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NFL Rush Zone: Is it a MMOG?
Whoa, wait a minute. Exactly why am I covering this on Massively? This looks like an overrated cartoon avatar enabled chat room with a few mini-games thrown into the mix. Oh look, it is -- but what makes it stand out from the crowd is that the game has an area for each NFL team (visual chat rooms), mini-games, customizable avatars! Oh snap, that's not all but players can "collect Gameballs, meet Rusherz, and check out cartoons in the theater." Lolz, I can't wait guys. Looking at the graphics leads me to believe NFL Rush Zone totally ripped off the graphics from World of Warcraft. I kid, but seriously this is for the kids because I'm having a hard time imagining the typical 25 year old beer-guzzling NFL fanatic playing this and meeting their favorite Rusherz. ("Learn 2 pass the ball nub, I am the Law Giver!") I recently wrote about the Virtual World Boom and how these types of games will become more popular than traditional MMORPGS. The problem with calling this a Virtual World is that web games like NFL Rush Zone that employ avatar chat rooms with some mini-games, more advanced than their predecessors which were called avatar chat rooms in their heyday, will diminish what a MMOG / Virtual World really is if they get lumped into the same category. I don't think it's fair that these types of "webby games" are getting labeled as Virtual Worlds, maybe Virtual Spaces and yes, there is a difference. If we label NFL Rush Zone a Virtual World we might as well label MySpace one and every other chat room. Should NFL Rush Zone be classified as a Virtual World or should we write-it-off and never talk about this particular web game ever again? I vote for the latter. [via: Virtual World News]
Pirates of the Burning Sea: PvP details on port control
Avast ye scurvy rapscallion dogs! Arrreckon you want some PvPbooty so pay close attention. Alright, that's enough pirate-talk for one post. Isildur, developer/buccaneer extraordinaire has posted the nitty-gritty details on capturing ports and adds his own insightful commentary on the strengths and weaknesses for the first four maps or battlegrounds for ship-to-port combat to be ready for some keel-haulin' once the game sets sail. The maps look great and I'm happy to see real tactics like wind and positioning play a key-role in the overall outcome. It's also good to know that if the attackers land immediately they won't automatically win, they must face a series of challenging encounters first. Attackers won't be able to just land anywhere either, there are certain landing points and the entrances to the town and fortress are only opened until all their respective gun emplacements are destroyed. Before the battle starts, players will wait in a ready room, which is an avatar room -- no ships allowed in here, and within this room there are three exits for each spawn location. Players have 10 minutes in this room before the battle begins to formulate any plans, organize their groups and choose the location where they will spawn from. It's also important to note that the Pirates of the Burning Sea is still in beta and the way these four Final Battle scenarios play-out may not be set-in-stone.
Age of Conan's last delay wasn't so 'final'
Remember when Funcom promised in January that their delay of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures to October was guaranteed as the "final launch date" for the MMO? Well, they totally lied. Age of Conan has been delayed again until next March. This time around they aren't silly enough to say it's the "final" time. Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas said, "We believe that the new release date is in the best interest of the gamers, our company and our owners."Our time with the game has been fine, but a ten minute demo doesn't give enough of an answer to how this game will avoid the MMO trap of making players not realize they are "waging a war against the mind-numbing effects of repetition." Obviously the developers think they need more time and publisher Eidos seems to be on board with that idea. Funcom now has until next March to announce another delay.
NetDevil to revive sci-fi MMO as Jumpgate Evolution
NetDevil, the folks behind the LEGO MMO, recently announced it will bring "substantial updates" to the company's 2001 space combat MMOG, Jumpgate: The Reconstruction Initiative. The game is to receive a complete graphics overhaul as well as new, more intelligent AI, more weapons, advanced social aspects such as player-owned stations, and a fully controllable economy. Beta registration has opened, so if you're ready for some sexy-looking sci-fi shooting action, Jumpgate Evolution could be your fix.%Gallery-4430%
RPG devs adapt or die, here comes the MMORPG
Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart has some strong words for single-player RPG developers. With the rise of MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and Everquest, old-style role playing games need to re-think their strategy or face extinction. "It used to be fine to make an RPG that was just wandering around and hacking things up with the player having very little effect on the world around them", explains Urquhart, "Why play that game now if you could just play a MMO?"The key is to define what single-player RPGs offer over the online experience and bring that into sharp focus. Dungeon hacking is a thing of the past, now players want as much control over their character and surroundings as possible. But what does solo role playing offer that the online experience doesn't? Is there still a demand for epic single-player RPGs in the world, or are we moving to a strict MMORPG diet?
