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MMOGs Reaching For Casual Gamers
The Guardian Gamesblog has a nice bit of commentary up today discussing the push for MMOGs to connect with casual gamers. Announcements of Massive games on the next generation of consoles have been fast and furious, but skeptics seem to feel casual gamers may not make the leap. Indeed, even veteran MMOG players have difficulty with the genre, as a recent AFKGamer column on how to deal with Grind illustrates. From the Guardian article: "Still, in order to be a viable entity on a home console unit - competing directly with the likes of GTA, Super Mario and FIFA - things will have to change. Some may call it dumbing down, but the product must be created with the consumer in mind. Personally, while I consume my fair share, I'm still only primarily interested in them from an academic perspective, as resources of human sociability in online space" Update: 07/02 05:09 GMT by Z : Gamasutra's weekly question dealt with this exact issue. The opinions of industry participants are always welcome.
Actually, I've found that Kingdom of Loathing is exactly what I was looking for: a fun game that has plenty of casual gamers and hardcore players, but it honestly doesn't matter. The game is fun for everybody to play, and people *do* get sucked in, but the creators make it a priority that new players have as much fun as long time players. Of course, it may also help that the new breed of caffinated, medicated "twitch" kids aren't going to be too excited about a web-based black and white game. But more than anything, the creators work very hard to level the playing field, while the long time players still get fun goodies. The most telling aspect of the levelling is that player vs. player combat is set up so that it's unlikely that you'll get totally and completely spanked by some 9 year old that spends 12 hours a day in front of the tube.
My point is that it *can* be done. This is at least one example.
I don't respond to AC's.
Subspace/Continuum fits the 'MMOG for the casual player' bill perfectly.
I pick it up whenever I have 10 minutes.
Check it out....
just to comment on your assessment of eve-online. it happens to be the the only game that can support over 11000 players online in the same world simultaneously. a true massive multi player online rpg indeed.
additionally, it is the only game where there is a true ingame economy. most of the other games have vendors that will buy things from the players, to my knowledge, it is the only game where the players are the only participants in the market.
i don't play the game anymore, but when i did play the game, the #1 thing that attracted me was the economy.
Apart from step 2 (you can play trolls), drsquare here pretty :)
;)
;)
:)
;)
much described Dark Age of Camelot, the crack-pipe I can't put down
1) DAoC has new quests for the lowest levels, that both tell a
story and gives OK equipment to start with. Lots of killing, of
course, but that isn't necessarily all. Many new Catacombs quests
are also entirely peaceful, and rewards are 5-20%(!) of a level
plus occasional gear. Then there are the instances, a faster form
of grind for those who still want it.
2) The setting isn't exactly Tolkien; Norse, Irish and British
mythology clashing on the battlefield. Although you could say
Tolkien lifted liberally from the same sources
Orcs are there in some of the realms, but they're minor critters
without significance.
(There are also the masterlevels in Atlantis, a different annoyance
not as fun
3) The main form of PvP in DAoC is my favourite ever. It's called
Realm versus Realm. The game has three realms who are all enemies,
and the end-game is all about that. Keep/tower capture, plain
ganking, with its alternate reward system parallel to experience.
Inside each realm, players can't attack eachother, except on the
under-populated PvP server.
4) The RvR part and Trials of Atlantis' master levels give special
powers as rewards (in the first case, you buy them with points,
in the second, you progress through 10 master levels with around
10 steps of killing/puzzles each). Some rewards are pure PvE
goodness, others useful also in RvR. Many random quests around the
realms have great background stories.
5) There are only 50 levels + the middle realm rank that counts
as level 51. Mythic probably won't add more, as they've found ways
to extend characters besides that. Yet another set of skills will
be added in a forthcoming expansion, giving characters powers that
aren't strictly for their class normally (like weapon skills for
pure healers, evasion on casters and other oddness).
6) Combat is more than building up combos and hoping to win;
reactive styles are it. Special styles for position, when you
parry, evade or block, and followups to make regular combos.
Tank characters are actually more work to learn than some casters,
the latter being one-button monkeys in some situations
Of course, there are casters with so much utility you spend way
too much time learning to play them properly
It's about a quarter to six in the morning, and I think I can
squeeze in another couple of hours of casual playing before I'm out
the door..