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Massively's Third Annual Frindie Awards
It's time once again for me to throw out my awards for the best of free-to-play, indie, and oddball MMOs, a real niche-within-a-niche. It might seem that I am assigned many of these titles as though I were some modern day Mikey, but the truth is that I get a huge thrill out of finding a new game but get even more of a thrill when I realize that no one is covering it. I had to really think hard about the criteria for the awards this year, mainly because "indie" is quickly becoming one of those often hard-to-define words, alongside "MMORPG" and "free-to-play." Fortunately, I think I know it when I see it. I kept my choices to games that I have actually played this year. I wanted to avoid games that appear to be really cool. If you want a more broad batch of prizes, check out Massively's best of awards. (Side note: I voted for Defiance as my game of the year.) These awards are for games that are being created on a shoestring or independent of massive budgets. Some of them are connected to some money, of course, but instead of trying to define "indie," I will only repeat: You'll know it when you see it.
MMObility: Checking in on location-based MMO Life is Magic
The mobile market is a great place for unique games as well as remakes and games that are influenced by past titles. But mobile is sort of a Wild West right now, one filled with titles that are obvious ripoffs of more popular games or games that are advertised as MMOs but are nothing like an MMO. I don't mind coming across a game or two that is MMO-like, but when a game claims to be something like the "most popular MMO on the market" or "the first mobile MMO," I get a bit peeved. Luckily there are a lot of great titles to choose from, games like Arcane Legends from Spacetime Studios or Grepolis from Innogames. There are also games like this week's Life is Magic, a neat location-based MMO that comes from Red Robot Labs. It leans a bit more to the pseudo-MMO side but is still a lot of fun when you want some turn-based action.
MMObility: Fifteen fun free MMORPGs for your tablet or smartphone
Mobile MMORPGs are still hard to come by. Sure, there are a ton of pseudo-MMOs and developers who claim to have created an MMO, but the fact is that persistence -- a key to defining what an MMO is -- is often gone from many of these games. I want to be able to log out of the game while the rest of the digital world goes on without me. Or better yet, and in the case of most MMORTS titles, I want to log out of the game and continue to have an effect on the world through trades, wars, or the fallout of diplomacy. Even though the market is often bare, there are still quite a few MMOs out there. Many of them are fun as well! I know, I know, I am making it seem as though the smartphone or tablet MMO market is empty of all content, but the truth is that for its age, it's doing very well. There are more and more coming out all of the time, and hopefully I'll be there to cover them. In the meanwhile, enjoy a list of the specific titles that rest on my Nexus 7 3G tablet, just waiting to be played anywhere and any time!
MMObility: Google's Ingress shines light on the good and bad of ARGs
If you're turned on by augmented reality gaming or games that occur at least in some part within the real world, then you have probably heard about Google's latest experiment, Ingress. Google has been in the MMO game before. Years ago the company created a sort of social sandbox called Google Lively. It was a very interesting project, but its disappearance did not exactly fill me with confidence that Google could pull off another one. Still, this is one of the country's largest experimentation-driven companies with some of the smartest people and greatest access to information, so an ARG might just be the perfect fit. I was just given access to the current stage of the game; be aware that everything I talk about or show you is most likely going to change over time.
MMObility: A look at the location based MMO Life is Magic
I've been looking forward to checking out Life is Magic since I first took a peek at it during GDC Online 2012. The art style, slick presentation, and location-based gameplay drew me in, but I've had it for only a short while since then. I've now been able to snag enough time to get a great idea about what the game holds for players, and so far I can say that there's definitely a polish to the game that I haven't found in many mobile MMOs. So what is so special about this one, especially compared to other location-based MMOs like Fleck or Parallel Kingdom? There are several differences, most of them focused on the art style, unique world map, and cool collectible card game-ish system that ends up being the best part of the game. %Gallery-173874%
MMObility: Free-to-play and mobile at GDC Online, part 2
Let's continue my look at how free-to-play and mobile gaming showed at GDC Online this year. If you missed the first part, you can check it out in my last Free for All column. There was so much to cover that I had to wrap it into a two-parter. I truly think this was the best mobile showing since I first went to GDC Online four years ago, so be sure to check out all of the games I mention. Mobile is growing, as is free-to-play, and it couldn't be more obvious than when we get to witness so many good games being developed. If I have anything to do with it, I will be playing these games ASAP. That means that you get to read what I think about them, and you get to play along as well!
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Life is Crime
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, crime bosses Pete Hawley, Mikey Ouye and John Harris of Red Robot Labs take the street to your phone in their location-based, real-world social title, Life is Crime. What's your game called and what's it about?Mike Ouye: Our game is called Life Is Crime. It's a free-to-play, social, location-based crime-themed mobile game for Android and iOS. Players commit virtual crimes at real locations, visiting their local bar, coffee shop and bank to perform missions, sell contraband and fight with other players. The more active players are, the more turf they control and the higher their criminal reputation becomes.How vicious is the crime-app competition on mobile devices, and how do you feel Red Robot Labs is faring?Mike Ouye: We took a unique approach by launching on Android first, then approaching the iOS market, and so far it has paid off. Life Is Crime has over a million downloads on Android since its launch at PAX West in August 2011. This created momentum so that when it released on the iTunes App Store January 5th, it rose to the number two on the Free Apps list.Pete Hawley: As for Red Robot Labs, our company has expanded into the UK, joining forces with Supermono, and continues to grow rapidly here in the US. In fact, we're still hiring, so if mobile gaming is your thing you should come work for us!We're hoping that location, high polish, and innovation will help set us apart.
