Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
General: GDC 2011: Moving to Browser
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The MMORPG.com team has spent the last several days at the annual Game Developers' Conference checking out MMOs and industry trends along the way. MMORPG.com Industry Relations Manager Garrett Fuller has a report about how many MMOs shown at GDC are breaking the 'traditional' mold and moving to browsers. Check out what Garrett discovered and let us know what you think.
This week at GDC we saw a lot of new games which are entering into the MMO marketplace. The big difference between this year and other shows is that many of the games we saw were in browser. So it is a quick log in off the web site and you are playing the game from anywhere. Lunch times at work will be changed forever as this trend catches on. These games are not the browser games we saw a few years ago, they are not even the games from last year, every browser game we saw is moving into the next decade for online games.
Read more of Garrett Fuller's GDC 2011: Moving to Browser.
)
Comments
Depth really just relies on the skill of the developers, not really on the platform itself. You can design some pretty deep text-based games if you're good, and some of the deep, old sprite based games (like say Star Control 2) could probably run in a modern browser format.
My personal guess is that AAA MMOs will always release with a standalone client, but more and more you may see browser based "thin clients" or portal interfaces that allow a subscriber to take part in certain actions within the game that don't require the full client to be installed.
Take the old SWG for instance. My boss at the time was forever logging in from work (because he could mostly) to survey resource shifts, move harvesters and stockpile resources. For someone with a normal job that's not possible, but if there was a browser-based interface that allowed that function at the time...different story.
EVE's another one - players have been clamoring for a way to change skills via the web since the game opened. Now with planetary interaction, there are a bunch of elements that don't need the full client to potentially work.
I guess the fear is that without requiring players to log in there will be less attachement to the game world than there would be otherwise. I suspect that's not the case personally. Future MMOs have the potential to roll a social media portal, a browser-based interface and a full on graphical client all into the same contiguous game space.
A really good future MMO has the potential to infiltrate all areas of your life far worse than the EverCrack effect ever could have hoped.
And motion controls. Browser + Mobile + Motion controls. Soon we can see fat people jiggle and waving their flabby arms on the train (or your boss doing kung-fu moves in his office).
"I am the harbinger of hope. I am the sword of the righteous. And to all who hear my words, I say this: What you give to this Empire, I shall give back unto you."
-Empress Jamyl Sarum I
What's the point of having gigabytes of world data on each of your computers, when that same data can be stored on the game's servers?
I'm all for the light client, cross-platform and browser options, so long as they are more efficient than a full client install. Also, all browser games are compatible with all operating systems, which is a bonus for those who don't have Windows.
I also think the older 2D and light 3D MMOs should be converted to browser games just so that more people can have access to them.
Ha, mobile/motion controllers have almost no future for adult gamers, other than as a targeted form of excercise or very subdued motions like rotating your screen. No way no how will you find adults jumping up and down like an idiot for 6 hour grind sessions before bed. Wii has already niched into kid-exclusive with the college/young adults abandoning it and the MSFT Kinect never even tried for that group. My 8 year old has already outgrown the Wii and is exclusive xbox360 and itouch gamer now. My 5 year old still likes the Wii but actually prefers the ipad.
Now browser based games will be fine for many games, but not really ready for prime time for any really graphic intensive game. EVE could have been in a browser easily. Hell EVE could probably be played in a 3270 terminal it is so rudimentary from a graphical point of view...
GW2 "built from the ground up with microtransactions in mind"
1) Cash->Gems->Gold->Influence->WvWvWBoosts = PAY2WIN
2) Mystic Chests = Crass in-game cash shop advertisements
Personally I like multi-tasking on my computer and a browser mmo (with improved performance and graphics) sounds good to me. I can play short sessions and park my avatar/ship/toon do something else then pop back immediately and carry on for example. Also there's hardcore MMOs and lightcore MMOs so perhaps the cross-platform lighter ones eg Pocket Legends would be perfect for this?
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
Nice coverage. That, and others comments, spark two comments in my mind:
- We expect cloud-features increasingly, an application should be made available to its owner wherever he is. the same holds true for data of course. That is where "mobile" concepts are leading technology in the predictable future.
