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Richard Aihoshi's Free Zone: The State of Sports MMOs
More and more game companies are combining sports with MMOs and most of these games are free-to-play. Richard Aihoshi digs deeper.
There's no question in my mind that sports MMOs have a lot of potential in this hemisphere. How can it not be so? Just consider the degree of interest the population at large has in football, basketball, car racing, etc. The list is far longer, and if that's not enough to sway your opinion, then think about how well sports games sell year after year.
However, it's fair to say the category has yet to be tapped in any truly significant manner. Various titles started to appear a few years ago. Off the top of my head, the first one I recall seeing was a golf game, Shot Online. It's still around, and seems to have a decent following. But I wouldn't describe it as a major hit. The same applies to a few others I can think of; they appear to be reasonably popular, but none has broken through to another level.
To help look into the current state of this sub-genre, I decided to solicit comments from a couple of publishers. OnNet USA offers Shot Online, MLB Dugout Heroes and a number of non-sports releases via its portal site, GamesCampus. Ntreev's entry is Pangya, a fantasy-themed take on golf that first became available here under a different title, Albatross18.
;)
Pangya
The latter company's Hana Park pointed out that the category's boundaries tend to be rather loosely defined, with titles included because they have persistent character elements even though they may be relatively minor. There's also the matter of a permanent game world, not just instanced stadiums and matches. With only the latter, how well does the "massively" qualification really apply? I expect there will never be universal agreement on the definition of sports MMOs. For what it's worth, I would require persistent character and world elements that are reasonably significant, but that still leaves the largely subjective question of where to set the minimum thresholds.
David Chang of GamesCampus brought up another issue, the lack of market information. When looking at the possibilities for MLB Dugout Heroes, his company had to generalize from the data available for sports games in general. Nonetheless, he sees lots of potential for the category. "It's just a matter of time before the online sports genre really takes off in the west," he states. "All the other necessary elements are there."
He continues by saying his biggest challenge is educating people used to thinking about fantasy sports or manager-style sims. He says many just aren't aware of the fully playable team titles available online that incorporate live action matches and MMO elements such as leveling to provide what he calls "an all-encompassing sports experience".
Park adds that sports gamers may be pre-conditioned to expect what they're used to, which is a generally realistic style of play. She feels "this can be to the detriment of other traits that would give titles more appeal, such as lightheartedness, colorfulness or an arcade-like approach." In her opinion, the focus on accuracy is one of the reasons the sports MMO category is still comparatively small.
;)
MLB Dugout Heroes
Personally, I think there's plenty of room for both types. Releases designed to be more simulation-like may be easier to market in that it's simpler to define target audiences for them. However, there's also a lot to be said for good old fun gameplay, which certainly doesn't need to be authentic. On the other hand, this isn't as simple as the casual vs. hardcore debate. My gut tells me that even liberally interpreted version of sports will always be limited in their reach since many people who don't care about hockey, for example, will never try any kind of game based on it.
Still, Park is optimistic, saying "We'd like to think online sports games can reach the level of success of titles like WoW, eventually." Not surprisingly, she sees a connection with overall visibility, citing the example that although anomalies can arise, a tennis game is likely to be more marketable than a badminton one.
In a related vein, Chang notes that licenses can definitely help, but aren't always necessary. MLB Dugout Heroes has one because creating players' dream teams of past and present stars is a vital element of the concept. However, he does allow that with a different type of baseball offering, it wouldn't be essential.
As expected, his primary reason is sports' broad appeal, which extends well beyond serious gamers. Fortunately, the PC platform has far greater reach than any console, and of course, the free to play business model means prospective users face a rather low barrier to trial, basically nothing more than reasonable hardware and a connection suitable for downloading. That said, I can't help but wonder if a business model incorporating some sort of pay as you play usage-based scheme might be an even better fit.
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He is the former Editor of RPG Vault and his column, focusing on free to play MMOs, appears on MMORPG.com every Monday.
I'm not a big fan of sports, or sports games. Period.
I think i can name 2 sports game i've played in all my life. Ridge Racer 4 ( i enjoyed trying out all the different calls and trying to beat that damn black car then earning said black car) for the PS1 and some old hockey game for the SNES (where you could custom the stats on your player, i teamed with a friend and made "logan sinclair" who had such high checking score he littely only had to brush into a guy to send them flying but the rest of his stats sucked. So he would clear the room and pass to the skinny guy with maxed out long distance shoot accurcy)
So i can see why a sports MMO is a hard sell
It is funny because i play MLB dugout.The problem with sprots games,is there is only one place to make item mall money and that puts a bigtime blemish on the fairness of the game.
As far as this individual game MLB dugout goes,it is a neat idea but full of bugs,and it seems like nobody cares,the product seems it is staying the way it is,full of bugs.Although the game uses real players names,the graphics are low end,witch kind of takes away from the realism/fun of it.EA sports does a better job in sports games.
I guess nowadays you can always find people to spend money on entertaimanent,but is it enough to cover the costs of running a game online?this is one area,i think games are in trouble witch is also why they need to keep their cost down,this means a lower quality game.
But that was the point of the article. The US audience seems to want realism. And maybe the rest of the world doesn't need realism. i played MLB Dugout for a while. It was OK. I just sucked playing the game vs other players.
I played a dead baseball game, Ultimate Baseball Online (which morphed into Cal Ripken Baseball before expiring) and 2 huge problems buried it:
1) It couldn't support 9v9 play, the lag was just too much, and they never found a solution. That doesn't even include spectators or extra players on the rosters observing.
2) It was hacked to death, almost literally. We are talking about a game that was happy to reach 3 digits in players online at one time, and people STILL created Aimbots and Pitcher hacks to throw un-hittable strikes. A sports game with cheats is kissing death right on the lips.
