Free MMOs and MMORPGs

MMO IP Blocks are the Developers Fault – Not the Publishers

2010-11-28T18:00:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-08T13:48:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-08T13:47:00.001-08:00

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

2010-10-25T03:14:00.001-07:00

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

2010-10-25T03:08:00.001-07:00

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

2010-10-11T15:38:00.002-07:00

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

2010-10-11T15:38:00.001-07:00

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

2010-10-03T03:23:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-27T14:39:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-15T11:10:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-07T07:32:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-02T23:07:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-25T22:31:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-05T05:26:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-01T04:46:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-28T23:46:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-24T23:15:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-11T21:18:00.001-07:00

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?

2010-07-07T00:11:00.001-07:00

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.

World War 2 MMOs Are on the Way

2010-07-02T21:30:00.001-07:00

It’s crazy how popular World War 2 themed games are on consoles.
Just look at all the WW2 shooters and strategy games out there. Amongst
gamers, the World War 2 setting is probably regarded one of the most
over used. Even though its over used on consoles and traditional PC
games, it’s fairly unique to the free to play MMO space. There really
aren’t that many world war 2 themed games on the market. The only one I
can think of off the top of my head is Heroes in the Sky
from GamesCampus, and
that one released on July 1, 2010 making it a new release. I guess the
reason why World War 2
themed free MMOs never found their way to the market is because most
of these games are developed in South Korea or China, which weren’t
major players in the second great war. Chinese MMORPGs
tend to focus on the “Three Kingdoms” era of Chinese history, which is
why there are so many games with “three kingdoms” in their title
including Heroes of
Three Kingdoms, Warriors
of the Three Kingdoms and Three Kingdoms:
The Battle Begins. Korean MMOs on the other hand tend to have more
cutsey graphics or realistic, but set in a fantasy world.

Since Western developers began embracing the free to play business
model recently, MMO gamers should expect an influx of World War 2
themed games. Ubisoft plans on releasing Company
of Heroes Online and Electronic Arts
already released Battlefield Heroes,
which although cartoony is set during World War 2. Even Eastern
developers are starting to work on their own World War 2 themed games.
WarGaming plans on releasing World of Tanks soon
while ijji
has already done a closed beta test for Karma:
Operation Barbarossa – a World War 2 themed MMOFPS (The first of
its kind). Aside from these announced titles, I’m sure both Western and
Eastern MMO
developers have plans to release other World War 2 themed games in
the future.

I’m actually surprised there are no World War 2 themed “MMORPGs” on
the market. You’d think that with 100+ fantasy
themed MMORPGs on the market, someone would release an MMORPG set
during World War 2. Come to think of it, there are very few modern
(calling World War 2 modern is a stretch, I know) themed MMORPGs out
there. In fact, I don’t think there are any. Second Life may qualify,
but that’s more of a sandbox game than anything else and has both
fantasy, sci-fi and modern elements in it. I’m actually curious now why
there aren’t any modern themed MMORPGs out there.

Top 5 Best Free MMO Games

2010-06-23T08:17:00.001-07:00

With 100+ free MMO games available, it can
be hard to find the best ones. Since I’ve been playing free MMOs for
the last few years, I decided to write up my own top 5 free MMOs list.
This list will not include any MMORPGs, but rather strictly MMOs. Browser
games will also be excluded from this list. The difference between
MMOs and MMORPGs is that MMOs are not strictly RPGs, but rather sports,
shooters and strategy games with RPG elements. Anyway, the 5 games
below are must-plays for everyone. Check them all out!

#1 League of Legends

As a big fan of DotA and
Heroes of Newerth I loved League of Legends. The game is by Riot Games
and features unique anime style art. The game is distinctly different
than DotA in terms of both graphics and gameplay. Sure both games are
“Aeon of Strife” games, but League of Legends has an original cast of
heroes, while Heroes of Newerth copied many characters from DotA. The
only other game in the genre which is Heroes of Avalon from Alaplaya,
but I strongly recommend League of Legends of it, as it’s the best MMO
strategy / Aeon of Strife game out there.

#2 Lost Saga

OGPlanet really
surprised me with Lost Saga, as I was never a fan of Rumble Fighter,
LaTale or
even Cabal Online (OGPlanet
doesn’t even publish this anymore). Lost Saga is an incredibly fun
cartoony fighting MMO that plays like Rumble Fighter, except with much
more customization and playable characters. What’s really fun about the
game is that it has many games modes and numerous different ways to
play each mode. Players can really customize their character anyway
that they like, as each of the game’s many characters level up
independently from each other. If you like fighting MMOs, this one is a
must play.

#3 Grand Chase

Grand Chase from Ntreev isn’t exactly too
impressive in terms of graphics, but its a fun cooperative MMO. It’s
actually one of the only cooperative MMOs out there! I don’t know why,
as co-op games are always fun. Like Ntreev’s other games, Pangya and Trickster Online,
Grand Chase is an anime MMORPG.
Not one of those Cute
MMORPGs like Luna Online, but still
an anime themed game. The game is probably most like Lunia than anything else, as
the game is very linear. I really liked Grand Chase because I liked
Lunia. So if you’re into cooperative stage based MMOs, Grand Chase is
worth trying!

#4 Tales Runner

I’ve never been a big fan of
racing MMOs,
but for some reason I really like Tales Runner from gPotato! Aside from
Tales Runner the only other good game from gPotato is Aika Online and Fly
For Fun in my opinion. Tales Runner is fun because its an original
racing game. Every other racing MMO features cars, but Tales Runner
doesn’t! Instead, it’s a track racing MMO, meaning players race on foot.
The level designs are also really cool and challenging. If you’re even
remotely interested in racing games, do check out Tales Runner.

#5 Exteel

Exteel is a sweet mech themed sci-fi MMO
from NCsoft
that plays like games from the Armored Core series. You get to build
and customize your own mech and battle against other players online in
fast paced combat. Think of Exteel as S4 League or GunZ, but
with giant robots instead! Awesome right? Exteel’s strongest point is
definitely its super in depth customization. The game has like hundreds
of different pats that players can mix and match. Check this game out
asap if you never played it.

Micro Transactions in Pay to Play MMORPGs?

2010-06-19T05:04:00.000-07:00

Earlier last month World of Warcraft
had a short promotion. Players could purchase a celestial steed in game
(A special cool looking mount) for a one time payment of $25. Blizzard
Entertainment, the company behind WoW made over 4 million dollars in a
like 1 week. EverQuest II from Sony
Online Entertainment had a similar deal where players could buy an
in game pet for real life cash. They also made a lot of money. I used to
think “cash shops’ were supposed to be in free to play games. After
all, don’t pay
to play MMORPGs make money through subscriptions? They do, but
from the looks of what Everquest II and World of Warcraft did, it seems
like pay to play games like cash shops too. In my opinion this is
pretty stupid. Game developers are getting way too greedy. If they want
to make money from cash shops they should go free to play. Dungeons and
Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online from Turbine
used to be pay to play, but once they realized they can make good money
from cash shops, they went free to play. So if WoW and EQ2 want to run
cash shops, they should also go free to play. Making money from both
subscriptions and micro transactions are a bit ridiculous. Whoever pays
for these items in these subscription based games are crazy. They’re
already paying a fee every month just to play the game, and on top of
that they’re paying extra to get special items in game.

Games like World of Warcraft have subscriptions because they have enormous mmo
development costs. Age of Conan from Funcom
and Warhammer Online
from Electronic Arts
are also on the same boat. Star Wars: The old Republic from Bioware is
rumored to cost some EA some $100 million dollars. Thats A LOT of money.
These games want to recoup the development costs by charging a
subscription as they think that’s more profitable. I think World of
Warcraft is the only game that can actually charge a subscription these
days. It’s the most popular game. Most other pay to play games
including Warhammer Online and Age of Conan are in decline. If these
games went free to play, they could be making so much more money
through cash shops. So many pay to
play games went free to play in the past and made a lot of money
doing so. Obviously not all of them were successful. Archlord and RF Online both
used to be pay to play and are free to play today. I think Warhammer
Online should go free to play. I know I’d play it if it were F2P!

Anyway. To all the people spending real life dough for items in
games like WoW / EQ2, you guys are crazy. You already pay money every
month to play these games, there’s no need to pay extra just to get an
in game pet that does nothing. Seriously. The WoW mount did nothing
aside from look shiny!

Free to Play is Here to Stay

2010-06-10T00:22:00.001-07:00

Another major main stream video game developer jumped on the MMORPG bandwagon recently.
Ubisoft recently announced that they have 5+ unannounced free to play
MMORPG games in development. Ubisoft already announced one game –
Heroes of Might and Magic which TQ Digital is
publishing for them in Asia, but they have a bunch of other games in
the pipeline. Ubisoft is the fourth major game developer to jump on the
free to play bandwagon. Free to play games like MapleStory from Nexon and Perfect
World from Perfect
World Entertainment have always been big in the East, but they’ve
just recently grown big in the U.S. And the West. Electronic
Arts was the first major Western game developer to begin embracing
the free to play model. Their first game was Battlefield
Heroes but they now publish many more including RayCity, FIFA Online, Battleforge
and Lord of Ultima.
They also announced their intentions to bring all of their major
franchises to F2P. That’s quite a commitment.

In late 2009 Sony even began embracing the genre. Their first free
to play was Free Realms, which
today has over 7 million registered users. The game is largely aimed at
teens, but it’s a lot of fun. Now that Free Realms has been such a big
success, Sony announced that they are working on another casual MMORPG
– Clone Wars
Adventures. Turbine also embraced
the genre last year with Dungeons and
Dragons Online going free to play. Just recently (Early June),
they further embraced the gene by announcing The
Lord of the Rings Online going fully free to play. This bit of news
was released after Turbine was acquired by Warner Brothers. I know Lord
of the Rings Online was a big money maker for Turbine – so it looks
like they’re taking a big gamble with this decision. I predict Lord of
the Rings Online will be much more popular and profitable once it
becomes free to play though. After all, Dungeons and Dragons Online
exploded in popularity only after it went free to play.

With more and more Western developers embracing free to play, I
wonder how long till more the less popular pay to play MMORPGs go free
to play? I bet Warhammer Online
and Champions Online
could make a killing as free to play games, just as Dungeons and
Dragons Online did.

Good Action MMORPG Games

2010-06-01T16:59:00.001-07:00

I have to admit. I’m a fan of action MMORPGs.
Games like GhostX,
Dungeons and
Dragons Online and Dragonica Online
have some of the best combat of any MMORPG. I’m not saying they’re the
best games, I’m just saying that they have genuinely fun combat. I guess
I’ve grown a liking for these types of games after playing boring
point and click games for years. Well, the games themselves aren’t
boring, just the combat is. I remember when I used to play Ragnarok
Online or Requiem from Gravity,
I would just click on an enemy and wait till they died. That’s it.
That’s how combat worked. Heck, this is how combat works in MOST MMORPG
games. Point and click combat is the “norm”. Luckily, newer games like Battle of the
Immortals from Perfect
World Entertainment and Mytheon from TrueGames are
trying to change things. Both of these games have stellar “hands on”
combat which actually requires play input. No more clicking and waiting.
I have to say I’m very impressed with both of these titles.

Mytheon Screenshot

Action MMORPGs are
really starting to evolve too. They used to be super “niche”, as in
there were only a handful of them in the entire MMO market, but things
are changing now. There are a bunch of awesome upcoming action MMORPGs.
Divine
Souls from Outspark for example
looks really awesome. The game has gorgeous 3D graphics and fast paced
combat (based on the trailers). The only downside to it is the game only
has four classes, and they’re all gender locked. Hopefully Divine
Souls will be more fun than Erebus: Travia Reborn. I had a chance to
play Erebus during its closed beta, and I wasn’t a fan a tall. Another
cool upcoming action MMO is Vindictus from Nexon. This
is probably one of the most hyped free to play MMOs EVER, but based on
the trailers the game looks quite epic. The game is still in open beta
in Korea and is expected to launch in the U.S. Sometime in late 2010.
It’s interesting seeing Nexon release Vidinctus, as the game is
incredibly violent and Nexon is known for more “kiddy” games like MapleStory
and Mabinogi.

Vindictus Screenshot

There are a bunch of other cool action MMORPGs coming out that I
didn’t mention too. From the looks of it, 2010 will be awesome year for
the genre. Hopefully “action” MMORPGs become the “norm”, as I’m
getting quite tired of point and click games.

Aion Needs a Free Trial

2010-05-30T10:27:00.001-07:00

Every single major pay to play MMORPG from World of Warcraft
to the more obscure Nexus: Kingdom of the Winds has an MMORPG free trial.
Gamers today can practically play ANY MMORPG for free, including the
pay to play ones, even if its just for a short while. Heck, I tried out
both Pirates
of the Burning Sea and Poxnora the other day. I
didn’t really like either, but after trying those games I wanted to
give NCSoft’s newest title Aion a try, but to my surprise they don’t
offer a free trial. NCSoft offers a free trial for their other games
including Guild Wars and City of Heroes,
but they don’t offer a free trial for Aion. That’s absolutely nuts.
There’s no way I’m going to fork over $30+ to purchase Aion without at
least trying the game first.

