Sony Online Entertainment has released the latest trailer for H1Z1, titled ‘My Evil Ways.’ The animations look a little chunky and are more than likely unfinished. The video explains that H1Z1 will be released in early access on Steam, as well as being released on PS4. Sony’s E3 press conference later today will offer more gameplay.
(Source: SOE Press Release)
Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Mad Otter Games, whose free to play title Villagers & Heroes is now available on Steam. Players are encouraged to cooperate in this MMO with player-created towns and sandbox-style crafting. How do the towns work, you ask?
The towns of Villagers and Heroes are not merely set-pieces. They are dynamic and ever-changing. Through the teamwork and contributions of players, crafting stations will rise, homes and fields will flourish, and new quests will be revealed.
Check out MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and new screenshots will be revealed.
Divergence Online is the next up and coming hardcore indie sandbox, and you can go ahead and stop reading there if you are as tired of that sentence as I am. Maybe it is the four years of writing MMO Fallout that has made me jaded, but when I hear about an indie hardcore sandbox MMO, I no longer have the reaction of a child on Christmas morning. I have the reaction of his friend down the street who knows exactly what his day is going to involve: hand-me-down socks wrapped in a hand-me-down shirt, and Uncle Rob will get drunk and pass out on my bed so I’ll be sleeping on the floor again. I’ve learned a lot from throwing money at projects like Mortal Online, and the lesson is never invest in the guy who advertises his project as being great because it’s kind of like that Ultima Online game back before EA watered it down for the stupid masses.
So Divergence Online came to my attention in the way that games in this genre usually do: The fans start being obnoxious, I get emails accusing me of being a corporate sellout and asking why I opt to cover “crappy themepark games” designed for “children” by “scam artists,” and how the game they sunk three figures into at an Indiegogo or Kickstarter campaign is going to rock because the developer is an old school guy who played Ultima Online and that the hardcore sandbox is really what the majority of players crave, but are just too stupid/apathetic to see the truth. The same players who months after the game’s launch will be emailing me asking why I bothered to support said game, noting that the more hardcore sandbox genre is viable but that the developer was not the person to bring it into the new era. And they would be correct. The hardcore sandbox is viable, you could look at early Ultima Online and current Eve Online to see that, and yes the problem is that the torch continues to be carried by those not strong enough to lift it over their heads and those strong enough are not willing to throw into the fight.
That said, I don’t believe Divergence Online is a serious game. Not in the sense that I’m implying that the whole thing is on the level of a Stargate Worlds ponzi scheme, or that the guys working on it have any goal other than to make a great game and obviously some money in the process, but that the project is likely to follow in the same line as its predecessor: A series of unfulfilled promises held back by a lack of funding built by people who are better suited for smaller projects. In previous editorials, I’ve pointed out that an MMO is probably the worst genre to pick for your startup game, they take the kind of time, planning, personnel, and most importantly funding that indie studios just don’t have access to. I also don’t have much faith in MMOs that change direction and engine multiple times before launch. Once again it shows a lack of planning and concrete direction, one that often kills even big budget titles like Tabula Rasa.
So my lack of faith in Divergence Online has nothing to do with the alleged antics of the creator, the “jerkness” level of a programmer doesn’t matter to me, otherwise you wouldn’t see the multiple interviews with Derek Smart here. I’ll even go further and say that it has nothing to do with some of the more questionable decisions presented in the Kickstarter campaign, like the inclusion of a $20 emote package that offers a “@#$% Yo’ Couch” emote, a scene from The Chapelle Show whose level of being overly quoted is only beaten by “I’m Rick James, bitch,” and it also gives the “slow jerk” emote, with the reminder to avoid eye contact. The other emote pack for $20 promises to recreate the exotic dance from Star Wars Galaxies, a reminder that you can prove your worth as a sandbox mmo by paying reference to previous popular sandbox games. Divergence Online goes further with its borderline crazy promises by offering a never-ending world that continues to procedurally generate as you walk towards its borders, a promise that will no doubt either be nowhere near as exciting as it sounds or will be scrapped or delayed indefinitely.
