MMO BinA Geek's Look at Massively Multiplayer Online Games

I remember back when text based MMO’s were all the rage. People sitting around their terminal screens, typing out what they wanted to do next. This was before I even played some IRC games, and everything since then has seemed like a huge step up. But what about those simple MMO-like games we used to play. Does no one play them anymore?

I stumbled across a game online that is the epitome of the current state of “simple online games”, called My Brute. It is a simple concept. You fight others, to level up your character, recruit people, and gain new items. It has become a quick trend, but its overly simplified, allows for very little true customization, skill, or anything relating to a long term experience.

What is it about these games that draw the masses in? Is it the simplicity, or the lack of time needed to dedicate to the game? Why are games with so little user-interaction so addictive and fun?

I really don’t know, but I hope you’ll all sign up, and try to fight My Brute.

I know the subject has been talked about up one side and down another but let me add some more thoughts and comments to the pile already out there. There seems to be no avoiding RMT (real money transfer) in games this day in age - and honestly players are getting quite used to it. When EverQuest II announced that they would be implementing ‘Station Cash’ and a ‘Station Store’ the outcries on the forums were, well. Everywhere. For the most part the station store caries items like experience bonus potions (which players can obtain through veteran rewards), appearance armor (no stats, just looks), house items, and little pets that follow you around. Nothing has been game breaking per say. 

Some argued that this was the beginning of a slippery slope, that opening the doors for such simple items will lead to bigger RMT transactions in the future. So far, we haven’t really seen it - on EQ2 at least (or EQ) with the station store. Granted, the items are moving towards a more ‘functional’ use instead of just being fluff items.

There are potions that will allow characters to change their names, gender, and appearance (though there are also barbers in game that will allow you to change your appearance). These potions are not game changing per say - but they do affect the community to some degree. There is a lengthy discussion posted on the official forums about these new items. Players have a few concerns, like what about those bad apples you ban from your guild. They can simply pay $15 for a name change and become someone new. On the other hand, if you have friends or family who have left you an account and you’d like the characters to feel more like your own, here is a simple (and fairly cheap) way to accomplish that. 

Vanguard:SOH  announced that they will be dealing with LiveGamer and converting their current four servers to RMT enabled servers. This came as a shock to most of the community who had little warning that all of their servers would soon be allowing the sale of platinum, equipment, and even characters. For those outside of the VG community this announcement made barely a splash. It’s still in the beta stages right now, and is progressing from there - however those within the community wanted to make sure their opinions were heard and there are over 200 pages of comments from players expressing their concern and thoughts on the whole ordeal. 

It’s one thing to have a game start out with RMT enabled or even to implement RMT enabled servers such as the Bazaar in EQ2. It’s quite another to suddenly take your game and decide for all of the player base that their servers are going to be enabled whether they agree with it or not. Again this goes back to the ‘give your players choices’ situation. If you enable one server and allow people who are not interested to transfer off of it, you’ve at least given them an option and they will be far more lenient to your suggestions that way. If you come across as though you are forcing that option onto them they’re going to fight you tooth and nail. Personally speaking while I don’t relish the thought of people being able to buy platinum or equipment or characters for real money in a game that I’ve loved since release (despite the NUMEROUS bugs and issues) it doesn’t bother me so much as the lack of communication does. I think that the whole situation could have been handled in a better manor - on that same note, those who were going to create a ruckus and leave over the incident probably would have no matter how it was handled. Some times it doesn’t matter what you do, there’s no pleasing people and there will always be those out there who find flaws to pick at. 

Does it feel a little like ‘double dipping’ that a game with a $15/m subscription would also have RMT enabled? A lot of F2P (free to play) games have RMT but they don’t have the subscription, or they offer alternative means of payment (via purchasing coins to unlock zones like Wizard 101). Is there a wrong or right way to add RMT to an already existing game? Lets hear some thoughts!

EVE Online has been working hard at making the new player experience as easy to slip into as possible as their learning curve has always been insanely high, but I think that they don’t realize how overwhelmed older players can be in their game.

