MMORPGs Should be More Compatible

Anyone else wonder why so few MMORPGs are compatible with Linux and Mac? I’m not a developer, so I don’t understand the development bits, but how much more expensive could it be to make a game compatible with these other popular operating systems? As of now there are only a handful of mac MMORPGs out there and even fewer Linux MMORPGs. After windows these two are the next biggest, so you would imagine that game developers would ensure their games be compatible with them. I mean, a game that runs on more systems would reach a larger audience, thus make more profit through their cash shops (for free to play games) and subscriptions (for pay to play).

There are a handful of games that run well on all the major operating systems (Windows, Mac and Linux). One of them is Savage 2 from S2 Games. The unique MMORTS game that plays a bit like Fantasy Earth Zero, but without a persistent world. Then we have Runescape from Jagex. It’s not surprising that Runescape runs fine on Linux and Mac, as it launches through the web browser and uses Java.

Another compatibility issue many games have is that they have high system requirements. If I was a game developer, I’d make sure my game ran smoothly on 99% of PCs, that way my target audience is larger. If you look at all the MMOs out there, the most successful and most popular free MMORPGs are the most playable – the ones with low system requirements. MapleStory, Ragnarok Online and Gaia Online for example all have low system requirements. On the pay to play front games like Age of Conan and Vanguard which each require super computers to run have extremely low playerbases, while World of Warcraft which runs fine on mediocre machines is doing well. There’s definitely a direct correlation between system requirements and playerbase. Developers need to stop making gmes only 10% of the population can even run. It doesn’t make sense.

I know this is a bit of a rant, but I dunno. I think MMOs and games in general should run smoothly and easily on everyone’s PC. Developers need to find a nice all in one solution. This isn’t a problem for consoles, as everything is standardized, but console MMORPGs would never work.