This has about as much to do with MMO's as The Real World has to do with Music Television. Let's stick to reporting things that actually have to do with Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming, and stay away from how we can use twitter to make friends during online sessions of Texas Hold Em.
Sid Meier likely abandons a traditional Civ mmo for a Civ facebook game.
Raph Koster shutters Metaplace and retools to make facebook games.
And now Garriott announces plans to focus on facebook games.
That's three of the biggest names in gaming/mmo's, all in the last 6 months.
I've already said this a few times on this site: "Traditional" mmo's have been put on notice! Facebook-style gaming is not going to be an "evolution" of the genre, and they're not going away. They will try to wrest control of the market. It will NOT be an easy fight. Companies like NCSoft, Blizzard, Cryptic, etc...better get their act together.....or a few years from now, we might only be talking about Ultima XIII - The Battle for Farmville.
Another turning towards the social gaming apsect of mmos. I'm sure down the road we will see big companies like Blizzard and NCsoft turn their attention this way as well.
Not sure about Blizzard, they seem to just not care what the public wants. They do what they want, how they want it, when they want it. Similar to SOE's attitude during the peak days of EQ1. As reported by G4's The Feed on Feb 11th, WoW subs have not increased since 2008 and people in their free month aren't getting passed level 10. This is during the release of an expansion, which usually would cause an increase in subs.
NCSoft would be more receptive to turning their attention to other ways of doing an MMO. They've always been receptive to consumer wants as evidenced in their CoH franchise. Some complain the pvp is lacking in CoH, but that is because the players of CoH have wanted more co-op and customization instead.
The projects we currently know are in development include a Texas hold 'em Facebook game called Sweet @$! Poker, as well as the Portalarium Player, which is a browser plug-in used to allow games to run seamlessly within the various major social networking services. Visit the official Portalarium website for more information.
Jesus. And here I thought RG hit rock-bottom on Tabula Rasa; now facebook-esque social networking games.
Imight be in a weird mood, but funny how his antics reminds me of the Seinfelf episode where Georges old gym teacher is a bum on the steps of a museum spouting off "cantstandsya" "cantstandsya".
I'm a little dismayed at how shortsighted and or petty some of the comments are. We're not talking about Facebook games as people know them today (low rez flash or java games). From the portalarium website:
What is it?
The Portalarium Player is a small browser add-on (sometimes referred to as a plugin) that helps bring high quality desktop gaming to the web. It is similar to other browser add-ons, such as the Flash Player add-on, InstantAction add-on, and Unity Web Player add-on. As an example, Sweet @$! Poker uses the Torque2D game engine, which is supported by the Portalarium Player, providing more powerful graphics and better performance than 2D Flash-based browser games.
Best of all, the Portalarium Player browser add-on need only be installed once. Every game, service, or product compatible with the add-on will automatically run, eliminating the concerns end-users often have with multiple installation requests.
What does it do?
The Portalarium Player operates as a game downloader and launcher that runs directly in the web-browser, providing seamless application installation and patching, much like Valve's Steam. It is very small, weighing in at less than 500KB, and only takes a minute or two to install. It is immediately available for the Windows operating system (Windows 7, Vista, and XP), with the Mac version available by Q2-2010.
The benefit of this plugin to fellow developers and studios is this: You are no longer limited to using Flash to develop your browser-based games or apps. You are now free to use virtually any game development system, graphics engine, etc., to create your web-browser games — whether Unreal, Unity, Gamebryo, Torque, or even your own proprietary code.
Great! How can I use it?
And the best part is: Portalarium is giving it away to the development community for free as part of our commitment to the OpenPlay movement. Pleasecontact us for details.The Portalarium Player supports all major browsers, including Internet Explorer (versions 6, 7, and 8), Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. The Portalarium Player serves as the interface that allows your game to operate outside of a social network like Facebook or MySpace, while visually appearing to the consumer like it is fully and seemlessly running within the network's i-frame.
Take a look at how many recognizable games use the Gamebryo engine: WAR, Fallout 3, and Wizard101 are just a few and that's just for one graphics engine. The plug-in supports them all! Now, imagine a game like Wizard101. already popular, being able to be launched from within Facebook in an instantiated browser window, and with integrated social actions like achievement sharing, invitations, etc...You've just opened up the game to that many more users! The implications are huge for multi-player/MMO game developers because it really is a way of bringing 'real' games to a social network like Facebook, not just little Java and/or Flash games. Don't get distracted by the words "Facebook games" or even by Portalarium's first tile, Sweet @$! Poker (even though it's a rockin' game, very polished and with great social features). Think beyond that. The poker game is both an easy way to prove that a Facebook game can be made using a third-party game engine and it will generate revenue for the company, but it's not all--not by any means--what Portalarium is about.
