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Perfect Ten: My mobile MMO experiment, part 1
I'm often mystified that we haven't seen or heard much about MMOs on mobile devices. You'd think that with such a massive potential audience that studios would be racing to bust this market wide open, but whether it's the limitations of such devices (size, lack of input) or some stigma against developing "serious" games for app stores, we've seen remarkably few of them over the past few years. I've grown increasingly curious what MMOs, if any, might be out there for my tablet and smartphone. Practically every list I've read begins with both Order & Chaos Online and the Spacetime Studio games (both strong entries) and then quickly peters out with titles that nobody writing those lists have ever played. Search engine inquiries are helpful with that, I assume. So I decided that I'd undertake an experiment. I would scour the internet and app store for 10 MMOs that have come at least slightly recommended by some list maker, sample them, and see if they compelled me to play more. Will any of these 10 prove to be interesting enough to stay on my phone after this series is done? Find out as I start with the first five of the bunch...
Order and Chaos Online goes free-to-play
The hit mobile MMO Order and Chaos Online has gone from reducing its up-front client cost to eliminating it completely. This past week, Gameloft dropped the price for Order and Chaos Online, making it officially free-to-play and gifting existing players 150 rune stones and a shining golden dragon hatchling for their financial support. The game originally launched as a subscription model, transitioned into a buy-to-play title for $6.99 back in 2012, and now will have to lean on in-game shop purchases to rake in revenue. Order and Chaos Online is celebrating its third anniversary with in-game gifts and quests. The MMO recently added a new PvP mode, Battlefield, that allows players to duke it out in 2v2 and 4v4 matches.
Embrace Order & Chaos in an iPad Mini giveaway
Sometimes the hunger to make elves and orcs wage war on one another goes well beyond your home. How long can you sit around playing World of Warcraft at a desk while Lord of the Rings plays on the TV in the background? The whole wide world is waiting outside! Gameloft's Order & Chaos Online has you covered, letting you keep high fantasy's eternal enemies bludgeoning each other anywhere provided you play the MMO on an iOS, Android, or Windows Phone. Playing Order & Chaos Online, which is absolutely free for a short time on iPhone and iPad, and entering Gameloft's Gamer Giveaway can also net you a free iPad Mini or a pair of SteelSeries Siberia V/2 headphones. Full details on how you can get your hands on the goods and contest rules after the break.
Win an iPad Mini and SteelSeries headphones in Massively's Gameloft giveaway
What better way to celebrate Memorial Day than with free stuff? Massively has teamed up with mobile developer Gameloft this week to give away both an iPad Mini with Retina Display and a set of SteelSeries Siberia V2 Heat Orange Edition headphones to one lucky reader of Massively or our sister sites, Joystiq and WoW Insider. Gameloft is the company behind Order and Chaos Online, a multi-platform mobile MMO featuring questing, PvP, mounts, and guilds. It's currently free on the iOS App Store for a limited time. Here's how you can enter to win: Download Order and Chaos Online on iPhone or iPad (it's free!). Create a character within the game with this symbol included in the name: ^^^ Post that character's name in the comments of this article and enter via the Rafflecopter widget below. a Rafflecopter giveaway You can also enter directly on Joystiq and WoW Insider. Good luck, everyone!
Jukebox Heroes: Top 40 MMO themes, #40-31
MMO main themes hold the potential to be some of the most powerful and magical pieces of music, partly because we associate them with particular games more than anything else. A great theme will dredge up intense memories or euphoria by the third note, and I see composers putting in their all with many of these themes. A long time ago I did an MMO theme countdown of 20 tracks, but since then I've heard a lot more and have wanted to do the list all over again. So this week in Jukebox Heroes, we're kicking off a countdown of the top 40 MMO themes -- in my opinion, of course. I listened to over 150 themes and spent hours ranking them to create this list. Because these choices are bound to be a little controversial and stir up debate (which is encouraged!), I set down a few rules that I wanted to share here. I limited myself to just one theme from a particular title, even if there were multiple themes in a game. Entries had to be a main theme or the closest equivalent of that; they had to be from MMOs, not from MOBAs; and I had to divorce my weighting of the track itself from the popularity of and my experience with that game. So no points added or subtracted based on the love of the game; I'm counting down the best music, period. Let's see what numbers 40 through 31 have in store for us!
