Best MMORPGs of 2010

MMORPGs offer the most in-depth gaming experiences, and the year 2010 has seen the release of some truly spectacular games. Vindictus, by Nexon, is a highly polished MMORPG that makes great use of instanced stages, and persistent world cities. The Celtic theme adds to the immersion, and the fluid gameplay and graphics, powered by the Source engine all add up to give Vindictus high production value all around.

Players looking for a more traditional MMORPG experience can look towards either Legend of Edda or Iris Online. Both games are developed by the same Korean studio, buy published by different portals here in the US. Legend of Edda has a ‘chibi’ theme and is published by GamesCampus. Iris Online has a Gypsy theme and is published by gPotato. Both games have anime style graphics, and fairly traditional gameplay mechanics. Iris Online is a bit more original, and has a more complex class system. The game is also more fully 3D, allowing for more exploration. Legend of Edda is much simpler, and has a pretty linear progression path both in terms of class progression and world exploration. Play one, or try both since they’re free to play! Unfortunately Iris Online shut down, but Legend of Edda is still around through GamenGame.

Moving on, lets talk about Battle of the Immortals. It is published by Perfect World Entertainment and is perhaps their most original MMORPG. Many of their previous games look and play like one another, but Battle of the Immortals was built on a totally different engine. It plays more like an action RPG. It has an isometric camera angle, and point-and-click movement. The game is easy to get into, and great for casual players.

Another interesting MMORPG from 2010 is Allods Online. This game combines the familiar graphic style and interface found in the popular World of Warcraft, but adds plenty of new features. Like Neo Steam and ARGO, it has a steampunk MMO Theme. That means air ships, rifles, and other fancy technologies are present. Allods Online has a very steady pacing, similar to high quality MMORPGs rather than the grind based gameplay found in many Asian MMORPGs.

Now lets get to some of the previously pay to play MMORPGs that required a monthly subscription that have been converted to free to play this year. Let’s start with EverQuest 2. It is a very well known game by Sony Online Entertainment. SOE got their feet wet in this f2p market with Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures, both of which were aimed at a younger audience. Now that they’ve learned a bit about free to play, they’ve released EverQuest 2: Extended. Its free to play with several restrictions. Players can purchase access to additional races and classes via a cash shop. SOE also converted Pirates of the Burning Sea to f2p this year. Pirates of the Burning Sea is now perhaps the most in depth free to play game available. It has deep economic features that make it ideal for players looking for a game they can spend months or even years with.

There they are, some of the best MMORPGs of 2010. There were plenty of others but this should be enough to keep you busy over the holiday break!

APB Reloaded MMO. A look at Pay to Play Games as F2P Games

This news is a tad bit old now – but GamersFirst announced last month that they would be re-launching APB as a free to play game called “APB Reloaded”. Firstly, It’s cool to see a dead MMO like APB, which cost some $50 million to develop relaunching as a free to play title. Secondly, It’s awesome that GamersFirst is bringing back a dead game. The fact is, Real Time Worlds, the bankrupt studio behind APB, launched an incomplete game that was doomed to failure. Instead of their work being “wasted”, the game is revived as free to play. I suspect in the future, less and less pay to play MMORPGs will actually “shut down”. Instead, they’ll re-launch as free to play games just to see if the game will catch on. Dungeons and Dragons Online and The Lord of the Rings Online from Turbine were smashing hits as free to play games. In fact, both of these games made MUCH more revenues as free to play games than as pay to play ones. I would have loved to see NCSoft relaunchTabula Rasa as a free to play MMO instead of shutting the game down outright. I’d of course like to see games like Final Fantasy 11 and Age of Conan to eventually become free to play too – but seeing games become free to play instead of shutting down will prove to game publishers and developers that free to play really works.

Unfortunately, even with the success that Turbine has had with their free to play games, most game developers aren’t convinced that free to play is a viable business model for triple-A high budget titles. In reality, it is. Just look at the success Nexon has been having in North America. MapleStory, Dungeon Fighter Online and Vindictus have proven to be super popular (and profitable) for Nexon. Vindictus is easily a triple A action MMORPG with graphics that rival that of any “pay to play” game. Sony Online Entertainment is experimenting with free to play as well. They recently made Pirates of the Burning Sea free to play, and since doing so, the playerbase in the game has increased significantly. Back when the game had a free trial, I logged in to check it out and each of the game’s three servers had “ight” population. They now have “heavy” and “very heavy” population. It’s too early to say whether Pirates of the Burning Sea will do well or not as an F2P title, as the game became free to play a few days ago on November 29. I don’t think Sony Online Entertainment saw the success they expected when they made EverQuest 2 free to play 2-3 months ago. I think the reasonEverQuest 2 didn’t do that “great” as a free to play game is because it’s way too restrictive. Free to play users have shown that they dislike Mmos that are too “cash dependent”. MMORPG Cash Shops are a delicate thing and can’t be too overpowered. Gpotato learned the hard way with Allods Online that trying to milk their playerbase for every last dime they have is not a good way to keep their playerbase happy. Luckily, Pirates of the Burning Sea is much more “free” than EverQuest 2 – as there are only a handful of restrictions for free to play users. Those who end up subscribing at $15 a month receive some nice benefits, but nothing game-breaking.

I remember back when Electronic Arts released Need for Speed World, the game had some absurd level 10 cap for free to play users, and had the balls to call itself a free to play racing game. How can a game with such a level cap call itself free? It’s more like a free trial than anything else. Several months after release, EA removed the level 10 cap for free members due to player outrage. So I think any pay to play game that went free to play will eventually become more and more “free” as companies realize that they can make more money pleasing their users than angering them. Hopefully the new Battlefield MMOFPS game isn’t too restrictive, the same way Need for Speed World was when it launched. I think EA has a decent grasp on the whole F2P concept though, as they already have numerous F2P games including Battleforge, FIFA Online, Lord of Ultima and a bunch of other games.

