Brooke Pilley of Massively.com has posted an excellent write-up on why he feels Warhammer failed to meet expectations: they didn’t properly define their audience.
So let’s pretend we were eavesdropping on that conversation. What sorts of audiences do you think were being thrown around?
Gamers aged 19-34 - That’s a pretty broad audience. I think we need to narrow it down more.
Current MMO players - Hmmm, that’s a bit more defined, but what games do they play?
Players of World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest, Age of Conan, EVE Online, etc. - Uhm, all those games appeal to different people for different reasons.
What about DAOC 2.0? - Mark Jacobs “No way, dudes. Been there, done that!“
Fans of Warhammer TT? - Sure, but how many Warhammer tabletop players actually play MMOs?
Fans of RvR/PvP - We’ll never compete with WoW by aiming our game solely at the PvP crowd!
Fans of RvR/PvP and PvE - All right! Sounds good! Let’s go with it!
But wait a second, that last audience isn’t very defined at all. It’s really not that much different from the third bullet.
It’s a great article that is well worth the read, and relates directly to my previous post about putting the game before the MMO. As I said in that article, Warhammer tried to be too many things at once and please too many different types of players. Not only do you need to define your core gameplay before anything, but you also have to define who your audience is going to be.
“But MMOs want to appeal to everyone and try to get the most subscribers possible!” Yes, but you still need a defined audience.
An audience keeps you focused, on track, and helps you determine what features are most important and what problems need to be fixed first once that list starts to get longer and longer, as it inevitably will. You cannot try to please everyone, or you end up spreading your resources too thin and nothing is done as well as it could have been.
If PVPers are your audience, approach everything with that in mind. What drives them? What kind of rewards do they enjoy and how do they like to earn them? It doesn’t mean you’re going to drive PVEers or casual players away. You never know when it might have the opposite effect. What is important is that you are able to remain focused and stay in line with what your game is intended to be.
EVE is a great example of this. They knew their game wasn’t going to appeal to the mainstream, but they know the types of gamers that the title does appeal to and they’ve worked to constantly improve the game and its features with those people in mind. The result? It’s one of the few games with low subscription levels that no one refers to as a ‘failure’, because it didn’t fail, it does exactly what it set out to do and provides the experience its players expect.
If you can define your core gameplay element as well as your audience, you’re already well on your way to creating a successful MMO.
I’ve just found out via NeoGaf that Blizzard has filed three trademarks for the name “Cataclysm” under computer games, paper-based products, and online games.
This makes me wonder if it could be their unannounced next-gen title or the upcoming unannounced MMORPG. It’ll be interesting to see if either of those are revealed at Blizzcon.
Another possibility is that its simply the subtitle for the next World of Warcraft expansion, which is likely going to focus on the Maelstrom and the Emerald Dream.
The name Cataclysm brings a few possibilities to mind if it is a WoW expansion:
The maelstrom could explode. It’s already some sort of vortex of unstable energy, it’s possible that the expansion could be based around the expulsion of this energy.
The ensuing chaos could warp Azeroth forever: resulting in Blizzard redoing the old world zones. Everyone has been pleading for them to allow flying mounts in the old world zones, but as we know the zones are not made with that in mind. Is it possible that Blizzard might use this cataclysmic event to change that?
It would give a lore-worthy reason for non-Druids to be able to enter the Emerald Dream, which is currently plagued by corruption. If some sort of rift is torn in Azeroth, it may create a pathway for us to enter the Dream and fight back the corruption – restoring the dream might be the only way to heal Azeroth after its near destruction.
I haven’t talked much about Bioware’s upcoming Star Wars MMORPG The Old Republic, so I thought I’d take the time to spill a few thoughts here since there isn’t much else going on in the MMO world at the moment for me.
I’ve been spending some time over at the official boards, defending the inclusion of black lightsabers and generally being a nuisance. It seems like the game is building up a solid community already, which is always good to see. Speaking of the forums, if you’re interested in game design suggestions and similar things, the Suggestion Box can sometimes be an entertaining (or frustrating) read. It’s kind of sad how many former SWG players think SWTOR is going to be anything like that game was pre-NGE.