Why other MMOs remain the underdogs
Over at MMOG Nation Michael tries to answer the question of why Everquest 2 remains an underdog in the MMO market despite numerous updates and improvements to the game by SOE. And I've got to say I agree with his answer -- whether we're talking about Everquest 2, Lord of the Rings Online, or even Star Wars Galaxies (do people still play that game?). Despite how good other games may be, if all of your friends play World of Warcraft, I bet you're going to be playing World of Warcraft, too. While MMOGCHART hasn't been updated in nearly a year now, their last set of data breaking down the number of active subscribers maintained by all of the major MMOs at the time showed World of Warcraft holding over 50% of the market, leaving a dozen games to split the remaining half of the market. And just looking at my circle of friends, all of them play World of Warcraft -- a couple of them play Everquest on the side, several of us play Lord of the Rings Online as well, and one dabbles in the world of Final Fantasy. But if I want to hang out with all of my friends, I've got to log on to World of Warcraft. So how's the next big thing going to break into the market when all of my friends -- and probably yours -- play WoW? I'm guessing it won't be able to simply be a Warcraft-alike, but be something so far beyond World of Warcraft today that it will draw in the same mass of subscribers WoW did in its initial release. So what do you think the next big thing will be in the MMO market -- or is it so far off that we'll all just be playing a different Blizzard game by then? (I'm still waiting on World of Starcraft, thank you very much!
User-created WMDs do massive damage in Second Life beta test
Virtual world pioneer Randy Farmer loves to mess around with MMO games. As a beta tester for Second Life, Farmer was responsible for one of the first legendary events in the game: the Jessie Massacre. Out of curiosity, he created a weapon of mass destruction and unleashed it on a community of former WWII gamers. The resulting mayhem made him the target of more than a few nasty looks, but to the rest of the community he was thought of as a hero. Using the SL creation tools, Farmer constructed tiny, almost invisible objects and programmed them to explode into dozens of fragments, flying out at maximum velocity and doing loads of damage. Afterwards the fragments teleport themselves to a random location and start the carnage again. The only way to stop them was for Farmer to shout "STOP!".As you can guess, chaos ensued when the WMD was unleashed in the town of Jessie. Farmer quickly decided his completely scientific beta testing experiment was a success and went to disarm the grenades. Then he ran into a small problem: he couldn't find the little invisible buggers. With help from Linden labs he managed to remove the bombs, but the legend of the Jesse Massacre lives on.[Via GameSetWatch]
Floating speech bubbles lets you ignore people in a whole new way
Communication in online worlds such as Second Life relies on two things: text input, and personal speech bubbles. To engage in a conversation, simply move near another player and their bubble becomes visible. Aram Bartholl decided to re-create this spatially-sensitive text chat in real life with Speech Bubble, a performance art event that took place in Berlin.Just like in MMO games, players type out their thoughts and attach them to bubbles that magically float above their head. And by magic, we mean they're carried by a hapless slave person tailing them at all times. The result: an intriguing performance that either makes you re-think the impact of instant messaging, IRC, and SMS on society, or forces you to become completely apathetic to the guy standing next you who has a birthday tomorrow.Check out a video of the event after the jump.[Via Videoludica]
Former WoW and EverQuest programmers working on sci-fi MMOG
Colony Studios, a new development studio comprised of former World of Warcraft and EverQuest staff, recently announced a new space-themed MMOG in the works. Instead of throwing yet another MMOG on the market, Colony is centering the game around a dynamic, living world that will allow players to log on and react to a constantly changing world. The game's history is provided, but the players are the driving force behind current events. The game will also feature a "unique approach" to warfare, PvP combat, character advancement, and territory control, although exactly what that means is anyone's guess at this point.Colony's aim is to "not be afraid to take chances outside the normal MMO design", and with experience on their side, they could be on the fast-track to MMO fame. They could also be on the fast-track to "here's a load of hype, hope you guys get excited enough to pay attention to what turns out to be a mediocre game". IGN's RPG Vault has a full interview with Colony CEO Mike Wallis, who we assure you isn't Mike Wallace.
