Weekend Gaming Thoughts: MMMMORPG's, Answering the Call and Making Time (Part 1)

By Teejay Valerio

It's not hard to deny: Gaming is a HUGE part of my life. Whether i'm cutting a swath through hordes of undead, dropping terrorists with a single bullet (or taking a bullet myself), or hitting the game-winning shot at the final buzzer, it can't be denied: I spend a lot of time gaming. This weekend I'll share some of my thoughts on the state of MMO's, record-breaking new releases and how to allocate my precious gaming time to the multitude of titles on the market. Cuz, we all know; "Time is money friend!". Read more after the break.

It seems these days that everyone and their pet dog is releasing an MMO into what I think is an already flooded MMO market. These persistent, virtual worlds encompass various themes and interests from mimicking the monotonous grind of daily life, to galactic exploration, diplomacy and warfare. Heck, you could even don a cape and a unitard for some good ol' crimefightin. If nothing more than a brief dose of escapism, MMO's are enjoyed by millions upon millions of people around the world. So it's easy to see why a number of companies are hurrying to jump onto the MMO bandwagon while the genre is hot. It's a potential license to print money. Let's not kid ourselves though. Not every MMO will be a resounding success. In fact, some won't even be able to cover their development and marketing costs. For the most part, MMO's can be an organically grain fed cash cow for the developers. How does one decide which MMO to dedicate their time to?

Playing with friends is obviously a great influence on the game one decides to play. Time setting, theme (e.g fantasy / sci-fi), PVP or PVE also play huge factors in the decision. What of the smaller, yet also important factors that one can consider in their decision? Do server populations matter? Do you need millions (and millions) of people playing the same game? Or are you the type that prefers a smaller yet more intimate crowd? Does the general age range of a game matter? Maturity among players (and content as well) is something to think about.

If you're like myself, then sometimes we jump into the game because it's about to release next week. Yes, we're known as the 'Early Adopter crowd'. It could be a ride on the hype-machine, or the involvement of a prominent figure in the MMO industry that gets our blood pumping for when a game is released. We jump headlong into an unproven new world to be the first ones to experience how the hype plays out. Unfortunately, more often than not, we're also the type that are constantly burned by rushed products, poor development cycles, and over exaggerated advertising. It also leads us to believe that the first few weeks of an MMO launch can be considered a "paid beta"; frequently resulting in cancelled subscriptions beyond the standard free month of play.

End-game content is a point to ponder as well. Aion (PVP based) for instance, is going to be a completely different experience compared to FFXI (PVE). Story driven games like Lord of the Rings Online also have their dedicated followers (I'm looking at you lore nerds..). Of course one could always just jump on the huge Juggernaut of the MMO industry if one is looking to get their fix in all three areas.

Not every MMO is for the hardcore. It used to be in the early days of the MMO space, that the players were viewed often as 'living organisms that inhabited basement PC's for hours upon hours with strong allergic reactions to sunlight'. With the recent releases of more casual, lighter MMO's... that is no longer the case. Players don't have to spend as much time gathering items, or customizing their characters. Slaying dragons and dungeon crawling doesn't have to amount up to a whole night's work. Social interaction is more prominent in these circles, yet even casual players want to feel that they've accomplished something in a short play session.

Enter Microtransactions. (Thanks Guitar Hero! /sarcasm) Think of something (anything really) that can be used to outfit a character or an account, and there probably is something that can be purchased to fulfill that demand. More and more games are venturing a stake into the relatively new microtransaction frontier. Not just MMO's do this. It's seen in action games, fighting games, racing, puzzle, sports and many others. Downloadable Content (DLC) is a large way for the dev/publisher to milk some extra cash from us gamers. I'm not competely against DLC though. I've bought my fair share of tune packs, skins and in-game items in a variety of games. It's sad to see nowadays the existence of 'paid content' that used to be simple unlockables for beating certain ingame challenges and/or achieving a high score. That's a whole other topic that I don't want to get into though :)

Microtransactions can benefit the player base on a macro level though. Some game clients are completely free of charge because of the microtransactions that exist to support them. As long as buyable content isn't game breaking and causes balance issues, I'm all for it.

Whichever MMO one decides to invest their time in is up to the individual. I'm glad that people are more understanding of the idea of paying a monthly fee nowadays compared to the not so distant past. The above points are not imbued in stone commandments on how to decide which MMO to play. I'm just glad that the genre is seeing the numbers that it is. It's a rapidly growing, successful (for the most part) chunk of the video game industry that is not going to see a decline any time soon. With the prospect of new IP's and oft proven stalwarts on the horizon, it's a good time to be MMORPGamer.

Tune in for the next part, which will focus on talking about answering the Call of Duty, and how to divvy up 24 man made hours into productive gaming time. See you there!