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E3 2009: Massively's day 4 roundup
Wait a minute, day 4 of E3 2009? Remedial math skills? E3 was only a three-day event, but our own coverage of Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 is going to last a bit longer. We've still got a number of interviews and previews lined up for you in the coming days, today included, so we hope you'll keep reading this weekend. In the meantime, here are a few highlights of Massively's coverage of E3 2009 from yesterday: Champions Online interview with Bill Roper on character customization Torchlight, from creators of Mythos, to morph from single player to MMO Rohan: Blood Feud to get crafting system in June Massively's Dragonica Online Impressions If you'd like to see more, we've got some eye candy after the jump, with galleries for Champions Online, Torchlight, Rohan: Blood Feud, and Dragonica Online.
Anti-Aliased: Final Fantasy XIV is a good, good thing
So, unless you've been under a rock, you probably heard Sony squeeing in happiness about Final Fantasy XIV Online, otherwise known as just FFXIV. This is indeed the next MMO that Square-Enix has been hiding from prying eyes, and unlike the indications we got from the company a year ago, this is another Final Fantasy Online.The reception, however, is quite mixed. Some people, like myself, are really psyched up for this next release in the online series. Others, however, are questioning why make a game like FFXIV when you already have FFXI. Why not just keep on working on FFXI? Don't we all remember how bad sequels work out in the MMO market? Why tempt fate by making a sequel?Personally, I think the creation of this game is a good idea with all things considered. Final Fantasy brings a different perspective of play to the market -- one that it desperately needs at this point in time. What am I jabbering on about? Come on, follow me, and let's talk about why FFXIV is a good, good thing.
Anti-Aliased: Final Fantasy XIV is a good, good thing pt. 2
The real beauty of all of this is that a Final Fantasy game is never truly a sequel. Each world that they create in the series is unique and tells its own story. They don't copy the same battle system from game to game, they're always looking to innovate, and they're always pushing their own boundaries. The "Final Fantasy" name is more of a pedigree than it is a continuous set of works. With all of that in mind, we can be sure that 14 and 11 will be different enough to work side by side. For these guys, it's not about the grind -- it's about the story. I think we can be certain that the new world we're about to explore will be very different than Vana'diel and follow a completely different line of thought with a new twist on their own battle system. It's not about an MMO If there's any point that makes me want this game the most, it's the fact that this game isn't being developed to be an MMO. This game is being developed to be a Final Fantasy title. I may have lost you on that, so let me explain. When many developers begin to approach their new MMO, they approach it as an MMO. They look at it and think about the grind, the world, the interactions, and the other titles in the market. They stare at World of Warcraft for hours and analyze the market so they can capture their audience. Because of this, all games seem to follow this "MMO formula." Grind, level, grind, level, grind, level, endgame. Emphasis is being put on the game and not on the experience. Final Fantasy XIV is not being developed from the perspective of an MMO -- it's being developed from the perspective of a Final Fantasy console game that just happens to be online. When you pick up Final Fantasy XI, you feel the presence of an MMO, but you also feel the presence of a Final Fantasy game. Storylines, adventuring, characters, and a rich world all seem to pop to the forefront. Even the battle system, which is an MMO battle system, screams Final Fantasy because of the way abilities, camera angles, and party dynamics work. This is what our genre needs. We do not need to make another MMO for the sake of making another MMO. We're done with MMOs. We want games that feature a massively multiplayer online component. Instead of breaking the Final Fantasy series apart so it fits into the context of an MMO, we're breaking MMO components apart to fit in the context of Final Fantasy. It will feature systems that are unlike any other MMO because they don't come from another MMO -- they come from Final Fantasy.Two other games are attempting to do this right now -- Star Wars: The Old Republic and All Points Bulletin. Part of the reason we're all excited for these two is because they don't look to be another MMO for MMOs sake. SWTOR is grabbing from Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect's playbook. APB is grabbing from GTA's playbook. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a very, very good thing. Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who owns Final Fantasy XI for way too many platforms. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's rambling on his personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow him on Twitter through Massively, or through his personal feed.
