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Free for All: You know what they say about magnets...
Have you ever been trying to get to sleep, only to have a neighbor honk his horn or bang on the wall? At first, it's the startling volume or unusual nature of the sound that keeps you from sleeping. He quiets down, however, and you begin to doze off again. The next time the noise you hear is much, much quieter -- but he's still making noise. From then on, every noise you hear will keep you from getting to sleep, despite the fact that the volume of your fan or the crickets' chirping is much louder. Claims of access to information set me off the same way. When I hear someone say that "free-to-play gamers spend more than the average subscription player," I am at first confused by the layers of non-information in the sentence, then angry that someone else might read that and take it as fact, then a little saddened as I realize that some people literally do take things they read on the internet as fact. Anyway, this will make sense in the end, I hope. Want to read the rest? I won't tell you how -- it's the first conversational hurdle for you to jump over.
Free for All: The camera control blues (or how I judge thee, F2P grinder)
This week, I wanted to cover something that must be discussed before I move any further into my career as "The Only Guy Who Liked That Game." Before I worked here at Massively, I used to work for Ablegamers.com, a site for disabled gamers. Although my job was a volunteer position, I learned enough to make it very much worth my while. One of the most interesting facts I learned was that many, many Americans are disabled, to varying degrees. Technically, my poor eyesight qualifies me as disabled, as do my chronic wrist issues due to 20 some-odd years of drumming and art. I've learned my limits but will never apologize for them. I do not expect every developer or game to allow for some of my special (yet common) circumstances, although I think that some of the fixes are so minor that they should have been in the game in the first place. Still, I have to find games that work for my particular set of issues. As I have begun to test and play more and more games, I have had to start enforcing a certain set of rules to pre-judge the games by, otherwise I am stuck with a game that I simply refuse to play. If not, the reviews at the end of the week would simply read: "I couldn't play this game because it asked me to hold down right-click the entire damn time." See whether any of these issues sound familiar. The fact is, if you're an average human being, at some point in your life you will have the same issues I am having. You might as well recognize them now in order to avoid the games that will cause you trouble.
Rise and Shiny recap: War of Angels
To continue my investigation into "imported grinders," I have moved on to check out War of Angels, a new game being published by gamigo. I have to say, I found plenty of good stuff and plenty of bad stuff in the game, as well as some of those obvious tiny fixes that will hopefully be undertaken after this open beta. Let's be honest -- an open beta is considered a release these days, and I don't think that's fair. Yes, many games use it (and I have heard developers admit to this) as a way to make money while continuing to roll out basic development, but I say we allow them to just drop the "beta" part and get on with it. As far as the background story: I do not log into a game to memorize the lore. I do not go to the website to write down notes on the lore in the hopes that I will get it right in my first impressions article. Just like any stranger in a strange land, I am not going to know everything right away. It should be no different for me in a game, and one of my litmus tests is to see whether the game will provide me with an understanding of who and where I am. It's not impossible; other games do it. I didn't find much lore in the quests at all, so I cannot comment on it much. But let's talk about how War of Angels plays.
The Perfect Ten: Halloween MMOs
We're only a few days away from Halloween, and already the Massively office staff is dressing up in anticipation. Shawn's post-apocalyptic gear is at odds with Rubi's tastefully modest Guild Wars Elementalist outfit. Greg's Squig is in the corner battling it out with Larry's Chewbacca. Bree is dudded up as a giant red corrective marker; Jef's free-to-play outfit requires microtransactions to view in full; and Kyrstalle is photographing it all with her Poloroid One-Shot camera. I think Eliot showed up in full plate armor and riding a mechanical bull, but that just may be his normal work attire. So as everyone else is goofing off in the spirit of the holidays, it remains to me, your lovable intern, to hack out a top 10 list in honor of All Hallow's Eve. It's the least I can do since they're paying me in candy. While every MMO incorporates horror at some point (even, yes, Hello Kitty Online's Cat-Tastrophie zone), and it's nearly impossible to escape a clutch of giant spiders in any game you visit, I've picked out 10 MMOs that best deliver a slice of October 31st. Some are old, some new, some canceled and some yet to come, but these are 10 of the spookiest MMOs in the world.
Free for All: F2P and microtransactions at GDCO
Last week I wondered about how free-to-play would be discussed at GDC Online. After attending the event -- it was all a blur -- and listening back to my audio notes, it seems that free-to-play has reached some sort of level as a standard pricing option for a modern world. It could have been the fact that many of the developers at the event are making browser-based, iPhone or Facebook social games, but the word "subscription" came up rarely. Blended models seemed to be the runner-up. It appears that all the older companies -- the Turbines, SOEs and other western companies -- just cannot let go of that sweet, sweet subscription cash-flow. Can you blame them? It's a good deal for many, and it could be argued that without that subscription, many players would be turned off. Does all this talk of free-to-play and microtransactions signify some sort of change in quality or style of game? No, not really. It's my argument that things are different in only one way: quality has gone way, way up.
