Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
General: The List: Five MMOs Doing it Differently
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Jon Wood writes this week's list, taking a look at five MMOs that deviate significantly from the typical MMORPG design.
There was a time when an MMORPG was an easy thing to recognize. As time has passed and the genre has matured, the definition of everyone's favourite video game acronym has changed and evolved.
If you ask the average passer-by with even the slightest interest in video games to tell you what they know about MMORPGs, there's every possibility that they're going to talk to you about fantasy settings, World of Warcraft, levels, classes and linear RPG style stories. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
The thing is that I think a lot of people out there believe that this is the one and only way to make an MMORPG, and that just isn't so. Sure, World of Warcraft seems to have been the greatest thing since sliced bread to at least 11 million people worldwide, but the idea of a massive multiplayer, persistent world where people can interact and socialize isn't restricted to what we'll call traditional style MMORPGs. MMOs come in all shapes and sizes, with varying degrees separating them from the apparent (at least financial) watermark.
The MMOs on this list are some of the best at deviating from the WoW mould and while it certainly isn't a complete list of games that are definitively "not WoW," it should be enough to get our juices pumping for games that walk their own paths:
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Seed's problem, and I did play it, was that they ran out of $$ and launched it in desperation hoping to be able to somehow get it funded. They used free tools. I liked the idea, they were just horribly underfunded. Too bad for the idea. They didn't have the chance to properly develop and show the idea.
Great concept for an article.
List should have included Darkfall Online for the following reasons that make it extremely different from the wow, or typical mmo mold.
1) Open PvP, non-faction based although some advantages for opting for the faction only play style.
2) Full Loot PvP, all inventory and items on paper-doll are dropped upon death.
3) First Person View, No Radar, No seeing behind or to the side unless you turn to look.
4) Player owned Cities and Hamlets that are built and can be sieged and taken, or lost.
5 ) Full Naval Ships and Combat
6) Non Class Based. One can be Melee, Archer, Mage or combo based upon play style.
7) Skills are gained by use, not be attaining levels. Non level based game.
Really, list goes on and on. This is an open sandbox game the likes of which is only remotely similar to EvE, Shadowbane, or UO; certainly out of the mold, daring, and successful as well.
-CC
"Lately it occurs to me,
what a long, strange trip it's been". -Hunter
to be fair Champions is also classless, and Tabula Risa has FPS...
Well you forgot Guild Wars. NCSoft/Anet is running a successful MMO WITHOUT monthly fees or only-the-best-items-are-in-cash-shops. concepts.
No monthly fees
Ingame store that does not contain uber weapons or gear or other must haves
Graphics that can rival other big name games
Regular updates to keep the series balanced
Easy to learn combat system
Regular ingame events.
Yeah in my opinion they deserved to be on this list above puzzle pirates.
to be fair Champions is also classless, and Tabula Risa has FPS...
In the spirit of this article, to be really "fair" you need to take the game on the whole. I can say all five of those listed have characters/avatars. You are picking 1 or 2 out of the 7 I listed and saying either can be found in another game. You can do that with any game, even the ones listed in the article. On the whole, there is no other game on the market like DFO, or the reverse. It's far different from the wow/AION clone MMO world and other MMO's in many many ways, is the point.
-CC
"Lately it occurs to me,
what a long, strange trip it's been". -Hunter
to be fair Champions is also classless, and Tabula Risa has FPS...
In the spirit of this article, to be really "fair" you need to take the game on the whole. I can say all five of those listed have characters/avatars. You are picking 1 or 2 out of the 7 I listed and saying either can be found in another game. You can do that with any game, even the ones listed in the article. On the whole, there is no other game on the market like DFO, or the reverse. It's far different from the wow/AION clone MMO world and other MMO's in many many ways, is the point.
-CC
and CO and TR both had their own list, i was just mentioning what they shared with DFO
the list is for MMOs that really set apart from the "basic" MMO....DFO got no real innovative approch to the genre. its a kill whatever in fantasy settings game...and loads of MMOs got PvP.
dont know if DFO is a good or bad game, but find it wierd anyone would want it on this list of MMOs that really sets apart from the general way of building an MMO
I'm only responding again because you "find it wierd" DFO would be suggested.
Name another MMO now on the market where players create most of the content such as politics due to the following:
- Player built Cities and Hamlets that can be captured or lost with functionality of player created walls, cannons, skill trainers, boat yards, laser towers, and the list goes on.
-Player created Ships with sea warefare and fortresses at sea that can be captured and/or challenged for control.
-Open PvP where one can attack any one, not just the opposite faction.
-Death Penalty in PvP and PvE where all you have is left on corpse.
-Skill based, not level based.
-No class selection, as one can be any class or combo as player desires.
Look forward to hearing your reply.
-CC
"Lately it occurs to me,
what a long, strange trip it's been". -Hunter
I played puzzle pirates back when it was a subscription game and was surprised with how much fun it was. There is something very fun when playing a sword battle that is a battle tetris style game and being able to see your own teams boards and your enemies boards and be able to target different enemies. Which means everyone can gang up on one guy to knock him out faster.
It really does get addictive and this is from someone who did, and still does, spend most of his time playing major MMOs.
