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Free for All: The other side of MMO leveling
As I pointed out in last week's column, I am more fond of spending money to obtain a high-level character than I am grinding out levels to gain one. As usual, I put out my opinion without considering how many people might take it the wrong way. To set the record straight and to give some evidence to the pro-leveling side of the argument, I would like to list off some of the reasons leveling is important. (Also in my opinion, of course.) While I did refer to leveling as drudgery, my opinion does not automatically set some universal definition. What can be drudgery to me can be bliss to someone else, and so -- because it is gaming -- the impact of leveling can be felt differently by different people. It's not science; it's opinion. Besides, it's not all drudgery anyway.
Free for All: Why I'd love to buy high-level characters
There is a seedling of a possibility of an up-and-coming trend that I've noticed lately, one that has some players' hackles raised. It's just one of many trends that have shaped MMOs over the last several years. Some of those trends include the massive market switch to free-to-play models, social gaming's influence on the MMO industry, the continuing popularity of selling power even by publishers who seem set against selling power, and the ever-growing mobile market and switch to mobile devices as favorite gaming destinations. But to me, this new trend is one of the most exciting: the recent trend of giving away or selling high-level characters in games that require leveling. When I really think about it, it's been going on in some form for a long time, but the different designs and systems of all of the different MMOs we play have hidden it for much of that time. I'll tell you why I love a free or paid-for high-level character.
Free for All: Playing the eternal noob
As I just finished up my Age of Wushu livestream with Massively's own Patrick Mackey and Age of Wushu Community Manager Earthquake last night, I realize once again that most people do not look at MMO gaming as I do. Of course, I am basing this only on my existence as an island of a person, someone who spends most of his time soloing through content and generally getting lost in one game after another, after another and another. Patrick is a lively personality who is what players would call a min-maxer. A theory-crafter. He is someone who takes hold of a game and learns it backward and forward, something I can only wish I could do. Not only do I not have the mental ability to sit still that long (and no, that's not an attempt at bragging about the size of my brain), but I physically cannot read that much text or spend more than several hours online without taking a break for fear of a days-destroying migraine. This physical inability to study up came well after my already-established love for virtual travel, however. I am an explorer of virtual worlds, an occupation that does not permit sitting at one stop for long. But this hurts me as a player. I realize this and accept it.
Free for All: What a Memoria MMO might look like
There are a few styles of gaming that we just don't see much of anymore, and point-and-click adventure games has been one of those. The good news is that compared to other older styles like text-based or email-gaming, point-and-click adventuring is making a comeback. Thanks to the mobile market and its resurrected titles like Broken Sword and amazing newer games like The Walking Dead, adventure-lovers have much to do. Personally, I find adventure gaming to be a thrilling experience because they generally allow a player to use her brain more than her reflexes, and the experiences are usually quite beautiful too. Memoria is Daedalic Entertainment's latest adventure game set in The Dark Eye universe. It's often described as "the German Dungeons and Dragons." I'm not sure that the description gives either IP full credit, but The Dark Eye is one interesting universe. As usual, though, my mind wondered how the game could be worked into a multiplayer version. A massively multiplayer version. I've asked the same question of other games before, so let's look at how Memoria might make a killer MMO!
Free for All: Recapping the vastness of Mabinogi's Saga Iria
My summer has been filled with a massive, 10-part adventure called The Saga Iria. It's an event that happened inside the world of Mabinogi, one of my favorite free-to-play sandbox MMOs. Once a week Nexon released a new chapter, and each time I streamed my first few steps into it, often resulting in my immediate and embarrassing death. Actually, make that deaths. I died a lot. My companion for this wild ride was Mabinogi Community Manager Sabina. Sabina is a "fashionogi" (as they call it in-game), someone who enjoys customizing her characters more than sending them into battle. Mabinogi allows for almost any style of play, from combat mastery to roleplay to fashion obsession. The community showed up during my livestreams to give me plenty of advice during my hard times in combat because the game is known for its challenge level. It's time to recap some of my favorite moments of those times and discuss what I liked... and didn't like.