Ooh Ouya! Testing MMOs on a $99 console
My big birthday present this year was an Ouya -- the $99 Android console that was funded by Kickstarter, powered by dreams, and promoted as a "revolution" by its makers. I've not been big on either consoles or Android platforms as of late, mostly due to being preoccupied elsewhere. But something about Ouya's roguish underdog status and the combination of being a fully functional console and a development kit in one attracted me to it. Plus, it's so dang tiny! You can only fit one-half of a magical elf inside it, and even that took some intense pushing. Obviously this is not a bleeding-edge console that's going to pump out realistic graphics at 100 fps, but that's not Ouya's thing anyway. So you might be forgiven in thinking that MMO studios might stay far away from it, what with its limited storage space and processing power, but that's actually not the case. Two MMOs that I know of have been released on the Ouya, Vendetta Online and Order and Chaos Online, and to me that signals the possibility that there might be more in the future. So I downloaded both of them fairly quickly and settled onto my couch to check out MMO gaming with a controller on a TV powered by a console smaller than a Coke can. What kind of MMO experience was I going to get with a $99 machine?
Order and Chaos Online comes to Ouya
Order and Chaos Online, that scrappy little mobile World of Warcraft clone, is continuing to expand its presence in the gaming market. Its latest conquest? Ouya, the Android-based console that released in late June. Ouya Chief Executive Julie Uhrman welcomed the title to the Ouya family: "Ouya is excited to be working with Gameloft to bring the wildly popular Order and Chaos Online to the consoles world for the first time. This also marks our first MMO, expanding the gaming possibilities for all Ouya gamers." This isn't technically the first MMO for the Ouya, however. Vendetta Online premiered on the console several months ago. Order and Chaos Online is available for free in the Ouya Discovery store.
MMObility: What needs to happen to make the mobile market shine
I've recently written about what the MMO future might look like, but in case you haven't read that piece yet, I can sum it up for you. Essentially I see the new generation being so used to gaming and communicating on portable yet powerful devices that the sit-down keyboard and mouse setup might very well be doomed. Even major PC manufacturers and sellers are noticing the trend. Take a visit to your local Gamestop or equivalent game shop and you will notice that the chains have started to sell tablets as well. All of this tablet gaming might wound the current style of MMOs. I suspect that within the next decade or two it will all come full circle back to massive three-dimensional worlds on tech that becomes even more powerful and common, so we have to look at what the mobile market can do currently to keep MMOs in the lineup.
Order & Chaos Online shakes things up with a major patch
Order & Chaos Online is definitely trending a bit closer to the chaos side today. Gameloft's mobile MMO is getting a major patch to shake up a number of the game's systems, starting with the level cap rising to 70. That alone will shake up player expectations, but the addition of two new areas for players to explore is going to give fans plenty of new options on their way to that expanded level cap. Not a fan? Well, then, none of that is going to matter to you. But you can get into the game easier than before, with the patch allowing new users to sign in via Facebook accounts. There are also more mounts, pets, and a beauty salon for changing your character's appearance. So there's plenty to enjoy, but if you're playing it on your phone, you should probably pull your car off to one side of the road before downloading. Otherwise you'll be causing entirely the wrong sort of chaos out of the game. %Gallery-185286% [Source: Gameloft press release]
MMObility: Avabel Online is almost everything I dislike about mobile MMOs
The mobile MMO market is still so young and underdeveloped that it seems unfair to judge it too harshly. Calling it devoid of quality content is sort of like describing the dark days of early graphical MMOs, a time filled with games that were nothing but a grind wrapped in what we thought was a pretty package. In hindsight, those three-day waits and incredibly tedious levels were "fun" only when we consider that they were all we had to choose from. The mobile market is about 80% crap as it is right now; this is true. I say that as someone who is a massive fan of the platform. For what it's worth, the rest of the standard MMO market is around 80% crap as well, but there are a lot more titles to choose from. Mobile has its star titles and wonderful developers, but when a game like Avabel Online pops up, I cringe at the possibility that an entire generation of gamers might grow up on such tedium.
