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Free for All: Comparing the payment models of RuneScape and Illyriad
Last week, I introduced you to two of my favorite free-to-play or freemium payment models. Payment models are endlessly fascinating because so many players normally didn't think about them until free-to-play and freemium models stopped being something that only came from foreign shores. Now, everyone has an opinion about which payment model is the best. I tend to love simple ones, as close to simple as I can get. If a game is truly wonderful, however, I don't care if the developers ask players to cut off their right arms. I've paid my fair share and continue to do so. In fact, in one of the most disturbing trends of the last few years, players have begun bemoaning the lack of a free version of their favorite game. I see it all the time: players publicly wishing for the time that their favorite game will go free-to-play so they can return without paying a dime. Sure, I can understand being strapped for cash and needing an easy way to get back to an old title, but come on... those titles might not be around much longer if players do not support them in the first place. I am not a fan of free-to-play because I am cheap or because I need to avoid paying developers what they deserve. I have said it before, and I will say it again: I am a fan of free-to-play because it lets me decide when I want to spend my money. There's a big difference. So let's chat about two of my favorite game's payment models.
MMObility: Let's make a mobile game, part one
I thoroughly enjoy reading your comments, especially when the discussion turns to game design or suggestions for development. I decided it was high time that I sat down and experienced, even if just a little, how the design process goes. I've had plenty of peeks at different studios, but I wanted to know what it is like to actually make a game from basically beginning to end. So for the next four weeks, I will be doing something special. I invited indie developer Dave Toulouse, maker of Golemizer and Star Corsairs, to help me in this journey. If you'd like to find out more about Dave, you can visit his official website, follow him on Twitter, or even read an interview I did with him a while ago. He really is the epitome of the indie spirit, and I am so thankful that he volunteered to do this with me. The goal is to start with a basic idea and framework, and using input from our discussions and from reader comments, assemble a very basic working mobile MMO. So let's get started!
Illyriad keeps players on edge with new live event
Who says MMOs don't have live events anymore? Triple-A titles, listen up: Your F2P brethren are doing what you won't. On Thursday, the citizens of Illyriad awoke to find that a massive rift had opened in the Northern section of the in-game map. A forum post later detailed the events and told of a mage from the Circle of Five who had recently been tampering with magical uses for the body parts of animals. Soon after, a blast was "felt by all for hundreds of miles in every direction." Scouts, armies and caravans were dispatched from curious cities. The next night, skeleton armies poured from the rift and attacked the investigators. Illyriad is a free-to-play MMORTS that features city-building, resource management, deep strategy, free-for-all PvP, and a player-driven market. Thanks to HTML5, it works on any device. If dynamic live world events sound interesting to you, check the game out at the official site.
MMObility: Checking out 8Realms from Jagex
Jagex, maker of the very popular browser-based MMO RuneScape, has branched out into the world of the MMORTS. I call this a good thing, especially since I am such a fan of the genre. There are literally scores and scores of the strategy-based city builders out there. Many of them not only are similar to each other but offer nothing new, not even a slight twist in design. I have a few favorites like Illyriad, Golden Age, and Aloriah, so I was eager to jump into this new one, given that it is made by one of my favorite design studios. 8realms seems to sport a unique design. Players are asked to build up their cities and advance through different ages, from ancient times all the way up to the modern day. A trailer on the front page of the official website shows a commander admiring his army of sword- and spearmen, until suddenly a modern-day jet fighter nukes them to smithereens. All I could think was, "Is this game balanced?" If you would like to join in on the fun along with me, you can join in VIP access by going to the official site and using the code MASSIVELY15 when prompted. Then come back and click past the cut to hear all about my experience!
Free for All: Some thoughts from the yellow pad
I've had a pretty busy time over the last several days. I like to stay active when I can, easily stuffing my schedule with high-power meetings and travels to exotic lands to discuss the latest game. Heck, just the other day I was flown to Russia to meet with the insane genius behind some of my favorite titles, and we bare-chested wrestled in the snow (he lost and had to buy the second round). Well, not exactly. I did find some pretty cool games, played with my favorite titles, and overall daydreamed my way through life. A pretty typical week, really. If you'd like to hear about a few of the cool things I found, thought, and played last week, click past the cut.