ZOMG More New MMORPGs

November has been a pretty exciting month for free to play MMORPGs so far. Iris Online (finally) launched into Open beta on Nov 23 and Legend of Martial Arts began its closed beta testing on Nov 24. Iris Online is a game that I’ve been extremely fascinated with ever since gPotato launched the closed beta in October. The game looks and feels like a very modern MMORPG, and I say that because the gameplay is very fluid and the graphics are sharp and easy on the eyes. Even though Fly For Fun and Rappelz remain some of the most popular free MMORPGs gPotato publishes, I think Iris Online has the potential to become their most successful title. Legend of Martial Arts also finally began a more public closed beta testing phase. The game is by Perfect World Entertainment and used to be known as Kung Foo a while ago. The name changed and the game was apparently re-developed into Legend of Martial Arts.

In Other news – War of Angels began its OPEN beta testing on November 24. I first played the game onGamigo months ago, but after learning about the North American IP block, I quickly became frustrated. Right after that IP block was announced, Neowiz – the Korean MMO developer behind S4 League announced that they themselves would release War of Angels globally through their own website. Those in Europe would still have to play on the Gamigo version though. Everyone else gets to play on one global service. I’m surprised that War of Angels was EU only on Gamigo, as Gamigo has several games available in both EU and North America including King of Kings 3 as well as their browser based title Cultures Online. They also have Martial Empires and Fiesta Online for Europe only. Luckily Fiesta Online is available in the U.S. Too, but Martial Empires isn’t. I’m wondering when CR-Space will get around to releasing a U.S. Version of Martial Empires…..

Another game that I should mention is Myth Angels Online from UserJoy. The game looks and plays like Angels Online from IGG, but apparently this version is supposed to be bigger and better. Those who disliked Angels Online shouldn’t even give this new Myth Angels Online a try though, as the graphics and gameplay are nearly identical. In FPS news, Mission Against Terror added several new game modes and Genesis A.D launched into open beta. Dynasty Warriors Online and Zentia also launched into full release – exiting their open beta phases, which means both games also received a bunch of updates.

November so far is looking great, but what I’m really looking forward to is the new games Webzen unveiled – Continent of the Ninth, Battery Online and R2: Reign of Revolution.

FreeStyle Street Basketball MMO Rocks

Why is it that the few very awesome free to play MMOs out there don’t get the attention they deserve? Everytime I log onto FreeStyle Street Basketball on GameKiss, I’m upset to see so few people online. I’ve played a lot of sports MMOs from FIFA Online to Pangya. I’ve even played tons of racing MMOs like Need for Speed World and Heat Online, but none of these games are nearly as fun as FreeStyle Street Basketball. Why on Earth am I praising this game so much? Well, because it’s both simple and fun. I think the best MMORPGs out there aren’t the most graphically advanced or complicated. The most fun titles are DEFINITELY the easiest to pick up and play. Games like WonderKing and Runes of Magic for example are successful because they’re so easy to pick up and play. Other titles like NEO Online from PlayOMG and World of Tanks for example are a bit more difficult to learn. I never managed to “get into” Eve Online because it’s such a hard game to learn. I tried playing the MMO Free Trial FOUR times, and not once could I stick with the game. Black Prophecy from Gamigo does look fascinating though and aims to be more “fun” than Eve Online. While Eve is more tactical and strategy oriented, Black Prophecy aims to be more hands on actiony – something Eve Online severely lacks.

Anyway, I’m getting a bit distracted. FreeStyle is fun, because you can hop on, play one or two matches (5 minutes each) and be done with it. No large time commitment nothing. I guess one of the reasons I like most MMOFPS games is because of this same reason – small time commitment. The thing about FreeStyle is that I don’t even like Basketball. I never watch it on TV or know anything about it, but I can still launch the game and have a ton of fun. I do wish the game offered more variety in terms of gameplay modes, because as is there aren’t many ways to vary up the game. Unlike Zone4: Fight District or Lost Saga from OGPlanet, FreeStyle has like 3 game modes and that’s it. Either way, you can still play the game for fun here and there. The game’s story isn’t exactly updated often, but it’s still good enough for me.

What sucks is that the game has a low playerbase. And as we all know – games with low playerbases eventually end up in the MMO Graveyard. I think games like Runes of Magic and Perfect World will likely be around for a long while. As will other successful MMORPGs like The Lord of the Rings Online and Fiesta Online, but FreeStyle is a game that I suspect won’t last another full year, as the game never had a big playerbase, and the community isn’t growing either. Plus GameKiss announced that they would shut down Valkyrie Sky last week. When a company shuts one game down, it means the company is having financial problems. That could eventually spill over into GhostX (Another game by the same company. A scifi MMORPG) and eventually into FreeStyle Street Basketball. Time will tell though.

APB Free to Play

Oh Man. All Points Bulletin, commonly called APB for short, is re-releasing as a free to play MMO shooter and will be publisher by GamersFirst. The game will relaunch as APB Reloaded The F2P game publisher bought up the APB assets from the now defunkt developer real-time worlds for a paltry sum. The game took some $50 million to develop, but GamersFirst bought up the rights to the game for less than $2.5 million. GamersFirst is best known for a handful of successful free to play games – their two most popular games are War Rock andKnight Online. Both games are fairly old now, but they still remain popular. APB isn’t the first “dead” game that GamersFirst bought up. They actually bought the license for 9Dragons once Acclaim Games shut down. The entire Acclaim Games story is quite funny – as they were bought by Playdom, but Playdom shut their entire website down within a month of buying the company. Needless to say, they got burnt.

