Massively^™

The colonization of space isn't a brand new idea for the realm of MMOs. 2006's Seed was all about the subject, but it unfortunately failed due to a lack of publisher interest. There's no denying that such a game wouldn't be anywhere near a hugely popular title. Still, I'd like to think that with the right design philosophy, platform and business model a game focused on the challenges of discovering another planet and making it a new home would be incredibly worthwhile.

First up, great to be back! I wont bore you all with words and phrases strung together to create some form of coherence, instead I will jump right back in! I am extremely proud to invite you once more to join in with the fun right here at Massively that is TurpsterVision!

Howdy Folks! I have returned! When we last left our hero I was battling off legions of lowbies on my quest to become a raid boss of Epic proportions. I have so much to tell you all, as I recently discovered the existence of 'T-chlorians' in all living things (They continually speak to us, telling us the will of the T. When you learn to quiet your mind, you'll hear them speaking to you). I have also proven once and for all that 'Jaffa Cakes' are indeed cakes - so everyone's a winner!

To mark my return I have chosen a controversial game; Aurora Feint The Beginning. An MMO in the making? Or just the reason that I now have RSI and haven't showered in four weeks? There is only one way to find out ... click through below the cut.

Erin go braugh, laddie! Aye, it's St. Patrick's day weekend, which means that there'll be lots o' wearing o' the green and probably a little bit of celebrating and drinkin' (for those of age, of course). But being that this is a site about MMOs, there'll probably be a little game playin' as well. So What aRe yoU Playing in the world of MMOs this weekend?

I've been taking the games easy lately -- been trying to make my way into Guild Wars (as a level 5 Necromancer-slash-Monk, but I'm a total newb, so that may not quite work), and while browsing around, I've been playing quite a bit of PMOG lately. With all the invites into the beta, I'm well on my way to level 4, though as a Bedouin, so I'll have to do some mining this weekend to get back to Destroyer status. And while I'm currently waiting for the site to die down, I can't wait to jump in on Warlords Online -- Massively's own Kyle Horner tells me it's just as addictived as Puzzle Quest, and boy did I love me some XBLA Puzzle Quest (can't wait for Galactrix, either).

So what are you playing this weekend, in among all of the Irish celebrations? Leave a comment below and tell us what you're up to!

Previously on WRUP...

We will admit to playing hours upon hours of Puzzle Quest, but the problem with that game is there's not persistence to your accomplishments. Sure, some versions have an online mode but it's just not the same as having the entire game designed around a dedicated online space. Well with the launch of Warlords Online -- the newest game to come forth from Infinite Interactive -- our Puzzle Quest MMO ambitions have been realized.

The following is a quite excellent session from the Worlds in Motion GDC track given by Erik Bethke, CEO of GoPets. The takeaway message is about what virtual worlds can learn from MMOs in terms of providing intelligent goal structures.

Erik: How do we apply MMO goal structures to virtual worlds (and to almost everything)? Virtual worlders tend to hate games like WoW because they're not "erudite" enough but look at this screenshot (shows slide of a UI from a raid) and look at how complicated the user interface is. With 10 million people playing, is it hardcore or is it casual? I get really frustrated with arguments about UI: the raid screenshot proves that even this level of complexity can break through to a larger audience.

Shows slide of quest-giver goblin in WoW: "virtual worlds are missing the little guys with exclamation points above their heads." Looking at other examples of goal structures: look at how successful Puzzle Quest got by combining Bejeweled with RPG elements. Look at Chore Wars -- suddenly I get excited about walking the dog (laughter). Even something like the LinkedIn registration process -- I logged in one day and saw that my "progress bar" was only at 40% and how can I live with that?! I had to level up in LinkedIn. I found out I needed to get testimonials from my contacts to get higher -- it was a group quest! I got pissed that I couldn't solo LinkedIn (lots of laughter).

Tobold speculates, as only he can do, on "the future of MMOs." If you listen to what he says, we've basically just experienced a boom in the MMO market-- after the huge success of World of Warcraft, tons of MMO makers sunk tons of money into making new "WoW-killer" MMOs, and they've all started falling apart (Vanguard, Gods and Heroes) due to lack of resources. But that doesn't mean things are over. It only means that developers are starting to realize the truth: starting up a successful MMO is a huge undertaking.

Starting up a successful single-player game can be a very cheap undertaking-- I'm currently going at it with Puzzle Quest on Xbox Live, and it is a successful single-player game that didn't require much more than the intuition to combine addicting puzzle gameplay with addicting RPG gameplay. But an MMO doesn't work that way-- the more popular you get, the more it costs you, and the more games you sell, the more you have to work to deliver even more content. Tobold is exactly right: it's tough, if not impossible, to run a lower tier MMO, just because even the lower tier games require an upper tier budget.

But he doesn't end on a cynical note, fortunately. There are definitely videogame companies running around out there that have $50 million dollars to really invest in a great MMO (EA is one of them, and now they've got not only Mythic, but another great RPG company under their wing). And when they do, we the players will benefit. As Tobold puts it so succinctly: "MMORPG history doesn't end with WoW, it begins with it." Excuse me-- the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.