MMObility: Fifteen fun free MMORPGs for your tablet or smartphone
Mobile MMORPGs are still hard to come by. Sure, there are a ton of pseudo-MMOs and developers who claim to have created an MMO, but the fact is that persistence -- a key to defining what an MMO is -- is often gone from many of these games. I want to be able to log out of the game while the rest of the digital world goes on without me. Or better yet, and in the case of most MMORTS titles, I want to log out of the game and continue to have an effect on the world through trades, wars, or the fallout of diplomacy. Even though the market is often bare, there are still quite a few MMOs out there. Many of them are fun as well! I know, I know, I am making it seem as though the smartphone or tablet MMO market is empty of all content, but the truth is that for its age, it's doing very well. There are more and more coming out all of the time, and hopefully I'll be there to cover them. In the meanwhile, enjoy a list of the specific titles that rest on my Nexus 7 3G tablet, just waiting to be played anywhere and any time!
CES 2013: Duo Gamer controller sees success after a half price cut
We posted about the Duo Gamer iPhone controller back when it first released in October of last year, but I hadn't gotten a chance to try it out yet. Fortunately, Duo is here on the floor of CES this week, and they of course had the controller on display and available for a demo. It's actually a really great controller -- the form factor is a little strange, but the buttons are quite responsive and the analog sticks are especially impressive, something that not a lot of iOS controllers have gotten right. Plus, the Duo Gamer is actually half the price it was when it started out. The company dropped the price from US$79.99 to just $39.99 late last year, and the company's rep says that (surprise) sales have gone up considerably since the price drop. So where's the catch? The biggest problem with the Duo Gamer is that because Duo has made a deal with Gameloft, this controller only works with Gameloft's games. Those games aren't bad -- they include big iOS hits like NOVA, the Asphalt series and Gameloft's Warcraft clone Order and Chaos Online. But that's it -- if you want to use the controller with any other titles, you're out of luck. That's kind of a shame. And Duo's representative told us that there were absolutely no plans to open up the controller at all. The company picked Gameloft to pair up with because it believed those were the most console-like apps on the store (not necessarily an invalid claim), and Duo says that even if it wanted to allow other app developers to make their apps compatible with the Duo Gamer, that decision would be out of their hands. Which is too bad -- it'd be nice if a solid controller like this had a more open API (stay tuned for news on the Phone Halo controller, which has a slightly more promising future). The Duo Gamer is a good piece of hardware, and it provides an impressive way to control these games. If you're a fan of Gameloft's titles and would like to use some buttons to control them, this is obviously a great option for you.
Rise and Shiny revisit: Order and Chaos Online
It's been over a year since I last officially looked at Order and Chaos Online. The funny thing is that when I reread my older article, I immediately notice how my experience has not really altered since then. I pretty much had the exact play experience. What has changed is my appreciation for much of what the game does. I am still impressed by certain parts and quite bored by others, but overall the presentation is where the mobile title shines. There have been a few developments over the last year but not many. One of the biggest was the addition of mounts. I checked them out and basically spent my time between the two servers: one for Android players and another for iOS. I even struggled with streaming the game from my iPad!
Rise and Shiny: Vendetta Online
For the record, Vendetta Online has been in development since 1998 and launched an alpha in 2002. EVE Online was released in North America in 2003. So although it might be too close to call or lost in the foggy details of gamer's memories, it's safe to say that EVE Online did not invent space, spaceships, speedy space travel, trading, or ship-to-ship combat. Still, feel free to post fill the comment section with "EVE-clone," a common phrase that pops up whenever Vendetta Online is mentioned or shown. Now that we have that out of the way, what is Vendetta Online? It's a multi-platform, twitch-based, science-fiction universe that offers free-form travel and character development. At least that's what I have read. So far in my time with the game, I have experienced only a smattering of what it seems to offer. I've traveled a lot, gunned down a few enemies, and read a lot of text. While I know I have touched but the tip of the iceberg, I still had fun this week. And yes, I pretended to "fly" my spacecraft by running through the house while playing on my Nexus 7 tablet. And yes, I provided the WOOSH and BRAKKA BRAKKA sounds myself. (That's how you know it's space.)
