MMO BinA Geek's Look at Massively Multiplayer Online Games

By now most people who follow ‘gaming news’ on the blogsphere would have heard about the Eurogamer fiasco (for lack of a better term right now) that happened due to an online game review receiving a low score and then Tasos’ reply to that and a whole lot of other replies following.

There has been a lot of feedback on various blogs about this matter as well, but the one that sticks out most in my mind is from Dusty Monk of ‘Of Course I’ll Play It!‘ - his comments on the matter echo my own almost exactly. I felt that the response to the review was handled poorly, and if you stand by your game and believe in it why would you even give such a strong reaction to one single review.

That’s not what I wanted to talk about though.

When I first heard about this incident I couldn’t help but chuckle. Let me explain - aside from writing class guides and dungeon guides for Beckett MOG, I also dabbled briefly with writing reviews for an online site. I was given an assignment (yes, the editor knew the games I currently played) to re-review Dungeons and Dragons Online. Actually, the specifics were that DDO had recently revamped their starter area, and that was the area I was to review. I mentioned at the time to the editor that I had never played DDO before, that my perspective would be that of someone who has never experienced any aspect of the game and I asked before I even accepted if that would be alright. I was told yes.

So I picked up a copy of the game, and played a few hours every evening. I don’t consider myself an expert in any one game but I have played a LOT of games over the last few years and I know what I like and what I don’t like. While I DO enjoy LotRO a huge amount (another Turbine game) I did NOT enjoy DDO. At all. I didn’t enjoy the character creation, the game play, instancing, the social (or lack there of) experience, nothing. I created multiple characters and ran them through the newly revamped starter area (even though I had no idea what the old one was like) and it was simply not enjoyable for me.

Of course a review is a persons personal opinion - and I even stated as much in the article, but when you simply are not grabbed by a game it is VERY hard not to let that show in your writing. I was told that articles were supposed to be ‘genuine’ and reflect the writers personal thoughts. I’ve never written any other way, and so I thought nothing of it. I gave the game an average rating of 6.5 I believe (maybe 6.2)  since the game site does use a rating system, and explained my reason for why I had rated it thus. I mentioned that I had never played before, and I mentioned that I could not comment on how the game used to be. Keeping in mind that these were things that I had cleared with the editor beforehand via email.

Not 10 minutes after the review was posted I received a frantic email from the editor because the forums had exploded with comments from DDO fans who were exceptionally upset at my review. He mentioned that it was partially his fault because he had posted the review as being a full review and not just a review of the introduction area which was what I wrote about (and was told to write about). I stand by my writing and I had re-read what I had written and did not feel that I had said anything I couldn’t justify. The first question I was asked (of course) was how long I played. At the time I had xfire shut down (it does happen rarely!) so I couldn’t just send over the numbers (and even that is not a perfect indication) but I still felt that I had played enough (2-3 hours an evening over the course of two weeks) to justify writing about the starter area.

This site is known for its less then glowing comments made by readers. I was expecting it. As a game reviewer you’re told to have a thick skin and you have to be able to handle a lot of nasty remarks made by people (like how I should be fired, and even killed). Those did not bother me because I knew they would come.

What DID bother me was that the editor requested that I rewrite the review (or write a second review), this time using an end game character supplied to me by turbine and an official in game tour / play session.

What? There was no way I would feel comfortable writing the article under any circumstances. I did not feel that I qualified to write it based on the fact that I had never played the game before and I had no idea what the experience used to be like. I felt that re-writing another review would mean I didn’t believe in what I said the first time - and I stood by my writing (and still do). I was upset that I was even asked to do the second assignment. After thinking about it for a day or two I said that I was sorry but that I was simply not qualified, and I felt pressured into writing a higher rating based on the response from the previous article. The issue was dropped from there and I did not write a second review.

