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 =).

MMOs You can Play 5 Minutes a Day

When people hear the term “MMO” or “MMORPG” they instantly think the game is ridiculously time consuming. There’s also a stereotype out there that MMORPG Players have no lives. Both of these statements are false. Not every single MMORPG consumes a person’s life. There are countless casual and social games which can be played for a few minutes each day. Browser based MMORPGs especially are designed to be played in short intervals. Games like War of Legends, Caesary and Heroes of Gaia are a few examples of some MMOs that can be played 10 minutes a day. A lot of “hard core” client based MMORPGs like Dungeons and Dragons Online and Grand Fantasia can certainly eat up a person’s entire day, as these games are BUILT to consume a lot of time. As I mentioned earlier though, there are plenty of games designed for casual players.

Facebook Games such as Farmville, Ninja Saga and Nightclub City for example are also designed to be played in short bursts. It doesn’t even make sense to play these games for hours at a time, as these games involve lots of waiting. Personally, I know a lot of non-gamers who play Happy Aquarium, Pet Society and Restaurant City. These Facebook Games are actually a rapidly growing market. I think they’re so successful because they attract both gamers and non-gamers. Plus, these games don’t involve any actual skill; players only need to click around every few hours to progress in these kinds of games, while actual in depth MMOs like Ace Online and Dragon Oath actaully take some sort of skill and understanding of game mechanics.

There are also a few browser based chat MMOs like IMVU, WoozWorld and Gaia Online which are designed for those looking for more of a social experience than a gaming one. Players in these kinds of games don’t have to play for hours at a time, but can instead play in short 30 minute bursts. The purpose of these games is to make friends and meet new people online – not slay monsters and complete quests. There are client based MMOs like Lost Saga, Audition Online and ShowUp which can also be played in short bursts. The reasons these games don’t take up too much time is because each individual round only takes 10 minutes or so in these MMOs. “Rounds” in League of Legends on the other hand, can take upwards of an hour – sometimes much longer.

So enough with these stereotypes. There are MMOs out there that can be played in short bursts. Not every MMORPG player is a bum who plays games all day.

Spicing up old MMO Ideas

I played Land of Chaos Online from Alaplaya the other day and I have to admit, I’m pleasantly surprised. The game itself still needs polish but the idea behind the game is quite awesome. It’s inspired by aeon of strife games like Avalon Heroes and League of Legends, but instead of a standard top down RTS style gameplay, Land of Chaos Online features action packed gameplay with a third person camera. It blends FPS, RTS and RPG elements – much like Savage 2. Like I said, the game still needs a lot of work, more characters, and skills but even as is, the game is quite fun. Each hero in the game has 10 skills. That’s incredible. Especially considering DotA and HoN heroes have four skills. The variety is intense.

Land of Chaos Online isn’t the only game spicing up old formulas. Runes of Magic was one of the first mega popular free MMORPGs to do this. It took the World of Warcraft formula, and spiced it up by adding a dual classing system. Yeah, so even though Runes of Magic is a WoW Clone, it’s an amazing one. The game’s dual classing system gives it so much depth. Frogster did a brilliant job with the game. It’s much better than Talisman Online, Allods Online and the other WoW clones out there. The game’s soundtrack is also quite nice. I believe the game released its third major content update, so Frogster has done a swell job keeping the game fresh. I love how they took the WoW idea and spiced it up. The dual classing system is awesome. Sure, it’s not exactly original, as Guild Wars from NCSoft also had dual classing, but Runes of Magic was the first free to play MMORPG with such a system.

Next up is Wolfteam – the MMOFPS developed by Softnyx. Wolfteam took the basic MMOFPS gameplay from Sudden Attack and made it original. It did this by giving players the ability to transform into powerful melee wolves at anytime. Sure, the game is still largely an FPS – meaning most of the time it makes more sense to have your gun equipped, but giving players the option of turning into a wolf adds another layer of gameplay to Wolfteam. In the MMOFPS genre, this extra layer of depth means quite a bit, especially since all of these MMOFPS games in their core (Mercenary Wars, Operation 7, Soldier Front, etc) are all the same.

Know of any other free to play game that took an old idea, but spiced it up? Post it in the comments below!

