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The Daily Grind: What MMO would you like to see be brought back to life?
Today is a day where we should honor our fallen. Motor City Online. Tabula Rasa. Auto Assault. Asheron's Call 2. Earth and Beyond. Underlight. Shadowbane. Castle Infinity. The Matrix Online. The Sims Online. Seed. All of these games, and more, are MMOs that have launched, played, and then died.Each of these games has a reason for why it was cancelled, but the outcome remains the same -- they aren't online today and their clients are nothing more than wasted code sitting on a disk. Some of these games were our introduction to the genre. Others were our favorite games -- the ones that could trump even the largest names in the MMO business.So Massively readers, which dead MMO would you like to see be resurrected? Tell us some stories as to why you pick your game of choice, and drop them all in the comment box below. Mourn with others, we encourage it!
The Daily Grind: What unloved game do you adore?
If you had to describe the MMO field in one word - without using the words "virtual" or "massive" or "Warcraft" - you could do worse than picking "fickle". It's all but a law of nature that for every game that manages to get big-time exposure, there's another whose very name provokes boredom at best and vitriol at worst. For every Aion, there's a Tabula Rasa... or, if you want to be more ironic, for every Asheron's Call there's an Asheron's Call 2.But no matter those obstacles, someone will love those games. There is always a fanbase, always people who play the game, always people sad when and if it dies. Maybe it's some quirky system that the game introduced that was interesting enough to overlook the game's other flaws, maybe it's a surfeit of flavor and roleplaying options, maybe it's even just the fact that the game is so badly designed the player gets a strange, Mystery Science Theater 3000 thrill out of the train wreck.Whatever the reason, we've all got our pet games, whether we think they're underappreciated gems or bad games we love anyway. What's your favorite MMO that no one else seems to like?
Can Champions Online overcome launch issues?
Eric Heimburg over on Elder Game has weighed in on the state of Champions Online - more specifically, the problems that the game has been experiencing with new players, and some of the mixed reactions that the public has been experiencing. As a former design lead for Asheron's Call 2, he understandably draws some parallels between the two games, and speculates about where CO is going to head over the next few months and whether or not it can truly "take on" City of Heroes.It's an interesting post, and one that asks some questions that we think a lot of those who had anticipated the game have been asking. Certainly the game's open beta and release dropped with a much-muffled hype, and it's undeniable that the game still has a lot of polishing left to do. Mr. Heimburg might be a little more fatalistic about the game's prospects than necessary, but 2009 has not been a kind year to MMOs thus far, and he's had first-hand experience with a game that just requires a few bits of polish never getting the chance to finish polishing.
The origins of Turbine, as told by its founder
Have you ever wondered how some current game studios were first created? Who started them? What was their initial aim? Many of these most successful companies were founded on the success of console games in the 90s. Take Blizzard, for instance. They started out in 1991 by three guys who had just received their bachelor's degrees from UCLA the year before. Ironically, they also created one of the early Lord of the Rings ports, as well.With Turbine, the story is very similar. Jon Monsarrat, as the founder, CEO and officially Turbine's first employee, writes his narrative on the founding of the company back in 1995. Initially funded by some insurance money Jon got from a car accident, Turbine eventually evolved from the creator of Asheron's Call four years later, to the behemoth that it is today. This website is quite dated, and is listed in Turbine's official wikipedia entry, but the story is filled with some great tidbits that can only be told by the man who experienced it all, and it's certainly worth a read if you're a fan of any of Turbine's projects.[Thanks Bam!]
Turbine expands with West Coast office
Need more proof that Turbine is becoming a behemoth game studio? They've just announced the opening of their newest West Coast studio in Redwood City, CA. This studio is not a relocation from their Massachusetts office, but an expanded studio to bring new titles to market and expand into other platforms.To head this new studio, Turbine has hired some industry giants, such as Dave Bervik as Creative Director, Jeff Lind as Engineering Director and Matt McKnight as Studio Director. Take a look at the complete press release after the jump to learn more about Turbine's plans with this new studio, as well as a working history for each of these industry vets.
The Daily Grind: Which deceased MMO do you miss the most?
It's official: Flagship Studios' Mythos beta has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet its maker. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. It is, in fact, an ex-MMO. Hellgate London subscriptions have halted, and it might soon join Mythos in the great void. There are hopes that they'll be back under a different banner -- or that Hellgate might not close at all -- but if only the worst happens, these two games will certainly be missed by many.They are not the first ones we've lost, though. Underlight, Earth & Beyond, and Asheron's Call 2 have all gone the way of the 8-track tape. Saga of Ryzom went under as well, though it looks like it might make a comeback. Think about those games for a moment, or any others you've lost; which lost MMOs do you want back the most? Do you want them back because you played them and now you miss them, or because you never got to play them at all?Consider this the Flagship Studios memorial Daily Grind!
Player vs. Everything: Game-hopping like a madman
Chances are good that if you read Massively, you either currently play or have played multiple MMOGs in your life. Whatever your reasons are, you're one of those players for whom "MMO" is a genre instead of a game. Not all players are like this. A lot of players get their start somewhere and then stick to that game for years, denouncing all other games as being incapable of being better than their chosen virtual playground. I used to be like that with EverQuest (can you tell?). For four years I played it pretty much exclusively, not even trying other games. But eventually, I got bored. Thus started my lengthy and storied history of game-hopping. Traveling from world to world like some sort of virtual nomad, fueled by my love of the online massively multiplayer game, I sampled much of what the genre had to offer. While I eventually found a new home and anchor in World of Warcraft, it only served as a nice place to return to every few months. I still ventured out into each new and exciting world that various companies served up to me. They all had things I liked and didn't like about them, and I honestly have yet to play a game that I couldn't find something good to say about. Every online game has its own cool quirks that are pretty neat from a design standpoint. This is why it's tough to identify an objectively "best" game -- they're all so different! I thought today I'd talk a little bit about what I've played over the years and how I ended up with the many and varied opinions on the MMOG genre that I have.
On the subject of risky MMO sequels
One of the biggest problems an MMO developer faces -- after successfully launching their game and achieving a healthy bases of subscribers -- is keeping their game fresh. In some cases, developers have attempted a sequel, but the problem with that lies in getting the player base to move over. EverQuest 2, Asheron's Call 2 and Linage 2 all faced seemingly lower subscription numbers than their predecessors. It would seem that sequels -- while able to be successful -- don't live up to the same success that the original games had. It's possible there could be an exception to the rule someday, but so far there hasn't been.
One Shots: This place looks familiar...
This game looks awfully familiar, doesn't it? The peaceful landscape, the cloud-covered sky, even the interface looks like something we've seen recently, doesn't it? But we're here to tell you, this is not the game you are looking for. Though this shot in particular bears a lot of similarity, both in setting and interface, to Turbine's latest MMO offering, Lord of the Rings Online, this shot is actually from the now defunct Asheron's Call 2. Schad, who sent in the shot, tells us, "It died, but I still have the screens!"We're pretty excited to see screenshots in the One Shots mailbox for games other than Guild Wars. Not that we don't like Guild Wars -- but variety is the spice of life and we love to see shots from games we haven't highlighted lately. We only post what you send us send your screenshots and stories from games long dead to oneshots@massively.com. You may see it posted here tomorrow! %Gallery-9798%