At least Eurogamer has the mind to suggest a different writer gives their opinion in a second review instead of requesting that the original reviewer plays more and gives it a second shot hoping to some how change their opinion. Let me tell you, that won’t happen. There are just some games out there you simply don’t enjoy - and that is OK. You don’t HAVE to enjoy them. There’s a lot of pressure when it comes to reviewing games and readers need to remember that it is ONE persons opinion which may not be anything at all like yours.

I went back to writing articles the way I am most comfortable with. Guides and my personal experiences within the game, a positive outlook on things rather then a negative. Maybe that’s taking the easy way out but I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who had a bad experience with a game review.

I gave the station launcher a look a while ago at the beginning of beta, and there were so many bugs and issues with it that I just couldn’t see myself using it, so I un-installed and barely gave it another look.

On a whim this weekend I decided to reinstall it and see if it was any better the second time around now that some time has passed, and much to my surprise it is.

Keep in mind that I play three of the SOE titles (four in total but Free Realms is not listed on station launcher as of yet) and have friends scattered all over on various servers. That’s where this little application really comes in handy.

Now let me start by saying there is one semi-significant bug still. The bug occurs if the game you’re playing thinks you have not logged off properly. This is most notably the case in Vanguard, I haven’t seen it happening anywhere else yet. There IS a way to solve the issue by logging to character select first before you exit the game. This tells the system that you’re actually NOT in the game. If you do have a ’stuck’ character in some game, you’ll also be able to SEE it, under the ‘by character’ category it will list your characters and say “so and so is currently in game” - if you have a character stuck in game (such as I did) you will be able to send tells to your friends but they will be unable to send tells back because it thinks you’re on as that character. Make sense? Good!

For people who may have been having issues launching their SOE games from the patcher, this also provides a work around. I know people who have been having some enormous issues trying to get the game to start, but can launch perfectly fine from here. I’ve got mine set to close down once I start up a game which comes in handy and the whole program acts as a chat platform for when you’re not actually in game. The friends list is a little easier to understand now. You can have it ignore particular characters you may have to cut down on doubles and reduce the size of the friends list. You can easily block and ignore people, or add new people to the list. The program has yet to crash or freeze on me, and aside from that one ’stuck character’ bug, it seems to be working fairly well. I’ll continue to use it for the next few weeks and if I like it I’ll stick with it after that. It’s nice to see it’s still being worked on, and if you DO have issues with the station launcher be sure to bring it up on the station forums, there’s a fairly active section devoted specifically to the launcher.

I’ve talked about this before on my own site, but wanted to go into a little more depth on the matter. One of my personal pet peeves is games that allow a player to out level the content. I realize that games move in a linear fashion and that it’s not exactly easy to provide content that appeals to the masses - but what you really don’t want is for people to have a reason NOT to visit your content.

Lets take EQ2 as an example. Encounters in game ‘gray’ out, providing no experience or loot (aside from body loot which is typically used in quests). Unless you happen to be a quest-o-holic or you happen to be mentoring there’s really no reason to go back to an older zone. As the leveling process is sped up, more and more content is overlooked and lots of it isn’t even touched. Have you been to the caves in Pillars of Flame beneath the monk camp? Have you done all of the Gobblerock hideout instances in Commonlands and Antonica? Chances are if you’re a fairly new player you have not.

There are a few ways EQ2 has chosen to combat this. One is allowing higher level players to ‘mentor’ lower level players and adjust to their level. This allows you to play with friends and experience lower content. Lower level quests (10+) also offer achievement points for first time completions which inspire higher level characters to quest since those points are difficult to obtain.

This simply is not enough inspiration.

Over the time I have leveled it’s amazing to see how much empty content is out there. EQ2 is a huge vast world but you only ever need to level in a very small portion of it. Players keep asking for choice and content but forget the vast amount of content out there already because they have no reason to re-visit it.

Now take a game like EQ or Vanguard or even WoW. The content in these games does not trivialize. Sure, you may not gain experience from defeating an encounter but you will still find crafting goods, as well as quests and achievements to unlock, and even loot (gear etc) from defeating mobs. This allows players to at least have some sort of purpose. Perhaps they are working up a new crafter, or need gear for an alt, or have some unfinished achievements to unlock.

