This one is going to turn into a hurricane, first NCSoft, then SOE, Blizzard, the sky is the limit. I wonder if Sony are regretting having released HOME about now…

With such an obvious grind in a game, why does it have so many subscribers?

The answer is the fact it’s online.

Well, okay, most play it for the multiplayer, and about two people enjoy the Warcraft plotline.

A single-player version of World of Warcraft would be a stifling affair: You’d level up, and level up, then run through instances… With no big crescendo, no end in sight. This would be a very, very bad game. However, by being online, the human desire to be the best kicks in, making players want to level, and grind, to be considered the best in the game- Even if it means very little. Another reason multiplayer saves Warcraft is the cooperative aspect. Players may not enjoy the grind but have an ultimate goal for the endgame: to work together in large parties in order to defeat a boss and receive the loot. For some players, the loot isn’t the goal, but to help others get the loot and see more of what the game has to offer.

Players may stop playing the game, too. This is usually because they value the $15 they pay every month over the time and entertainment the game offers. In short, they’ve found something better to do with their time.

In short, the MMO World of Warcraft is a good game, but it isn’t for everyone. People who enjoy a community, having a somewhat living environment around them, would like it, but the slow paced gameplay (Outside of PvP, that is) before you reach the endgame may turn you off.

Runes of Magic is an MMORPG that is free to play, and the American open beta was recently opened. There was already a European open beta going on, so most of  the bugs have already been taken care of.

My character in RoM

You start out with one of six classes in the Pioneer’s Colony of Taborea, where you’ll quickly become familiar with Runes of Magic (RoM). After a mini-tutorial, which explains the bare basics of the game, like movement and camera control, you’re thrown into the world. And boy,was I surprised. On my skill bar, I found 4 skills waiting for me! At level 1!

While other games are scarce with giving you skills, RoM is definitely not. A common complaint about MMOs is that you have so little skills to use, that you just end up spamming the same skill over and over again, making the game very boring. But not in RoM. You start out with a couple of skills that have synergy with each other, and every level you get to upgrade them as you wish. You also gain a new skills every level or two. And this makes the combat really enjoyable.

The other thing that really surprised me, is how the game kept throwing quest after quest at me. There are so many, especially with the daily quests that you can repeat, that it’s not odd to still have quests of levels far below yours! So you’ll never be forced to grind on your own, but instead you’ll be questing.

However, these quests don’t have a lot of variety. Most of them are simple “Kill x wolves” or “Collect 10 fangs”, though there’s also some quests that ask you to scavenge for items or kill bosses (that are way too strong for their level, I might add- you definitely need a group of multiple people to kill them).

Aside from the combat there’s also a foraging and crafting system. While the foraging system is straight-forward (though it’s annoying how you cannot chop down certain trees or pick flowers until your skill level is high enough), the crafting system is not. I didn’t find out until level 10 how I could create new items, because you have to initiate the crafting from your skill window. Because of this, I accidentally sold a lot of materials that I could have instead used to create new items.

A unique feature in Runes of Magic is that, like Guild Wars, you can gain a secondary class. At level 10 you can choose one of the remaining classes as your secondary, and you get to use some of its skills. However, unlike Guild Wars, you separately have to level this class. I’m a big fan of the dual class system, as it allows for a lot more variety.

For now, I’m really enjoying Runes of Magic, and I hope this game stays as good as it is in the lower levels. If you’re looking for a free MMO, definitely try this game.

Imagine Online is unique in one way, because it’s actually not a WoW ripoff, as many other developers have attempted to do in the past (see Lord of the Rings Online and Warhammer). Players have almost complete free reign over how they want to progress their character. If you want to be a physical type, then you’ll need to use those kinds of attacks to skill up, and unlock new skills. Want to be a caster? Then you’ll want to use spells a lot. Want to specialize in demon recruitment? Well, there’s a skill tree for that as well. The level of customization in regards to player type is very high.

The game also keeps true to Megaten tradition. Players have the ability to recruit their very own demons, and can work with them either alone, or with other players and their own demons. The game also keeps a strong emphasis on exploiting weaknesses, and if you’re using a demon that uses spells that another is resistant to, you’ll end up taking a dirt nap quickly. The level of difficulty is higher than that of many other MMOs out there, and the learning curve is equally high. Thankfully, there’s a training area you can go to shortly after the beginning events to hone your skills.