I’ve actually paid for numerous MMORPGs in the past. I’ve held a
subscription for Ultima Online and
Dark Age of
Camelot for years. Same with World of Warcraft. I got into both of
these MMORPGs through free trials. World of Warcraft, Ultima Online and
Dark Age of Camelot all offer 14 day free trials which let gamers get a
good feel for the game. I honestly think NCSoft is losing out on some
serious cash as well as players by not offering a free trial. I’ve seen
so many awesome HD trailers for Aion, but I’ll never give the game a
chance because it doesn’t have a free trial.

Seriously though, what on earth is NCSoft thinking? Even obscure pay
to play MMORPGs like Alganon, Age of Conan: Hyborian
Adventures and Star Wars
Galaxies offer free trials. NCSoft needs to wake up and step it up.
Come to think of it, Star Trek Online doesn’t have a free trial either.
How dumb is that? That’s another game I wanted to try, but I can’t.
There’s no way i’ll buy a game without trying it so, Atari is also
screwing themselves over.

Lag in MMORPGs

2010-05-28T08:01:00.001-07:00

Even with my 25 MB/s Verizon Fios internet connection, I’ve found
that I lag in a select few MMORPGs and MMO Games. After some investigating, I’ve
learned that I only experience lag when I play games that are hosted
outside of the United States. Games like S4 League and Land of Chaos
Online from Alaplaya for example
are hosted in Europe. These games are AVAILABLE in the United States and
in other parts of the world, but the game servers themselves are
hosted in Europe. This means that players outside of Europe will
experience some lag. Not all games hosted in Europe or outside of North
America lag for me though. Games like Priston Tale 2 and Emil Chronicle
Online for example are both hosted outside of North America, but I
don’t have any lag with them. Priston Tale 2 is by
GamerKraft in Europe and Emil Chronicle Online is hosted in Singapore by
Gravity
(Yes, they’re the same company who develops Ragnarok Online).

So Why do some games lag and others don’t? Well i’ve concluded that I
never lag in games hosted within North America. So I’ve concluded that
games hosted outside of the U.S. And have bad servers are most likely
to lag. I actually don’t mind lag too much in MMORPGs, but lag in MMOFPS
games like S4 League and Soldier Front are the
worst. Lagging in an FPS is a really quick way to get yourself killed. I
was playing Battle of Destiny
the other day from Cubizone and I really didn’t mind the game’s slight
lag. I mean, I noticed it, as the game is hosted in Malaysia, but lag
doesn’t really adversely effect the game too much if its barely
noticeable and it happens in a non-pvp heavy MMORPG. I remember I used
to play Perfect World on the
Cubizone servers before the international version came out as I hated
the lag. Luckily the international version is hosted by the developer – Perfect
World Entertainment, meaning new updates are implemented right
away.

Anyway guys. If you see yourself lagging in a game, check to see
where the servers are located before you start getting angry at your
computer or your ISP!

We need more Sports MMOs

2010-05-26T02:42:00.001-07:00

Come to think of it, with all the fantasy MMORPGs,
MMOFPS
and Strategy
MMORPGs on the market, there really aren’t that many sports MMOs.
I mean, there are some with the popular ones being FreeStyle
Street Basketball and MLB Dugout Heroes.
Plus there are a bunch of random fighting MMOs which can be classified
as sports – games like Lost Saga and Rumble
Fighter for example. My problem with the genre is that there
aren’t enough unique sports MMOs. I mean, as of this writing there
aren’t any swimming MMOs, American Football MMOs or Hockey MMOs (though
Hockey
Dash is in development from OG Planet). In fact there are
countless sports out there that have no MMOs!

It sucks that there are TWO golf MMOs, Shot Online and Pangya (Which
is from Ntreev),
but not a single client based American Football MMO. American Football is MUCH bigger than
Golf – so why on earth are there two golfing MMOs and no football
ones? No idea. Heck these golfing games have been around for years now.
MLB Dugout Heroes, the baseball themed MMO by GamesCampus released
late 2009. I can’t believe it took so long for a baseball themed game
to release. Baseball is only one of the most popular sports in the
world. I’m not sure which is more popular though – Baseball of Football.
I just know they’re both big industries.

Know what sport would make an awesome MMO? Wrestling! Even boxing
would be interesting. The current fighting games aren’t at all
realistic, so I’m discounting them. None of them even focus on boxing /
wrestling anyway. I think a boxing MMO could do really well though.
Provided it was well developed. Another interesting sports MMO would be
a track and field game. I know gPotato has Tales
Runner, but that’s more of a racing MMO than anything else. A track
and field game would have multiple ‘events’ in it aside from just
track racing.

Anyone else interested in new sports MMOs or is it just me?

Kingdom Heroes MMORPG

2010-05-24T23:16:00.001-07:00

Kingdom Heroes is a
new 3D MMORPG by Aeria
Games with a fantasy theme. It is set during the period of the
Three Kingdoms, which for some reason, is an extremely popular theme
amongst Chinese MMORPGs.
Games like Heroes of
Three Kingdoms, Three Kingdoms: The
Battle Begins and Warriors
of the Three Kingdoms for example are all set during the exact same
time period. The names can get confusing, I know. The game is
currently in closed beta, but for some reason I was able to log in to
the game without a beta key, so maybe you don’t even need one?

After a few days or playing, or maybe I should say not playing, I’m
level 50. I say ‘not playing’, because Kingdom Heroes is one of those
games you can leave on and the game will sort of play for you. No, it’s
not exactly like Godswar Online or Battle of the
Immortals, but the game has this soldier system, where soldiers
(your pets) can be set to attack nearby enemies automatically. The way
to gain experience easily is to set your soldiers to attack nearby
enemies (weak ones, so your soldiers never die) and then go do something
else while leaving the game running. I found leaving the game on over
night to be the most effective way to level up.

You could say this ruins the game, but I find it to be interesting
as no one really plays Kingdom Heroes for it’s PvE elements. Kingdom
Heroes is a PvP MMORPG,
meaning the PvP is really the game’s main attraction. So the whole
easy AFK leveling system sort of works well. Though it makes me
question the reason behind it. Why put up the charade? Why not let
players start at max level automatically so they can jump right into the
PvP rather than leaving their PCs on leveling their characters for a
week. I can tell though, even though I’m still playing Kingdom Heroes, I
expect to quit it within a week. The whole auto leveling will make the
game boring in the end. After all, I’m spending more time NOT playing
Kingdom Heroes than actually playing it.

I guess I should stick with the best fantasy
MMORPGs instead of playing random ones. The reason I’m even playing
Kingdom Heroes is that I recently quit Allods Online from gPotato
and got bored of playing Trickster Online
from Ntreev.
So I have a lot of free time.

Upcoming MMORPGs That Look Good

2010-05-20T22:43:00.001-07:00

There are a few upcoming MMORPGs that look good.
I’m not talking about games like Maestia and Vindictus
that are still upwards of a year away from release. I’m talking about
free MMORPGs that are currently in closed beta and should release within
the next few months. One of these games is Camon Hero from Uforia.
The game mixes fantasy MMORPG and trading card game elements to create a
unique strategy experience. Plus, the game’s brightly colored anime
inspired graphics look great. Another neat little aspect of the game is
that its supposed to be an action MMORPG
like GhostX
– meaning it’s not another boring point and click game.

Maestia Screenshot

Two other upcoming MMORPGs that look good are Blade Wars and Kingdom
Heroes. Both are pretty generic in terms of setting, as they’re
both fantasy MMORPGs. Blade Wars is 2D though while Kingdom Heroes is
3D. Blade Wars actually looks a lot like Dragon Oath, but that
isn’t surprising, as both games are published by the same developer –
ChangYou. Kingdom Heroes on the other hands looks awesome because of its
heavy emphasis on PvP. I like to think of Kingdom Heroes as a
competitor to Aika Online. I generally enjoy PvP MMORPGs,
so Kingdom Heroes is a game I plan to check out as soon as it releases
into open beta.

I’m also looking forward to Need for
Speed World from Electronic Arts. I can’t say I’ve been a big fan of
Electronic Arts regarding their console games, but they’ve been doing a
splendid job releasing high quality free to play MMOs. Their first
free to play title was Battlefield Heroes
which was top notch. Then they released Battleforge and Lord of Ultima
– both great games. I’d love to see more free to play titles from EA.
They’ve already proven to me that they can make great games.

Battlefield Heroes
Screenshot

Are there any other really interesting new MMORPGs on the horizon that are close
to being released that I missed? If so, let me know in the comments.

Obscure MMOs Worth Playing

2010-05-17T20:06:00.001-07:00

There are so many MMOs out there, it’s hard to pick one to play. I’m
a big fan of MMOFPS games, but I also like to try other things as
well, so I decided to throw up a short list of free to play non-MMOFPS
games that are worth checking out. This list will largely focus on
obscure MMOs that most people have never heard of or played. It’s
amazing how many awesome games are that aren’t MMOFPSs
and many people don’t play.

Anyway. The first game on my list is Lost Saga by OGPlanet.
The game to me feels like a successor the popular Rumble Fighter,
as the game just offers so much more than Rumble Fighter. It has 20+
playable characters, enormous variety and simple yet fun gameplay. Plus
players can mix and match equipment from all characters to create a
truly unique fighter. The game is definitely under rated and deserves a
much higher playerbase. As is, it’s definitely my favorite free to play MMO
fighting game, with Mini Fighter Online
a distant second.

Next up is Ace Online from
SubaGames. Ace Online online is a fast paced MMO where players control
futuristic fighter jets called ‘Gears’. Think of it as Star Fox, but an
MMO. Sounds awesome, right? It is. I’ve been a fan of Star Fox, so I
fell in love with Ace Online right away. The game has some awesome
faction vs faction battles with have hundreds of players fighting it out
at once while look absolutely incredible. If you’re a fan of Star Fox
games, Ace Online is well worth checking out.

Two other games I wanted to mention are Carom3D and Valkyrie
Sky. Carom3D is a billiards MMO and Valkyrie Sky is a horizontal
shooter with MMO elements. I’ve never played billiards in real life, but
I’m a big fan of Carom3D, as it’s an unusually fun game. It’s simple
to learn, but extremely competitive. Valkyrie Sky is fun because it
feels like a classical arcade game, but with cooperative gameplay. It’s
also pretty difficult, so just completing a stage late in the game
feels very rewarding.

Before I wrap up, I want to mention two more awesome MMOs which
deserve more attention. The first is FreeStyle
Street basketball by GameKiss and the second
is League of Legends
from Riot Games. FreeStyle: Street Basketball is enormously popular in
Korea, but the game has such a low playerbase in North America. It
deserves so much more. I personally don’t even follow basketball or care
much for it, but FreeStyle is so simple and fun. It’s without a doubt
my favorite sports MMO.
Seriously, do yourself a favor and try it. League of Legends on the
other hand, is a bit more popular, but it still deserves to be more
popular. It’s an incredible free to play ‘DotA’ like game with 50+
unique heroes and silk smooth gameplay. It’s easily one of my favorite
MMOs of all times.

Anyway guys, that’s it for my short list of awesome MMOs worth
checking out. Let me know what you think in the comments.

There are a lot of Dancing MMOs

2010-05-15T12:08:00.001-07:00

Anyone wondering why there are so many free to play dancing MMOs out
there? You know, games like Dance Online and Audition
Online. It seems like there are a decent amount of these games. I
think its a bit silly because all of these games play essentially the
same. Seriously, if you’ve played Dance Online you might as well have
played audition. They’re basically the same game with a different
interface. Both titles borrow heavily from the enormously popular
Dance-Dance-Revolution game as well as Stepmania for the PC.

One of the only interesting dancing games in my opinion is 5Street from
Snail Games. Snail Games also publishes Age of Armor and Heroes of Gaia
and that’s it. It’s funny though both of those other games aren’t
really that unique but 5Street is. Basically 5Street offers the same
exact dancing gameplay that Audition and Dance Online do, except with a
great social experience built it. 5Street is also a virtual world, so
players can walk around, explore, talk and socialize. In fact, the game
promotes this by offering so many different emoticons, player housing
and much more. I’m not saying 5Street is a great game either, as the
game has some terrible translations, but in my opinion its the best
dancing MMO.

Aside from these games there are a few other rhythm based games.
Osu! Is the only other I can think of. It’s fun and free to play which
makes it win in my book. I don’t think there are any other social MMORPGs
with dancing other than 5Street though, which is a shame as the social
components in 5Street are pretty fun. I guess it’s no surprise that all
of these games are extremely similar, as free to play developers love
copying each other. After all, look how many WoW clones
there are out there. Free to play ones like Runes of Magic and Allods
Online are actually pretty popular as well. So if copying works,
why bother trying to make anything new?

If I missed any Dancing MMOs, do let me know if the comments below,
but I think I got them all.

MMORPG Questing Needs to Get Better

2010-05-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

Questing
in MMORPG Games both pay to play and free to play need a lot of
work. I think quests in MMORPGs
should be a lot more than just ‘Go kill X enemies and come back to me
for a reward’. Questing should be more immervise. Players should feel
that completing a quest actually does something, but that unfortunately
isn’t the case. Even epic pay to play MMORPGs like Warhammer
Online and Lineage 2 fail to
create this sense of immersion. Free to play games are the same way.
From Age of Armor to Xiah
Rebirth, questing usually involves killing a series of enemies
without any real sense of purpose.