In the end, Divergence Online is a story we’ve heard of a thousand times before. Some guy wants to create a hardcore sandbox with full loot, free for all pvp, permanent death, and skill-based progression, and in order to sell his project he will jump on the bandwagon of hatred against anything that could be considered mainstream, because achievements, loot, particle effects, and more aren’t real features and they wouldn’t dare add anything in to insult you as a consumer. It’s a level of anti-mainstream thinking that has, perhaps ironically, become mainstream in the indie sphere, and will be defended endlessly until talk turns to walk, and the same people heralding the game as the next coming of Ultima Christ drop their support with that simple message “this just wasn’t the game to do it.”
On the other hand, I can always hope that Divergence Online breaks any expectations and becomes the next big sandbox title, in which case Ethan Casner may come over to my house and hit me with a folding chair WWE-style. The big sandbox games from Ultima Online and Eve Online all started out as small projects with low prospects and tiny budgets, and while the former became the largest subscription MMO of its time, the latter now holds its place as one of the most popular subscription MMOs ever. So it obviously can work.
But as far as Kickstarter/Indiegogo goes, I’m spent.
Divergence Online is the next up and coming hardcore indie sandbox, and you can go ahead and stop reading there if you are as tired of that sentence as I am. Maybe it is the four years of writing MMO Fallout that has made me jaded, but when I hear about an indie hardcore sandbox MMO, I no longer have the reaction of a child on Christmas morning. I have the reaction of his friend down the street who knows exactly what his day is going to involve: hand-me-down socks wrapped in a hand-me-down shirt, and Uncle Rob will get drunk and pass out on my bed so I’ll be sleeping on the floor again. I’ve learned a lot from throwing money at projects like Mortal Online, and the lesson is never invest in the guy who advertises his project as being great because it’s kind of like that Ultima Online game back before EA watered it down for the stupid masses.
So Divergence Online came to my attention in the way that games in this genre usually do: The fans start being obnoxious, I get emails accusing me of being a corporate sellout and asking why I opt to cover “crappy themepark games” designed for “children” by “scam artists,” and how the game they sunk three figures into at an Indiegogo or Kickstarter campaign is going to rock because the developer is an old school guy who played Ultima Online and that the hardcore sandbox is really what the majority of players crave, but are just too stupid/apathetic to see the truth. The same players who months after the game’s launch will be emailing me asking why I bothered to support said game, noting that the more hardcore sandbox genre is viable but that the developer was not the person to bring it into the new era. And they would be correct. The hardcore sandbox is viable, you could look at early Ultima Online and current Eve Online to see that, and yes the problem is that the torch continues to be carried by those not strong enough to lift it over their heads and those strong enough are not willing to throw into the fight.
That said, I don’t believe Divergence Online is a serious game. Not in the sense that I’m implying that the whole thing is on the level of a Stargate Worlds ponzi scheme, or that the guys working on it have any goal other than to make a great game and obviously some money in the process, but that the project is likely to follow in the same line as its predecessor: A series of unfulfilled promises held back by a lack of funding built by people who are better suited for smaller projects. In previous editorials, I’ve pointed out that an MMO is probably the worst genre to pick for your startup game, they take the kind of time, planning, personnel, and most importantly funding that indie studios just don’t have access to. I also don’t have much faith in MMOs that change direction and engine multiple times before launch. Once again it shows a lack of planning and concrete direction, one that often kills even big budget titles like Tabula Rasa.