Order & Chaos dropping subscription, adding PvP modes and mounts [Updated]
Gameloft's mobile MMO is entering a new phase in its lifecycle. The studio announced that Order & Chaos is not only due for a major update, but is dropping its nominal subscription fee to make it completely free-to-play. The update, which is slated to be pushed to iOS devices later this month, will contain important features for the pint-sized title. First up are PvP combat arenas, which come in 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 varieties. Next is the addition of four new mounts to the game: two horses and two giant wolves. Finally, Gameloft is adding the second part of the Salien dungeon for hardcore adventurers. Previously, Order & Chaos charged $0.99 a month or $2.99 for six months to access on top of the original app purchase price. Gameloft is also developing a spin-off title called Order & Chaos Heroes. [Update: Gameloft contacted us to clarify that there is still a fee for the game's download, but there is no subscription fee and current players will pay nothing extra.] [Source: Gameloft press release]
Order & Chaos celebrates its first anniversary
Gameloft's hit mobile MMO, Order & Chaos: Online, has reached its one-year anniversary, and the studio is breaking out the goods to celebrate. To spread the joy, Gameloft is giving three months of game time, 25 runes, and a free gift box to all players. There's plenty to do inside the game as well, as the anniversary update adds quests, pets, fireworks, mini-games, and a lottery to enjoy. Order & Chaos recently received an upgrade that allows it to be played over 3G as well as wifi and upgraded its graphics for the retina display on the most recent iPad. The team also put together an infographic to show off the game's impressive numbers. According to the chart, over three million characters have been created, 831 million creatures have been slain, 35,500 guilds have been created, and 14 million messages have been sent.
Order and Chaos Online developer discusses server-linking and more
In honor of the game's paper anniversary, Order & Chaos: Online producer Arnaud Bonnard took the time to do some Q&A with user-submitted questions about what is one of the biggest mobile MMOs available. Arnaud shared some of the toughest parts of development, which were the pressure of creating a world vast enough to entertain players for months (and now years) and ensuring that everything was as stable and functional as possible from a technical point. He followed up by reliving the joy of a successful launch and the success that the game met with over time. He talked a bit about updates and DLC, which come out every one or two months and are generally still drawn from the original design document for Order & Chaos: Online, given that the world design was much bigger than could possibly fit into the game originally. Bonnard also addressed the server separation between Android, iOS, and Mac devices: Not only would it be time-consuming to link all the operating systems, but such a system would mean that patches could only be deployed once every device was supported, which would be tricky and cause too many extra delays. As far as Order and Chaos' future is concerned, he's optimistic. There are new graphic features coming down the pipe as well as "lots of ideas for the game" as the company looks forward to another fantastic year thanks to fan support. Catch all the intricacies of Bonnard's answers for yourself over at Gameloft.
Gameloft bringing Order & Chaos Online to your Mac
It's been nearly a year since Gameloft released Order & Chaos Online to iOS and Android devices. The mobile fantasy MMORPG migrated to Facebook later in the summer of 2011, and now it's coming to a full-scale Mac near you. Gameloft has just published a new trailer heralding Order & Chaos as "the MMORPG for Mac," and the video says that the client will be available for downloading in the Mac App store before the end of the month. Order & Chaos features two playable factions and four classes, and you can get a glimpse of the promotional clip after the cut. [Source: Gameloft press release]
MMObility: The 16 MMOs in my pocket
I have a smartphone that is pretty much filled to the brim with actual, functional, persistent MMORPGs. Some of them are three-dimensional romps through massive worlds filled with dungeons and dragons; others are representational browser-based games that work through the phone's native browser; and the rest are hardly nothing more than a few dots on the screen and impressionistic gameplay. Still, they are MMOs. I love having access to them, and over the last year I have actually grown to love simple, clever design and basic artwork over almost anything else. Forget Guild Wars 2; we'll hear enough about that to make us choke. Sure, it might be a fun game, but I'm a tech guy from the Bizarro universe. I prefer to see how little tech I need to game with. I want to push the limits even lower. Anyway, it's springtime here in Texas, so it's time to clean out all sorts of crap from my life. I organize all of my hundreds of songs, films, movies and art pieces and get my digital life in order as well. This process includes tweaking my current line-up of basic technology and downloading any updates for the games that exist on those devices. It's time to cull the weak and glorify the wonderful.
MMObility: The year in mobile
What a year, huh? We gamers have seen a lot of changes, but especially in the mobile market. New devices came and went, technologies spread out even further in the world, and MMO gaming established itself on the smallest screens possible. Of course, the mobile market is not as large as the standard MMO market, but it is definitely growing. As more devices appear, more players come to fill up the games. Our phones are not what they used to be, even five years ago. They are now truly tiny and powerful computing devices that are always connected. A player can literally live all of his digital life on one small device. If we look at the laptop and netbook market, we see even more growth and power. All of these devices need games to play on them, and MMOs fit perfectly into the mobile lifestyle. Click past the cut and I'll recap many of the best stories from Massively's mobile coverage!
