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MMOFPS Games The Next Big Thing?
GameOgre writes "Despite a few lackluster attempts at a major MMOFPS like PlanetSide and now (in some ways) Star Wars Galaxies, could the MMOFPS genre one day rival MMORPGs in popularity
and become the next big thing in MMO gaming?" From the article: "Imagine the possibilities of the MMOFPS genre for a second. Instead of going through the tired old tread mill of generic missions and level grinding, blast through a combination of other players and intelligent bots on a massive scale. There would be no rooms or lobbies that you have to scan through to find a vacancy, but one persistent world. The game would be as simple as an FPS but would have enough depth to keep you coming back. You would also not be able to camp a certain monster for treasure, because their would be no monster or treasure." The big issue I see here is pricing. The monthly fee for Planetside is just too high for what they offer.
The monthly price for Planetside IS too high. But if a similar game was published for, say, 1/3 the price, I would definitely pay for it. I love the game, and the concept, but I play FPS in too rare of a pattern to pay the same monthly fee as for a MMORPG where i spend 20 hours a week.
My heart yearns for the age in which my trothkin and I shall finally carve our way through the surat scum of the Inner Sphere and take back that which is rightfully ours: Terra. Cradle of humanity.
The honorless freebirth will be no match for our superior technology and tactics. Glorious battles could be waged on an epic scale if only FASA had not sold themselves to Those who Shall Not be Named! What a treachery that was!
I wish it would come to pass. Battles consisting of battlemechs, elementals, aerospace fighters, infantry and more would surely call warriors together from across known space. Unfortunately it seems that Those who Shall Not be Named do not think these "intellectual properties" should be developed as the odds are against them. To those developers I have only these words: think of the victory if you should win.
May honor sharpen your steel, warriors.
World War II Online (which the article doesn't mention, even though it is about 5 years old) has a much steeper learning curve than Planetside. It demands a lot of time due to its scale - the single map is huge, and a lot of time is spent getting to a fight (and dying right away). It is also very unforgiving to the new player due to its realism. It is a "history-buff" type game - those really wanting to fly a Stuka or drive an Opel will endure the system. Planetside isn't particularly quick-paced (if you seriously care about defending acquired bases, and the base isn't contested, you'll may spend 15 minutes doing little to nothing), but it certainly moves quicker than WWIIOL. The maps are small enough to travel across relatively quickly, as long as you have the right abilities. PS isn't really ideal as a pick-up game: you may not be able to jump in and just start blasting away, like you might in your standard deathmatch. In that sense, it is a relative time sink. Planetside is more of a thinking-person's FPS.
Huxley seems more catered to small groups of players in instanced combat. The combat is probably faster, but the scale probably won't match the others. But, seeing as the game is in development and I've never experienced it firsthand, I can't really comment on how good it will be (I'll let the "article" do that for me). From what I gather though, it trades more detail and thought for "twitch"-style gaming.
Some gamers will want the historical immersion, others will want almost pure twitch, and still others will want something in-between. Unfortunately, the article doesn't consider the real variations in the genre. That's the more important discussion in my opinion - what combination or amount of elements (scale, speed and time requirements) will make MMOFPSs really take off?
If you've played that game, you'd know that it almost fits into the MMOFPS genre with being able to play on a single map with 64 people. I wouldn't want to play a massive MMOFPS with 2-4000 people though some reasons:
:P.
* Latency: Your average FPS game server will kick anyone over 200-300 ms ping because they either have some sort of a script or an active admin. An MMOFPS will be there to make money and I hardly doubt that they will be kicking paying customers off.
* Scope: The problem with MMOs is that events are always taking place wherever you are not. You're gonna need to travel an assload of distance to get wherever the current battles are taking place. What if you die? Where will you spawn? That's a major PITA. Even if they implement "spawn anywhere your team is," it's still rather annoying to find out where you can frag the most which is the beauty of simple server hopping in FPS games.
* Teamwork: Unless you have a dedicated clan, which most people won't have, you will simply be playing with a bunch of idiots who do everything to further their own gaming experience without any regard for the people on their team. An example of this in BF2 when nobody will ever stop to give you a ride, look at your landmines covering the road (and then punish your TK when they ignore the glaring red skulls), and then shoot you when you spawn and run halfway to grabbing the vehicle. Imagine that, but on a massive, thousand player scale. Fun, huh?
So, for my quick fix of shooters, I'll stick to smaller (in comparrison) games and have my fun there
The biggest issue as I see it for any MMOFPS is to avoid boredom. FPSs generally cater to people who want action, lots of it, and all the time. The word "active" best describes the state of the player. In the small maps of Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, CounterStrike, Unreal Tournament and Halo, whether you are moving or stationary there's always that chance that you'll suddenly need to blast the crap out of someone.
In a large world, that becomes more difficult. If you happen to be in the middle of nowhere, it's hard to be on edge. If you know the frontline of a huge battle is miles and miles away from the base you are defending, are you really going to say, "I'm sure glad I paid $X a month to sit here and rot."
As long as the game mechanic throws the players into the action consistantly, it can work incredibly well. It would be tricky, but doable.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
An MMOFPS has a few technical problems to work out, but in the end the only thing that matters for any MMO is community.
If you can build a healthy community around your MMO, (be it MMORPG, or MMOFPS) then you can succeed within reason. I think alot of the failure of Planetside is due to the lack of community building. IMO Planetside was a mediocre game, but its biggest fault was lack of community.
And alot of this might be attributed to the old idea of system design governs player motivation. If you have a system that primarily emphasizes ACTION on other players, then that will be the motivation of your player base. ACTION not INTERACTION.
And so in a way, FPS shooters have a disadvantage when building communities.
Now I've seen Everything