E3 2009: Massively's day 3 roundup
We've completely zerg rushed E3 2009, attending press events, demonstrations and sure, hitting some parties as well. But we've also gone out and interviewed the people behind the games that will be arriving on the MMO scene in the next year and we've got a lot to tell you in the coming days. As the constant hustle of E3 2009 came to a close yesterday and the swarm of game journos scatters, now is when we really shift into high gear; Massively's content over the next few days will feature loads of info and interviews fresh from E3. We'd say to keep your eyes open for it, but honestly you won't be able to miss it. For now though, here's a quick roundup of yesterday's coverage: Star Wars: The Old Republic demonstration Paul Barnett and the Suicide Girls present All Points Bulletin Ether Saga Online set to go live this month with world bosses Massively looks at Perfect World International: Age of Spirits Jade Dynasty at a glance Dungeon Fighter Online impressions Still hungry? We've also put together galleries for these MMOs after the jump:
E3 2009: APB gets the Paul Barnett hype treatment
At E3 this entire week, EA is promoting their biggest and brightest new titles at their enormous booth in the LA Convention Center's South Hall. This includes two titles we're excited about: SWTOR and APB. To help promote APB yesterday, EA's Paul Barnett got the crowd hyped up for the game with some free t-shirts and a couple Suicide Girls to help toss them out to the audience. On top of this, APB's Dave Jones was interviewed by Paul on the stage, and two short trailers were shown. The first one was basically what we saw last year, showcasing the amazing character customization options available in the MMO. Yet, we were also shown some in-game footage with characters created by the APB testing community basically, the new trailer we showed you earlier in the week). You can check out our shaky-cam footage of the event right after the jump below.
E3 2009: Massively's day 1 roundup
E3 2009 is turning out to be quite a show this year and Massively is right in the middle of it all to report on the MMO news. We got a head start on E3 and reported a bit on what's happening before the Expo officially kicked off and it looks like we'll have plenty more to share with you before E3 is over. Here's our recap of day 1 in MMO news from Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009, and be sure to click through to the E3 galleries we've got after the jump. Star Wars: The Old Republic world's first fully-voiced MMO Final Fantasy XIV announced Jumpgate Evolution releases E3 trailer EA to publish All Points Bulletin in 2010 PlayStation Home hits 6.5 million accounts Trion World Network unveils Heroes of Telara Boatloads of screenshots after the jump!
E3 2009: Realtime World's Dave Jones speaks on APB
The announcement of EA handling APB's marketing and distribution was a pretty big one for Realtime Worlds, and creative director Dave Jones was on hand at EA's press conference yesterday to speak with Gamasutra about the game, the company, and the developments of APB.Game wise, Dave has spoken a bit further on how the law vs. criminal battles will work out for the game. Criminals will be able to battle against criminals, but enforcers will never find themselves matched against one another. This will open up the possibility of multiple front wars with other criminal factions, rather than a simple two front game.Also, the game will feature large scale battles as well as "metagroups" where the game determines balancing for players who are doing exceptionally well. Dave's example was a group of 5 elite players might be matched against 15 normal ranking players, just to give the elite players a thrill and the 15 a chance against these 5.The full interview with Gamasutra goes into the company itself, partnering options, as well as more info on APB itself.
EA brings APB to E3, trailer 4U2C
Earlier today, EA announced its plans to bring the crime-inspired All Points Bulletin to the online masses. Planned for release on PC, the upcoming MMO action game is one part Grand Theft Auto and one part Grand Theft Auto. This trailer showcases some of the gameplay, and we see a lot of traditional over-the-shoulder shooting in an open world city environment. We can't complain, especially after the hours we've spent in GTA IV's online lobby, mindlessly shooting our friends.
E3 2009: EA and Realtime Worlds partner on All Points Bulletin
We knew that Realtime Worlds, the company behind the urban crime MMO All Points Bulletin would have something to announce and show at E3 2009, we just weren't sure of what to expect. That announcement came today at the Electronic Arts press conference. Imagine our surprise when Realtime Worlds creative director Dave Jones (who you may know as the creator of GTA and Crackdown) appeared on stage to announce that EA will be publishing All Points Bulletin. The announcement was followed up with a rather stunning trailer, depicting all manner of urban badasses. Tattoos. Fast cars. Lots of guns. Criminals and Enforcement fighting for the streets in a vast, open urban environment. The game will accommodate 10,000 players per world, divided into 100 player district maps. If you're a fan of games like GTA and Saint's Row, you will be blown away by All Points Bulletin.All Points Bulletin has a newly revamped site, with screenshots and a game features page, and now hosts an APB video podcast from the developers. The game is slated for a PC release in early 2010. Update: Want to see more? Flip through our E3 2009 APB gallery and check out the game trailer below the cut.%Gallery-64700%
EA publishing Realtime Worlds' All Points Bulletin
Just announced at EA's press conference, we now know that Realtime Worlds' ambitious MMO All Points Bulletin will be backed by an equally ambitious company. Realtime Worlds founder Dave Jones took the stage to announce that EA will help the 100-player MMO reach awaiting gamers sometime next year, which is the current release window EA is listing for the game.
