Anime MMORPG Graphics

Is it just me or do anime MMORPGs just look nicer than realistic 3D MMORPGs. I’ve never been a fan of anime, but I find MMORPGs that have sleek anime graphics to be visually satisfying. Games like Cloud Nine (Netgame) and S4 League (Alaplaya) for example look really awesome. The graphics aren’t at all realistic, but the art style is gorgeous. Not all anime MMORPGs look nice though. MMOs like Grand Chase from Ntreev and Fly For Fun from gPotato don’t look nearly as awesome. I guess its because the graphics in these games are a bit more jagged and low quality. No fault of the publishers of course, as both of these games are quite old now. I can safely say though I prefer Cloud Nine style anime graphics over Runes of Magic style Western cartoony graphics. I don’t think Cloud Nine is a better game than Runes of Magic, but I like the art style much better.

One interesting thing about this issue is that realistic 3D MMORPGs like Karos Online from NHN and Last Chaos from Aeria Games will age much faster. In 5 years these games will look terrible in comparison to the new 3D games, while anime inspired MMORPGs like S4 League will still look good. Obviously newer games will always look better, but my argument is that anime inspired games age better as its much harder to improve anime style graphics than realistic 3D graphics. Here’s some interesting proof. MapleStory which is a 7 year old game now still looks good visually while an older 3D game like Rappelz is beginning to show its age.

Anyone else with me on this? I find it weird that I think this way because I don’t really like anime, but I love anime graphics and characters. Unfortunately there aren’t enough good anime inspired MMORPGs out there. All the best MMORPGs are 3D and more realistic. Think Dungeons and Dragons Online and Allods Online.

Browser MMORPGs Worth Playing

There are easily thousands of browser based MMORPGs out there, but most of them are garbage. Obviously with so many games some at least a handful of have to be good. I’ve actually played hundreds of them and out of all the browser games, not counting the mega popular RuneScape, I’ve played one of the best is Dark Orbit from BigPoint. I’m not the only one that thinks this either. The game has some 30,000+ players online at any given time. I believe the only other browser MMO with this kind of playerbase is RuneScape, but I’m excluding that from this list because everyone already knows about it. I’m trying to list games that you guys may not have played and should play. Other than Dark Orbit, another really neat browser game is Pirate Galaxy. It’s actually a really new game but has incredible 3D graphics. It’s a sci-fi MMORPG as well that has some of the best graphics of any browser game ever. Seriously though, it has better graphics than Earth Eternal and Fusionfall which are other good looking browser games.

Next up on my list of browser MMORPGs worth playing are a few strategy MMORPGs. Odds are most of you have heard of or even played Evony, as they’ve been advertising EVERYWHERE. But have you guys heard of War of Legends or even The Seventh Dragon? There are so many other good browser based strategy MMORPGs out there. Games like Caesary, Tribal Wars and Travian for example are all well worth checking out if you’re into the whole strategy genre. Many of these games are actually better than Evony, because they have more variety.

Another really awesome browser game that’s worth playing is Adventure Quest Worlds from Artix Entertainment. It’s a surprisingly in depth fully fledged MMORPG on the browser. Like Dark Orbit, the game has tens of thousands of players online at any given time. I find that incredibly impressive for a browser game. Plus, the game has so much content as well as a high level cap. Adventure Quest Worlds is one of those games you can sink a hundred hours into and still have a lot left undone.

I hope you found this list at least somewhat helpful. Go try one of the games I mentioned, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. If you have any other good games worth mentioning let me know.

MMORPG Balance Doesn't Matter

I feel that a lot of free to play MMORPGs spend too much time worrying about balance. When I play a new MMORPG I care a lot more if the game has lots of playable classes than if they’re balanced. In fact, I could care less if one class is slightly over powered or if one class is slightly under powered. I like games that offer lots of variety. Games like Ragnarok Online and Requiem from Gravity on the free to play front and games like Dark Age of Camelot and Vanguard on the pay to play front. I Feel that if MMO developers spend too much time and energy worrying about balance, they won’t be working on adding new classes and races. World of Warcraft for example is an extremely balanced game, but it has such little variety. I mean, if a game is big into PvP, then balance should be important, but a lot of people play MMOs for the PvE aspect.

Does anyone really care if about balance anyway? I know I don’t. I mean, I do to an extent, but so long as one class isn’t absurdly over powered, balance is not in my top 5 concerns about a game. Just look at the Super Smash Brothers franchise – it has so many characters. Characters like Bowser and Jigglypuff are outright useless. In fact, within the community players have broken down characters into tier 1, 2 and 3. There are usually a few tier 1 characters which the ‘pros’ use and a few tier 2 characters which are also good, but 90% of characters in Super Smash are garbage, thus they’re thrown into tier 3. I think it’s almost universally accepted that Super Smash Brothers is a fun game, which is why I used it as an example. Balance does not equal fun.

