MMOFPS. Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter. Few of these games exist, and fewer still (if any) are popular. Why?
A first person shooter is all action, action, action. If you've gone longer than twenty-five seconds without shooting something, you've probably just respawned. In my opinion though, this fast, knuckle-whitening gameplay gets tiring after a while. You couldn't sustain it for longer than an hour or so.
Enter the MMORPG. Generally easy to pick up and play, and chatting and sociability is king. In an FPS you rarely have time to get to know the people you're playing with, in the intervals between shooting them and running back into the action after being killed. Making a game persistant and massively mulitplayer changes that somewhat, though.
So what defines an MMOFPS? Is it really just hundreds of people running around with guns, or is it something more RPG than FPS in nature á la Tabula Rasa? I'm firmly in the "Shooting people" camp for this issue; But that shouldn't mean RPG elements can't be blended into a first person shooter. In fact, many player-made modifications exist to make certain online fps games have "RPG" type gameplay features. The only differences I can see between a FPS and an MMOFPS is the number of players, and the social network.
One of the best examples of an MMOFPS is Planetside, a truly awesome game I used to play a while ago not long after it came out. I've got fond memories of it; For some reason, though, it doesn't run on my new pc. And that's a shame, because it's the probably one of the most enjoyable game experiences I've ever had.
I remember on my first day, I joined up with a guild (Called "Outfits" in Planetside) And we defended the control room of a base. I watched as they all sat stock still behind cover with their guns pointed squarely at the doors as I wandered around aimlessly trying to jump on top of air vents and suchlike. A persistant world where a war is always raging; It's a wonderful concept, and a wonderful thing to play. It gained tremendous devotion from it's fans; And rightly so because it was a truly wonderful game.
If it was so good, though, why are there no more MMOFPS's awaiting us on the horizon? Huxley is the only one I know of, but a well-seated distrust of korean MMO's leaves me dubious on this one - Doesn't mean I won't buy it, of course - Anything with the word "MMOFPS" on it's box art almost guarantees a purchase from me.
So what's the reason we don't have as many MMOFPS's as we do RPG's? Probably the reasoning lies in the numbers. Money money and more money - And they don't make enough of it. Is that true, though? We've only had one or two examples of something which is supposedly an entire genre! How do we know if it's unprofitable if no one has done it PROPERLY yet? I suppose we don't. I for one would love to see more MMOFPS's, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear your opinions on this. Comment away and maybe we can get a discussion going. Until next time, gentle readers!
Well, you're most likely to find an MMOFPS over at http://www.massivefps.com/
As for why there aren't more of them.... I think it has to do with technology used in MMO networking. You'll notice that in most regular FPS games you have things like bullet drop and location based damage. In Planetside and WWII Online, firearms are just given a cone of deflection to simulate recoil and all your opponents are represented by a single bounding box, sphere, cylinder, etc. You'll notice that in most MMORPGs there's no collision detection with players or mobs. Often time they'll just walk right through each other. Since all the game logic is actually going on at the server, advanced ballistics, collision detection, and hit location eat up too many CPU cycles. Especially when you're dealing with over a thousand players at once.
From the sounds of things, you're actually looking for something like an online persistent version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. TBH, I wouldn't mind that myself.
Sun Dec 09 2007 4:57AMActually, it has most to do with the network.
FPS Games use a 'server-less' UDP scheme to be as fast as your ping can allow it. So what happens is that your client has to transmit your status to each other client connected in your current game. So if a certain game is limited to 1kb/s per client of bandwidth, with 16 people you'd be already sending 15kb/s and receiving 15kb/s, people with a 256kbits connection would probably be lagging by now.
Why not use a server centered scheme then? Well, then the server would be the one wasting over 30kb/s of bandwidth in that example. I don't think any developer would want to face a game like that with 100+ people.
And why not use TCP? Because it's too slow for a FPS, it waits for ACK flags, it does retransmissions, your in game ping is effectively increased, and so is the server bandwidth. Fast games are just not good for MMO in a technical point of view.
There are ways to work around that tho. Take RYzom for an example, it's not a FPS, I know, but it does use a hybrid scheme. It uses UDP to report and take your position in the game while using TCP to validate the skills, damage, chatter, etc. Another example is Tabula Rasa. The client sort of works like the server would, predicting what the server would do if you shot this or that creature, making them dodge, take damage, etc. But it also does wait for validation to avoid cheating and making sure everyone sees somewhat the same thing. If you lag tho, which you're likely to do, it's hard as hell to play that sort of game, as you cannot afford lag like you can in regular mmorpgs.
Sun Dec 09 2007 11:55AMThere may be many more MMORPG's than MMOFPS's because almost all MMORPG's are just clones of one another. How hard could it be to take one game, give it a different theme, and release it as an entirely different game? They all play the same.
"In my opinion though, this fast, knuckle-whitening gameplay gets tiring after a while. You couldn't sustain it for longer than an hour or so."
Not so. I have played for many hours on end with the same people. I guess it just comes down to whether or not you like FPS's or love FPS's. There are plenty of MMORPG's I would not be able to play for more than an hour total.
"In an FPS you rarely have time to get to know the people you're playing with"
This is what clans are for. I belong to a gaming clan that plays all sorts of games together. We have a forum to keep in touch, and us VoIP programs like TeamSpeak to communicate while playing. It is much easier than stopping what you are doing to type a message to someone.
Sun Dec 09 2007 12:36PMGood points - It's true about being able to play an fps for long periods of time - I do that a lot myself. As for clans... I've never found a good clan, really. I must not be having the same experience you're having, because I find it really difficult (even with VOIP) to socialise while playing an FPS.
I guess I'm just getting a bit tired of the FPS genre... I'm a bit burned out on it... Although I do still enjoy it; I suppose I'm looking to keep the feeling you get from it, but couple it with something a bit easier.
Just dreaming, I guess. ;)
Sun Dec 09 2007 12:59PMI'm sure it will one day, but it most likely will require everyone be on a high end broadband to play. but technology is at a point to where they could do it, but the biggest problem would be to getting enough customers. because not everyone has the ability to have a 10Mb connection. maybe we will see an UT online sometime in the future. :)
Sun Dec 09 2007 4:54PMMMORPG.com writes:
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