This isn’t always a big deal and a lot of games actually handle
questing really well. MapleStory for example
has a lot of fun silly quests that involve platforming. Platforming
quests in MapleStory usually involve jumping from one rope to another
or from one platform to another without falling off. It may sound easy,
but it can be ridiculously difficult. MapleStory doesn’t try to create
an atmosphere of epic seriousness, so these types of quests fit
perfectly fine in the game world. On a side note, MapleStory is one of
the longest
running free MMORPGs out there, so respect it!

Another interesting observation I’ve made is that questing in MMO
games (non RPGs) is practically non existent. Think about it. Have you
ever completed a quest in an MMOFPS or MMO Dancing game? Think about
it. MMO Shooters like S4 League, Mercenary
Wars and Soldier Front don’t
have any questing what-so-ever. Other MMOs like Project Torque
and Project Powder are
the same exact way. I think MMORPG
publishers and developers really need to think a bit harder about
questing and create something that’s a bit more enjoyable and unique.

Will Ragnarok Online 2 Ever Release?

2010-05-09T18:22:00.001-07:00

Ragnarok Online was
one of the first free to play MMORPGs that I’ve ever played.
It’s also a game that I feel really attached to, as I ran my own private
server for the game. Come to think of it, I played Ragnarok Online
quite a bit. I’m very happy that Gravity, the game’s developer, decided
to launch their own free server for the game. Prior to the launch of
Valkyrie, the game’s free server, I was playing the game for free on
other private servers. I actually felt bad about doing this, as I wanted
to support Gravity for making such an awesome game. Now that they have
their own free server, I can support them by playing on it. Back when
Ragnarok Online first came out, many years ago, there really weren’t
any free to play games. The only I could think of that were available
back then were MapleStory and RuneScape.
Those two games really got the ball rolling – as each of those games
today boasts over 60 million registered users worldwide. That’s pretty
impressive.

Ever since I first learned about Ragnarok Online 2 in 2005 or so, I
was really excited. I always loved Ragnarok, so a full 3D version of
the game looked awesome. Unfortunately though, Ragnarok Online 2 still
hasn’t been released in North America. I don’t even know if its
available in Korea. The game was announced over 5 years ago and still
hasn’t come out. This makes me think that its going to join the losers
club with Priston Tale 2, Huxley: The
Dystopia and Dance Groove Online
as a game that’s never going to come out. This is definitely
unfortunate, as based on the trailers available, Ragnarok Online 2
looked awesome. I was personally excited about the game because the
first game was amazing. Arguably one of the best free MMORPGs ever.

Even though Ragnarok Online 2 looked amazing back in 2005, I don’t
think the game looks as amazing today. The game’s sleek 3D graphics
look old today compared to graphical wonders like Allods Online
and RayCity.
I think Gravity should just release the game already. If they wait any
longer, the graphics will be so obsolete, no one would play it .
Anyone else waiting for Ragnarok Online 2 to release, or am I the only
one?

Browser MMOs Are Accessible

2010-05-04T17:01:00.001-07:00

Sometimes when I’m trying to kill time I like to play a few browser MMORPGs. I
like browser based MMOs because not only are they fun, but they’re
easily accessible. Whether I’m on the road, at home, at a friend’s
house or at school I could easily sit down and play a browser MMO.
Games like Travian, Heroes of Gaia
and Heroes of Kung
Fu can easily be enjoyed in small doses. By small doses, I mean 5
minutes at a time. Client based 3D MMORPGs on
the other hand require a much larger time commitment. Don’t get me
wrong, I love client based games, but browser MMOs are much more
accessible, as they don’t need to be downloaded. Another thing
noteworthy is that client based games usually have to be played hours at
a time while browser MMOs can be played in small doses. In fact, most
browser games, especially strategy
MMORPGs are designed to be played for only 10-20 minutes a day.

Games like The Seventh
Dragon, Tribal Wars and War of Legends
are designed for limited play each day. Whether you sink 10 hours a day
into these games or 30 minutes a day, it makes no real difference.
There’s only so much to do each day. This is definitely an interesting
break from client based MMOs,
as in games like Jade Dynasty and World of Kung Fu,
things comes down to whoever sinks more time into the game. In order to
‘keep up’ with other players, you need to spend start committing hours
and hours of time into these games. As a gamer, I don’t mind doing
this, but when I get busy in real life with things like work and
school, I can always kick back and take a break from client based games
and play browser MMOs.

One last thing on the topic of accessibility. Browser based MMOs
tend to have minimal system requirements. Pretty much ANY PC can run
practically every browser game, except for maybe the few 3D ones like Quake
Live and Earth Eternal.
Newer 3D MMORPGs tend to demand more powerful computers with dedicated
graphics cards.

Anyone Else Tired of All These Tactical MMOFPS Games?

2010-04-29T09:49:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-27T08:58:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-25T01:49:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-22T06:03:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-04-18T23:27:00.001-07:00

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?

2010-04-17T21:16:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-16T22:26:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-15T15:16:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-07T14:47:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-05T14:58:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-03T20:28:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-02T00:36:00.001-07:00

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.

Weird Free to Play MMOs / MMORPGs

2010-03-23T23:17:00.001-07:00

With all the free to play MMORPGs and MMO Games out there, it’s
no surprise that some of them are just plain… weird. Here’s a short list
I compiled of five weird free to play games. They are in no particular
order.

Racing
Star: Come On Baby

Get this. A baby themed racing MMO.
Weird, right? What makes this game even more bizzare is that the babies
in it race at some 100+ km/h in their strollers. Whatever the game’s
developers were smoking when they made this game.. I want some of it!

Nanovor

Apparently there are cybernetic creatures
inside of our computers. Sounds a lot like Digimon, doesn’t it? This
game isn’t bad at all, but it’s designed for kids mostly. I’d skip this
one and play Digimon Battle
instead.

Secondhand Lands

Secondhand Lands centers around a weird
battle between Sheeps and Wolves, led by Little Bo Peep and Little Red
Riding Hood. Weird? Confusing? Yes. To make things even more bizzare
the game’s world is filled with random fairy tale characters like
Mother Goose and Humpty Dumpty.

Dungeon Party

This one was designed to be bizzare from
the get-go. Choose from one of three characters and find the hidden
treasure and take it out of the dungeon alive! Other players will try
to stop you while traps and enemies will also get in the way.

Crazy Tao

This is the exact same game as Eudemons and Conquer
Online except with cartoony graphics. It’s only on this list
because it’s weird that the company behind Eudemons and Conquer Online
would release the same game with different graphics.

Why Aren’t Turn Based MMORPGs More Popular?

2010-03-15T12:43:00.001-07:00

As a big fan of console RPGs, I’m a bit surprised that there are
only a handful of turn based free to play MMORPGs out there. You’d
imagine with the immense popularity of turn based single player RPGs
like the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series there would be boatloads
of free to play MMORPGs jumping on the turn based bandwagon, but that
isn’t the case.

There are a bunch of low quality turn based MMORPGs available, but
the only really high quality one I can think of is Ndoor’s Atlantica Online.
All of the other turn based MMORPGs Mythwar 2 Online, Altis Gates and Fairyland Online
just feel really cheap. Plus all of these 2D turn based MMORPGs all feel
like knock offs of each other. If you’ve played Zodiac Online
or Wonderland Online,
you’ll quickly notice that these games are incredibly similar. In
fact, they’re almost identical. So why aren’t there more good turn
based MMOs out there?

It can’t be because of a lack of demand. Atlantica Online is easily
one of the most popular and successful free to play MMORPGs out there
and it’s turn based. So there’s clearly demand for high quality turn
based MMOs out there. As an avid fan of RPGs like Final Fantasy,
Suikoden and Dragon Quest I’m always looking for new turn based MMORPGs
to try out, as franky, i’m a bit tired of all the WoW clones
(Allods
Online, Runes of Magic, Neo Online,
etc).

Where are all the Sci-fi MMORPGs?

2010-03-13T14:27:00.001-08:00

As a big fan of Scifi I’m a bit disappointed that there are so few free to play scifi MMORPGs out there. With well over 120+ fantasy MMORPGs, you’d think that one or two game developers would decide to put out a sci-fi game, but nope. That never seems to happen. MMORPG Devs seem to think fantasy is the way to go. As of now (March 13, 2010), the only free to play scifi themed MMORPGs are Megaten, RF Online, Zero Online, Project of Planets, GhostX, Anarchy Online and 2029 Online. Unfortunately every single one of these games are at least 2+ years old. There hasn’t been any new scifi themed MMORPGs in ages. Luckily, Black Prophecy may change that. For those of ya that haven’t heard of Black Prophecy, it’s a 3D Sci-fi MMORPG that aims to compete with Eve Online.

You’d think with the enormous popularity of Star Wars and Star Trek, there would be more similarly themed MMORPGs out there, but that isn’t the case. I guess you could argue that there are a few pay to play scifi themed MMORPGs, but I’m not a fan of paying for the MMORPGs I play =). Besides, I hear Star Trek Online is a total flop anyway. And that’s sad to hear. Atari and Cryptic could have done so much more with Star Trek Online.

One of the main reasons why I’m shocked to see so few scifi MMORPGs is that with so many fantasy games out there, you’d imagine game developers would try something new. I mean, what’s the point in competing with 100+ GOOD fantasy MMORPGs, when you could release a scifi game and only compete with 10 or so mediocre MMORPGs. I guess we Scifi fans have to wait until Black Prophecy to have our day.

A Pokemon MMORPG Would Rock

2010-03-12T07:39:00.001-08:00

Just think about it. How awesome would a free to play Pokemon MMORPG be? Hundreds of thousands of players could connect to one large game world where they could catch, train and battle Pokemon. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be that difficult to make. GameFreak, the developer behind the Pokemon games, could easily port Pokemon DIamond and Pearl to the PC and add a persistent world. I know both Diamond and Pearl had wi-fi multiplayer components, but an actual persistent world MMO would be so much more awesome. With hundreds of MMORPGs out there, the world needs a Pokemon MMO.

With millions of Pokemon fans out there, it wouldn’t be too farfetched to assume that a decently made Pokemon MMORPG would be an instant hit. Nintendo needs to get on the ball and get into the free to place space before it’s too late. Wemade’s Digimon Battle, a free to play Digimon MMORPG, is scheduled to launch late March. I don’t know about you guys but Digimon always felt like a second-rate Pokemon to me, so seeing that succeed while a potential blockbuster like Pokemon would suck. With games like Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic, MapleStory and Grand Fantasia making money hand over fist, there’s really no reason for Nintendo NOT to release a pokemon MMORPG.

Are PvP MMORPGs The Future?

2010-03-12T07:30:00.001-08:00

MMORPG publishers seem to think so. Aeria Games recently announced Kingdom Heroes which promises “Large scale kingdom warfare” while gPotato’s PvP heavy MMORPG Aika is scheduled to begin its Open Beta on March 16. Even more recently, Gamigo announced that they would be publishing King of Kings 3, a Taiwanese MMORPG that boasts PvP battles that can accommodate up to 10,000 players in a single battlefield. The one thing all of these games along with many other upcoming titles have in common is that they all have a strong emphasis on PvP combat. For some reason, it seems like every major MMORPG publishers is jumping on the Realm vs Realm PvP band wagon.

What do you guys think? Do you guys actually want more PvP in your MMORPGs? Personally, I don’t think making an MMORPG with PvP the sole focus is good idea. After all, the most successful games don’t focus entirely on PvP. I think a game needs the right balance of PvP and PvE to suceed, but game publishers seem to think gamers want more PvP MMORPGs.

Anyway, leave your comments below.

We Need More MMO Racing Games

2010-03-11T11:09:00.001-08:00

Even though there are hundreds of free to play MMORPG and MMO games on the market, there really aren’t enough MMO racing games out there. In fact, the only MMO racing games I can think of off the top of my head are Project Torque, Project Powder, Tales Runner, Drift City and Upshift Strikeracer. These games are all decent at best and what really bugs me is that there aren’t any real popular MMO Racing games. Nexon used to publish an awesome kart racing MMO called Kart Rider, but since it’s open beta 3+ years ago, there hasn’t been any word on whether the game will ever be released or not. I don’t know about you guys, but I think Kart Rider was awesome. It was sort of a free to play Mario Kart style MMO.

Another reason why we need more racing MMOs is that so many of them have shut down. Games like Kart n’ Crazy and GoGo Racer have all closed their doors. I can’t imagine why these games aren’t popular, because racing games have always been enormously successful on consoles. I guess these MMOs are failing because of poor marketing, because Kart N’ Crazy was mad fun. If it were still around today, I would play it. I guess people like playing WoW Clones instead of fun racing MMOs, because new WoW clones like Allods Online and NEO Online are absurdly popular. What on Earth do people see in these games? I mean, they’re alright, but nothing ‘new’.