So my lack of faith in Divergence Online has nothing to do with the alleged antics of the creator, the “jerkness” level of a programmer doesn’t matter to me, otherwise you wouldn’t see the multiple interviews with Derek Smart here. I’ll even go further and say that it has nothing to do with some of the more questionable decisions presented in the Kickstarter campaign, like the inclusion of a $20 emote package that offers a “@#$% Yo’ Couch” emote, a scene from The Chapelle Show whose level of being overly quoted is only beaten by “I’m Rick James, bitch,” and it also gives the “slow jerk” emote, with the reminder to avoid eye contact. The other emote pack for $20 promises to recreate the exotic dance from Star Wars Galaxies, a reminder that you can prove your worth as a sandbox mmo by paying reference to previous popular sandbox games. Divergence Online goes further with its borderline crazy promises by offering a never-ending world that continues to procedurally generate as you walk towards its borders, a promise that will no doubt either be nowhere near as exciting as it sounds or will be scrapped or delayed indefinitely.
In the end, Divergence Online is a story we’ve heard of a thousand times before. Some guy wants to create a hardcore sandbox with full loot, free for all pvp, permanent death, and skill-based progression, and in order to sell his project he will jump on the bandwagon of hatred against anything that could be considered mainstream, because achievements, loot, particle effects, and more aren’t real features and they wouldn’t dare add anything in to insult you as a consumer. It’s a level of anti-mainstream thinking that has, perhaps ironically, become mainstream in the indie sphere, and will be defended endlessly until talk turns to walk, and the same people heralding the game as the next coming of Ultima Christ drop their support with that simple message “this just wasn’t the game to do it.”
On the other hand, I can always hope that Divergence Online breaks any expectations and becomes the next big sandbox title, in which case Ethan Casner may come over to my house and hit me with a folding chair WWE-style. The big sandbox games from Ultima Online and Eve Online all started out as small projects with low prospects and tiny budgets, and while the former became the largest subscription MMO of its time, the latter now holds its place as one of the most popular subscription MMOs ever. So it obviously can work.
But as far as Kickstarter/Indiegogo goes, I’m spent.
Consequence and punishment are two words that sound interchangeable, however knowing the difference between the two is important to working with your customers and making a more enjoyable environment to play in. To put it short and simple, a consequence is a mixture of positive and negative and a punishment is just negative. Punishments exist to penalize activity that is seen as detrimental to the community while consequences allow for more freedom within the boundaries of restrictions to either increase immersion or keep said activity from being overused.
To start, let’s see some examples of consequence vs punishment. The criminal system present in most sandbox MMOs is a perfect example of consequence. You are free to kill members of your own faction, or just run around killing indiscriminately and play the marauding band of pirates/bandits you always wanted to be. After all, why would you want to sit at a resource node for hours on end or in an area filled with NPCs, when you can just run in, murder the fool who wasted his time, and steal his stuff? It’s so simple that you have to wonder why everyone doesn’t do it. To keep the field balanced, developers institute consequences for criminal behavior. Players may find themselves unable to access certain cities, on the radar for law enforcement, harsher penalties on death, and more. The idea is to keep criminal activity within the bounds of the game’s rules without making it so easy that no one wants to do anything else.
Consequences can refer to virtually any available choice in an MMO, expanded when the developer throws criminal activity into those choices. The consequence of picking the mage as your class means having less access to armor and weapons. Choosing to ally yourself with Saradomin in RuneScape means not having access to rewards available only to Zamorak’s followers. Creating a Horde character on World of Warcraft means not having access to certain factional cities and items. If you buy Pokemon Blue, you need to trade someone who owns Pokemon Red if you want to add Ekans to your Pokedex. And if you choose cole slaw and macaroni salad as the two sides to your barbecue ribs, you can’t have a baked potato unless you pay extra.
Punishments on the other hand are almost solely for disciplinary purposes. The developers don’t approve of what you are doing, and by going against their demands you risk punishment. You can kill someone repeatedly in World of Warcraft, but if you start throwing racial slurs at them you will likely be muted or banned. Jagex rolling back a character for botting in RuneScape is a punishment. Blizzard banning someone for gold farming is a punishment. An MMO that automatically logs you out after several consecutive hours of play with the message “go outside and get some sun,” is punishing. Jagex used to add muted characters into lore as people with their tongues cut out, but that is still punishment.