According to the new APB Reloaded website – the game will be officially launching sometime in the first half of 2010. I think the entire APB concept was really neat. The idea of combing open world Grand Theft Auto environments with persistent world MMO / RPG elements sounds incredibly fun. APB is a game I never got a chance to play, as it was one of the few MMOs that didn’t have free trials. Nowadays, I play mostly free to play games, so I never actually bought APB. Even if I wanted to buy it, I had a small window to do it, as the game shut down within 2 months of launching. I think it’s one of the biggest flops in history. APB won’t be the first failed pay to play game going free to play though, Archlord used to be pay to play for its first year of release, but eventually became free to play

through Webzen and still remains F2P to date. RF Online went through the same release schedule. It launched as a pay to play game, but failed to attract a sizeable audience, so it went F2P. Even though both games aren’t huge successes, they are both still around today – they survived for years. So the whole F2P business model actually works. I think when The Lord of the Rings Online and EverQuest 2 announced that they will be going free to play, I knew F2P was for sure here to stay. Before that, I was merely speculating. Maybe Final Fantasy 14 will go Free to Play soon too.

Those who also like the APB concept, but don’t want to wait until APB releases could try that new browser based GTA style MMO – PoisonVille. The whole “Ville” bit reminds of FarmVille, PetVille, FrontierVille and all those other social games. I should mention – PoisonVille is by BigPoint and it most certainly is not a silly facebook game. The graphics are decent for a browser based game and it has some neat open world gameplay. In terms of content though, it’s quite disappointing. I’d actually hold off until APB relaunches as an F2P title, as PoisonVille has been a big disappointment. If you really want to try it though, I think you can use your SeaFight and Deepolis accounts to access it, as it’s by the same company – BigPoint.

Anyway – I’m waiting until APB releases. Anyone else pumped?

Where are all the Turn Based MMORPGs?

Turn based RPGs on the Playstation 2 were big business. Single player RPGs like Tales of Vesperia and Final Fantasy 13 on the Xbox 360 were fairly big games too. As an avid MMORPG gamer, I’m a bit disappointed that there are so few turn based MMORPGs available. I’ve looked for quite a while and I’ve only found a handful of decent ones. I think Atlantica Online from Ndoors is probably the best one. The game has great 3D visuals and a ton of playable characters. Like Sword 2 from GamersFirst, you can also control 3+ characters at once, which gives the game some unique dynamics. The only other remotely popular turn based MMORPG is Wonderland Online from IGG. It’s a 2D MMORPG with awful graphics. I actually like the 2D graphics in WonderKing and Grand Chase, but the visuals in Wonderland Online are bleh at best. Graphics are important, but its not a deal breaker for me. After all, one of the best MMORPGs if you ask me is Ragnarok Online from Gravity Interactive, and it doesn’t have very good graphics, especially compared to newer games like Iris Online from gPotato.

If you’ve never played either Atlantica Online or Wonderland Online do yourself a favor and play Atlantica Online. Of if you want to lower your exceptions before playing either, try Myth War 2 Online or Zodiac Online. Those are both pretty low tier turn based MMORPGs. WeMade Entertainment has Digimon Battle – which is also a pretty bad game. The only reason Digimon Battle is bad is its a really old MMORPG. The game is like 6+ years old. But if you were to only play ONE turn based MMORPG definitely make it Atlantica Online. I think Ndoors did a phenomenal job with it the game. It has some 10+ playable classes, top notch 3D graphics and a huge game world. I can’t imagine why there aren’t more games like it. Ndoors has proven that turn based MMORPGs can be successful – so why are so many game developers still releasing very generic 3D anime MMORPGs? Iris Online for example from gPotato is a really sleek game, but it brings nothing new to the table. The same thing applies to Zentia from ChangYou. It’s a fairly solid title, but it brings nothing new to the table either. I had a chance to play Loong: The Power of the Dragon from Gamigo the other day and I was really surprised by the game’s visuals. Too bad even though the gameplay is fluid, there aren’t really any special gameplay mechanics which would make the game unique.

One thing I can’t quite figure out is why game developers keep churning out MMOFPS games. Ijji just released Genesis A.D last week on Nov 8 and plans on releasing their World War 2 themed Karma: Operation Barbarossa later in the year. I think aside from fantasy MMORPGs the second most popular genre is MMOFPS games. Sci-fi MMORPGs are probably less popular than turn based MMORPGs, as the only sci-fi MMORPGs I can think of are RF Online and Megaten. That’s it.

Anyway guys, I know I got super side tracked with this one, but I’d like to see more turn based MMOs out there. More specifically, more games like Atlantica.

Best MMO Cash Shops

Cash shops in MMORPGs should be focused on one thing and one thing only – convenience. With the growth of free to play MMOs and MMORPGs and dozens of new games launching every year, I feel I should write something dedicated to cash shops and how they should be run. MMO publishers aren’t in the business of charity. They’re looking to turn a profit, so they want to sell things in their cash shops that people find useful and will want to buy. But if the cash shop items are too imbalanced or required to play, gamers will get angry and leave the game. So game publishers need to find a perfect balance. I think Allods Online from gPotato is a good example of a game that failed because of its cash shop woes. The game was incredibly fun, albeit a WoW clone. In fact, It was easily on par with Runes of Magic from Frogster, which was one of the highest rated free to play games ever. I remember the first day of the open beta for Allods. The game was mind-blowingly packed. The starting city was enormous, but it was FILLED with players. Every quest NPC was surrounded by players eagerly talking to and handing in quests. Some time later, gPotato added “Fear of death” to the game, which added a harsh death penalty, which could only be removed by either waiting 2 hours for it to go away on its own or through a cash shop item called “perfume”. One thing led to another and the cash shop because worse and worse. The game became too cash shop dependent. I think gPotato made a good deal of money early on, but in the long run, gPotato angered their players, and many of them quit.

