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The MMORPGs of 2005
MMORPGDot.com has a two-part piece on the upcoming Massive games of 2005. The first article in the series touches on big name titles expected out this year like Matrix Online and Tabula Rasa, while the second article mentions lesser known small budget titles. From the big-title article: "If a list of features could make a great game, Dark & Light would be the first. NP Cube is promising some really ambitious things like a 40.000km gameworld without any loading, the possibility to become the king or conquer a town and enough goodies to whet your appetite. The question is how many of those features will actually be present at release?"
I can't comment. I'm too busy moderating!
Paul Lenhart writes words!
That's part of the problem with so many coming out. It doesn't matter how great the game is AS MUCH as it matters if you can find other people to co-operate with/fight online, or as much as it matters as that is the game your friends are playing. Hence the importance of marketing the game - something small developers can't afford to do well and players may not have the patience to wait around for word of mouth to succeed.
Case in Point: Allegiance was by far the best MMO I have ever played - but it died due to lack of players because MS dropped the ball in marketing it.
It still needs a lot of polish and optimization. Once it launches the plan is to have a flowing storyline written by Dave Gibbons. Right now that would be about the only thing that would convince me to play after beta.
My only fear at launch is summed up best by CtrlAltDel. So far the beta community is a pretty cool bunch though.
NP Cube is promising some really ambitious things like a 40.000km gameworld without any loading
You know, with a fractal algorithm and high enough precision location variables, I could give you a ten bajillion square mile game world next week. It'd suck as there's be nothing to do there except go up and down some hills and mountains, maybe occasionally swim across an ocean or screen, but it'd be huge.
A large gameworld is utterly meaningless without content. Gameplay is about density of content. Once you have a good density, sure, more is always good.
I'd rather play a game with 4km^2 of content with five really well considered pieces of content per meter than a 40,000 km^2 world with one automatically placed generic feature every 10m. Sure, it may technically have even more content than the smaller world but the quality and density of content will make me choose the smaller one.
At the end of the day, do you really want to play in a huge 1:1 simulation of Nebraska or would you have more fun at a much smaller, well designed theme park?
Of all the games in TFA Guild Wars is probably the only one I will buy. 3 are automatically disqualified because of being published by SOE. Anyone who plays Everquest will probably understand why, even if they dont agree with my personal boycott. Guild Wars game play is very innovative and you can read about that in the article, but the most impressive thing to me is how good the game looks. Arenanet has managed to make extremely good looking graphics run even on lower end video cards. Anyway, im in the Beta now and I cant wait for the release. Maybe Ill see some Slashdotters there?
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I haven't beta tested this game, but I did live (for far too long) with a certain individual who used to work for SOE that was hired as the assistand producer for Matrix Online. This man has recently been fired from that post, but I'm quite positive that he has already caused immense damage to the production of that game.
I agree that it looks like it has potential, but having seen the production of 2 MMORPGs from the inside, I can tell you that the potential will never be fulfilled if the project is mismanaged. The company has a deadline which will be met, regardless of the quality of their product. Since my former roommate was certainly not skilled in management, I hold very dim hopes for Matrix Online.
Despite the text to the contrary, there's no entry for Tabula Rasa in either part of the list. They also list the expansions for AC1, AC2, and EQ1, which is hardly exhaustive. 2005 will likely see the release of more than one expansion for EQ1, expansions for DAoC, UO and WWIIOL, and possibly EQ2 and WoW. Not to mention several other Asian games that are likely to be released: A3, Fairyland, Hello Kitty, etc. Bruce