Anyway, just a few expectations off the top of my head for the game that may turn out to be completely untrue, and I’m willing to be proven wrong on all of this:
It’ll play like a single-player BioWare game. KOTOR + Mass Effect with a splash of WoW. People expecting the virtual world style gameplay of SWG are going to be sorely disappointed. Group content will be scarce and completely optional. It seems like they are banking on people preferring to solo to the level cap.
End game will be lacking. BioWare has never had to design any kind of lasting end game content for their previous titles, and I think it will prove more challenging than they might expect. I predict 1-2 WoW style raids at launch, probably small ones, and a single PVP battleground.
There will be a huge amount of diverse races. Starting areas being determined by class instead of race will aid them in being able to create a variety of species for us to play without increasing the content they need to develop.
The writing will be excellent, and leveling up by yourself or with a friend or two will be fun. A few months after launch, serious complaints will arise about a lack of content. Devs will tell these people to try another class to experience the other stories, and this will become a point of contention between players who think this is fine and those that do not. It will be endlessly debated on the forums.
Space will be very limited at launch, possibly never expanded.
Overall, that might suggest that I’m looking at the game negatively at this point, but that’s actually not the case. The reason? I’m not looking at SWTOR as a traditional MMO. To me, it’s a single player BioWare RPG that just happens to be online, and nothing more. I plan to purchase it, play through the story with a character or two, and move on to another game. If you think about it, this is actually perfectly fine for this type of game. With a title like Mass Effect, they spend a huge amount of time working on the content and the storyline, but it only gets one play-through (or a couple if you’re an achievement hound) and then its over.
Moving over to MMOs allows them to sell the same amount of initial copies, make a little more money from monthly fees, and then they have a game they can endlessly expand and keep making money on. That’s how I’m going to be approaching SWTOR: It’s the continuation of the KOTOR RPGs and I’m simply going to be using the same character through subsequent sequels that follow.
Disagree or have your own thoughts? Toss them up in the comments.
We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we’re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.
As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won’t disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We’ll go into much more detail on all of this here at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward.
I’m actually really surprised they’re going through with this change, as its one I thought would never come about. Defnitely interesting, and I have to say I might be tempted to use it. No word on how much it’ll cost.
Over the past few years, most MMO titles we’ve seen were designed from that simple standpoint: they were MMOs.
“It’s Warhammer, but as an MMO” or “Star Wars, but it’s an MMO”. More than anything, the “MMO” portion was what defined the game. It was the most important aspect and development revolved around that.
This needs to change.
What makes something an MMORPG anyway? Levels, skills, quests, instances, raiding, PVP, crafting? The answer is none of those.
An MMO is simply a game that allows you to experience the game’s content with a large amount of other players, whether cooperatively or competitively. That’s it. Why then, do we see so many games trying to cram the above elements into a game where they do not belong? They think they have to.
My plea to game developers is simple: put the game first, and don’t let the “MMO” get in the way. Figure out what your game is, what you want players to do and why, and then make it an MMO after that. Don’t let “it’s an MMO” be the thing that drives it. That can’t be the only concept anymore, like it could in 2002. Everything is becoming MMO-like with the prevalance of online gaming both on the PC and console–even shooters like Call of Duty and Team Fortress 2 are adding RPG elements–so it doesn’t matter that you’re an online game anymore, it only matters what your game is, what the play experience offers.
Does your game need crafting? How does crafting add to the gameplay experience, and is that addition significant? If the answer is no, don’t put it in. It’s as if there’s some unspoken rule that if other MMOs had it you have to have it to, and it’s simply not true.
The same goes for PVP, for instanced dungeons, for quests, even leveling or any kind of character advancement at all. You don’t have to approach the design assuming all of these elements must be included, yet it keeps happening again and again, often to the detriment of the overall game.
The best thing to do is decide what the core attraction of your game is going to be. It should be something narrow and focused. Not just “PVP”, but really drill it down. Open world PVP, small scale PVP, Arena, or RvR? Pick one thing and, at least during the concept stages, figure out how to make that feature absolutely the best it can be. Reinvent it if you have to, don’t just be the best, be the first. You don’t even need to think about the rest of the game until you’ve got that perfected. When it is, then you can step back and say, okay, what elements of an MMO would make this feature better? If it doesn’t provide something that builds on or enhances that experience or the path to that experience (if it’s end-game) then don’t put it in.
