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!

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!

Why Are Some New MMOs Terrible?

You’d think as time goes on and technology improves, newer MMOs would be…. better? I’m not talking about gameplay, as whether a game is good in terms of gameplay is completely subjective. I’m talking about a game’s graphics and mechanics. Just look at Mission Against Terror from Subagames which just launched in North America in September 2010. I hate to say this, but the game is absolute trash. You may be thinking – sure it released in North America in 2010, but it could have been available in Asia for much longer, much like Digimon Battle from WeMade Entertainment, Monster Forest from AsiaSoft, and Uncharted Waters Online from Netmarble. – but that’s not the case here. Mission Against Terror LAUNCHED in Asia in late 2009, making the game less than a year old.

That means Mission Against Terror is newer than Alliance of Valiant Arms from ijji, newer than Wolfteam from Softnyx, newer than Combat Arms from Nexon and much newer then S4 League from Alaplaya, but if you looked at the game you’d think it was at least 7 years old. Visually, the game stinks. Unfortunately, we like to pretend graphics don’t matter, but graphics do matter. How about in terms of gameplay? Wolfteam and Combat Arms each have 25+ weapons available in their item stores, Mission Against Terror has like 8. In terms of level designs, the game fails even more. The game’s developer – Kingsoft just COPIED, literally copied, the famous De_Dust2 map from Counter-Strike. I’m not suggesting that the two maps are similar, I’m saying there are identical – because they are. What about the game’s music? Sure, I didn’t go into the game expecting a splendid musical score like the ones I found in Ragnarok Online or Sword 2, but I expected something. To my surprise, the game literally stole the Pirates of the Caribbean main theme. It plays in the background randomly while you’re gaming. How shameless can you get?

Mission Against Terror, sadly, isn’t the only new game to disappoint. Avalon Heroes from Alaplaya also sucked. Erebus Travia Reborn and Fists of Fu from Outspark were both bad games too. I say bad because there are better alternatives to all of these games. Fists of Fu isn’t a terrible game by itself, but compared to very similar games like Dragonica Online from Gravity, Fists of Fu does suck. If Dragonica didn’t exist, Fists of Fu would be decent. I know this article was a bit negative and I’m not always so angry, but seriously – Mission Against Terror is such a bad game it hurts.

I’ll end this post with a bit more positive stuff. Company of Heroes Online from THQ is a blast. I played the game during its beta and really enjoyed it. If you never heard of it, it’s basically Company of Heroes (The retail PC game), except with more features. Yeah, they made it completely free to play and added more features. Craft of Gods recently went free to play and it’s a decent game too. I would never consider paying for it, since it’s a pay to play MMORPG gone free to play, it’s decent.

Back to S4 League and Combat Arms!

I tried getting into Eve Online the other day, but once again failed. This is like my fourth failure, as I’ve downloaded and installed the game four times now only to quit within a few days. Luckily I can try the MMORPG free trial every time, so it doesn’t cost any money. Luckily, every time I quit playing an MMORPG I can always go back to playing S4 League and Combat Arms. Two MMOFPS games that have been my “fall back” games for quite a while. Whenever I get bored of playing an game, I just go back to these two titles and I’m good to go. I’ve been playing these games for years and yet S4 League from Alaplaya and Combat Arms from Nexon keep me coming back for more. It doesn’t really make much sense, as you’d imagine an MMOFPS would get boring after a while, but it just never does. Of course I try new games as well, it’s just that when I quit playing the new MMOs I try, I can always go back to these games and have fun!

I remember going through like five random new MMORPGs in one day. I played Neo Online, Pet Forest, and Azuga: Age of Chaos from PlayOMG and unfortunately none of them kept my attention. I played them for a few hours each actually, so I gave them a fair chance. Then I jumped right into Luna Online from gPotato. I already had an account with them back when I used to play Rappelz, so trying Luna Online was convenient. Luna was a bit weird though. The game played off as a cute MMORPG, and the whole cuteness of it made the game feel awkward, as players were younger kids, but NPCs were adults. I dunno. I just felt I couldn’t connect with the world. Right after playing and quitting all of these games I jumped in MapleStory from Nexon, which is my third “fall back” MMORPG. A game that I feel I could play often without ever getting tired. MapleStory is my favorite side scrolling MMORPG by far and also my favorite 2D MMORPG. The game just has so much to do, it’s hard to get bored of it!

I honestly can’t answer why these games are entertaining, even after I’ve played them to death. Even after playing Atlantica Online from Ndoors for months, I was able to jump right into S4 League for some instant fun. The thing about MMOs that make them so fun, is that you can jump right into them. MMORPGs on the other hand, you need to grind for a while before you can get to the fun late game content which includes PvP and raiding. In PvP MMORPGs like Kingdom Heroes and Aika Online, you need to play for a month at least before you can experience the fun PvP content towards the mid-end game. So players do need to commit a lot of time to those games before they can get to the fun bits.

I’m sure some of you guys have your own “fall back” or “back up” MMOs / MMORPGs as well? Mine are S4 League, Combat arms and to a degree MapleStory. What are yours?

