Age of Empires Online First Impressions

Thanks to GamePro I was fortunate enough to acquire a beta key to AOEO (heh). I spent about an hour with the game so far since and I have to say color me optomistic.

The game is a MMO RTS. To be honest I'm not to sure how it works yet either. I do have to say the tutorial is kind of mediocre so far, but that's okay because there are a lot of exciting ways this game could go. You start off with a capital city and get quests which are like missions in any other RTS. So far the only real interaction I've notice that would let you know there are other people playing is a chat window. Aside from that I haven't yet been introduced to the MMO part.

I'll hold off talking about the game play until I spend a little more time and really get the chance to wrap my head around it, but so far I really like the direction Gas Powered Games has taken it. I will say I absolutely love the cartoon like graphic style. Not only is it fun and unique, but it will help the game scale to many budget PC's and laptops, which will be very good for the game's appeal.

I will always have a spot in my heart for GPG. They are most memorable to me for their cult classic RTS Supreme Commander, which is hands down the best non-Blizzard RTS in my not so humble opinion. The game was very macro oriented and focused on amassing huge robot armies and smashing them against each other. It was really about who could get their resource generation going faster and who could keep their supply lines going rather then micro/expansion. They did release a sequel, Supreme Commander 2, a couple years ago but it definitely fell flat and lost a lot of what made the original so incredible. As big of a Starcraft 2 fan as I am I can say it's a shame that the original Supreme Commander couldn't "command" (heh see what I did there) as much of an e-sports following as Brood War and now SC2 control. Still great game if you ever feel like going back into it.

Anyways back to the OT I am super excited for this game because it is already doing something different with the MMO genre. Unlike the WoW clone Rift (IT IS GET OVER IT) this game tries some actual new game play mechanics! It is clearly not trying to be a WoW killer because, despite what Trion seems to think the only person who can kill WoW is Blizzard.

So far the only glaring fault with this game is that you need Games for Windows Live to run it, which I have avoided like the plague so far because I have Steam which works about as good as anything right now. Plus I fear this dystopian future....

MMO Rage and why Rift is ruining the world

I am getting really fed up with seeing Steam friends and ads for the MMO Rift. I am also sick of seeing rave reviews because this game's success holds back the MMO genre and here is why; it is more of the same. It plays like WoW, it's quest system is like WoW, and as long as we are happy with the same old "kill 10 wolves to save the world" quests the genre will never grow and reach any sort of other potential.

The big budget AAA MMO that is coming along to be a WoW killer is The Old Republic which is due out sometime this year. Being a huge fan of BioWare and even enjoying their rushed out, crappy cash-in sequels I will of course have to play the game. BioWare seems convinced that a personal, emotional story is what is needed to advance the genre but I am more skeptical of story improving MMO's than I am of birdseed being a good medium for statues.

In my not so humble opinion I think there are two area's that make a MMO fantastic; Mythology and Mechanics. We need a great world to explore and a great way to explore it.

What we need is innovation. We desperately need to step away from the WoW/Everquest model. We need fresh ideas that are well funded and well implemented. Here are two amazing idea's of MMO's I would like to see that would be easy to develop and have instant appeal and brand recognition.

First and foremost a Pokemon MMO would be easily like the best game ever. If you could roam around a huge, open world searching for wild Pokemon and leveling, challenging other trainers to Pokemon battles, having hourly tournaments in cities, rare Pokemon, trad-able Pokemon, a robust crafting system for Pokeballs, buffs, potions, training implements, boosters, etc it would be really amazing and have a mass appeal. You already have close to 1,000 Pokemon designs from the last 15 years so GameFreak could probably even get away with no new Pokemon designs. It would still be a hardcore grind it out RPG, but have such a new twist, great PVP and PVE elements, and such an installed base that the game would be a license to build a money vault.