If “story” is the main selling point of your game, like the upcoming Star Wars MMO and 38 Studios’ Copernicus have claimed, design the game with that in mind at every stage. Does PVP fit into the story you’re telling? Does it deliver a meaningful experience that ties into the tale you’re weaving? If not, don’t put it in. End of story. Focus on delivering the core of what you want your game to be, and making it absolutely the best the genre has ever seen. If you’re worried about versatility or differing gameplay styles, you can always look at player reaction after release, take in what the most requested feature is, and implement it in an expansion or even a free update. You don’t have to have everything at launch or even within the first year. But you do have to deliver on your core game concept.
Far too many MMOs try to do too much at once, thinking they have to offer everything previous MMOs have with their own unique spin on it (or simply tossing a well-known IP into the mix) and it ends up hurting everyone. If you make a PVP oriented game, will you be niche? Yes, probably, but if you have the best PVP game on the market that has done away with all of the extraneous components that PVPers don’t care about, you’ll do just fine. This is where games like Warhammer failed. It’s obvious that Warhammer wants to be the PVP game, but they try to do everything. Why is crafting even in that game? Why do you need to kill 10 rats or collect 10 whatsits to level up when you can do it by PVPing, which is what the game wants you to do? It just makes no sense to pull players in so many different directions under the guise of having “variety” or “options”. That might sound nice, but then you end up having everything be mediocre instead of one focused element being awesome.
Aion is the same way. I logged in to the beta for a few hours and then promptly closed the game and don’t intend to play it ever again. Why? It’s a PVP game that is asking me to endlessly quest and grind for experience. I’m not interested. I’ve seen all of that before, done better, and I’m not going to do it again in a game that is clearly designed for PVP. Your “Abyss” PVP experience complete with aerial combat is interesting and it’s obvious that is the entire point of the game, so why isn’t the entire game like that? Why can’t I fly endlessly in zones that were designed vertically instead of horizontally, completing objectives against other players in each zone? That is what your game is about, so why put a bunch of extra bullshit in there before I get to what you wanted me to play in the first place? Because you think that’s what an MMO is, and that’s the problem.
Even the payment method for MMOs is just endlessly copied most of the time, because that’s what every other MMO does. Only now are we finally seeing some major successes in different models such as with Free Realms and DDO’s announcement to go free to play with microtransactions. I support this, because its silly to assume every single game should cost $15/month just because its an MMO. It should come down to what content is currently offered in the game and what those monthly dollars are paying for.
The design mold needs to be broken in the same way. I just wonder how long it’ll take, and how many more failed MMOs we’ll see before it actually happens.
Recent FFXIV interviews have stated that PlayOnline will no longer be used for managing Square-Enix’s MMORPGs, and instead they’ll be moving to a simpler web-based account system. The assumption is that your Square-Enix member account will be tied to your games much like what Blizzard is doing with Battle.net.
It may be old news to some of you, but I actually had no clue the Square-Enix member website already exists so I thought I’d share it in anyone else was also in the dark about it.
Head over to http://member.square-enix.com/na/ to create your account, and you can even create a cute little 3D avatar and play some browser games. The site is mostly just a news and discussion portal right now (you can discuss FFXIV in this group) but it may be beneficial to go ahead and register if you want to get a certain user ID or nickname.
I imagine it’ll be a good place to watch for more FFXIV news and, most importantly, beta test info! Feel free to add me as a friend if you join, my nickname there is Myrix.
An article at Massively sent my imagination running wild as to what games from my past I’d like to see turned into MMOs. Here are five I came up with:
Castlevania
I’ve always been a huge Castlevania fan. The gothic atmosphere in each of the games (even the terrible N64 entries) is fantastic. There aren’t really many dark fantasy MMOs out there – maybe Warhammer Online and Requiem: Bloodymare – so Castlevania could certainly stand out. My vision for the game sees it as an MMO Action RPG, played much like a normal Castlevania game, where players assume the role of monster hunters, holy warriors, witches, and sorcerers. Players would be able to undertake missions from the villages and kingdoms throughout the land to rid an area of some vile creatures. The game would be designed for quick action. It should be very easy to grab a mission or two, invite a friend along if you like, and get to the slaughtering.