There are simply too many choices, too many paths. I want to do too many things, and the more things I want to do, the less competitive I become for my age in the game. There are combat focused characters that have only played half as long as me, and they can destroy me with little effort. There are industrial characters that have the same advantage, and this is all because I am overwhelmed by the possibilities.

Currently, I am training leadership skills, so that I can take on squads and give effective bonuses to my fleet, while queuing up skills to make my future Jump Freighter run more effectively, and thinking about how I can fit a ship for the maximum damage output possible, so that my cousin and I can pair up on some smaller PvP runs.

He has been able to consistently stick to combat skills, while I continue to go off task. Seems to me like EVE Online needs to work a bit more on its “old player experience” as well.

At any given time, I have subscriptions to four or more games; a combination of work related and personal. Right now my game schedule happens to be EverQuest, EverQuest II, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Eve, and I’m testing out the free seven day trial of Age of Conan. Interspersed in there are some free to play like Chronicles of Spellborn, Hero Online, Silkroad Online, and Runes of Magic. By now, I certainly know what I like to play and what I don’t like to play. I know what aspects of games draw me in and keep me there, and what will eventually drive me crazy.

On that note one thing that bothers me as I try out so many different games is the method of paying for these games.

There are a few methods available, I’ll admit that. A few triple A titles allow you to purchase a game card from your local store – which is alright but not exactly convenient if you’re looking to play right away. The majority of games with monthly subscriptions take credit cards as their ‘main’ (and only) method of payment. This is fine – but what if you don’t have a credit card, or don’t want to put games on the credit card.

Numerous ‘free to play’ games allow you to purchase their items (be it coins to use in game or another method of RMT) via paypal – or some other secure site, along with credit cards. Given that younger gamers may not have a credit card and parents may not want to give one out – I love this method. The more options you give to your player base, the bigger your player base will be in the end.

Now, there are also sites that offer game cards, both delivered and online with various forms of paying for them but having never used one myself, I’m not sure how secure and safe these are. Anyone have any experience with them? Feel free to leave a comment below!

I’d love to see more triple A titles break away from the credit card standard of being the only method of payment. Even if it means you have to pay every single month (ie: non-reoccurring).

Along those same lines – why not offer better pricing packages. Lord of the Rings Online offers a lifetime subscription plan, as well as a lowered rate for those players who got in on the ground floor (or for those who pre-ordered Mines of Moria) or even those who were recruited by a friend who already has the lowered price. These are great incentives to get people to play. $14.99/m US seems to be the common theme (in the past at least) as far as a pricing guide goes. LotRO offers $9.99/m US. Sony does offer a Station Access plan that players can purchase for $29.99/m US that grants access to most (if not all) of the SOE games but if you’re not already playing more then one game, it doesn’t really seem worth it. 

The bottom line is people love choices (well, a lot of them do). If I could subscribe life-time to EQ2 I certainly would. If I could get some sort of family bundle price (which you can get in Wizard 101) for owning multiple accounts I’d love that too. Of course there are already a lot of people who two box so if you’re offering a lower rate you may actually lose money depending on how many players may open up a second account based on lower fees, but there may be enough to counteract the loss of people simply owning two accounts. Hopefully that made sense.

Who knows, maybe in the future we’ll see a few more games break from the pack and offer players greater options as far as payments and pricing plans go. It’s certainly something I personally look forward to.

My favourite posts on the Star Trek Online blog are the Path to 2409 ones where they are continually updating us about the Star Trek universe and what is going on, to prepare us for the eventual release of the game. With twenty three such posts left to go, even at two a month, the game wouldn’t be out until ten or eleven months from now, but I still love reading them.

Today, year 2386 came out, and it sums up more of what we can expect the universe to be like when we arrive.

If you have been reading the Star Trek movie prequel comics called Countdown, you’ll understand much of what is going on in this Romulan focused update. Three major things happen outside of the Romulan parts: the Federation re-instates Data, and makes him a Captain, the Federation gets new uniforms, and Gorn are gearing up for a fight with the Klingons. It should make for an interesting time, as we get closer and closer to the 2409 year that starts the MMO.