The game looks to be coming along nicely, though some things, such as players attacking demons you’re trying to recruit, are annoyances that should hopefully be addressed soon. Players looking for something different, along with Megaten fans, will want to keep an eye out on this one.

Imagine retains numerous aspects from the Megaten series, including the Cathedral of Shadows, where demon fusion takes place.

Many different creatures from mythology are available in Imagine.

]]> http://giantenemyblog.com/shin-megami-tensei-imagine-online/feed/ 0 http://giantenemyblog.com/mmorpgs-an-untapped-potential/ http://giantenemyblog.com/mmorpgs-an-untapped-potential/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:00:49 +0000 Kintak http://gamerblag.com/?p=877 You all know them: Ragnarok Online, Maple Story, World of Warcraft, these are practically household names for anyone that considers themselves a gamer, from the casual to the hardcore. Millions of people play them, but why? Because they are progress simulators, and people love easily-gotten gains, no matter how insubstantial they are. However, these gains also have to have some challenge behind them. Nothing in life comes for free, not even imaginary demon slaying swords.

So here we have the root of the problem; somewhere along the line some wires got crossed and everybody decided MMO = grind (now with added social interaction!).

It’s time for “Cooking with Kintak”. Today I’ll be teaching you how to make your very own money farm. It’s quite easy, really! Take Diablo, stretch out the content as thinly as possible, host it on your own servers so you have an excuse to charge $15 a month, and watch as the money flows in (or wait to go bankrupt, as the case may be. See: Every WoW knockoff). To make the monthly fees really convincing, release a half-finished game with the promise of additional content maybe being added at some point. To make even more money, charge for any additional content that you plan to add, and call it an expansion pack!

“But Kintak, the name of this article is ‘An Untapped Potential’. What’s all that about?”

Why yes it is, isn’t it! And true to my words, there is an untapped potential: the “human potential”. You see, at this point in time, the majority of mass multiplayer games are stagnant universes that require their creators to breathe life into them every time their subscription base starts getting antsy. Every speck of content must be constructed by an omnipotent being (I hear they call them “developers” in the holy land). Every single byte is under the control of this god, but because of this, the game does not generate interest or content by its own merit.

So I come back to this human potential. Like Prometheus stole fire from the Greek gods, like Eve took a bite of the apple in the Garden of Eden, we too must demand freedom and power from the developers. The players must be able to police themselves. They must be able to create their own content, their own rules, their own cities, their own armies, their own wars. This has already been put into action in some games. In fact one of the earliest MMOs, Ultima Online, was like that back during its mythical days. Unfortunately, nowadays, thanks to EA’s control, it’s nothing but a husk of its former self.

However, the hope of freedom does not die with Ultima Online; rather it has found new homes. Though neither as free nor as intense as Ultima Online once was, EVE Online is very much player-driven. Almost every object in EVE except NPCs is player-controlled, including the economy (and every resource inside of it, from minerals to full spaceships) and the law (outside of high-security areas).

Even games that were once static may someday be given player control. For example, there is a planned feature in the works for City of Heroes which is due to be released with its next free expansion, Issue 14. This feature, dubbed the Mission Creator, will give players the ability to craft their very own missions (quests) that other players will be able to play and rate.

So you see, this dream of freedom is not dead. The thing you, as a player, can do is demand that it be realized.

A whiner’s post is easy to differentiate from other posts. First of all, it will say there is a very big problem in the game. Not just a tiny annoyance, but something that destroys the complete game as we know it, and if we leave it untouched, the poster will stop playing and so will everybody he knows. Of course, this is a hyperbole; there is not only a low chance that the poster will actually stop playing the game, but there is a low chance that his friends agree with his problems.

That brings us to the next point. A whiner’s post is incredibly biased. It is usually very clear from the post in question what class, race or weapons the whiner uses. Usually, they are underpowered, and all classes are too strong. To put it in simpler terms, “I play Scissors, Rock is overpowered, Paper is fine”. This means that most of  the whiners don’t agree with each other for the simple reason that they play in another way. While one whiner may be saying that the warrior class is terribly overpowered, and how it completely dominates another class, another whiner may be saying that his warrior always loses to said class, and that warriors need a big buff.

