Will Sony's push for console MMOs help sell the PS3?

I lost faith in Smedley and SOE a long time ago, its been a long time since they've done anything fun, innovative or inspired. The talent at SOE changes so often, you have to wonder what makes people flee that place as often as they do.

I thought that it was telling when Smedley stated this about EQ2 "as an MMO developer the biggest concern you have is that your staff will play your game too much, neglecting important work, we never had that problem with EQ2 and that was something that we needed to look at". This statement was after they made some major changes to the game, doing what most people felt was a knee-jerk reaction at the time to make EQ2 more like WoW.

This push to the console really saddens me, and has for awhile. I'm 34. I pretty much left consoles behind when EQ came out. I've always been a fan of SOE, from EQ, Eq2, SWG, and now I play VG. I've played lots of MMOs, but one of those has been my "main" game for years. I've tried getting back into consoles, but I always end up back with my PC. My PS2 spent a few months being a gaming machine, and the other several years it was my bedroom DVD player. Just doesnt have the same fun or social aspect imho. I hope I'm wrong, but I've been getting the feeling I'm getting pushed out of the gaming market I love.

I, for one, don't ever think that console MMO's will ever truly take off, let alone sell more consoles for the PS3. Every MMO they're releasing for the console will have a PC counterpart, and unless there was some serious design flaw that made gaming on the PC undesirable, the people that want these games will, for the most part, play them on the PC.

Personally, I don't think any of these games have much of a chance anyway. MMO's designed for the console are built more watered down as they are required to be designed to work well with a controller. Kind of reminds me of playing Gauntlet Legends in the arcade, and that experience got old pretty quick.

I think MMO's will help, but they'll need to do something new with them or they'll fizzle out fast...as a matter of fact I got one up my sleeve right now!

Let's see if I get credit for this one.

This is what I'd like to see in an MMO hunting game... It's incomplete, but I'm sure you'll get the idea

Here's a few of the basics of "My Mountain" MMO hunting game.

It's an economic hunting game.

"My Mountain" is an individual mountain that can be purchased in-game by hunters where they can privately hunt, guide, live, and make a living. ( would best be played in scrolling first person views.)

Players can eventually hunt their way to buying a "My Mountain" and build it from a simple hunting campsite to a full blown hunting lodge. Making an enormous fortune and earn the fame and respect of trying to become one of the best and reliable hunting lodges for hunting everything from rats to world record size trophies.

Only players with permission from the mountain owner are allowed to hunt on someone elses mountain. (Finding the owner can be a task until he/she establishes a certain level of reknown)

Other hunters may get permission from the "My Mountain owner" to hunt freely on that owners mountain without being guided, but may or may not be required to pay an in-game fee to do so. (That's up to the owner of the mountain.)

To guide other hunters, the owner of the mountain must have traversed all area's of the mountain first. And can only guide hunts of animals they have taken "5" or more of. (A map will reveal the area/s that have been traversed and those that have not and a list of animals that can be guide hunted will be displayed)... Players may also obtain permission to guide their own hunts on anothers mountain.

To be guided on a "My Mountain" hunt by either a mountain owner or a player who has permission to guide a hunt on that particular mountain, other hunters must obtain permission from the mountains owner. The guide of the mountain can only guide hunts they are skilled enough to lead. For a guide to be eligible to guide species specific hunts on anothers mountain, they must have harvested at least half the required species specific animals that the owner of the mountain is required to have harvested to guide. The required amount of species may have been harvested elsewhere.

"My Mountain" has all the animals and evironmental elements needed to support the animals for it's region. Such as rivers lakes, dense forest, sparse locations, caves etc.

The more the owner feeds the animals on "My Mountain" the larger they can get. Making each players mountain unique in how much they put into it... If a player decides they want to make their hawgs bigger, they must use hawg feed, same goes with all the other animals, each species has their own feed.

"My Mountain" owners will have to buy feeders and feed to feed the animals on their mountain. The feeders need to be placed by hand... The owner can set the feeders and fill them themselves, or hire players to do it... or hire an NPC to do it. Owners may also trade a day or weekend of hunting on their mountain for filling and/or placing the feeders, remote camera's and area informational devices that send valuable information about each feeder, the amount of feed in the feeder, digital camera's and photo's or video of each area that has a camera installed and operational, and the weather in that particular area.... If a player wants to trade items or weapons or services for the right to hunt on a specific mountain owners land, that can be done too..

Lodgeing, once it's built to a certain degree or level of lodge can be decorated and offer various items and services for buying, selling, renting and trading. Lodges start out a simple campsite and eventually are built into a full fledged multi faceted and beautiful hunting lodges, if so desired.

Different levels of lodges will afford the mountain owners the abilty to hold various types of hunts with vehicles that eventually leads to hunting from helicopters. (Not necessary, but very very cool)

Players earn enough money via hunts and guideing hunts before they can afford to purchase a mountain.

"My Mountain" owners can earn money with all the ways mentioned above, and possible in-game magazine, television contracts, and high brow hunters searching for the ultimate treatment in hunting.

Lodges and guides can be rated by in-game NPC's, in-game websites, tv, magazines and other players. Only players who have actually hunted on the property may rate that property. (If a customer of the owner get's a trophy animal, the player cannot rate the experience less than a 5 of 10. This will cut down on other players wrongfully rating the experience to drive up their own rankings. )

All players stats are recorded in real life via leaderboards, websites, etc.

Players may communicate, advertise services, and hunt with each other via MMO, in-game message boards etc.

It may be possible to form hunting lodge partnerships between real players and NPC's, and real players with real players if the "My Mountain Owner" wants to.

Players will not be able to fire weapons on a mountain they do not have permission to hunt on. (If animal attacks are part of the game, the hunter/s seeking the Mountain owner may protect themselves.)

If a player kills an animal they do not have permission to take, they have to pay the owner of the mountain 10X's it's worth and do not get to keep the animal (does not apply to attacking animals)... After a third wrongful kill, the player is is expelled from the property and must wait a designated amount of real time before they are allowed to return, provided the mountain owner approves. The mountain owner will know before approving any permissions if any hunter hunting their mountain has taken the wrong animals on their mountain and others mountains and which animals and the specs of each of those animals.

Animals will reproduce at a set amount but can be influenced to reproduce slower or faster depending on how the owner of the mountain controls the population of each individual species... The owner of the mountain is not in total control of the population, they can only influence it a little at a time.

Has lot's of potential for real world hunting gear developers, manufacturers, and distributors in-game advertising. (Sponsors)

That's it in a nutshell, the rest would need a greenlight for future development. (As if you couldn't figure the rest out...LOL)

Many thanks

MMO games could easily work and work well on consoles. There's more than enough horsepower under the hood to get the job done. Not to mention it would be easier on developers to code for one particular hardware configuration as opposed to hundreds, if not thousands like they would with a PC.

If it were up to me though, I wouldn't put John Smedley in charge of a potato gun. Yet S.O.E. seems content to continually set themselves up for failure with this guy.

Posted a similar train of thought on the same day, telepathic link is good to go!

http://construed.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/can-ps3-mmos-ween-us-off-the-pc/