Dancing MMOs.... EVERYWHERE

Why are there so many free to play dancing MMOs? I honestly have no idea. I think the first dancing game (not MMO, just game) was Dance Dance Revolution. The first dancing MMO I played was Dance Online back when Acclaim Games published it. Ever since they went bankrupt, the game did eventually relaunch as Super Dance Online through Cubizone – a Malaysian MMO publisher. Luckily, the game itself didn’t change much. In fact, the Malaysian version was much more popular than the U.S. Version Acclaim had. For some reason, every MMO publisher decided that they needed a dancing game. Snail Games launched ShowUp (which actually launched as 5Street. It changed its name to Showup much later). Even the Korean MMO juggernaut Nexon jumped onto the bandwagon when they launched Audition Online. Now I played audition Online for a while, and I do have to admit the gameplay and visuals were faily polished. After all, Nexon has always been known for publishing some of the highest quality free to play titles out there. Their current portfolio of titles by itself is very impressive actually. They have Vindictus, MapleStory, Combat Arms, Mabinogi and Dungeon Fighter Online. Notice I left out Audition Online from that list? That’s because Nexon eventually shut audition Online down, but luckily the game didn’t shut down for good. Just as Acclaim Games closed Dance Online and it relaunched sometime later, Audition Online relaunched through RedBana – which is actually owned by T3Fun which publishes CardMon Hero and Aika Global.

Anyway, the purpose of this entry is to talk about how all of these dancing MMOs are all the same. Obviously they’re not all identical, but they’re just as similar as Combat Arms from Nexon and Sudden Attack from GameHi are similar. They’re basically the same games, except with slightly different visuals. Even Perfect World jumped on the whole dancing game bandwagon when they launched Hot Dance Party (Steps). Unfortunately, this one isn’t available in North America. It’s published through Cubizoe in Malaysia, but those in North America can still access it, as it has no IP blocks. I actually played every single one of these games, as I generally enjoy these rhythm based titles, as I think they require a lot of skill. They’re also very much competitive. In fact, you could argue that they’re just as competitive as any FPS or League of Legends style Aeon of Strife game. Unlike FPS games though, these dancing MMOs don’t differentiate themselves in gameplay. They all share the same button pushing DDR style gameplay mechanics. The only thing that really separates Super Dance Online from Hot Dance Party is its visuals. MMO Shooters like Alliance of Valiant Arms and Genesis A.D. Although similar, so have some different gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately these dancing games don’t.

The thing about dancing MMOs is that not a single one is particularly successful in North America. So I’m not sure why there are so many of them. I think Osu! Is the most popular rhythm based multiplayer game, but it’s not even a traditional dancing game. I think it’s popular because it’s actually does something different while everyone else is off copying each other.

Garena Getting into the F2P MMO Business?

It seems like Garena, the app best known for allowing gamers to compete against each other via a hamachii sort of Lan, is getting into the free to play MMO business. I remember using Garena to play Defense of the Ancients (DotA) with my friends and others back when my buddies didn’t all have CD keys to play on battle.net. Nowadays we can play free to play aion of strife games like League of Legends from Riot Games and Land of Chaos Online from Alaplaya, so we don’t exactly need to use Garena anymore. But thousands of people, mostly outside of the U.S, still use it to play various games with each other. I think most people use it when they pirate games and don’t have CD Keys – playing through Garena allows them to play multiplayer without a cd key or a valid account. Garena is quite big today but it’s slowly transforming itself into an MMO publisher. The company already publishes the MMOFPS Blackshot in both Europe and Asia (No U.S. Version of the game exists. Outspark, best known for Fiesta Online and Fists of Fu was supposed to publish it, but they never did.).

Aside from Blackshot, Garena also has Go Kart, which is the same exact game as GoGo Racer, which GamersFirst published for a short while. The game never launched in North America, as GamersFirst postponed it, along with Parabellum, delayed Go Kart indefinitely. It’s too bad actually, as the game itself wasn’t that bad. I mean aside from Racing Star: Come on Baby, it was the only silly Kart Racing MMO out there. Nexon used to have Kart Rider, but they shut that down years ago (In North America. It remains popular in South Korea). Unfortunately, like Blackshot – Go Kart isn’t available world-wide. Instead, the game is restricted to only a handful of regions. Another neat thing about Garena is that they inked a deal with S2 Games to publish Heroes of Newerth in certain regions as a Avalon Heroes / League of Legends style free to play game. In Europe and North America, the game remains buy to play – just like Guild Wars.

I think the biggest problem Garena has having is the lack of global licenses. If Garena published say Priston Tale 2 world-wide, I think the game would be quite successful. Currently the game is ONLY available in EU and South East Asia. No one in North America can play it. The cool thing about Netmarble and Aeria Games is that they have a lot of games available on the international level. Netmarble for example publishes Uncharted Waters Online, a Voyage Century / Pirates of the burning Sea style game world-wide with no IP restrictions (Except Japan / Korea). Aeria Games has several IP restriction free games too including the new Legendary Champions and Dynasty Warriors Online. Having games without IP restrictions is a big deal, as everyone can play on the same service. Having the game’s audience fragmented only makes the game feel more empty. At least that’s how I feel on the whole MMO IP ban thing. I sort of hope someone offers Argo Online or Luvinia Online world-wide as I don’t want that game to have IP restrictions. Garena offered their VPN / LAN services world-wide, so seeing them publish games is cool, but it sucks that all of their games have so many IP restrictions. I don’t think they have any game published in North America.