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The Daily Grind: Do you judge all MMOs by the same standard?

Jef Reahard — Thu, 17 May 2012 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Xsyon, Sandbox

One of the challenges facing sandbox developers is the fact that recent themepark MMORPGs have raised the bar in terms of smooth launches and relatively bug-free experiences. Aside from EVE Online, most of the current sandboxes on offer are small indie affairs known as much for their rough-around-the-edges implementation as for their feature innovations.

And yet, many so-called sandbox fans seem to expect games like Xsyon, Darkfall, and others to be as polished as World of Warcraft, RIFT, and other themeparks with fewer features and several times the budget.

For today's Daily Grind, we'd like to know how much (if any) slack you cut developers of sandbox and/or indie MMOs. Do you hold these games to the same standard that you hold a triple-A themepark?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: Do you judge all MMOs by the same standard? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 17 May 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Soapbox: Applying Neal Stephenson's Innovation Starvation to MMOs

Jef Reahard — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous, Sandbox

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.

You've probably heard of Neal Stephenson. The celebrated sci-fi author recently released his 13th novel, Reamde, and while it treads a little closer to traditional thriller territory than some of his more cerebral efforts, it still packs a futurist punch (and even led the author to comment on MMOs, virtual worlds, and World of Warcraft in a recent interview).

In addition to speculative fiction, Stephenson is also prone to the occasional essay, the latest of which found its way onto the intarwebs a few weeks ago. While not directly related to the gaming or massively multiplayer industries, the piece does feature some interesting observations about the stagnant creative culture to be found in contemporary corporate America, and Stephenson also offers plenty of food for thought that can be applied to the current state of the MMO space.

Continue reading The Soapbox: Applying Neal Stephenson's Innovation Starvation to MMOs

The Soapbox: Applying Neal Stephenson's Innovation Starvation to MMOs originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BioWare Mythic isn't playing favorites with free-to-play and subscriptions

Justin Olivetti — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Business models, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, Free-to-play, Star Wars: The Old Republic

BioWare Mythic says that the market is big enough to support both free-to-play and subscription models -- and everything else in between. Talking with Gamasutra, GM Eugene Evans said that the company has to acknowledge that there are people who don't like F2P and those who do, and it's important to reach out to both groups.

With Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes in beta testing, BioWare Mythic is testing the waters of free-to-play while preparing for Star Wars: The Old Republic's massive subscription launch. "We often got asked about taking our old games free-to-play, and in the case of Warhammer, we felt there was a different way of doing it," he opined, going on to say that the Mythic branch was learning a lot about polish and quality from the BioWare team.

Evans commented on the observation that the widening global market means that no one business model is guaranteed to work in every country: "We're all still figuring out what free-to-play means, what the best way to monetize is, and how to run it as a business and engage players in ways they're prepared to accept."

BioWare Mythic isn't playing favorites with free-to-play and subscriptions originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Trion's David Reid: 'New era' of premium games inevitable

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, Massively Event Coverage, RIFT, Miscellaneous

It's a brutal, cutthroat world in the MMO industry, Trion Worlds' David Reid admits, and he thinks that companies that can't adapt to the rapidly changing scene need to get out of the pool so others can swim.

Talking to a crowd at GDC Europe, Reid spoke on an inevitable "new era" of premium games that are being fashioned in the forges of increased competition, challenging business models, higher development costs, and lower social interaction. "It's a lot harder to make your money back in the premium games space than it used to be," he said.

Reid used Trion's approach as an example of how MMO studios need to be at the top of their game when developing games, including "AAA ambition and polish, massive scale, persistence, and customization."

RIFT, which he cites as having over a million customers and holding the number two spot in the West, made sure that high-quality visuals were a key part of the experience, but also that the team was willing to listen to player feedback when preparing future content. He also pointed to End of Nation's free-to-play model and Defiance's synergy with the Syfy TV show as ways to captivate player interest and stay on top of the game.

Trion's David Reid: 'New era' of premium games inevitable originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Soapbox: Polished vs. feature-rich

Jef Reahard — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Age of Conan, EVE Online, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Star Wars Galaxies, 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.

