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Should MMO's be ported to consoles?
DMEnoc
Member Posts: 153
Yes its a serious question. Link to poll in the Pub (general discussion)
Comments
I think that it may depend on the game and the vision of the developers and where they want to take it. But I think it is an undisputed fact that PC's drive the MMO industry and until maybe the next generation of console, most MMO's would not port well due to the capabilities of the consoles hardware. Even the PS3 and XBox 360's hardware will seem very obsolete in a matter of a year or two, compared to the latest quad core machines, with duel or quad video cards, loads of ram and whatever else that comes our way. Consoles are invading the the home market as standard equipment for the home electronics efficienado at a record pace and it may only be a matter of time before we see a lot more games that are cross platform.
To give an opinion to your question I would have to expand it.
Should MMO's be ported to consoles to be used with console controllers? No. Design considerations have to be taken from the start to allow for the lack of buttons, if not, ported games will inevitably lead to slower game play and subpar player performance. Games like AoC are clearly designed for the console market because of action based combat system (i.e. no auto-attack) and its simplication. It relys on button combinations and positioning above tactical use of the type of spell and when to use it. AoC was designed with the console market in mind. (Hence why I believe it is not so much ported as was designed origionally in such a way)
Should MMO's be ported to consoles to be used with keyboard and mouse? Yes, no reason not to if it is feasable. I am still surprised there is not more of an effort to make keyboards and mice availble for consoles. I remember when they ported Command and Conquer over to the PS1, couldn't understand why they thought anyone would want to play it. Only a handful of games would use them and I would prefer to play Vanguard on a 40" screen in my living room with a wireless mouse and keyboard any day of the week.