Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Fear of a Split Screen MMO
Jimmy_Scythe
Member CommonPosts: 3,586
Why is it that I can have four people sitting next to me play in the same online game of Halo as me, all on the same machine as me, but I can't do the same thing with an MMO? it seams like an odd omission in games that are all about grouping. With XBox Live, I can have all my friends log into their own accounts in the Halo 3 client on my machine. Why hasn't anyone thought of doing this with an MMO client.
Seriously, if most people are only going to play with people that they already know in real life, woudn't it make sense to allow those people to play face to face. And don't give me that crap about split screen being inappropriate for the PC because you're at your desk. Most PCs, especially gaming rigs, have DVI or HDMI outputs so you can play on a 52 inch HDTV if you want. That also gets rid of the "split screen sucks because you can't see what you're doing" arguement. Yeah, I realise that not everyone has their computer hooked up to their TV, but I've noticed more and more people rigging their PCs to be media servers for their whole houses.
I'm not saying that developers should mandate that the game be played split screen. But the option would be nice. As long as your paying for the account, you should be able to log on from any client and that opens the door for multiple logins on one client. This is done in games that are far more demanding, on the client side, than MMOs.
Comments
I just don't see this happening.
Have your friends bring their towers over and play in the same room?
wtf you saying jimmi?? my 19 inch lcd is already small to play any mmo...now with split screen i cant see my hotbars...
There's a couple of reasons for this Jimmy, though it's a nice idea. Firstly, generally speaking most MMOs have to be server side for the simple reason to stop hacking attempts and cheating within the game. Though having said that, there are a few games out that are starting to show signs of this, such as Borderlands. Not quite a true MMORPG, but getting there and perhaps a hint of what is to come.
Secondly, MMOs require a lot of space per player. You ever seen a player in EVE play? Some people on there use several whole computers to supplement their mining/pirating experience. To have many people on one screen is just not feasible not practical unfortunately. Not unless you cut out a lot of death which personally kinda kills the reason for having an MMO in the first place. Though, I'm finding games are designed more and more to be played on large, HD screens especially in some of the newer Xbox games, like Mass Effect 2 for example.
You raise an interesting concept though, to see an MMO played with two people would be interesting. Take an generic spaceship MMO for example, one person flies the ships, other shoots, that kinda thing. And a shared two player account also sounds like something that could work on a business level, buying two linked accounts for a little less then two seperate accounts and have bonuses when playing together or can only be played at the same IP address or similar. Can see that idea working a bit more along the console line of gaming then PC, but I've always liked the idea of consoles becoming more PC-like, but intended for just gaming.
I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.
Split screen is just not going to happen with a PC MMORPG. Basically you'd need a major split-screen game to release on PCs first -- one so amazing that people actually bothered playing it split-screen instead of just jumping online and instantly having fun. And only after it became popularized (and as a result people started setting up their PCs to accomodate more than one person sitting there playing) would an MMO become viable. Til then it'd mostly be a waste of time on the developer's part imo.
Console games don't have this prerequisite...and when we start seeing more console MMOs release, it's completely reasonable if they have split screen.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I think we are getting there. Well, they more MMOFPS style games are coming out. And Final Fantasy will be a major MMO that's released on consoles as well. Will be an interesting development to watch.
I think the whole idea of split screen games is kinda obsolete now that even consoles are connected to teh interwebz. I just can't see the point of split screen anymore, especially not for online gaming. It may live on for casual offline gaming, although I doubt that offline gaming is going to be all that big 10-15 years from now.
Nah, I agree with you there. It seems to be progressing at the moment towards everything gaming related being online and downloaded. Would like to see more ways of connecting several "screens" to a console to play that way. Network link is fine and whatnot, but has anyone actually used it?
No offense but this is the worst idea ive ever heard.
The actual idea is, but I know what he's trying to say.
Have you considered that in your Halo 3 (or in general, split-screen games), all players basically stay in the same location/level ?
How do you enforce that in an MMO ? If two players playing on the same screen can be in a different area of the world, your computer would have to stream/keep in memory different areas/assets at once. Technically, it'd be a nightmare to implement, and you'd be the first to complain about bugs..
Infinity: The Quest for Earth, space-sim MMO with a seamless procedural galaxy.
Em run 2 machines
me and the missus do with the monitors side by side so you can always have a quick glance to the other for danger and such like.
I really think she just likes it that way because my avatars such a stud muffin and she doesnt want all the HAWT chicks chatting to me
Nice idea wouldnt work in a MMO unless its a one that uses controllers at which point I wouldnt call it a MMO IMO
and just wonder why? we all conected to the internet, you can play with your friends miles away at the confy of your house and keepin touch with then with headset that dont need you to type and lose hand of the action, and if still you wanna play all together, like in a lan house, well pcs are not that heavy anymore (thanks to lcd), lets resurrect the lan partyes
As said above, mmorpgs, at least, needs space, your have lots of things going on, and you need to better see then, and spliting screen surely fuck this up, well im already having trouble dual-boxing on my 17´ wide lcd, thinking getting a 22´one
make lcds/plasma more cheaper and buy more to get friends playing together
now: GW2 (11 80s).
Dark Souls 2.
future: Mount&Blade 2 BannerLord.
"Bro, do your even fractal?"
Recommends: Guild Wars 2, Dark Souls, Mount&Blade: Warband, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
Splitscreen > Online
To bad I don't see it happening... hell even the current console generation have less and less splitscreen capable games.