A last way to determine whether a post is simply whining, is to check the arguments that poster is using. Most of the time, it will be about his own experiences. This is of course not a crime by itself, but if you read between the lines, there is a high chance that the whiner is simply a bad player and, well yeah, if you’re a bad player, you lose. Another technique whiners like to use is to propose a hypothetical situation, in which everything is in favor of the enemy, and the player loses of course. These situations are created to show how overpowered or underpowered something is, so these are of course tainted by bias. Without this bias, you’ll probably come across a perfectly normal, balanced situation.

So why should you care? Well, these whiners love to open their mouth. Everywhere. On unofficial forums, but also on official ones. If the developers keep in touch with their community and actually read suggestions and complaints, there is a chance that they will take these whiners seriously and that is when you should start to worry.

If a developer listens to such a whiner, the game will start to become unbalanced. Maybe it was already unbalanced to begin with, but it will become more unbalanced. The problem is that most games only need minor tweaking to become balanced. But oh no, that is not enough for a whiner. A whiner wants a weapon to deal double the damage. A whiner wants to double the hit percentage of an attack. A whiner wants to make an armor set basically free.

Of course, these kinds of drastic changes are bad for a game. Sadly, there is nothing to do about this problem. The only thing you can do is to try and ignore the thread as big threads draw the attention of developers, who probably have little time to spend on reading complaints. What if it grows to become a big discussion? Let’s say I hope that you’re renowned enough in the game or on the forums that people will believe you when you say that the OP is just wrong.

My friends say that I like weird games. And it’s true. But, do you think a 3rd person shooter with football elements is weird? …  Well, I think it is.

S4 League is the “acronym” for Stylish eSper Shooting Sports. Yeah, I don’t really get it either.

About S4 League

Actual In-game Screen

This game is like football (you get the ball and try get it to the goal with the other team trying to stop you) but it has guns, swords and a bat.

The teams are split in two teams of 6 members each (they can be less or even one member): Alpha and Beta.

The rules are the same as football: take the Fumbi (a doll-like item that takes the place of the ball) and place it in the enemy base. The other team must use any weapon or tactic to stop you, get the ball and place it in your base.

Of course, it also has a Deathmatch mode where both teams must kill each other until they reach the set score or get the biggest score before times runs out. This is my favorite mode (even if I die every single time). I can’t get enough of it.

It may look boring, silly or just plain stupid, but with the right people at the right time, the game can become a real war for the Fumbi or to overwhelm the opposing team.

You can also customize your character with different clothing, hair and faces (and apply special features to each piece of clothing you buy) for a set price.

Another feature that S4 has, is that you can add music to each map and the lobby (up to 3 dfferent files). Each file will be played during the game in order or random for as long as the game goes. The files must be in OGG format unfortunately.

The Almost Mandatory Good and Bad List

This game has its good points:

• Different types of weapons: you can choose many handguns or a machine gun and fill the opponent with lead or you can choose a sword or a bat and beat the hell out of them.

• Different skills: You can choose a Shield so you and your teammates can shoot the enemy from a safe position, or Wall to block the path to the touchdown place. Even an Anchor or Wings to cross gaps in no time.

• Different Maps: Every map requires a different strategy and weapons to get the upper hand in a match.

• Promotes Teamwork: One person is not a team. You must trust in your teammates to score a touchdown or to beat the opposing team.

Unfortunately, it also has its bad points:

• Laggers: It’s not that the connection sucks (most of the time it is), but the people that use this flaw to their advantage are a different story. The kind of connection the game uses makes it
  

  Promotional Image from Alaplaya

  easy to become invulnerable to enemy attacks, grab the Fumbi and score with all the team trying in vain to stop them. This is also known as “Torrent Shielding”. Just make sure to download something, and voila! Your own “Torrent Shield”.

• Teammates: It may seem weird, but sometimes the teammates can really be a pain in the ass. Some of them just go around getting killed, even if you already had a plan. But just wait until your team starts losing and they’ll cooperate.

• Just two different modes: There are many people that like to play games with just swords, but there’s always someone with guns who joins in and ruins the fun. This has a workaround so I don’t think it’s really a bad point.

Final Words

Even with all the bad points, it a fun game. Every game is different and even losing a game can be very satisfying. I love shooting every enemy in sight or in way to our base or even get into kamikaze mode and rush into the enemy base and get my ass handed to me. It’s just too fun. It’s even funnier to see how someone can’t kill you because he/she can’t aim and call you lagger.