Indie MMOG conference to be offered online
Can an independent studio build and maintain a successful MMOG? That's the question the first annual Indie MMO Game Development Conference wants to explore. Scheduled for April 14-15 in Minnesota (home of the world's most delicious butter), everyone from indie development studios to programmers working from their mom's basement are invited to attend. Keynote speakers, game pitch-a-thons, design, business and legal discussions, and other standard conference-fare are all part of the experience.Founder Jonathon Stevens wanted to try something a little different with this conference. Instead of forcing visitors to choose a few of the many events to attend, the entire IMGD conference will be broadcast online via video feed. Indie studios can save the travel cash for game development costs, such as buying Jolt cola by the case.[Via Internode Games Network]
'Whirled' casual MMOG from Puzzle Pirates studio
A new MMOG is in the works from Puzzle Pirates creator Three Rings. The web-based virtual environment of Whirled will favor player-created content and social interaction over character development and time-consuming quests for the Magical Boots of Running +5. A Flash-based interface will allow for easy creation of items, furniture, avatars, and even complex multiplayer games.Three Rings is to casual MMO games as Blizzard Entertainment is to life-dominating MMO games. Puzzle Pirates and Bang! Howdy are two of the most well-known indie MMOGs out there. If Whirled builds on the success, Three Rings executives will be lounging in private yachts right next to the Blizzard folk.[Via GameDaily]
LEGO MMO in the works by indie dev NetDevil
Independent game developer NetDevil (Auto Assault) announced today a partnership with The LEGO Group to develop a MMOG based on the colorful little building blocks. Few details apart from the brief announcement were given, but a representative from LEGO told Gamasutra the game would merge social interaction with physical play. A virtual community where you can build things with LEGO blocks? Yes, please.The game will likely be aimed at children, but that won't stop us kids who have jobs from giving it a try. After all, everybody loves LEGOs.[Thanks, Phillip]
Age of Conan MMO delayed for the "final" time
Developer Funcom dropped in on the official Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures forums to bring news of further delay. Bad news first: the PC version has been pushed back to October 30, 2007. And now the good news: Funcom promises this is the "final launch date." Specific details regarding this latest delay were not disclosed.Age of Conan is currently in closed beta. Funcom is expected to announce details about open beta in the near future. An Xbox 360 version will be released sometime following Age of Conan's debut on PC.
New art from CrimeCraft MMO for 360
Our friends at Xboxygen clued us in on some new artwork for CrimeCraft, an MMO from Vogster. The game is set in a sprawling urban environment in which characters participate in the commerce, politics, and cri-, er, economics of the city. The game promises to allow players to own real estate, run shops or warehouses, and fight with other clans over territory. Players will also be given a choice between different character types like crooked cops, shady criminals, or boring law-abiding citizens. Finally, CrimeCraft utilizes the Unreal Engine 3.We were surprised that this is the first we'd heard of the game, so we did a little digging. The game's developer, Vogster, is based in the Ukraine, and it looks like this is their first game (they're still looking for a programmer, if you're interested). The game also has an official website, though right now it's just a splash page.We're definitely intrigued by CrimeCraft. Only yesterday readers mentioned that they wanted an MMO that wasn't set in the typical fantasy realm. Rest assured, we'll keep you posted on the latest news (and don't forget to send us tips if you find it first). Don't hold your breath, though. The game was announced in September of last year, so it's possible CrimeCraft won't see the light of day until 2008.
Keeping track of virtual world history
MMOG players are well aware of the virtual lands they play in because there is typically a rich history established, but after that there is no record of how the players influence the world once the "game" started. Gamers are naturally, due to programming, always at the mercy of plot lines created by developers; however, even when a major plot line is fulfilled, there is no history that it ever happened. Narratively it's like the government being in control of the press and you only hear what they want you to hear. A TerraNova writer poses the possibility of a student asking to write a history of events in Ultima Online, he says, "The textual sources are going to be extremely difficult to recover in a thorough way because there are both too many and too few; a lot of the rest will only be knowable through oral historical work, or through questioning people through email."Players in World of Warcraft over the last year dealt with opening the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj and a new Scourge Invasion, but players have no place in-game to find out what happened during these times. There is no newspaper, no town crier , nobody who publicly tracked in-game what guilds and players helped the war effort. For new players or those wanting to look back there is no history in the World of Warcraft after players entered and the game started. It would be nice to see embedded journalists in the game like there is in Second Life, tracking the history of various servers with access to Blizzard's statistical information. These journalists would be able to report and help create a history to online worlds. Of course, it wouldn't be a free press because the company would manage what data could be released, but at least there would be narrative of what players have accomplished.