Free for All: The truth behind the importance of community
I've talked about community in the past, and it's still an important topic. The fact is that defining community or what makes a good community -- or even what qualifies as an MMORPG -- has come up for discussion many, many times on this site. For those who might still be confused, I can say that the reason the discussion keeps cropping up is due to the ever-changing market. If we didn't attempt to dissect the new genres and changes that come to this genre, then we would be doing a disservice to our readers. That's why we cover MOBAs, pseudo-MMOs, semi-MMOs, MMO-like games, social games, multiplayer shooters, and even the occasional lobby-based action title. The only thing I can assure you of is that Massively (and that includes me, of course) knows the true meaning of MMORPG. When I say true meaning, you either know what I mean or you don't. Having said that, I'd like to ask whether community and the multiplayer aspect is really that important beyond the reason that it must be considered in order to categorize games. Is having many other players around you really that big a deal?
Free for All: My top four MMOs for relaxation
Say you come home from a long day's work, dreaming about the vacation that you've yet to take and how nice it would be to turn off your brain for a while, to kick back and watch the wide world walk by. Unfortunately, vacations cost a pile of money. You have to pay someone to watch the dogs and water your plants and work is a real pain about letting you out of the shackles even for a week. The good news is that much of the benefit of vacation comes from the mental release. Sure, nothing beats the real, true feeling of pressing your toes into warm water and sand, but it can be fun and relaxing to visit virtual worlds, to take in virtual sights and sounds. MMOs are perfect for blowing off some steam, for taking a moment to realize just how nice it is to have access to such landscapes from the comfort of your desk. Here are some of my favorite virtual worlds that bring on that feeling of relaxation.
Free for All: Recapping Mabinogi Iria Saga chapters four to six
It's time for another recap of the last three Mabinogi Saga Iria chapters. If you'd like a full recap of what exactly the Saga Iria is, check in on our previous coverage, but the short verions is that it's a grand, sweeping saga that is spread out over 12 episodes. In it, the player is cast into not only the role of the hero but the role of the villain. It's a complicated story, so you could also get caught up via the livestreams embedded past the cut (and the previous ones as well). Of course, the very best way to enjoy the chapters is to play through them yourself. But Mabinogi Community Manager Sabina won't be joining you as she joined me in the livestreams, will she? So, watch on for her take on the game! I found some familiar challenges in these chapters, challenges that pushed my abilities as a player. I wouldn't have been able to survive these chapters without the help of the community and the advice of fantastic players. Thanks to them, I have learned things about the game and its systems that I would have never experienced on my time budget. So let's get to the recap! (Just be very aware: This article contains many spoilers!)
Free for All: The Castle Doctrine takes griefing and grieving to a new level
The Castle Doctrine, the new pseudo-MMO by indie star Jason Rohrer, asks players to fill the shoes of a paranoid home owner who needs to protect his wife, kids, and home at almost any cost. Even the title of the game is based on a law that states that a person has the right to use force to defend personal space or abode, which should help you understand what Rohrer is trying to create. If you look at his official blog, you'll find out that his family was the victim of a dog attack while living in a New Mexico neighborhood. His experiences led to the creation of this art project. In the game, players build up home defenses but also try to break into neighbor's houses, dodging menacing dogs and traps. Imagine a game that plays a bit like tower defense with permadeath: If you are unsuccessful in breaking in to a house, you have to start over with a brand-new home and family. Of course, the title has brewed plenty of controversy, especially considering that you can play only as a man and that the highest in-game payout comes when you murder someone else's wife. The game is a man-on-man murder simulation where the woman and children are all property.
Free for All: RuneScape 3's UI changes would be welcome in any MMO
Jagex just keeps surprising me with its flagship title, RuneScape. Almost every time I sit down to get some time in the world of Gielinor, I find something new. This time around, I want to talk about how the newest version of the game brings not only a fantastic world event and tweaks to all sorts of systems but offers options to the UI that are surprising and wonderfully innovative. The first thing I thought when I played around with the new UI options was, "Wow, why isn't this happening in more MMOs?" Another thought occurred to me as I slid, snapped and joined parts of my UI: This feels suspiciously like a tablet-friendly change. Jagex has mentioned the possibility of a tablet version of RuneScape, thanks to the new HTML5 client (which is still in beta), so could this new UI be the first of many steps to playing on our portable computers? I'll wait and see what happens with that, but in the meanwhile I wanted to show you the most impressive parts of the UI redesign.
