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.

New Wave of MMORTS Games

The term MMORTS used to refer to cheesy empire building Evony like games. I say cheesy, because at the moment there are easily 100+ browser based empire building MMOs like Travian, Caesary,Tribal Wars, War of Legends and hundreds more. These games, for some reason, are absurdly popular. All of these games are browser-based as well. This is all about to change though.

GamesCampus – the company behind MLB Dugout Heroes, Asda Story, Shot Online, Legend of Edda and numerous other games, launched a revolutionary new MMORTS called Soul Master. I say revolutionary because it’s actually client based, and get this – fun. It mixes action MMORPG elements with pikmin like strategy. The combat is fluid and well paced. The levels themselves feel a bit similar to Dragonica Online and Divine Souls – as players can run through each level multiple times under different difficulties. For some odd reason, this particular system of progression has become really popular. Fists of Fu from Outspark and even Vindictus from Nexon employ similar progression systems. I think Lunia from ijji was the first game to have stage based linear gameplay. Each stage is instanced. Luckily, the main town area acts as a social hub where players can grab quests, buy items and interact with others.

Soul Master is definitely going to shake things up as it’s actually an original game. It feels a bit like Divine Souls, but with a twist. It’s not just a straight up action MMORPG. Players have to utilize clever strategy if they expect to complete a level. Luckily, if a stage proves too difficult, players can party up with others to complete it. All of this should be very familiar to those who have played Dragonica Online or even GhostX from GameKiss to a degree – as in its core Soul Master is very similar to these action MMORPGs. It only really differences itself by mixing RTS components with its gameplay, which actually work really well and are quite fun.

Have you played Soul Master yet? If not, definitely give it a chance! It’s a fun game.