Awesome New Free MMORPG

2010-02-28T02:08:00.001-08:00

After playing Allods Online for a week now, I’ve concluded that it’s absolutely ridiculous to pay $14.99 a month just to play World of Warcraft. I mean, WoW is a solid game, but with so many alternatives out there at zero cost, it makes no sense to pay for WoW. Both Runes of Magic and Allods Online are equal to WoW both in terms of graphics and gameplay. In fact, the free to play universe offers an incredible amount of variety. Those looking for something similar to console RPGs can enjoy games like Atlantica Online and Zodiac online while gamers who prefer something a bit ‘cuter’ can enjoy Cloud Nine or Bright Shadow. The fact is that there are so many awesome free to play alternatives to Blizzard’s game.

Aside from variety, what amazes me most about the f2p genre is the quality. Sure there are a boatloads of low quality games out there – think Martial Heroes / Corum Online / Crazy Tao. There are a dozen or so games though that really stand out. Games that I would be more than willing to pay to play, but I don’t have to. Allods is certainly one of those games. As a gamer, I love the direction that MMOs are going. Gamers are getting better games at a lower cost. Sometimes zero cost. One day, even MMORPG juggernauts like Eve Online and World of Warcraft will go free to play. It’s inevitable.

I’m currently playing Allods Online, and I recommend the game to anyone looking for a new free to play MMORPG to try. It plays a lot like WoW, but has even better graphics and more variety in terms of gameplay. The environments are also gorgeous, as they feel immersive. I’m playing on the Tenese server, or however it’s spelled. The experience rate is incredibly slow, but that’s not a huge deal, because the level cap is only 40.

Free MMOs and MMORPGs in 2010

2010-01-20T00:10:00.000-08:00
Free to play games have taken off in the past few years and have given us such top notch titles such as Perfect World and Alliance of Valiant Arms (or A.V.A for short.) There are now over a hundred free online PC games available with even more scheduled to be released in 2010.

Many free MMORPGs and MMOs are scheduled for release including Kung Foo! and Allods Online but I still find myself playing many older titles that have been around for years.

Hero Online is old Asian MMORPG by Netgame that's been around for a while now but is still one of the more popular games on the Netgame portal. Last Chaos and Shaiya are two other games that can't be described as 'new' but still offer great traditional fantasy MMORPG experiences. The latter also has a great PvP system which keeps it interesting for a long time.

MMOFPS games are some of my favorite mainly because they are easy to learn and quick to jump into. Just install and you're good to go. No grinding required before players can access most of the content. Besides the aforementioned AVA, KOS Secret Operations has been a recent obsession of mine. Nexon's Combat Arms is still the most popular free FPS as far as I can tell but there are plenty of options available today for gamer sof all tastes. Fancy the third person perspective? Than just download S4 League or GunZ: The Duel!

The past year has seen more than just the release of a larger quantity of free games, it has also heralded the opening of more genres to the f2p model. The Warcraft 3 custom map Defense of the Ancients (or DotA for short) is widely popular across the world but always required players to have the retail WC3 client installed. Fans of the game may be surprized to hear that a free to play sequel is now available and is even designed by many of the people associated with the original such as Guinsoo and Pendragon! The game goes by the name League of Legends and is similarly an AoS (Aion of Strife) where two teams of up to 5 players each battle to destroy the opposing base.

A classic PC gaming genre has also received new life in the free to play market. RTS is one of the most quintessentially PC gaming genres, even after repeated attempts consoles just haven't gotten the formula of commanding dozens of troops right. Luckily EA's BattleForge is available as a free download and mixes classic strategy gameplay with a trading card game element to craft a truly unique experience that can be enjoyed for free or with the aid of micro payments for additonal content.

I don't know about you but I'm excited to see what new innovations 2010 will bring. Will we see even more publishers move into the free MMO space? Let's wait and see!

MMORPG Clones are Getting Better

2010-01-13T18:42:00.001-08:00

It seems like every new World of Warcraft clone is getting closer and closer to the real things. The first WoW clone I remember playing is Talisman Online. Even though the graphics were quite poor the game’s skill icons were copied and pasted directly from Blizzard’s game. Of course, things got better. Gates of Andaron was the next big WoW clone. The graphics and interface were very similar to World of Warcraft, except a tad bit worse. Next comes Runes of Magic, the ultimate WoW clone. Both in terms of gameplay and graphics Runes of Magic did a phenomenal job copying World of Warcraft. I would say its safe to call Runes of Magic a free to play version of WoW. The only real difference is that WoW has a lot more content than Runes of Magic, but I’m sure Frogster, Runes of Magic’s developer, will be releasing more content in due time. It’s really not too surprising that all of these games have copied World of Warcraft. The game is after all the most popular pay to play MMORPG of all time.

World of Warcraft isn’t the only MMORPG spawning clones. MapleStory, which basically pioneered the free to play MMORPG genre, has quite a handful of clones as well. The game does boast over 100 million accounts world – so even a small piece of that 100 million user pie is pretty big. Right now there are three big MapleStory clones and they are Wind Slayer, LaTale and WonderKing. Out of these three MapleStory clones, WonderKing is definitely the best, as it actually has many unique features that MapleStory doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a MapleStory clone as the game both looks and plays almost exactly like MapleStory.

Imitation is the ultimate form of flattery. So long as there are successful games there will be clones. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing though. Runes of Magic is an extremely high quality game and it brought the high quality ‘pay to play’ feel of World of Warcraft to the free to play world. WonderKing took a popular game and enhanced it by adding new features. All of these clones also give gamers additional choice. Anyone who liked MapleStory but became burnt out of it should definitely enjoy playing WonderKing, as it’s a bit different. All of these ‘clones’ will also force the original game developers to keep updating their games and releasing new features. If MapleStory wants to keep retain their players, they’ll need to start competing with all of these new ’similar’ games. All of this may be trouble for game developers, but it’s a great thing for gamers.

Free to Play MMORPGs in 2010

2009-12-25T19:44:00.001-08:00

As 2009 comes to a close, I think it only makes some sense for us to celebrate some of the best MMORPGs of the year. Free to play titles like Runes of Magic and Grand Fantasia and Atlantica Online really raised the ‘quality’ bar for free to play games. MMOs like Lost Saga and League of Legends blew a breath of fresh air into the genre. On top of all that – Electronic Arts and Sony both entered the free to play space in 2009. EA released two titles – Battlefield Heroes, a cartoony MMOFPS game, and Battleforge, an incredibly unique MMORTS. Sony penetrated the market with Free Realms, a casual and fun fantasy, that now has over four million registerd users. Hopefully these two entertainment giants continue to release quality new games into the space in 2010.

I suspect that 2010 will not only attract the attention of big western game developers but also Chinese gaming companies. The whole ‘free to play’ scene is still pretty ‘niche’ in North America, but in Asia F2P has almost always been huge. Perfect World Co – the guys behind Perfect World, Ether Saga Online and Jade Dynasty have had enormous success in North America. The guys behind Evony and Empire Craft have also had a lot of success. This success will lead to even more foreign companies entering the lucrative F2P space. All of this new competition will lead to one thing – more games. As a gamer I’m very excited about 2010. 2009 has some great games that really revolutionized the genre and if the quality of these free to play titles keep improving I can’t imagine why anyone would want to subscribe to a pay to play title like Eve Online or Warhammer Online. The only way I can see some of these pay to play titles ’surviving’ is if they go free to play, as there really is no reason to pay for mediocre titles when there are countless great free to play alternatives. With subscription revenues for games like Everquest and Warhamer Online steadily declining – going free to play may be the only way to boost revenues and attract more users.Heck,

Hopefully we see some killer releases in 2010. I know Allods Online should be release dsometime in mid to late January. That should really kick off the new year on a high note – as Allods is one of the highest budget free to play MMORPGs ever, and an incredibly fun game from my experience. Anyway guys, I look forward to seeing what 2010 has to offer!

Pay to Play Vs Free to Play MMORPGs

2009-12-05T21:35:00.001-08:00

There are numerous MMORPGs that originally launched as ‘pay to play’ titles but have later relaunched themselves as free to play. Many of these once pay to play MMORPGs have been much more successful as free to play games than back when they collection subscription revenues. Dungeons and Dragons Online for example, which launched in 2006 with a $14.99 /month price tag but is now free to play, earns 40% more subscription revenues today as a free to play game than it did when it was pay to play. This means that many more people are today ‘voluntarily’ subscribing to the game (For added benefits) when they could be enjoying it for free. Fernando Paitz, the game’s executive producer said in an interview with Ars Technica, “All aspects of our business are growing.” “Hundreds of thousands of new players in the world are playing for free, with a very high percentage using the store.” Obviously Turbine had a lot of success with Dungeons and Dragons Online’s transformation into a free to play game which may tempt the companies behind older pay to play MMORPGs like EverQuest and Ultima Online to consider going free to play or at least consider extending their MMORPG free trials.

Going free to play has its clear advantages and disadvantages. Games without subscription fees tend to appeal to a larger audience while axing the subscription fee results in lower revenues in the short term. Not every MMORPG that has gone free to play has been successful either – Fury for example, which launched in 2007 with a subscription fee, went free to play sometime in late 07’ and shut down a few months after going free. Shadowbane also tried to ‘relaunch’ itself as a free to play game in order to survive, as its subscription revenues have been in decline for years, but unfortunately failed. The game was officially shut down on July 1, 2009. There are a lot of knockoffs out there for pay to play games that haven’t gone free to play. World of Warcraft for example has many knockoffs – Runes of Magic and Gates of Andaron being the two most popular.

Some new MMORPG Ideas

2009-11-29T19:07:00.001-08:00

Personally, I’m a bit tired of the endlessly recycled MMORPG ideas which have been floating around for years now. Fantasy MMORPGs like Atlantica Online, Perfect World and Ether Saga Online are all good games, but we need some ‘fresh’ ideas to keep things interesting. One idea which I feel should be considered is a platforming MMO. It could be ‘room’ based like all the shooting MMOs out there and would feature many different maps where the ultimate goal would be to get to the end of the stage while avoiding obstacles and enemies. It could have multiple game modes – one being a Mario style level based game with cooperative gameplay or even a ‘racing’ game where the first one to finish the map first wins. This obviously isn’t a completely unique idea – but it would be original in the realm of MMOs.

A ‘massive’ space themed MMORPG like Eve Online, except free to play would also be a fairly original idea in the free to play scene. There are currently no games like Eve Online that are free to play. There are a few decent Scifi MMORPGs, but nothing nearly as immersive as Eve. I do believe there is one game currently in development, called Jumpgate Evolution, but it’s expected to be pay to play. It’s crazy how many fantasy themed free to play MMORPGs there are out there but not a single game like Eve Online. The only game even remotely like Eve Online that’s free to play is a browser game called Dark Orbit, but it’s fairly boring IMHO.

A ‘swimming’ themed sport MMO would be another interesting idea. I mean, there’s an MMO for nearly every single sport from golfing (Pangya) to basketball (FreeStyle: Street Basketball) to hockey (Slapshot) so it makes sense to make a swimming MMO or even a boxing MMO. Heck, there’s even a soccer, baseball and a tennis MMO out there – so it’s kind of lame that no game developer stepped up to make a swimming themed game or even a volleyball MMO. If there’s a market for a basketball or golfing MMO there has to be a market for other sports MMOs as well.

Lastly, I’d like to see a modern themed MMORPG rather than Scifi or fantasy. It seems like the only ‘modern themed’ games are MMOs these days (Like Crimcraft and Alliance of Valiant Arms), but I could see an MMORPG do well with a modern theme. I can’t see any Asian game developers trying to make a modern themed MMO though – as it seems like all Korean and Japanese game developers these days are only churning out ‘anime’ inspired games. So for a modern themed MMORPG to really work a prominent Western developer would have to take a crack at it.

I guess the point of this post is to try and urge game developers to try new ideas. Fantasy MMORPGs are fun and all but they do get a tad repetitive.

Gamers prefer classic MMORPGs

2009-11-28T11:34:00.001-08:00

Even though new free MMORPG games are released practically every week – the most popular free to play games are still the same games that were popular 2-3 years ago. The reason for this is clear – MMORPG gamers seem to prefer classic games like Silkroad Online and MapleStory over ‘newer’ MMOs like Cloud Nine, Bright Shadow and Battle of Destiny. This is likely due to a combination of two things. Firstly, these older games are more established – as in they already have a large community and since they’ve been around for a long while they also tend to have more content. Secondly, older titles tend to be more compatible with older PCs. Newer more ‘visually appealing’ games like Atlantica Online and Gates of Andaron demand more powerful graphics cards. Now – that doesn’t make these game’s bad, but simply inaccessible to folks with weaker PCs.

Another reason why Gamers prefer classic MMORPGs is that a lot of newer free to play games just feel… cheap. Games like Luna Online and GhostX for example are ‘alright’ games, but have terribly poor English translations which really take away from the overall gaming experience. Not all ‘newer’ free to play games suffer from this though – Dungeons and Dragons Online, which used to be pay to play at one time, has excellent graphics, gameplay, music and pretty much everything else. The only issue with it is that it is a fairly demanding game. Believe it or not though, system requirements do hold a lot of people back – as many gamers out there still run really old computers. The most common monitor resolution TODAY is 1024×768! That’s insane! My resolution is 1920×1080! I couldn’t imagine going back to something like 1024×768.

