#3 Cities XL
Sim City meets MMORPGs. That's about the most succinct way that I can think of to describe this interesting new MMO from the people at Monte Cristo Games, a French development studio that has more than a little bit of experience creating simulations games.
There are two tiers to the game. The first is the single player experience. It works pretty much as you'd expect a city builder to work. The flaw with most city building games is that while they do a great job of simulating the planning, building and running of a city, they forget the fact that a city is a single element of a much great whole of the world where other cities and countries exist. This is where the online component comes into play and makes Cities XL an MMO.
For a subscription fee, players are granted access to a much wider world that accommodates thousands of other cities. They can chat and trade with and even visit other cities.
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#2 Second Life
Second Life, from Linden Labs, does a great job of calling into question what exactly we define as an MMORPG. Is it massive and multiplayer? Sure it is, hundreds and thousands of people can interact with one another at the same time. Online? Yup. Role Playing? Yes. In fact I can't think of a better example of an MMO that invites its guests to create personas for themselves and then act them out. It's the very definition of role playing. Where we get held up a little bit is when we start calling Second Life a game.
Second Life is a virtual world. It's the ultimate sandbox, in which players are left to frolic in a vast virtual world, doing whatever they want, whenever they want. The only limits are the ones imposed by the technology and those are shrinking every day. The problem is, while Second Life is indeed a vast virtual world, there is no unifying force. There is no goal, no objective, not even a unifying setting that would allow users to even agree upon those things themselves.
Second Life has gained more and more recognition over the years, from games journalists to the mainstream media and has even been featured in a few TV episodes so for whatever it is, we have to at least salute it as a contributor to the industry and a significant deviation from the World of Warcrafts and the EverQuests that came before it.
So why is Second Life listed as an MMORPG? Well, for one, the elements of an MMO that it does do, it does well. For that, we can overlook the fact that Second Life isn't a game per se, more of an MMOExperience.
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#1 Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates
This is probably among the most popular MMOs out there that you've never heard of and it's because it hits all of the MMORPG hot buttons while still maintaining a great appeal for casual players.
Launched in December of 2003, this hidden gem of a game makes players into pirates, roaming the high seas n search of fame and fortune. Like any MMO, you're playing with and against other people. It's not the concept with this game that sets it apart from the herd, it is, instead, the way that gameplay is handled. Instead of creating a robust sailing system as was done in Pirates of the Burning Sea, or creating a detailed combat system as has been done in most MMOs up until this point, Puzzle Pirates takes care of all if that through the use of puzzle style mini-games.
You want to sail your boat? Play a mini-game. You want to swordfight? Do it in a minigame. You get the idea. Puzzles are broken down into four categories:
- Multiplayer puzzles - Games you play against others include Drinking, Swordfighting, and Rumble.
- Carousing Puzzles - Similar to multiplayer, but more recognizable games like Texas Hold 'em and Hearts.
- Crafting Puzzles - Games played in order to make things: Distilling, Alcemistry, Shipwritery, Foraging and Blacksmithing, Tailoring and more.
- Duty Puzzles - Games that are available only on-ship include: Sailing, Rigging, Bilge Pumping, Carpentry and more.
As you can see, Puzzle Pirates isn't your average run of the mill MMO.
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Conclusion
As I said at the top of the article, my intention with this week's list wasn't to provide an exhaustive list of games that are different from WoW. All MMOs are unique in their own ways. Instead, I chose to focus on games that are so different from the average person's perception of an MMO that they draw the eye away from the big shiny king of the mountain and toward diversity and innovation.
