its not always
easy sifting through and finding one to play. Rather than look at the
hundreds of free online games available, I’ll take this opportunity to
compare two of the better ones face to face.

First up is Fiesta, also known as Fiesta Online. It’s a
three dimensional, anime inspired fantasy MMORPG
with a cell shaded graphics. It enjoys a large playerbase and receives
continuous content updates. A company called Outspark publishes the
game in North America and does a great job hosting events and
supporting it. What makes Fiesta an enduring MMORPG experience is its
simplicity. Players start by choosing from one of four classes;
Fighter, Cleric, Archer, or Mage. Combat is simple, and the bright
colors give the game a cheerful mood. Fiesta is perfect for casual
gamers, those new to gaming, and younger gamers. But that doesn’t mean
veterans can’t have fun. There’s no better way to get your non gaming
friends into MMORPGs than starting a new character in Fiesta Online
with them. Novelty features like the wedding system make the game
appealing to female gamers as well.

The downside is that the simple gameplay eventually leads to
stagnation. Players only receive one stat point per level, and there
are no sub class choices to make as characters level. There is a class
advancement at levels 20 and 60, but there’s only one choice so
character customization is very limited.

So what about Runes of Magic? Well
if Fiesta is the casual, first-timer’s MMORPG than RoM is the game of
choice for more experienced gamers. Runes of Magic was designed to
resemble Blizzard’s World of Warcraft,
and like WoW it offers a huge game world, dozens of instanced
dungeons, and features galore. Developed by a Taiwanese studio and
published in the West by Frogster, Runes of Magic comes with a whole
host of its own unique features as well. The ability to duel-class
makes for over a dozen class combinations, and instanced private
housing allows players to have a place of their own. Increase crafting
and resource gathering skills to fashion powerful items, and complete
daily quests to earn special coins that can be used in the cash shop.
Runes of Magic has seven base classes and two unique races (humans and
elves.) What this means for you is a game with enough content to play
for months straight.

Players already familiar with World of Warcraft may feel a sense of
deja vu, gamers who weren’t fans of WoW’s graphic style won’t have much
of a taste for RoM’s either. Another downside is the host of other
free to play WoW clones competing with Runes of Magic. There’s Gates of Andaron
and the more steampunk oriented Allods Online.

While Runes of Magic and Fiesta are both great free to play MMORPGs,
they offer gamers different options. Both were developed by Asian
studios, but Fiesta feels more ‘Asian’ in gameplay style. The heavily
quest driven Runes of Magic is much more similar to Western MMORPGs. If
you still can’t make up your mind, read a full review of each at
MMOHut. There you will find screenshots, and videos for both games.