So yesterday I was bidding on ebay when half of my screen went white. So I turn my comp and restart it right. Well, it is still white and can’t see a god damn thing so I am on this crummy computer that I never use. Looks like no mmo’s for me :(.
Thoughts of Jrod on gaming
Some random thoughts of mine.
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While daydreaming one day I thought if what is would be like to be a gladiator. Which then got me to remember about playing Oblivion and those arena matches you could have. Then I thought about Elder Scrolls Online and how cool I think this could be. After that I put myself in Bethesda’s shoes and what I would do if I was making this mmo. Please note I have never played an Elder Scrolls game besides Oblivion, even though Morrowind sounds cool. First of all I would allow Player Character killing anywhere anytime unless you are talking to an npc. To me one of the best things about Oblivion was the freedom and restricting killing is taking way that freedom. The reason though I would have it so you couldn’t kill while someone was talking to an npc is that if a player is selling a fish/whatever it would be quite annoying to get into combat right when your selling anything. Also, if you do get caught by a guard hitting someone/ killing someone like in Oblivion a guard will run up to you and you will get a choice between attacking him or just going to jail. When you get sent to jail you would lose some of your skills. Also, it is worth mentioning that when someone dies he would lose all items he has on his inventory. There would be no set player classes, however when creating your character you would have stealth, melee, and magic like in Oblivion and then you would get to choose the two main traits like in Oblivion and it would give you a list of recommend sub skills but you don’t have to follow them. Also with no classes comes no levels. Another feature in PVP is arena battles like in Oblivion you could make guild like arena teams and fight against other arena teams in battle. There would be 1vs1, 2vs2, 3vs3, 5vs5, 10 vs. 10, among those you would have where when you drop to one life point left you would “surrender” although you would get to keep all of your inventory you would get substantially less gold instead of full death which is the other form of Arena pvp. Elder Scrolls biggest jump in my opinion will need to be crafting. It is time for Elder Scrolls to include Blacksmithing, leatherworking, jeweler, shield crafting, etc. You could get the mats for blacksmithing in mines, leatherworking from animal pelts, etc and have it like alchemy in Oblivion not like WoW. The feature that I think would cost the most controversy would be the quests. As we all know in Oblivion quests are a huge part of the game. Instead of making the quests the standard kill eight wolves, we would have all dungeons in the game instanced based. For example you would have to get a group and go to the Imperial City sewers to kill Manorath and his henchman. This would help keep the dynamic feel of Elder Scrolls and would be a good compromise I think.
I have read in so many places that WoW is going to bite the dust. I can’t help but remember a couple of years ago when Quake was the king of fps’ and everyone was speculating on who would be the “killer.” With the next gen mmo’s coming out in the next couple of years let’s take a look why WoW is so successful and what it will take to dethrone WoW.
Points of WoW
- Over 9 million subscribers
- Small learning curb
- Tons of depth
- Minimal hardware specs
- Made and Published by a well known well respected company, Blizzard
What a killer will need
· Based on a huge IP
· Offers a great end game
· Can’t be higher than $15.00 a month
· Easy to learn interface
· Good PVP system
· Good Graphics that aren’t hardware intensive
· Plays on consoles
· Made by a respected developer
· Has a Retail
Possible Killers
1. Age of Conan-Based on a very well known book series, much respected developer Funcom, Great pvp with sieges, will be on the Xbox 360 and will have retail. The only thing that isn’t known is how well it runs on “meh” computers and how much it will cost my guess though $15.00.
2. Warhammer Online- Based on a huge fantasy universe arguably bigger than D&D. This game has all the features on the list except it isn’t coming on console, which is still being “looked into.”
3. Guild Wars 2- Being F2P, great PVP and PVE, Going to update the graphics, more levels, made by Arenanet (creators of Diablo) and published by NCSoft. Even though Guild Wars did well in sales it would have been done even better if it would have been more hyped and Guild Wars 2 will.
4. Stargate Worlds- Just imagine going to a MGM movie and seeing a Stargate Worlds commercial right before you see the movie. Think how much buzz that would get. Plus with the all the features this game is going to have this really can be big.
5. The Agency- Not being based on an IP and being made by the devil SOE, why
Would I even put this on my list? Well, it has a very similar feel to James Bond
Which we all know is very famous. Also, as much as this community hates SOE for the NGE many people still like them for Everquest 1&2, Planetside, and making Vanguard playable. This game is coming for the PS3 and will have a great endgame PVP.
6. Huxley- This MMOFPS created by Webzen Games will have lots of PVP and will be out for the Xbox 360. This game will turn a lot of heads around.
7. Pirates of the Caribbean Online- Based on a very popular movie franchise this f2p item mall game has had commercials on TV and will be hit with families.
8. Star Trek Online- This MMORPG has gone through so many changes before it is even in beta. But it is based on a hugely popular franchise and its future is starting to look a little better with Cryptic now developing it.
9. Fallen Earth- A sandbox game that is set in the future will be very interested to see how this turns out when/if it does come out.
This month issue in PC Gamer was an end of the year issue that showed three mmo’s out of the top 8 games to watch in 2008. Now this is much better than last years showing that only had one mmo (Hellgate London)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
My take: adding a new continent, new class, new profession, and my favorite of all a sieges battleground this expansion should be better than the last terrible expansion.
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
My take: With sieges of player controlled batllekeeps and its innovative combat system this game has a lot going for it but the high specs might be the downfall of this game.
The Agency
My take: I personally will be getting this game for the ps3 since my computer will not be able to run this. It is going from the tired fantasy setting and might be what SOE needs to redeem themselves
In another part of the magazine there was a preview on Huxley that talked about some of the character creation, factions, and the pvp.
Another topic that I noticed is that they surprisingly didn’t say anything about Warhammer:Online. What happened? I always thought that was going to have the most subscribers of the mmo’s that are going to come out in 2008.
Finally, I noticed that 3 out of 4 mmo’s (counting Huxley) were coming out for consoles too and that they had no auto aim. Does this mean that the future of mmo’s are also for consoles without a auto aim and more skilled based combat? Only time will tell.