I read about a computer that could be used as 3 computers where you put in 3 keyboards/monitors/mice (all 3 can play different games or the same one)
its not really the same but if they can make something like this it shouldnt be impossible to make a splitscreen option for a PC seeing how todays computer got more then enough power.
And also I would love that option seeing how I rarely play with anyone that I dont know and I play with a projector / 46" led tv
There's a couple of reasons for this Jimmy, though it's a nice idea. Firstly, generally speaking most MMOs have to be server side for the simple reason to stop hacking attempts and cheating within the game. Though having said that, there are a few games out that are starting to show signs of this, such as Borderlands. Not quite a true MMORPG, but getting there and perhaps a hint of what is to come.
Secondly, MMOs require a lot of space per player. You ever seen a player in EVE play? Some people on there use several whole computers to supplement their mining/pirating experience. To have many people on one screen is just not feasible not practical unfortunately. Not unless you cut out a lot of death which personally kinda kills the reason for having an MMO in the first place. Though, I'm finding games are designed more and more to be played on large, HD screens especially in some of the newer Xbox games, like Mass Effect 2 for example.
You raise an interesting concept though, to see an MMO played with two people would be interesting. Take an generic spaceship MMO for example, one person flies the ships, other shoots, that kinda thing. And a shared two player account also sounds like something that could work on a business level, buying two linked accounts for a little less then two seperate accounts and have bonuses when playing together or can only be played at the same IP address or similar. Can see that idea working a bit more along the console line of gaming then PC, but I've always liked the idea of consoles becoming more PC-like, but intended for just gaming.
I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.
i think the hacking problem is a good point, particularly in MMO's - for how badly things can get you only have to look at darkfall, which apparently is plagued by hackers. As for games with multiperson vehicles, or spaceships etc, planetside did something of the same, several of the vehicles required drivers/gunners i think the biggest was the galaxy gunship, 1 pilot and 5 gunners, now theres a game i wouldnt mind seeing 'rejuvenated' only without the bfr's and the caves....
Hacking is a non-issue.
A game is either secure or it isn't.
If anything, the fact that DF has had hacking problems should be proof that split-screen has nothing to do with client security.
From the client's standpoint, it's just sending more commands now (the commands of two players.) So the only real difference is you would potentially require twice the outgoing bandwidth to issue those commands (but games typically don't eat up much outbound bandwidth in the first place, so this wouldn't be a problem on the majority of computer setups.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I think MMOs like Dragonica and Valkyrie Sky could very well open the doors to split screen gameplay. A standard MMO has to become a lor more arcade-y and instanced in order for it to work, though. In most split screen console games, the system is just rendering the same map/zone but from different camera angles. It is also foingit with maybe 4-8 players. In an MMO, players could be anywhere on the map and there could be dozens to hundreds of players all around them.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Although I haven't tried it in other games in Lineage II I used to run 2 windowed copies of the game client side by side on my wide screen monitor. That way I could run my main on one panel and a healer/buffer class on the other. Worked really good in that game anyways.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
It was really late / early when I posted this and a lot of what I had in mind didn't make it in because I was too tired. Let me get a few points that I thought about but didn't include.
1) A split screen MMO would have to be designed with a gamepad in mind. This isn't a bad thing since FFXI and Phantasy Star online both used controllers to a pretty good effect. There's also an app that allows you to play WoW with an XBox 360 controller that's pretty popular.
2) You can't just throw split screen on any game. Like someone saide before, this wouldn't work with Eve Online. It probably wouldn't be too bad with something like WAR, but it really depends on the game and how the developers originally envisioned the UI. I personally think that a minimalist UI geared toward ease of use is best, but there's a small vocal minority that believes easy to learn = dumbed down. At any rate, the interfaces for these games needs to be streamlined in a major way since convention has now evolved into full blown cruft.
3) The main reason why game companies are ditiching the split screen in single player has to nothing to do with graphical limitations or lack of popularity and everything to do with profits. If the only way you can play the game is online, then you'll have to buy two copies of the game and two machines to run those copies on. Split screen allows four people to play on just one copy so it effects sales. Why buy a multiplayer game if you can just go to your friends house, or have your friends come over with the game in tote, and play it then? With MMOs, this doesn't hold as much water because everyone that plays has to pay a sub. Or the game is based on an item mall. Either way, the deterent to designing a split screen game just isn't there with MMOs.
As for the other questons.....
I like the multiple monitor, keyboard and mouse idea, but I realise that all of that equipment, and the switches that go with it would be more costly, both in money and time to set up, than just buying multiple copies of the game and machines to run them on. Having my friends bring their gaming rigs to my place is an even worse idea. I've done my share of LAN parties, and the worst part is breaking the computer down, loading it into the car, then unloading if from the car, setting it back up again and spending the next two hours reconfiguring the network so that you can actually play. The proliferation of laptops has helped this somewhat, but most "hadcore" douchebags won't even consider gaming on a laptop. Much better to either have a system set up for multiple players or gamepads since both require little from those visiting and allow everyone to get directly into the game.
The arguement that split screen won't work in an MMORPG because players can be in different levels is week sauce when you look a Borderlands. Big open world and you can be in a completely different area than the other player. I understand where you're coming from here, but we've had games that stream level data in realtime so that you never see a load screen for a long time. I'm sure that there's a way to maximize memory with HD streaming so that two players can be on different parts of the game world without a hitch. Just because it hasn't been done, doesn't mean that it can't be done.