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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.
Rise and Shiny revisit: Star Stable
Sometimes you just need a place where you can chill out, jump on the back of your favorite four-legged friend, and go off on an adventure. During my week's revisit to Star Stable, I've simultaneously been researching zombie MMOs for an upcoming article, and after the third post-apocalyptic game filled with cursing juveniles, I had to cleanse myself by jumping back into the friendly, non-competitive world of Star Stable. It's a world in which you'll play a young girl who is loaned a horse. It's your job to work your way through a series of linear, story-based quests until you pay the horse off, save the town from evil corporations, help build a bridge to a new area of the map, explore, make friends, join clubs, and take care of your horse. And fashion. Let's not forget fashion. It's hard for me to find fault in the game, at all. Seriously. That's because I'm playing the game exactly as it's meant to be played.
Massively does Geek Week: A few minutes of free in MMORPGs
As MMO players, we know all about being geeks; we're the geekiest video gamers around! Join in the fun today as we celebrate Google's Geek Week with a series of MMO-flavored videos to introduce fellow geeks to our favorite games: Guild Wars 2, SWTOR, The Secret World, and more! Massively's Beau is fond of many MMOs but has a soft place in his heart for free-to-play indie MMOs. He's conjured up a video in honor of Geek Week to list nine of his favorites to give you something new to try -- something possibly outside your MMO comfort zone! Some require a download and a beefier computer, but most of his offerings could be played on the most basic laptop, so no one's left out. There's even something on his list for gamers of all ages, whether you're a kid of 8 years or 80. Spend a few minutes in free MMORPGs with Beau after the cut!
One Shots: Friendship is magic
Oh pretty ponies, is there anything you can't do? Any wisdom that you haven't already mastered? Any look that isn't absolutely stunning? Any swish of your tail that doesn't grant wishes? I think not! I'm sure that reader Michelle agrees with me, since she sent in this picture of her little pony from Star Stable. "It's April Fool's Day," she writes, "and this is my character Lili Wolfwood and her horse Everdream after having clicked on an NPC Bunny. My horse is usually brown and black." Why do I keep forgetting that there's an entire MMO about horses? Why haven't I done an extensive six-week article series on it yet? While I deal with the shame of neglect, you may proceed on to our other excellent player-submitted screenshots.
Free for All: The second annual Frindie Awards
It's time once again for the Frindie Awards, my attempt to shine some light on the best indie, browser-based, free-to-play, and unusual MMOs that are all-too-often ignored by press -- and players. This one is for the little guys! Well, mostly. It's also for those games that seem to have passed under the collective radar of Massively readers or that seem to be very misunderstood. Picking the winners this year is just as hard as it was last year, maybe even harder. 2012 was an incredible year for MMOs, so I would rather have just put together an article that highlights every single favorite. In the end, it's more helpful to make myself pick out a winner. It's a rare thing for some of these games to even receive a nod on a major website, something I still can't figure out. Either way, it's best to think of all of the MMOs on this list as my favorites from 2012. Anyway, let's get to the awards!
Rise and Shiny: Star Stable
Star Stable is what many would refer to as a "kid's game." More accurately, it could be described as a game for tween girls who love horses, but during my time with the game, I found that most of the players I met and talked to and most of those I saw on the official Facebook page seemed to be between the ages of 17 and 40. The players I chatted with in game and during my livestream of the game were over 19 (some well over), so it would be most accurate to describe the game as a linear world of adventure for horse-lovers to explore. While on horseback. With other players on horseback. There, perfect. There is the slightly glaring issue of every character's being gender-locked as a female rider, but I have no issue with it. The MMO stems from single-player games about a young girl and her horse, as I understand it, so playing as a girl fits perfectly. No "sexism" banners need be waved; for every one example of a game like Star Stable I can show you 100 examples of games that force women to play as men or represent them as scantily clad weaklings. So how much fun is it to ride around on virtual horses all day? Pretty darn fun.
Rise and Shiny: Taikodom
I should have known something was up. I just should have trusted my gut and avoided this game, but no. No, instead I have to be the one who gives into curiosity and says, "Hey, I wrote about that game on my blog almost four years ago... what's it been up to lately?" There's something potentially dangerous about playing a game that has had an identity crisis for so long. Then again, I'm a huge Ryzom fan, and that game has been through the ringer more times than I can remember. Taikodom is now called Taikodom: Living Universe. I'm not sure when things changed without comparing back to that old blog post, but the changes are obvious. No more avatars? OK then. A different UI? That's fine. But -- and this is where my older gamer memory starts to get the best of me -- I distinctly remember Taikodom being sort of fun back then. The version I played this week was anything but fun.