The game would have fast travel using an overworld map so that players could get to their mission or their friends very quickly – the goal for Castlevania is not immersion, but fast, exciting gameplay. Various forests, crypts, underground caves, and so on could comprise the outer levels, with a huge, multi-level dungeon making up the castle itself. As in all Castlevania games, teleporters throughout the castle would make travel to different levels easier.
Customization would come in various forms borrowed from some of the better Castlevania games. Equipment could be collected from fallen foes like any other MMO, but three other things as well: souls, glyphs, and spellbooks. Castlevania would be a game without any classes or skills, only levels. The rest of your character building comes from the gear, souls, glyphs, and spellbooks you collect. Depending on what type of combinations of these you equip, your character’s abilities will be drastically different.
I’d probably set it up so that Souls enhance your stats. For example, you could acquire the soul of some type of monstrous giant and equip that to your Strength stat, boosting it considerably and giving your melee attacks a chance to knock an enemy to the ground. Spellbooks would determine the types of spells and buffs you can cast, each based around a theme. A spellbook obtained from Death might have necromantic spells inside, such as one that lets you summon skeletons and another that lets you sacrifice them for health. Finally, glyphs would be enhancing items. You’d be able to attach them to your equipment and even your spellbooks (if it was the right kind of glyph) to enhance their effects or add completely new ones. For example, attaching a Glyph of Fire to your weapon might make it strike with additional fire damage, whereas attaching it to your armor might make it have a chance to deal fire damage to enemies that hit you, or ward you against incoming fire spells. This level of customization would allow players to truly make any kind of character they wish, and even change it up on the fly by swapping out spellbooks and gear. It also adds a huge amount of replayability as nearly any item in the game is useful to you in some way.
Pokemon
Not as much to say about this one since I’m not a huge Pokemon fan myself, but I still acknowledge that it should be an MMO. It would be a huge hit if it was done in a free to play, browser-based style like Free Realms. Players could take on various quests out in the wild while catching and raising all sorts of different Pokemon. Battles could be handled Wizard 101 style so that the turn-based combat is kept intact. Players could battle each other with their Pokemon, try to obtain all of the badges, or simply try to “catch ‘em all.”
You could have job-like quests, but no real classes are needed. Similar to Free Realms, you could have Pokemon catching quests, Pokemon training, Pokemon medical attention, a Pokemon Snap photography mini-games, even tournament battles in a colloseum setting. Being successful at these could all award XP if you use a level based system, or grant other awards if there is no experience points tied to the player. In the regular games, you mostly just level up your Pokemon, so that might be fine in the MMO as well.
While I haven’t played any of the spin-offs of the series like Pokemon Rangers or the Dungeon games, you could borrow ideas from these as well. It might be interesting to have puzzles in dungeons where you need the abilities of certain types of Pokemon to proceed. This would be fun for kids to figure out and encourage them to catch a wide variety of Pokemon.
For revenue you could simply offer certain things only to subscribers: cool cosmetic items, larger inventory space, better pokeballs, and maybe access to certain zones where rare Pokemon can be found. I don’t even know how many Pokemon there are these days, but I know the original game only had 150. You could do something similar, where the free game only has 150 Pokemon and the zones that they are found in. If you want access to all of the Pokemon and the rest of the world, you subscribe. This is similar to what Wizard 101 does, I believe.
Frankly, I’m amazed Nintendo isn’t already on this.
Final Fantasy VIII
I know, I know, we already have FFXI and now FFXIV is in the works, so technically Final Fantasy is already an MMO. Still, I can’t help but mention FFVIII because the setup for the transition to an MMO is so perfect.
Players would choose a Garden to start in that would act as your race of sorts. For those who never played FFVIII, a Garden is like a military school where you’re trained in combat and magic-use in order to become a member of SeeD, an elite mercenary group. This sets up the initial gameplay perfectly, as the whole point of Garden is to train by sending the students on missions. This would help you learn the game, and then from there on you would always have quests and missions to perform for Garden. These missions could come in two flavors: quick, instanced missions that you could get at any time if you only had a short time to play, or world missions that sent you out to explore the world and the dungeons there and might require the help of other players.
