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What are your Top Ten MMOs?
A few other MMOGblogs have pointed to a thread in the F13 forums in the last day or so, and for good reason - it's fascinating. Some of the core users asked a simple question: What are your Top Ten MMOs? The following discussion gives a lot of insight into the thinking of some of the most dedicated players out there, and the running tally at the top of the thread should make the developers on that list of ten mighty proud. Here's the gestalt top ten list as of Wednesday night:647 pts. - World of Warcraft408 pts. - City of Heroes/Villains357 pts. - Ultima Online349 pts. - EverQuest345 pts. - Eve Online337 pts. - Dark Age of Camelot278 pts. - Star Wars Galaxies253 pts. - EverQuest 2185 pts. - Planetside171 pts. - Lord of the Rings OnlineSome of the great comments that follow highlight other amazing titles that don't get nearly enough recognition, like Puzzle Pirates, A Tale in the Desert, and the still active community of Asheron's Call. It's a great conversation, and I wouldn't be surprised if you wanted to take part - just make sure to read the directions first.So, let's hear it Massively: What are your Top Ten MMOs?
EA Mythic picks up a new Director of Community Relations
EA Mythic has filled the top-spot in their community ranks by inviting Robert Mull to lead the way as their new Community Relations Director. Mull's new duties revolve around everything community, especially overseeing the Community Coordinators for Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot, and the recently absorbed Ultima Online. What grates on my nerves are community personnel that don't really play MMOs, which isn't as uncommon as one might think, any player can definitely tell when that big-head community rep replies on the forums doesn't even bother responding to important posts because they don't know jack about the game, and is instead jollying around in off-topic talking about the latest CSI episode. Well, according to his personal welcoming address on the Warhammer Herald, Mull is a long-time MMOG player and his past roots include working for Wizards of the Coast supporting Avalon Hill, Axis & Allies, Dreamblade, Duel Masters, and other products. Nice, roots. We here at Massively, would like to extend a welcoming hand to our new EA Mythic community overlords. (I am attempting to gain faction for beta invites for our readers when the time comes – if it comes!) If you have been out of the Warhammer loop for the past week, please be sure to check out all our recent Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning coverage.
The Daily Grind: The end of the affair
Stephen Totilo over at MTV's Mutliplayer blog actually canceled his WoW subscription recently, and to his surprise, actually found the experience easy and fun. He hadn't updated the game since last September, and speaking as someone who's played the game many, many times since then, I can safely say he was wasting his money. A great MMO is worthless to you if you're not playing it.Thinking back on it, I believe I've only canceled one MMO ever, and that was Dark Age of Camelot (and I only canceled it because I started playing WoW). It was so long ago that I don't remember if I had any problems or not, but it must have gone smoothly enough. Other than that, I've pretty much considered all my subscriptions money well spent, so I haven't had to end anything.But surely there are many more cancellations going on. When have you stepped up and ended the subscription, and for what reasons? Ever had a bad cancellation, or a really good one? And maybe we can help, too-- if there are any subscriptions you're paying right now that you shouldn't be, feel free to commiserate about them here-- we'll help you quit, if you need it. There are always more MMOs in the sea, if we're allowed to mess up a metaphor.
The Daily Grind: IRL
I really like Sanya Thomas (although she's Sanya Weathers now, isn't she?)-- I read her stuff every day when she was writing ye olde Camelot Herald as a Dark Age of Camelot CM, and and while her blog, Eating Bees (as in a job you signed up to do) runs a little blue sometimes, it's definitely an interesting read for anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes of MMOs.And in this recent entry, she lashes out at folks who use the term "in real life" to describe something that occurs out of game. She says that saying "IRL" makes the time spent in an virtual world somehow seems less real, when really, you're actually sitting at an actual computer, and having actual interactions with other people online.Now, her argument is a little more academic than practical-- of course there's a difference between virtual worlds and "real life," and most of the people who use "IRL" don't do it to devalue their ingame activities; they use it to describe something that happens in a place that (we assume-- whoops, this just got deeper) is real.So what do you think? Does "IRL" imply that what you do in a virtual world is somehow worth less respect? Are the friendships you have with the people you know ingame not "real" friendships, or the achievements you're earning not "real" achievements? Or is it just a phrase you use for lack of a better one? And if so, is there a better one? "Nongame"? "Out-of-game"?
