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The Game Archaeologist: A brief history of roguelikes
As with adventure games, it appears as though the mobile market has triggered a resurgence in the popularity of roguelikes with both developers and players. I've been stumbling over them left and right for a while now (I'm quite fond of FTL, which takes the roguelike into space), and every time I can't help but think of how this genre is almost the antithesis of an MMO. Instead of persistent worlds rich in lore, roguelikes favor randomized dungeon crawls with little or no story. Instead of immortal characters that grow with a player over months and years, roguelikes feature permadeath around every corner. Yet there's love for both in many gamers' hearts and perhaps even a few similarities that help to transcend differences. I find roguelikes fascinating because they are so hardcore, they yank me out of my comfy little leveling bubble, and they force me to use my brains for something more than figuring out whether it's time to use the "2" key once more. So what the heck, let's take a quick trip through roguelikes this week and see where -- if at all -- they connect with MMOs.
Meet Heroes of Evermore, Dungeon Runners' spiritual successor
Almost three years ago, a quirky and charming MMO died. It was NCsoft's Dungeon Runners, a Diablo-like action title that had a wicked funny streak running through it. We were genuinely sad to see it go away, but perhaps not as sad as its producer, Steve Nichols. In fact, Dungeon Runners was such an influence on his life that when he moved on to a new studio, he brought with him the idea of creating another MMO in the same vein. Today we caught up with Nichols to talk about that project, called Heroes of Evermore. Heroes of Evermore is currently in pre-alpha but is pushing hard to make strides in 2013 toward release. What would the spiritual successor to Dungeon Runners look like? You're about to find out!
Realm of the Mad God studio acquired by social game maker
Aside from having one of the more memorable names in gaming these days, Realm of the Mad God also has a new owner. Wild Shadow Studios has been acquired by Godfather: Five Families maker Kabam, according to a blurb at Gamasutra. Realm of the Mad God originally launched in 2010 as an indie game competition entry before finding purchase on Steam and morphing into more of an MMO. Gamasutra says that designer Willem Rosenthal will stay onboard to direct the project. Check out Massively's Realm of the Mad God impressions via our Rise and Shiny column.
Rise and Shiny: Realm of the Mad God
In the past, I've made a few attempts at trying Realm of the Mad God, a "co-op fantasy MMO shooter" by Wild Shadow Studios. But I've been unsuccessful primarily because I couldn't find a way to get past the seemingly repetitive gameplay, horrible forum community and non-MMO status. Luckily a reader named Rick wrote to me and convinced me to give it one more go, saying that it was an MMO by showing me pictures and listing examples of how many players can be found in one area. That settled it. I made a new account and jumped in, fully expecting to have an OK time but to come away knowing that this game was just for twitch-hooked kiddies. It turns out I was wrong, and now you know why it is a general rule of mine to always give a game a second chance. Or a third, of course.
Rise and Shiny: Lime Odyssey
Lime Odyssey is an Anime-themed free-to-play MMO brought to us from publisher Aeria Games. It features three unique races and... oh, forget it. You already know this probably. The game has a lot of buzz behind it, and Aeria is known to put out some great titles. I knew that when I was invited to check out the alpha for a first impression of Lime Odyssey, I would find a game that was high-quality and beautiful and ran well. Sure enough, I did find that game. There's something magical about so many Korean titles. Many of them sport some of the most refreshing and original artwork and music, and the engines that many of those titles use is perfectly fit for almost any machine. Yes, there are the three races to choose from, the great Anime graphics, the neat crafting system, and combat systems and much more. My only regret is that I was able to spend only a few days in the game.
Free for All: Free-to-play MMO versions of your favorite Nintendo games
I have to be honest -- I wasn't the biggest Nintendo fan. I grew up right as the whole thing was really smashing and keeping kids glued to their TVs, but I generally went outside and played more than stayed inside and played games. (Odd, huh?) Still, I had my fun with certain titles. Contra rocked my boat, along with Kid Icarus and a bit of Mario Brothers. My friends, on the other hand, were full members of the Nintendo nation. They subcribed to the magazine, played the same games for hours and hours, and generally acted as though the fate of the real world hung in the balance as they attacked that last boss monster. Stylistically, the games have left a mark on the genre. Many of those same titles still sell as well, some of them reaching so many variations that I lost track a long, long time ago. I thought it might be fun to list off some free-to-play MMOs that remind me of those old classics. See what you think, and leave any suggestions in the comments section!
Informal RMT study looks at microtransaction effects across multiple titles
Wondering whether microtransactions in Western games are as harmless as publishers would have you believe? BitGamer was as well, and as such the website has conducted an informal study of RMT and its effects across seven different titles. Among the surveyed games are MMORPGs that include World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Realm of the Mad God and EVE Online. The study includes data collected on over 800 RMT items, and while the conclusions are somewhat lacking in terms of objective analysis ("nobody likes Battlefield," etc.), there is nonetheless a fair bit of interesting info on display. Ultimately the piece reaches the familiar conclusion that RMT is here to stay and that it's OK as long as the implementation avoids the dreaded pay-to-win stigma. That said, "even just cosmetic items will breed a bitter culture of haves and have-nots if you can't reasonably get them for free in a game for which you're already paying," the article states. Be sure to check out Massively's own RMT studies for more insight into the value offered by your favorite microtransaction games.
