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MMO Family: Winter roundup of kid-friendly MMOs
Winter is always my favorite time of year for family-friendly MMOs. Holiday events tend to be the norm now in most MMOs, but they're tailor-made for games with a younger audience. Winter also seems to usher in lots of new changes and updates as well, so it's time again to revisit some popular titles to play catch up. Over the past year, we've looked at several new titles and visited veteran MMOs titles to see what's changed. From Club Penguin to Pirate101, we'll look at recent updates and upcoming news in MMO Family's winter roundup!
Smedley: Social network games not in SOE's future, PlanetSide 2 doing 'very well'
How successful is PlanetSide 2? "I can't give away revenue numbers, but it is doing an order of magnitude greater revenue daily than any of our other titles," SOE president John Smedley tells GamesIndustry.biz. "It is really doing very well." He also hints at SOE's future, which is not likely to include social games or Facebook titles. "I gotta tell you, I'm not a fan of the Facebook game. To me, they're monetization vehicles and not the kind of games I want to play or make. That's just me personally. So we'll stick to what we do best," he says.
Bigpoint employees vote to unionize, firm trumpets 300 million registered users
Bigpoint staff have voted to organize under the banner of the Ver.di trade union, according to GamesIndustry.biz. The move comes after the October layoffs of 80 employees from the free-to-play browser giant's Hamburg, Germany office, and Bigpoint will no longer be able to make staffing cuts "without first consulting the organization." Bigpoint also issued a press release this week stating that 300 million users have registered across its 65-game portfolio.
One Shots: Dearly departed
Today's One Shots will be a more somber one, as we strive to honor two MMOs that are passing into history. First up is the dearly departed City of Heroes, which Reader Michelle apparently loved quite a bit. She sent us in several screenshots, including one of her supergroup, Part Time Heroes. "Here's a group of my friends during the Mortimer Kal Strike Force," Michelle writes. "My character is Astral Black, a Warshade who should be my last level 50. She's the one in the purple and black crop top." Head onward for more personal dedications, but be warned: You may be misty-eyed by the end.
Glitch's creator on the game's failure: 'Too foreign of a concept'
If you're looking for just one reason why Glitch is sunsetting, you're out of luck. If you're looking for many, many reasons why Glitch failed, then all you have to do is pull up a chair in front of Tiny Speck's Stewart Butterfield and listen to him talk. Butterfield spoke with Gamasutra about the myriad of reasons why Glitch didn't take and ultimately had to be shuttered. "Ultimately if I have to identify one thing as the problem -- I don't think there is just one -- but if I had to choose just one," Butterfield said, "I think the game was too foreign of a concept for most people." He pointed out that while there was a devoted fan base who "got it," marketing the title presented severe problems throughout most of the game's lifespan: "There haven't ever been other non-combat MMOs that are based on absurdity, humor, and whimsy. I'm not sure anyone has the specific expertise in making this thing work." Other failures that Butterfield identified was a lack of fun gameplay until recently, the decision to do the game in Flash instead of for mobile platforms, large expenditures of money, and Tiny Speck's big team drawing salaries.
MMO Family: Are virtual presents a worthy holiday gift?
When it comes to picking out holiday gifts for younger family members, it's amazing how quickly it can escalate to the equivalent of organizing Operation Overlord. As I wandered around Toys "R" Us yesterday, I watched two mothers trying to make sense of Skylanders and figure out how to coordinate and buy the right packages. (At one point, one was having trouble understanding that the "Giants" weren't really that giant.) Picking out a gift for a kid might sound simple, but to the adults who aren't up to speed on the latest craze, it's not only complicated -- it's a potential nightmare. Virtual presents and currency cards are two gift ideas that are growing in popularity. Young gamers are comfortable with the notion of in-game goods, but while the in-game MMO community has begun to accept it, it's not quite accepted by the mainstream as a valid gift option. I think there's good reason that it should be, though. In this week's MMO Family, let's take a look at why virtual presents still aren't seen as valid gifts and examine why that's worth reconsidering.
Free for All: Justifying the subscriptions I maintain
Subscriptions are a funny thing. For as long as I can remember, they've represented a level of quality to many gamers. To those players, only those funny Eastern MMOs didn't have a sub. Granted, I loved a lot of those funny Eastern games and didn't care how a game monetized itself. Watching Western players spin on a dime about subscriptions has been a pretty weird experience. The Western developers have changed as well, providing tiered services and other models that would have been seen as suspicious only years ago. I've been known as a free-to-play guy for a while. Heck, I was originally hired here at Massively to cover free-to-play games. Now that there are more free games than not, this column has spread out a bit, covering multiple topics. Payment models do still come up, as they did this week. I thought it'd be cool to examine the subs I do maintain and why -- not press accounts or accounts from long before I began working at Massively, but accounts that I choose to pay for with my own money.