Free for All: How will F2P fare at GDC?
GDC Online is one awesome event. Although I attended the event in the name of a different site last year, I remember it well. It was a mass of my favorite developers and inside-thinkers, clumping together to discuss customers, design and community. Of course, there were some panels and talks that, frankly, bored me to tears. Then there were many that were so exciting that they strengthened my resolve to be a games writer. In fact, it was around this time that dreams of design began to take a back seat to visions of writing. That's the power of attending such events. On the other hand, these events have the ability to convince writers of almost anything. When attending, we must promise to always stay skeptical -- no matter what anyone says to us. Let the information sink in for a while before we take it as gospel. Let the varying ideas of the various speakers blend together a bit -- then let's form our opinions. I am most excited to see how the last year's wave of free-to-play games and switch-overs will affect the chats. In '09, social gaming was the whipping boy (everyone said he/she hated it, yet everyone seemed to be planning some sort of social game), so will free-to-play receive the same treatment?
Free for All: How much for a ten-spot?
In this week's Free for All, I decided to check out some cash-shop games to see what I might get for 10 U.S. dollars. For the record, some games can be subscription-based and still have cash shops, and some games can have cash shops that have been redesigned and tweaked so that they do not fit into the same old "cash-shop" model. For clarity, I stuck to cash shops that normally pop up while you're in-game -- usually inside their own window. Sometimes, though, the cash shops might be accessed or found on the games' main websites, as well. It was hard to choose, being that I generally don't buy from cash shops any more. It takes a very special product (like Wurm Online's currency) to get me to pay, namely because I do not spend as much time in a single game as I used to. Actually, let me rephrase that before someone starts to write a comment based on that statement: I still spend a lot of time in certain games, like anyone else, but my pace has slowed. Most of the cash-shop items out there are convenience items -- simply time-travel devices that allow the player to speed up his experience. Since I have all the time in the world because of the free nature of these games, speeding up is not something I am interested in. So, let's look at a few cash shops to see what piqued my interest!
Free for All: Turbine's pristine payment plan perfects pay-to-win
There is one recurring statement that bothers me to no end, largely because it is simply not true. Most of the time if I pursue the player who uses the term, he will admit to using it only to justify his dissatisfaction with a handful of free-to-play games. That term is "free-to-play is pay-to-win." Essentially, the term refers to gaining advantages over other players through one's pocketbook, by buying power. As someone who has played, investigated, talked about or interviewed developers of over 100 free-to-play games, I can tell you that a "pay-to-win" scenario exists in the minority of games, not in the majority as some would have you believe. Most of the comments from the "pay-to-win" playbook come in more recent times, but that could be because my column has provided a nice, fertile space for everything anti-free-to-play. But I have found the most vocal of the detractors to be referencing recent free-to-play games like Allods Online, primarily because they may have loved it so much, yet did not want to pay a single dime for it -- and because they simply had not played many free-to-play games before that. Allods Online was, essentially, their main experience with free-to-play. Meanwhile, I am often shown DDO (or now, Lord of the Rings Online) as some kind of "proper" way to do a cash shop. Ironically, Turbine is now not only the largest, but the closest to a true pay-to-win developer. Anything larger would exist outside of North America.
Free for All: So, what does "MMORPG" mean?
As a reader of Massively, you should have a pretty good idea what MMORPG means. Not just what it stands for, but what it feels like, looks like, and behaves like. The problem is, despite common definitions, the games keep coming in different shapes and sizes -- and from all over the world. While I receive many comments about the Western coverage that Massively features, I would only be doing half my job if I reported on only the latest half a dozen games to break the multi-million-dollar budget mark in America. The world is a smaller place, especially now. And across the world there are MMORPGs that are being played and enjoyed in many different ways. There are PvP games, games that place players into instance after instance with only a handful of other players, all while offering the potential to hang out with thousands of other people. Is an instanced combat game still an MMO? How about a game like Mabinogi, which maintains a persistent world, but is broken into several invisible channels for players to skip in to and out of? This is impossible, but I think I will try to define exactly what MMO means -- now, in this current market.
Free for All: Island of misfit games
Call me naive, or perhaps call me stupid. To be honest, I am not sure which one applies to me more. Perhaps I am a glutton for punishment, or at least I am very forgiving. Either way, I have a lot of fun exploring the edges of MMORPG gaming. I live to dig through websites, searching for a title I haven't heard of. Often I am a little more than surprised when I find a brilliant world tucked into one of the many gaming forums I visit, and I think "Why didn't you email me? Didn't you know I was looking for you?" I try to act as the filter that these tiny games couldn't afford. It's hard to get a well-written press release out of a team whose community budget consists of hardly enough to eat out for the weekend. Don't worry, I tell them, let me come to you. Someday, if I have anything to do with it, that tiny game will have enough players to pay for more patches and updates. See, I like misfit games. I like to give them a chance.