Classes wouldn’t be needed in FFVIII Online. Instead, you could take the “Draw” system and apply it to not only stats, but abilities. Again, for those who haven’t played FFVIII, the draw system allowed you to draw out a type of magic from enemies and store it for your own use or even attach the spell to your stats – this was called Junction. In the console game, though, this simply increased your stats. We’d want a bit more out of the MMO version.
Any player would be able to cast spells or use physical attacks, but depending on how you junctioned your drawn magic you would end up with different “classes”. The junctioning would of course have to be limited so that you cant have everything at once, but could still make unique combos like a fighter/mage or mage/healer. You’d want to junction the right spells to the stats that made your character able to perform the role you want to do.
Then there would be junctioning to abilities. For example, a tanking fighter may junction, say, Thundaga to his main melee attack which could have the side effect of increased threat. Another fighter who simply wanted to deal damage without pulling aggro may choose to junction Firaga to that same ability, instead giving it a high DoT component. In this way, you could create all sorts of interesting possible character combos.
Additionally, it would even allow people to change classes anytime they wanted without rerolling or releveling, they simply rejunction and play what they want, anytime. Awesome.
The Legend of Zelda
Redubbed to simply Hyrule, this would be another action-MMORPG based on the Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess style of Zelda gameplay. The game would be set in a time where, for whatever reason, evil has threatened Hyrule once again but the chosen hero has not appeared. Now, it’s up to those brave enough to take up the task themselves to save their world. Players would be able to choose from the variety of races from the previous games, such as Humans, Kokiri, Goron, and Zora.
Again, I’d most likely make this a classless game where your abilities were determined more by the items you use and what spells you have. I might bring back the medallions from A Link to the Past and allow players to collect them to gain new spells. I’d most definitely also have musical instruments in the game as well with various song effects like the teleportation from Ocarina of Time. The game wouldn’t really need levels either, instead allowing for advancement through items and increasing your health/magic meter. This would allow players a bit more freedom in how they want to advance.
Gameplay would be more about exploring Hyrule and the various dungeons found there, with the dungeons being the real selling point of the game. The Zelda series has always had some of the most creative dungeons, with interesting puzzles and massive, exciting boss fights. This would all be brought into the MMO setting and tweaked for multiple players being involved. For example, players might have to split up and head down separate coridoors in order to reach switches that must be stepped on at the same time in order to open the main door. They’d coordinate together on this to proceed. Obviously that’s the simplest example possible, but you get the idea for how this could be really fun. Now that I think about it, just borrow a lot of the design of Four Swords Adventures and incorporate it into the MMO!
Baldur’s Gate or Neverwinter Nights (Forgotten Realms Online)
Rumor has it that Neverwinter Nights Online is coming, but I thought I’d add this to my list anyway. I’m a huge fan of both NWN and the Baldur’s Gate series (the latter moreso) as well as the Forgotten Realms setting as a whole. I’m really surprised there hasn’t been a solid MMO made in that world yet. DDO used the Eberron setting instead, but I’m actually glad it did because its failure to really take off will not dissuade future developers from trying again with D&D – they’ll just use a different setting. So, why not use the setting that is unquestionably the most popular among players?
My idea for a Neverwinter Nights MMO takes the CoH architect system and expands on it greatly with the NWN toolset. Players would actually be able to craft their own dungeons and adventures within the world and act as a DM, watching as a group attempts to make it through their adventure. Sure, this already happens if you bother to play NWN/NWN2 online, but it isn’t a true MMO experience.
With an MMO you could give players a main epic storyline and various places to explore and adventure in as they level up, but the player-generated content would ensure there was an endless stream of content to keep players occupied in between major updates and expansion releases. Even if a lot of it was crap, there would be a few gems that players would enjoy experiencing. A ranking/voting system would help people filter through some of the bad content, and if you put in incentives for the players that design/write good adventures, you’d have people trying a little harder at it.
This could be a major feature that sets the game apart from the myriad of other fantasy MMOs out there.
That’s my list, any games come to mind that you’d like to see made into an MMO? Harvest Moon/Rune Factory perhaps?