The trick is to create a cash shop which doesn’t break the game. A cash shop should offer players convenience, without making it mandatory. Changyou for example promised that their new MMORPG Zentia could be played to max level without ever buying anything from the cash shop. Most MMORPGs today can be enjoyed without having to spend money in the cash shop, but some games can’t. Those games, unfortunately, are shooting themselves in the foot. Games like Shaiya from Aeria Games and browser games like Caesary and Lord of Ultima are incredibly cash shop dependent. Practically every browser based strategy game from Grepolis to Travian are absurdly cash shop dependent. So much so, that if you DON’T spend money in the cash shop, you have no chance of doing well. I think MapleStory from Nexon has one of the best cash shops ever. Why? Because the only items for sale are experience enhancement items and clothing for your avatar. Nothing is game-breaking and it’s all largely used for convenience. I think it’s easier for MapleStory to have a balanced cash shop over games like War of Angels and King of Kings 3, as MapleStory doesn’t have PvP while these other games do. Any PvP MMORPG has to make sure items sold in the cash shop aren’t imbalanced. EverQuest 2 for example, from Sony Online Entertainment, sells armor and weapons in its cash shop. Luckily, the items for sale are only mediocre – the best gear in the game can ONLY be obtained by actually playing the game and earning the gear.

So the ideal MMO cash shop should only sell things like clothing and convenience items. Convenience items being increased XP scrolls and teleportation scrolls. When a game like Grand Chase from Ntreev or Legend of Edda from GamesCampus sells items to its players that increase their XP rate, it doesn’t affect anyone in a negative way. I mean, who cares if some random player is gaining XP at a faster than than I am? The only time a cash shop can really annoy players is when players are REQUIRED to use it in order to get ahead, or if it sells an item that can imbalance PvP. Most MMOs these days, including the new Genesis A.D and League of Legends don’t sell anything in their stores which would imbalance the game.

So which game do you think has the most unfair cash shop? Which has the best? Let me know in the comments!

Side Scrolling MMORPGs 4TW

Why is it that just about every side scrolling MMORPG has been very successful? For a long while MapleStory from Nexon was the only side scrolling MMORPG on the block – at least until Ndoors decided to embrace the sub genre with their WonderKing game. Ndoors is probably best known for the turn based MMORPG Atlantica Online, and that’s it. I think a few months after Ndoors released WonderKing, Nexon actually bought the entire company. I think it’s because Nexon saw WonderKing as a thread to MapleStory’s dominance. It’s safe to say that after Runescape from Jagex, MapleStory is the most profitable and most popular free to play MMORPG on the market. WonderKing isn’t nearly as big of a success as MapleStory has been, but the game definitely carved out its own slice of the 2D MMORPG market.

WonderKing isn’t the only new side scrolling MMORPG to release chasing after MapleStory’s success. Fists of Fu from OutSpark is a 2D action MMORPG that’s trying to mix MapleStory and Dragon Saga style gameplay. Whether it’ll be successful or not remains unknown – as the game launched into open beta recently. I doubt it’ll be as successful as Outspark’s flagship anime MMORPG Fiesta Online. For those that didn’t know Fiesta Online is by far the most successful game OutSpark has. I think Secret of the Solstice (The Ragnarok Online clone they have) is their second most popular, but Fiesta is leaps and bounds ahead of Secret of the Solstice. They pretty much abandoned their other MMORPGs – Project Powder and Wind Slayer. They for sure abandoned Dance Groove Online and Blackshot. Hopefully these two games launch through another publisher.

Aside from the growth of side scrolling MMORPGs, games like Forsaken World from Perfect World Entertainment and War of Angels from Neowiz have attracted quite a bit of attention. Many Perfect World, Battle of the Immortals and Jade Dynasty fans have been flocking to try Forsaken World. Too bad the game is still in phase 1 closed beta, with full release being severla years in the future. Suba Games has been pushing Mission Against Terror quite hard lately. I just wish they’d get around to releasing Priston Tale 2 sometime soon, as that game has been on hiatus forever. The worst thing about it is that it’s already released in Europe through Gamerkraft, who also publishes FreeJack. I’m also waiting for Netmarble to release Koongya Adventure in the U.S. Instead of releasing it, they recently launched Uncharted Waters Online instead. It’s not a terrible game, but it’s too much like Voyage Century for my taste. On the positive side, Uncharted Waters Online is one of the only Japanese MMORPGs out there. Yeah, it’s developed in Japan. I think Lucent Heart (Beanfun) and Dynasty Warriors Online (Aeria Games) are some of the only other Japanese MMORPGs.

Anyway, I’m getting side tracked here. I think it’s clear that side scrolling MMORPGs are incredibly popular. I suspect that both WonderKing and Fists of Fu will prove to be a success in the near future.

MMORPGs Launching Quickly in North America

New MMORPGs and MMOs that launched in South Korea and China are making their way fastest to the West than ever before. Just recently Perfect World Entertainment launched their newest game – Forsaken World into closed beta here in the West. The game is STILL in closed beta testing over in China. So the game was localized and launched in BOTH regions at around the same time. I say “around the same time” because it was out in China first, but not by much. Nexon, the company best known for MapleStory and Dungeon Fighter Online, launched Vindictus in North America within 6 months or so of launching it in South Korea. The time it takes for an Eastern game to reach Western shores have been decreasing steadily for quite a few years now. Loong: The Power of the Dragon from Gamigo is yet another example. Unfortunately, things haven’t always been this way.