- I don't think that hardcore is an objective qualification. Being hardcore may be defined by the game to some extent (they don't all ask the same of you), but ultimately how you meet the requirements is up to you. I can see very addicted -- yet very busy -- people playing an hour every time they get the chance any time of the day. I can see some others throwing whole nights. It's really not proven that you can't play "hardcore" with browser games or mobile games simply because they fall into those categories.
Browser interfacing will always be the downfall making this a constant platform for MMO's a fail attempt. For what I am talking about, look to windows OS for an example. Prior to Win OS, we ran dos and unix, both ran things fine, actually ran things better then what windows runs today. Unix systems for servers are unix for a reason, they run things faster and more streamlined. Looking at why is all the interfacing and background objects that run in a windows OS enviorment. Taking that into consideration, you look at browsers. Browsers are yet another platform (Almost another OS) running more scripts and code on top of another system , another and another.
When you make an appliction that can run right from the computer (IE client) , you have more direct access to graphics and more. Browser are just to limted to offer a good way for the user to interact with their game. You guys use battlestar Galatica as an example but I argue that it is failing. Most my friends and even in the forums people complain of constant second lags and spikes threw the browser, that the reaction doesn't feel right, that the animation look stiff (this is because the browser itself is just limiting). Servers and more can effect this, but in the end certain things will (at least for now) not run well on a browser just a fact of development life.
Browser interaction for business is become the new trend however, I myself am coding a project now on its 3rd year for a business application that will work in any OS because it's browser based, the user doesn't need to install anything etc. But the interaction graphically is nothing compaired to say a game. I just don't see a viable platform here for this type of gaming. The ones like farmville and others that are slow , simple graphics will be fine, puting a full blown 3d world into a browser? Well as you said.. see battlestar galatica game, it does it, yet I don't know a person that actually thinks it works well.
"The monster created isn't by the company that makes the game, it's by the fans that make it something it never was"
I have no problems with browser based mmos but developers have to make them good in order for people to want to play them.
In all seriousness though. The day a 'browser' based game is launched that appeals to me, let's me run it full screen, takes advantage of all the hardware in my machine, gives me plenty of options to set graphics controls etc. That will be the day I might be interested. For now I think they still have a very long way to go if BSG is anything to go by. I tried it, it sucked. After 5 minutes I'm afraid I was left thinking 'wow, this sucks because they made a 'browser' based game, such a waste of the IP'.
Sounds good to me as I've been becoming increasingly more interested in games that are smaller and more full of entertaining content for shorter periods of time. Now I still like the massive 40-80+ hr RPGs, but even with all the time in the world to play whenever I like, 1-3hrs is plenty a day or every other...
I've never gotten into Facebook games, but there was an interview with Richard Garriott the other day and he hit it exactly and I fully agree with him ~ that social gaming is the next generation upon us. I'm greatly looking forward to his new game{s} he's designing, especially the one he mentioned that will be similar in scope to his Ultima series!
Let's all go back in time and play on the Commodore 64 instead! Who cares about the technological advances of the last twenty years, lets play on the weakest platform we can!
I am sure you have noticed the huge swell of opinion that wants us to go back to using monocolour LCD text only displays on mobiles. No? Neither have I, it would be as barmy as purposely running games on a below par platform. Lets look forward not backward or sideways.
Where's the advantage to making a browser-based MMORPG? I understand that technically, they can. But that's in the sense that technically you can code modern software in Fortran. Even if you can, why would you?
Trying to make a complex game browser-based is a disaster waiting to happen. Do you really want to have to throughly debug every single browser update from all five major browser vendors to see if it breaks anything in your game, when you really don't know what they changed? If you don't, then your game will be a horrendously buggy mess. It's hard enough to debug things when you have complete control over the client.
Sure, you can debug things for one particular version of one particular browser, and then put on an impressive demo. But that's a long, long way from a game that works pretty well out in the wild. If you tell people, you have to use this particular version of this particular browser, then you make installing your game more of a nuisance than if you had a standalone client.
The only advantage to being browser based that I can think of is to let people who aren't allowed to install software (say, on a work computer) play your game anyway. In particular, having a minimal client that has to download everything as you go (which you're forced to do if it's browser-based) is readily doable with a small standalone client, so avoiding a 30 second install isn't really that big of an advantage, is it?
Battlel star galatica played decent. I heard runes of magic is heading to browser.
