MMORPG.com News Manager Garrett Fuller pens this weekly column on the genre in general every Wednesday.
Games Workshop is a mystery to many. A company that began as a grassroots RPG and model company in the U.K. Now has become a global titan in gaming. Yet, everyone seems to think that Warhammer should be bigger than it actually is. Well in some cases this is true, but the story here is more about the company making a fantastic come back and growing its brands to be a global leader.
This week Steam showed us its top 100 selling games for the year. This is a list broken down into Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. There are a host of games on the list that are quite unexpected, so we wanted to dive and look at some of the player trends we see. It is interesting where the PC market moves...
As I look into 2017, the landscape is just not what we have seen in recent years. Games continue to build, but the trend for the next year is going in very different directions from the past. Indie games will continue to push through but overall, there seems to be a lot missing from our normal New Year game menu.
This week we got the chance to talk to the team behind Dragon Quest VIII’s team about what is coming for the game. 3DS fans will be very excited to have their old classic PS2 game fully available to take anywhere they want. Yes, thank you mobile for bringing all the great old school games back into our hearts. For Dragon Quest fans there is a lot of exciting news as the game gets a few more characters and some great options. Finally we get to play this great title on 3DS in North America.
Heavy Gear Assault is one of the pillars that defined the Mech genre in games. For years, players on the table top had been fighting these battles with miniatures. Then as early as video games can be remembered Heavy Gear had always been around. However, the IP had been quiet since the 1990s until Stompy Bot was finally able to breathe new life into Heavy Gear Assault after an informative and tough development cycle.
For anyone who follows games and the industry, you know there is a bit of a vacuum going on right now. In the early part of the 2000s, Xbox, Playstation, Mobile and even PC gaming experienced the biggest rise in user base ever. Console titles sold millions, MMOs took over the PC market, and money came in from all sides to build bigger and better games. Here we are coming up on 2017 and this decade has seen a drop off.
Yesterday, Gamasutra ran a feature about how players can only process about 200 social connections drawing attention to Dunbar’s Number theory. It brought up a very interesting point in the MMO world and how important the true size of a game really need to be? The vast worlds of 2000 to 2010 have given way to highly instanced MMOs like Elder Scrolls Online and Guild Wars 2.
With Legion now out and millions of players getting back into WoW, it seems like the MMO slump is starting to end. Why you ask? Well, many MMOs remain alive and do very well for the companies that run them. The trick is, there is nothing new coming to the table. At least, that is, for now. All of that will change soon as a host of new games hit the market and nostalgic players will join with a new legion of MMO fans.
MMOs have been around for a long time and have morphed and changed over the decades now as we enter 2017. We're in a period which I would consider the second era of MMOs with Ultima Online for all intents and purposes kickstarting the genre back in 1997. Games began simple and expanded over time, breaking off into sub genres, independent projects, and huge AAA titles. But we're going back to the drawing board...
See MMOs are always fun to play together, but many of them have such huge worlds and such deep learning curves, it is impossible to get started in them once you fall behind. Magic and WoW seem to have found a solid formula to combat the death of MMOs and here is how it works.
If you ever played Dungeons & Dragons in your life then you know it was the beginning. In the late 70s and early 80s there was a large amount of us who played this game like it was a religion. Many times it was considered a nerd thing, but it was much more than that. It gave you a sense of adventure, made you fearless, and provided to tools to rationalize resources.
This past week we sat down with David Reid to talk about MetaArcade and their first title, the classic RPG which has lived throughout the ages: Tunnels and Trolls. The game is in very early stages of development, but David was kind enough to talk shop and go through some of the elements that make the title so popular among all generations of gamers.
Last year at E3, Todd Howard stole the week by announcing Fallout 4. The game was not only announced, but the launch date was given and it was only months away. How did Bethesda follow up such a shocker last year with last night’s press conference? Quite well actually. Many of the announcements were already rumored and so surprises were minimum, but the east coast company continues to produce a solid group of games for fans and players of their brands.
Mobile games are always a tricky business. Some do amazingly well and yield millions, other games with great ideas simply fall away. I always found that finding a really good Mobile RPG is even harder. Nonstop Knight is a mobile RPG from the team at Flaregames that seeks to blend the popularity of "clicker" games with traditional Action RPG aesthetics and gameplay.
Big budgets and summer blockbusters are the popcorn and large coke of Hollywood and they cost millions. Every studio swings for the fences and expects massive numbers to hit with every summer film. Some do shockingly well, Guardians of the Galaxy, others do horrifically bad, the latest Fantastic Four. Now, before it has even been released to the public, the Warcraft film is dying quickly on the vine.