One Shots: This is the end, my friend
What do you imagine the end of the world looking like? I'm willing to bet it's nothing like the following technicolor nightmare ripped straight from the finale of the first version of Final Fantasy XIV. Reader Focant delivers this haunting image with a description of the videopocalypse: "The Garlean forces held nothing back in their battle against us, and attacked with their most destructive weaponry. The most powerful enemy we saw on the battlefield that night was the level 100 (the player cap is 50) Imperial Juggernaut, an enemy that is only seen one other time in game. I made sure to include a player character in the shot as well for size comparison. These things are massive!" And with that we're off to another wild and wooly edition of One Shots! Please put your tray tables in their full upright and locked position.
MMObility: Why the closing of Glitch matters
When it was announced that Glitch was closing, I felt a blend of shock and sadness. Glitch is one of my favorite MMOs, but it's special for a number of reasons. The game achieved a lot in a crowded market that is filled with the same gameplay, same lore, and same stock characters that we have seen for years, and it achieved all of this within a Flash-based browser environment. The official announcement gave us a lot of clues as to what happened, but it looks like the money was just not enough to keep the game afloat. It's also very possible that the money was enough, but just barely. Running a business is hard, and running an MMO that is so unique and unusual can be the same as living paycheck to paycheck. It's stressful and scary when the future is never certain... sometimes it's easier to call it quits.
The Daily Grind: Do sunsetted games owe us refunds?
When Tiny Speck announced last week that Glitch would be shutting down come December 9th, the studio simultaneously did something that few closed MMOs do: It offered complete refunds for past subs. Sure, some companies have offered free game time or bonus cash-shop currency for their other games, but that's usually small consolation. NCsoft grudgingly provided refunds for unused timecards and long-term recurring subs when it set City of Heroes' closure date, but virtually no one provides a complete refund of all the subscription money you ever paid for the game. On Black Friday, it seems as if half the world is out shopping, looking for a good deal and with money on the brain, so today's an appropriate day to ask: Do sunsetted games owe us refunds? And if you were offered one, would you take 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!
One Shots: Out in the cold
Closing down a game like Glitch is like beating up the big-eyed orphan from down the street for his last two cents; it just feels wrong to anyone with a soul. Massively's One Shots department did its best to counter the situation by taking an angry protest nap, but nothing doing. The next best solution is to ask all of you with great Glitch screenshots to send them our way. Reader Jeremy submitted this haunting picture that works on a couple of different levels in light of the recent announcement. "Kids," he warns, "this is a warning of the harmful effects of No-No Powder. One day, you're sitting in your pleasant home street, admiring the view. Next, you're waking up naked in a tundra with nothing but your quickly diminishing dignity." Let's go on a cold, naked adventure together through the rest of this week's player-submitted pictures!
Glitch closing down, cites limited audience
The word is out and it is sad: "Glitch is over." Tiny Speck delivered the shocking news today, saying that the 2-D browser title will be closing forever on December 9th. The team said that it is "heartbroken" to have to announce this, and apologized for letting its fans down. Apparently, the game simply could not find a critical mass large enough to be financially viable. The developers explained it simply: "Unfortunately, Glitch has not attracted an audience large enough to sustain itself and based on a long period of experimentation and our best estimates, it seems unlikely that it ever would." While Tiny Speck will continue with a smaller team working on other projects, many of Glitch's developers are now looking for work elsewhere. The studio posted a closure FAQ that included reasoning behind the shutdown and information on how to obtain refunds for money spent on the game. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
MMO Family: How Khan Academy redefines learning
In past editions of MMO Family, I've looked how games have attempted to teach and entertain -- and how challenging it is to do both. This week, I'd like to flip things around a bit and look at an educational site that, while not an MMO, does incorporate some gaming characteristics. It's a site called Khan Academy, and it offers free instructional videos on a variety of topics for students of all ages. This week, we're replacing our virtual swords with keyboards and substituting our colorful avatars for colorfully drawn instructional videos. We're taking a week off from cute pets and monster-slaying to look at how Khan Academy is turning the current system of public education on its head.
