Free for All

You know what I love about the MMORTS? It's the massive scale of everything involved. But it's not as though you are hand-crafting every single siege engine or raising armies of monsters one baddie at a time; that would simply take too long. The MMORTS is really a casual genre that is equal to playing with your action figures on a Saturday afternoon when you were nine years old. Don't let its casual nature fool you; just like those battles between plastic toys, the wars that can happen in your favorite MMORTS can suck you in and keep you glued to the screen for hours.

It's going to happen to you at some point. Some bigshot is going to send a round of spies, estimate that you're easy pickings, and throw a fresh batch of hurt your way. What do you do? The good news is that it can be a thrilling experience almost every time if you follow a few basic guidelines.

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There's something distinctly unfair about being an American fantasy fan. If you enjoy all of the movies or run around in all of the wonderful fantasy landscapes you'll quickly notice how un-American the inhabitants are. Sure, monsters or knights in a fantasy MMO don't really belong to any one nationality or time, but they are more likely to sound like they're from England rather than Long Island. It's not fair. What do Americans have in their past that is anything as cool as knights and swords?

Actually, we've had some pretty cool stuff over here as well. And, if you think about it, a lot of it is pretty much like a more recent middle ages... sort of. The thought sunk in as I was looking at Salem, a hardcore free-for-all PvP MMO by Paradox Interactive. Then the thought really sunk in when I recently fell in love with The West by Innogames, a German publisher.

America has a very primitive, and recent, past that had to feel a lot like a time of magic and wonder to those who were in it. Why aren't we seeing more Western MMOs or games set in the time of the founding of our country?

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Last weekend, I spent some time with Ecol Tactics, a new turn-based MMO brought to us by Games Campus. It features a lot of the same mechanics we have seen before, similar art design to other titles, and a browser-based, Flash-based accessibility that is always welcome. Sure, I was able to enjoy it for only several hours, but during that time, I noted just why Anime and turn-based combat is still successful and why Ecol Tactics is wise to take such a successful genre and launch a new title within it.

Anime is easy to digest. The characters on the screen feel chunky but agile. There's something instantly likeable about the characters in Ecol Tactics. They are detailed like an army of miniature soldiers. Wisely, the developers show you some high-level spells and combat before you even get out of the newbie area. I have to admit that I looked forward to the day I would be able to lay waste to a half-dozen monsters with a single swipe of my weapon.

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I've tried to explain my love for a bit of melodrama several times over the years. It's sort of a hard thing to explain. I like a good bit of "sad" in my MMOs when I can get it, and I can say that I enjoy some measure of drama as well. Sure, many MMOs have a dramatic storyline quest here or there, but more often than not, the game forgets to be a world and rushes us off into yet another combat assignment.

The fact is that it's very hard to find the balance. We all want a good story, but many of us just want to get to the good stuff. The loot. The treasure. The virtual glory. I've had a hard time explaining my want for a game that makes me feel real emotion and explaining why I enjoy those feelings. Well, the PBS Idea Channel on YouTube did it much better than I ever could, and it used the popular Cartoon Network series Adventure Time as the perfect example of why nostalgia is a powerful and universal thing.

When it comes to video games, I believe nostalgia is even more powerful than loot.

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As I have pointed out before and will likely point out again, the MMORTS represents one of the most common genres in MMOs today -- and one of the worst ones for repetitive design. If you've played one MMORTS, you haven't played them all, but you've played pretty damn near to them all. I love the genre luckily so I am able to wade through literally scores of these games in the hopes of finding those rare gems that make me think that the genre is still very valuable.

There are a lot of reasons the MMORTS is so common, number one being ease of delivery. After all, the gameplay in an MMORTS is more MMO-like than most MMOs out there, thanks to layers of persistence. Creating a series of barely animated images has to be much easier than creating an entire 3-D world; surely that has something to do with the spread of the genre.

I played yet another one over the last several days, this time Alliance Warfare. Is it different? Does it just simply repeat the same designs and mechanics from every other MMORTS? Well, yes and no.

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It's time once again for the Frindie Awards, my attempt to shine some light on the best indie, browser-based, free-to-play, and unusual MMOs that are all-too-often ignored by press -- and players. This one is for the little guys! Well, mostly. It's also for those games that seem to have passed under the collective radar of Massively readers or that seem to be very misunderstood.

Picking the winners this year is just as hard as it was last year, maybe even harder. 2012 was an incredible year for MMOs, so I would rather have just put together an article that highlights every single favorite. In the end, it's more helpful to make myself pick out a winner. It's a rare thing for some of these games to even receive a nod on a major website, something I still can't figure out. Either way, it's best to think of all of the MMOs on this list as my favorites from 2012.

Anyway, let's get to the awards!

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I was thrilled when I read a recent news post about one of my favorite MMOs, Wurm Online, finally releasing to the public. Wait a second, releasing? I've been enjoying the game, spending money on it, and forming a Massively village over the last few years. I also know that the game was running -- and charging -- before that. So how do the developers explain the game's recent switch to "released"?

What it means is Wurm will contain the (improved) features that we consider make the game marketable. We will finally have character customization, visible armour, multi-story buildings and nicer looking creatures.

This is the kind of statement that leaves players like yours truly a bit baffled. I think that posts and delayed "releases" like this are actually damaging to the game in a subtle way. In fact, this week I decided to look at games like Wurm that coast along under the "beta" banner for a long time, for good and bad.

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So the 'rents finally came through for you this year, skipping the toaster or pair of socks and giving you gift cards for your favorite MMOs? Brilliant! Now, what do you do with all of that virtual cash? Not so fast! If you blow through that pile of pixelated dough, you're sure to regret it later. Not to worry, though; I've taken the trouble to list several methods for not only getting the most out of your internet bucks but keeping the waves of impulsive goodness washing over you for some time after.