Digimon Battle from WeMade Entertainment for example, launched in North America some 5+ years after it launched in South Korea and China. Darkeden from JoyMax launched in the States nearly 8 years after it originally debuted in Korea. Just recently PWE launched Heroes of Three Kingdoms in North America, but it had been available in South East Asia as “Redcliff” for numerous years. It’s only recently that games have begun launching in different regions at “around” the same time. Black Prophecy, an upcoming MMORPG from Gamigo is scheduled to launch in both North America and Europe at around the same time too.

Unfortunately, there are still hundreds of games available only in South Korea and China which haven’t launched in the West yet. Luckily, some of these games – JX2 Online, Battle of Destiny, Super Dance Online and Hot Dance Party (Steps) are all playable from North America, even though they are published in South East Asia. Most games not released in America have IP restrictions preventing foreign users from logging in. Beanfun for example has half a dozen games available in Taiwan that aren’t yet available in the West. Luckily, they’re bringing the Japanese MMORPG Lucent Heart to North America real soon. But there are so many other games available in Asia that have yet to be announced in North America.

Even though the gap between new MMORPGs announced in Korea and coming to the West is decreasing, I feel that a lot of the older games are never going to make it to Western shores. It’s unfortunate because many of them would probably be really successful here. I mean just look at games like Silkroad Online from JoyMax and Conquer Online from TQ Digital – both of these Eastern games are huge hits in the West. Legend of Edda, FreeJack and Zentia for example are all really popular here in the West. These titles are new, but even older games “relaunched” here are big. Just look at Fantasy Earth Zero from GamePot USA. It’s an older Japanese MMORPG but it’s a big hit!

Bring some older Chinese MMORPGs and Korean MMORPGs to North America! After all, American MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons Online are available all over Asia already!

MMORPG File Sizes

One thing I’ve noticed is as MMOs get more complicated and their file sizes seem to keep getting bigger and bigger. This is most certainly a big problem, as some MMORPGs are just so big that no one has the patience to download them. Well, not “no one” but I think games like Runes of Magic from Frogster and Age of Conan from Funcom are screwing themselves over because of their file size. Runes of Magic is 6+GB big, so installing and patching the game can take 3+ hours – and that’s on a FAST internet connection. Anyone on DSL will probably end up giving up well before the game even finishes downloading. The same thing applies to Age of Conan – that game is a MONTER. It’s 20GB big – which means on a fast internet connection the game will take almost 12 hours to fully install and patch. If the patch servers are busy, it could take even longer. I think the “sweet spot” for games is 1.2GB or less. Anything above 2 is really pushing it. Dungeons and Dragons Online is a whopping 4GB on “High res” mode, but at least the game lets players download a normal version which is 2.8GB – a cool 25% smaller in size. Games like Star Citizen will be pushing 100+GB too. MMORPG File sizes are just getting way too big.

Perfect World and Jade Dynasty are both under 2GB, yet they both look great. Dungeons and Dragons Online which is TWICE as big isn’t twice as good. Heck, many of the more successful games are LESS than 1GB. Look at Eudemons Online and Conquer Online from TQ Digital. Both games have a crazy big population, but the games are under 800MB. The Lord of the Rings Online on the other hand is a top notch game, but it’s a WHOPPING 10GB big. What on Earth is Turbine thinking? I think one easy solution to these huge file sizes is to download only portions of the game. For example, let’s say when I download Fists of Fu or Fiesta Online from Gamigo – instead of downloading the ENTIRE game’s content, I should only have to download the first 10 dungeons in the game. That’s it. As I make my way to dungeon #7 or 8, the game can begin download the next 10 dungeons in the background. That way, everything is done uninterrupted, and if I decide that Fists of Fu isn’t for me, I wouldn’t have had to wait until I downloaded the entire game!

The thing is, games like Grand Chase, Lost Saga, FreeJack and Zentia don’t really need to worry about this little issue as these games aren’t exactly huge to begin with. I think only games that are over 2GB in size should bother doing this. Though I’m sure other games would benefit too. Imagine being able to download and install an MMORPG like Battle of the Immortals, Heroes of Three Kingdoms or Metin 2 in a few minutes? This could easily be achievable if players could download the first few zones in the game, and have the game automatically download and install more zones in the background while you play. I think Guild Wars from NCSoft actually does this, and if I remember correctly the MMORPG free trial for World of Warcraft does it too. I don’t think ANY free to play MMORPGs do it though.

The problem really isn’t a game’s size, as most modern hard drives today have 250+GB with new hard drives having over a TB. The problem is the annoyingly long time it takes to fully download and patch a modern day MMORPG. So breaking the game down into pieces and having the game download more content AS you play would mean people can jump into games easier. There’s no reason newer MMORPGs like Kitsu Saga andLegend of Edda don’t have this built in. I can see why really old games don’t have it, but new ones should. What are your thoughts on this? I think I’d be willing to download and play more games if I didn’t have to wait so dang long to download them!

CosmicBreak and GetAmped 2 Never going to Release

Two games that seem like they’re never going to fully launch are CosmicBreak and GetAmped 2. Both are published and developed by the Japanese MMORPG company CyberStep. I’m convinced that these guys have no idea what they’re doing, because both GetAmped 2 and CosmicBreak began their open beta testing phases nearly a year ago, but NEITHER game is fully released yet. Why? After open beta isn’t full release supposed to begin? Apparently not if you ask CyberStep, as both games have since went through additional beta testing phases – all of which have been followed by wipes. CosmicBreak is set to be released by December, 2010 – another three months of waiting. I think anyone who wanted to play CosmicBreak by now gave up on the game and moved onto something else. No one wants to wait this long to play a game – especially when it was playable 6+ months ago. I think Vindictus made the same mistake of taking forever to launch, which allowed other action MMORPGs like Divine Souls from OutSpark and Soul Master from GamesCampus to dip their toes into action MMO market. Fists of Fu from Outspark also took quite a while to launch, but at least it did launch!