Playing MMORPGs in Korea

One of my buddies here in the U.S. Is moving to Korea later this year. Sorta sucks, but at least I can still talk to him via skype and play MMOs like Dragon Oath and Neo Steam with him. Internet 4tw I guess. Korea is pretty awesome considering all of these free to play MMORPGs originate there. Well not all of them, but most, as Electronic Arts recently entered the free to play arena with FIFA Online and Battleforge. Even Sony Online Entertainment began embracing free to play with Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures. Some of my favorite free to play MMORPG companies though are Korean. Companies like NCSoft and Netgame for example are high quality MMO developers. NCSoft is probably best known for Guild Wars and Aion while Netgame is better known for Hero Online, Scions of Fate and Cloud Nine.

Come to think of it… a lot of the MMORPGs I play are developed in China. I used to think 99% of free to play MMOs came from Korea, but chinese developers like Perfect World Entertainment (Ether Saga Online, Jade Dynasty, Etc) and ChangYou (Dragon Oath and blade Wars) are pretty big companies. Perfect World Entertainment is huge in China and probably one of the biggest MMO companies in the U.S as well with their American division. So I guess its sort of a misconception that free to play MMOs are exclusively from Korea! Chinese MMORPGs are big too!

Anyway. I bet there are a lot of awesome MMOs available in Korea that aren’t out in the U.S. Yet. I know Netmarble (Korean MMO company) launched a global English portal, but they only have one game available at the moment – Mini Fighter Online. The Korean portal on the other hand has games like Koongya Adventure, Wego and numerous other titles that haven’t even been announced in the U.S. Yet. Vindictus is already available in Open Beta in Korea through Nexon as well. That game is highly anticipated here in the States, but it won’t be released until Fall, 2010. So North American and European users will have to wait. I guess one of the perks of living in Korea is that there are a lot more free to play games available. I wonder if pay to play games in the U.S. Like Lineage 2 and Aion are free to play in Korea? I think they actually might be.

Anyway. Yeah. Living in Korea sounds pretty interesting, but it would sorta be impossible for me, as I don’t even know the language. My buddy who’s moving there is Korean so it makes sense for him. Anyway, I’m about to go play some League of Legends with my Korean buddy.

Turn Based MMORPGs Are Big Business

I never knew how many turn based MMORPGs there were out there until today. I’ve always known turn based RPGs like like Final Fantasy and Tales were big, but apparently there are numerous free to play turn based games as well. There are over 10 of these games. The most popular is probably 2D MMORPG is Wonderland Online, which is by IGG. Wonderland Online is popular because it’s remarkably simple. The 2D graphics and straight forward gameplay ensure that anyone can pick up the game and learn it within a few minutes. The most popular 3D turn based MMORPG is Atlantica Online, which is developed by Ndoors. I actually like Atlantica Online the best, as I prefer good 3D graphics over 2D.

What’s surprising to me though is the sheer quantity of turn based MMORPGs. The two above are the most popular, but there are so many more. Fairyland Online is probably one of the oldest. It was released in 2005. Then there’s Myth War 2 Online, which replaced Myth War 1 a few years ago. Next up is Zodiac Online – a fairly new game by EnjoyMMO. Then there’s the turn based fantasy MMORPG with card elements called Wizard101. It’s a real high quality game, but most of the game costs money. Poxnora is turn based as well, but it plays like a table top game (like Warhammer / MageKnight). Nanovor and Digimon Battle are two new turn based games as well with Altis Gates coming out in the near future.

What’s interesting is that so many of these turn based MMORPGs are 2D. In fact, the only 3D one is Atlantica Online. I guess 2D is easier to develop when it comes to turn based MMOs. Unfortunately though, even though there are so many of these games, I feel that only a handful of them are actually popular. Aside from Atlantica Online and Wonderland Online, the rest of these games are almost empty.

MapleStory Got a Lot Better

I originally started played Nexon’s flagship MMORPG ‘MapleStory’ back in 2006 and played it for a good two months and quit after reaching level 40. Just last week I decided to re-download the game and give it another try. Naturally, I created a new character to try out one of the game’s many new classes. I decided to play as one of the new Cygnus Knight classes, more specifically the ‘Thunder Breaker’ class. All I can say is wow! Leveling up in MapleStory got A LOT easier. It only took me an hour to reach level 10 and I made it to level 30 in 4 days of casual playing! Back when I played the game in 2006 getting to level 30 took me over a month!

So what changed since I last played MapleStory? Well…. a lot did. Nexon has always been ‘well known’ for keeping their games up to date with content updates and patches. Nexon’s other titles – Mabinogi, Combat Arms and Dungeon Fighter Online have also enjoyed consistent updates. The last few ‘major’ updates to MapleStory ‘Cygnus Knights’ and ‘Aran’ really expanded the game though. The Cygnus Knights expansion added some 5 new classes to the game, each with multiple job advancements, as well as countless new ‘maps’ and quests. The Aran update was much smaller, but still added a good deal of content to the game. What really sped up the game’s experience gain since I last played was the countless new quests added to the game. The best part of these new quests were that many of them were ‘chain’ quests, so there was always something to do. To this point, I never had to ‘grind’ to gain experience as I would always have at least one active quest at any given time.

Anyway, I guess the point of this post is to point out that Nexon’s MapleStory is an awesome game that changed a lot since release. It’s not nearly as ‘grindy’ as it was when I first played. If you haven’t played it yet, definitely check it out. It’s a lot better than all the MapleStory clones out there (ie. WonderKing / LaTale / Wind Slayer).