This distinction is important when designing features for any game, but most important when developing a sandbox MMO, and crucial for a series of articles that I have planned.
Auction houses are terrible, at least that’s what the hardcore sandbox community tells me, because it just isn’t a real sale unless you’ve walked a hundred miles uphill through the snow with everyone and their brother attacking you along the way to steal your goods. And who doesn’t want to put up with that on a daily basis? Alright, not all at once.
But that’s about hardcore MMOs, and we’re talking about Darkfall. In the latest blog post, Aventurine has detailed an upcoming market system for Darkfall Unholy Wars that will allow players to buy and sell items from one of several cities scattered around the world. Similar to games like Guild Wars 2, players will not only be able to place items up for sale, they will also be able to issue buy orders for specific items at specific prices. The article touts that this system will make the game “truly player driven,” with excesses and shortages dictating an overall market price.
You can read more about the market at the link below, as well as incoming changes to villages.
(Source: Epic Blog)
This news is either very encouraging or very disheartening depending on where you stand on the whole subscription vs free to play debate. MMO Culture is our main source for following what MMO companies are doing overseas, and they are incredibly reliable for picking up on updates before they come over to the west. In this case, ArchAge hasn’t even launched in the west yet and the game is already heading free to play. The sandbox MMO launched in Korea earlier this year and will be brought to North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand by Trion Worlds.
ArcheAge will still carry a subscription, however, delivering access to player owned housing as well as faster labor point recovery and vouchers for free stuff. The game goes free to play in Korea in July.
(Source: MMO Culture)
Greed Monger is the upcoming sandbox MMO being created by Electric Crow Games and the subject of a very successful Kickstarter project just a few months ago. Originally set on the UNITY engine, at some point the folks at Electric Crow Games decided to switch over to the HERO engine, which many of you will recognize as the same engine used in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Well that didn’t last long, as the Easter announcement confirms that Greed Monger has indeed changed back to UNITY.
We had some issues that caused us to step away from Unity and head into the world of the Hero Engine. It was a major decision considering all that we had done already and without being 100% certain how much of our already existing assets could be migrated into Hero. Well, the truth is, we switched back to Unity not long after we switched to Hero. Aside from the issues of the revenue model, no cross-platform support and other things the player base has been expecting, the engine just wasn’t a fit for us.
You can follow the link below to see the full explanation as to why Greed Monger was moved to HERO and subsequently moved back.
(Source: Greed Monger)
When it comes to MMOs, you don’t get much more massive than Eve Online. Launched ten years ago, CCP has grown its hardcore sci-fi title with over five hundred thousand subscribers battling for control over nearly eight thousand solar systems. As part of its service, Eve Online has consistently been the target of numerous free expansion packs, each bringing with it major changes to the game’s structure. Coming June 4th, CCP will be releasing the nineteenth free expansion to Eve Online, titled Odyssey, bringing with it a whole host of updates.
Players will enjoy a brand new scanning system, rewarding exploration all over the universe. Resource distribution and ship balancing will also be tweaked with Odyssey, along with graphical updates and the introduction of new ships and starbase improvements, not to mention a revamped and more user-friendly interface.
“Odyssey is an expression of our love for space and exploration,” said Andie Nordgren, Senior Producer, EVE Online. “It brings changes that will wake the wanderlust and taste for adventure in both new and veteran pilots.”
More information will be revealed at the sold-out Eve Fanfest.
(Source: CCP press release)
[Update] That was fast. Permanent death is not coming to Everquest Next, circa Dave Georgeson.
[Original Story] We already know that Sony wants Everquest Next to be the largest sandbox MMO in history, but how do they feel about permanent death? Positively, if a Tweet today by John Smedley is anything to consider.
We like permadeath for EQN
Hopefully there will be more details to come.
(Source: Twitter)
MMO Fallout 
