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Massively Multiplayer Baseball
Next Gen is reporting on Netadmin's upcoming Ultimate Baseball title, which is designed to take the MMOG market into the sports genre for the first time. From the article: "We also looked at the MMOG landscape at the time. Everything was some variation on a fantasy theme. Kill the dragon, rescue the village and such. We were interested in the MMOG business model but looking ways to do things differently and sports just made sense..."
3 points:
1) Geeks, as a rule, hate sport. Yes, there are exceptions.
2) Jocks, as a rule, hate computers. Yes, they can work them.
3) Everyone in the world, as a rule, hates baseball. Yes, there are americans.
So how well, exactly, is this gonna do?
My brother played the beta. When you're in the field it's about as boring as you imagine it'd be, except the outfield chatter is replaced with "wtg lol" and there are about 700 fielding errors on any play. It's like watching Little League play with adults.
:)
For an approximation, join a weekend softball league that brings a keg to every game.
For more information, click here.
Ya know what annoys me. When MMOGs are "finished" being developed and players are let in, the live team basically fixes bugs and adds new content. Development just stops. Compare this with MUDs. Every week new features will be added to a MUD. Submit a good suggestion to the devs and you're almost guarenteed to see it implemented.
How we know is more important than what we know.
It sounds nice but baseball is well, a sport where half - 1 of the players is basically in a line, and just because you are on the field doesn't mean the game is interesting
I'd do something interesting, but my server can't handle a slashdotting.
Watch baseball on tv and tell me how often each of the outfielders actually has to move and do something, then tell me if you want to sit in front of your pc doing the same thing.
Why in the hell would anyone want to play online baseball and spend 90% of their time sitting and waiting for something to happen?
Maybe the dugout will be like a singles chat room or something.
While I don't see this becoming a major MMO player... I can see it becoming quite a niche MMO (in the way I consider COH to be a niche MMO)
There are enough exceptions to everything...
people assume nerds don't like sports... but I am a nerd and while I don't care for playing real sports, I quite enjoy a sports themed computer/console game. It's a break from the normal [hack/slash/shoot/quest] of the typical game. And if I'm going to pick a sport to watch (which I can imagine alot of this game turns into.. watching other people at times) baseball is my choice.
I can't be the only one that thinks this.
besides... it's something different! I'm gonna give them credit for that if nothing else.
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
Shot Online, a golf MMO, is the first I've heard of.
I quit!
sports like basketball, soccer, or hockey.
At least in those sports, each player has a chance to get the ball/puck.
Also, with basketball, the game is somewhat scaleable on the amount of players in a game (1 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 on 3, etc).
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
Now, that would be a funner mmorpg game than baseball.
A better mmorpg would be "The Mall" where you can buy items, take them to the car, go home, get dressed in those items (mod your appearance) and go back to the mall.
Of course, with the interesting (what, you're out of size 5?) and the obligatory foodstuff shops that make you gain weight so you have to buy more.
Also, demand or lack thereof on particular items would either make them hard to find, or go to the 70% off rack (in which case you don't want to be caught dead in them).
Finally, the people could trade items.
Now, the really fun thing is that you can have "stores" in the mall that have real online presences. For example, I'm in this virtual mall, and I'm in the computer section, and I'm browsing the bookshelves, and I look at a book, and I want to actually buy it (as IRL), so I click on the (purchase in real life) and it's automatically added to my border.com account.
Also, as I walk around the virtual mall, slurpee in hand, trying to scope out the best-dressed avatars, I see the in-game advertising provided by Vitoria's Secret and Macy's for their Fall Collection.
Finally, this mall would be open 24x7, and you could just, like, hang out with your friends and chat all day...
come on, take the idea and run with it, somebody. I want no credit for the idea, take it, go, go!!!
"Piter, too, is dead."
I like MMO games. I like baseball. This game sounds terrible.
My hand touched her hand. Her hand touched her boob. By the transitive property, I got some boob! Algebra is awesome!
Now, if they do an MMOG version of blernsball, I'm on it!
Even before that, we had Motor City Online. It was not an athletic sport, but it was still a sport. Car tuning and racing in a persistent online world. Buying and selling everything from parts to completely customized cars was a huge part of it, as well as point standings for racing against the clock and against other players. You made money based on your standings, not just per race.
o nline
:)
Don't see how a baseball or golf game could be any more MMOG than that, so I don't see how it wasn't the first.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/motor-city-
P.S. Shot Online is from 2003. MCO is from 2001.
but it's just that, a novelty.
I agree with much of what has been said so far. Who wants to sit around in the outfield waiting for something that might not happen, or be a relief pitcher for 5-7 innings...
