Slashdot Mirror
Myst MMOG Details Announced
Ubi Soft and Cyan announced the title for their upcoming online game. Uru: Online Ages Beyond Myst , developed by Cyan Worlds, Inc., is slated for release late this year. From the press release, "Uru will take advantage of broadband to deliver a continually updated, immersive environment and storyline, with content that grows, changes and evolves constantly. It will also be the first persistent world to support real-time voice communication." Sounds like a different road than online games like The Sims Online and Star Wars Galaxies are taking, with the entertainment consisting in exploration and storyline rather than in player status and achievement.
Isn't that internet enable Myst ? Or is this REALLY fancy with each person seeing their own powerpoint which can be updated ?
Myst has to be from a tech perspective one of the simplest games to net-enable, what it will be is bandwidth intensive, what it isn't however is time restricted.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Sweet. I loved not being able to do anything in the first game but flip toggles and walk around.. now I can go online and have people laugh at my moron-grade IQ!
How much a month?
s/nerd/boss/
Aside from further shrinking the broadband-equipped potential audience, wouldn't real-time voice communication kind of spoil the suspension of disbelief?
Xyphor: Welcome to the Weapons Shoppe! How may I serve thee on this fine morn?
Benny38: Hey, er, what's up dude?
Xyphor: Dost thou wish to sample my wares?
Benny38: Can you hear this? Are we like talking now?
Xyphor: Thou art testing my patience with these fine weapons close at hand.
Benny38: Umm, hello? Can someone send me an email and tell me if they can hear me? It's benny38 at AOL dot com.
(insert blood-wrenching sound effect here)
It's Slashdot's evil twin... SlashNOT
Uru is called a MMOG, not MMORPG.
Reading the press-release, and considering the Myst series, it will be a game more concentrating on a story line and riddles, than leveling. (Wonder, how they want to achieve story lines in MMOGs)
I think it is an interesting approach, since leveling always introduces a competetive element, which a) is often less appealing to women (see success of Myst) b) is more appealing to pks.
> I mean how many MMOG [...]
So many, that the different type of players have their type of game, e.g. Roleplaying-people don't have to be bothered by Hack-n-slay-people, or strategists have their little empire, while more reactive-oriented people can have their ego-shooter world.
I think, currently the problem with MMOGs is, that most MMOGs are only variation of the same game with different themes and rules. Not different MMOGs.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
Sounds like the closest thing yet to an actual online RPG, and it's not even being called a MMORPG, which things like EverQrack certainly are not. The gameplay differences between so called "MMORPGs" and games like Doom, Quake, and Unreal are negligible at best. FPS + chargen doth not an RPG make.
Don't get me started on how Final Fanstasy devolved from a game into a non-interactive movie.
I mean how many MMOGs do we really need to waste our silly little lives away?
Infinitely many! Seriously, the MMORPG market is beginning to diversify, with games available or being released soon, catering to different tastes and playstyles. If the trend continues, I see the following things happening:
1) MMORPG's become more mainstream. The Sims and Star Wars Galaxies may set off this trend and expand the market for MMORPG's.
2) Each individual MMORPG will have less subscribers than they have now, and it will become increasingly difficult to obtain customers. That means that they may have to cater for smaller niche markets rather than trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator. This is good news: people are more likely to find an MMORPG they like, rather than having a choice from 5 or so games, all trying to be everything to everyone.
3) With each individual MMORPG appealing to smaller groups, revenues will drop sharply. However I suspect that MMORPGs for small groups can be run profitably, especially if a company runs more than one of them and shares resources such as billing, customer care, server facilities and possibly the servers and game code as well. Remember: some of today's MMORPGs are obscenely profitable. For a while, EA has been faltering, and Ultima Online by itself was the only thing keeping the company afloat (EA even admitted as much in one of the quarterly reports). These things will be profitable for less people.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...