Free for All: Three games to keep an eye on
There is so much to be excited about in the MMORPG world that I am always perplexed when someone claims lack of innovation in the market. I tend to think that this comes from an inability to play more than one game, or to support more than one idea in gaming, rather than from the actual state of the market. The fact is that there is so much happening in the world of gaming, and specifically free-to-play gaming, a player should feel almost overwhelmed. I wanted to point out three games now in development (or very close to release) that I believe will do very well. Think of this as a list of predictions -- in fact I am going to have some fun with it and predict just how well these games will do. I have always enjoyed testing my gut. Concerning these three games, my gut is very, very excited. So, let's get right to the list.
Free for All: Why I play free-to-play
I hid in waiting under a soggy sheet of cardboard for the past three days with stale Cheetos as my only nourishment. I had but a single target, who finally exited his house with bleached skin, a red fuzzy head and blurry eyes. As he stood at his front door trying to shoo away the sun like a vampire, I made my move. At last, I thought, Beau's spirit hood will be mine. By the time I was well into a Keanu Reeves-style flying scissor-kick, I realized an important tactical error. It wasn't the horror-filled eyes of a man who had spent too much time indoors staring at a computer screen that I was looking into, but the fierce come-get-some eyes of a teenager with spiky, dyed hair who was practicing his karate moves. Had I thought beyond simply looking cool as I made my attack, I would have realized I spent every ounce of energy I had to pull off the insane leap-kick that actually looked more like what you'd expect: a tired, wet, dirty, malnourished geek hop-skipping and shouting gibberish through a yard with a piece of cardboard stuck to his back. The three-day diet of stale Cheetos did not give me enough fuel to defend myself from the brutal pummeling that the pint-sized Bruce Lee gave me. It turns out Beau lived in the house next door. He had seen my wild display and subsequent beating, so he came out to help me. He invited me into his house to let me clean myself up, extolled the dangers of trying to live out movie fantasies, and offered to let me write his column for a week. It wasn't a spirit hood, but it was a very nice gesture. The dog-shaped cookies were a nice gift too, although I don't know why he snickered every time I ate one. No. The above tale really didn't happen, but Beau is letting me write his column today so I can tell you why I love to play free-to-play MMOs.
Free for All: Knowing my limits
I'm a 36-year-old gamer. My eyes, ears and lungs are not what they used to be. The decline started with art, something I have been doing since I was a small child. Then I added on heavy drumming for the last 23 years. Next, throw in gaming for the last 10 or 12 years. For good measure, add in a small case of asthma. For all intents and purposes, I have enough nerd cred to keep me in the club for life. Still, I would love to get rid of the migraines from eye strain and the aching tennis elbow. The asthma takes care of itself -- through exercise and avoiding smoking. Since I started writing for Massively, though, my eyes take on a lot more strain than they should, especially considering how defective they already are. So I've had to take steps to ensure that I'll be able to continue to write, and that I will be able to continue to write for a long, long time. Read on, and I'll tell you what I do and what games work for me.
Free For All: Ten misconceptions, two opinions -- part two
Recently I had an idea to send my MMORPG.com counterpart, Richard Aihoshi, an email requesting his input into my column. He has been very helpful and informative, and I am glad to say that he has taught me a few things. We ran through some ideas and decided to discuss 10 common (and undying) misconceptions about free-to-play games. He posted the first half of the discussion in his weekly column which can be read here. He has also written for Beckett Massive Online Gamer magazine and is the former editor of RPG Vault. After the jump you will find the rest of the discussion points. I would like to highlight that, while the following points are commonly brought up to both Richard and me, more and more players seem to be accepting free-to-play as what it is: an option, and nothing more. These points are not an attack on subscription-based games or their developers, but are simply an attempt to butt two heads together in the hopes of clearing out the fog a bit. After all, we both receive many comments and emails regarding these misconceptions, so this list was shockingly easy to make.
Free for All: Assumptions based on assumptions
I decided to write this article based on a nagging feeling. It's not something I would normally look into, being that the questions I have are not that easy to ask, or not that easy to clarify. But, as I sink deeper and deeper into the world of international websites, games and toys, I always find certain attitudes pop up during my conversations about my findings. Perhaps it is because I am used to the sights, sounds and styles of free-to-play titles, and have learned to look beyond some of the long titles and odd descriptions. I no longer see games divided into groups and sub-groups. When hearing the complaints about "foreign" games, I rarely see the counterbalance to the comments. If "Asian" games are grindy, that would mean that North American games are not? If free-to-play games "force" you to spend money, then that means that North American subscription titles do not? The descriptor "free-to-play" is accurate, nine times out of 10, yet there seems to be an issue with using that term, because at some point the player might need to spend money to go at a pace she wants to. In fact, I am confused by the constant use of the words free-to-play to describe, essentially, a class of game. Where is the counterbalance to that? Does that mean that all subscription games are from a different world of higher quality?