Edgar F Greenwood
Most browser games are as lacking in gameplay as they are in graphics. But then... I was bored after only a couple weeks on WoW. I really don't mind giving up graphics for truely interesting gameplay. For instance, Thorns of War was made by one guy... theRichard Garriott of the 21st Century if you ask me... and while it may not look like much at first, it wasn't made to be an art piece. It was made to be an amazing game. Hopefully the success of browser games will lead to more indie developers getting superior ideas into the light of day.
The formula for real fun:
Graphics 1 | Fun 10 | Sound 0 | Community 10 | Role-Playing 10 | Performance/Lag 10 | Value 10 | Service 10
http://www.thornsofwar.com
Merely just another fad, browser based MMO's are inherently bad because of the lack of tools. Maybe that will improve in the future, but with HTML 5 not having release numbers it will be a moving target. You might end up with the game only working on certain browsers.
So basically only the challenged developers are doing it.
i feel that we have to find a balance between both worlds.
20gb clients are idiotic, but browsers wont deliver the best performance no matter what.
These browser based games are being aimed at a different crowd. These games are not being aimed at the type of gamers that frequent this site.
I also watched the interview with Richard Garriot and as he said its really a whole different audience. Except they feel the audience is so much bigger than your standard MMO crowd or your console gamers. With the success of games like farmville it showed there was a lot of potential to make money.
So I wouldnt get all worked up thinking that MMO's are going the way of browser base gaming, its simply another audience for these companies to make more capitol. There is more than enough PC Gamers, Console Gamers and now according to people like Richard Garriot Social Gamers.
Galactica looks good, haven't played it but most of the browser ones I've seen make pen and paper look more exciting.
BSG is a very shallow game, it runs fine, but has almost no content, very litle customisation but it definitely is an improvement on other browser games. As a F2P it's ok for those times when your burnt-out on your chosen mmo but i seriously doubt we'll see browser games taking over the market.
If this does turn out to be the future of mmorpg's then the genre i love is dead and gone.
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
So let me get this straight, first it was "Free to Play" that would take over the market (which it hasn't and is steadily dropping from the scene), and now it's "Browser Based" MMO's that will take over the market?
Give me a fat BREAK. Browser based MMO's, if you could call them that, can barely shake a stick much less a profit margin at main stream MMO's. Why do people think that going BACKWARDS is the best business plan to break "out of the mold" rather than actually being INNOVATIVE? Hiding on a platform no one gives two craps about won't help your business. It's called taking the road less traveled, it doesn't mean you're going to get there faster.
Devs today must be populated by idiots?
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
Clients hold world data for a reason: Servers cant render the scene for all clients, that task is distributed. I think you'll find some posters are misinformed; browser based games can still be required to download world data and render the scene themselves.
Nice article. There is certainly room for growth here. Tbh, it's good to see some developers making some in-roads into this area. Two years ago I searched long and hard for a decent browser based game (MMO/RPG type), and there wasn't much out there.
I don't know enough about the potential of browser technology, but I assume there will always be performance benefits to running straight from the OS. That said, I do look forward to the day when I can enjoy a decent game on my phone or laptop anywhere in the world without having to go through an installation and patching process.
I don't currently expect the same from this type of technology as I would from an installed game, but the next 5 years will be interesting. I wonder if my wife will still be so keen on me getting a new phone if she knew I was using it to do a bit of MMO'ing?;)
Just because a game plays in a browser doesn't mean it won't install files too.
--------
"Chemistry: 'We do stuff in lab that would be a felony in your garage.'"
The most awesomest after school special T-shirt:
Front: UNO Chemistry Club
Back: /\OH --> Bad Decisions
This ^^^. I have played BSG Online and it is "ok" but as mentioned lacks content and depth. I play it when I just want to do something a little different but it doesn't hold me for long. If this were to become the "trend" in MMO's I would say that MMO's will die.
Btw, it does require a small software download to be able to play it.
Let's party like it is 1863!
BSG Online is horrific, i was in the BETA last year and it was the same then as it is now, it is shallow, the game play is weak and it is a total waste of a great IP with a massive fanbase behind it.
I am a massive BSG fan and even i could not force myself to like this game.
Browser games are great for old people, students and people who avoid work all day, for gamers they are simply a waste of time and hardware.