Vanguard: Saga of Heroes was certainly a saga in development, but I doubt anyone involved in in felt pretty heroic by the end of their time at Sigil. Continue reading
Tagged with Star Wars Galaxies …
Reading the MMO Tea Leaves for 2012
In previous years I’ve spent a lot of time reviewing and writing up a year’s worth of Massively.com / other MMO sites news articles. Although this is very useful from an information point of view (particularly the “oh, I’d forgotten about that” articles) it takes a very long time. So, this year I’m still doing … Continue reading
Star Wars: Galaxies – End of the Universe, Driven by the Republic
It is sometimes said that the launch of a new MMO never really ‘kills’ an older title. The older MMO might lose some players but will continue on in its own way with its already established community and developer Vision. That might have been true once, but it is increasingly less reliable to believe in. … Continue reading
IP Less-Than-Freely: MMOs Based on Licensed Properties
With the news that Jagex and Hasbro have signed a deal to do a Transformers MMO (guess all that Mech-based development wasn’t a waste then, Jagex) I was reminded of all the other MMOs based on popular nerd properties that have been indicated as “in development” but have had varying levels of success. And by … Continue reading
Bitter Pills, Regardless of Colour: The Fall of The Matrix Online
The use of intellectual properties for MMO titles is an interesting and conflicted area. Ultima Online was the first major MMO to attract player attention, having been built on the long-standing Ultima IP, while World of Warcraft’s strength is partly built off its association with the Warcraft real time strategy franchise. However, just having an … Continue reading
The Only Way to Succeed Is to Be #2
A lot of hopes and dreams rest on Star Wars: The Old Republic being a major hit. It is the largest ever production for EA and the rumours I’ve heard indicate this means the development budget is over US$200m, maybe even US$300m. (As Lum points out, some back of the envelope calculations put the break-even … Continue reading
We Do It To Ourselves, We Do – Why MMOs Are as They Are
Psychochild made an interesting post recently – why haven’t MMOs lived up to their early potential? Why hasn’t the early potential of games like Ultima Online or Meridian 59 with all their freedom and player-driven worlds been built on? Why have more controlled experiences like Everquest 2 or World of Warcraft dominated the genre? Some … Continue reading
World Class Villains 