The Digital Continuum: Reign of the shooters
This year, a bleating signal is ringing out from all corners of the MMO industry. It calls to our attention a new order on the horizon: the order of shooter MMOs.
Can it be coincidence that everywhere you look at this year's E3, most of the exciting upcoming MMOs are shooters in one way or another? I'm looking forward to Final Fantasy XIV as much as the next fan, but there's only one or two traditional looking concepts that have my interest.
Moving through my mental list of must-play MMOs reveals a very obvious pattern. Jumpgate Evolution, All Points Bulletin, CrimeCraft and even aspects of Star Wars: The Old Republic are looking shooter-like. I mean, come on, cover mechanics for the Smuggler class? Now you're just teasing me into a squelching geek heat, BioWare.
People stick to MMOs because of many different things, but the biggest reason for most players is that ineffable "ding" effect each new level, ability, etc. Shooter games -- whether they're first or third person -- offer a much more immediate satisfaction that involves blasting your opponents into polygonal paste.
The first game to blend these things together was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It created a cocktail of compulsive online gaming that kept millions of people hooked endlessly for days, weeks and even months. Infinity Ward came at their concept from the FPS side of the equation, and they were the first to do it really well. Only now, a couple years later, are MMO developers starting to catch up and their cocktails could be potentially much more addictive.
For most people, a shooter game only needs to control so well -- it only need to be like Call of Duty, not exactly like it. Developers have had plenty of time to learn how to emulate popular controls just right so that aiming, firing and knowing when you've hit your target are fairly comparable. Plus, coming from the typical MMO experience to date, many players are going to be pretty forgiving.
The point being that, really, MMO developers don't have to live up to something like Modern Warfare 2 when it comes to the shooting mechanics. And some games -- such as MAG -- could potentially be more appealing control-wise to some players anyhow.
Then you've got MMO developers who're blending shooter and MMO mentality together into some kind of freakishly appealing blend such as All Points Bulletin. None of APB's character or car customization depth is news to most, but now Realtime Worlds has announced the ability to create and use your own music in addition to all this other insanity.
Even more curious is the news that custom created content like clothing, emblems and cars can be sold on the game's auction houses. Crafting isn't usually the kind of thing that rings my bell, because it's not actual crafting, in the sense that you make something of your own design. I spend far too much time in games like Forza Motorsport and Spore just designing stuff rather than playing the actual game. And the ability to sell said creations is only that much more powerful.
I don't really expect that everyone wants to play these games. I'm fairly sure that many people are looking forward to titles like Aion and Heroes of Telara that seem to be sticking to the older ways of play. And as I said before, Final Fantasy XIV is a game I'll be buying on day one. Ultimately though, I see myself playing a lot more shooter-esque MMOs in the next couple of years than anything other variety.