Other delayed MMORPGs which seem to be taking forever to launch are Huxley: The Dystopia and Priston Tale 2. ijji was supposed to publish Huxley like a year ago, but they recently announced that Webzen will continue development for the game. Even so, Huxley seems like it’s never going to actually come out. The same thing applies to Priston Tale 2 which actually released recently in Europe (through GamerKraft who also makes FreeJack), but the game is still nowhere near release in North America. That’s because Suba Games has no idea what they’re doing. They show the Priston Tale 2 page as “coming soon”, but it’s been “coming soon” for over 1 full year. I’m convinced that Priston Tale 2 will never come out in North America. On the positive side, the Malaysian version of the game will be available to AsiaSoft soon and they said they wouldn’t be blocking North American Ips. They also publish Battle of Destiny and Warriors of the Three Kingdoms, which are available to North American users. Unfortunately, games available in Malaysia and Singpaore are extremely laggy for gamers in Europe and North America. I tried playing Counter Strike Online recently, but my pings were in excess of 250, making the game unplayable.

Other delayed MMORPGs that will likely never release are Dance Groove Online, Kart Rider and Dreamland Online. Dance Groove Online is a dancing game that looks a bit like Audition Online and ShowUp. It was announced a year or so ago on Outspark’s site, but about 6 months ago, OutSpark took the game off their homepage, which pretty much confirmed the game was never going to release. Kart Rider did a large open beta test in North America in 2008 or so, but after that, the game vanished. Dreamland Online was announced by IGG ages ago, but it has been delayed indefinitely. The game was supposed to closely resemble Dragon Saga, LaTale, WonderKing and other side scrolling MMORPGs. Too bad there’s no definitive release date on it.

Do you guys know any other games that have been delayed over and over again? If so, name them in the comments!

Lord of the Rings Online Free to Play a Big Success

Since going free to play The Lord of the Rings Online has enjoyed a 400% increase in active playerbase and a 200% increase in monthly revenues. Turbine also announced that the game now generates more money in optional monthly subscriptions than it did back when it was pay to play. I don’t think the game enjoyed the same level of success that Dungeons and Dragons Online did upon re-launching as a free to play game, but that’s mostly because The Lord of the Rings Online was already successful and profitable to begin with whereas Dungeons and Dragons Online had a tiny playerbase that was slowly dwindling away. Needless to say though, Turbine has once again proven that the free to play business model is a viable one. Not everyone is ignoring Turbine’s success with free to play.

Sony Online Entertainment recently made their flagship MMORPG EverQuest 2 free to play. But that’s old news that I’ve talked about in the past. What’s more interesting is that Pirates of the Burning Sea will also be relaunching as a free to play title in the coming months. And yes, it’s official. The company announced that they will be shifting to a free to play game when their latest expansion goes live. Since Turbine made Dungeons and Dragons Online free to play, Electronic Arts has tried their luck in free to play too. Over the last few years EA has released Battlefield Heroes, Lord of Ultima, FIFA Online and Tiger Woods Online as free to play titles, but has been hesitant to convert any of their current pay to play titles such as Dark Age of Camelot of Warhammer Online to free to play, which I think they should seriously consider doing. Both Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online aren’t very popular and are in clear decline. Dark Age of Camelot used to have 30+ servers but has 3 today. Warhammer Online launched with some 35+ servers but its down to 4. They need to do something to revitalize these games and going free to play could work. Free trials for those MMOs just isn’t cutting it.

With Dungeons and Dragons Online, The Lord of the Rings Online and EverQuest 2 now free to play, I think there’s a lot of pressure on Funcom to make Age of Conan Free to Play and on NCSoft to make City of Heroes and Lineage 2 free to play. As more and more pay to play games become free to play, game companies will realize that demanding a monthly fee to access a game is going to get harder and harder. I don’t think World of Warcraft really has to worry, as they’re still the market leader in the space, but smaller less successful MMORPGs like Champions Online and even Star Trek Online will need to eventually begin embracing free to play, as pay to play has been on a decline since Turbine made Dungeons and Dragons Online free to play. Plus, high quality free to play games like Runes of Magic, Fists of Fu and Heroes of Three Kingdoms are also putting pressure on pay to play games to re-consider their business models.

The Lord of the Rings Online is Worth Checking Out

In case you didn’t hear – The Lord of the Rings Online from Turbine relaunched as a free to play MMORPG. This happened about a month ago and anyone can go ahead and download the game today and play it for free. Turbine has had a great of success with free to play, as their other MMORPG – Dungeons and Dragons Online made a ton of money as a free to play MMORPG. In fact, Dungeons and Dragons Online was a failing MMO, as it had very few subscribers and was bleeding red ink for Turbine. Only after making the game free to play did Turbine turn a profit out of Dungeons and Dragons Online. The Lord of the Rings Online going free to play is a bit more interesting in my opinion. Pay to play MMORPGs have gone free to play in the past – think Archlord, RF Online and FusionFall with newer MMORPGs like Pirates of the Burning Sea from Sony Online Entertainment going free to play soon. Pirates of the Burning Sea announced it would drop its subscription in the near future back in August. I suspect other pay to play MMOs will release MMO news saying they’ll go free to play in the future.