Still though, system requirements set aside, it seems like gamers still prefer to play the classics over new games. Silkroad Online for example, still has like 30+ servers and it’s nearly impossible to log in to the game on the first try due to too many players. MapleStory has over 120 million registered users worldwide as well. So I guess the folks behind these classical MMORPGs are doing something right or the guys launching these newer games are doing something wrong. It’s one or the other.

MMOs vs MMORPGs

2009-11-24T14:19:00.001-08:00

Even though there are a boatload of free MMORPG games out there – they do get boring. Personally – I like to take a break from MMORPGs every once in a while and kick back and play some MMOs. I say ‘kick back’ because MMOs tend to require a lot less time commitment to enjoy. Most MMORPGs require an enormous investment of time before they really get good while MMOs can be enjoyed right away. There are an countless different Free MMO games out there from high octane tactical shooting MMOs like Alliance of Valiant Arms and WolfTeam to crazy racing MMOs like Tales Runner and Project Powder. These games tend to have a lot of depth as well – so they’re quite addictive. The fact that you can ‘level up’ and get new clothes / equipment makes these games all the more addictive.

MMORPGs on the other hand have their advantages as well. It’s hard to really ‘get into’ any MMO as it’s difficult for players to really connect with their character – as character development isn’t exactly a core focus of MMOs. When I’m playing an MMORPG I’m always more ‘focused’ because I tend to connect with my avatar and grow with him. There are also many more social elements in an MMORPG – as players need to cooperate quite a lot more in MMORPGs like Runes of Magic and Shaiya than in any MMO – because the only way to really ‘advance’ in these games is to work together with other people – whether those people are random people or guild mates. Don’t get me wrong – players need to work together in many MMOs as well – but nowhere as much as an MMORPG. Back when I used to play World of Warcraft – my guildies were like family to me. We would talk about all sorts of things completely unrelated to the game at times.

Obviously both MMOs and MMORPGs are enjoyable, just in a different kind of way. MMOs are sort of instant gratification – as they require little time commitment and are pretty straight forward. MMORPGs on the other hand require a bit more attention but are much deeper and more fun in the long run. I guess you can say MMOs are Instant Coffee while MMORPGs are Coffee beans that you have to grow yourself then roast. Whichever you fancy – there are plenty of both. So dig through the free mmorpg list on MMOHut and find something you like!

Hot MMORPG Babes

2009-11-23T15:16:00.001-08:00

One thing I noticed about most free to play MMORPGs is that they tend to have at least one big breasted female character – whether it’s an NPC or simply game art. Perhaps the game most ‘notorious’ for over utilizing big breasted women to attract gamers is Evony – a rather new strategy browser game. Nearly every single of the game’s banners feature some sort of inappropriately dressed chick in a provocative position. You really can’t blame the folks behind Evony though – as their marketing campaign has been an enormous success. Perhaps enormous success is an understatement – as games like Empire Craft and even Rappelz jumped on the scantily clad women advertising bandwagon.

[This is a Legit Evony Ad!]

Scantily clad women aren’t exclusive to advertising only. Most free to play MMORPGs have gorgeous women both in game and on their official websites. I’m particularly fond of the MMO babes on Atlantica Online and Runes of Magic. If you’re wondering which babes I’m talking about – just check out the ‘wallpapers’ section of both of those game’s and you’ll quickly see what I’m talking about. Atlantica Online is actually a really new MMORPG – so the graphics are top notch. Top notch graphics + MMORPG babes equals win. Fiesta Online also has some impressive chicks – though only in their fan art / wallpapers. Unlike Runes of Magic and Atlantica Online though, the babes in Fiesta are much more ‘anime inspired’ – making them more ‘traditional’. Shaiya and Gates of Andaron also have some attractive game babes. Shaiya actually shows off their game’s main ‘goddess’ babe (The purple chick) – as she’s on every single Shaiya advertisement. The Gates of Andaron chick is pretty hot as well – but she’s only on some of the game’s wallpapers. Most of these gaming babes are from fantasy MMORPGs. I don’t recall seeing any real good looking gaming babes in any scifi MMORPGs.

It’s funny though how effective it can be to slap a good looking anime chick on an advertisement or game art. A lot of people say it’s a bit ‘over the top’ or ‘silly’ to plaster a game with attractive game babes – but I’m all for it. After all – if I’m playing an MMORPG for hours on end – day after day, I might as well have some eye candy to enjoy. A few games do go a bit overboard though – but only a few. Luna Online is a fine example of a game that sort of crosses the line with their use of scantily clad women. If you ever see the ad – you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

What the Heck is Uforia Doing?

2009-11-20T10:41:00.001-08:00

Uforia is a relatively new free to play MMORPG publisher on the block – one of the newest actually. I really have no clue what they’re thinking though. You’d imagine that a NEW game publisher would try to ‘start off’ on a good foot by launching with some epic new games – but nope. Uforia launched their MMORPG service with a fairly old game called NosTale. NosTale isn’t bad – but the game was already being published in North America by another game company – so it didn’t exactly make sense for Uforia to publish it as well. The second game Uforia launched was Red War : Edem’s Curse – which is an incredibly ugly game that has worse graphics than the original Diablo, which launched somewhere in 1997 I think. Why on Earth would a brand new company start off their MMORPG publishing business with two…. bad games? Maybe Uforia was just pulling our leg though – their next game has to be better.

Three Kingdoms is their newest game that’s open to public – it’s a 3D fantasy MMORPG set in ancient China. Unfortunately, like the game’s setting – Three Kingdoms is yet ANOTHER incredibly ‘old’ game with terrible graphics. The graphics actually resemble the graphics from Legend of Ares – an incredibly old game which was shut down due to a lack of players. Honestly – how on Earth does Uforia expect to compete with bigger and better game publishers like ijji, Aeria Games and OG Planet? Games like Dungeons and Dragons Online, Shaiya, Last Chaos and Runes of Magic completely blow anything Uforia has out of the water.

You would think that after publishing three terribly old and ugly games – Uforia would get their act together and launch at least ONE ‘modern’ decent looking game – but NOPE. The only game Uforia currently has ‘scheduled’ to release in the next few months is an MMOFPS game called Mercenary Wars – which aims to compete with other shooting games like Wolfteam, Alliance of Valiant Arms and Sudden Attack. The thing is though – unlike the three games I just mentioned – Mercenary Wars both LOOKS terrible and has extremely buggy gameplay. Honestly – I would rather play ANY browser MMORPG than even touching one of Uforia’s games. Why on Earth is Uforia launching these terrible games? I really have no idea.

Celestial Destroyer MMORPG Review

2009-11-15T07:29:00.001-08:00

Having once been a student of Chinese culture and history, I’m all for a good Asian themed or martial arts MMORPG. Like many of its kind, however, Celestial Destroyer proved to be a generic grind fest. The game is actually an older version of the popular Jade Dynasty game released in North America. Produced by Cubizone, who runs such games as Soul of the Ultimate Nation and Battle of Destiny in Malaysia, Celestial Destroyer quickly proved it wasn’t worth its time.

A Confusing Start

Character creation in Celestial Destroyer is incredibly simple: choose to be male or female, and then choose one of seven hair styles and one of seven faces. Yes, that means at most, there are less than 50 unique looks for male or female characters. You’re not even responsible for choosing a class – that comes later in the game, via the use of clans. Believe it or not though – seven possible hair and face options isn’t too bad as many games have less.

You enter the game world with little tutorial besides basic game controls. It’s up to you to figure out how to accept or even find quests, although overhead markers at least make that task a little less daunting. The translations in the game are modest enough to make sense to English players, but that doesn’t mean the game itself will. Starting in the middle of a town with no clear objectives or back story makes the next few steps a blundering game of guessing.

Kill 10 What?

Eventually you’ll find your first quest, which is a chain quest series that consists of running to half the NPCs in town to say hello, and sometimes learn what their purpose is. This also gets you a little gear and experience, although you still don’t have a choice in what you’re going to specialize in yet – so I hope you like swords. Perfect World actually has a similar quest – except much better executed as players could actually pick what type of gear they wanted from the NPCs they met.

Gathering up a few beginning quests after this chain is easy. Quest Officer Fu Yinlong in town offers a job board of sorts to kill a certain amount of beasts outside town, including butterflies – which have the same death sound effect as the scorpids from World of Warcraft. Hmm. Yes, one of your first quests will be to kill 10 butterflies, because they’re disturbing the bees. You’ll also be killing a lot of other local fauna: Wild Boars, Wolves, and Frogs. Unfortunately, the killing spree became a lot less fun when I realized that quests didn’t stack – so if I had a quest for 20 frogs, and a quest for 10, I had to kill 30. The game picks which quest you’ll work on first too, which was pretty frustrating when killing wolves for a low drop rate item prioritized over my two other quests to kill a set amount.

It’s a Bad Sign When…

A lack of quest stacking, while annoying, is tolerable. After all, you do get experience for everything you kill, and lots of extra loot too. It’s grinding, of course, but it’s at least grinding for a quest objective, which gives it a little more purpose. Then you’re introduced to the Kozo system.

The Kozo, or talisman, is one of two pets you’ll gain in Celestial Destroyer. It is, for lack of a better description, a floating magical rock that hovers around your body. The Kozo gains experience when it attacks beasts, and does get its own skills depending on the Kozo. The real specialty of the Kozo is “amalgamation,” which is a big word for “bot.” That’s right – the Kozo can be programmed to use a combination of its skills and yours to kill enemies (any nearby or quest mobs only, within a set radius), automatically loot any goodies, and automatically rest for a set period of time. This time is determined by vigor, which is set to zero when logging in and when using the amalgamation process, but earned through manual monster killing. The Kozo can even answer anti-bot questions for you. Now, while I’m all for convenience, you know it’s a bad sign when the game itself makes it easy to grind enemies mindlessly. It isn’t the most perfect system, either – my Kozo would often have me running off after new enemies before I’d killed the last, and conveniently forgot to rest me, so I died after having a few frogs and wolves chasing after my character. Though the Kozo doesn’t make grinding as easy as the fully automated ‘botting’ system in Magic World Online – it still makes progression in Celestial Destroyer a bit too easy – provided you don’t get PK’d while hunting though.

Pet Number Two

As mentioned, the Kozo is your first pet, of sorts, and it takes little maintenance at all – fitting for a little bot in a rock. Celestial Destroyer has another pet system, however, one which will have you finding the essences of creatures amidst the world, taming them for a fee, and then feeding and equipping them so they can fight along side you or gather components – they are even capable of providing a protective shield around you.

A quest in the beginning town, Sly River, does give you your first pet – but the quest is deceiving. You’ll be sent to kill illusionary beasts that look like multicolored Foo Lions. Awesome, right? When you return to tame the essence of the animal you’ve received, however, you’ll find you’re given a boar – a cute little baby boar that blows bubbles out its nose and rolls onto its back. For all its lack of power in looks, it does serve as a more functional pet than the Kozo, and can be traded out for more powerful pets later on.

A Craftsman’s Touch

There are two methods of crafting available in Celestial Destroyer: Refining and Production. Refining allows you to upgrade an item using amulets you find as loot (and which are rather common.) This kind of upgrade is a rather basic upgrade at first – sometimes just boosting damage or defense by a few points – but becomes more potent later in the game.

Production, on the other hand, lets you craft items yourself. You’ll get a quest to learn crafting at level 12, and after bringing back a few red copper, you can now craft any item in the game if you have the plans, the materials, and the required crafting skills. There are no specialties, so the crafting demand is low as any player can theoretically make any crafted item.

The Clan For Life, and Death

Once you reach level 15, you can finally choose a class by joining a Clan through a quest. There are five clans to choose from: Ghost Lord, Joyous, Green Cloud Clan, Sky Tone Temple, and Ghost Trail. The Ghost Lord clan are defensive swordsmen capable of summoning and controlling demons. Joyous Clan uses chakram to kill enemies swiftly. The Green Cloud Clan is a Taoist order using swords and focused on ranged attacks. Sky Tone Temple Clan is a Buddhist group utilizing staves, and the Ghost Trail utilizes fist weapons and deadly attacks.

Level 30 brings a new challenge to the game – PvP, which is open in Celestial Destroyer. Although players can be in a “peace” status after not being active in PvP for a while, they can be forced to battle by another player, or force any other player into battle, thereby flagging themselves. Though death in PvP doesn’t cause experience loss, it does cause item loss, allowing other players to gain the spoils of war from you instead of from monsters – another good reason to not rely on Kozos to level you. It’s up to the player to be wary and cautious about traveling alone at this point.

Final Verdict: Poor

From the borrowed sound effects of World of Warcraft, to the intentionally implemented grinding and bot system, Celestial Destroyer is a poorly designed MMO. It caters more to those who enjoy grinding and open PvP than those who want a fuller MMO experience. Although it runs well, its empty and lifeless servers only reinforce the idea of isolated endless killing on a quest to top the leaderboards. Pass it up; there are better martial arts MMOs out there.