How did I do it? Well, research really. I spent the last several years playing MMOs and spending money in cash shops. I've made plenty of buying decisions that I regretted later, so let my sufferings serve as example for you.

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There are a few divisive topics that I can bring up in my columns that will be guaranteed to not only bring in the comments but light a fire to the comments section. I've learned that browser choice is a hot topic. PvP versus PvE will always cause players to erupt. Mac or PC? That topic will not end in civil discussion.

If I really want to hurt a reader's feelings, cause insults to be hurled at me, and provoke readers to accuse me of attempting to bring game development -- real game development -- to its knees, I can bring up graphics and gaming power. As in gaming rig. But I'll be brave this week and explain just why I prefer more primitive graphics over high-end visuals.

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Subscriptions are a funny thing. For as long as I can remember, they've represented a level of quality to many gamers. To those players, only those funny Eastern MMOs didn't have a sub. Granted, I loved a lot of those funny Eastern games and didn't care how a game monetized itself. Watching Western players spin on a dime about subscriptions has been a pretty weird experience. The Western developers have changed as well, providing tiered services and other models that would have been seen as suspicious only years ago.

I've been known as a free-to-play guy for a while. Heck, I was originally hired here at Massively to cover free-to-play games. Now that there are more free games than not, this column has spread out a bit, covering multiple topics. Payment models do still come up, as they did this week. I thought it'd be cool to examine the subs I do maintain and why -- not press accounts or accounts from long before I began working at Massively, but accounts that I choose to pay for with my own money.

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Before this free trial weekend for Guild Wars 2, I had spent a total of around an hour and a half in the game. I also spent more time watching my wife play the game during beta. Our PCs, at the time, were in the same office, if that helps you picture just how much exposure I had. At first, neither one of us was impressed; it felt like RIFT 2.0. That's not entirely a negative; while RIFT is not my favorite game and while I have not played beyond something like level 17, I do respect the game and think it is a high-quality game. Both games are wonderfully crafted.

So when Massively's Elisabeth Cardy shared a buddy key with me last week, I knew I'd be able to finally clear up some of the fog surrounding the title for me. I'd spend a good part of the weekend playing the game -- plenty of time for a fresh first impressions. Here's what I thought.

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Spacetime Studios' newest title, Arcane Legends, which just launched officially yesterday, didn't quite excite me at first. This was before I had played the game or really caught a glimpse of any in-game artwork, but after three titles, I'd been wondering whether Spacetime could change its tune a bit. The last three titles have been basically the same game, albeit set in different genres and universes. First we were given Pocket Legends, a fantasy dungeon-crawler that surprised us with how much content and fun was to be had inside. Then we got Star Legends, a sci-fi version with a few tweaks. Next up came Dark Legends, a vampire-themed modern adventure that introduced us to action-based combat with a more "adult" tone.

It's not that all of the previous titles were no fun to play. Instead, each one offers a smooth experience that's easy to jump into and sometimes hard to put down. But each one felt a bit more like a variant on a previous model, a build-up to something more finalized and slick.

Is Arcane Legends that better product? Did it take three tries to finally get things right in the Legends line?

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I enjoy the heck out of DC Universe Online. It's a fantastically fun, action-based romp through a wonderfully drawn universe of wacky characters and amazing adventures. Even for someone who never really enjoyed almost anything that DC Comics has released (Superman? Ha!) the game provides tons of linear, quest-based fun when I want it or loose, open-world destruction when I feel like exploring. I have to admit that the game did not seem that complex or deep when I first started playing it but now I see how much has been added and just how much can be done with what seemed like a limited.

This is no perfect relationship, however. I have some issues with the game. Of course I am not a typical player and have not yet climbed my way to the top of the level mountain, so many of the issues I have will more-than-likely not be the same issues most other gamers have. I just don't worry about stuff like lock-out timers or loot drops. That stuff's all part of the math of the game, and that bores me.

No, my gripes stem from customization or making the game your own. So, at the risk of making it seem like I dislike the game in some way, here's my list of five things I want to see either go away or be remedied.

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It's always a lot of fun to compare casual players to hardcore players. We've all seen many articles and had our own discussions on the topic and it never seems to stop being entertaining. After all, how much or how intensely a player plays an MMO can help predict how that player might react to market changes or to new titles, so we can easily see how developers will always be interested in the information even when we tire of it.

For me, personally, I would rather skip the whole discussion and just talk about how I play casually. I can list hours played and titles accessed, but I think it would be a better idea to sketch out a rough but typical day or week in my household to illustrate just how someone who considers himself casual is actually quite committed. Does that mean I am hardcore in certain cases? I don't care anymore, frankly. What I care about is seeing if how I play is completely alien or if there are other players out there who love to do what I do.

Let's call it a cry for help... or at least information.

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Ah, Dragon Nest -- you are one of my favorite action MMOs. Truth be told, you're currently ranked above Vindictus in this household. I know, I know... but don't judge me until you have played through the new content that is being released today and until you watch my embedded video. It shows just how dramatic, well-scripted, and fun dungeons in Dragon Nest can be.

I was given a level 45 character, a Lunar Knight, one of the new classes coming with this patch, to try out on the test server. The saddest part is that I haven't reached anywhere near level 45 on my current Warrior, even though I have learned his abilities well and enjoyed the heck out of him during my 24-hour stream. Unfortunately I didn't utilize the powerset from the Lunar Knight in the video much, instead using my familiar Warrior abilities. I was also given a nice set of Sea Dragon Armor, a mount, and a killer sword -- after all, a naked level 45 character would be sad.

I loaded up and jumped in, and here's what I found.

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