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Perfect Ten: My mobile MMO experiment, part 2
Last week on Perfect Ten I began an experiment to "taste test" a batch of mobile MMOs to see if there's anything out there that's worth playing in this day and age (apart from the often-recommended Order & Chaos Online and Spacetime Studio's lineup). For the record, I would absolutely love a great mobile online RPG, but it would need to be a game that's tailored to such devices and offers a compelling experience beyond trying to clone a generic MMO. Let me sum up my adventures so far: While I did discover a couple of interesting titles, there was nothing in the first five games that made me want to keep them on my smartphone. Let's hope that this week's group brings out the big guns because I will be despondent if this experiment is in vain!
Perfect Ten: My mobile MMO experiment, part 1
I'm often mystified that we haven't seen or heard much about MMOs on mobile devices. You'd think that with such a massive potential audience that studios would be racing to bust this market wide open, but whether it's the limitations of such devices (size, lack of input) or some stigma against developing "serious" games for app stores, we've seen remarkably few of them over the past few years. I've grown increasingly curious what MMOs, if any, might be out there for my tablet and smartphone. Practically every list I've read begins with both Order & Chaos Online and the Spacetime Studio games (both strong entries) and then quickly peters out with titles that nobody writing those lists have ever played. Search engine inquiries are helpful with that, I assume. So I decided that I'd undertake an experiment. I would scour the internet and app store for 10 MMOs that have come at least slightly recommended by some list maker, sample them, and see if they compelled me to play more. Will any of these 10 prove to be interesting enough to stay on my phone after this series is done? Find out as I start with the first five of the bunch...
The Daily Grind: Where are all the mobile MMOs?
So here we are in 2015, several years after the mobile rush that was going to lay waste to all genres everywhere. Everyone's going to mobile! they all said. Desktops are doomed! Angry Birds is the future! Flee your traditional gaming studios; all the money is on phones and tablets! Some of us bemoaned a future in which our favorite MMORPG platform might be supplanted by tiny screens that fit into our jeans' butt pockets. Others embraced the idea of being able to escape to an MMORPG paradise while stuck on grimy public transport. And then... Well, nothing. Pocket Legends and its spinoffs were a thing, true. There was Vendetta Online and Chaos Heroes and Order and Chaos Online, the last of which even had a subscription for a while. A lot of MMORPGs promised mobile integration, at the very least, though most of them haven't yet delivered. But most of the MMORPGs that actually work on mobile are small in either population or scope. They're not really what MMORPG fans would call a core or AAA MMORPG. We're mostly offered online ARPG, TCG, MOBA, ARG, and RTS titles. All of this led our former mobile columnist to declare a year ago that mobile MMOs were at a standstill in the West. So what happened? Is it technically impossible or financial infeasible to run a "real" MMORPG on mobile? Is PC elitism partly to blame? Is the revolution yet to come? Where are all the mobile MMOs? Because I kinda want one. 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!
Dawn of the Immortals drops a launch trailer
If you've been looking forward to Dawn of the Immortals, we've got half of good news for you. The game has launched on the iTunes store for potential players using iPhones or iPads. If you're using an Android device, though, you're going to have to wait just a little bit longer. Halfway to good news, then. But it's still reason enough for the game to put out a launch trailer. Dawn of the Immortals sells itself as a fully 3D MMO on your phone or tablet, with an emphasis on action combat and a customizable pet system. If that sounds like something you'd like to carry along with you, jump past the break and check the game out on iTunes.
E3 2014: Hands-on with Swordsman and Dawn of the Immortals
I have a problem: I like a lot of the mechanics in Wuxia games like Age of Wushu, but I have trouble getting into them. Perfect World Entertainment's Swordsman Online, while lacking some of the mechanics of AoW, might have a mixture that catches people off-guard. And while you're off-guard, PWE's Dawn of the Immortals might come in and show you how the world of mobile MMOs is starting to progress. I had a look at both Swordsman Online and Dawn of the Immortals at this year's E3. Read on!
