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Free for All: New browser-based converts shine light on issues

Beau Hindman — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Bugs, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, MMORTS, Free for All, Miscellaneous

I recently threw out a prediction that within five years, most of our MMO content will be coming through our browsers. To be more specific, I think that most players in the United States will be enjoying their favorite MMOs within a browser. That can mean several things but does not refer to games like Free Realms, a client-based game that is only signed-into at the browser level. As with any discussion about genres, mechanics or styles in the MMO world, I have to be very specific.

It's pretty likely that a very large percentage of the US playerbase is already playing browser-based games. Look at the American market for games like RuneScape, Battlestar Galactica Online, Club Penguin, Drakensang Online, Evony, and Ministry of War and you might just find millions of players.

Next we need to consider that there are more games coming into the browser market. This new batch is essentially a group of standard, client-based MMOs that are porting themselves to the browser. I tend to be a little skeptical about some of these in the short-term, for several reasons.

Continue reading Free for All: New browser-based converts shine light on issues

Free for All: New browser-based converts shine light on issues originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMObility: A few bad design apples ruin the whole bunch

Beau Hindman — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Historical, Screenshots, Business models, Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, MMORTS, MMObility

The MMORTS genre is easily one of my favorite genres. There's so much potential in a game that is essentially a giant, endless boardgame with thousands of players. An epic scale occurs in even the smallest of titles because players control not only one or two grand heroes but entire armies that swarm from sprawling cities. Though many of Massively's readers might not hear a lot from the genre, I believe this genre to be one of the most popular out there. Browser-based access doesn't hurt, either, and generally the MMORTS titles I find do a great job of covering their design bases.

You know I have to play Devil's Advocate, however. Despite the fact that the genre is packed full of potentially wonderful gaming sessions, there is so, so much that needs to improve. The negative stereotypes exist for a reason, and I want to shine a light on a few of the more popular titles to show just how one or two bad design and business decisions might reflect poorly on the entire genre.

Continue reading MMObility: A few bad design apples ruin the whole bunch

MMObility: A few bad design apples ruin the whole bunch originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Soapbox: My MMORTS is more MMO than your MMORPG

Beau Hindman — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, MMORTS, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous

Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.

Have you ever played an MMORTS? No, I'm not talking about a single-player PC strategy game or city sim; I mean an MMORTS. There are so many to choose from that it would be hard for me to even begin to list them all, but I'll try. There's Illyriad, Ministry of War, Evony, Call of Gods, Dragons of Atlantis, Thirst of Night, 8Realms, Lord of Ultima, Golden Age and many, many others. Either you recognize some of those titles or you do not. Oddly enough, I've found that many standard, three-dimensional-world explorers do not consider MMORTS titles to be MMOs. I'm not sure why, but every time I stream an MMORTS live or write about one, I have to answer, at least once, the concern from the audience that what I am playing is not really an MMO.

The reality is that the MMORTS, as a design mechanic, genre, and style, is very much an MMO. I'd like to explain why in the hopes that many of you might grow to enjoy the genre as much as I do and that some much-needed light shines on the fact that the MMORTS is actually one of the last true MMOs around.

I think the task is to define "MMO" and to show how MMORTS fits in. We've attempted it before, but for a quick refresher, let's go over what I consider an MMO to be. You can add your own definitions in the comments section. I have no problems admitting that my definition could probably use some tweaking.

Continue reading The Soapbox: My MMORTS is more MMO than your MMORPG

The Soapbox: My MMORTS is more MMO than your MMORPG originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMObility: Checking out 8Realms from Jagex

Beau Hindman — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Screenshots, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Hands-on, Casual, MMORTS, MMObility

Jagex, maker of the very popular browser-based MMO RuneScape, has branched out into the world of the MMORTS. I call this a good thing, especially since I am such a fan of the genre. There are literally scores and scores of the strategy-based city builders out there. Many of them not only are similar to each other but offer nothing new, not even a slight twist in design. I have a few favorites like Illyriad, Golden Age, and Aloriah, so I was eager to jump into this new one, given that it is made by one of my favorite design studios.

8realms seems to sport a unique design. Players are asked to build up their cities and advance through different ages, from ancient times all the way up to the modern day. A trailer on the front page of the official website shows a commander admiring his army of sword- and spearmen, until suddenly a modern-day jet fighter nukes them to smithereens. All I could think was, "Is this game balanced?"

If you would like to join in on the fun along with me, you can join in VIP access by going to the official site and using the code MASSIVELY15 when prompted. Then come back and click past the cut to hear all about my experience!

Continue reading MMObility: Checking out 8Realms from Jagex

MMObility: Checking out 8Realms from Jagex originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rise and Shiny Recap: Evony

Beau Hindman — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Video, Business models, Culture, Previews, PvP, Opinion, Browser, Hands-on, Casual, MMORTS, Humor, Rise and Shiny, Livestream

Yes, you read the title correctly. This week I revisited Evony. But don't worry -- I tend to write about a game's gameplay and how it made me feel, not the politics surrounding it, especially during a time when people are talking more about an instance of poor taste in lieu of a discussion about how fun the game is. In other words, I will only speak about the infamous Evony ads at the end of this column. if you want more opinionated stuff, check out our Soapbox column!