Free for All: Recapping the first three Mabinogi: Iria Saga chapters
If you want some epic scale in your MMO, you really should be playing along with the Mabinogi Saga Iria content. It's a twelve-parter (currently on chapter four) and I've been enjoying it alongside Mabinogi Community Manager Sabina, live every Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. EDT on our livestream page. Unfortunately, most of the content is instanced and story-driven so Sabina cannot jump in with me to kill mobs and gain glory, but it's been fun to have her there to take questions from the chat room and to answer many of my own questions. But, what is the Saga Iria? Well, it's complicated. I have to admit that I do not have all the answers, and I hope to remain in the dark for a while. Stories are more fun when you don't know the ending. Still, I'm going to recap what I know so far, and share my live videos with you in case you missed them before! Also, be sure to tune in to our exclusive trailer releases! We will show you the next chapter trailer before anyone else! Spoiler alert: There are videos and short walkthroughs past the cut, so if you do not want to know what happens or have not played through some of these older chapters, don't read on. Please note that my hour-long livestreams are usually not long enough to fit in an entire chapter, as well, so you might miss some of the action on the tail-end.
Free for All: One Walking Dead MMO, please
One of the best gaming experiences I've had in recent memory has got to be the time I've spent in The Walking Dead series by Telltale games. OK, OK, so you might not agree that the titles are a series of "games;" they're more like a choose-your-own-adventure that is peppered with the occasional quick-time event, so let me clear the record in order to move on: I don't care what we call them. They are simply a fun experience. I can't believe that there are people who want to argue this point, but then again I had to witness people actually fight about games being art or not. So however you feel about the The Walking Dead, uhm, experiences, you cannot deny their popularity. The series took the market by storm and showed just what a powerful medium gaming can be. Not only that, but Telltale received deserving praise not only for the gameplay and story but for the fact that it produced something that could run on almost any device or setup. (Well, except Android.) How would The Walking Dead translate to an MMO, though? Could it be done? Don't worry; I am going to do my best to avoid any spoilers. So are my readers. Right, readers?
Free for All: You got your e-sport in my PlanetSide 2
I promised myself that I would not spend half of this column making silly jokes about e-sports. The simple truth is that I find e-sports about as exciting as collecting stamps. That might sound harsh, but remember how fanatical (and oblivious to my opinions) some people are for stamps. And that's just fine. What bothers me about e-sports is how the genre takes something that comes from a wonderfully chaotic place -- play time -- and wraps it in a set of rules and expectations. I used to say that humans could make a sport out of anything, and it turns out I was right. I joked that holding your arm into the air could be a game if they made rules concerning the activity. While it's not quite a spectator sport, I recently discovered that there are people in this world who literally hold an arm in the air -- sometimes for years -- to prove their dedication. All we need now is a bit of commentary and we'd have a sport. And now here we are with news that one of my favorite games, PlanetSide 2, is about to introduce major league gaming-styled instanced Battle Islands into a world that is unique because of its massive, open scale. This week I have heard the words "instanced" and "MOBA" and references to Team Fortress 2 enough to scare my pants off.
Free for All: Why MMOs should be kept alive forever
We generally avoid the topic of emulator servers here at Massively for various reasons. I have different reasons for not discussing them as well, mainly that I do not agree with the use of art (games are art) without the owner's permission, no matter what. I want to get that out of the way now so we can discuss today's topic without filling the comments with emulator links we'll have to delete. And that topic is this: Should we maintain dead or dying MMOs after closure? I started thinking about this idea because I am currently wrapped up in a project to collect and catalogue every major bookmark of my life until I am "caught up" to about the time I started working at Massively. As part of the project, I am looking to save old pictures, projects and music, especially ones that exist on paper. Paper rots, after all. The project has made me think much more about my long history with MMOs. Should I be concerned that some of the digital versions of myself have or will disappear as games are sunsetted? Should we do something about this? I think we should, but if not emus, then what?
Free for All: How free-to-play affected how I feel about RIFT
Back in April of 2011, I asked myself whether I would play RIFT if it were a free game. I know that I was impressed with its build quality but not so much with its lack of spirit. It seemed like a hollow game, one that used gimmicks to take the place of true adventure. At the same time, I didn't want to downplay how well it was made. I still agree with this sentiment; the game is great and has only improved over time, but I still wish it had a little something more. Did the recent switch to free-to-play change how I felt about the game? Why would a payment model affect how I felt while playing the game? After all, I champion the idea that a payment model does not define a game, but I still have to recognize how a payment model affects people. Including me.