The concept is novel to the MMO concept though. But I don't think MMO is really a good label for a design like this - you've got 10 people in play at any given time. Eight others, on any given inning, are waiting in line. For a majority of the inning, 3 of those 10 people will be actively involved (pitcher, catcher, batter).
Instead of a guild, you'd have teams, certainly. And that in-itself could be a selling point - teams recruiting/trading with other teams, etc... it's always fun working to be #1 in your skill - be it with talent or gear.
But, if they go toward more of an 'arcade' concept instead of a 'simulation', I believe it'd go much better for the game. Such a difference would be equivalent to 'roleplaying' and 'non-rp' servers/modes of play.
But all-in-all, the idea of it all just makes me think, "Eh, if I'm really bored and I read a few good reviews, I'd give it a try." It'd be good of the publisher to issue trial passes too, given the novelty of this concept.
Trivial Omnipotence
Just what we need a game where most of your time is spent sitting in the field hoping the ball comes your way so that you can catch it. Of course, every time it does the glory hog from center field comes over and knocks you down. And then we have the guy in right field who connected, got bored and left his keyboard to get a snack, now the other team is hitting in-field home-runs over there. And the short stop won't stop making bad ball jokes, and is ignoring the actual ball when it comes his way.
Do people really think that this is going to be a good idea? Have those same people ever played an MMOG? Between the kids who get a kick out of typing "fuck" over and over again, and the guys who like ruining everyone else's experience, the game is going to suck.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
This sounds ok, but take this one step further and you get a GREAT idea.
Not just baseball, make the old nintendo Basewars game MMO. Sports combined with fighting... Thats a game I would really like to play.
You could get paid millions to be the best player! Much like meat sports, the competition is fierce, and only a few are the best of the best (and make the big bucks). You could even have stadiums filled with hundreds of thousands of viewers watching from their TV's (or virtually attending the stadium online).
This could turn out to be the business model that can finally allow all the gamers out there to tell their parents that, "See, something good DID come from me just playing in your basement!"
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
We've had 2 player Ping Pong since the 70s, what if we expanded the board, and had thousands of players. Simply imagine a polygon with X sides, where X is the number of players. And throw in maybe X/2 balls in play too. You only see your part of the screen, but can knock balls around to everyone else playing... It was a funny idea of mine a few years back... That was a child of the 'everyone shares' networking desktop, where you could drag your mouse cursor onto other people's desktops in the same room as you, and drag their files directly off their screen.
God spoke to me.
And they seem to be doing well, as they have recently (within the last month or so) introduced a pay for in-game perks (such as free/reduced green fees, faster leveling) model. I see more than a few of these paying users (they have their character names appear as gold or bronze).
I notice that there are always new users; which is both good and frustrating at the same time.
I, of course, am still plugging away as a free user, dutilfully playing, winning rounds, and (seemingly) constantly reparing my clubs.
0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
growing up, i was a geek, and shunned sports. I even thought that watching sports was even more useless than playing, because really, you're watching other people play a game, rather than playing it yourself!
but then, i was dragged to a football game by some friends, and... I had a blast. i've grown to enjoy football, because, it turns out, its actually incredibly nerdy in its own way. sure, the people on the field are mostly musclehead jocks, but the depth of strategies involved is pretty amazing. in ways, it turns out to be a turn-based / real time strategy game for the coaches, using the players as pawns. There is a lot of specific terminology, moreso than most other sports, and its actually incredibly deep, and i find it to be a more strategic, thoughtful game than most other sports i've witnessed.
Football can fall apart if the team isn't working together, but most other sports seem to be more based on a team of individuals.
back on topic, a Baseball MMO would probably be the best game for a sports MMO, because ultimately, every player serves dual roles, and its a lot more reliant on the individual player as opposed to team coordinated action, while still being based on teamplay. it'll be interesting to watch what happens.
Years ago I participated in an alpha of a MMO football game. It was hard to play because of the mouse/keyboard controls, but it did work and was an interesting game.
There also *is* a "MMO" hockey game. You can find it here:
http://www.kiekko.tk/?lang=en
Some Finnish folks put it together a year or two ago, and I was quite addicted for a while. Graphics aren't very good but the gameplay was quite compelling, and after you got to know certain other players you learned which ones you could rely on for defense, which ones would find ways to get open in the slot, etc...
These games would work great as MMO games if people stopped being such graphics facsists though.
Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices. -Theodor Adorno
Who mods this stuff down? Seriously? Are you that pathetic? It was already at 0! Who are you trying to hide it from, and why aren't you using your mod points for something positive?
I meta-mod all negative moderations as unfair.
Fuck off!
5 Days real time.. The excitement!!