A minor problem was players with no clue about how to play Baseball giving up because (Pitching/Hitting/Fielding) is too hard. A realistic game (of any sport) will run into the problem of difficult portions at odds with players who want it easier to succeed.
The only time i ever had fun playing a sports game was when me and my friend played one of the madden games. I dont remember which one because it was still just another retarded and boring sports game. But we used cheats to allow us to go offsides, and allow us to max out all stats on our players...so we just blitzed the whole time lol.
But honestly here's my summary of any sports game i've ever played....go from point A to point B in roughly the same amount of time for every team u play, and the only difference between the 1st time u go from A-B and the 2nd time u go from A-B is the score...imo, there's no where for sports games to go with mmo's. they're just too static, and all exactly the same.
And as some1 else already said...there's not much u can do with a cash shop, and good luck getting ppl to make a monthly payment for something that is waayy more repetitive than any other mmo i've ever played (i've probably played 30+ mmo's by now, and i've played each one for at least 2 weeks)...I'd rather go max out a brand new char in FLYFF than pay for a sports game (for those of u that played flyff for a decent amount of time..u know y i use it as an example lol..i have a lvl 67 elementor haha)
If one is looking for an MMO, that usually means that he's looking for a persistent world, usually as an escape from reality. Fantasy and Sci-fi games offer this kind of escapism by simulating a world that is not possible to recreate outside the computers. I don't see any meaningful escapism simulated by sport games, either single or multiplayer. Mainly because the real deal, aka the participation, is more exciting than the simulation. At least for me.
RFOL if I wanted baseball I would go and watch it.
With the popularity of fantasy football and fantasy baseball, I can see where this may be a huge untapped market.
Many people find escapism in professional sports, and find it vastly more exciting than playing backyard football with a few of their overweight out of shape friends, especially when their friends have jobs and participation, in any meaningful form, is simply not possible. This is one reason why Fantasy Football leagues are so popular.
As for the article, the main problem is that there are few, if any Sport-RPGs, even as single player games. The interest is certainly there, sports games sell, MMOs sell, if you just find that intersection you can make a mint. The issue is making it compelling. The balance, and the fun take care of themselves if you translate the sport well.
The NBA Ballers series is a great model for creating a persistent world, where you have objectives that occur outside of the arena that are associated with the sport but don't necessarily involve its gameplay. This is prime territory for an item cash shop, imho, and you can leave the sport gameplay as purely a function of character skill and player skill.
I personally love the fantasy sports cartoon Galactik Football, which involves fantasy/sci-fi elements along with Soccer. As an MMO, that could pwn my world. But it might just be me and some French kids playing, who knows.
Are these games now considered mmoRPGs?
This might be a start http://www.clubgalactik.com/
Sports games can never be defined as an MMO in my book however that doesn't mean I don't like the concept. This might even work much better than I thought in years past as people are more interested in instanced PvE and PvP content. What does this mean? They can be instanced mini games in an MMO world. Even World of Warcraft can implement sports into it's game, maybe their own creation of sports. Instead of killing the other team, they must kick the ball into the opponents net. So you take out killing and add an objective based game.
There are two ways you can manage a game like this, Fantasy Sports style where you manage a team, and the concept of you managing a player. I like sports games and the most fun I've had online in a sports game is in Subspace Continuum which had both a Hockey arena and a "Powerball" arena. You had to choose a "class" (ship) and that was that, everything else was determined on your skill. It was a fun and challenging game and unique in nature.
I'd like more MMORPG's to encompass "minigame" instanced sports. World of Warcraft has Battlegrounds, why can't an MMO have "Instanced Sports"?
Blood Bowl Online?
lol that might even work.
One of the problems with using a Madden or a 2k(X) game is there will always be another one, sometimes they are better and sometimes they are worse. With an mmo version of a 2kX version of a game there will be consistent patches, people will be on the same game.
In other words, a conversation will go from this:
Person A: Hey you wanna play madden 08?
Person B: Naw bro I traded it in to gamestop for $1.25 for Madden 2010, its a lil clunkier than '09 but it has some killer graphics.
A: True, power to the players.
And it will go to this
Person A: Wanna play World of FootballQuest?
Person B: HELL YEA! I just bought skimpier outfits for my cheerleaders off this microtransactions page!!!
A: You know you can hook up your 360 or PS3 controller to play this game as well as use your keyboard to type!!
B: No joke!? I'm playing the All of Fame mode using my fantasy football league!
A: Positive Review mark!
Edited for for random L
I still play sports games myself they are in fact the only console games I play now mmo's and sim style sports games and I think it could work but it would take a commitment I think from not only a reputable company (not one trying to make it's wy into mmo's) and a well known league too MLB,NFL,NBA.
MMO players as evidenced by the comments made following the article suggest aren't even the place to look for "opinions" on how well this could work. I know clubs and such that hold madden tournaments all the time getting players together in one place to challenge one another or making their own virtual leagues as well I think a well done online madden game could infact challenge the biggest mmos on the market.
F2P sports MMO, where you can spend a fortune to buy a +8 bat and win all the time. Not free, not fair, cheaply produced and rarely updated. But if that’s the sports bag you want, be my guest.
Please, oh please make Mutant League Football, online
After reading this I have a game suggestion that i feel might be what you are looking for. It's a racing game called Tales Runner. It's been out for a while now and it's not a game where you win based on your equipment but on your ability to master the game's skills. A new player could easily beat a high level player if he has the skills to do so. I know this would be advertisement but still, if your looking for a good sports MMO (if you consider running a sport) i would check it out.
Bloodbowl rocks... players level, die, age, etc. Turn based skill.