MMONGs on the horizon

Post by **Dog Pants** » February 21st, 2009, 22:27

There's the potential for a few good MMOs this year, so here's a round up of potential future releases. We can discuss them and compare them all to Warcraft. Note that I've missed much of them out on account of them being generic Korean releases that all look the same to me.

Star Wars: The Old Republic
While still looking like a click-and-hack identikit MMO, setting it in the Star Wars universe puts it ahead of many from the off. Recent screenshots have hinted that the environments will be very diverse, but the character diversity will make or break it in my opinion.

Star Trek Online
As well as the more staple MMO styling of what I imagine the ground missions to be, this also allows the crewing of your own spaceship. This alone sets it apart from the crowd, but customisable alien races promise to add that City of Heroes magic, and a detailed trade mechanic is also expected. If these are well realised it has the potential to be a very good game, but will it be able to please the nerdcore and remain accessible to those who have only a passing interest in the lore?

DC Universe Online
The first of two superhero MMOs in production. DCUO has the advantage of having a wealth of instantly recognisable heroes and the financial backing of Sony, but neither are guarantees of quality by any means.

Champions Online
The spiritual successor to City of Heroes, Champions has taken the novel step of using cel-shaded graphics this time. It has excellent pedigree in CoX, but it will need to improve on a lot to make a competitive game in today's market.

The Agency
A little known spy based action MMO from SOE. There are many interesting concepts flounted here, not least of which is a PS3 release. Add to this NPCs who work for your character and will email and IM you even when you're not in-game, and there's the start of something unique.

The Secret World
This modern day horror MMO has been shrouded in secrecy and consipracy since it's conception, and deliberately so. A whole cult following has grown around the puzzles which lead to snippets of information, but what seems clear is that the game will be set among several major cities and will involve a demonic underworld coexisting with our own. More details are difficult to come by, and this could be hiding a multitude of sins or a truly amazing game. Only time will tell.

Guild Wars 2
The original proved highly succesful by managing to produce a rich MMO with no subscription fee. GW2 promises the same, but gone are the instanced quest areas to be replaced with persistent worlds, and the ability to fire straight into PvP without ever having to grind PvE will undoubtedly appeal to some.

Darkfall Online
I don't know a lot about this but it's in the beta stage and there seems to be some anticipation. How much can another fantasy MMO offer us though?

Jumpgate: Evolution
Based on an ancient MMO, this space sim expands upon games like Freelancer to create persistent space combat. Unlike Eve, players take direct control of their ship in order to engage in dogfights with NPCs or other players. Now in the beta phase, this could see release this year although the developers are insisting on perfecting the game first.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 21st, 2009, 22:42

The agency sounds like it could be fun.

GW2, not super interested, but I'll probably play it.

Jumpgate: WAAAAAAAAAANT

Chimps online: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANT

Post by **Roman Totale** » February 21st, 2009, 22:57

The Secret World excites me, despite the fact I know goose all about it.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » February 22nd, 2009, 0:17

I'm casting my eyes on The Agency, website is slick although there's no content barring a small blurb on the game and what appears to be 2 factions.

Stoat · Post by **Stoat** » February 22nd, 2009, 0:44

Roman Totale wrote:The Secret World excites me, despite the fact I know goose all about it.

Sounds almost ARGy.

Jumpgate sounds ok, so long as there's plenty to do. A defining factor of space is that, statistically speaking, there's bugger all in it.

Post by **FatherJack** » February 22nd, 2009, 0:58

Star Wars: The Old Republic
Looks the most promising. Worlds you'd really like to explore (Hutt homeworld? Awesome!) hopefully not let down by nasty grindiness doing it.

Star Trek Online
There is no way in hell this will appeal to the masses, but the key is whether it actually turns out decent. It'll be lauded by the fans whatever, but it perhaps has the greatest opportunity for silly lols.

DC Universe Online
Champions Online
Great, we have to choose. Which means while we're waiting to see which is "best" they're both in danger of failing financially. I'd plump for the non-official version myself, thinking they missed a trick with the licensing - how awesome would DC vs. Marvel be? Shit, forget that - how awesome would Hanna-Barbera vs. Warner Bros be?

The Agency
Unique, but being spammed by my game characters doesn't appeal.

The Secret World
Another Hellgate, IMO - goals too lofty for what's practically acheivable.

Guild Wars 2
About time there was an update, but I can't help thinking the world persistence will lead to subscription charges, or ruin. It's not like they can bankroll it given the Tabula Rasa debacle. I only ever tinkered on the edges of this, being free I could do that - but it also meant I never got past L10.

Darkfall Online
This needs a hook. As is, I see nothing that'll make anyone look twice at it.

Jumpgate: Evolution
I thought this was the Stargate one from the name. To not be Eve, it has to deliver quality PvE content and customisable ships in my view - cos Eve does everything else expertly.

Baliame · Post by **Baliame** » February 22nd, 2009, 1:04

Agency indeed sounds interesting (although its website doesn't look too promising, nothing happens in Firefox, and a missing image with IE, the popup actually works though), though I don't really know what would happen if you filled a world with spies only. You'd need player corporations and shit to infiltrate for the mmo feel.

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » February 22nd, 2009, 2:22

FatherJack wrote:Jumpgate: Evolution
I thought this was the Stargate one from the name. To not be Eve, it has to deliver quality PvE content and customisable ships in my view - cos Eve does everything else expertly.