Shakespeare: The MMOG
As Civilization is to history, Arden: The World of Shakespeare will be to the Bard of Avon. CNET reports that Associate Professor of Telecommunications at Indiana University, Edward Castranova, is receiving a $240,000 grant to develop an MMOG around Shakespeare's plays.Unlike World of Warcraft or EverQuest, the academic Arden will be not-for-profit. No word yet on how the ambitious project will sustain itself financially beyond the grant.The game will be built around the play Richard III, because of all the conflict during the 16th century War of the Roses. There is no real explanation on how all the other plays will be incorporated into the world. If they can figure how to make one cohesive Shakespearean world, the game might be worth a try and a great educational tool. As long as there is a translator into modern language for those who avoided Shakespeare because of his pesky "smrt" 16th century English.
Cybering night elves is cheating, but will you stop?
Any gamer who's been playing massively multiplayer online games for a while has come across (?!) a couple of wood elves entwined in passionate embrace in an abandoned treehouse in Kelethin or has stumbled upon a pair of night elves deep in some abandoned mine grinding out more than just a few quests. For some, cybersex and MMOGs just go together -- virtual trysts seem a natural extension of living in a fantasy world. But be warned: you're flirting with danger. if you've got a real-world partner it's cheating, according to psychologist Dr. Janet Hall, who specializes in relationship counseling. "As soon as secret, intimate, emotional or physical information is shared, it's cheating," she told The Age.
Try Guild Wars expansion free ... again
The next expansion in the Guild Wars series, Nightfall, is just around the corner -- but for anyone who can't wait until October, NCsoft are running an open preview event on September 22-24. During that weekend, Nightfall will be free to play for just about anyone, regardless of whether you have Guild Wars already.The previous expansion, Factions, had a very successful preview event, so it's no surprise the idea's being repeated. It makes sense for NCsoft to capitalise on Guild Wars' free nature by, well, making it even freer -- if only for a short while. Those of us already resigned to paying monthly for MMOs may find it a nice change to try a new one without cost, but as every hour spent on a free game is one that we have already paid for on another MMO, it's hard to drag us away.
The biggest game phenom in 20+ years: World of Warcraft [update 1]
Today's New York Times examines the success of World of Warcraft from a global perspective, concluding that "World of Warcraft has become the first truly global video-game hit since Pac-Man in the early 1980's." In addition to the new angle, this piece provides a nice benchmark for mainstream media coverage of MMOGs. Just a few years ago, media were wont to "report" on the gameplay habits of Everquest and Asheron's Call players with a sensational "watch these people ruin their lives playing games!" tone that just wasn't fair. Often, introversion, depression, and suicidal tendencies were ascribed to people who choose to play games for hours at a time. The Times's coverage is much more balanced, finally allowing an eloquent gamer (Jason Pinsky) the opportunity to defend his hobby: "I play this game six nights a week from 8 p.m. to midnight.... most people watch TV at least that much, and television is a totally mindless experience." Word. [Update 1: fixed a clumsy headline and formatting in body of post.]
MMO neophyte designs MMO by himself
Gavan H. Woolery isn't letting his inexperience with massively-multiplayer games stop him from designing one. The 24-year old computer programmer from California recently made public Genesis, a game that aims to be the "first truly dynamic massively-multiplayer online game." Woolery spent the last two years designing Genesis on his own, despite his admission that he has "never played a MMOG in my life."Though the game is still a work in progress, a video demo shows some impressively powerful yet intuitive world-creation tools being used. Creation is the focus of the game, in which characters will have "the power to create or destroy any aspect of your environment." Users will supply all the content in Project Genesis (a la Second Life) and users' actions will supposedly "reshape living conditions, political structures, economies, ecosystems, and all other aspects of the world," (a la Spore). A bit ambitious for one lone programmer? Perhaps. But since going public, Woolery says he's received support from hundreds of interested parties willing to help with the project. Whether or not it all comes together as planned, it's definitely something to keep an eye on.[Via Clickable Culture]