Okay, enough talking about other MMORPGs though. What makes Lord of the Rings Online unique as a pay to play MMORPG gone free to play is that Lord of the Rings Online was a success. The game was making plenty of money for Turbine and the company didn’t make it free to play in a desperate move – the same way they did for Dungeons and Dragons Online. Archlord and RF Online went free to play because they were utter failures as pay to play games with no subscribers. Lord of the Rings Online was plenty profitable for years. Turbine made it free to play because they think that they can make more profit as a free to play game than as a pay to play one. Now this is interesting. In the past only failed games went free to play, so with Turbine’s latest move with Lord of the Rings Online, hopefully other game publishers and developers will do the same thing. Maybe NCSoft could make City of Heroes and Lineage 2 free to play? Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if Electronic Arts made Warhammer Online free to play – as they’ve already launched NUMEROUS free to play games in the last year. They developed and launched Battlefield Heroes, FIFA Online, Tiger Woods Online AND Need for Speed World as free to play MMOs. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to ANYONE if EA made Warhammer Online free to play.

Since Lord of the Rings Online went free to play in August, the game’s playerbase has spiked. We haven’t heard too many official announcements from Turbine yet about LOTRO, so we won’t know if the game is a success yet or not. I’ve personally played LOTRO and I absolutely love it. Why? Because it has that certain pay to play feel to it. The visuals are great, the quests are in perfect English, the MMO plot makes sense and the MMO music is great too. All of these little details add up to make The Lord of the Rings Online of the best free to play MMORPGs available. Obviously top tier f2p games like Runes of Magic and Fiesta Online shouldn’t be ignored either, but I think Lord of the Rings Online is raising the bar for free to play.

GamesCampus MMO Publisher is Growing Fast!

GamesCampus – the free to play MMO publisher which launched back in 2006 with one MMO (Shot Online) has been growing rapidly over the years. They now publish at least half a dozen games with plans to launch numerous new games in the future. I’ve written about other MMORPG publishers in the past, but I wanted to talk about GamesCampus today because they recently announced that they would be publishing Drift City in North America. Yep – you heard me correctly. GamesCampus will be publishing Drift City soon. After October 28 to be precise. So what’s going to have to the ijji version of the game? It’s going to shut down. Don’t worry though – players can transfer their characters to the GamesCampus version after the game closes its doors. Unfortunately cash shop items bought on the ijji version and Gcoins acquired will not be transferable. Players can spend their Gcoins on some other MMORPGs that ijji publishes though like HolyBeast Online, Rohan Online, Genesis A.D, Lunia, Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu, and numerous other titles.

Besides Drift City, GamesCampus launched a new anime MMORPG into closed beta this week – Legend of Edda. The game actually entered into closed beta on September 30, 2010 and is a cute MMORPG with chibi style graphics. After playing the game for a while I was surprised to learn that Legend of Edda is actually a PvP intensive game. The game features large scale faction battles like Aika Online from gPotato and Fantasy Earth Zero from GamePot USA. On a side note I think gPotato has been doing really swell lately too. They continue to update their older games like Rappelz and Fly For Fun. Even Tales Runner remains updated too. Too bad FreeJack launched recently, it’ll be competing with Tales Runner, as it’s the only other parkour style foot racing MMO. GamesCampus is also working on launching a tank themed MMO called Tank Ace, which will compete with World of Tanks. Too bad there’s no definitive release on Tank Ace, as the game looks neat. I thought World of Tanks was neat, but the game was super annoying, as higher level players and tanks 1 shotted lower level tanks. It’s realistic and all, but bleh. It played too much like NavyField.

Over the last few months GamesCampus also launched two games into full release. Soul Master being the more interesting one and Heroes in the Sky being the other. I like Soul Master because it’s a unique with strategy elements. It plays like Dragonica Online from Gravity Interactive, except with some unique strategy aspects. Heroes in the Sky is cool too because it’s one of the only dog fighting MMOs – except for perhaps Ace Online from Suba Games. The game is also set during World War 2 and has plenty of real life airplanes in it. So World War 2 buffs or airplane aficionados will find something to love in the game.

Gamigo is Launching tons of new MMORPGs!

The German free to play MMO and MMORPG game publisher Gamigo has been on a roll lately. Their newest game King of Kings 3 launched on September 27 right after it finished closed beta testing. No second closed beta testing or open beta testing – straight to full release after closed beta. How awesome is that? For those of you who haven’t heard of King of Kings 3, it’s a 3D PvP MMORPG that plays a bit like Aika Online. PvP is definitely the game’s main focus as it has a really in depth tiered guild system and faction wars system. Like Mu Online and Silkroad Online – King of Kings 3 has a really high level cap too – something like 90+. Any game with a level cap higher than 80 is considered high in my book. Graphically though, King of Kings 3 isn’t anything special, but on the graphics department Gamigo has an awesome sci-fi theme MMO launching soon.

That awesome sci-fi themed MMORPG is Black Prophecy. It’s supposed to play a lot like Eve Online, except with a much stronger emphasis on action rather than just slow paced tactics. It’ll mop the floor with other space themed MMORPGs like Pirate Galaxy and Outer Galaxies – even though they’re browser games. Black Prophecy has some of the best graphics of any free to play MMORPG. Hopefully the music is good too, because MMORPG music is really important in my opinion – as it helps set the mood. I think games like Ragnarok Online, Sword 2 and S4 League are remembered so fondly, because of their excellent musical scores. Black Prophecy is currently in closed beta though, so I haven’t had a chance to play it. The MMO videos I’ve seen so far though make it looks really epic.

Another upcoming MMORPG from Gamigo that look really neat is Loong: The Power of the Dragon – a 3D Fantasy themed action MMORPG set in Ancient China. Graphically – the game looks quite awesome, but graphics aren’t everything – I actually enjoyed playing Fantasy Earth Zero from GamePot USA and Zentia from ChangYou – even though they have less then great graphics. To be fair, Zentia has decent graphics. But Cabal Online and Diablo 2 are great MMORPGs even though they don’t have the best graphics. Unfortunately Loong: The Power of the Dragon has no set release date, and I fear it may be another 6 months before it actually releases.