KingsIsle releases Grub Guardian satellite game for Wizard101
KingsIsle Entertainment wants you to know about Grub Guardian, its latest product that is both inspired by and accessory to Wizard101. Grub Guardian is a stand-alone guardian defense game for iOS devices and PC or Android web browsers. Players can log in using their existing Wizard101 accounts and "advance the skills and experience of their in-game pets," according to a KingsIsle press release. The company boasts of more than 30 million registered users across its free-to-play family-friendly MMOs, and it says that satellite games like Grub Guardian "represent a new frontier for game design in which standalone mobile game connect seamlessly with larger online worlds like Wizard101." [Source: KingsIsle press release]
MMO Family: What Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures should borrow from the SOE stable
There was a lot of news at last week's SOE Live, and both Clone Wars Adventures and Free Realms had big announcements as well. The two games have seen a burst of new content and game updates over the past few months, and from what we learned last week, that rapid pace is going to continue. Over the past year or so, we've seen an increase in the cross-over of ideas among the various SOE titles, and the announcement of Player Studio in several MMOs is just the latest example of a shift towards centralizing things. With all of the news about upcoming titles and new approaches to future design, there's plenty that could work well in Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures (and in kid-friendly MMOs in general!) In this week's MMO Family, let's look at what Free Realms and CWA could borrow from other SOE MMOs.
MMO Family: Exploring game writing for short attention spans
Trying to create a virtual world that's engaging and compelling is no easy task. But for an adult designer, trying to do so for a young audience is even more challenging. Kids' interests are not necessarily the same as adults' interests, and their life experiences are much different. On top of that, you can't even lump all child age groups together; a four-year-old, nine-year-old, and 12-year-old are all tackling vastly different challenges in their lives. At this year's GDC Online, Elizabeth McLaren from 1st Playable Productions gave a talk about this very topic, titled Short Attention Span Theatre -- Writing for Child Gamers. In it, she looked to the book publishing industry to see what themes and interests exist for particular age groups and how they can be integrated into video game writing. Read on for highlights of the panel and a brief look at the mind of a child gamer.
One Shots: Beautiful balloon
Massively logically selects for readers who aren't necessarily playing World of Warcraft -- if you were, you'd probably be reading our sister site WoW Insider, not this column. But I am still a WoW fan, as is this week's One Shots submitter, William. He sent in a freshly snapped pic from Mists of Pandaria with this note: This screenshot is a little bit of a spoiler, so I won't actually say much about what's in it, but needless to say, this is one of my favourite scenes from the Pandaren starting area. The art design is fantastic in Blizzard's new expansion! Also, panda in a balloon! William's color image is tucked after the break along with a few more of your One Shots-worthy images.
MMO Family: How kid-friendly games can treat MMO malaise
Let's face it: It hasn't been a banner year for MMOs. We've witnessed disappointing launches, studio layoffs, and even studio meltdowns. There have been reports questioning whether MMOs are a good investment, and some studios have even signaled that they're shying away from traditional MMO development in the future. With all of these dark clouds looming overhead, it's sometimes hard to stay cheerful about MMOs. But ironically, the kid-friendly genre might actually buck the trend. KingsIsle's launch of Pirate101 and SOE's recent updates to Clone Wars Adventures and Free Realms might help curb the malaise with a blend of old and new styles of gameplay. In this week's MMO Family we'll look at what's new with these titles and why kids both young and old have reason to celebrate.
Some Assembly Required: The newer-is-better fallacy
There's this idea that old-school MMO players don't know what they want. I've an inkling that the folks espousing this idea have little experience with the old-school games they purport to be evolving beyond. This doesn't stop them from claiming that old-schoolers are in love with a time period instead of a game, though, which in turn intimates that old-schoolers' minds are too muddled to know exactly what they do and do not prefer. Regardless of how you feel about old vs. new, sandbox vs. themepark, or world vs. game, it's easy to see that conflating someone's personal preference with nostalgia results in a perspective that's of limited usefulness at best.
MMO Family: First Impressions of Pora Ora
I'm always on the hunt for MMOs that are educational because I think it's a genre with enormous potential that is still largely untapped. At the same time, the skeptic in me always becomes wary of any MMO that calls itself "educational" because it usually turns out that it's mostly "game" and very little learning goes on. So I was cautiously curious to try out Pora Ora, an educational MMO that's aimed at kids ages 5 to 13. As it turns out, the game embraces learning and has several features that make it a viable educational game not only at home but also in the classroom. This week's MMO Family is a first impressions look at Pora Ora.