Perfect World Entertainment announces Dawn of the Immortals
Perfect World Entertainment is expanding its catalog of games and heading off of your desktop. While the company already runs several free-to-play games, thus far almost all of them have been shackled to your home computer. Dawn of the Immortals is not; instead, it's shackled to your tablet or your phone. That's right, it's a 3D mobile action MMO for both Android and iOS devices, albeit one not currently available for beta testing. At this point there's very little hard information about the game available -- a 15-second trailer past the break, the promise of both major mobile platforms, and the opportunity to sign up for a mailing list. Signing up for that list will also net you a little in-game doodad, which is probably nice, and it will also prepare you for when the game finally does head into the beta arena.
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MMObility: Age of Ascent hopes to beat EVE Online's battle concurrency record
Age of Ascent is the new work-in-progress from Illyriad Games, the maker of one of my current favorite MMORTS titles, Illyriad. I've written about Illyriad before and have always enjoyed its epic scale and massive numbers, but with this new project, the team is promising something that is not only larger than anything it has ever done but larger than anything that has been done before... by anyone. The studio is working closely with Microsoft in the hopes of achieving massive numbers in a twitch-based sandbox MMO that runs in your browser. I've gone through a few test runs with tons of other players and had no issues whatsoever, even while running it on a $200 Chromebook! It's an exciting prospect, but I had to ask some more questions about the upcoming title. I asked James Niesewand, CEO of Illyriad Games, to clear up some of my confusion.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding February 9 - 22, 2014
In the world of MMOs, no news is not necessarily good news -- especially when it comes to crowdfunding. Silence often denotes a lack of progress on a game, and that can certainly make investors nervous. Thankfully, many games provide players with updates that we, in turn, provide for you here. If no news is bad, then news is good, right? Unfortunately, this doesn't hold true. In the case of Star Rider and Hot Rod Hustle, the news is that neither met its funding goals. So we say farewell to these two games from Make My MMO. And Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen's campaign was chock-full of news, but in the end, its Kickstarter didn't succeed either; Pantheon, however, is continuing the fundraising effort on its official site. At least some news is good! War of Omens also leaves this round up, but for different reasons: Players can hop in and play the game! Likewise, HEX: Shards of Fate and StarCraft Universe move on now that both have moved into testing. Another sandbox, Terrayn, also joins the Kickstarter ranks. To hear other good news, keep reading.
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MMObility: A newbie's look at the fantastic Therian Saga
I'm tired today. I was up too late playing The Therian Saga, a new browser-based MMO by Studio Virtys. It's a seemingly simple game and might even appear to be easier than it is, but I have found these last several hours of play to be more immersive and satisfying than much of what I have played over the last several months. Essentially, the game is an in-depth representational game, meaning that most of the time you will spend your time giving commands and watching -- or waiting for long periods -- for the commands to work out. Think of the gameplay sort of like Words With Friends with some real-time combat. No, you won't be spelling against your enemies, but the pace is definitely casual with optional, faster combat.
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MMObility: Line of Defense Tactics is a fun start for an IP
Line of Defense is an upcoming MMOFPS created by 3000AD. It looks like an interesting twist on the shooter genre, complete with large battles and vehicles to control. It offers only a beta sign-up right now, so if you are interested in diving into the LoD universe, you can download the newly released Line of Defense Tactics standalone game. It's not an MMO, but it still introduces players to the IP. If you're a fan of real-time turn-based combat and challenging gameplay, you might want to give it a go on your portable device or PC. I downloaded a version of Tactics from Steam and tried it on my Android tablet as well. Both experiences felt pretty much the same, and my game save synced between both devices easily. Today I am going to cover the mobile version mostly, but it should be noted that the PC version looks and acts pretty much identically.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding January 26 - February 8, 2014
The crowdfunding train just keeps rolling right along, with passengers always coming and going. New passengers hop aboard while others hop off at their desired destination. Sadly, some have to disembark early -- such is the case with Universe Rush and Antilia. Although the Kickstarter campaign fell far short of its goal, Antilia does plan to continue development on its own. On the brighter side of things, some passengers reached their stop; Tales From The Strange Universe reached its goal, and both it and Novus AEterno (which brought in over 3.5 times its initial goal) will now take their places in the funded category. The Repopulation, earning over 175K during this latest Kickstarter run, disembarks at Betawatch station thanks to its ongoing alpha testing. Catch up on all the news for all these titles as they journey through crowdfunding here in Make My MMO.