A few weeks ago I wrote a Soapbox article that exposed the flaws in the MMO first kiss theory. It generated more discussion than I anticipated, much of it spiraling off into tangents like MMO design, sandbox and themepark elements, and the seeming incompatibility between a polished game and a feature-rich game.

It's this last bit that I'd like to discuss today, and you'll have to forgive me if we tread some familiar ground in the process. While there are many fascinating perspectives and debates in our bizarre hobby, none is as perplexing to me as the disconnect between gamers who want more game and those who want less game, highly polished.

Continue reading The Soapbox: Polished vs. feature-rich

The Soapbox: Polished vs. feature-rich originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask Massively: The next internet fad will be tires edition

Eliot Lefebvre — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

Tires are round bits of rubber that are placed upon the wheels of vehicles in order to facilitate spinning or something. Also, sometimes your parents might string some rope around one because they're too cheap and lazy to buy you a decent swingset. Anyhow, the next thing on the internet will be tires. I'm calling it right now. Don't look at me like that. We're talking about the same people who made Rebecca Black and Happy Cat famous. Just... tires. Rolling or... whatever.

It's time for Ask Massively this week, as you could probably tell from the introduction about half a step away from a schizophrenic rant. This week, we've got a question about scaling instance difficulty and a couple of questions from our forums, none of which has anything to do with tires. If you'd like to ask a tire-related question, leave one in the comments or mail it along to ask@massively.com. I guess I can answer MMO questions, too.

Continue reading Ask Massively: The next internet fad will be tires edition

Ask Massively: The next internet fad will be tires edition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BioWare talks environmental polish in The Old Republic, answers class-related questions

Jef Reahard — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Ever wondered what "polish" entails when it comes to an MMORPG? The word is tossed about on forums often enough, and just as often, newly released titles are lambasted by gamers who feel that polish is severely lacking in some form or fashion.

Today's Star Wars: The Old Republic update goes behind the scenes at the Jedi dream factory to give readers an inside scoop on how the developers at BioWare define polish and how the team is implementing it into TOR. Senior environment artist Robby Lamb is our guide, and he walks us through the various stages of the art asset creation process, noting the various opportunities to polish and perfect along the way.

Also new this week is a TOR Community Q&A with senior designer William Wallace (no, not that one) in which a smattering of class-related questions are summoned from the depths of TOR's pre-release fan community and subsequently answered at length. Check out all the details on the official TOR website.

BioWare talks environmental polish in The Old Republic, answers class-related questions originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Choose My Adventure: Singing the skill grind blues

Jef Reahard — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Darkfall, Massively Meta, Hands-on, Choose My Adventure

Well, here we are folks, smack dab in the middle of our Darkfall run for Choose My Adventure. With three weeks down and three weeks to go, I have to be honest: I feel pressed for time. There's so much to see and do in this game that six weeks simply isn't enough to really do it justice (to say nothing of the fact that it's not nearly enough time to build a competitive character in terms of the skill grind).

In any event, I'll do what I can to give you an accurate read on the game, and as my first couple of columns have admittedly erred on the side of fresh-faced enjoyment, today's entry will touch on a few of the game's less than savory aspects. In addition to that, I'll recap a few of my gameplay highlights from the past week.

Join me after the cut for a look at my Darkfall present and future as well as a video diary of my adventures thus far.

Continue reading Choose My Adventure: Singing the skill grind blues

Choose My Adventure: Singing the skill grind blues originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic new Rift video precedes tomorrow's beta test opening

Brendan Drain — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Trailers, Video, Events, in-game, RIFT

If there's one MMO on the horizon that has everyone excited, it's Rift. Created by Trion Worlds, Rift promises to be the next big AAA launch title and has been drawing its share of attention from players. The game's closed beta begins tomorrow, and Trion has been giving out beta keys in preparation. Some Rift fans were able to grab limited beta keys that give access to several beta events, while others were lucky enough to secure an access-all-areas VIP beta key. Here at Massively, our 500 VIP keys disappeared in record time. For those of you who missed the chance to get in on the Rift beta, you can still sign up at the Rift website for a chance to get in.