All in One MMORPG Account

2009-11-13T22:33:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I wish that every single free to play MMORPG was easily accessible on ONE website. I’m not talking about an MMORPG Review site like MMOHut – I’m talking about one massive MMORPG game publisher. Instead of Aeria Games publishing 8 or so games and OG Planet 4, Gamers First publishing 5 – imagine ALL of these games being published on ONE site. There are easily 120+ free to play games out there so this would make sense. I mean, just like at this huge list of MMORPGs. Some of you may be asking – who cares or why? Well – the reason is simple. As a hardcore MMORPG gamer myself – I’m getting a bit tired of having to make new accounts at every single game publisher. Right now, I’m playing Dungeons and Dragons Online quite a bit over at Turbine, but if I wanted to start playing… say Shaiya or Last Chaos I would need to make an account over at AeriaGames. If I wanted to play Cabal Online or Rumble Fighter I would need to make an account over at OG Planet. I don’t know about you – but keeping track of a few dozen username and passwords for all of my various accounts is NOT something I find desirable.

The ‘solution’ to this… whacky system would be some sort of ‘universal’ log in where MMORPG gamers could make ONE account somewhere and use that account on EVERY SINGLE free to play MMORPG Game. It’d be interesting if one game publisher just published every single game, but that likely won’t be happening anytime soon – so the only real way to accomplish this would be some third party service (Hopefully free!). It would sort of like the OpenID of free to play MMORPGs. If you haven’t heard of OpenID – it’s a service that basically lets you create an account with them and lets you use that account at thousands of different websites (Like Yahoo, AOL, Google, BBC, Myspace and many many more!). I’m surprised that no such standard exists for this market yet – as I’m personally fed up with having to micro manage dozens of accounts. What makes the current system even more confusing is that sometimes games like NosTale, Lunia and LaTale have multiple publishers, which can only add to the confusion.

Anyway – Someone make an awesome new system to fix this little headache – please!

Fun Free MMO Games

2009-11-08T10:05:00.001-08:00

I’ve been trying to get myself to play a lot of Free MMOGs lately, note that I did say ‘MMO’ and not ‘MMORPG’. For those that don’t know the difference – an MMORPG is a massively multiplayer online role playing game while an MMOG is a massively multiplayer online game. The key distinction is that an MMOG does not have to be an RPG. For example, a shooting game like Battlefield Heroes is an MMO rather than an MMORPG – because even though it’s multiplayer it doesn’t have the core RPG of elements that games like World of Warcraft and Runes of Magic have.

The first free to play MMOG I played was BattleForge – a fun 3D fantasy themed real time strategy MMO where players use cards to summon units. I know – the whole card thing may sound like a ‘turn off’ for a lot of people – but I strongly urge everyone to give BattleForge a try – as it’s an extremely good game. I don’t really like ‘card’ games very much – but I ended up loving BattleForge. I guess it’s because the game is faster paced than most other ‘card games’ I’ve played before. Anyway, BattleForge is completely free to play and it’s published by Electronic Arts. I guess EA is really putting a lot of effort into the free to play industry as BattleForge was released shortly after Battlefield Heroes. Players can either play through the game’s ’story mode’ campaign or fight against others online. The game does have a co-op feature as well – so players can work together with friends online in completing the campaigns.

Another interesting MMOG I played recently was Tales Runner. It’s a 3D racing MMO by Gpotato – the folks behind Luna Online, Fly For Fun and Rappelz. What made Tales Runner so interesting is that the game is a ‘track’ racing game – meaning there are no vehicles. Players actually sprint across the level on foot. It’s a pretty novel concept as 99% of racing MMOs involve either cartoony ‘karts’ or fast ’sporty’ cars. Being an ‘anime inspired’ game though – Tales Runner has some very interesting courses and game modes making the game. Racing across icy mountains and fire pits is pretty interesting and unique to boot. The actual core gameplay itself isn’t that great but it’s a game well worth checking out simply because of the novelty – and it’s not a bad game.

Lastly, I played a neat little fighting game called Rumble Fighter. It’s a 3D anime inspired fighting MMO by OG Planet (Folks who made Cabal Online / Lost Saga). The game plays a lot like Super Smash Brothers – but MMO style with some RPG elements. The goal is to basically beat up the other team through multiple game modes. Personally, I felt the controls and overall gameplay to feel a bit too slow paced for me – but it’s definitely an interesting game – as it’s pretty unique. The only other game like it is Splash Fighters.

Latest Wave of Free MMORPGs

2009-11-05T05:21:00.001-08:00

As most free MMORPG gamers already know – more and more free to play games are being released every month. This isn’t too surprising though – as more and more game publishers are trying to hit it big by releasing a blockbuster game. What is surprising though is that the quality of these free to play MMORPGs is improving… quite fast. Perhaps the most impressive free to play game I played recently was Dungeons and Dragons Online. The game has drop dead gorgeous graphics some interesting gameplay that isn’t too ‘grindy’. The fact that Dungeons and Dragons Online is a top notch game shouldn’t be too surprising – as it used to be pay to play. It’s actually one of many pay to play games gone free over the last few years. Games like The Chronicles of Spellborn, RF Online and Archlord are other examples of pay to play games gone free to play.

On the Browser Game front – Earth Eternal just got released and it’s one of the best looking browser games out there! It looks a lot like Runes of Magic which is neat because it’s entirely on the browser. I Really don’t know how these game developers do it – but the graphics on Earth Eternal are easily comparable to any client based game. So if you’re looking for a top notch browser game – give Earth Eternal a try!

Another game I played recently that’s quite good is Alliance of Valiant Arms. It’s a 3D MMO shooter by IJJI. It plays a lot like Combat Arms, Wolfteam and K.O.S. Secret Operations – but graphic wise it’s superior. Alliance of Valiant Arms has some of the best graphics I’ve seen in any free to play game. Content wise though – the game is lacking. That’s probably because it was released recently though – so the developers haven’t had much time to release new maps and features yet.

Lastly, another great MMORPG that I started playing recently and still do play is Dragonica Online. It’s a fun 3D side scrolling MMORPG by THQ Ice that plays a lot like MapleStory / LaTale – but with MUCH better graphics and gameplay. Honestly, it’s one of the best free to play MMORPGs out there – so if you’re a fan of side scrolling games – give Dragonica Online a try. It’s amazing

New Free to play MMORPGs Rock

2009-09-16T21:50:00.001-07:00

After playing two of the most recent free to play MMORPGs to hit the market, Dragonica and Dungeons & Dragons Online, I am yet again impressed by the quality of free to play games. Free MMORPG games are just getting better and better. A long time ago – the term ‘free to play’ was usually associated with low quality poorly translated games, but today that stereotype is largely gone. Games like Dragonica, Atlantica Online and Runes of Magic feel just as ‘high quality’ as pay to play games like World of Warcraft and Eve Online both in all aspects from gameplay to the soundtrack. Anyone that has had a chance to play Dungeons & Dragons Online or Dragonica Online will agree with me here.

Heck, I would argue that some free MMORPGs like Atlantica Online have superior graphics and gameplay than some pay to play MMORPGs. Older pay to play games like Final Fantasy XI and Ultima Online are a lot weaker in terms of content, graphics and gameplay than newer free to play titles. Heck it’s also quite easy to argue that pay to play games like City of Heroes and Pirates of the Caribbean Online are ‘worse’ in terms of overall content and graphics than free to play titles like Shaiya, Twelve Sky 2 and even Last Chaos.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that the days of ‘free to play’ MMORPGs being labeled as ‘crap’ is over. The free to play revolution is quickly taking the industry by storm. Even companies like Electronic Arts have jumped on the bandwagon with Battlefield Heroes and BattleForge. It’s just a matter of time before more developers and publishers ‘go’ free to play. I wouldn’t be surprised if pay to play MMORPGs like Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and Vanguard go free to play – as these games haven’t done as well as expected commercially, so they may try going all out free to play.

MMORPGs Need Better Quests

2009-08-27T12:03:00.001-07:00

MMORPG developers have gotten way too lazy when it comes to designing quests. Almost every single quest in any MMORPG involves either role playing as a FedEx driver [Take this item and give it to an NPC named John Thunderhoof across town!] or a genocidal maniac [Kill 50 Baby Gnolls, 20 Mother Gnolls and 10 Gnoll Brutes]. Personally, kill quests in MMORPGs are an excellent distraction from mindless grinding, but I feel that quests should add a little more variety to the game. MMORPGs like Runes of Magic, Fiesta Online and WindSlayer are genuinely good games, but they have rather dull quests. To be fair though, 95% of MMORPGs have this same issue, I just used the three games mentioned as examples.
There’s nothing wrong with delivery and kill quests, but there’s no excuse for developers to use only these kinds of quests. Games like MapleStory and Dragonica Online for example, really take questing to the next level because they have a lot of unique quests. MapleStory has a boat load of ‘plat forming’ quests which require players to make it from one end of the screen to the other by dodging obstacles, sort of like a stage in Super Mario. Keep in mind MapleStory has the generic ‘go kill X amount of Y monsters’ and ‘fed ex’ like quests, but the fact that it also has other types of quests makes the game a lot more enjoyable.

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Some Shameless MMORPG Clones

2009-08-26T21:00:00.001-07:00

Why is it that so many free MMORPGs are shameless rip offs of more successful games? It’s always been acceptable to borrow certain select elements from other games and building on them, but games like Runes of Magic and WonderKing take it too far. For those that haven’t heard of Runes of Magic, it’s a 3d Fantasy MMORPG that both looks and plays almost exactly like Blizzard’s enormously popular World of Warcraft. The graphics are so similar that distinguishing the games from each other simply through a screenshot can be difficult. There’s no doubt in my mind that the game’s developers had one thing in mind, and that was to copy every aspect of World of Warcraft as much as possible without getting into any legal trouble. I’d like to point out that Runes of Magic isn’t a bad game, heck, it’s actually one of the best free to play titles of 2009, but it lacks even an ounce of original material.

WonderKing is also one of those MMORPGs that borrow a bit too many features from another well known game. In this case, WonderKing is a shameless rip off of Nexon’s enormously popular side scrolling game ‘MapleStory’. Those that played both MapleStory and WonderKing will agree with me when I say that both of these games are practically identical in terms of gameplay, graphics and audio. That’s right, both games have unusually similar background music. It’s as if the WonderKing developers were playing MapleStory while developing their own game. Like Runes of Magic, WonderKing is actually a good game, but this shouldn’t be surprising because the game is a shameless clone of one of highest rated free to play MMORPGs on the market.
The thing is, there’s nothing wrong with borrowing good features from other games. Lots of games do it without going overboard. Dragonica Online, a relatively new game, for example borrowed a lot of features from MapleStory, but developed a lot of their own unique features. This sort of ‘copying’ is actually good for the MMO market as a whole, but when games just blatantly copy each other, it does nothing to advance the gaming industry. Anyway, the point of this article is to urge developers to actually do their jobs and develop new games instead of copying old ones.

Third person vs. First Person MMO Shooters

2009-08-25T22:12:00.001-07:00

There are quite a bit of MMO shooters on the market, most of them first person, some of them third person. Everyone has their preference, but I feel that third person shooters require more skill, mainly because players have a lot more to focus on than just a cross hair. Using the camera effectively in a third person shooter is extremely important and can be the difference between a kill and a death. This is especially true in games like Battlefield Heroes and GunZ where players are given such flexible control of the camera. The ability to control and use the camera effectively adds another layer of gameplay to an otherwise simple genre.

Even though I feel that third person shooters demand more skill from players, there’s no doubt that first person MMO shooters also require some skill. This is especially true in tactical MMOFPS games like Sudden Attack and Soldier Front where players literally die in a single shot or two. Normally in these types of games, players with the fastest reaction times almost always win, making them extremely brutal for newbies. The only way for newbies to actually do well in a lot of tactical MMOFPS games is to fire rapidly towards their opponent’s general direction hoping for a headshot. Players new the MMO shooter genre should stick with games like Combat Arms and WolfTeam, because headshots are much more difficult to get, allowing newbies to stay alive longer and enjoy the game a bit more. WolfTeam is actually one of the most unique MMOFPS games out there because it allows players transform at any time into a melee oriented werewolf with superior speed and attack.

Are Free to Play games better than pay to play ones?

2009-08-24T17:51:00.001-07:00

For a long time, pay to play games like World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online were considered untouchable, but as it stands the MMORPG market is evolving. More and more free MMORPG games are being released every week while only one or two major pay to play MMORPGs are being released every year. Just because there are a lot of free to play games though doesn’t mean any of them are really ‘great’, but I can safely say that the ‘latest generation’ of free to play titles are downright amazing.

New free to play titles like Atlantica Online, Runes of Magic and Dragonica Online can actually stand toe-to-toe against pay to play MMO juggernauts like World of Warcraft and Eve Online. These game’s aren’t ‘cheap’, as they have great production values. Heck, Runes of Magic looks just as good as World of Warcraft graphic wise. Those who have played Dragonica Online will vouch for me when I say that game is downright amazing for a free to play title. Heck, it’s a lot better than some pay to play games like EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies.

The real question is, when will pay to play games die off? The free to play market is just growing way too fast while free to play games are only getting better and better. Games like World of Warcraft and Eve online won’t be able to charge $15 a month when there are literally hundreds of free alternatives that are equally as good.
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Multiple MMORPG Publishers publishing the same game?