Developers should focus on character customization (Think Perfect World), content and features. These are much more important than balance. Sure PvP MMORPGs like Aika Online and Kingdom Heroes would require a bit more attention in the balance department, but I think MMO companies are wasting their efforts worrying about balance when they could actually be improving their games.

I Can’t be the only one who feels this way, but sometimes I do feel this way, as every time I’ve discussed this issue across various forums, people tend to disagree. I’ve noticed though that people who play pay to play MMORPGs seem to care more than those who play free to play games. People who player browser games also preferred variety over balance. Any thoughts? Leave them in the comments below

Bad Team Mates in MMOs

Don’t you hate it when your team in an MMO just sucks? The other day I was playing League of Legends and I had 15 kills and 1 death, but I still lost because my team was terrible. This is especially frustrating in games like League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth and DoTA as each game can take upwards of an hour and a bad team can really ruin a game. These kinds of MMOs are very team oriented as well, so if you end up with one terrible player, the entire game is ruined.

The whole ‘bad team mate’ problem exists in a lot of MMOFPS games as well. In games like Alliance of Valiant Arms and WolfTeam, it can be very frustrating to lose a team deathmatch due to ‘noob’ teammates. I don’t even want to begin counting all of the games I lost due to terrible team mates in Alliance of Valiant Arms. My kill/death ratio is almost always 3-1 in these games, and I always end up with terrible team mates. Luckily, the terrible team mate problem isn’t a big deal in MMOFPS games, as each round only takes 10-15 minutes, so there’s no real time invested into each game.

Having bad team mates also sucks in sports MMOs like Freestyle Street Basketball and Smash Online. In these kinds, you NEED to work well with your team in order to win. So no matter how ‘leet’ you are, if your team sucks, it’s over. No one player can, regardless of his or her skill, can truly ‘carry’ the team to victory. This isn’t a big deal if the other team has a bad player as well, but that isn’t always the case.

Having ‘bad team mates’ is the worst when raiding in MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Runes of Magic. One bad player can easily get an entire raid of 20 people killed. And dying while raiding is incredibly frustrating, especially after investing 2+ hours into a single run. Sure, you could always regroup and ‘try again’, but getting wiped can really lower morale, which can in turn lead to more wipes. The thing about raiding is, when you have so many people working together, the odds of one person screwing up increases.

The only way to avoid dealing with incompetent players is to play alone. But playing an MMORPG entirely alone is kind of lame, especially since these games are meant to be played cooperatively. You could also play these games ONLY with friends, but I don’t think I have friends online ALL the time, so I have to play with random MMORPG players sometimes, even if they do suck.

Under the Radar New MMORPGs

I’ve learned of a few interesting under the radar new MMORPGs over the last few days. One neat game I learned about is RayCity, and it’s pretty new. The game was developed by Electronic Art’s Korean Studio and is published in Malaysia. Luckily, there aren’t any IP Blocks, so players in Europe and North America can play it freely. RayCity is a racing MMO that plays remarkably like Drift City which ijji publishes. The game has a persistent world where players can complete various missions as well as a designated racing area (just like Drift City). Unlike Drift City though, which has cartoony graphics, RayCity has gorgeous 3D graphics. I love how EA is really going all out with the whole free to play scene, as they make some of the best free MMORPGs ever. EA also made Battlefield Heroes, Battleforge and Lord of Ultima.

Aside from RayCity, another under the radar new MMORPG that I found is Empire of Sports. I think this game’s been available for a while, but it’s new to me. It’s one of the only sports MMOs and is incredibly high quality. The game offers a boat load of sports within it from basketball to sledding. The game combines Fantasy Tennis, FreeStyle: Street Basketball, Football Superstars, Dance Online and numerous other sports into one game. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous too. The one complaint I have with it is the extremely small playerbase. I really don’t know why no one plays Empire of Sports, as the game offers so much.

Lastly, another cool new MMO I discovered is Mytheon, which is a Diablo 2 style action MMORPG, except with a unique card system. The game is by True Games, the same people who made Warrior Epic. You can actually use your Warrior Epic login to access the game, which is what I did. This game is incredibly addictive, as it has the fun Diablo 2 style gameplay with newer graphics and more variety. Unfortunately, TrueGames is having issues with their developer, which is delaying the addition of new features. When they can get over this legal issue, the game should explode in popularity.

If anyone else knows any new awesome games I didn’t mention, let me know ^_^.

MMORPGs I've Never Heard Of

After cruising around the net for some new MMORPGs to play, I found many many games that I never heard of. MMORPGs that I didn’t know even existed. One such game is Carom3D, a billiards MMO. Apparently it’s like Cue Online, except much popular. I follow the gaming scene quite a bit, and I’m surprised I’m quite surprised that I never knew about Carom3D up until now. I’m surprised because Carom3D is featured in the World Cyber Games, meaning it is played competitively world wide. Awesome, right? I gave the game a download the other day, and it’s quite fun. Billiards sounds like a boring sport, but Carom3D is easily one of the better sports MMOs I’ve ever played.