MMObility: Ten terrific titles for this nifty new netbook
I mentioned this new gaming toy of mine last week, and it finally arrived. I immediately loved how it felt and weighed. Sure, there are lighter netbooks, but many of them feel more fragile. This Inspiron Duo has a rubberized edging to it, and the flip-screen feels snappy but firm. I was happy right away. It's a higher-quality netbook with a decent-quality tablet included. After I tweaked it and purged it of bloatware, I had to get some games going on it, and not just casual Facebook games but real MMOs. I spent a few days going through my list of titles to see which ones would work on the netbook and how many will work well with the touchscreen. I wanted games that would give a normal netbook fits but not lag excessively. Note that my netbook's screen is 1366x768, while the cheapest ones out there are normally 1024x600. Adjustments might need to be made there. I came up only with 10 games for now, but expect more in the future. Click past the cut to see the list!
Rise and Shiny recap: Golden Age
I tend to think of myself as a connoisseur of MMORTS games. If you are not familiar with the genre, imagine an MMO that plays like a city-building sim combined with open warfare and sometimes trade. There are a lot of these titles out there, maybe a lot more than in other genres, and the popularity of the MMORTS seems to be growing. Every week I read about a new one or try a new one out. They are usually browser-based, so it's very possible that this low barrier to production allows for such mass production. Usually I play one and my love affair with it hardly gets off the ground. Generally I find much of the same design and gameplay I have found in dozens of titles. Sure, there are some subtle differences, but overall the gems in this category are few and far between. This week I tasked myself with playing Golden Age, the new MMORTS published by Aeria Games. Was it the same as every other one I've played before? Click past the cut and find out.
Free for All: An inside look at Illyriad Games
You have to be a bit insane to write your own game, says James Niesewand, Illyriad Games' CEO. When he and a group of friends decided to sit down and list off what they wanted to see in a browser-based game, they decided to go for a game that would not periodically reset like so many browser games, one that featured the complexity and depth of games like EVE Online and would be free to play. Niesewand started with no experience in the gaming industry, but he did have some coding background. He writes the back-end material (the information that is queried), and his co-conspirator Ben Adams writes the front-end (the stuff that you interact with and see). Of course, I am simplifying this, but for the sake of keeping this article under 15,000 words I will attempt to sum up the conversations James and I had at GDC Online last week. They covered the start of his first browser-based game as well as some of the inevitable growing pains that come with being an indie developer. Click past the cut!
Free for All: Why these are my top five
For some time now, my gaming habits have been morphing. I was worried that I might start having more issues gaming and with finding enough time to cover the games I wanted, but lately the opposite is happening. I have less physical issues now and I tend to do more gaming than ever before. Why is that, I wonder? I decided to sit down and look at my top five most-played games over, say, this last month or two. I love analyzing my own playing because I am a pretty honest gamer. I will never feel obliged to a game or a group of friends; I never log in to grind or raid simply because everyone else does. If I find a game boring, or if it doesn't work out for any number of reasons, I don't play it. Click past the cut to see my list and be sure to leave your top five games in the comments! (If you play that many.)
MMObility: The rise of the browser
Over the last week I have been obsessing over Glitch, the new browser-based MMORPG brought to us by Tiny Speck. I will go into details of why in my Rise and Shiny column, but for now, let's just say that I think it is one of the greatest things I have come across in a long time. For the record, I was talking about Glitch before it was popular (that hipster cred should get my a free pair of glasses in Glitch!) and was excited about starting this column because of games like Glitch. In short, I knew that the browser market was huge, and I knew it was only going to grow bigger. Yes, I know what you're thinking, and yes I am claiming that we are starting to see the end of the heavy-duty client and demand for expensive hardware and upgrades. It's a big prediction, but click past the cut and let me explain.