2009-07-21T23:58:00.001-07:00

Why is it that more than one MMORPG game publisher publishes the same game? It doesn’t make any sense. Games like Nostale for example are available in the United States through two different publishers. Players can sign up for the game on nostale.net or on nostale.uforia.com. Isn’t it weird that the same game is available on two different websites? On two completely different servers? I’m not sure what Nostale’s developers were thinking by licensing their game to two different companies in the same region, because as it stands the game’s playerbase is now divided. This really hurts the ‘user experience’ as a game’s community is a big part of MMO games, and having a game’s community split totally sucks for players. To be fair though, NosTale isn’t the only game that’s published by more than one company. La Tale for example is currently being published by the folks over at OGPlanet for North American users, but it looks like Aeriagames will also begin publishing the same exact game soon, as La Tale is currently in Closed beta over at Aeria. Another game, Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu used to be published by both Ndoors and IJJI, but luckily the folks over at IJJI merged their servers with the Ndoors game.

The question now is, why on earth do game developers license their games to multiple publishers? Heck, if I was OG Planet, I would be furious at La Tale’s developers for giving their game to Aeria, especially after initially giving it to OG Planet! Successful games like Atlantica Online, Runes of Magic and Fiesta Online for example don’t license their games to multiple publishers for a reason, so why do some people do it? I’m pretty sure this practice has a lot to do with greed. Developers are looking to milk their games as much as possible, but I feel that this practice will only end up hurting everyone, as a divided community will hurt the user experience causing some people to quit, less players will hurt the publisher and the less revenue publishers make the less the developers make. So, what’s the point of this article? To urge developers to stop licensing their games to multiple publishers!
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Too Many Free MMORPGs

2009-07-18T23:11:00.001-07:00

Honestly, I think the free to play MMORPG game market is growing way too fast. It seems like every month a n ambitious new game publisher opens its doors for the first time in hopes of making it big in a market overflowing with MMORPGs. Companies like Aeria Games that have multiple successful titles like Last Chaos, Twelve Sky and Shaiya are making money hand over fist in the lucrative micro-transaction based business, but other smaller companies like Uforia who only publish smaller less known games like Red War, Three Kingdoms and Nostale are in risk of going bankrupt. The fact is, there are far more online games out there than the amount of players needed to make them all profitable. What this means is that some of these free MMORPG publishers are doomed to failure.

Now, I bet a lot of readers are thinking, “where are the facts? The numbers?”, Well I don’t have any numbers in front of me, but I can say from firsthand experience that a LOT of MMORPG games are deserted. Stone Age 2 for example, only has a handful of players online at any given time. A HANDFUL of players. There’s no way the game’s publisher can recoup their expenses for the game with only a dozen or so players online at any given time. I’ve personally played dozens of games where the total number of players online were less than 100. Personally, I’d love to see every game bustling with activity, but with so many Free MMO games on the market, this isn’t possible. Surprisingly, there are very few major browser games with this problem, as almost every browsed based MMORPG I played had a healthy playerbase.
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Why are so many MMORPGs using Bit Torrent now?

2009-07-18T03:33:00.001-07:00

For as long as I can remember, Bit Torrent has been a tool used by pirates to illicitly ‘acquire’ music and movies. Just recently though, over the last year or so, Bit Torrent has grown to become one of the primary download methods for several big MMORPGs. World of Warcraft for example, uses bit torrent for patching while games like Project Powder, Fiesta Online, and GodsWar utilize bit torrent to transfer the entire game client over to players. Personally, I feel that even though bit torrent can speed up downloads on some occasions, it’s almost always slower than a mediocre HTTP direct download. For extremely popular games like Atlantica Online, a bit torrent based downloader could work, as the game has millions of players, but for smaller titles like Wolfteam and Angels Online I’d much rather prefer a reliable direct download than bit torrent.

As I mentioned earlier, bit torrent can be helpful in some cases, but in most cases it’s a lot slower. I can bet that the reason for implementing a bit torrent type solution has a lot more to do with saving bandwidth for the publisher than improving the user experience. I Have nothing against trying to cut costs, but I think publishers should use HTTP direct downloads for their games over bit torrent, as it’s almost always faster. This is sort of a pointless rant, as almost every game publisher offers both options. I guess my what I’m trying to get at is that publishers should make the ‘default’ download option the more familiar direct download method while having the bit torrent option there but secondary. As it stands, a lot of MMORPG games have torrents as the primary download method. At least browser games don’t have this issue!
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Argh! Web Based MMO Launchers Suck!

2009-07-16T15:27:00.001-07:00

I’m really not sure why a lot of free MMORPG / MMO games utilize web based client launchers, but so many of them do and they’re all incredibly annoying. After I download and install a game, I expect to be able to launch it by double clicking the game’s icon on my desktop, having to go to the game’s official website, logging in, and then click launch game is a bit tedious. You’d imagine ‘newer’ games wouldn’t employ such a silly and annoying login method, but they do. Battlefield Heroes for example, a relatively new MMOFPS game, requires users to login to their account on the game’s official website before being able to launch the game. A few other game’s that employ similar techniques are Rohan Online, Soldier Front, GunZ, Drift City, Lunia, and Gunbound.

The reason why I’m not a big fan of the whole ‘log in to website, then launch game’ system is that it usually requires some sort of ‘ActiveX’ plugin to be downloaded before a game can be launched through a web browser. As a tech savvy gamer myself, I understand that ActiveX plugins through reputable gaming websites won’t do anything to harm my computer, but I fear that a lot of younger gamers or those that aren’t tech savvy would be too scared to download an ‘ActiveX’ plugin just to launch a game, especially since all of the newer web browsers prompt scary warning messages when a site asks a user to download any sort of plugin. I feel that MMO Games that require users to launch the game through a website deters some people from ever downloading the game, which ultimately hurts that particular game’s playerbase. At least Browser Based MMORPG games don’t have this issue, because they never require ActiveX installs. Game publishers, please don’t require users to launch games through your websites, it’s terribly annoying!
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Crafting In MMORPGs – The Second Grind

2009-07-11T12:03:00.001-07:00

So many people complain that leveling in some MMORPG games can take too long, and those that complain do have valid reasons, but one argument that I rarely hear is that grinding ‘crafting skills’ takes too long. In all honesty, I feel that improving crafting skills in most MMO Games is a complete waste of time, as its 100% mindless grind. At least when you ‘grind experience’, you’re actually doing something, killing monsters. Grinding crafting skills on the other hand usually involves watching a little ‘progress’ meter fill up over and over again for countless hours. It’s even worse if you have to ‘farm’ the materials yourself, as killing low level monsters just for their raw resources is incredibly boring.

Not only does mastering a crafting skill take countless hours, it’s also extremely expensive. In games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest, mastering a crafting skill is enormously expensive, as countless ‘materials’ are needed to max out even a single crafting skills. On top of crafting being expensive, it’s almost always useless. I actually grinded up my Mining and Blacksmithy skills in World of Warcraft once, and I found that blacksmithy was an absolute waste of time. 90% of the time, in order to craft a piece of armor or equipment it would cost MORE to buy all the materials and craft it myself than just buying the piece of armor pre-made from another player. Very few games actually make crafting rewarding and the only game that comes to mind in this regard is a Free MMORPG called Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu and that’s only because players can ONLY acquire equipment from other players. Monsters don’t even drop equipment. Honestly, grinding experience points is boring enough, I don’t see why anyone would bother to grind up trade skills as well.
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Where’s the MMO in MMORPG?

2009-07-04T00:01:00.001-07:00

I must have ranted about this before, but I dislike it a lot when I play an MMORPG with a low or medium playerbase. MMORPGs are supposed to be massively multiplayer. I don’t know about you, but when I hear the words massively multiplayer, I’d like to expect to see a ‘massive’ amount of players running around me doing things, but this is rarely the case, especially as a newbie. If you’re a newbie in established free MMORPG games like Rappelz, Last Chaos or even Twelve Sky, odds are you won’t bump into any other newbies remotely close to your level, as everyone is already ‘omg leet level 80+’ or at least that’s how it seems.

The only games that really feel ‘massively multiplayer’, at least to me, are brand spankin’ new ones. I remember when Luna Online and Red War first came out, the newbie areas were so incredibly packed that the game actually felt truly massive. I Can’t say these two particular games themselves were great, Luna Online being much better than Red War, but they felt massive, and for me that in and of itself was good. I remember everything a monster spawned, 5 newbies, myself included, would run at it to try and be the first one to attack it in order to secure myself some experience points. Aside from just trying to steal other people’s kills, a game with a large community, is just a more ‘complete’ MMO. More players means more interaction and isn’t interaction the purpose of playing an MMORPG?

Okay okay, I’m going to do something that I don’t usually do in my rants. I’m going to actually offer a solution to this particular issue, rather than just complain about it. I actually talked about this in another rant, but MMORPG publishers should just combine some of their servers into one or two big ones rather than 10-20 medium sized ones. This would instantly ‘grow’ the game’s community, as it would certainly boost player interaction. Super popular MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Silkroad Online don’t have to do this, as almost all their servers are loaded anyway, but smaller Free MMOs like Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu and EuDemons Online would certainly benefit. One good thing about Browser Games is that they tend to only have one or two servers, which ensures for a better community.
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Where are all the MMORPG Tutorials?

2009-06-25T12:16:00.001-07:00

I’m not sure why, but it seems like the growing trend in free MMORPG games it to launch the game without a tutorial. I had the opportunity to play the Dragon Sky open beta just the other day and I found myself a bit confused, as the game didn’t have a tutorial. Now, I’m no newbie to genre, so I know the jist of how most MMORPG games work, but I just couldn’t figure out Dragon Sky. For a good two hours I played the game without learning a single skill, as the game never explained to me where to train skills. Heck, the game didn’t even present me with starting quest. It basically told me, ‘ready… set…. GO GRIND!’. I eventually figured things out on my own, but it would have been a lot more convenient if the game provided me some instructions. Enough Dragon Sky bashing though, as it’s not the only game without a tutorial. Even newer games like HolyBeast Online, Twelve Sky 2 and Titan Online don’t have tutorials.

One reason why games like Atlantica Online, Runes of Magic and Maple Story are as popular as they are is because they’re fairly straight forward games and have EXCELLENT tutorials / tooltips so newbies and veterans alike can quickly learn the ins and outs of the game. When I install and new MMORPG, I think it’s fair for me to expect some sort of guide / tutorial. As a hardcore MMORPG gamer, I can usually figure things out on my own, so the people really getting ’screwed’ are those that are new to the genre, as they’ll end up wandering around for a few minutes, dying and quitting the game. I really can’t understand why MMORPG developers spend so much time, money and effort creating a game, and decide to cut a corner and release their game without a tutorial. It really doesn’t make sense. Like I said earlier, MMORPG veterans usually don’t need a tutorial when trying out a new game, but those unfamiliar with the genre certainly do.

The fact is, there really is no reason to launch a free MMO without a tutorial. Without one, newbies will flock to the more popular games that DO have them and this will hurt the entire game’s community. This really wouldn’t be an issue if only a handful of games didn’t have tutorials, but from my experience MOST Free Online MMORPGs don’t have tutorials. It’s simply ridiculous how many games don’t have tutorials.
By, Omer Altay

The Social Experience in MMORPGs

2009-06-25T12:07:00.001-07:00

The Social Experience in MMORPGs & Free MMORPGs

It’s no secret that free to play MMORPGs have been exploding in popularity in the past few years. Once unheard of in the West, scores of free MMORPG games are now available for North American and European gamers. But while this trend has banished the dreaded monthly subscription fee, it has come at a cost. Many rightly claim that free MMORPGs have much lower quality than the traditional pay-to-play MMORPG offered by Western developers such as Electronic Arts or Blizzard. This might of been true at first but many of today’s free games have excellent production value that even rival those of subscription MMORPGs. Games like Project Powder and MegaTen are both high quality titles available for free that defy the stereotype.

While progress has been made on quality, free MMORPGs still lack a very important feature that comes naturally to classic titles such as EverQuest or WoW and that is community. The social experience in a MMORPG is arguably the most important aspect. It’s what separates the genre from its single player cousin, the RPG. Most pay to play games are designed in a way that encourages player cooperation and team work. Few classes in Vanguard, for example, are self sufficient and thus require the assistance of other players to progress. Most free to play MMORPGs try to make each player as self sufficient as possible. The worst thing that can happen to an average Ragnarok Online player is running into a fellow gamer with the audacity to hunt in the same spot as him. Since many free MMORPGs are developed in South Korea where popular f2p titles such as MapleStory and Mir 2 originated, they all have this basic lack of social necessity.

The difference is not hard to spot. Anyone with wide experience in the MMO field knows firsthand how Asian ‘grindfests’ differ from community driven epics such as the original EQ. A good MMORPG will find a way to incorporate elements of both styles. Some people do genuinely prefer to play alone. This is why World of Warcraft has been such a success both in America and in China. Gamers can go at it alone from level 1 to 80 but must work together to defeat the most powerful bosses. As the free-to-play market grows and Western developers get more involved in it, we can only hope that more MMORPGs with hybrid social emphasis are released. Judging by the rapid progress that has been made in the realms of graphics and gameplay, I’m confident we won’t have to wait long.

By, Erhan Altay

Can Free to Play Work in Other Genres?