Rift is being marketed as a fully complete, next-gen MMO. But those are just marketing buzzwords, right? Guess again! In this new video (after the cut below), the Trion team has taken the bold step of defining what exactly those terms mean in a very practical context. Rift is promised to be a highly polished MMO right from launch, with none of those rough edges we've come to expect from new titles. Rather than follow the standard MMO formula wherein monsters are forever bound to respawn and walk around within a small area, Rift aims to create a truly dynamic game world.

The demonic rifts that open randomly in the world will radically alter not just the look of the land but also the gameplay of nearby areas. Leave a rift unchecked for too long and you'll soon find they've set up camp and organised an invasion of the local area. If this new video doesn't make you excited for Rift and the future potential of the MMO genre, I don't know what will.

Skip past the cut to watch the new Rift beta video in full HD.

Continue reading Epic new Rift video precedes tomorrow's beta test opening

Epic new Rift video precedes tomorrow's beta test opening originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: How important are options?

Eliot Lefebvre — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Leveling, Opinion, The Daily Grind

Saying that a game is linear is almost a dirty word in the field of games, at least when it comes to RPGs and their close genre relatives. The advent of games that allow you to decide whether to trek through the Desert of Certain Doom or the Forest of Inevitable Demise has spoiled us a bit -- we expect to have a choice.

MMOs are hardly exempt, and in some ways even worse off, with players who want to choose which quests they do, which abilities they learn, and what their character likes in a pie. Of course, by the same token, it's better to have one path that's fleshed-out and interesting than a half-dozen with hardly any expansion to them, whether it's a path to the level cap or just a chain of learning abilities.

So the question is, how important is the power of choice? When leveling, would you prefer variety of zones without as much quality to each area, or a full dint of quality in far fewer different places? Do you want your characters to learn anything even if there's not much to learn, or do you prefer a single path that has been expertly balanced?

The Daily Grind: How important are options? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Why we don't get more innovative games

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion

Innovation is as often as not used as a blank check when asked why MMOs aren't as good as they could be. While the sentiment isn't constant, it's recurring: a vague sense that something isn't there that ought to be. Often, the answer thrown around is that we need innovative games -- but when the people hollering for them are asked to explain what they mean, usually they shuffle, stare at their feet, and reply "well, these would go to 11." We want something new, but we're not sure what, and we're not sure why we aren't getting it.

Brian "Psychochild" Green recently wrote up a post on the problems of innovation in MMOs, as well as several reasons we don't tend to get a great deal of it. In short, there are two main reasons. Innovation is risky, which makes a company more and more wary of investing money in a game that might not make any of it back. It also goes directly against another virtue that we look for in our games: polish. By its very definition, an innovative game can't be polished, since there's not as much precedent for refining systems.

It's hard to summarize the full essay in a few sentences, however, as it covers a lot of ground and a wide variety of games. If you're interested in why it seems like there's little new under the MMO sun, you could do worse than reading the full thing through.

Why we don't get more innovative games originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Paragus' Darkfall beta review: Not your grandma's MMORPG

Brooke Pilley — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Darkfall, Game mechanics, PvP, Hands-on

One of the very first Darkfall beta reviews we found came up only moments after the NDA dropped. Paragus, co-leader of the Inquisition guild and longtime MMORPG fanatic, shared his thoughts on the game over at MMOCrunch.com. It's quite a lengthy read and covers areas of the game such as character creation, user interface, the world, characters and animations, combat, quests, PvE, the alignment system, and corpse-looting.

One commentor pointed out a few things the review was missing, including mounts, ships, mount and ship combat, class/skill balance, bugs, missing features, and the player-run economy. Still, we found it to be a very good overview of the game. Paragus suggests that Darkfall is not going to have mass market appeal, however, fans of old-school PvP MMOs like Ultima Online and Asheron's Call should find the game quite entertaining. Overall, he feels that while Darkfall may be a little rough around the edges, it features enough of a unique experience to be worth it. Paragus is also taking questions, so feel free to leave comments on his review.

