Slashdot Mirror
Putting The RPG Back Into MMORPG
Garthilk writes "In the last two weeks since E3 I've read at least three gushing reviews about an upcoming game by Simutronics, called Hero's Journey. MMORPG.com gave it their E3 best of show award. CorpNews said it blew their pants off. IGN even had a good interview with the CEO of Simutronics. Warcry even goes so far as to say that it will turn gaming world upside down. The question still lingers though, can a company who has focused on text based roleplaying games cut it in the graphical world?" From the MMORPG.com article: "In a year full of big budget, big company titles, Hero's Journey offered graphics on par with all the major players and an extremely exciting look at their game play. E3 2005 marked a show where several high profile games were touting very similar features (state based combat), and in swept Hero's Journey with their innovative group combat, highly cinematic missions, interactive environments and hands down the best character creation ever put into an MMORPG."
HJ has not expressed some great new concept that is going to set it apart from all the other MMORPGs not because they are good company and don't want to hype. They have not done it because they don't have it. They will merrily tell you about the generic crap and promise it will be better (see interview), but they are certainly not holding back some great grand new style of gameplay that will set it apart from everyone else. Will there be features they unveil? Absolutely. Will some of those features maybe even be seen for the first time in HJ? I don't doubt it. Is this going to be some revolution in gameplay? Hell no. Simtronics is out to cash in. They are not aiming for a nitch market or taking a bigger risk then they already have.
I could certainly be wrong, but I sure as hell wont waste my time getting excited about a game that has offered nothing more then the promise of generic MMORPG gameplay further refined and their name. The fan boys can drool in anticipation before they see any proof that this game has any substance. I'll just be a crotchety old bastard and smugly wait to say I told you so.
I hate to burst your bubble, but as a long time MUD player I know the record. I want to see Gemstone 3 with graphics roughly about as badly as I want to see someone make a sequal to Everquest... oh ... shit.
Maybe you and I were playing different games here, but I am pretty damned sure that their MUDs had the same hack and slash game play as nearly every other MUD out there. MUDs were not the holy grail of gaming. There were some great ones that turned the boring hack and slash crap on its head. ArmageddonMUD and Harshlands come to mind. Gemstone doesn't. The only thing that made their MUDs special was the fact that they got them on AOL instead of forcing people to go through Telnet, as a result, they had a massive (compartivly) population. That is the only thing that made those MUDs unique.
"What they're trying to do is take everything that's made their MUD's successful..."
Everything that made their MUD's successful? You mean they putting it on AOL?
"...and incorporate that into a MMORPG along with some never before seen stuff."
So they are going to incorporated their generic hack and slash MUD gameplay and some never before seen "stuff" (whatever "stuff" might mean) to make the most kick ass MMORPG ever. Right. Out of the block they have not bothered to show how they are going to do more interesting in terms of gameplay then the generic crap already out there. Infact, in the interview they go ahead and tell how they are going to have all that shitty generic gameplay but BETTER! Great.
MMORPG are going through terrible stagnation. We have the ability hool up a few thousand people into the same massive world, and what has been done with this power? We make friggin' glorified Diablo clones. Someone poke me a developer grows a pair and tries something innovative and original.