Zarhym at the WoW general forums has revealed some upcoming changes to mounts and riding skill. At first glance you might just look at them and say “okay, they’re lowering the level / cost again like they did before” but there’s actually more to it.
Apprentice Riding (Skill 75)
60% land mount speed
Requires level 20
Cost: 4 gold
Mount cost: 1 gold
Mail will be sent to players at level 20 guiding them to the riding trainer
The first one isn’t a huge change, but is still significant. This lands the first mount right at the level where someone trying out a free trial of WoW must upgrade to continue leveling. Tossing them a mount at the last level they can attain is a huge incentive to get them to purchase an account and keep playing. Lowering the cost significantly also helps these new players.
Journeyman Riding (Skill 150)
100% land mount speed
Requires level 40
Cost: 50 gold
Mount cost: 10 gold
Mail will be sent to players at level 40 guiding them back to the riding trainer
40-60 is the stretch that causes a lot of more casual players to lose interest in the game or their character, inciting alt-itis. Giving players epic mounts at 40 is a great way to make some of those vanilla zones a bit less painful to run around in, and lowering the cost of the mount significantly is certainly nice too. This gets me excited to play some of my alts which I got bored with around 40.
Expert Riding (Skill 225)
150% flying mount speed; 60% land mount speed
Requires level 60
Cost: 600 gold (faction discounts now apply)
Mount Cost: 50 gold
Can now be learned in Honor Hold (Alliance) or Thrallmar (Horde)
This is the one I’m most excited about. I’ve always hated how the normal flying mount was only 60% speed after being so used to 100% epic ground mount speed, and that’s finally being addressed with the bump up to 150% speed. On top of that, you can now buy the flying mount at level 60 (!) meaning you will have a decently fast flying mount for your entire leveling experience in Outland!
Artisan Riding (Skill 300)
280% flying mount speed; 100% land mount speed
Requires level 70
Cost: 5,000 gold (faction discounts now apply)
Mount Cost: 100 gold
No big change here other than faction discounts making the cost a little less painful.
I wish these changes were coming in a smaller patch instead of 3.2, but at least they’re on the way. In a time when WoW is certainly going to be a little stale for some players, it might be time to roll up an alt and this just makes that prospect more appealing.
E3 has come and gone, but I’m finding myself more excited about the rest of the year and next than I have been for a long time. The following are my most anticipated upcoming games, complete with videos for the top 5.
Honorable Mention: Uncharted 2, Mass Effect 2
10. Star Wars: The Old Republic
Like pretty much everyone else on the planet, I was blown away by the SWTOR cinematic trailer. However, I’m also very aware that the trailer is nothing like the actual gameplay of SWTOR. So, I’m reserving judgement until we see more of the game and how well they deliver on the proposed epic storytelling and cinematic experience. Of course, I can’t help but be excited for it and hope that it lives up to the hype. I have a hunch that people are going to be surprised by the design of the game when Bioware reveals you’re actually intended to solo while you level. I fully expect leveling up to be like playing the next installment of KOTOR, with grouping incentives being few and far between until the end game. I guess we’ll have to see if I’m right or not in the coming months as more is revealed. Who knows, it might work considering most people prefer to level solo.
9. Bayonetta
As a huge fan of the Devil May Cry series I can’t help but be somewhat excited for Bayonetta, which looks both ridiculous and awesome. I’m interested to how the new gameplay elements introduced will work to both spice up the combat and separate it from DMC. Plus, I’m a sucker for hot chicks in glasses.
8. Bioshock 2
The first title was one of the most immersive FPS experiences I’ve ever played. I’m hoping the sequel will expand on the first to bring a wider variety of gameplay options while retaining the excellent sense of atmosphere and great storytelling.
7. Metal Gear Solid: Rising
A more action-oriented MGS title for the 360 starring cybernetic ninja badass Raiden? How could I say no?
6. Final Fantasy XIV
This would likely be number 1 on the list, but I have to keep my expectations in check. The REVEAL for this game was easily the top moment of E3 for me, but when I step back and consider what I’m most excited for, I have to take into account that we actually know very little about the game at all. I remain tremendously excited for it, but I’ll leave it at a modest 6 until more information on the gameplay is revealed.