Second I want to see a Mechwarrior MMO. The last we heard from the unecessarily long dormant Mechwarrior franchise was that new developer Smith and Tinker was working on a reboot of the series. They released an amazing looking video a couple years ago and that has been the last we've heard of that. Mechwarrior and the Battletech franchises not only have a strong, core following, but there is so much mythology and fantastic mechanics to build an MMO around. Imagine if you were either house Davion, House Steiner, or one of the clans. Each faction has their own technology, own mechs, and own core worlds. You would have an amazing flow of the game going from world to world, crafting cool weapons and mechs, trading resources and blueprints, going on missions for NPC's and conquering worlds for your faction. Add in great clan support and you will generate all of the paying user-base you need.



Both games would easily get an instant 500,000 plus day 1 subscribers and would have plenty of room to grow and expand the core mechanics and worlds. Hell a Pokemon game is the only franchise I think could realistically topple WoW. Bottom line though is that as long as we are gobbling up games like Rift like they are gold we will never see anything except "Kill 10 Sith troppers to save the galaxy."

Many have tried, none have succeeded

If you actually follow my blog (and you should by clicking the button to the right) you may have read that I was a part of the last Rift open beta. I spent probably close to 10 hours in the game over that week (which is more like 10 minutes to MMO players) and, despite their being hundreds if not thousand of hours of content created, I am pretty confident I got a great sense of what the game is all about.

Rift, like so many other expensive and relatively unsuccessful fantasy RPG MMO's, is a World of Warcraft clone. Let me elaborate before you start writing about how I am a jerk and I need to experience the endgame, or how the graphics are different, or how you have rift's open up and everyone goes and fights creatures that spawn (see what they did there?). The mechanics of Rift are exactly, and I mean exactly like WoW. You attack the same way, the hot keys are the same, the combat flows the same, and even the interface is almost exactly the same as WoW.

The thing that really gets me too is their big marketing tag line has been,
"You're not in Azeroth anymore....."


So you, like many others before you, create a game clearly designed to siphon off as much of WoW's business as you can, and that is your big pitch? In a world where it takes around $50 million dollars to create an MMO, a business needs to make sure they can actually make a profit on that investment. What boggles my mind is that someone would think they can steal Blizzard's golden eggs? If you were or are a WoW player ask yourself; what about that ad would compel you to leave your guild, your loot, and countless hours you put into rolling your characters? Especially seeing as though the game play is the same, even down to the "kill 10 of x to save the world."

That leads me to our my next company that worries me. As a Massachusetts guy ad a huge baseball fan I absolutely adore the Redsox. In 2004 there was a epic pwner who helped my team win the World Series for the first time in several generations and his name is Curt Schilling. Since retiring from baseball Curt, who is very likely hall of fame bound, decided to start his own nerdy RPG/MMO company called 38 Studios. He has spent a lot of money, bought up another studio, and hired some top notch talent and for what? Another game that looks completely and utterly generic.

Curt should know from playing against the Yankees that throwing money at a team doesn't guarantee victory. Did you learn nothing from your own sock in 2004? Heart is what makes a good game, not throwing millions of dollars at something because a behemoth like Blizzard did it. Now of course Kingdoms of Amalur isn't released yet, so it's not very fair of me to say that, but so far I am not hopeful.

Not that it's particularly relevant but I thought this quote from a conversation I had the other night was funny:
"Calling a WoW player a gamer is like calling a heroine addict a rock star. It may be true in some cases, but they are certainly not mutually exclusive labels."

Rift Beta

Well I got my Rift Beta key, the new MMO developed by Trion Worlds. I'm downloading the client now to make sure we're good to go for Tuesday when the event goes live.. The Beta event starts on Tuesday so we'll see if just because we're not in Azeroth anymore if we still wish we were.

I always wonder why MMO developers go after WoW. You can't do it. Blizzard have unlimited time, money, and talent. They didn't invent the modern MMO but they certain perfected it. It is pretty common knowledge that it takes a lot of resources to build an MMO from the ground up and a lot of companies who take aim at the better half of Activision/Blizzard end up folding. A lot of companies who don't take aim at them but still put out an MMO end up folding.

We'll see if Trion has the stuff to compete.