MMObility: Illyriad devs shine light on HTML5
HTML5 is somewhat of a mysterious beast. We've probably all heard whispers of the "new" version of the standard web coding language, but to most of us it means very little. After all, why is it number five? Why is there a buzz about this new way of coding websites? Is "coding" even the right word? Oh, I've learned a thing or two over the years; I've built a few websites and have figured out some of the basics. My wife is a graphic designer, so I have learned a lot from her, including some of the stuff that makes up Flash and other graphical... things. But I am far from an expert. So I decided to ask Ben Adams and and James Niesewand, CTO and CEO of Illyriad Games, respectively, about HTML5. They are really starting to push the boundaries of the language with their game Illyriad. It's fun to learn about this stuff, and it's always nice to know how our mobile games are being made. Click past the cut and read the interview! Warning: Big words ahead!
Free for All: News roundup from some of my favorite free-to-plays
Interesting stuff is happening all of the time in the world of indie, free-to-play, and browser-based gaming. In fact, it's hard for me to keep up with it all. I have to say that some developers make it much easier on me by contacting us here at Massively or by maintaining a good news feed on their website. Some developers (*ahem*) make tracking down news harder than it should be. Still, it's out there, and I decided to recap some of my favorites over the last few weeks. Of course, I will always miss something or just forget to put something in. The search bar is always good for finding bits of news, or you could just visit us here every single day. Several times. And leave comments about how cool I am. Click past the cut and let's get to it!
MV Guide: September 12-18, 2011
MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively's Livestream channel. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During livestream events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, livestream events are subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.)
Free for All: Another attempt at free-to-play vs. freemium
I'm one of those types who can't just let certain things go. When I see someone talking on Facebook about issues with his pet, I have to chime in. (I'm sort of an amateur animal behaviorist.) If I hear someone talking about her favorite bands, I usually have to let her know which ones I love. (I'm a music snob.) I'm just sort of a nosy individual. Since I can admit that, I think I deserve a pass when I volunteer information that wasn't asked for. But I work at Massively. We're a website about, you know, games, and not just games, but MMOs, some of the least understood of all games. People and even developers seem to confuse what MMO means, and they especially confuse what a free-to-play MMO should offer. Once again I am going to take a crack at it, but not just because I am nosy. Mainly I want to clear this up so people will know what to expect from a title and whether there is going to have to be any money involved. Click past the cut and let's have at it!
MMObility: What makes a good mobile game to me
Over the time I have been exploring mobile gaming, especially since I have been writing this column, I've discovered exactly what I like and dislike about the genre. Mobile MMOs are the tiniest niche within the greater world of MMOs. Some would say that MMOs are even a tiny corner of gaming in general. While I don't quite agree, I would say that explaining my column to random game shop employees or curious friends is quite the challenge. "You write about games... on your phone?" "Yes, massively multiplayer games." "Huh?" Luckily there are many new ones that offer a much more robust gaming experience. I can proudly show people examples of games like Order and Chaos Online, Star Legends or Illyriad. Of course, I sift through many poor examples before I get to the good ones. So let's take this opportunity to discuss what I think makes for a good game. Click past the cut and feel free to add your ideas in the comments section!
Free for All: So what else can you get for 150 dollars?
Recently, fans of the upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic had the pleasure of plopping down 150 clams to pre-order a special collectors edition of their favorite game they have never played. I've seen this before, and have even pre-ordered a few in my day (I'm looking at you, giant Warhammer Online box.) Pre-orders are the oldest form of virtual goods...they were cash-shops before cash-shops appeared in every game. The funnest part is seeing hardcore cash-shop haters gladly paying huge sums of money for a robot pet or a cool looking cape. Somehow, they see it as a different thing altogether than buying a shiny mount or pink dress from in-game. Still, I understand the impulse. I get it every time I am in the check-out lane and the new flavors of gum have been released. Even worse is when one of my favorite games releases new items in their cash shop. New mounts, housing goods, heck even new weapons or stat-increasing potions...they make me drool. So, I decided to take a 150 dollar budget and see what I could get for it. Click past the cut and let's look at the list!
