Squenix announced today the next RPG in the Final Fantasy line will actually be a MMO for both the PC and PS3, Final Fantasy XIV. So far what the trailer has showed me is that it will be based in the same world as Final Fantasy XI but obviously updated. I’m not a fan of FFXI personally, so I sincerely hope they don’t take the gameplay down the same path for FFXIV.
[Trailer]
I wish I still had my original box.
Asheron’s Call (AC) was one of the first MMO’s that I played in my gaming career. Just after I got into the original Everquest, a little company by the name of Turbine Inc. (later developed Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online) developed Asheron’s Call, released by Microsoft on November 2, 1999. I was quickly attracted and got right into it.
I’ll admit right away that I never got max level or played much high end content, but I did play a good amount of Asheron’s Call on most fronts.
Asheron’s Call takes place on the Isle of Dereth on the planet Auberean. The character you play is part of a race of nomads named the Isparians after the harsh battles with the alien Race the Olthoi.
The best thing is AC is still up and running and you can still experience it at the Asheron’s Call Home Page. Try the 14-Day trial.
Asheron’s Call did a lot of things very well. Like Ultima Online before it, it ditched the conventional classes of Everquest and future MMO’s for a skill based advancement. Instead of choosing your class when you create your character, once in-game you have a large library of skills such as weapons skills (Swords, Maces, Bows, Crossbows), crafting skills (Alchemy, Cooking, Fletching) and Magic Skills (War Magic, Life Magic, Item Enchantment) to spend your experience points on. Here is a full list.
Although the game did have levels, which went up to 275 as of the latest updates, the number of your level was largely arbitrary. It was merely a measure of how much experience you have gained on your character. But how powerful your character is is solely based on how you spent your experience points on your skills and attributes. So a level 100 character can have the same amount of hit points as a level 10, it just depends on how many experience points you spent in your Health/Endurance.
This made it so you can play your character in any way you please. You were not restricted to one set of skills as a class and that was it.
PvP Kill
AC was the first MMO to feature a completely seamless and open 3D world. If you see a mountain off in the distance, there is nothing stopping you from running over to it and scaling it. You never know what you might find at the top. The only loading screens during gameplay was entering and exiting dungeons.
AC also had a very interesting guild system. Instead of guilds, there was a system of Patrons and Vassals called . One player would take another player under their wing becoming a Patron. The other player becoming a Vassal. From there the Patron can then take on other Vassals, then those Vassals will become Patrons to other players, on and on and on. In the end you get a pyramid of players in one allegiance starting with the original Patron down to his vassal’s, vassal’s, vassal’s, vassal, etc. This also made it easy to get started as a new player because there were always players in starter towns looking for vassals.
Lastly, one of the best aspects of Asheron’s Call was its originality. There were no orcs, elves, dwarves, and gnomes. The character you played was a part of a race of humanoids named the Isparians. Within that you chose your ethnicity of Isparian to represent your background.
The creatures and NPC’s you meet in Asheron’s Call are all completely unique in their own rights and made the Isle of Dereth really seem like a completely alien planet (which it is).
One last tidbit was that there was an Asheron’s Call 2 that was released in November of 2002. Unfortunately, due to the lack of interest, the servers were permanently shut down in December of 2005.
There is a lot more I can say about Asheron’s Call, but I think the best thing would be to actually check it out and see what you were missing. And if you have played it before, why not try it again?
Current MMO developers should definitely take a page out of AC’s book, because it was brilliant back then and still holds water to this day.
Farewell.
Word has come down from Ubisoft that the severs for Shadowbane will officially be closed on July 1st 2009, permanently [Press Release]. Previously set as May 1st, it has been extended for two months, so now is a great time to check it out if you’ve never tried it. It’s absolutely free to make an account and download the game. I know I will be.
Admittedly, I never got far in Shadowbane (barely beyond the starting areas). I followed the game during its development cycle but was saddened when it came out to bad reviews. Shadowbane was stricken with poor graphics (even for its time), a clunky interface, and was bug ridden. But what Shadowbane did correctly was be the first MMO since Ultima Online to actually capture the true open PvP vibe. It was full open PvP and guild city building and seiges. When it was in its prime it was considered one of the finest PvP centered MMO’s available. Unfortunately that time came around the WoW era. Another great MMO taken down by theme-park garbage MMO’s.
Get more Shadowbane info at Shadowbane Chonicles.
This is part one of a series of articles I’m writing about the “Free To Play”/Korean/Anime style MMOG’s you see all over the place.
This is an easy one, just put a half-naked anime chick and the name of the game and you’re pretty much good to go.