5. Heavy Rain
I was a huge fan of Indigo Prophecy, which is why this game is high on my list. The team at Quantic Dream succeeded wonderfully at providing an engaging paranormal thriller with Indigo Prophecy even if it wasn’t a flawless game, and I expect Heavy Rain to shore up some weaknesses while still delivering another fantastic storyline. For those that are unfamiliar with this type of game, it’s essentially an interactive movie and is reminiscent of the old adventure style games where you solve mysteries and figure out how to proceed. Heavy Rain focuses on tracking down a serial murderer known as the ‘Origami Killer’.
4. Assassin’s Creed 2
The original Assassin’s Creed was one of my most anticipated games back in 2007, but I ended up being greatly disappointed by the repetitive gameplay and lack of real options despite how open the world had seemed in the trailers. Maybe I’m just falling into the same trap again (I love games that place you in the role of a thief or assassin), but I want to believe that Ubisoft is going to deliver the experience everyone originally wanted with this sequel. The videos certainly look good, especially the beautiful renaissance era Italy setting. I don’t think I can help myself.
3. God of War 3
God of War is one of my favorite series of all time, with the first two being some of the best action games ever made in my opinion. The series boasts a great lead character in Kratos, an amazing storyline steeped in Greek mythology, and most importantly, fantastic gameplay that countless games have tried to imitate. This is the game that will force me to purchase a PS3. I can’t wait to wage war against the Gods themselves!
2. The Last Guardian
All those people who want to argue that games can be art only need to look to Team Ico for proof. Their first two games, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, we’re breathtaking both visually and from a design standpoint. I think the thing I appreciate about Team Ico the most is their subtlety. Their concepts are often quite simple, but what they do with them always turns out to be amazing. While we don’t know much about The Last Guardian yet, my love of the previous games is enough to get me excited for this one. You just know the beast is going to die at some point and it’s going to be some some serious heartbreak.
1. Final Fantasy XIII
This game has been in development for so long that the hype had completely worn off for me, but now it’s coming back even stronger. The videos and gameplay seem to be taking a swing back to more traditional Final Fantasy games (at least, compared to FFXII), while at the same time bringing entirely new action elements in. Now that we’re seeing more, the storyline and characters are turning out to be far more interesting than I expected as well. I’ve been longing for a deep, japanese RPG I can sink my teeth into for a long time now, and I’m thinking this will be it. It takes the crown as my most anticipated game of E3 ‘09.
A user at the Allakhazam FFXI forum has posted a translation of a recent interview published in japanese gaming magazine Famitsu regarding Final Fantasy XIV. The interview reveals a few interesting pieces of information that we didn’t have previously. Below is the transcription of the interview, with my own thoughts in some places.
- FF14 project (coded name : rapture) was started 4 years old. At that time, it might be called FF15.. if SE is working on FF13, and FF14 for the offline version of FF series.
- Eorzea. is a continent / place name. The world will be called ハイデリン (HADELN) .
- They will add in some Science Fiction element like those in FF10 and FF13 on this game. It will be a total different type of fantasy compare to FF11.
- All races from FF11 will be included in FF14. We cant tell you got other new races or not. at this moment.
One of the first things I had wondered about was the inclusion of the former races in this apparently new world. Another interview recently revealed that they are technically new races, but they wanted them to look essentially the same so that players could recreate their characters from FFXI.
Eorzea being a continent rather than the world itself works just fine for me. I actually enjoy it when games reveal the whole of the world over time. Visiting other worlds and planes is fun sometimes, but occasionally I just like to visit a new continent. Sounds like we’ll be seeing that here.
The sci-fi element was apparent in the trailer, though it appears to be some strange “organic technology” – did you see those flying towers flapping their wings? As long as it doesn’t go too over the top with this stuff, I think it could be interesting and help set it apart from other upcoming fantasy titles like Heroes of Telara and Copernicus.
- It will use Square Enix ID Account system as to replace the pol system. 30 days unit payment system.
- No selling in-game item planned.
Great news on both ends here. PlayOnline was terrible and frustrated many potential FFXI players to the point that they didn’t even get in the game! It’s clunky and just needs to be scrapped.
No microtransactions is the right move too, at least for right now. It seems like they may be more acceptable in the future as people open up to the idea, but for now gamers are more comfortable with the monthly subscription model.