I know the whole concept of an achievement system has been over played these days. WAR and lotRO have vast systems where killing any mob or discovering any new area unlocks a new title reward. Players LIKE these though, they like having goals to aim for and have a sense of pride over hunting down each and ever little bit they can acomplish.

If there were title achievements for EQ2 like perhaps completing all of the quests in a zone, or discovering all of the POI (points of interest) maybe we’d see people in more areas then just the ‘main’ leveling ones. In EQ the problem is some times even worse because there are ‘hot zones’ which offer a substantial increase to experience then regular areas. Each level tier only has one zone associated with it, so while you may find groups within those specific zones fairly easily, you’ll be hard pressed to convince people to venture out into the world (which is gigantic).

This topic of out leveling content certainly is not new, either. You can take a look around the gaming blogs and see that it’s cropping up this week more often then normal. Why is that? Is there something in specific that we’re all trying to grasp our minds around here or are we just bored with the content we’ve been given and find ‘most’ players in so we’re trying to make a mass appeal to ‘older’ content for a change. Have any thoughts on the matter? Feel free to leave a comment below!

What is it about patch days that seem to bring out the worst (or best) in a player. I used to think there was some sort of secret conspiracy going on, World of Warcraft would patch every Tuesday (and still does) and then EverQuest II started patching every Tuesday, and so would Vanguard, and EQ. This left for a very long empty day with nothing to do but read forums and get angry at everyone else who happened to find something to complain about. 

Complain they did. Though game forums CAN be exceptionally helpful in finding information there are people there who will complain and comment about EVERYTHING it doesn’t matter how insignificant it is. There is no pleasing everyone no matter how hard you try. 

Anyhow, back to patch days. 

They happen, especially if a game is alive and well. It’s a sign of growth and change, new content, and fixes. For the most part they’re waited for eagerly and people begin counting down the hours until their servers are back up. When they’re postponed people grow frustrated. When they take longer then the announced time people start to build up into a frenzy. Mob mentality takes over and gamers are reduced to screaming apes. That’s what it seems like at least if you take a peek. 

So what do you do during that enormous amount of time when your game is unavailable? Do you have backup games? Do you play one of those ‘regular’ PC games that has been collecting dust on your desk? Maybe play a console game or two? 

Or maybe you’re the type to hit the refresh page every 20 seconds waiting to see the green light of servers back online. Browsing the local forums and checking out ever game related site there is out there. 

People (most long term gamers in any case) know better then to get too excited on patch day. It is typically a day where servers are brought down numerous times (if it’s a large patch in any case) for hot fixes when bugs prevail, and server stability is next to none. I know a few friends used to take the day off when a large patch was incoming (or an expansion) only to be disappointed as the game would be unavailable for the majority of the day. 

We learn eventually.

Guess it’s time for me to grab a book, seeing as the SOE servers are down for maintenance right now..

Free Realms has finally started sending out beta invites to those who have signed up via the web site. With so many new games being developed it’s nice to hear about some that are releasing specifically for younger children, in the case of Free Realms it’s aimed at kids ages 9-14 although there are certainly parts of the game that will interest those of all ages. 

If you’re not familiar with the game it’s an MMORPG developed by Sony Online Entertainment set in a fantasy themed world with bright bold colours and cartoon like characters. 

The game is host to a number of things for your character can do as opposed to most MMORPG’s that offer a hack and slash main focus. These include things like  mini-games, housing, combat, pet-raising, exploration and building. 

Free Realms is available to download and play free of charge (it’s also coming to the PS3 as well as the PC) but you can also snag yourself a subscription for $5/m or a family plan of $10/m which allows you to log in up to five characters at the same time, great for those with families who are looking for a kid-safe game for their children to play.

