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The Daily Grind: How do you define MMO?
Defining "MMORPG" isn't difficult: it means "massively multiplayer online roleplaying game." It's an acronym. But drawing the line between what is and is not an MMO is significantly more difficult. Guild Wars has persistence and shared areas, for instance, but as soon as you leave a town, you're in an instance unique to you and your party. There are elements of persistence in games like League of Legends. Heck, there was a time when people wondered if you could call World of Warcraft an MMO with its instanced dungeons and lack of housing. As with a lot of subjective categories, there's really no right or wrong place to draw the line, but pretty much everyone seems to think that there's a line to draw. More often than not, it's not even a matter of quality so much as a set of consistent characteristics. So what about you? Where do you draw the line between an MMO and something else? How do you define a game as being an MMO instead of a similar sort of game? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Daily iPhone App: Seal Force
Seal Force is an interesting app from Tactile Entertainment, makers of Pocket Creatures and the recent Pigs in Trees line-drawing game. It tries to combine two relatively new genres in iOS games: Line-drawing and running. You play as the Seal Force team (they have their own Saturday morning-style intro), who must "run" underwater, in a similar style to Jetpack Joyride. The twist is that you're also line-drawing paths for each member of the team, trying to take out differently colored krill as you move along. The controls are simple, but things get confusing fast. You have to match up the color of your seals with the krill on the right side of the screen. There are also shells to collect and, in a mechanic stolen directly from Jetpack Joyride, you work on three missions at a time, each with its own rewards. Seal Force is interesting but not entirely successful. You can only control one seal at a time, which makes things a slow. It'd be more fun, for example, to send them out on different paths all the time (and there is a powerup to do just that, though it's limited use). But the game is fun enough, and it does have that addictive "I can do better, just one more time" feel that this kind of running game requires. The setting is Seal Force's highlight. It's very cute when the characters call in with their catchphrases every time you send them out, as if this old TV show did really exist once upon a time. The price is right, too. Seal Force is a freemium title, with more shells available as an in-app purchase. Seal Force is available as a universal download right now, so if the mix of genres sounds intriguing, check it out.
The Daily Grind: What turns you off to a game before you even try it?
In today's gaming market, we know nearly every detail of an MMO well before launch. Developers are more and more open with their products, possibly in response to the demands of a customer base with an incredible amount of competition for its dollar. With so many choices and so much information available, gamers can afford to be choosy and make some decisions even before installing. Today we want to hear what you look at before you try a game. There are plenty of details that we know we do want, but what about the things that make you cringe and reconsider playing the game? Be it a free-to-play business model, a particular genre, a particular engine, or reportedly long download times, what is your dealbreaker? Hit the comment button and tell us all about it! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Daily iPhone App: Gem Keeper
Gem Keeper is a relatively new game from developer NCSoft, which usually makes Korean MMO titles for the PC. The company has released a couple of apps for iOS, but this is the first full game made for North American audiences -- and it's a good one. It's a pretty basic tower defense title, but the polish and complexity on this one really makes it shine, even among the many offerings in the genre. As you can see from the screenshot, the look is great -- it's bright and colorful, and very easy to tell just what's happening on screen and where you need to step up your defenses. The game's balance is very good as well. I would say that it's a little tougher than a lot of tower defense games, but only because not only do foes have to reach your stash of gems and steal them, but they have to wander back out as well, which means that the stakes are upped twice as high as games where you're just trying to prevent an invasion. Gem Keeper also offers multiple places for waves to come through, which adds a little more strategy to how you set things up, and extra units like moveable towers and bombs mix things up even more. The game's currency flows fast and easy, especially in the lower levels of difficulty, so you always feel powerful, even when you're being flooded by invaders. There is plenty of content to play through -- there are over 30 levels with three difficulty variants each, and a recent update added an endless mode which you can compete in on Game Center leaderboards as well. Gem Keeper is a great game -- it's on the App Store as a universal version right now for $2.99. Here's hoping we see some more quality titles like this from NCSoft in the future.