I knew going in that the game had changed since I last played it. I also knew that it would not blow me away as far as gameplay is concerned, simply because I have played scores of MMORTS games over the last year. But what did I find? What was good and bad about the game? And what about those ads?

Click past the cut and we'll chat about it.

Continue reading Rise and Shiny Recap: Evony

Rise and Shiny Recap: Evony originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MV Guide: November 14-20, 2011

Rubi Bayer — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Massively Meta, Livestream, Miscellaneous, MV Guide

MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively TV.

Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During our streamed events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, streaming is subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.)

We've got some exciting MV TV news this week: We're changing the channel! We've moved to Twitch TV, and we think you're going to love the new look. You can still access the old livestream archives at our Livestream.com channel, but beginning today, everything new will be shown and saved on our Twitch TV channel.

Ready to see what's on MV TV this week? Follow along after the jump and take a look!

Continue reading MV Guide: November 14-20, 2011

MV Guide: November 14-20, 2011 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively mammillary online: Evony hires model to be the... face of the game

Justin Olivetti — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, Events, in-game, Free-to-play, Browser, Humor, Miscellaneous

Quick -- what's missing in your life? No, not your dog; that beast is never coming back and you might as well get used to it. We're talking about Evony's tasteful, classy, and omnipresent chest-centric ads that had absolutely nothing to do with the gameplay itself.

While Evony eventually replaced those ads with ones that showed elements from the actual game, it was only a matter of time before the bosoms of glory returned. To solve the crisis of the irrelevant breasts, the game studio hired a model to portray an in-game character, Eva, in a new series of ads.

According to the press release, Eva was chosen by the game's players to find the right look for the person to represent the game. Eva will be displayed as both a real model and cartoon version. Undoubtedly, this is the high point of civilization as we know it, and everything will go downhill from here.

Massively mammillary online: Evony hires model to be the... face of the game originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Disabled man uses Evony to call for help during house fire

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, News items, Free-to-play, MMORTS, Miscellaneous

If a toaster caught on fire in your kitchen, it would be a small matter for most of us to put it out. Not so much for Bob Chambers, a 51-year-old Indiana man suffering from Muscular Dystrophy. While playing Evony, a Facebook MMO, in his living room, Chambers noticed the smoke but was powerless to put it out, get to the phone or flee the house.

So instead, Chambers asked his fellow Evony players for help, who in turn called the police and fire department to save the man. Initially, the 911 dispatcher wasn't sure whether the call was a joke or not, but he contacted the proper authorities anyway. The fire was quickly put out and Chambers kept from harm.

Chambers' wife used to dislike Evony, but now she has a different perspective on her husband's hobby: "I hated this game because he doesn't pay attention to me or anything else in the house. Now I've got to bite my tongue because it saved his life quite possibly."

[Via Kotaku]

Disabled man uses Evony to call for help during house fire originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blogger sued by Evony for defamation, libel

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, News items, Legal, MMORTS

Serve me now, my lord!

Blogger Bruce Everiss, author of the website BruceOnGames.com, has been sued by Evony LLC, the company behind the notorious online webgame Evony, formerly Civony. The suit stems from Bruce's Evony coverage and critical stance towards the game, including his assertions that Evony LLC is a company under the WoWmine.org network (a site that is allegedly part of a World of Warcraft gold farming network), his statements concerning the company being based in China, and that their game has infringed on other game IPs, including Civilization and Age of Empires.

Evony usually comes under fire for their very transparent marketing strategy, which is usually slapping a hot woman (who has nothing to do with their civilization/empire building MMORTS) onto an ad to entice gamers to click. However, as we posted prior, some bloggers have found some content that was directly ripped off from Civilization and Age of Empires, however the Age of Empires assets have been removed from the current iteration of the game.

Continue reading Blogger sued by Evony for defamation, libel

Blogger sued by Evony for defamation, libel originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Comment spam, lewd advertising, and stolen assets abound for Evony

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, Free-to-play, MMORTS

If you've been on the internet for longer than five minutes then you've probably run into ads for Evony, an online free-to-play browser real-time strategy game. The game is a medieval MMORTS, but you probably wouldn't be able to figure that out from some of their recent advertisements, most of which center around lingerie and women.

The game's unorthodox marketing strategy has been a target of the blogosphere for some time, starting back when they were still called Civony instead of their current title. During that time the company was caught by bloggers for stealing images without permission from other sites and using them for their game's marketing. Since then, the name has changed and new advertising has appeared, including an overuse of blog comment spam.

Interestingly enough, the company has denounced the use of spam amongst their users of the iEvony codes, calling it a "unethical" and "abusive."

The company may have more to worry about than just poor taste in marketing, as many sites are also noting that the game's art assets and writing assets have been ripped from other real-time strategy games. Things such as text from Civilization 4 to the castle sprites from Age of Empires have been found in the game, creating the feeling for some users that this developer, whoever it is, is not entirely on the legitimate side.

Comment spam, lewd advertising, and stolen assets abound for Evony originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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