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MMObility: A deeper look at Fleck and its adorable zombies
Fleck is a very interesting title that has quietly been doing some great things in the location-based MMO space. A location-based MMO is essentially an MMO that utilizes the real world via Google maps or real-life landmarks as a background for an MMO. Imagine that you are at your favorite eatery and you take out your phone and are instantly shown a world built on top of the world you're in now; that's location-based gaming. Fleck works like many other location-based MMOs but doesn't link itself to the real world as much as some of the others. Instead, it allows players to build and explore freely all while attempting to avoid (or defeat) zombies of varying strengths. Yes, zombies! There are some really cool features in Fleck, one of the them being real weather updates like rain, snow, or fog that changes according to the player's location. If a player wants to, she can build a house literally on the spot where she lives in real life or anywhere else in the world -- on top of a Google map. There's much more to the game, and this week I want to share a recent video I made and look into just how unique this game is.
Free for All: Casual is as hardcore does and the daily gaming list
It's always a lot of fun to compare casual players to hardcore players. We've all seen many articles and had our own discussions on the topic and it never seems to stop being entertaining. After all, how much or how intensely a player plays an MMO can help predict how that player might react to market changes or to new titles, so we can easily see how developers will always be interested in the information even when we tire of it. For me, personally, I would rather skip the whole discussion and just talk about how I play casually. I can list hours played and titles accessed, but I think it would be a better idea to sketch out a rough but typical day or week in my household to illustrate just how someone who considers himself casual is actually quite committed. Does that mean I am hardcore in certain cases? I don't care anymore, frankly. What I care about is seeing if how I play is completely alien or if there are other players out there who love to do what I do. Let's call it a cry for help... or at least information.
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!
MMObility: Fleck highlights the possibilities of ARGs
Earlier in the week, Massively posted some news about a new alternate reality game called Fleck. Being the ever-curious roving gaming reporter that I am, I immediately checked it out. I found a game -- sort of -- that reminded me of FarmVille with a hefty dash of Parallel Kingdoms and a smidge of the whimsical Glitch. None of those is a bad thing, which is the good news. The bad news is that Fleck does not go as far as I would like... yet. This means that as more and more games like Fleck come out (and they will), we will continue to see improvements on the genre. Could alternate reality games really become successful? Is it realistic to assume that one day we will see ARGs become the most popular type of massive gaming? I think it's possible. Very possible. But let's talk about it past the cut.
New iPad MMO Fleck turns real maps into fantasy landscapes
With the sheer number of GPS-enabled devices capable of gaming, it seems inevitable that games will start taking the hard part out of developing intricate maps. Sure enough, the brand-new iPad MMO Fleck is giving you the chance to fight monsters, tend gardens, and meet new friends, all by wandering around in your neighborhood. The game is build on an overlay by Google Maps, letting players explore the fantasy world at the same time that they move through the real world. The game is currently available for the iPad and browsers, and the team at Self Aware Games is also working on porting the game over to support other mobile devices such as iPhones, Droids, and similar smartphones. The game currently supports play throughout the continental United States as well as portions of southern Canada and northern Mexico. While the game's location-based setup might make travel times a uniquely involved process, iPad owners might well find something to like in Fleck as development continues.
