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."
...when someone figures out what that R stands for in RPG.
I'm sorry, but this doesn't sound even a little bit innovative. Perhaps I am a slow reader, but where in that entire article did it mention a new idea that isn't just a refinement of an old one? As far as I can see, this is just World of Warcraft part 2. Great, so they have refined the boring MMORPG formula a little more and have made that same shitty gameplay more refined. If you strip down the cosmetics, the game is same boring shit that we have dealt with since Everquest. It is a leveling / group semi-turn based combat game. Yawn.
You know that cool part in that cyberpunk book when they are playing that RPG on their computer? Yeah... just wake me up when we get there. Or, at the very least, wake me up when someone grows enough balls to and break the mold a little.
As far as MMORPGs are concerned, we are living in the world of Wolfenstien 3D. One guy got it right, now roughly a thousand other companies have pig piled on with their own game set in different settings with marginally improving graphics and marginally refined game play. What the gutless MMORPG makers seem to not realize is that I am waiting four player Doom death match.
Wake me up when an MMORPG makers grows a spine. Until then, someone else can sit around and count the failures.