Another game that I never knew about until yesterday was Hero Online, which is a fantasy MMORPG by NetGame. NetGame also publishes Cloud Nine, Scions of Fate, and Operation 7. Hero Online is a fairly generic game, but I still find it fascinating that there are so many MMORPGs out there that I never even heard about. Forget about the mega popular games, there are so many underground less known MMOs that are worth checking out. Savage 2 for example is a game that’s not too popular, but the gameplay is incredible. It’s a game i’ve been addicted to for the last 24 hours. In fact, I actually ended up buying the game in order to support the developers over at S2 Games. Purchasing the game doesn’t really grant me any bonuses, but I wanted to support the developers.

There are just so many MMORPGs out there. I don’t think it’s possible to play them all. Another interesting game I learned about recently is Mu Online, which is published by Webzen – the same people behind Archlord and Soul of the Ultimate Nation. Mu Online isn’t exactly anything special, but it’s a game I found entertaining for a short while. I guess the reason I wasn’t too fond of it was that it plays a lot like the original Diablo game. That’s not a bad thing, but the original Diablo game is well over 10 years old now. I’m looking for something a bit newer.

Anyway guys, I bet there are more MMORPGs out there that I haven’t heard of. If you know of any hidden gems MMORPGs, let me know!

Browser MMORPGs Will Rock in 2011

2009 and 2010 have been great years for browser MMORPG Games. With the incredible growth of free to play gaming, browser games like RuneScape, Earth Eternal, Dark Orbit and Heroes of Gaia have enjoyed incredible growth. These games are all incredibly high quality and offer a gaming experience comparable to traditional downloadable MMORPGs. Earth Eternal for example has graphics that are easily better than most free to play MMOs. For example, the graphics in Earth Eternal are easily better than the visuals in older 3D MMORPGs like Talisman Online and 2Moons. It may not be much, but those visuals on a browser is ridiculously impressive. It opens the door for HUGE possibilities in 2011 and beyond. Who knows, maybe we’ll be playing Eve Online on the browser sometime in the future.

Another aspect of the browser MMO industry that’s really been taking off is strategy MMORPGs. Ever since Tribal Wars and Travian pioneered the genre years ago, the genre has REALLY exploded in popularity. I was surprised to hear that even Electronic Arts made their own free browser strategy MMORPG – Lord of Ultima. A big Western game developer launching a free browser MMO is news to me. This means that more and more western developers will likely enter the arena, raising the bar in terms of quality. I say this because Lord of Ultima is an awesome browser based strategy MMORPG. Maybe even the best. The visuals are top notch and the interface is good too. I’m not too surprised though, as EA’s studio that’s in charge of the free to play department made Battlefield Heroes and Battleforge – and both of those games are amazing.

If it sounds like I’m a bit too optimistic about browser games in 2011 and beyond, it’s because I am. I’ve been a gamer since my father first bought me Super Mario World 2 for the Super Nintendo, and this free to play MMO revolution is intense. So many awesome high quality games coming out, and the entire free to pay space is still niche. What do you guys think? Am I too optimistic ?

A Break from 3D MMORPGs

Last week I took a break from the two 3D MMORPGs I was playing, Battle of the Immortals and Runes of Magic, to play a few browser games. I don’t normally play browser MMORPGs, as they aren’t nearly as in depth as client based games, but I decided to give a few games a chance. The first game I played was Deepolis which is a submarine themed MMORPG published by BigPoint. BigPoint is easily one of the biggest players in the browser game space, as they publish Seafight, Dark Orbit, War of Titans and numerous other games. Now, all of their games are remarkably similar, but for some reason I really liked Deepolis. I guess I liked it because of its simplicity. Also, the fact that players can compete for a chance to win cash Is pretty awesome.

The second browser MMO I played was Heroes of Gaia, which is actually a fairly new game. Heroes of Gaia is published by gPotato, the same dudes behind Allods Online, Aika, Luna Online and Fly For Fun. Heroes of Gaia plays a lot like other strategy MMORPGs, but with a slight twist. Players can control their heroes and fight enemies outside of their ‘towns’. I recommend the game to anyone who likes real time strategy games. In fact, the game plays a bit like the old school Heroes of Might and Magic games.

After playing both Deepolis and Heroes of Gaia for a full week, I definitely learned to appreciate these browser games a bit more. Sure, they aren’t nearly as in depth as most client based games, but their simplicity and accessibility makes them great games. If I’m ever at a friend’s house, I could always hop onto their PC and check up on my town in Heroes of Gaia. That would be impossible in Runes of Magic, as its a 4+GB download.

Anyone else here play Deepolis? Or any other browser game? What do you guys think about them vs client games?