- Regarding job system., the keyword is [ Weapon ] . To enrich our new job system, we will put in weapon elements into it.
- There will be High Level job system. <my mistake: after browsing through 3 websites, it is confirmed that wont have high level job system.>
- There wont be experience point level system on FF14. (updated, my mistake) <my thought: I still cannot understand this. some people said it might be Skill Point system?? >
These bits are fairly confusing due to the translation, and it seems like the translator himself doesn’t fully understand their meaning. The only thing I can make out of it is it sounds like they are doing away with levels and experience points and tying advancement to weapons, like a skill-based system. I actually just blogged about Heroes of Telara potentially going this route, so it would be interesting if FFXIV is planning the same thing. Hopefully they can clarify this soon.
- We are thinking to have character names (from FF11) transfer service.
- Battle system will be focusing more on real time. Timing will be a very important factor.
Again, another possibility pointing to the Oblivion-style real time combat? I hope they didn’t think Age of Conan’s system was fun enough to imitate. It was terrible!
- The selling point for FF14 is [ Growth] ..
- All song will be composed by Nobuo Uematsu. 5.1ch sound.
- The leviathan like monster will have a important role.
- The field that cast by blm ? we saw on the trailer, will be as a part of the battle system too.
- Many Vs Many.. = Mob will be party to fight the player too.
- PC spec requirement will be quite high.
No idea what the Growth thing means. I guess they might be boasting unparalleled character progression and advancement, but doesn’t every MMO say that before release?
High specs are fine, but the game better be polished and run extremely smoothly. Luckily, I think Sqaure-Enix can pull that off. Hopefully this means some gorgeous environments.
- Server max population will be 5- 6000 players.
- Service will be available on 2010. Beta test wont be as long as WOW where they have their beta test like 9 months.
- It might have Full voice.
Early 2010 will probably be a good time to launch. Everyone is expecting Icecrown by the end of 2009, so if they can launch after the newness of that has worn off they’ll get a lot of “WoW tourists”…and maybe keep more than a few.
Voiceovers are apparently the “in” thing this coming generation. I wonder if EQ2 is sitting out in the rain crying “but I did it and no one liked me!”
- There will be a better system then field of valor. For example, i login today, i can do this. i login tomorrow, i can do that.. etc..
For people that have no idea what this is talking about, Field of Valor was FFXI’s 5-years-too-late attempt to put in actual quests that awarded loot and XP. You basically find a floating book and select a task from it which will have you kill a certain number of creatures. When you complete it you can get a loot reward and also earn points that can be spent for buffs like HP/MP regen and so on. So, saying FFXIV will have a better system is hopefully a huge understatement. I’m sure there will be plenty of interesting quests in the game, at least there should be.
- No PVP system.
Some people are crying about this, but it’s a very good thing. PVP is overrated. Sure there are a number of players who want it and maybe its even their main source of entertainment in an MMO, but PVE is the real seller. Games like Warhammer suffer because they eschew quality PVE experiences in order to try to focus on PVP. WoW also suffers by attempting to balance PVE/PVP gameplay. It’s better to just pick one and focus only on it. PVE is the one that will sell more boxes and keep players subscribed, but it has to be good PVE.
- Got Time element, such as four season.
- They want to make a benchmark for FF14.
- They are still discussing with MS , on working for a 360 Release.
Seasons will be awesome if the zones actually change. That would look amazing.
360 release is almost guaranteed. Sony probably just paid them off for a few months to try to sell some PS3s in the wake of this announcement.
So, this interview has cleared some things up and raised a whole lot of other questions. We’ve basically just watched an episode of Lost.
Castlevania
Players would choose a Garden to start in that would act as your race of sorts. For those who never played FFVIII, a Garden is like a military school where you’re trained in combat and magic-use in order to become a member of SeeD, an elite mercenary group. This sets up the initial gameplay perfectly, as the whole point of Garden is to train by sending the students on missions. This would help you learn the game, and then from there on you would always have quests and missions to perform for Garden. These missions could come in two flavors: quick, instanced missions that you could get at any time if you only had a short time to play, or world missions that sent you out to explore the world and the dungeons there and might require the help of other players.
My idea for a Neverwinter Nights MMO takes the 
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