Free for All: My very own top ten list of MMO pet peeves
I couldn't just sit back and let Justin Olivetti have all the fun, could I? When he published The Perfect Ten: My gaming pet peeves, I swept my fist to the sky and screamed "Sypsterrrr!" Literally a week earlier I had jotted down an idea for a similar column. I mean jotted down because I keep yellow pads around the house for late-night ideas or dog-walk eurekas. Of course his will probably end up the superior article as he is the better writer (and has a good bit of facial hair), but I'm going to present mine anyway. In fact I'll do one better by listing 11 of my MMO pet peeves because, well, I jotted down 11.
Free for All: So about that PlayStation Home
My birthday is this week, so I thought it was time to grab a PlayStation 3 bundle, something I have been wanting for a while. Not only have the prices dropped for the consoles, but with the next generation coming out soon, I knew that many of the games that I wanted to get for it would be even cheaper. On top of that, the PS3 is the best console for MMOs. It currently hosts several, one of them being PlayStation Home. My curiosity for Home has been fired up since I heard about it, but I've never before looked into it and have rarely heard anything more from it other than the occasional news story. Most of the time when I ask a PlayStation user about the virtual world, he'll just sort of shrug. It was about time I saw it for myself!
Free for All: Interviewing Achaea's Matt Mihaly for MUD May
MUD May has been a very enjoyable experience, but the main thing I learned is that a month is not long enough to cover all of MUDdom. Not by a long shot. The fact is that MUDs have a much longer history than graphical, 3-D MMOs, and here we are on an entire site dedicated mainly to those! We owe a lot to MUDs, but I always try to point out to current or former players that we should not refer to these games only in the past-tense. They are still alive, filled with players and ongoing. That means they are just as viable and worthy of mention as World of Warcraft. How many of our favorite 3-D MMOs will be around for two or more decades? These wonderful games do need to improve in many areas, though. Some MUD developers are attempting to bring these text-based MMOs into the future, none better than Iron Realms Entertainment's Achaea. I sat down with Matt Mihaly, the CEO and Founder of Iron Realms since 1995, for an interview to talk about Achaea and the future of MUDs.
Free for All: An interview with ThresholdRPG's Michael Hartman
The last time I explored ThresholdRPG, I had a blast. It was one of a batch of MUDs that I used to re-introduce myself to the ancient gaming genre, and I enjoyed its simplicity and friendly community. MUDs can seem to be very similar to each other, so in order to enjoy them, you must be able to pick out the finer details that separate them. In ThresholdRPG, I particularly enjoyed fishing, roleplay, customization, and a free-to-play model that was years ahead of its time when first released 17 years ago. The game can be a bit odd, like any MUD. During MUD May I've discovered just how confusing many of these titles can be, but I have also grown to enjoy solving the "mystery" of each game's particular set of code-words that unlock actions. ThresholdRPG is like other MUDs and introduces players to basic commands, but once out in the world a player is on her own. The good news is that an out-of-character help chat is always available and sits right on top of the standard roleplay-enforced chat. That juxtaposition of both channels actually helps immerse me in the game, allowing me to see literally where and when I can use out-of-character speech. I asked Michael Hartman, president and CEO of Frogdice, to talk about MUD development and branching out into other styles of gaming.
Free for All: Celebrating MUD May with Gemstone IV
MUD May has been a blast so far, but I won't lie to you and say that I hope to even make a dent in the decades-old history of many of these titles. I decided instead to use some examples from my favorite MUDs that I have come across over the last couple of years. It's admittedly been a challenge to think about what to cover. Do I cover the communities? The in-game mechanics? The publishers? This week I decided to attempt to kill several birds with a handful of stones (and questions) and snagged Simutronics Producer Eric Latham for an video interview. Simutronics has been in the business for 26 years, and the publisher makes my favorite MUD, Gemstone IV. Latham has been with the company for 15 of those years! Technically I am using the interview and video as part of my Rise and Shiny series, but the questions and answers are more relevant to the general topic of MUDs. You might see it now as well as later, but it will hopefully provide some insight into the world of making MUDs.