Namaste Entertainment charts the history of MMOs [Updated]
It's one thing to have a vague sense of what MMOs came out when, but it's another thing entirely to see a huge chunk of history plotted out in one comprehensive chart. It's also dang cool to see. During her research into user-generated content in MMOs for Storybricks, Namaste Entertainment's Kelly Heckman built a giant graphic to get a handle on how games developed over the years. She not only plotted them by year released, but also lumped them in with their respective genres and showed which games inspired others. The end result gives the viewer a bird's eye view of the industry as it's grown in the past decade and a half. "It turned out so well we made the movie with it and plan to release the source so anyone can make a movie with it," Heckman said. You can walk through this giant infographic in the gallery below, and make sure to hit the jump to watch the accompanying video that makes use of the chart. [Update: Here's a direct link to a much bigger version of the infographic.] %Gallery-130322%
Rise of Immortals preview: Potent Dota-bles
The Defense of the Ancients mod for Warcraft 3 has spawned no less than four retail titles now (Heroes of Newerth, Demigod, League of Legends, and Valve's upcoming Dota 2), and Las Vegas' Petroglyph Games is throwing its hat into the ring with another, called Rise of Immortals. Petroglyph, which has its roots in EA's Westwood Studios and is also working on an MMORTS for Trion, showed the game to me at GDC last week and, while it's safe to say that the growing "MOBA" (multiplayer online battle arena) genre is probably well covered already, they are planning to put a few new twists and turns on the still-developing formula. The most central of these is more of an emphasis on PvE -- while League of Legends or Heroes of Newerth is centered around five players battling it out with five others online, Rise of Immortals plans to make playing versus the environment a viable goal, with levels that spawn monsters to fight and even award persistent items for you and your team. There are some other innovations, too, and Rise of Immortals seems like it will be an interesting experimental entry into this quickly evolving genre. %Gallery-118760%
The Daily Grind: What game would you play if you had the time?
There are a lot of MMOs on the market at the moment, and while it can be argued that many of them are drawing inspiration from the same well, there's still plenty of variety available. You can roam in post-apocalyptic Nevada, soar through a variety of spaceways, or slay a truly staggering number of different dragons in the myriad worlds available online. But you are limited by one force no matter what -- you only have so much time during a single day. That means that there's necessarily a game you'd love to play, but you just don't have the time. No matter what, the game you can't quite fit into your schedule is a game you like. It's usually just a case of not liking it quite enough to ditch the game (or games) you spend most of your time on. So what game would you love to play if you had more time for it? Is it an old favorite you've moved past, a new game that interests you, or a title that's long been on your radar but never quite moved into being a must-play venture? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
TUAW's Daily App: Dungeon Raid
I am a sucker for both puzzle games and RPGs, so Dungeon Raid is right up my alley. It's a puzzle game where you have to match up various icons on a grid, as you can see above, but the real draw here is that all of those icons map to various RPG abilities that then let you level and grind out a sword-and-sorcery style character. Matching up swords and skulls, for example, lets you attack monsters, while matching coins piles up gold to spend on items later on. Leveling up grants various abilities and spells that affect combat, and as you play the puzzle game, you're also building up a character and casting spells at the same time. It's a great mix of the two genres, done in a pretty original way, and the game moves quickly enough that it's easy to summon up that "just one more turn" feeling as you play along. The game's polished and runs great, full Game Center and OpenFeint integration provides leaderboards, and there are four difficulty levels to play with and lots of random items to pick up as you play. Dungeon Raid is currently US$2.99 on the App Store.
The Game Archaeologist and the dragon of the deep dungeon
The Game Archaeologist is a lazy adventurer-slash-professor who dons his trademark cap for a weekly expedition through some of the most famous MMOs of the past few decades. Each month, he chooses a different title in order to examine its highlights, talk with its developers, and invite its fans to share their experiences. Part of the holy mission of the Game Archaeologist is to ferret out the roots of history that ultimately led to MMORPGs as we know them today. Another part of the mission is to root out ferrets, as my claw-scarred arms can attest. Some of that history is fairly recent, but today we're going to travel back -- way back -- to a time before many of you were born. Including me, as a matter of fact. The year is 1974. The world is hip-deep in the throes of shag carpeting, driftwood furniture and the strains of Grand Funk Railroad. It truly seemed like nothing would ever be cool or non-earth-toned again. At this, the lowest moment in all of history, game designers Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson took the concept of miniature wargaming, merged it with a fantasy motif, and sold it under the name Dungeons & Dragons. Geeks everywhere had a reason to rejoice, and through this roleplaying game the foundations for MMOs were laid. Let's take a brief survey through D&D, giving special emphasis to how this great-granddaddy of RPGs passed down a legacy that we enjoy in our modern online titles. Also, there will be popcorn.
Riccitiello: Skateboarding genre is dead, but music games will survive
EA CEO John Riccitiello has bad news for fans of skateboarding games: The genre is dead. Action sports games still have a place in players' consoles, he says, but "for the level of excitement out there, skateboarding seems to have run its course as the representative example in that broader genre." Too bad, Tony Hawk players -- the competitor of the company that makes your games says they're not exciting. Though in his defense, EA's own Skate 3 wasn't that exciting either. But there's good news, according to Riccitiello, for another flagging genre. Music games can possibly make a comeback, the CEO says, though even he isn't sure how. "I think the music genre is going to recover ... It could be based on some new innovation. Maybe it all becomes dance-based." Oh, that's rich, Riccitiello -- a super-popular dance game based on some kind of innovative technology? If only that "falling knife" Harmonix made something like that.