MMObility: Exploring the confusing world of mobile MMOs
The mobile MMO market has sort of come to a standstill, at least in the Western market. There are always new or incoming mobile titles that are MMO-like and even a handful of new fully fledged MMOs, but most of the ones I come across are either relative copies of current games or blatant repeats of current designs. There's just not much that is new coming to the table right now. It's a bit depressing because mobile devices are perfect delivery systems for massively multiplayer gaming, and yet so many developers are cutting down standard MMO design to fit into the mobile world. What I would like to suggest is a rethinking of MMOs for mobile. I'd like to see developers stop with the idea that mobile players are gaming the same way they do on a console or PC. Instead, I'd like to suggest that developers get to know how players interact with mobile devices and how that affects how and how long they play. Mobile MMOs should behave differently, but not so differently that they are no longer MMOs. There are many different types of games you will find when you search for "MMORPG" on Google Play or the App market. Most of them are not MMORPGs, however.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding January 12 - 25, 2014
After a sleepy holiday season, the crowdfunding crowd has woken up and gotten down to business. And amidst that new bustle of activity, Make My MMO's ranks are altering a bit. Two games leave our listing, but each for different reasons; the cross-platform space sim Space Unfolding folded after missing its goal, and Face of Mankind moved along to Betawatch to join the ranks of the games in testing. And now that War of Omens' campaign has wrapped up, it moves into the fully funded category. Some campaigns have really kicked into high gear. Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen joined the crowdfunding race and has delivered a slew of nearly daily news. Novus AEterno has nearly tripled its goal and is closing in on yet another stretch goal these final days of its campaign, while The Repopulation has also blown away its initial goal and is aiming for its eigth stretch goal (not to mention revealed plenty of juicy new bits). A smaller title, Tales From The Strange Universe, is more than halfway to its modest goal with a week left. And newcomer Star Rider also jumps on the Kickstarter bandwagon. Unfortunately, others aren't faring as well. Things aren't looking promising for Antilia or Universe Rush, whose campaigns end soon and are still over $85K and $98K short of their respective goals. Want more details on these stories or an update on all the already-funded projects? We've got the round-up right here.
Led by mobile and free-to-play, U.S. digital sales see big gains in 2013
The digital games market is still on the rise, generating $11.7 billion in sales in 2013. According to market research firm SuperData, this total marks an 11% increase over digital sales in 2012. SuperData noted that Christmas and New Year's occurring in the middle of the week may have helped spiked end-of-year numbers; December 2013 saw a 36% increase in digital sales compared to December 2012. Mobile titles claimed the largest percentage of the digital pie, representing $3.6 billion in sales. Free-to-play titles were up 45% year-on-year to $2.9 billion. Perhaps most interesting for MMO players is the fact that F2P MMO offerings from games like World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic landed in the top ten, though the top three free-to-play earners in 2013 were CrossFire, League of Legends, and Dungeon Fighter Online. Data used by the firm is gathered by collecting digital transaction data directly from developers and publishers. [Thanks to Hagu for the tip!]
MMObility: Innogames' Fabio Lo Zito details Tribal Wars 2
Tribal Wars 2 is the successor to Innogames' oldest title, Tribal Wars. The original is (to put it gently) ugly as sin, but that has never stopped it from being one of the most popular titles the German publisher produced. As a matter of fact, 2013 was the biggest year for the original game... after a decade in existence! You might have heard of some of the other titles in the Innogames lineup or watched an advertisement for two of its largest games, Grepolis and Forge of Empires. So how does Tribal Wars 2 compare to these other games? First of all, it offers much of the same intense gameplay as the publisher's other, larger titles. Grepolis is sort of the spiritual successor to Tribal Wars and features water-based gameplay that makes ships and deities an integral part of play. Grepolis also offers a more wide-ranging playerbase, thanks to television advertising that helped to pull in more casual players. Tribal Wars is much more hardcore, and Tribal Wars 2 will be no different. It will look a heck of a lot prettier than its earlier sibling, though! I sat down with Fabio Lo Zito of Innogames to talk about the changes.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding December 29, 2013 - January 11, 2014
Was 2013 the year of Kickstarter? Whatever you think personally about the funding model, you can't argue with the fact that over $480 million was pledged through the crowdfunding platform in the last calendar year. That's definitely one hunk of change! But whether or not that figure translates into a tidal wave of awesome games has yet to be seen; the jury will remain out until even more funded games actually release and players get to experience what they backed. As for specific MMO news this past fortnight, the bulk of it involves new titles vying for a slice of 2014's crowdfunding pie. The CCG War of Omens has already grabbed a piece; it met its goal and has moved on to stretch goals for the last couple of days. Other hopefuls include more two space strategy games. Learn more about all of these, as well as the news from the funded front, right here in Make My MMO.