The Daily Grind: Your best MMOment
What's the best time you've ever had in an MMO? I can think of two really good ones.In Dark Age of Camelot, way back before they introduced New Frontiers, I found the joy of fighting in a battleground. We were playing the one where your group needs to conquer a fortress in the middle of the map (it's been a while, I forget the precise names), and somehow leadership fell to me. I shouted out orders to everyone in the battleground, people actually listened, and we actually took the thing and held it. It was really the first time PvP had actually worked for me and while I've played some good matches since, that was still the most exhilarating.The other great memory is probably downing Hakkar for the first time in World of Warcraft-- I'd been on other raids with my guild (and many raids since), but Zul'Gurub was an instance where I was always in group one, always there for the progress when it was made, and when we finally, after many tries, finished off Hakkar, I really felt like we'd cleaned that instance out and I'd made a big difference in getting it done.What are the best moments you've ever experienced in your time playing MMOs?
The pros and cons of instant leveling
Keen took an interesting look at a strange little MMO game mechanic last weekend: instant leveling. I first encountered this in Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot-- after you get one character to a certain level, the game would let you use the "/level" command to pop any character you created up to a higher level instantly.You might argue that we haven't seen that tactic lately, but we're going to see a big example of it next year-- when Blizzard releases Death Knights in the next WoW expansion, we've already been told that they'll start at a higher level. The official explanation for that is that they don't want Death Knights to ever be level 1 (they want them cool from the start), but considering that the expansion will also bring 10 more levels into the mix, it's a lot to ask players who've already reached level 80 to roll a new character and do it again.
Ultima Online shake-up: incoming developer layoffs, team restructuring and relocation imminent
Ultima Online recently celebrated its 10 year birthday and even launched a shiny new expansion titled Kingdom Reborn that received mixed reviews. The celebration is soon to end with heads rolling as many Ultima Online developers will be pushed into the unemployment line after John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, sent out a Dear John letter -- tasking every studio and company under EA's conglomeration to make the necessary cutbacks to adjust resources accordingly against rising costs. (EA corporate raid gathering: "Fools, prepare the chopping block!") Chris Rabideau, Ultima Online Producer, posted on the Ultima Online Herald that the Ultima Online team will be moving from its current station located at EA's headquarters outside of San Francisco, CA to EA Mythic's studios located in Fairfax, VA. Rabideau claims that development on the game will continue as planned and the move will have very little impact in the short term on the game and community . Nowhere in his letter to the community does he acknowledge any lay-offs, but an anonymous source has come forward claiming he is and is clearly devastated. (I can not confirm or deny this source). "There is nothing to lose for me to post this and I admit I feel bitter, so why not let you know the truth? Alot of the UO team was laid off today including me and all of QA. We were escorted out of the building and not even allowed to email our goodbye email to everyone else. They even had managers watching us the whole time like we had done something wrong. Most of the engineers are already working on Warhammer. Most of the rest of the UO team is not going to Virginia. Only one person is moving fore sure and maybe one or two more are considering it too. Thats it. Almost all of the famous devs are not going. Almost everyone on the list posted earlier by someone is not going to Virginia for sure. Early December is when everyone who does not move to Virginia is laid off too. I hope that something I did for UO is something that you found fun. We really did try to do our best. Maybe I will see you all in another not EA game soon!" Business as usual, but you know it's that stinky EA business. While it's plausible Ultima Online will benefit from this move later down the road; thanks to more resources available under one roof, all the UO and DAOC devs doing quality assurance on Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, that sort of thing. One thing is certain and that is you can't replace a dedicated developer who worked on the project for years and poured everything they had and expect the same results from their replacement or non-replacement in some cases. I guess we can expect a skeleton crew for UO from here on out. Do you think these corporate lay-offs stem from Electronic Arts spending 600 plus million dollars to purchase Bioware?