TUAW's Daily App: Project Sanctuary
Project Sanctuary is one of the best dual-stick shooters I've seen on the App Store yet. It's quick and responsive, and it's got a surprisingly solid back-end, which includes four different characters to choose from, multiple game modes and settings, and even an in-game talent tree where you can specialize your characters and weapons as necessary in order to bring the best fight that you can. The game has a serviceable storyline, but the action here is all about shooting, moving, and using power-ups and weapons to take down as many enemies as possible. If the game has an issue, it's that the view isn't quite as big as it could be. That kind of helps the intensity (as enemies can jump up on you quickly), but it'd be nice to see a little bit more of the field as you run around. It doesn't hurt the core gameplay, though; if you're a dual-stick shooter fan, you'll find some terrific hardcore action here for sure. Achievements and the ability to replay maps will help you keep playing, too. I wasn't able to try co-op, but the game reportedly has four player co-op available, which seems like it would make for a good time. At US$2.99, this is probably one for the genre veterans. If you've never played a dual-stick shooter before, I'd go with something a little more polished (Minigore is a good, traditional place to start). But if you're a dual-stick veteran seeking a little more depth, check out Project Sanctuary on the App Store now.
Preview: Elemental: War of Magic
Stardock's Elemental: War of Magic is already extraordinary, smashing genres together that may have been too big on their own in the first place. At its heart, it's a 4X game in the style of Civ or Galactic Civilizations, but it's also a fantasy RPG with a deep and long story, and a tactical battle game. It has a huge singleplayer campaign, a sandbox mode that creates gigantic maps at random, and even a multiplayer mode. It's vast and confusing and intricate, and while there are certain gamers who just won't vibe with all of the numbers and how open the gameplay is, there are others – probably old-school strategy types – who will love it for everything it is. Stardock's CEO Brad Wardell is one of those for sure -- as he showed me the latest beta of the game earlier this month, his enthusiasm for the game he's built was quite clear. Elemental: War of Magic, like all of Stardock's titles, is as "homespun" as any video game can be, and Wardell's personality and preferences shine through almost all of its (sorry) elements. %Gallery-94332%
Storyboard: A group effort
Roleplaying is like many other activities in MMOs -- it can't be done alone. That means that no matter how much of an antisocial player you might be for the rest of the game, you'll need a number of other people to make any roleplaying work. By extension, any longer storylines and character development require people working together with some level of consistency. You can technically have a character's development take place without the same audience, of course, but it won't mean as much to the late arrivals. Put very simply, you want a coherent overarching sequence of events that you can point to for your characters. This is going to require some level of group coordination, and group RP events are a great excuse for roleplaying bonds to form anyway, so it's fully endorsed. For this week's Storyboard, we're going to take a look at running a group event in the smoothest way possible, ranging from a simple one-off night of adventure to a long guild-wide storyline that ends with time travel. (You know the story is really getting overwrought when the time travel makes things simpler, see.)
Woz coming to the Big Bang Theory
Our own Steve Wozniak is scheduled to appear on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory sometime later this year, the cast and crew told an audience at their Comic-Con panel this weekend. Woz is already no stranger to television, of course, but I think this is the first time he's appeared on a non-reality show, so we'll get to take a look at the guy's acting chops. There weren't any details on who he'd be playing (presumably himself), or how he came into contact with the show's four nerdy scientists and/or their pretty neighbor. I like the Big Bang Theory -- while it does succumb to the sitcom genre's usually corny conventions, it's a pretty smart show, and the nerd references are sincere and constant (geekstar Wil Wheaton has also appeared on the show a few times, and I remember seeing Firefly's Summer Glau and BSG's Katee Sackhoff on there as well). Plus, it's always great to see Woz out and about -- we'll keep an eye out for his appearance on the show's season four this year.
Review: APB (Day 4: Cards on the table)
Review Diary Day 1: Welcome to San Paro Day 2: Enforcers, get enforcin' Day 3: Choose your illusion Day 4: Cards on the table This is the final part of a four-day review diary about the first MMO from developers Realtime Worlds, APB. One of the hardest parts about reviewing an MMO is that the genre takes full advantage of being online and persistent. Because players need to log in to an updated client every time, developers can quickly and relatively easily push out new bugfixes and content with regularity. Realtime Worlds has already released one patch post-release for APB, and while I've talked about certain issues with repetitive gameplay and earning customization levels, both of those issues can be fixed with updates if the developers choose to do so. So the final question in reviewing an MMO isn't necessarily if you should buy this game today or not. It's: Does the game offer enough promise to invest your time and attention? Future plans included, out of all the games you could spend your free time on, is APB capable of rewarding that investment with a quality experience?
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite pseudo-MMO?
