ULDK from SOE MMOG for PS3

(Because I couldn't get enough acronyms in there) Just read about Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom over at OGRanlk. They got the news from this entry at John Smedley's blog. An MMOG for the PS3, some highlights I read from John's blog:

• They are emphasizing play in the 1080p resolution/aspect-ratio.
• They're employing a separate SPU water alone. This is referenced as a way to add "depth to the gameplay", but I'm not sure what it does beyond making it look better.
• The character shown on the official SOE website is old, and has been redesigned.
• The acronym, expected for this genre, is sorta ugly: ULDK

Finally, they're using another separate SPU for physics. Here I can see some gameplay innovation possibilities, particularly with this statement:

Just about everything in the game now has a full physics simulation running on it, and it makes all the difference in the world. Watching a skeleton get thrown around like a child's toy and pieces of it flying all over the place never gets old. It's funny how much time people spend just playing around with the different things you can do with the physics system.

MMO meets Half Life 2? Bring it on!

Publishers as Government

It's been a crazy month, and as a result, I somehow missed this entry on the very same blog I just learned about Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom. Unlike that news announcement though, the "Virtual Jail" entry brings up a more socially abstract aspect of MMORPGs, something that hasn't been discussed in awhile as far as I can tell:

Publishers and Government.

In the entry, John talks about an event that resulted in SOE banning a players account, and touches about the public outcry that resulted. Neither this genre, nor SOE, is a stranger to public outcry, so that part is of just passing interest.

The bigger part though, the part that puts SOE GMs in a tough spot, that is the interesting part.

Continue reading Publishers as Government…

The Playstyle Scale

There is no "Casual" or "Hardcore" MMOGer in my opinion. There's a scale, with individuals that move between levels in it, from the super casual to the hardest core.

The challenge is defining the levels on that scale. I don't think it is as easy as just doing so by time spent per week, though that is certainly a factor. Rather, I think it must be more, level of interest in the game, dedicated membership in a game, activity on forums, activity on metagame forums, and so on. And then there's what that means to developers.

So as a place to start, I offer my initial thoughts on: The Playstyle Scale

Continue reading The Playstyle Scale…

EQ2 in a nutshell

Back in January, I first starting hearing things about a major update coming to Everquest 2. Upon reading some details, I became intrigued. Ultimately, I purchased a discounted box at GameSpot, and re-upped my old account, specifically to play on the Test Server to see what all the hub bub was about. That was when they first posted Publish 19a to the server.

Two months later, I decided to move on. I personally needed something different, but I largely felt EQ2 was vastly improved because of Publish 19.

Here’s why.

Continue reading EQ2 in a nutshell…

Ingame Advertising- Acclaim?!

Just picked up this annoucement at Gamasutra, from the Game Developer's Conference.

Long and short? Acclaim is back, this time focusing on delivering free online games through a variety of interesting business models. One of them is, of course, ingame advertising.

Continue reading Ingame Advertising- Acclaim?!…

MMO Magazine #3

At Zonk's blog and Terra Nova Blogs, I saw mention of an upcoming magazine dedicated to MMOGs, coming this September.

I didn't care the first nor second time such attempts happened either.

Continue reading MMO Magazine #3…

Ingame Advertising turns 5

Hot on the heals of the announcement that Auto Assault will feature ingame advertising comes news that Project Entropia will as well.

I'm beginning to see a trend here, but not the one assumed.

Continue reading Ingame Advertising turns 5…

Platform Independence

I don't know why this didn't occur to previously, but in commenting on m3mnoch's Passive Gaming entry, I realized something else about Club Penguin (and games of those ilk) that could be a big driver of success:

Platform independence.

Continue reading Platform Independence…

Trust, the Future, and VR

Raph has been building a series on Trust. I find the meandering through all things real and virtual, personal and sociological, to be a great springboard for one of the potential themes throughout: the relationship between MMOG developers/publishers and the players.

So, of course, I have my own thoughts. And they sort of meander.

Continue reading Trust, the Future, and VR…

Potential of Ingame Advertising

Now fourth in a series, yet another game signs on Massive Entertainment to provide ingame advertising within their MMO world.

I find this to be rather odd timing for the game. Auto Assault is not out yet, and while it is certainly a unique title in a genre dominated by iterations of a familiar experience, its potential success is simply unknown. Cyberpunk sci-fi has not had the strongest success in this genre, license or not. So advertising in an as-yet unproven and naturally risky title is interesting. There's, of course, good reasons for this as well.

But this isn't about AA.

Continue reading Potential of Ingame Advertising…