Currently, Alaplaya has the rights of S4 League outside of Korea and is hosting the game. So, if you have the chance, give it a try. Just remember this: DON’T BUY CLOTHES EARLY IN THE GAME NOR SELL YOUR LICENSE WEAPONS!.

Fenixwing.

“SHOW ME YOUR S4!”

1. DRM and Piracy - DRM has always been a huge taboo in gaming and it’s becoming more and more common in PC games these days. This is mainly due to the rising of piracy among PC games and now even consoles are suffering from it. X-Box 360 games are out sometimes even a month in advance of it’s street date. PC games have their copy protection cracked within days of its release, sometimes hours. But while DRM will help save their games the companies are taking it to an extreme, an example and probably the most recent case is EA’s blunder that is Spore. Even Steam games these days are not safe from piracy.

2. Consoles – From the moment consoles started to become a household thing was when PC gaming began it’s decline. What do kids ask for their birthday and Christmas? The newest console or the newest handheld so they can play it with their friends. Now a days people don’t build PCs, they buy a desktop or laptop pre-built and go with it not even worrying about gaming on it. Consoles these days have started to have more of a community feel to them than ever before. X-Box Live has become a huge success with the Playstation Network not far behind. The Wii’s online support is trash but since when has Nintendo ever been good at online gaming.

3. Exclusive Titles – Games don’t come out on one platform these days. It’s almost unheard of and usually considered a bad move depending on the company. Companies like Valve, who have been primarily a PC developer, has started putting it’s games on the 360 (without the same sort of support it’s PC counterpart gets) and now companies are even developing MMORPGs for consoles.

4. Competition – One thing PC games still have going for it is the tournament scene. People still play Counterstrike: Source or Unreal Tournament for cash every year, but how long is that going to last? Major League Gaming just recently closed shop and who knows how soon the rest of the scene will fold. Cons will always be a place for gaming tournaments but Cons don’t have a unlimited life-span and it all rests on the founder’s shoulders to keep it running.

5. MMORPGs – World of Warcraft, Warhammer, Guild Wars, Age of Conan, EVE Online. The list goes on and on and on but why does it? Because developing an MMORPG is like asking for free cash. Everyone is doing it, but because of that we have to wade through tons and tons of crap to get to even one shining gem of a game that probably won’t take off due to it being developed by some no-name company from Korea.

Like the arcades of the past, PC gaming is slowly becoming less and less what people what to do. Why pay a couple thousand dollars on a decent gaming PC when you could go to the store, buy a console for 200~300 dollars, a couple games, and start playing as soon as you unpackage the thing? Why pay 15 dollars a month for an MMORPG when you could pay about 10 for X-Box Live and have almost every title on the console supported somehow? Personally, PC gaming will always have that special place in my heart and seeing it die off makes a part of me just feel sad.

Ever since the dawn of the gaming industry, developers have spent a lot of their time creating games based on magical fantasy worlds where knights, wizards, dragons and damsels in distress were more than mere possibilities. There was a will to interact with these stories in reaction to centuries of spectating them. After years of toying with the limitations of A.I scripting, the bread and butter of the RPG genre, the Internet finally provided the necessary tools to connect role players worldwide and make them mutually interact inside virtual dynamic worlds, huge online theaters where every actor played an independent and unique role while affecting others at the same time. Thus MMORPG genre was born from the RPG and proceeded to replace its predecessor gradually, while not completely, attracting a considerably larger and more diversed fanbase and spawning an unusual amount of success and response.

However, what game developers failed to predict was how seriously some people would take this form of entertainment. Even though an excess of dedication of a player over a video game is taken as a benefit for software companies, since it usually translates on a larger income, growing obsessive behaviors towards a video game can generate hazardous effects, both game and real life based that will consequentially damage both players and developers.

Over the last few years we have heard of people who ruined their lives, commited suicide and even murdered others over MMORPG-related issues. Now, it is absurd to think or claim that this game genre carries some kind of curse or that its a threat to public health, but these facts clearly illustrate that something is indeed wrong with the way some players face it. What was initially intended to be a way to relax people is becoming more of a new source of problems and worries for those who use it. Though this social phenomenon might be a shadow on the role video games have started to play in our society, it is quite a fact that the MMORPG genre, with its so called “freedom” and “social interaction” has given birth to some of the most controversial cases and situations ever spawned by the game industry.