Yet another upcoming MMO from Gamigo is War of Angels. The game looks awesome because players can purchase wings in the game which lets players fly around. I think the only games that support flying mounts / wings are Perfect World, Fly For Fun and Jade Dynasty. I’d like to see more games add flying mounts – but what I like about War of Angels is that the graphics are good, but not so good that my computer can’t run it.

So what do you guys think about Gamigo? I think they publish some of the best MMORPGs out. The only thing they’re lacking is some browser MMOs in my opinion. Games like Caesary, War of Legends and Dark Orbit for example. If they had some browser MMOs they’d be one of the most varied publishers out.

MMOFPS Games are all the Same!

I remember back when Sudden Attack, from GameHi, and Combat Arms, from Nexon, first launched in the U.S. I thought there would be some sort of new dawn in the field of free to play MMOFPS games. I figured in a few years time, no one would be buying console shooters like Modern Warefare 2 and would instead play free to play MMO shooters. Boy was I wrong. Both Sudden Attack and Combat Arms were GOOD games, but newer free to play MMO shooters like K.O.S. Secret Operations, WolfTeam, Soldier Front, Operation 7 and Cross Fire are ALL the exact same! Well, not the exact same, but they’re all tactical shooters where your opponents die in 2-3 hits. Graphically, each of these games are a bit different, but in terms of core gameplay, they’re nearly identical.

In terms of playable game modes, each and every one of these MMO shooters have a Counter-Strike style “planet the bomb – defuse the bomb” game mode, a team deathmatch and a free for all mode. Once Combat Arms launched its own Zombie mode – every new tactical MMO copied it! Practically every single one of these shooters have their own “zombie” modes now. Even the brand new Mission Against Terror MMO shooter from Suba Games, which launched into open beta on September, 2010 – has a zombie mode. Oh, and it has the exact same game modes that every other MMO shooter has!

There is hope though. MicroVolts from RockHippo productions is a third person MMO shooter which is launching into open beta in October. It looks and plays a lot like Valve’s Team Fortress 2. S4 League is another third person shooter. It’s by Alaplaya and has fast paced gameplay and awesome MMO music. Battlefield Heroes is third person too – and is the first free to play MMO shooter from DICE. It plays much like other Battlefield games, except with a distinct cartoony look. The game’s RPG elements give it a nice touch and helps the game stand out. Alien Swarm from Valve and Robo Smasher from KRU Interactive are original too – so props to those games for actually making something unique.

I’ve actually played every single tactical MMO shooter out there and it’s shameful how similar they are to each other. Seriously. If you’ve played Cross Fire, you might as well have played every other “tactical” MMO shooter as they all run on the same exact engine. It seems like all MMOFPS games are the same. I think there’s only one original tactical MMO shooter – and that’s Alliance of Valiant Arms from ijji. It actually looks and plays different than all the other copy cat games. It actually plays a bit like Call of Duty 4, but that’s just my opinion. It’s also one of the best MMO shooters because of its originality.

What do you guys think about all of these MMO shooters copying each other? At least we can look forward to Genesis A.D From ijji in the coming months.

So Many Foreign MMORPGs

You’d think that 200+ free to play client based MMORPGs available in North America is a lot, but in reality its nothing compared to the number of free to play games available in China and Korea. This is because “free to play” is the ‘norm’ in these countries. Paying monthly to play an MMORPG is unheard of in the East. Games like Age of Conan from Funcom and World of Warcraft from Blizzard Entertainment are still available in Asia, just with a different business model. Lineage 2 and Age of Conan for example are both free to play with cash shops in South Korea. In terms of variety, North America is lacking compared to Korea. Obviously the mega popular MMOs like MapleStory, Runes of Magic and Vindictus are available in both the East and West. Other smaller MMOs like Prius Online and Koongya adventure from Netmarble aren’t yet available in the U.S or Europe.

In fact, there are so many smaller free to play MMORPGs in South Korea and Japan that MMORPG players over there have much more variety. Even with 200+ free to play MMORPGs in the U.S. Variety Is lacking – especially since most free to play MMORPGs in the West are the same old fantasy MMORPGs rehashed. Anime MMORPGs like Luna Online and Fly For Fun look neat, but there are so many similar games. Heck, if you’ve played Luna Online, you might as well have played every other anime MMORPG from Adsa Story to Zu Online – as they’re all very similar. I’m sure a lot of games are clones of each other in Korea and Japan too, but with more games means more variety.

I know Korea is big in MMO development, but Japan isn’t. There are only a handful of MMOs actually developed in Japan. I think Ran Online and Pandora Saga are some of the only two. I’m talking free to play MMORPGs, not pay to play ones, so I’m excluding games like Final Fantasy 11 & 14. Oh, and there’s Florensia as well as CosmicBreak. Korean MMORPGs seem to be more popular than Japanese MMORPGs, as Nexon is one of the biggest MMO companies in the world, and they specialize in free to play games. Perfect World Entertainment – the company behind Battle of the Immortals, Perfect World, Forsaken World and Jade Dynasty is also very big on free to play MMOs. I think Perfect World Entertainment and Nexon are the two biggest MMORPG companies in the World. There aren’t too many Western MMO developers, yet, so most of the free to play titles in the U.S. Are imported and licensed from Korean developers. Firefall from Red5 Studios is supposed to be free to play and League of Legends is f2p. So aside from these there are very few new western developed f2p MMOs, though big companies here are starting to realize the potential of free to play. I think Electronic Arts has been doing a good job embracing the genre. They should make their upcoming Star Wars MMO “The Old Republic” free to play too. That would be awesome.

Anyway, I’m done with this long random rant =).