(Names blurred out to protect the innocent)
Likewise, if you want to market the game to a different, more action oriented crowd, just add scantly clad ‘armored’ anime chicks.
Finally, if you want to increase your overall ad clicks, just add multiple half-naked anime chicks.
Remember, the more skin showing, the better the game is. Only thing left is to make the spell effects twice as flashy and annoying as before.
Pass those boring WoW moments with artificialy added fun!
A “marvelous” new add-on for World of Wacraft, now you can play the popular PopCap game Peggle in your World of Warcraft interface.
I’ve said this before with Bejewled and I will say it again, if you need some artificial way to kill time inside of your game because it’s boring, that then is bad… no, horrible design. It’s like injecting a tasty marinade in really poor quality meat. It may have added flavor, but in the end it’s still a bad steak.
Sorry Blizzard, but you get another Fail count.
World of Warcraft: The Theme Park
All is not lost.
As a continuation of my previous post, My Kingdom for a Sandbox: My Dream MMO, I would like to further outline the current state of MMORPG’s, and also what is still right around the corner.
There are currently two camps to MMO play styles. There are “Theme Park” MMO’s and “Sandbox” MMO’s. According to upcoming Sandbox MMO, Mortal Online, I quote in their FAQ:
The overwhelming majority of MMORPG’s today belong to the Theme Park category. A Theme Park is often carefully planned and can deliver some very unique attractions. On the other hand, the attractions usually require you to be of a certain age or length to ride them, you have to stand in line, and none or minimal interaction is needed from your part. Like a real theme park it always looks the same and chances are you grow tired of the rides after 20 times or so, unless the theme park creates new exiting rides to keep the park entertaining.”
I place World of Warcraft (WoW) as the prime suspect in this camp. As I mentioned last time, I am a long time veteran of WoW. I played in the open beta and the day the game was officially released. I was the first to hit level 60 within my group of friends and have been on multiple raids. But the attractions in WoW became increasingly boring to me and all the new content that was released after Burning Crusade just did not peak my interests. It was the same old grind. Raids took too long with little reward and PvP was fun at first but just became another grind. My last login to WoW was July 3rd of 2007.
Many are quick to judge World of Warcraft of muddying the MMO waters, leading to a slew of half-assed clones of the ‘winning’ WoW formula. Star Wars Galaxies was one of the hardest hit victims of WoW’s popularity when SoE/Lucasarts decided to scrap everything that made the game good and turn it into another cookie cutter Theme Park MMO. It is not World of Warcraft’s fault though. It is not Blizzard’s fault for making a smash hit game that made them eleventy bajillion dollars (not an accurate figure).
It is the fault of the publishers and developers that are not thinking outside the box and trying to deliver a unique playing experience in a new MMO game. Not a re-hash of World of Warcraft under a different coat of paint. It is also the fault of the consumers who cannot see beyond the world of Azeroth of what is possible in a MMO game. But the same thing can be said in the music industry as well.
It is not the fault of the Jonas Brothers or Coldplay that the most popular, thus most profitable music totally sucks. They are in fact smart because they make music for mass appeal. That is what makes the big bucks in that industry. That is not what good music makes, it’s just what works. Blizzard designed World of Warcraft for mass appeal in mind. And I reiterate, that is not what I am currently looking for, and I am not alone in this.
Luckily, there are three MMO games currently in development that I’d like to speak about. I touched briefly on two of these already, but there is one more I’d like to add. Each have their own pro’s and con’s but the one thing they have in common is they are unique in gameplay and are all considered a sandbox MMO game.
First I’d like to mention again is Darkfall Online, from Aventurine S.A., a Greek based developer. It offers real-time combat and a skill based advancement system. It is touted to have 500 different skills and 500 different spells to make an extraordinarily unique character. Darkfall is Free-For-All Player vs. Player, so anyone can kill anyone at any time and take all of their belongings. There are 6 races in Darkfall. Humans, Elves (or the Mirdain), Dwarves, Mahirim (Wolf People), Orks, and Alfar (kinda like Dark Elves). The Humans, Elves, and Dwarves are allied with each other while the Mahirim and Orks are allied. The Alfar are enemies with all other races. PvP in the game is very risky and can lead to drastic consequences for you actions, but with that comes a rewarding playing experience. Because it is easy to be killed in Darkfall and lose all your items, the game has little emphasis on epic or legendary items. Truthfully, most of the items in the game are made my players to help keep people equipped at all times. This will drive the player economy with heavy needs on resources. To top it all off, clans or guilds in the game can construct their own player cities which can then be attacked by other clans.