Free for All: Remembering my first F2P experiences
I sit here, racking my brain, trying to think of the very first free-to-play game that I experienced. It's been quite a long time, at least seven years. As a quick history, I started in MMORPGs in '99, by bringing home a box of Ultima Online for my wife to look at. She laughed at me at first, but soon I would return home from work to find her in the middle of a marathon gaming session. We then switched to EverQuest and then to City of Heroes. In between those major choices, I spent a lot of time exploring the internet for new games. I want to say that one of the first free-to-play games I found was FLYFF, or possibly ROSE Online. It's hard to remember exactly. I searched old emails and found a few references to some games, but I can only verify start dates like February of 2004 for games like There or Second Life. On a side-note, my EVE account started on July 30th, 2004. Regardless, I can remember my first experiences with free-to-play games. I recall the grindy-yet-beautiful worlds I visited, marveling at high-level players who must have played for six months solidly in order to achieve their greatness.
Free for All: Not everyone drinks at the bar
I understand the opinion that all free-to-play games are "not fun," or that they are "nothing but a grind." Even though this is a generalization that is nowhere near the truth, and despite the fact that the giver of these opinions couldn't have played every free-to-play game in existence to base this information on, the idea behind the sentiment is pretty solid: "I do not like free-to-play games." I cannot argue with that, being that it is an opinion. If someone wants to lump games into a category based on "how a developer might make money" then so be it. It is not only my opinion that there is good and bad in every payment model (just check some of the comments section on some of our columns) but that, more-than-likely, the generalizer has probably played only a handful of these games, and filled in the gaps of his opinion with ideals that are closer to racism than actual experience. There are two things that I can present as evidence to a free-to-play game's quality, however. Two things that are so important and yet so basic that no game could live without them. Two things that make up the very foundation that MMORPGs should be built on, so that gameplay and style can be stacked on top.
Free for All: A sit-down with WURM's Rolf
If there is one thing I have had to grow accustomed to over the last year or so, it's my ever-increasing independent game snobbery. While some people maintain a beer-snob lifestyle and spend their time recommending way-too-pricey ales that simply taste like dirt, I spend my time trolling around forums and fan blogs looking for the next tiny game to spend my time in. I want the game to be duct-taped together, I want it to have a long history of tests and reboots, and I want it to come out shining on the other end -- a testament to the good ole' nerd drive to make a world both large and virtual. WURM Online is my current indie poster-child, an example to flaunt in peoples' faces when they insist on boring me with discussions of the same old classes and mechanics that have been used since the dawn of, well, '99 or so. I love to puff my chest and tell people about my virtual survival stories, forcing them to pretend to be riveted by my tales of farming, sawing lumber and getting lost in the woods. WURM, and its creator Rolf, are my version of Elvis Costello and Donnie Darko: an independent badge to wear proudly on my pocket protector. Join me past the jump for a brief history of the game, and some words from Rolf himself.
The Daily Grind: MMOre haiku for you
Just the other day We had a post about tanks It featured haiku That post was so fun We wanted to share the love With everyone here So today we have MMO haiku madness for all the games here Kudos or bitching On MMOs, in haiku Should be amusing
Free for All: New changes call for new terms
As a writer for a large gaming website, I have learned to accept debate and discussion going off in quite a few directions, even if the original idea behind the article was not being talked about. This is a good thing, in my book, and will often demonstrate the concerns of the day better than requesting feedback more directly. If they can comment about certain subjects even in a comment section about opposite subjects, then you know that the issue is a really hot one. There are two subjects that can almost always pop up in any article's comment section, and these are: The NGE: Star Wars Galaxies' infamous game-altering changes are still talked about, despite the fact that the game now is able to stand on its own two feet quite well. It's as though the notorious series of tweaks and changes were so traumatic to some players that no amount of time will ever lessen the burn, even if the game were to fade away entirely. Free-to-play versus pay-to-play: I'm not confused about the appearance of the words; I'm concerned about the statements that pit the two payment models against each other, like the opposing sides of a presidential race. While I am all for comparing the two and do all the time, it has to be taken with a bit of humor in order to feel balanced. Even then, the discussions are soon pointless, being that both terms are slowly holding hands behind our backs. It turns out that free-to-play and subscriptions are smitten with each other.
