MMORPG Playerbase is Important

I hate signing into a shiny new free to play MMORPG and seeing the game’s servers completely empty. This applies for MMO games as well. I remember logging into Martial Empires (It’s a sequel to Martial Heroes) from Gamigo the other day, and I was pleased to see a very active in game world. Players running around grinding and completing quests everywhere. The game also let players speak in global world chat, so it was always easy to communicate with others while grinding. Plus a trade channel made commerce in the game really easy. I found the global chat to be a lot of fun, as just talking to others was a way to keep myself busy while I completed quests. Unfortunately after Gamigo announced they would ban all U.S. Ips from accessing the game, so I stopped playing it.

After I stopped playing Martial Empires, I downloaded Beach Volleyball Online from a new MMO publisher – Digital Radiance Entertainment. As the name suggests, the game is a volleyball themed MMO and its the only one out there. After playing FIFA Online and Project Powder, I’ve grown to like sports MMOs. I didn’t like Beach Volleyball Online at all though. The core gameplay feels slow paced and broken. The graphics are also terribly glitchy and on the low end. Where the game fails the most though is its incredibly low playerbase. The game markets itself as both a sports MMO and a social game, but unfortunately with such a small playerbase, it is by no means a social MMO. It kinda tries to do what ShowUp did with the whole social aspect on top of the core gameplay.

After uninstalling Beach Volleyball Online I downloaded and installed Blade Wars – the new 2D MMORPG from ChangYou. It looks and plays a lot like Dragon Oath, except with a cool combo based combat system. The core gameplay was pretty fun, but the game had a terribly low playerbase. Seriously. I hate playing empty games, because I feel as if I’m playing them for no reason. I’d much rather play a game with an incredibly high playerbase but poor graphics and gameplay than a great game with no players. That’s just me though.

There’s a reason I go back to playing games like Alliance of Valiant Arms, S4 League and League of Legends when I get bored of other games. It’s because they all have very healthy playerbases. They’re popular games that are rarely empty.

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.

Eudemons Online vs Conquer Online - MMORPG Comparison

TQ Digital publishes a bunch of free to play 2D MMORPGs, but out of all their games I think Eudemons Online and Conquer Online are the best, with Zero Online a close behind. Eudemons Online focuses more on pet based gameplay while Conquer Online is more of a PvP MMORPG. Both games have only a handful of playable classes, but they’re both good MMORPGs if you can look past their graphics. People looking for really nice 3D MMORPGs with top notch graphics won’t be a fan of either game, but those who actually care about fun gameplay will likely enjoy both games.

Graphically speaking both games are extremely similar. In fact, I would say that both games run on the exact same graphics engine – in the same way Dragon Oath and Blade Wars run off the same graphics engine. So neither game really wins any points in this department. Plus, both games are 2D meaning that the developer spent more effort on gameplay than graphics.

Gameplay wise I feel that Eudemons is much faster paced. The experience rate is fast paced, so players will be able to get to the fun late game content in a relatively short period of time. In Conquer Online, it’s the opposite. Leveling up takes a while, but players have a stronger sense of progression, as each level feels more rewarding. The skill system in both games are pretty similar and the core gameplay mechanics are also very similar.

In terms of system requirements, both games can run easily on lower end machines. I believe the system requirements only a demand a Pentium 3 CPU and a low end graphics card. The benefit of a game with low end system requirements is that the game is more accessible by players. Games like MapleStory from Nexon and RuneScape from Jagexy are as successful as they are because they have low system requirements.

Both games are fun and worth checking out. I prefer Eudemons Online over Conquer Online, both games are worth the download.

There are a LOT of Old MMORPGs Out There

I’ve always known MMORPGs were big business, but I didn’t know so many older MMORPGs were still in service today. I figured the MMO business was a lot like technology. As games gold older, they were shut down and replaced by newer games. This is definitely true for console games, but some older MMORPGs still exist today. I guess it’s because a lot of these games can introduce new patches and expansion packs.

Anyway, the first game I wanted to mention was Ultima Online. The game originally released in 1997 and is still around today. The game has enjoyed countless updates and is still updated regularly. The game was developed by Origins Systems back in 1999 but was bought out by Electronic Arts later. Ultima Online is widedly considered the first popular MMOPRG ever. The game isn’t free to play though, so that sucks. It is an MMORPG free trial game though, so users can play it for 14 days without paying. Back when the game first released, it was the most hardcore PvP MMORPG ever. EverQuest is an older game too, but it was released in 2001. It was the first real fully 3D mmorpg.

After Ultima Online, Tibia, the 2D MMORPG, is still around. Tibia was also released in 1997 but has much simpler 2D graphics. Unlike Ultima, Tibia is free to play, making it one of the longest running free MMORPGs ever. Much of the game’s content though is only available to paying members.

On the more free to play front though, RuneScape and Ragnarok Online are some of the oldest MMORPGs still in service. Both boast over 50 million players world-wide. 50 Million is a huge number, considering World of Warcraft has only 12 million subscribers. That’s not a 100% fair comparison though, as both of these games are free to play and WoW is pay to play. Plus the 50 million number is registered accounts, not active users.