The downsides of Darkfall are many however. Darkfall’s development started back in 2001 by the company Razorwax. Down the road it was acquired by Aventurine. The game has a large number of screenshots, but not much to speak of in terms of videos however. There are only a small handful of videos that I can mention and they don’t really show much of the game’s features. Beta for the game has been promised 3 or 4 times in the last 5 years and now the game is constantly getting assaulted by vaporware allegations. Supposedly, there is a comprehensive video going over all of Darkfall’s features that is coming out some time in August. I will wait to see what the video has to offer. If however this video doesn’t blow my socks off, I do not have much hope for the remainder of Darkfall’s development.
On to the next game, which I talked about before is Fallen Earth. Fallen Earth is being developed by Icarus Studios in North Carolina, USA. Based on a post-apocalyptic world after the release of a deadly virus nearly wiped out humanity, nuclear weapons were set off to destroy the remnants of the virus. 90% of humanity was killed. The game takes place in and around the Grand Canyon. It also serves up a completely skill based advancement system with real time combat. It has six different factions for you to join and they all fight against each other for their ideals. The game features an extremely involved crafting system, where crafting items actually takes time to complete, therefore warranting to be paid for time spent making someone else an item. There are not only animal mounts in the game but also vehicles of different types, including cars, trucks, buggies and motorcycles. There are areas of the game that are Free-for-All PvP and clans can wage war against each other. Towns in the game can be defended from attacks of NPC monsters/bandits and can be attacked by members of enemy factions. It features a completely open landscape to explore and lots to do. Some of the features promised after release include player constructed towns and multi-person vehicles.
The development of Fallen Earth is a lot more promising. There are plenty of screenshots and a lot of nice videos of the game in action (one, two, three). Alpha testing is set to begin Mid-August and run until early 2009 where they hope to have an official beta for the game begin. Hoping to see the game release by Q3-Q4 2009.
The third and final game I’d like to discuss, which is a recent discovery by myself is Mortal Online. Mortal Online is being developed by Star Vault AB, based in Sweden. It has a lot of the same features as Darkfall Online, but in a much prettier package.
In Mortal Online we want you to be free. We create a world for you with a minimum of rules but with endless possibilities, meaning you decide the path and goals of your progress, and where your actions are reflected back upon the world. As you decide the fate of your characters during their lifetime, responsibilities and consequences arise with many different options to choose from… “
Utilizing the Unreal 3 engine, MO will feature FFA PvP with full looting, player built houses and keeps, and skill based advancement with real-time combat. One interesting feature about Mortal Online is how it handles things like raid/rare monsters, events, or quests is when they are completed or killed, they don’t come back again. Ever. So what I am hoping to see is some real world changing events going on in the game. For example, say a demon from the depths of the underworld appears in some remote area of the world. He builds an army and starts to wage war on all the nations of the world. Once a certain number of guilds in the game come together and they defeat the demon, he is gone forever and the actions of the event leaves permanent scars on the world and on the players.
Mortal Online was announced back in April ’08 and has a projected release date of Summer ’09. Whether they can actually hit that date, we’ll just have to wait and find out. Star Vault this year will have a booth at GCDC in Leipzig, Germany, so I am hoping to see some new MO info come out around that time.
One main thing in common about all three of these MMO games is they all feature real-time combat. So your skills as a player is just as paramount as the skills your character has gained. That helps to even the playing field in PvP by allowing a high skilled player with a newer character defeat players that have played longer but might not be as skilled at playing the game.
Those are my top three MMO’s currently on the docket for release. Which ones I’ll end up playing in the future will depend on what comes out first and which ones end up being a better game. What I do know for sure is I will not be going back to Theme Park MMO’s ever again.
A sandbox can be a pretty fun place, especially in the video gaming world. Sometimes you might get sand in your shoes or some bully destroys your sand castle, but that is the consequence and risk of the sandbox. So why am I looking for a sandbox? Because when a sandbox is done correctly, there is no better place to spend your gaming time.
If you’ve spent any time playing MMO’s in the past 5-6 years, you will know exactly what I am getting at. If you are getting lost with the sandbox analogy, let me lay it out for you. A sandbox in gaming terms is a game that is completely open world, where you can go and do whatever you wish. The easiest game I can point to as an example is the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series. The world is completely open and you can run around and do what you want. There is still a linear story line to be told, but you can follow that whenever you wish and can complete objectives in any way you see fit.
To me, that is the best type of game. That is one reason why the GTA games have sold so well. But that is not the genre I am leading up to. If there is any genre that can easily benefit from a well designed sandbox it’s MMORPGs; and as of right now, there are currently none to speak of.
