You can get excited now, because if you picked this option, you’ve decided to back Destination Games! Destination Games Game That Destroyed Them: Tabula Rasa Studio Launch Date: April 2000 Studio Closure Date: 28 February 2009 Invested In By: NCsoft Estimated Money Blown: US$106m Cause of Death: Restarting the project, internal culture of fear and secrecy, … Continue reading »
Tagged with Ultima Online …
The Single Player RPG Versus The Massively Multiplayer RPG, Round 47
It happens with a frustrating reliability: a single player game RPG (you choose if the ‘R’ stands for ‘role’ or ‘roll’) is released that contains a large world to explore and threads of emergent gameplay, leading to a large number of people wonder why they don’t see the same in the massively multiplayer online space. … Continue reading »
IP Less-Than-Freely: MMOs Based on Licensed Properties
With the news that Jagex and Hasbro have signed a deal to do a Transformers MMO (guess all that Mech-based development wasn’t a waste then, Jagex) I was reminded of all the other MMOs based on popular nerd properties that have been indicated as “in development” but have had varying levels of success. And by … Continue reading »
Five Reasons Why SWOR Is A High Risk MMO: #3 The Subscription Fee Model Is Falling From Grace
Star Wars: The Old Republic is a high risk title because it is being developed for some good and bad reasons, and will cost too much… and because its core way of collecting revenue is currently on the downhill slide. Although BioWare has been coy about its revenue model, EA management is talking subscription fees. … Continue reading »
Bitter Pills, Regardless of Colour: The Fall of The Matrix Online
The use of intellectual properties for MMO titles is an interesting and conflicted area. Ultima Online was the first major MMO to attract player attention, having been built on the long-standing Ultima IP, while World of Warcraft’s strength is partly built off its association with the Warcraft real time strategy franchise. However, just having an … Continue reading »
The Mythic Store Is Closed; Please Shop Elsewhere
Due to a business decision, the Mythic Store is now closed. For those who never went (and I didn’t), the Mythic Store sold shirts, hats and other apparel labelled with their games – Warhammer Online, Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot. It’s just another piece of evidence that Mythic is slowly being wound back … Continue reading »
Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, Even If It Is Second Life
One frequent request in MMO circles is to not railroad the player into linear tasks, but to let them have greater freedom. “I’m tired of the level grind and an environment where nothing changes – let me shape the very face of the world!” is asked for at various times. In the file marked “Never … Continue reading »
Nostalgia: Good. Criticism of Nostalgia: Bad.
Keen and Graev’s blog has been doing a bit of introspection about MMOs – how they are moving backwards in terms of design and how nostalgia is a great thing. It’s a common cry in discussions about MMOs – today’s titles aren’t as good as the previous ones – but the interesting defence here is … Continue reading »
The Trials of UnSub: Ultima Online (Stygian Abyss)
One thing I did back when I was blogging on MMORPG.com was challenge myself to trial 12 MMOs in 12 months. I failed in terms of quantity – I only trialled 8 games in 2008 – but the experience was overall positive, even if I played a game I didn’t like. It let me see … Continue reading »
We Do It To Ourselves, We Do – Why MMOs Are as They Are
Psychochild made an interesting post recently – why haven’t MMOs lived up to their early potential? Why hasn’t the early potential of games like Ultima Online or Meridian 59 with all their freedom and player-driven worlds been built on? Why have more controlled experiences like Everquest 2 or World of Warcraft dominated the genre? Some … Continue reading »