Feel the need to jump in here and say that customisable ships are coming to eve in the next expansion. They're probably going to be ungodly expensive, but they are comming.

Post by **Dog Pants** » February 22nd, 2009, 9:13

Also:

Otherlands
Weird sci-fi rpg set in a sort of virtual world that combines traditional MMONGing with a Second Shite style ability to create things in the world.

Huxley
The dystopian MMOFPS has been in development for what seems like donkey's years and has been rather quiet lately. As much as the setting (Aldous Huxley's Brave New World) appeals to me, I can't help but wonder if this will turn into vapourware or, worse, a crappy shooter full of trolls.

Fallen Earth
Sci-fi FPS offering set in a post apocalyptic Earth. Doesn't seem to be a huge amount of information available, but the site seems to hint that it's currently in a vaguely playable state.

Stargate Worlds
Little more than concept art at the moment, the Stargate setting should lend plenty of colourful background. The devs are touting a flexible class-based system and large scale firefights.

Earthrise
Another sci-fi MMOFPS set in a post apocalyptic world. This seems to have had a lot done to it and is currently in the beta stage, and promises a focus on PvP.

Baliame · Post by **Baliame** » February 22nd, 2009, 11:01

Stargate should be good if there are enough black guys in it repeating the line "Indeed".

Anery · Post by **Anery** » February 22nd, 2009, 11:04

The ones I am interested in:

The Secret World is either going to be great or crap, I will play it until I work out which one it is going to be. However, with Conan proving to be a bit of a flop we could be waiting a while.

The Agency looks like it could be out there breaking a few boundaries but could easily suffer because of this, I love the concept though.

Dr.KB wrote: Jumpgate: WAAAAAAAAAANT

Very much this ^^

Guild Wars 2 has been on my radar for a while, I will be playing this - probably for a long time. I had several characters in the original game and got through all the expansions. Required more thinking that WoW, having to decide what skills you were taking with you before each encounter stretched the WoW brains too much. But I am sick of spells and demons, I want ray guns and aliens (even though the mechanics will be the same)

Fallen Earth: Like the idea but lacks info, just like TSW.

DC Universe and Chimps Online: Spandex, Spandex, Spandex. Nuff said

Baliame · Post by **Baliame** » February 22nd, 2009, 11:06

Remember, if there are beta registrations for any of the games, you're a 52-years old black woman in Saudi Arabia with dialup.

Post by **Dog Pants** » February 22nd, 2009, 11:11

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 22nd, 2009, 14:37

Baliame wrote:Remember, if there are beta registrations for any of the games, you're a 52-years old black woman in Saudi Arabia with dialup.

I'm a 50-something black welsh woman as far as the bbc knows

Sheriff Fatman · Post by **Sheriff Fatman** » February 23rd, 2009, 13:45

World of Darkness
Very far away on the horizon, granted (I think they have just started). Based on the White Wolf World of Darkness universe (Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, etc). Being developed by CCP after they have completed work on the Eve expansion. Could be awesome, could be very, very bad. Not much info about atm, but it is almost certainly going to happen.

Baliame · Post by **Baliame** » February 23rd, 2009, 15:03

Sheriff Fatman wrote:Being developed by CCP

I keep reading that as CCCP. In fact I want it to be CCCP.

Post by **Dog Pants** » February 23rd, 2009, 15:24

Sheriff Fatman wrote:World of Darkness
Very far away on the horizon, granted (I think they have just started). Based on the White Wolf World of Darkness universe (Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, etc). Being developed by CCP after they have completed work on the Eve expansion. Could be awesome, could be very, very bad. Not much info about atm, but it is almost certainly going to happen.

CCP have good pedigree, and I always kind of liked the VTM system. As for the actual game material, I preferred being a werewolf because vampire players were always pretentious twats. There was a clan who were all hippy if I remember correctly, which would be great - massive violent werewolf hippies.

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » February 23rd, 2009, 20:49

Sheriff Fatman wrote:World of Darkness
Very far away on the horizon, granted (I think they have just started). Based on the White Wolf World of Darkness universe (Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, etc). Being developed by CCP after they have completed work on the Eve expansion. Could be awesome, could be very, very bad. Not much info about atm, but it is almost certainly going to happen.

It's been in development for about 2 years. Eve's going to be a beta testing ground for the game engine when CCP introduce walking in stations in november/december. Expect a proper beta early next year imo

Sheriff Fatman · Post by **Sheriff Fatman** » February 23rd, 2009, 21:07

Dog Pants wrote:
CCP have good pedigree, and I always kind of liked the VTM system. As for the actual game material, I preferred being a werewolf because vampire players were always pretentious twats. There was a clan who were all hippy if I remember correctly, which would be great - massive violent werewolf hippies.

I always preferred playing as vamps because the people who I used to play table-top White Wolf stuff were all pretentious werewolf hippies

I have fond memories of the WoD universe; each "affliction", has significant upsides, and significant downsides. When you stick them all in a room it makes for interesting RP possibilities. Short of a Blade Runner-esque MMO, this is up there on my do want-meter.

Post by **Roman Totale** » February 23rd, 2009, 21:22

Sheriff Fatman wrote:Short of a Blade Runner-esque MMO...

Play SLA you humongous homo!

Also, Malkavians are ace.

5punk

MMONGs on the horizon

MMONGs on the horizon

Re: MMONGs on the horizon

Re: MMONGs on the horizon