A surprise guest at the wedding of Worf and Grilka is Data. With his upgrades at the Soong Foundation complete, Data requests that his commission in Starfleet be reactivated. While there are some initial questions because the Data persona is in the body once used by B-4, after Jean-Luc Picard, William T. Riker and several other current and former members of the Enterprise crew testify on Data’s behalf, Starfleet Command agrees to reinstate Data. He is promoted to captain and assigned to supervise the completion of the Enterprise-E’s refit.

On Stardate 63894.06, the refit of the Enterprise-E is completed and the ship, helmed by Captain Data, leaves the Utopia Planitia shipyards. “We are introducing a new era of exploration and peace,” said Starfleet Command spokesperson Commander Marie Durant.

Is it just me, or is it nice to have Data back in action, even if the path of his resurgence is sort of silly?

I wasn’t really a big fan of Gears of War, though I had hoped to play it in a more epic scale. It seems that will be possible with Project E, a game that almost pulls Gears of War out and pushes it towards a near MMO style title.

Recently, a fact sheet about the games features, and what we can expect was released, along with some video and other details. It looks like Project E will be out later this year, and while I am not incredibly excited, as I am unsure of the FPS MMO genre, it could be interesting, and relatively fun to play.

You can check out GameHi, the publisher for Project E, for more details.

Project E - Special Features

Scenario Mission play (Co-op Play)
Project E is willing to enable users to enjoy the scenario mission co-op, which was only available in console games before, in a perfect online environment with up to 8 players. Users will be able to experience satisfaction, deep emotion, and growth of characters through various scenario missions.

Project E is the first of the FPS/TPS online games to provide missions based on scenarios. This feature is one of the key concepts in console genre, proved by the fact that most of the masterpieces, such as Halo3, Resistance2, Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas, Biohazard 5.

Hardcore Action system
In Project E, users can enjoy cool and fancy actions from other action games, such as backstab and confirmation killing. The game is full of splendid and cruel actions: backstab can let users to approach enemies from the back and kill at once, and confirmation killing allows them to kill weak enemies without failing.

Fast and diverse PVP (maximum of 16 users)
The PVP of Project E has a structure that will allow various modes, including short and instant matches which previous online FPS games such as Sudden attack have.

Unique and Gigantic boss monsters
There are boss monsters in co-op mode of Project E. Unlike the boss monsters of other games that are easily hunted down, the boss monsters of Project E are extremely difficult. The entire squad members will have to maximize their efforts and put them together, otherwise the result will be tragic. However, boss monsters, as their difficulty implies, guarantee the best rewards, so it will be one of the ultimate goals of the game play for users, and users will feel the sensation of accomplishment once they succeed.

Character Growth
Project E is a TPS game, yet users can make and level up their characters. The users can acquire experience points and items through missions, and learn skills to make characters even stronger. Also, collecting, strengthening and creating items will be another form of interest, which will ultimately lead users to have a unique character of their own.

Straight, Easy separation of army branches
Project E has 5 army branches, each with unique characteristics. The game guides users to play strategically by separating the roles simple and straight.

- Assaulter: Uses shotgun for most of the time, and has skill that can temporally increase defense ability.
- Heavy Artillery: Defensive type that defends important points or corner enemies with
- Gatling gun and machine installations
- Operator: Can support by firing grenade launcher and use psychometric abilities.
- Combatant: Easiest to play, has average ability in general, hybrid type.
- Sniper: Has the best sniping ability, and can make enemies into un

Strengthened squad command system
Project E provides a much more advanced command system than other previous games, because many users take missions together. The command system features separation of squads into different groups and target destination point on the minimap, which allows even the beginners to accomplish missions as a team if they follow the squad leaders’ instructions.

*** Class Titles ***

- In order to correct some inconsistencies with many player’s perception of class roles compared to their intended roles we have renamed the classes.  We hope that the new names will help alleviate any confusion there might have been about their intended roles and class vision.  We’ve also modified the various class titles as they change over levels in order to more accurately portray their progression through the game.

- The EverQuest Team