GTA MMO would be a profitable venture, analyst suggests
In a recent set of statements to Gamasutra, Mike Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners, brought up the profitability of an MMO set within the Grand Theft Auto franchise.While Hickey notes that success would only be possible if Take-Two partnered up with another company who had a well designed infrastructure and MMO experience, the whole paragraph is certainly a nod in the direction of online crime games at large -- a genre relatively untapped in the MMO landscape.Certainly a Grand Theft Auto MMO would be the new gorilla of the online space, one can't easily forget about the stylized and anticipated offering from Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds, All Points Bulletin. A GTA MMO would certainly be nice, but APB will certainly be setting the bar for all upcoming crime MMOs, regardless of a GTA entry into the scene.
Realtime Worlds: APB at E3, first in-game screen released
(click to MMO-size) Looks like we'll be seeing more capri pants from All Points Bulletin developer Realtime Worlds in a few short weeks, as the company announced this morning its intentions to attend E3 2009. RTW community manager Chris 'Ulrich' Dye dropped the knowledge on APB fansite APB Evolved, along with the "first in-game screenshot" of APB (seen above), saying, "Yes, we WILL be at E3 this year and this will mark the start of lots more news, activities and information coming out about APB: All Points Bulletin."He also teases a bit of info on the game, noting that the screen provided is meant "to give you another look at the awesome character customizations that will make up a large part of APB," rather than just show you some more folks holdin' gats. Like you, we're stuck waiting for another two weeks to find out more. Thanks, Realtime Worlds!
All Points Bulletin announces E3 appearance
The normally quiet development team at Realtime Worlds, the creators of the upcoming GTA styled MMO All Points Bulletin has released a bold announcement regarding their game accompanied by an equally bold screenshot -- APB will be shown at E3 this year.In a statement made to fansite APB Evolved, Chris "Ulric" Dye has said that their showing at E3 will also mark a turning point in the game's media releases, as it will mark the start of a large release of news, activities, and information regarding APB. In addition, the above screenshot, the first of in-game footage, was released to APB Evolved to highlight the character customization features that will be included in the game. We're not that keen on shaved heads, but we certainly would like to wrap our hands around that shotgun. If this is just a taste of what APB has to offer their players, we can't wait to see more.
Realtime Worlds teases APB appearance at E3
We've been hearing rumors of Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds' appearance in the upcoming Microsoft E3 Conference for a while now, though we've heard no confirmation of All Points Bulletin's involvement in the highly anticipated, green-hued showcase. However, Eurogamer recently got an intriguing response from Realtime after inquiring about the crime-filled MMO's MicroCon debut.Realtime Worlds boss Colin MacDonald responded to Eurogamer's query, saying, "I couldn't possibly comment at the moment," but went on to add, "if we happened to be going, I'm sure we would make it known before too much longer, and we'd certainly give Eurogamer a shout to try to meet up." Jeez, you guys. Get a room.
APB's Realtime Worlds gets new CEO: Gary Dale
Realtime Worlds, creator of the XBox 360 game Crackdown and the upcoming Cops and Robbers themed MMO All Points Bulletin has announced that Gary Dale has been appointed as their new CEO to help oversee their transition from being a traditional game developer to an online publisher. Realtime Worlds repurchased the rights for All Points Bulletin from publisher Webzen last year for an undisclosed amount.Dale has previously been the chief executive officer and executive vice president of Take-Two Interactive Software. Before that he was the chief operating officer for their Rockstar Games publishing label. Realtime Worlds was founded in 2002 by David Jones, whose previous credits include Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings, and had served as CEO up until now. He remains with the company as creative director.
MTV Multiplayer speaks with MMO devs looking to attract shooter fans
Undoubtedly, the developers of games like All Points Bulletin, The Agency, CrimeCraft and Earthrise would like shooter fans to give their game a try. And with so many of these titles on the way, it can be a little difficult to know which one may be for you. So, MTV Multiplayer's Tracey John went out and got each developer's take on why they think shooter fans should look into their respective games.Not all of these games take the same shooter mentality approach, but that's a good thing. Variety is of course the spice of life, especially when those things involve itchy digital trigger fingers. You can be sure we'll be bringing you even more information in the future so you can decide which of these games is for you.
The Digital Continuum: Evolving past the Diku design Part 2
The other movement of change sweeping through developers' design choices is the near removal of classes and/or levels. EVE Online was one of the first MMOs to do away with levels, and the upcoming All Points Bulletin and The Secret World appear to be doing the same. Now, titles like Champions Online and Fallen Earth are doing away with the idea of a class system altogether.