Exposing real game engine games in a browser instead of a hard client (think Free Realms, Fusion Fall or Earth Eternal), in all major browsers (including Chrome, my favorite, and even Opera!), with MAC support coming soon and the ability to easily integrate into social networks? I think this is an exciting and visionary new direction in gaming.
Hm, can't he just make single player RPGs again? I loved Ultima, but how many MORE MMOs do we really need?
You know its funny because in a interview he said that he would love to go back to working on the Ultima series if he could reaquire the licenses or get hired by EA to work on it. But EA is stuck in the mud on running out the the Ultima Online name over the next 10 years until Mythic is shutdown and EA gets out of the MMO business for good.
Sad thing about the whole NCSoft and Tabula Rasa deal is that unless you where working within the team you really have no idea what happened. Noone on the team is allowed to discuss what truely happened. I doubt the Tabula Rasa we seen at the end was very much what Richard had wanted to make and more about what NCSoft wanted to see made to compete with Planetside at the time in a non pvp sorta way. The original Tabula Rasa that spend a good amount of time and money in development was very much a futurlistic style Ultima Online. To bad the testing showed that the game was just ahead of its time. It was too old school to fit with the World of Warcraft market.
You know people can say what they want and try to create these strange facts about what happened and didnt happen. But one thing that can not be denied is that Ultima Online helped paved the MMO Market. If it wasn't for the success of UO and EQ I doubt we would see a MMO market remotely the size and varity it is now.
This has about as much to do with MMO's as The Real World has to do with Music Television. Let's stick to reporting things that actually have to do with Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming, and stay away from how we can use twitter to make friends during online sessions of Texas Hold Em.
And you don't think there would be any interest in a somewhat iconic figure in mmo games? Besides, who knows if he has plans to expand their offerings.
True and besides I just checked out their browser plugin and the new poker game on it and it seems to be quite good, if fact loads better than any other I've seen. With this new technology they could conceivably make a browser based MMO that could put a lot of client based MMOs to shame. I'll be keeping a close eye on this one.
Toss that lousy dog back where he came from. His game wrecking career has gone far enough. time he retired. And of course MMOPRG.com launches the story like hes some messiah of MMOs. when oyu dont kissing up to the negative-king midus with the S**$# touch. Let me know
After some thought, I'm a bit worried. Ultima Online: Facebook Edition?!
I can see that with all the earlier versions of Ultima. The franchise has been around since about '81 or so. The single player games fit easy there. I think they would be cool with updated graphics. Alas, RG doesn't have Origin so I guess Ultima is dead.
Comments
Sid Meier likely abandons a traditional Civ mmo for a Civ facebook game.
Raph Koster shutters Metaplace and retools to make facebook games.
And now Garriott announces plans to focus on facebook games.
That's three of the biggest names in gaming/mmo's, all in the last 6 months.
I've already said this a few times on this site: "Traditional" mmo's have been put on notice! Facebook-style gaming is not going to be an "evolution" of the genre, and they're not going away. They will try to wrest control of the market. It will NOT be an easy fight. Companies like NCSoft, Blizzard, Cryptic, etc...better get their act together.....or a few years from now, we might only be talking about Ultima XIII - The Battle for Farmville.
Not sure about Blizzard, they seem to just not care what the public wants. They do what they want, how they want it, when they want it. Similar to SOE's attitude during the peak days of EQ1. As reported by G4's The Feed on Feb 11th, WoW subs have not increased since 2008 and people in their free month aren't getting passed level 10. This is during the release of an expansion, which usually would cause an increase in subs.
NCSoft would be more receptive to turning their attention to other ways of doing an MMO. They've always been receptive to consumer wants as evidenced in their CoH franchise. Some complain the pvp is lacking in CoH, but that is because the players of CoH have wanted more co-op and customization instead.
Jesus. And here I thought RG hit rock-bottom on Tabula Rasa; now facebook-esque social networking games.
Imight be in a weird mood, but funny how his antics reminds me of the Seinfelf episode where Georges old gym teacher is a bum on the steps of a museum spouting off "cantstandsya" "cantstandsya".
I'm a little dismayed at how shortsighted and or petty some of the comments are. We're not talking about Facebook games as people know them today (low rez flash or java games). From the portalarium website:
What is it?
What does it do?
