MMORPG.com News Manager Garrett Fuller pens this weekly column on the genre in general every Wednesday.
At PAX South we got the chance to sit down with REND and go through some of their latest updates. For those who may not know, REND captures the essence of a survival game with strong PvP concepts and crafting. The fantasy world is built on a rich system of archery which creates the shooter environment. The team has been hard at work and pushing to build out new areas along with polishing character skills and gameplay.
MMOs have always been a ground for creativity. All of the competitive games you see today: SMITE, Overwatch, League of Legends, and so forth have their roots in MMORPGs. This style of game has now become an esport and more investors are getting involved each year. You hear stories of EA shutting down studios over single player games, and begin to ask, are my solo adventures coming to an end?
Blizzard has announced Word of Warcraft Classic for all of us old timers. The questions came up at Blizzcon of keeping Classic true to its nature but adding in some quality of life changes for the better. Here are a list of ideas which might help all of us down the line.
With consoles now catching up to PCs and MMOs hosted on every platform including mobile, players pay through microtransactions and DLC content. It is a proven income which works well finding that fine line between buying a single player game and forcing a subscription on players after they have left a game. It all adds up to the saying, every game will be online in the future.
This week we spoke to Sebastian Rahmel, Game Director for encurio GmbH about the upcoming Viking game Valnir Rok. The game brings a fresh classic Nordic take on the survival genre. The appeal to fans comes with a fresh look at the pantheon and mystical elements which go deep into Viking history.
This week Fortnite launched their Battle Royale expansion giving players the chance to compete against each other in a hunger games style scenario. Many people in video games will try new things and usually see modes of games coming into play from other games in the market. This is how it has been for years. That is until the news that Player Unknown Battlegrounds is clearly not happy with the Battle Royale style content. So what happens now?
This past week we were introduced to Citadel: Forged in Fire. The game heralds a survival style game with wizards, melee, spells, and dragons. It is a solid entry into the genre that has been around for a while and done extremely well among MMO fans. There are other in the genre that have also done very well. Conan Exiles has been fantastic for Funcom and yet still more may be on the way.
Citadel had its open beta this weekend just days before its early access coming up on the 26th of July. The best way to begin our impressions feature is with three words: wizards, wands, and dragons. This sandbox takes what is best in games like Ark and DayZ and brings it into a solid fantasy genre where you are a wizard. Instead of guns and dinosaurs, you’ll have spells, staves, and plenty of monsters to battle and tame.
In yesterday’s news, it was announced that RuneScape and Old School RuneScape will be making the leap to mobile. Not only that, they will be playable on PC and mobile and all that great stuff. This is really the first MMO to truly move into the mobile market. RuneScape has a rich history and follows a simple interface which has changed over the years, but maintains a huge core following.
Teased about two years back, EA has finally shown its new game universe off to the public and press. Anthem is an action RPG where you control a suit of super armor and explore a vast science fictional landscape fighting foes as well as defending your settlement from the Wilds. Hang on a second, powered armor, lone protectors, defending your fortress from alien and hostile foes in an overgrown wasteland that sounds a lot like Destiny.
Over the years we at MMORPG have attended countless game shows. Every one of them is unique and has surprises that we try our hardest to share with fans. This year however, on the heels of a very strong PAX East we are entering the E3 territory and many of the big game reveals do not seem like they are on the horizon. How will E3 play out in a few months is anyone’s guess, but here are a few theories for you to consider.
In playing MMOs since Ultima Online there are a long list of reasons why I used to log in every night. As you get older and life kicks in, it becomes harder to find time online. However, there are certain aspects of MMOs that I feel really bring out why we play these games. It is the reason so many independent projects are finding funding now, because we want to play together.
The debate on characters in games goes back and forth over the decades. There are countless video games with an infinite number of characters, some iconic, some obscure. However this debate is not about who is more popular: Sonic or Mario. It is about how games present character choice to a player at the beginning of the game.
MMO games have been made in many settings. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, or even Superhero they have all been launched and made money. It is a huge shame that the Horror genre of game has never seen a solid MMO on the market. For years, CCP held the rights to World of Darkness and it looked like we’d get a vast game of werewolves, mages, and most of all vampires. However, that project ended and now we are left with next to nothing in terms of horror for MMOs.
With mobile giants like Supercell tearing up the game space online, it is amazing that the mobile MMO market is so poor. I know what everyone wants to say, there are mobile MMOs. Yes, there are, however, it seems like for the massive amount of people who play games on their phones or tablets, the full potential of the market simply does not exist.