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MMObility: CES highlights for mobile gaming enthusiasts
Most years, I am unimpressed by CES, the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas. Sure, I watch the feeds and keep an eye on the latest bits of technical glitter that pop out of the event, but generally I find 4K televisions that cost thousands of dollars to be about as exciting as a bag of dead hamsters. I don't care about the next wave of supercomputers, and I certainly have no interest in technically advanced cars that mostly innovate on ways to make people spend money. What excites me about almost any trade show is the stuff you find in the corners of the show room: the smaller booths, the indie developers or the hints of up-and-coming tech that will eventually make our lives easier and more fun. And of course, I'm always excited to see tech that might bring mobile MMOs to the place they deserve to be, a place in our everyday lives. CES is exciting to me because it shows the potential and possibly inexpensive future of tech. Thanks to Engadget, one of our sister sites, I was able to get more than an eyeful of neat mobile tech!
MMObility: Mobile and browser face off in School of Dragons
I was excited to learn about a mobile version of School of Dragons, a browser-based, kid-friendly MMO based on the fantastic movie How to Train Your Dragon. I pictured soaring through the skies and interacting with characters from the movie, all while sitting down with my favorite tablet. Unfortunately, I am not able to play on my favorite tablet yet (my Android), but I was able to download it on my wife's iPad Air. I didn't have much experience with the browser-based version, so I read up on Karen's MMO Family article, made an account, and logged in. I was impressed by the game's visuals even though they are fairly primitive, as they do a good job of giving a sense of scale and accurately recreate many of the movie's characters. The game is very active, even during odd times of the day, and the chat is filled with players discussing the finer points of being a viking. Unfortunately, the game lacks in polish. Is it be good enough to satisfy younger, less picky fans? Possibly, but after playing the browser-based version, I hoped that the mobile version would somehow feel smoother and more natural.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding December 15 - 28, 2013
'Tis the season... but not for news! With minds focused on the holidays, it looks as if not much happened in the realm of crowdfunding since our last Make My MMO update. Just how slow was it? It was so slow that Star Citizen did not announce earning another $2 million. A few tidbits did, however, did trickle out. Novus AEterno met its goal within 102 hours and still has a month of funding ahead. On the other hand, Empires of Tahn followed what seems to be the new norm: cancel the project before getting the dreaded "unsuccessful" label. And one title that is already strong in its development has jumped back into the crowdfunding realm; The Repopulation aims to incorporate even more features into the sandbox. There are also a couple dev blogs to speak of and a few odds and ends, all of which you will find rounded up for you below.
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MMObility: Rail Nation is perfect for armchair engineers
Travian Games' Rail Nation, a new browser-based, non-combat MMORPG, is intriguing, especially if you are a fan of trains, sim management, and friendly player competition. Admittedly, much of the competition in the game is just as cutthroat as I have seen in more "hardcore" games, but at least there is no blood involved. Players start off with a very basic train and route, and a friendly NPC called William L. Smith explains things nicely to get things moving. The idea is to connect your trains to goods, open new routes, and upgrade your fleet of trains to help level your city (a group of players) as you pass through six different eras of technology. Each era lasts two weeks, and the last era is a competition between the 10 highest ranking cities in the game. As you grow you'll also need to open more routes by adding new tracks, which require more goods. Many industries are not even visible on the map until the player unlocks them, giving the game a real feel of moving forward in time. Travian Games likes to put a time limit on gameplay, meaning that there is a true "win" scenario for players to pursue. While I'm not a big fan of a time limitation on an MMO, and I'm definitely not very skilled at micromanagement, Rail Nation is a lovely game that is relaxing to play. It does take time to grow on you, and its beta access means that the game still has a few issues that need to be ironed out.
