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Richard Garriott explains why Shroud of the Avatar is on Kickstarter
Richard Garriott has been to space, but his upcoming game, Shroud of the Avatar, is not in space. It is on Kickstarter, and according to Garriott himself in a recent interview, that's because it allows him to release a game without oversight. Garriott claims that the unnamed games he's released to sub-par reception have been chiefly the result of publishers meddling with the finished product, whereas the games he has been allowed to finish his way have been classics. While the game is not explicitly tied to the Ultima franchise for copyright reasons, Garriott sees it as very much being in the spirit of the older games, since Ultima IX ended with the world more or less destroyed. He also discusses influences on the game world's design and how players can switch between single-player and online modes of operation without a problem. If you're looking forward to the game, you can get more details in the full interview.
Free for All: Massively single-player does not an MMO make
Oh, the constant attempts at defining how we play. While many of them might seem strange or even laughable, they are all attempts at defining something for the sake of streamlining the sale. If you cannot describe your product to someone, especially in very few words, then it probably isn't going to sell. A while ago I attempted to define what MMORPG means, but I would never pretend that I'm the first one to attempt to do so. After all, the games have changed, the way we connect to them has changed, and the interactions we have with each other have changed. So why not the term? Nintendo seems to think that "Massively Single-Player" makes for a good description. It's a slightly odd one, if you ask me, for many reasons. But let's look at it anyway and see how it might fit into the world of MMOs. Click past the cut!
Nintendo patents "Massively Single-Player" term
Despite the fact that this may be the first time you've ever seen Nintendo mentioned on Massively, it may not be the last. According to an article at Gamespot, the 121-year-old Japanese console company has patented the term "massively single-player" to define a new genre of games that they hope to create. The basic idea is that you would play a single-player game, and (through an internet connection) what you do in that game would influence the environment or economy of the same game on someone else's console. Nintendo gives several examples of how this would work, including the construction of housing in a neighborhood, oil supply and demand, and even gossip, without those pesky "other players" messing up your game. The patent mentions the fact that people who share the same friends list may be able to see each other (much like Fable III does), but other than that, it's not so much the other players you see, but only their effects on the game's world. Does this sound like something you'd be interested in checking out, as an MMO fan? Let us know in the comments below.