This certainly isn’t the first MMO aimed at a younger audience and for those parents who may be gamers themselves, it’s a nice way to introduce your children to gaming. There’s also FusionFall which is the Cartoon Networks universe and has a huge following of players not to mention my personal favorite Wizard 101 where people of all ages can enjoy Wizard City and its card based combat as well as unique pets and outfits. KingsIsle has also just recently announced that player housing will be incorporated into the game in late spring allowing wizards to purchase and customize their own spaces, something a lot of the player base has been looking forward to.

It’s great to see so many options opening up in regards to gaming. One could argue that there is perhaps too much choice now and the decision on what to play is more complicated then it ever was in the past - but personally speaking I love it. Whether you’re young or old, have children or not, the games certainly warrant a look if for no other reason to suggest to a friend who may be searching for a family friendly MMORPG. 

Are there other family-friendly MMO’s out there that you’re currently playing or want to suggest people check out? Feel free to leave a comment below!

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!

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.

Playing online games is like entering a different world, where people are the same as you, but different. You take on a persona, someone who you’d like to be, and that heightens your interactions with the game. Players create their own history, their own future, and true fans, extend the universe beyond the original creators intent.

Below is a fan made video that proves to me how powerful fans can be in marketing, and building an MMO’s culture.

This film covers a bit from the Caldari-Gallente war. It’s set 200 years ago, before any of the 4 races had pod technology. I tried to use ships that may have been around back then, though sadly there’s not a huge amount of information that I could find.

HD VERSION

Doesn’t that video make you want to play EVE Online?

I have played more than a few online games, and I have been in many bad groups and a few good ones. When I first started playing EvE again, I only did so because my cousin was willing to play too, thus giving me at least one other person I could interact with in game that I could trust, and enjoy playing with. We worked together, building up our assets and enjoying the various options the game opened up to us. Eventually, we started reaching the point where two people wasn’t enough, and so we started looking at corporations.

Corporations in EvE are the same as guilds, fleets and other grandiose names for what is essentially an expanding and contracting group of players that pledge temporary allegiance to each other.

I searched high and low for what I thought were corporations that would fit our needs in the game, only to be disappointed many times. They were either not as “set-up” as they made it seem in their recruitment, or they were too focused on one aspect of the game to provide longer term enjoyment for me, as a multi-specialized character.

Eventually, I got lucky and found a group of players from when I used to play the game, and we joined up with them.

In the end though, I realized that a good corporation for me, is one where I can trust those within the corporation to help me look out for my best interests, while also using my talents to help out the corporation as a whole.

A good corporation puts the needs of its members first, thus building trust. A good corporation should be multifaceted, allowing players to explore various things in game, or with the ability to easily provide expansion into other interests.

Of course, these are just a few thoughts from my own experiences, and I am sure that most players would have different qualifications on what makes a good corporation, fleet or guild, so let me know in the comments below.

One of the things I enjoy about EvE online over most online games is that the marketplace is completely controlled by those playing the game. Sure, there are other games that also allow this, but most only to a limited extent. I’ve heard of people dominating a local market in World of Warcraft for an item or two, but I’ve never heard of a guild taking over running the whole market for a city.

In EvE, if it wasn’t for the players, there wouldn’t be a market. The NPC’s only sell a few items, and they are mostly for new players to get certain items for a fair price, but even then, it is limited in amount and location. CCP occasionally seeds the universe with blueprints and new items, but since adding invention skills to the game, this has stopped, and so there are no higher technology blueprint originals in the game.

Recently, a major corporation that supplied a noticeable portion of the ships, ore and certain reactions to the marketplace was taken down, and people are already reeling at the inflation due to the decrease in supply, and the more competitive demand over what remains.

Of course, having it be completely player driven can cause frustrations. I’ve been to many stations that don’t have any ships, modules, or ammo for me, but it only adds to the usefulness of those that take the time to become logistics and industrial in nature.

I hope more games take a look at the EvE economy, and take a page from their book. It seems to me that many upcoming science fiction online games are taking advantage of this, but fantasy games and current timeline games are missing the boat. Put the market in your players hands, and watch what happens. If nothing else, it is exciting to monitor and watch evolve.