The Digital Continuum: Evolving past the Diku design
I never played any of the numerous MUDs -- let alone DikuMUD -- back in the early nineties, and it's probably for the best, as my then youthful mind wouldn't have spared more than a few minutes to learn how they worked, let alone spend the necessary time to play them. We're talking pre-teen here, just to be clear, and I was really interested in stuff like point and click adventure games. Oh, and also Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.Even though I wasn't around for the progenitors that would eventually lead to things like Ultima Online, EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft, it's not hard for me to see in the wake of all those titles the line of ideas and creativity that connects all of them. Hell, you can trace it back to the original release of Dungeons and Dragons if you really wanted to, but let's focus on the future for today.
Rumor: Ex-Sony Europe bigwig moving to All Points Bulletin
It seems like Realtime Worlds' upcoming crime, cops and online drive-by MMO All Points Bulletin is attracting some rather high profile attention. Or at least, that's the rumor floating around right now. Whispers abound of recently dethroned President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, David Reeves heading off for a "senior" position at Realtime Worlds have got us stroking our chins.If true, this would mean that Reeves -- like much of the MMO community -- has taken notice of the potential of this game. Potential for copious amounts of success, otherwise known as raining dollars and uh, euros.We may be looking a bit too deeply into this, we admit. But when it comes to games that headbutt the mold, we're really more than happy to make a couple leaps of logic for the sake of our geeky conscious. Now if you'll excuse us, we must return to our shrine dedicated to wishing a good Shadowrun and/or Fallout MMO game into existence.
Anti-Aliased: You don't need PvP to be successful, honest pt. 2
Screw PvP combat, we need PvP conflict The minute you hear about PvP, you know what it is. It's groups of people bashing each other in the face like cavemen. While that's all well and good, combat is only one part of a spectrum of player vs. player activities. We need to stop focusing solely on the idea of PvP combat and perhaps look towards the larger picture of PvP conflict. Final Fantasy XI proves this point through the use of the conquest system. Players weren't bashing each other's face in, yet were participating in a conflict that changed how the game played and simultaneously provided rewards. On the other side of the galaxy, EVE Online has become notorious for "trader combat." Where players go against one another in order to get goods out to the market and make a profit. Above those acts come social combat, where players make alliances and enemies as they participate in the other aspects of the game. Exploration could even go in this category, as players race through uncharted space to find caches of resources. These ideas aren't unheard of, but they are unexplored. One of the best examples of how we don't make full use of our genres is the infamous rogue class. Rogues, by definition, are stealthy, thieving, and full of trickery. Their original portrayal in the genre is mostly through non-combat actions, like stealing. Yet, rogues never steal in our online games. Even if they do steal, it's almost always from monsters and not players. "Once we evolve how we approach PvP, we can start truly integrating the system into our designs, rather than continually tacking on battlegrounds and combat objectives and applauding them as elegant design." So why not include pickpocketing? Is it because we don't want to limit it to one class or cause an uproar when one player can steal your stuff? Why not let all players have the option, and actually have a pickpocketing mini-game. Why not expand the concept of "illegal activities" and actually start to develop a justice system, where players can become guards and other players can attempt to get away with small crimes? Of course, we'll get to see an example of how well this will work when Realtime Worlds launches All Points Bulletin, but it is something to think about for our current line of MMOs. Past the legal system, there are other methods of conflict. Card games, price haggling at player run shops, even running an actual shop or a locale can give players a brand new perspective of conflict and simultaneously provide another sink for virtual cash in the economy. The synopsis Don't feel that a game needs to have PvP in order to be viable. Games that can level their challenges (like Final Fantasy's level capped bosses, which make them eternally challenging) and can also present strong, solid methods of entertainment (like Bioshock's emphasis on storytelling and single-player objectives, rather than splitting resources between single-player and multi-player.) But PvP as a concept needs to perhaps become broader, centering more on areas of dynamic conflict rather than stagnant combat situations. Even facerolling on your keyboard against someone else facerolling on their keyboard becomes old -- especially when gear differences lock out true, meaningful engagements. Once we evolve how we approach PvP, we can start truly integrating the system into our designs, rather than continually tacking on battlegrounds and combat objectives and applauding them as elegant design. Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who knows people will scream about how much of a carebare he is in the comment boxes, just because they didn't read the whole article. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's rambling on his personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow him on Twitter through Massively, or through his personal feed.