2009-06-09T19:27:00.001-07:00

Can Free to Play Work in Other Genres?

Free to play MMORPGs are here to stay. Some nay-sayers still
complain about the poor content and quality of service provided in F2P
games but recent releases like Runes of Magic, Perfect World and Atlantica Online
have shown the world what ‘free’ is capable of. The success of these
titles prove that the micro transaction model can work both in Asia and
here in the West. The only question that I have is why are so many free
to play titles are RPGs?

After RPGs, the next most popular genre of free to play games is FPS
(first person shooter.) Here too the success of the model is self
evident. Nexon’s Combat Arms
has a large playerbase from which it profits by selling slightly more
powerful guns and accessories for a small fee. Almost every major free
to play publisher either FPS game already available or is in the
process of releasing one. IJJI, which already hosts Soldier Front and GunZ:
The Duel is soon to release Huxley, a FPS built on the Unreal 3 engine.
Even a major Western publisher has gotten the message. EA’s Battlefield
Heroes is currently in beta testing and will be released as a
free-to-play shooter.

Before I continue, I should mention that racing games are also well
represented in the free to play space. Realistic racing games like Project Torque and cartoony racers like Tales Runner
and Kart n Crazy are already free to download and play. But what about
action adventure titles or platformers? What I would really like to see
is more experimentation with all genres rather than sticking with the
few tried and true staples. So far it has been Eastern developers doing
most of the innovating in the free to play market and that trend seems
likely to continue. Hopefully the major studios will soon wake up and
the see writing on the wall. How cool would it be if the next major
Ubisoft or Activision Blizzard title was entirely free to play?

By, Erhan Altay
Sources:
Can Free to Play Work in Other Genres?
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Top 10 Best 2D MMOs / 2D MMORPGs

2009-06-02T13:10:00.001-07:00

Ever since Maple Story became enormously popular, a lot of new 2D
MMORPGs have hit the market. If you’re looking for the top 10 best 2D
MMORPGs, you came to the right place. It’s sort of hard to come up with
a 100% accurate top 10 2D MMORPG list, but the top 2D MMORPG list below
was put together using ‘user rating data’ from across the internet and
from right data right here on MMOHut.

Top 2D MMORPGs and MMOs

1. MapleStory

Maplestory is without a doubt, the
most popular 2D MMORPG on the market. The game boasts that it has 92
million users worldwide and an enormous amount of content. From my
experience with the game, its sheer simplicity and boat load of content
make it well worth checking out.

2. GunBound

Gunbound is a classic 2D MMO tactical
shooting game. It’s been around since 2005 and since release had
enjoyed countless content updates and bug fixes. It plays a lot like
the classic PC game worms and can be played both casually and hardcore.

3. Lunia

Lunia is a unique 2D Fantasy MMORPG. The
gameplay is a lot more like an arcade style RPG than a traditional MMO,
as players have to group together and beat all of the game’s 60 stages.
The game’s sheer amount of content and addictive gameplay makes it well
worth the download.

4. Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu

Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu is another
unique 2D Fantasy MMORPG with a strong emphasis on in game politics and
a player controlled economy. Many of the game’s towns are managed by
players and the game has regular server wide elections to determine the
next Monarch of the game world. On top of that, the game has all of the
other standard MMO elements like dungeons, crafting, guilds, etc.

5. LaTale

LaTale is an innovative 2D MMORPG that
drew a lot of its inspiration from MapleStory. Gameplay is
side-scrolling, but fast paced. Unlike MapleStory though, the game has
some interesting PvP options. The game is relatively new, so it doesn’t
have that much content yet, but it certainly has enough things to do to
keep the player entertained.

6. Trickster Online

Trickster Online is a 2D Fantasy MMORPG
with cute and vibrant anime graphics. It has 8 different classes and a
large game world to explore. From my experience with the game, it’s
easy to get into and worth the download.

7. Wind Slayer

Like MapleStory and LaTale, Wind Slayer
is another side scrolling 2D Fantasy MMORPG. The game is published by
Outspark and has a large game world and a lot of content. The game’s
arena based PvP is both fast paced and rewarding.

8. Grand Chase

Grand Chase is a 2D Side scrolling MMO
with some interesting co-op gameplay modes. Like Lunia, players have to
advance through the game’s stages in order to progress in the game.
With multiple PvP options and numerous levels Grand Chase is well worth
checking out.

9. NosTale

NosTale is a 2D anime styled fantasy
MMORPG. The game has a lot of unique features including player housing,
pets and a unique class system.

10. Osu

Although Osu is arguably not an MMO, the
game is still quite interesting. It’s a rhythm based game based off the
popular ‘Elite Beat Agents’ for the Nintendo DS. It’s sort of like
Dance Dance Revolution, but for the PC and uses the mouse rather than a
dance pad or a keyboard.

Well that’s it. Those are the Top 10
best 2D free MMOs and MMORPGs on the market. If you came here looking
for a game to play, I hope you found this top 2D games list useful.

Source:

Top 10 Best 2D MMOs / 2D MMORPGs
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Players Over Profits

2009-05-28T16:39:00.001-07:00

As it stands, most free MMORPG Game
publishers are trying harder and harder to push users to purchase items
from their cash shops. This isn’t exactly surprising, considering that
every time players buy items in the cash shops, the publisher makes
money. What is surprising though is the growing trend of almost
requiring players to purchase items from cash shops. Games like Sea fight and Dark Orbit
require players to spend real money in their game if they want to get
anywhere in the games. For example, weapons available to cash shop
users in these games are infinitely superior to non cash shop items,
which means that anyone who doesn’t spend money, loses.

Other games like Combat Arms and Maplestory
take a much more balanced approach with their cash shops. Weapons
purchased through the cash shop in the MMOFPs game Combat Arms are
largely similar to their non-cash shop counterparts with a few
aesthetic differences. Maplestory on the other hand has a few powerful
items, but no actual equipment, so players that purchase cash shop
items don’t have material advantages over those that don’t. You could
argue that those that purchase Maplestory’s 2x EXP scrolls in the cash
shop have an advantage over those that don’t, but this isn’t
necessarily true because the game doesn’t even have PvP, so where’s the
edge?

So what’s the solution? Simple. Make cash shop items strictly
aesthetic or only moderately powerful, because as it stands, far too
many games put too much emphasis on cash shop items. Nearly all of IGG
Game’s including Tales of Pirates, Godswar Online, Angels Online, Wonderland Online, Voyage Century Online, Zu Online and Myth War 2 have incredibly powerful cash shop items that make the game unfair for non paying users.

Free MMORPGs – A Tough Market

2009-05-28T16:11:00.000-07:00

Even though there’s a new free MMORPG
coming out every month, it’s an incredibly tough market. There just
aren’t enough players to populate all of the MMOs on the market. So
what does that mean? Well, some MMORPGs are going to have to shut down.
Likely, games like Pi Story, Stone Age 2, Racing Star: Come On Baby and Shadow of Legend
won’t last till the end of the year, simply because they don’t have a
playerbase. An MMORPG without a playerbase really isn’t an MMO anyway.

Without players, the MMORPG publisher simply cannot make enough
money to cover their expenses. I’d certainly like to see all of these
games continue to exist, but it’s just not going to happen. With well
over 160 client based free to play MMORPGs and countless MMORPG Free Trials
and free browser games, the free to play market is just way too
saturated at the moment. The way I see it, more and more games are
coming out, but more players aren’t playing free to play games.
Economically speaking, supply [MMORPG Games] is increasing far faster than [Demand] MMORPG players.

I don’t expect any major MMORPG Publishers like Aeria Games,
Gpotato, IGG, or Netgame to go under, as they each have numerous
successful titles. Aeria has Twelve Sky and Shaiya, Gpotato has Flyff: Fly For Fun, IGG Has Voyage Century Online and Tales of Pirates and lastly Netgame has Hero Online and Ghost Online.
Aside from these hit games, each of these publishers I mentioned have a
bunch of other games as well, but unfortunately those other games
aren’t very popular. The publishers that will shut down are likely the
ones with no successful games.

Why Pay for Pay to Play MMORPGs?

2009-05-20T00:19:00.000-07:00

The more I look at the MMORPG genre, the more I’m convinced that the ‘pay to play’ genre will be fully replaced by free to play games.
Some people may think I’m crazy, but if you take a look at all the pay
to play games out today, it’s clear that only two or three of them out
of dozens are a success. Sure no one will admit it, but games like
Pirates of the Burning Sea and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes are complete
flops. They were both rumored to be ‘WoW killers’, but in reality, they
were nothing more than a whole lot of hype. I’m not saying that all pay
to play games are bad, they aren’t, but with more and more free to play
MMORPGs coming to market every year, I just can’t see people paying a
monthly subscription to play a game. The only ‘mega popular’ pay to
play MMORPG is World of Warcraft with 12 million or so subscribers and Eve Online
as a distant second or third with 400,000 subscribers. After third of
fourth place, the ‘pay to play’ subscriber numbers get worse. The
incredibly hyped up ‘Warhammer Online” launched with nearly 1 million subscribers, but today has under 600,000. Games like EverQuest II and Age of Conan are also in rapid decline.

Twelve million players may sound like a lot, but if you look at free MMORPGs like MapleStory and Ragnarok Online,
you’ll quickly realize that twelve million isn’t that much. MapleStory
alone has over 100 million accounts worldwide and there are easily a
dozen or so free titles that have similar figures. The first pay to
play MMORPGs, EverQuest, Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot
played an important role in the development of the entire MMORPG
market, as they were the ones that got the ball rolling, but like
everything else, the MMORPG industry in North America and Europe will
change. Gaming in China, Korea and Japan has already shifted to largely
‘free to play’ games and the West will soon follow.

Everyone I’ve talked to tells me that ‘pay to play’ games are
‘higher quality’ than free to play ones, but from my experience this
isn’t always the case. Sure, big budget mega hits like World of
Warcraft have a lot of content, but is does that justify the game’s $15
/ month cost? Heck, there’s a relatively new free MMORPG called ‘Runes of Magic’
that plays a lot like World of Warcraft, but without the monthly cost.
The growth of the free to play market will lead to gaming companies
developing ‘free’ versions of these premium pay to play games. It has
already happened with World of Warcraft, and it’s happening with other
MMORPGs as well. With so many free alternatives, why should anyone pay
monthly to play an MMORPG?

Source:

Why Pay for Pay to Play MMORPGs?
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The Declining Role of PvP in MMORPGs

2009-05-08T21:03:00.001-07:00

The Golden Age
By Erhan Altay

The year was 1998 and I had just started my very first MMORPG, Ultima Online. I had no idea what to expect from this new genre but at first things didn’t look so different. I wandered around town and eventually made my way to a nearby forest. After killing a few orcs and trolls I thought I had the game figured out but what happened next took be my surprise. In the distance I saw another band of travelers and decided to make my way towards them to say hello. Little did I know that this particular group of players were in fact player killers (PKs) and were more interested in my new suit of armor than in exchanging greetings. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed and found myself a defeated ghost, forced to wander the world in search of a healer who could resurrect me. My armor, weapons, and the loot I had gathered from the orcs were all gone. I was angry and I vowed to take my vengeance upon them when I was strong enough. Over the next five years my skills improved and I joined a guild and even took a side in the ongoing civil war between the forces of Lord British and Lord Blackthorn. Mainly because of its PvP features, Ultima Online kept me engaged longer than any other MMORPG, even longer than the other early MMO hit EverQuest.

A False Dawn

Now fast forward to 2009 and it is obvious that the MMORPG market has achieved new heights. Today there are hundreds of games available, many of them don’t even charge a subscription fee. But what about PvP? World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online both boast of their Player vs Player content. Mythic even claims RvR (PvP between larger numbers of players) as its opus magnum but both games fall short of the kind of open PvP first offered over a decade ago. Death in either of these games is meaningless since players are instantly resurrected with only a slight financial penalty in the form of damaged equipment. Some free to play MMORPGs like Atlantica Online, Ragnarok Online, Shaiya and Warrior Epic offer many controlled PvP features but again, it lacks the natural feel of Ultima Online’s open-world, anything goes atmosphere. Many free MMORPGs don’t even bother with PvP at all these days, take for example Maplestory or Fairyland Online. What is even more unfortunate is that EA chose to castrate Ultima Online by restricting open combat and mixing foreign elements into the game to try and make it resemble other popular offerings.

A New Beginning?

Over the years many bold developers have tried to carry UO’s PvP banner but have stumbled before getting very far. Shadowbane comes to mind. During its development it was hailed as the PvPers dream come true, the MMORPG that would be Ultima Online and more. I admired this spirit but unfortunately, the game failed to live up to its fan’s expectations. All Shadowbane servers were permanently closed in the first half of 2009. Now a new game has risen to claim the UO mantle, DarkFall Online. DarkFall offers many of the same features diehard PvP fans crave, unrestricted combat, free looting and so on. The game has so far been attracting so many users that the publishers have had to limit the number of new subscriptions allowed each day. Hopefully they will fix their technical issues soon and allow anyone who wants to try the game an opportunity to do so. Will DarkFall elevate MMORPG PvP back to where it was during the golden age? Only time will tell.

Original Soures:
The Decling Role of PvP in MMORPGs
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