MMObility: How to real-time-strategize your way into my heart
If there is one thing I can appreciate in my gaming choices, it's flexibility. I want to be able to not only do what I want but do it when I want. If I want to avoid combat or other players, the game should allow me to do that. I don't want to bother with things that annoy me. If I am in the mood for tweaking my character, sure, I'll do that, but I don't want it to be forced on me by a pushy fellow player or virtual progression wall. In other words, give me as many choices as possible and I will love you. Once I discovered the world of browser-based real-time-strategy games, I found a large number of games that provided me with almost everything I needed. While I normally preferred more "immersive" play, I found that the miniature armies and grand scale of most of these newer titles filled in my imagination just fine. In fact, the more I play with them, the more I am reminded of tabletop gaming as a teen. Those were glorious times, despite the fact that I am now, and always have been, horrible at war. Let me tell you all about my recent obsession with browser-based real-time-strategy MMOs. (That's quite a mouthful.) Click past the cut!
MMObility: Fifty games for the mobile lifestyle
I like lists. Lists help keep my candy-coated brain functioning. I see so many games, devices, and developers that I need to write things down periodically or become lost. Not so long ago I made a list of 25 games for your shiny new laptop, but I wanted to update it with other devices as well. I'd like to clarify the devices I have, though, especially since it was brought to my attention that a lot of players use laptops as their primary gaming machines. When I refer to a laptop, it is far from a gaming machine and could not run games like EverQuest II or Age of Conan. So here are some stats: I have an HTC Inspire, an iPhone 3GS, an iPad, a Phenom Triple-core PC desktop with an Nvidia 9800 card, six gigs of ram and onboard sound. My laptop is an HP G62 with an AMD Athlon II P340 dual core processor, three gigs of ram and an AMD graphics chip built in. I also have a more powerful gaming PC, but that is often referred to as "the wife's machine" around here, and it is so packed with her items that I rarely touch it. So most of these games can be run on their native devices, and if they are meant for PC, probably on netbooks as well. When I'm playing on netbooks, resolution is often the major issue. Some games just will not fit on the tiny screens without some slight modding. Anyway, click past the cut to see the list. The first 11 are my favorites, the ones that I play often, if not every day. The rest are in no particular order, so keep that in mind as well. Remember that this year is going to be an incredible one for mobile, thanks to the new games I found at E3. So this list will change!
MMObility: Just how mobile was E3?
E3 is a massive, loud conglomeration of lights, people, and stress. I spent most of my time there walking from one end to another, trying to find a certain booth or meeting room. Luckily for me, I am in pretty good shape and felt just fine the entire time, despite the fact that I had little to eat, and worse yet, little water. At home I drink water non-stop... no soda, no coffee. Still, it was a blast. Working like that really makes a tiny reporter like yours truly feel wonderful. Conversations with developers can be very, very interesting if games are what you love. And there were games. A ton of games. A bunch. A lot. Even then, I knew the feeling that was coming over me, the familiar feeling of stumbling into a toy store or comic shop to look for goodies. I was in hog heaven but needed to find my particular fix. I needed indie, tiny or strange games. Games that ran on a toaster but worked well, browser games that would impress me, or phone games that would continue to destroy the idea that immersive, fun gameplay cannot be done on a portable device. Did I find what I was looking for? Oh, hell yes I did. Click past the cut and I will tell you all about it.
Free for All: A small case of burnout
Last week, we asked you fair readers what you thought about the sheer number of free-to-play titles out there. Could there be too many? we asked. I read the comments; I even posted one myself. Oh, sure, free choice is always a good thing, but let's be sure to understand what we were asking. The question was not only are there too many titles? or could there be too many titles? but also will quality go down as the number of titles goes up? Or in my particular case on this particular day, is burnout inevitable when we're faced with so many choices? I only ask because I have suffered from a slight case of burnout myself recently. Now, I need to explain. I can already hear the tick-tacking of the keyboards as free-to-play "opponents" rush to say, "AH HA! See? We told you!" in the comments section, without bothering to read the rest of the article. Let me explain, if you don't mind. Then you can make your comments. Click past the cut.