In recent years, the field of games that could conceivably be referred to as MMOs has exploded. Naturally, there has to be a cutoff at some point, and we here at Massively use finely tuned metrics to determine what does and doesn't qualify. (Our magic 8-ball is exceptionally tuned.) But just below that are games that are very similar to an MMO, even if they don't quite make it there, and with the border so fuzzy, players are bound to cross over. Naturally, what constitutes a pseudo-MMO versus a full game is going to be a very subjective line, and there are games such as Global Agenda and MAG that straddle the line aggressively. So what game do you enjoy that's similar to an MMO, but doesn't quite make the cut? Is it one of the two aforementioned games? Are you still of the mind that Guild Wars isn't quite there but is still a lot of fun? Or do you dig on something else entirely, like League of Legends?
Activision's Guitar Hero CEO replaced
Activision's Guitar Hero business unit has a new boss, who's not the same as the old boss -- former COO David Haddad is taking over the post after CEO Dan Rosensweig left the company. Haddad was the head of Vivendi's Sierra Online division back in the day, but started working with the Guitar Hero group after Activision merged with Viviendi back in 2007. Rosensweig is off to join Chegg.com, a company that specializes in online textbook rentals and has recently put together more than $160 million in investor funding. There's a rumor going around that Rosensweig got fired (presumably for the recent decline in the genre's sales), but Activision's Dan Amrich says that's simply not true, and that the move was completely voluntary. Either way, there's a new sheriff in plastic guitar town, and we'll see how he deals with any bandits that come a-ridin' through.
Redefining MMOs: The rise of F2P
These days it seems like you can't move three feet in the MMO space without bumping into a Free-to-Play (or F2P) game. As the person who writes First Impressions from time to time, I play quite a lot of them. As such, I'm always looking at new F2P games that pop up, from tiny indie titles to mega-corporate offerings. Just about any subset you can imagine is represented out there: flash games, isometric, side-scrollers, mini-games, embeddable web-only, local client. Curious about what genres you might find? How about fantasy, steampunk, post-apocalyptic, casual, cartoon, pirate, anthropomorphic, space, and so much more. If it hasn't been made yet, wait six months - someone will probably do it, considering. Quality, too, runs the gamut. Some games are incredibly addictive, while others make you want to take a run at the dev team with a sock full of quarters.
The Daily Grind: Is space the "final frontier" for MMOs?
"Space: the final frontier." Sounds a bit short-sighted, doesn't it? I mean, no offense to the ghost of Gene Roddenberry, but we've barely scratched the surface of what's out there beyond our atmosphere. To claim that it is the "final frontier" to be explored, charted, and colonized may not be entirely accurate. But, it does make for a catchy slogan and a great series of TV shows, movies, and games (ok, games... historically, not so much).Thus far, "space" may appear to be the final frontier in MMOs as well, but to claim it as such is also short-sighted. The creativity of the human mind is a great thing. I'm sure we'll conjure up some novel concepts or twists on old themes or settings and make them work. The two biggest MMO sub-genres so far are undoubtedly Fantasy and Science Fiction (often space-oriented). Superhero MMOs are making a run for it and so are MMOs in post-apocalytic settings. There are even a plethora of oddly-themed kids games too. Are there any genres we haven't thoroughly tapped yet? What about Horror? Mystery? Crime? Modern warfare? As for settings, what about Earth present? Earth historic? Alternate dimensions? Fairly tales? What genres and settings are you itching to explore?
The making of the World of Warcraft
Eurogamer has a nice long look at the early days of World of Warcraft, way before Northrend and Outland and even Molten Core, back when the question wasn't just how big the game would get, but whether Blizzard, a company known for their polish rather than their size, could pull off an entry in this new MMO genre. They've interviewed some of Blizzard's luminaries, and the piece offers a really good look at what it was like at Blizzard even before WoW's release, when they were hashing out some of the ideas and mechanics that have now set the bar with World of Warcraft: the stylistic Warcraft look, and questing as storytelling (originally, they thought they'd only do quests through the starting levels, and then have the game move to a grinding, monster-killing stage towards the end, but players said the game was boring without quests).There are all kinds of great little tidbits in here: originally, Warcraft III was planned with the over-the-shoulder look that WoW now has, and that's one of the reasons they wanted to create a more straightforward RPG game. Tom Chilton showed up on the team about a year before WoW's release, and to his surprise, the game was almost completely unfinished -- the level cap was only 15, the talent system wasn't implemented, the AH or mail systems weren't in, PvP wasn't in at all (of course, even at release it was pretty barebones), and endgame raiding was nonexistent. Most of the things we think of as intrinsic to the World of Warcraft -- even things like the Horde and Alliance not speaking to each other -- were debated and almost not in at all as they moved towards release.