If you'd like a second opinion, why not check out what Massively's very own Colin Brennan has to say about his hands-on Darkfall experience? Also, share your thoughts on whether or not you plan to purchase Darkfall in our Daily Grind.

Paragus' Darkfall beta review: Not your grandma's MMORPG originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PotBS patch 1.5 is looming over of the horizon

Andrew Russo — Mon, 19 May 2008 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Historical, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Patches

Pirates of the Burning Sea has seen a few big changes since the game released. The latest addition to the fleet will be new pirate careers in patch 1.4. So what is coming up after buccaneers make their appearance on the high seas? A swabbing of the poop deck to be precise! All that combat and ship destruction leaves plenty of debris around that needs to be picked up. Patch 1.5 is going to do just that.

The details were revealed through an interview with Ten Ton Hammer. According to Flying Lab producer Joe Ludwig, the team is "spending the entire month working on nothing but polish." The coffee is brewing at their offices as the entire team focuses on getting the game to a point where it appears just the way they want it. Some pesky annoyances players often report should be getting a swift kick off the plank as well. Those are, of course, not the only things coming in the next update.

Joe declares that since users do pay a monthly fee, the team is committed to giving them both polish and new content. That content will be appearing as a second epic mission. Joe says it will be something based on the supernatural, but what exactly this means is not made clear. What is clear is that everyone from the lead developers to the interns are going to be cleaning up the world of Pirates of the Burning Sea for the benefit of swashbucklers everywhere.

PotBS patch 1.5 is looming over of the horizon originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 May 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: What's more important: content or polish?

Chris Chester — Wed, 14 May 2008 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Age of Conan, Bugs, Opinion, The Daily Grind

In a recent post, blogger Cuppycake asked a very prescient question that we thought we would relate to you. What's more important to the long-term success of an MMO title: the quantity of content at launch or a high-level of polish? The way development works these days, developers are often hard-pressed to finish a game on a deadline, and at some point they have to make the decision whether to keep implementing new features, zones, and graphical assets, or go back and refine the content they have to make sure it's perfect. Games like Everquest 2 exemplify that first path - pushing out huge quantities of content from the beginning, but turning off many with their initially slow refinement process. LotRO on the other hand is highly polished, but has to undergo frequent content updates to keep players interested.

With Age of Conan right around the corner, would you choose that it be refined but small or huge and a little buggy?

The Daily Grind: What's more important: content or polish? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 14 May 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New agreement locks in Polish version of AoC

William Dobson — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Launches, MMO industry, New titles, News items

No, not a polished version, although we hope for that too. Poland will be getting a fully localized version of Age of Conan under a new agreement with developer and distributor CD Projekt. The game's text and voice, website, in-game support and communities will be looked after by CD Projekt, with Funcom still overseeing the other parts of the game. Funcom's baby will be in safe hands with CD Projekt, as they have localized countless hit games over the last decade or so, and are also the developer behind the recent critically acclaimed PC RPG The Witcher. The Polish AoC is expected to be released in the second half of this year.

New agreement locks in Polish version of AoC originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FusionFall release date slips to Fall

Akela Talamasca — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Launches, New titles, News items, Casual, FusionFall, Kids

We came really close to calling this post 'FusionFall (fusion)falls down to (fusion)Fall', but were talked out of it. At any rate, the Hollywood Reporter, writing about the upcoming MMO FusionFall, mentions that the release date has slipped (once again) from Summer of this year to Fall.

Executive Producer Chris Waldron has said "Let's just say that MMOs are very deep, very large games that are ready when they are ready. They take a lot of testing, a lot of polish, and that's what we're going through." It's the best of reasons to slip a release date, but without more clarity on what precisely they're working on polishing, these sorts of announcements just tend to lead to insecurity among the faithful. After all, if it's slipped once, it can slip twice. If it's slipped twice, as it just has, it could slip again. Let's hope for more information to be revealed soon.

FusionFall release date slips to Fall originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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