I was also suprised that when puzzle pirates went F2P that it allowed people to get everything without ever paying. Essentially you can earn in game money jusy by playing normally and then use that money to buy tokens from other players (who purchased them with real money and are now trading them with free players to get in game money) to temporarily unlock diffrent parts of the game for 1-2 days that are normally locked for free players. You can do just about everything in the game without ever paying just by playing and trading. It's a nice spin on a free to play model and allows those willing to pay to essentially pay for all those who are not willing to pay.
I don't completely agree with what you wrote about Seed. As was mentioned above, they really just didn't get the funding. Couldn't find a publisher or enough investors to foot the bills. There was a huge amount of potential there. To this day, that game in particular always haunts my memory as a real loss.
I think a game without combat IS viable. Seed isn't the first to do that. A great thing about Seed was that it focused on community and interacting, something you would think any/all MMOs would concentrate on (yet do not). In Seed, the community led the game development. As a character, you and your community decided where to go and what areas of "the tower" to open up. Developers would then work behind the scenes to make that happen. It would have worked, but just couldn't pay the bills. They had to release early as a last ditch effort to generate cash right before they had no other choices.
If you think Darkfall Online belongs in that list, I'm afraid you missed the whole concept of the article.
Darkfall is not part of the mainstream per se, that's true... but it's still an out and out Ultima Online descendant. You can even call it UO-meets-AC-meets-Oblivion.
All of the games on that list are remarkably different from the mold the first generation of popular MMOS (namely UO, EQ and AC) set before us. Whereas Darkfall, though sandboxy , is still primarily based on combat and PVP play. Also the setting is standard RPG fare: you still have your damage spells, bows and arrows, fantasy races, combat skills, etc...
So, no. Darkfall Online would make a poor addition to that list. As would Guild Wars, by the way. A different way of doing a combat-oriented RPG MMO but still a combat-oriented fantasy RPG MMO. Not different enough.
The list itself, by the way, is very well done in my opinion. All of the five games have a character of their own, are distinctly different from the mold and clearly show us some alternative routes - especially non-combat routes - developers can take when making MMOs.
Well, if they had combat, it guess it would have been easier to find a publisher.
But I didn't know that Tale in the Desert doesn't have any combat either - how come that game got funding and Seed didn't? Kinda strange. Too bad Seed didn't make it...
btw:
We need an uber-indie list with really small games, unlike the last indie list.
More with games like this:
http://www.quelsolaar.com/love/index.html
Hype train -> Reality
So Darkfall is a skill based Shadowbane in First Person view? How unique is that?
While I understand the desire to put CitiesXL on the list, thanks to its unique "concept", I'm guessing you haven't really played it. Otherwise you'd know that it, in no way, deserves to be called an mmo. It doesn't require ANY cooperative play amongst its players, nor does it inspire any competition. You never need to trade with another person, thanks to the ability to own 5 cities and interplanetary trading...and, even if you don't trade with yourself, you can use the computer seller for all your needs(a system which remains buggy)
You can play it completely solo in the "planet offer" mode, and you can even do most of the work OFFLINE. They haven't implemented any of the events they talked about providing, and they haven't fixed any of the missing mmo aspects that we CONSTANTLY talked about in beta.
Basically what they did was take a full single-player city building game, removed certain sellable assests from it (such as mass transit and landmark buildings), and put them accessible through a subscription only. You have to pay monthly to get what most city building games would offer out of the box. Oh, and even when you pay, you can't use any of the main options in solo mode. AND..once you stop paying, you lose all access to the core aspects that they put behind the "wall".
I SILL believe that a city building game in mmo form is a FANTASTIC concept...and Monte Cristo's early designs looked promising. But, somewhere they lost their way, and in an attempt to save them self financially, released a pay-to-play solo city builder.
This is NOT an mmo... I just hope it doesn't prevent another company from taking a chance on the genre, as I think a TRUE city building mmo (one with competition and cooperation) could be GREAT.
Exactly.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
From everything I've seen CitiesXL is a horrible game, ruined by greed. I wonder how much Monte Carlo paid to get on this list?
I was in the Spore beta and was also disappointed when it folded. I agree that it was mostly a funding problem. They were forced to release it while it was still in mid beta-test and while it was interesting, I wasn't about to pay to help them test it. In order to keep the game interesting without adding combat, they would have needed to include more challenges.
I have also played A Tale in the Desert during the first and current tellings. It is fun to start off in a new telling where things are just being developed, but after a while, its starts to be another grind with more effort required for fewer rewards. There are also some days when I just want to go out and kill stuff, so a little combat would add some variety to keep things interesting.
I was in the beta for Cities XL and found it very boring. For that style of game, I'd rather play Civ, where there is some direct competition. I think its a bit of a stretch to call it an MMO.
One game that they forgot to mention was Sims Online. I was in the beta for that also and while it was interesting for a while, there just weren't enough interesting things to do after you'd been playing for a while. It needed more activities like growing a garden, etc.
EvE Online does everything you put there but better?
( By the way, in Darkfall, there are not multiple classes, there is only ONE class. )
What about Red Light District? Is it still around? That was somewhat different
.