MMORPGs With a Twist

I’m tired of playing cookie-cutter fantasy MMORPGs like Last Chaos and Grand Fantasia from Aeria Games. Now these games aren’t terrible, but they aren’t original either. When I play generic fantasy games, I always feel as if “I’ve been here before”. Class names, environments and gameplay mechanics just feel way too similar. It’s not just fantasy games either. I’m tired of playing very basic MMORPGs that do nothing to push the genre forward. I want to play games that are genuinely different, because as is most games are way too similar to each other. Luckily there are MMOs and MMORPGs out there that satisfy my desire for creativity.

Games like Savage 2 and League of Legends for example are top notch original titles. Savage 2 is a unique mix of third person shooter and MMO strategy. The game is broken down into two teams – the Beasts and the Legion. Basically humans vs monsters. Each side has 1 player called the commander who plays in a top down real time strategy style camera view, like in Starcraft and Age of Empires. The commander is responsible for spending the team’s resources on constructing buildings, researches and defenses. The players on the team are the foot soldiers who must secure resource and strategic points. It’s a game that requires a lot of team work and even though it sounds complicated, it’s not. It’s a really easy game to learn that everyone should check out. The second game I mentioned is League of Legends from Riot Games. It plays like DotA from Warcraft 3, except with much crisper graphics. The visuals are definitely anime inspired, but they look gorgeous. They’re more “Western” anime than Eastern, sort of like Battlefield Heroes from Electronic Arts and Team Fortress 2 from Valve. The gameplay is very complicated, but it’s a really fun game that’s worth learning.

Another MMORPG with a twist is Land of Chaos Online from Alaplaya. It’s called Loco for short and plays a lot like League of Legends. It’s actually League of Legends meets Savage 2, as the gameplay is done entirely in third person. It’s an action MMORPG as well, so combat is always fun and interactive. No boring point and click stuff. The game is still in closed beta, so there are a lot of bugs, but from my experience with the game, it’s a very original title. I can’t decide if I want to recommend it yet, because I get a lot of lag in the game. It’s weird, because I don’t lag at all in Florensia, which is also published by Alaplaya.

On the more traditional MMORPG front, I recently played Neo Steam from Atlus Online and Kingdom Heroes from Aeria Games. Both are neat titles, but I liked Neo Steam a bit more. The game is largely a traditional fantasy game with Steampunk MMORPG elements. Come to think of it, Steampunk is a very under utilized setting that deserves more exposure. Kingdom Heroes is a fun game too. The game’s soldier system adds some variety to the otherwise bland grind oriented genre. The game’s intense PvP keeps things interesting too.

Anyway guys. I definitely recommend checking out the games mentioned in this piece. If you know of any other MMORPGs with a twist, leave their names in the comments.

Grand Chase Needs More Variety

Grand Chase isn’t a bad MMO. It just needs a bit more variety. The game is currently being published by Ntreev, and is basically a cooperative dungeon crawler. Players work together with each other to complete stages and beat bosses. It actually plays more like a cooperative Mario game with RPG elements than anything else. The only thing Grand Chase is really lacking, in my opinion, is variety. As is there are a fixed amount of stages in the game. Once you clear them all, there’s little left to do. It’s almost like playing Lunia after beating all of the episodes. The most obvious remedy to this is for Ntreev to release more content, but that can take a while. I feel that next time Ntreev adds more content and levels to the game, they should make it much more difficult. Players shouldn’t be able to finish all of the late game stages with such ease. Players should need groups of top tier players and excellent cooperation to beat levels. This is an easy way to extend the game.

Another way for Ntreev to add more variety to the game would be by adding additional characters. As is the game has a good selection of classes, as they offer 8 playable characters, but more would always be better. Realistically speaking though, Ntreev could add more job advancements to the game. As is characters progress in an extremely linear way. Players should have more control over their character’s growth through more variety in terms of total skills and job advancement choices. Job advancements should branch out into 3 possibilities at each advancement, maybe try something like Ragnarok Online, rather than the current system where players advance in an incredibly linear way.

I’m not trying to say that Grand Chase is a bad game, because it’s not. Ntreev makes some of the better free to play MMOs out there in my opinion, as both Pangya and Trickster Online are great titles. I’m just suggesting that the game would benefit from more variety. Games like Lost Saga and League of Legends are amazing because they have so many different characters, so more variety is almost always better.