DAoC's birthday gift
While most news surrounding Mythic these days has the words "Warhammer Online" somewhere in the title, today we spend a little time to celebrate their other great fantasy MMO: Dark Age of Camelot. DAoC has recently hit the six year mark, as was recently acclaimed by the game's producer Chris Rabideau in a letter to the readers. The game still has quite a following after all this time, and it is for that reason that he also took the time to talk about a few changes coming into the game in the coming months. Think of it as a DAoC birthday gift from the devs to the players, rather than the other way around. The devs are adding in an experimental test environment to their server structure. While this isn't the most medieval item to bring to a birthday party, it will enable the dev team to test some more robust technical elements that their current test server isn't capable of working with. I was hoping for some party favors and perhaps a hat or two, but I guess a new test server will do, at least for now. But where's the party, Mythic? Where's the party?
Study: MMO players play more... and get more
Apparently playing MMOs are worse for your health than regular games, but they're also more fun, too. That's the conclusion of a Syracuse University study that sent groups of students out to play four types of games-- arcade games, a Gaunlet PS2 game, Diablo II, and Dark Age of Camelot. Apparently the DAoC folks reported that their game had a more adverse effect on their health, and that their social and student lives were more affected by their playtime.But they also had more fun-- the students who played DAoC reported that they enjoyed their playtime more, and had even made more friends ingame than any of the other games. The professor who commissioned the study wisely strayed away from the word "addiction," and says that addiction is completely different than what happens to gamers. Instead, he says, more attention should be paid not to violence in games, but to the "enthrallment" factor. Some games are easy to pick up and put down, and other games, while more rewarding, are more likely to involve you as a player. Online games, says Raph Koster, are "more intense."So I can't exactly tell what the study solves, but most of the reasoning sounds all right. My only worry is just how old the games are-- seriously, Gauntlet? Dark Age? It would be interesting to see if a more recent MMO (like LotRO or WoW) was able to balance the enthrallment/timesink factor a little better without losing the payoff.[ via DungeonRun.com ]
WoW Future-Vision: Express train to the level cap
The year is 2012. WoW fans are excitedly awaiting the game's 5th expansion, Revenge of the Gnomes, which brings two new races to the game (Sporeggar and Goblins, at last!), as well as a new class (the Tinker), and a slew of other features. As everyone knows, this is the expansion where the gnomes finally take back Gnomeregan from the troggs, pushing them back all the way into the "Undergloom," a vast and ancient network of caverns beneath Azeroth. Of course, the gnomes also accidentally stumble upon the long-buried prison of the Old Gods and unleash unbridled havoc on the World of Warcraft, but that's where the fun is, right?I could go on and on about the new features included in Revenge of the Gnomes, but I'm sure you've heard about most of them already (like the subterranean hovercraft group-mounts and blue-pill, red-pill potions for alchemy). Suffice it to say that the feature everyone is most excited about is that the level cap is once again being raised another 10 levels, to a grand total of 110. Like everyone else, you're probably wondering how in the world (of Warcraft) are you going to level your new Goblin Tinker character all the way through those tedious levels of 1 to 100? Everyone wants to try out the new content, but no one wants to slave away through Stranglethorn Vale for the 48th time. To complicate things further, Blizzard still doesn't want to add any more 1-60 quests in the lower-level zones (not to mention any of the Outland, Northrend, Emerald Dream, or Great Sea Expansion zones)! Fortunately, though, Blizzard's got what you need! Are you prepared for the "/level" command?
Joystiq interviews Rand Miller of Cyan Worlds [update 1]
Myst Online: Uru Live will let thousands of players convene in Myst ages to solve puzzles. Touting the persistence of the world as a major feature -- light switches and doors stay how you leave them -- Cyan Worlds thinks the collaborative nature of Myst will make a unique Massively Multiplayer Online game. Two years ago, Uru Live was canceled just before its initial launch under Ubisoft. Now, after developing it for a total of six years, Cyan Worlds is working with its new publisher, GameTap, to prepare the game for a "holiday" release. Uru Live will be offered as part of the monthly $10 GameTap subscription for the U.S. audience, but GameTap will release Uru Live as a stand-alone subscription in other parts of the world. (GameTap is not yet offered outside of the U.S.) We recently spoke with Myst co-creator Rand Miller, while Producer, Mark "Moke" Dobratz demonstrated the game. They talked about how Uru Live supports the collaborative sensibility of Myst players, how the game will let you have individual experiences within its MMO structure, and plans to let users build their own ages.[Update 1: Fixed ship-date error.]