This post is intentionally written as to not make any sense what so ever. Thank You Very Much.
Tatas. Nuff' said.
Playing: World Of Warcraft
Resting From: Nothing
Retired: EQ2, CoH, Tabula Rasa, SWG, Warhammer, AoC
Waiting For: SWTOR, APB
Love(d): Tabula Rasa, SWG, World Of Warcraft, Age of Conan
I would like to point out that 90% of the Social MMO's are cybersex zones. They do so well because sex sells. In Second Life alone their own company reports that 85% of all Second Life business deal with the sex trade, the other remaining ones are logistical support for businesses to thrive. So in effect almost 100% of all Second Life businesses support the cybersex trade.
So while they dont have fighting, quests and combat...there is a lot of wrestling going on. :P
Ive played SEED during its BETA and while it had a great origional game idea the coding and implementation/vision was obvious to see was FATAL, MONTHS before release. but was released anyway on my scale most MMOs try to sneek out the door somewhere in the 80-90% complete form SEED on the other hand was released as low as 10-15% complete.
game play was a hellish wacj-a-mole repetitive hatch repair grind movement was an illadvised click on the floor which was totally useless in crowded halls. the list of the missing components is long.
also seeds comic book style was also a fatal move and it made it look cheap and shallow like some high school computer project.
That being said SEED would be on the top of my list for a revisioning using an unreal engine or similar. the game play needs to be about making their bad situation better repairing broken components getting things working crafting and exploring, finding out about the world they find themself in, there can also be conflict with the animal/plant life or NPCs or even interactions with other "seedlings"
...................................................................
A Tale In The Desert
a nice game with a fare amount of sandboxing but bland no combat,, and with no thought of fun when building the things players do they also had an aversion to boats and ships on the rivers and oceans.
make a world, not a game, we dont want another game.
two of the games that should have been on your list.
WURM it has a similar form to ATITD it is a sandbox world where players have alot of freedom and you can change the world in meaningful ways.
it uses a java bases graphic system which tends to be bairly passable and processor intinsive it has a fairly brutal learning curve and its combat system is crude and that is being kind
while this game tends to be starved for updating and improvements is it still a very facinating world,, you tend to play similar to a 1400 era people with weapons swords and armors and the occasional cantapult but combat is not the obsession it is in other games it is part of the tapestry of game play. building and construction is the mainstay tending animals and crops even building ships major roads major mines and just to add a bit of spice the world has 3 moons and celestial north is west
its definatly worth checking this game out but beware there is a brutal new player expirence thet will fustrate many new players so be warned.
the second of course is EVE interesting game of space battles and commerse with a huge 7500 solar systems
thouth this is a PVPer only game and all those solar systems, while beautiful are boringly similar and static if you are a casual player do yourself a favor and stay away as you will be insessantly harassed an ANY part of the galaxy you are and the developers are obsessive about heavily biasing this game to favor the PVP jerks that infest this MMO.
make a world, not a game, we dont want another game.
mmo's are addictive and WoW is a newb magnate, 11 million newbs have got hooked on and idea of what and mmo is and its wrong.
EvE Online does everything you put there but better?
( By the way, in Darkfall, there are not multiple classes, there is only ONE class. )
Doh you beat me to it Devour! Just to go point by point:
1. How about player built EVERYTHING. From Space Stations to each individual missle! All of which can be bought, traded, destroyed, etc.
2. Open PvP? Come on now even outside of 0.0 space you can gank anyone you want, you just have POSSIBLE NPC cops show up. Bah I've known guys who kill the players then kill the cops.
3. Death penalty where everything on your ship is blown to pieces. Oh sure you're not going to loot too much off a PC's wreck, but there's a big difference in stabbing a single buy an nuking a ship out of space. BTW do you lose XP/skill points when you die in DFO? (Not sure never played or cared to) In Eve your clone loses every implant and any training that wasn't backed up. Which for the high end players is a LOT of time lost.
4. Skill based and NO XP! Forget killing little things to lvl up swords or build X things to lvl it up. We're in the future baby we just plug it in and wait for the download to complete. As far as I know (please correct me if I'm wrong I'd love to try another game that did this!) the ONLY game that uses real time timers to gain skills.
5. No classes you can pick any skill you've go the prereqs for. But our character creation process gives us a starting point based on your imput that you can turn away from right away if you'd like. So yeah classless.
Add to that a full player economy. Politics, corruption, assinations, imbezzlement, and all the other fun things I've never heard of another game even close to pulling off. When was the last time you heard of a 1 year multi-person plan to assinate the head of a corp by infiltrating it at all levels, bribing the VP, and robing the place blind as you take them all out? Or player run banks that have S&L type imbezzlement scandles?
I'm sorry EVE does everything on your list and in a better, Sci-Fi environment hands down.
Current Game: Asssasins Creed 2(PS3, Gamer Tag: Happy_Hubby)
Current MMO: World of Warcraft and World of Tanks
Former Subscribed MMO: Star Trek Online, Aion, WoW, Guild Wars, Eve Online, DAoC, City of Heroes, Shattered Galaxy, 10six.
Tried: Too many to list