The Portalarium Player operates as a game downloader and launcher that runs directly in the web-browser, providing seamless application installation and patching, much like Valve's Steam. It is very small, weighing in at less than 500KB, and only takes a minute or two to install. It is immediately available for the Windows operating system (Windows 7, Vista, and XP), with the Mac version available by Q2-2010.
The benefit of this plugin to fellow developers and studios is this: You are no longer limited to using Flash to develop your browser-based games or apps. You are now free to use virtually any game development system, graphics engine, etc., to create your web-browser games — whether Unreal, Unity, Gamebryo, Torque, or even your own proprietary code.
Great! How can I use it?
And the best part is: Portalarium is giving it away to the development community for free as part of our commitment to the OpenPlay movement. Pleasecontact us for details.The Portalarium Player supports all major browsers, including Internet Explorer (versions 6, 7, and 8), Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. The Portalarium Player serves as the interface that allows your game to operate outside of a social network like Facebook or MySpace, while visually appearing to the consumer like it is fully and seemlessly running within the network's i-frame.
Take a look at how many recognizable games use the Gamebryo engine: WAR, Fallout 3, and Wizard101 are just a few and that's just for one graphics engine. The plug-in supports them all! Now, imagine a game like Wizard101. already popular, being able to be launched from within Facebook in an instantiated browser window, and with integrated social actions like achievement sharing, invitations, etc...You've just opened up the game to that many more users! The implications are huge for multi-player/MMO game developers because it really is a way of bringing 'real' games to a social network like Facebook, not just little Java and/or Flash games. Don't get distracted by the words "Facebook games" or even by Portalarium's first tile, Sweet @$! Poker (even though it's a rockin' game, very polished and with great social features). Think beyond that. The poker game is both an easy way to prove that a Facebook game can be made using a third-party game engine and it will generate revenue for the company, but it's not all--not by any means--what Portalarium is about.
Exposing real game engine games in a browser instead of a hard client (think Free Realms, Fusion Fall or Earth Eternal), in all major browsers (including Chrome, my favorite, and even Opera!), with MAC support coming soon and the ability to easily integrate into social networks? I think this is an exciting and visionary new direction in gaming.
~Ripper
Good to see RIchard Garriot is far away from anything that a true gamer would be concerned with.
Those of you who think facebook is the evolution of gaming, well, you've been dealt a huge blow.
This thread needs some organization...
All those idolizing the man, line up here __________
All those crucifying him, here plox __________
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
You know its funny because in a interview he said that he would love to go back to working on the Ultima series if he could reaquire the licenses or get hired by EA to work on it. But EA is stuck in the mud on running out the the Ultima Online name over the next 10 years until Mythic is shutdown and EA gets out of the MMO business for good.
Sad thing about the whole NCSoft and Tabula Rasa deal is that unless you where working within the team you really have no idea what happened. Noone on the team is allowed to discuss what truely happened. I doubt the Tabula Rasa we seen at the end was very much what Richard had wanted to make and more about what NCSoft wanted to see made to compete with Planetside at the time in a non pvp sorta way. The original Tabula Rasa that spend a good amount of time and money in development was very much a futurlistic style Ultima Online. To bad the testing showed that the game was just ahead of its time. It was too old school to fit with the World of Warcraft market.
You know people can say what they want and try to create these strange facts about what happened and didnt happen. But one thing that can not be denied is that Ultima Online helped paved the MMO Market. If it wasn't for the success of UO and EQ I doubt we would see a MMO market remotely the size and varity it is now.
And you don't think there would be any interest in a somewhat iconic figure in mmo games? Besides, who knows if he has plans to expand their offerings.
True and besides I just checked out their browser plugin and the new poker game on it and it seems to be quite good, if fact loads better than any other I've seen. With this new technology they could conceivably make a browser based MMO that could put a lot of client based MMOs to shame. I'll be keeping a close eye on this one.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
SpaceVille?
The return of who?
Toss that lousy dog back where he came from. His game wrecking career has gone far enough. time he retired. And of course MMOPRG.com launches the story like hes some messiah of MMOs. when oyu dont kissing up to the negative-king midus with the S**$# touch. Let me know
Poor tabula rasa still deserve a 21 gun salute
It..Burns..
After some thought, I'm a bit worried. Ultima Online: Facebook Edition?!
Check out the MUD I'm making!
I can see that with all the earlier versions of Ultima. The franchise has been around since about '81 or so. The single player games fit easy there. I think they would be cool with updated graphics. Alas, RG doesn't have Origin so I guess Ultima is dead.