MMORPGs, Are You There Yet?

maddugan writes "CNN recently posted a story about a company by the name There and their opening of a public beta for their 'Virtual Universe'. One of the key element is that you can buy virtual Levis and Nikes for your Avatar. " Hemos & I have been playing The Sims Online- Come visit the Slashdot Charisma Sweatshop on the absolute west edge of the Mt Fuji City and say hi. I got my real nick for once too! I love MMORPGs and 'There' looks like another wrinkle on taking Sims type games online. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Comments

Answer to my own question

[Amsterdam Vallon]

From Damage Studios' site:
As far as The Game goes, we're on track for meeting our prototype deadlines, which makes everyone pretty buzzed. We had our second art review on Friday, and the concepts are really coming along. I don't want to go too far into that, because I don't want to ruin the anticipatory magic.

Apparently, you can get frequent updates by signing up for the mailing list.

Nice work so far, Chris.

it'll be really interesting when

[Anonymous Coward]

you can "travel" from sims online to there, as in a vacation, pick up some stuff for the kids, and so on.

After all, we don't all live in the same town but people do visit from time to time.

Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm very hesitant after seeing how people get emotionally attached to stuff like this. I was at Radio Shack last year, and the guy behind the counter was foaming at the mouth over that microsoft game. It was kind of scary.

WorldsAway from compuserve

[nounderscores]

I was a compuserve member way back when the internet was hard to get onto (you couldn't access the net from compuserve when I first signed up). They looked deep into my soul and gave me a number based upon the order in which I joined. About when they let me choose a screen name for myself (all_the_good_names_are_taken@compuserve.com I kid you not.) they introduced this thing called Worlds Away which seems eerily like "there."

The keyword you typed at the go prompt was AWAY, so youd type GO: AWAY and be transported to a virtual world which had all the usuall compuserve anal retentive rules to keep everyone playing nice.

I've since left compuserve due to the cost of access and the mountains of rules, but I did hear that worlds away has been replaced by a thing called Dreamscape.

Everything that is old is new again.

Re:The Sims Online: Not There Yet

[kien]

I beta-tested TSO. Took me about one hour to decide that it was fundamentally flawed. I'm glad they held the open beta because it convinced me that this was NOT a game I would enjoy.

I think it's great when MMOG game developers offer open public beta-tests. It puts lots of eyeballs on their game (better chance that bugs will be found) and as the release of EQ taught us, it's never a bad idea to load-test your servers in beta. Also, if their game is good on a fundamental level (even if a few bugs still have to be found)...word of mouth will do all the pre-selling they'll need.

Hopefully, There will get it right.

--K.

Open source mmorpg?

[HeyBob!]

Is anyone developing a free to use mmorpg, maybe based on a p2p method? I pay enough monthly bills I don't want to pay a monthly fee just to play a game. I don't mind paying for the game though.

I wonder if there's a way to build a mmorpg system that doesn't require central servers, but could exist on thousands of p2p machines. As pc's log on and off, the load is moved around. Sort of a combination of p2p and a distributed.net.

Instead of servers slowing down with more people logging on, the game gets faster when more pc's log in and add their computing power.

Time Commitment?

[Flamesplash]

My big thing is with how much time commitment a "Virtual World" type game requires. I have never played any type of online static VW game, just things like Battle.net.

My main reason for this is that it seems like the commitment is too great. It seems like one I play I have to keep playing everyday or else my previous effort isn't really useful, like I have to live a second life almost to make anything useful/fun out of the MMOG.

I am currently playing Animal Crossing on the GCN, and while this game is ultimately experienced best if you play a little each day or for an hour or two on the weekends, Or both in my casse, I could stop playing for a while and nothing would go wrong or bad, I would be able to pick right back up. The same goes for the non MMOG Sims. From outside of MMOG it seems like I couldn't do this with those.

Am I off base with my impressions of MMOG? Are there any that exhibit play whenever you want/can better than others without degrading the experience?

Re:Time Commitment?

[aliens]

I'm sorry but the amount of time you have to put into these games is unreal. Where do the people who play these games find the time?

On top of which I was listening to some talk radio and a girl called up to discuss why she enjoys Sims Online. Basically she stated she could do things she couldn't do in real life and as an example she said, "be outspoken." Really, come on, how bout just try to be outspoken in real life. Or has that become illegal?

Things you can't do in real life should be things like drive a drive a Ferrari down the wrong side of the road at 110mph. That's what video games are for, not so you can be outspoken.

Re:Time Commitment?

[cmacb]

On-line gaming can indeed be an addictive passtime. But then so many other things can be too. If you don't change any other behavior and simply add several hours a day of on-line gaming you will probably at least suffer from sleep deprivation.

What most people do however is give up some other activity. When I really got involved in this stuff a few years ago I stopped watching TV. First I simply watched less, then at some point I realized what a great waste of time my remaining TV watching was. Anyone who stops watching TV completely for a few months will be shocked at how awful most of it is when you tune back in.

Both TV and movies of today are creations of other people. As you watch you are consuming, nothing more. At least with virtual reality there is usually some element of creativity involved.

As far as being outspoken... if you communicate at all with people in real life as well as online (for example e-mail between you and people you actually meet in person) you will notice that the nature of the communication is different. Almost *everyone* is more outspoken online, whether it is e-mail, newsgroups, or SlashDot. People often express things in their personal web pages that they would be embarrassed to say to someone in person.

You can in fact develop what might be called an alternate personality online. I'm not sure there is any evidence however that this second personality is any less "real" than your in-person one. In fact I think it might be a good bit *more* real (for better or worse).

When it comes to work, as opposed to play, I'd *much* rather interact with people online than in person. The key element of this other than the liberating aspect of the interaction is that fact that everything is recorded. The worst managers I have ever had are the ones that go down the hall and pop into people's office or cubes for friendly little one-on-ones. These 5-minute-managers send their whole staff in different directions without knowing it.

Real life meetings usually end up being chaotic unless they are planned in advance. Again, the key is to get things in writing, to produce meeting minutes, and when it comes design, make sure that everyone is on the same "page".

I think that in the future online VR type interaction will replace many work interaction not because it is more fun, but because it works better.

Think of the potential sponsorships...

[earthforce_1]

In the virtual world, eating McDonalds hamburgers COULD be good for you! Just imagine - If McDonalds paid the GMs for the priviledge, eating at a virtual McD's would increase all your stats 10% for a few hours after ever meal. Using Colgate toothpaste really would make you better looking. And if your sim drinks Bud Light, your sim really would become irresistable to the opposite sex for a few hours!

This has potential even in games like Ultma Online, where wearing Levis under your armour might convey you some mild form of magical protection. Wearing Nike's lets your character run 10% faster. Just think of the possibilities...