Best way to describe what I am looking for is to look into the past for inspiration. One off the top of my head was Asheron’s Call (AC). I’m an old player of AC back in 2000 and I’m currently playing the 14-day trial to rediscover some of the great aspects of it. Asheron’s Call had a lot of great sandbox elements, primarily in character classes and the way you improve in the game. You see, there are no set classes in Asheron’s Call and there are no actual levels in the game. You might inspect someone’s avatar and it will tell you what “level” they are, but in reality, levels in Asheron’s Call are just a measure of how many experience points one has gained. Those experience points are in turn spent on your attributes and skills. So instead of having a standard class you choose at your character’s creation, you get a large pool of skills to build off of. Everything from using swords, bows, and spears, to different schools of magic casting, trade skills, and then some. Feel like playing a Healer Mage that uses claw weapons? Go right ahead. That in the end makes character progression in itself a sandbox.
My second big MMO of the past was Ultima Online (UO). This is the ‘OG’ in the MMORPG world and is still considered by most the best sandbox game ever made. Unfortunately, I wasn’t into the MMORPG scene until the first Everquest, so I don’t have much of any first hand experience with UO. But what I know of it, you had the potential to pretty much do anything you wanted to do.
My best comparison to my limited knowledge of UO however is best substituted by the early days of Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). I was playing SWG the day it was released, and overall it was great. It had a unique skill system, open ended gameplay, player cities, great crafting system, and the rare chance of becoming a Jedi. At first it had its share of bugs, some game crippling. For example, one of the first professions in the game I tried to go for was called the Commando. You were able to become a specific type of character based on what skills you developed the most. You could also be a Bounty Hunter, Combat Medic, a variety of different craftsmen, and much more. Of course once I was able to become a Commando, the class was pretty much broken at the that time. There was no armor for me to wear or weapons for me to use as my new profession.
Eventually the game matured and around 2005-2006 is when most people agreed the game went full circle and was at its peak. Unfortunately however, with World Of Warcraft (WoW) on the scene raking in the money by the truck loads, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE, the developers and publishers of SWG), decided to totally scrape the great things about the game and turn it into a class based system like most other MMO’s. That lead to the eventual fallout of the core SWG players and the fall of the game from grace. It was truly the end of an era.
Since then it’s been nothing but WoW style, linear MMO’s to play.
So on to my final point, what kind of MMORPG I’m a looking for now? One that can combine what MMO’s of yore did with technology of today. One that has a wold that is open to do what you want, however you want, and uses an open-ended skill pool for advancement rather than your standard class based advancement.
Two games currently in development that I’m looking forward to are called Fallen Earth (FE) and Darkfall (DF). Starting with Darkfall, the game has no levels and it is completely skill based advancement. It has real time combat for intense fights and a leveled playing field where player skill matters big time. The world is completely open for exploration and is full PVP! So anyone can attack anyone else and take all of their possessions. This makes it mandatory to find friends to be with otherwise you might be out in the wilderness all by yourself and get slaughtered by your racial enemy or a group of bandits that just want your stuff. There are six races you can play. Humans, Elves (or the Mirdain), Dwarves, Mahirim (Wolf People), Orks, and Alfar (kinda like Dark Elves). The Humans, Elves, and Dwarves are allied with each other while the Mahirim and Orks are allied. The Alfar are enemies with all other races. PVP in the game is very risky and can lead to drastic consequences for you actions, but with that comes a rewarding playing experience. To top it all off, clans or guilds in the game can construct their own player cities which can then be attacked by other clans.
Fallen Earth is based on a post-apocalyptic United States. The game takes place in and around the Grand Canyon. It also serves up a completely skill based advancement system with real time combat. It has six different factions for you to join and they all fight against each other for their ideals. The game also has an extremely involved crafting system, where crafting items actually takes time to complete therefore warranting to be paid for time spent making someone else an item. Again it features a completely open landscape to explore and lots to do.
Both of these games do not have release dates yet but are nearing completion. I am hoping to be playing either of them by early 2009.
The main reason why we are not seeming more games like this recently is mostly due in part to World of Warcraft. WoW, although I am a long time veteran of the game, now holds a place of disdain for me. Because of their huge success, most developers and publishers see that and try to copy its “winning formula.” That in turn produces a slew of really poorly designed, class-based linear MMORPGs which I just don’t find as a rewarding playing experience anymore.
In truth, these sandbox games are mainly for a niche market and the developers/publishers do not see them as the cash cows they are hoping for. As it currently stands however, there are a lot of people like me looking for the same thing. I believe whichever game is able to fill that niche first will be a huge success.
Here’s hoping.
Melanko's Gamer Blog 