MMOs That are Aging Well

As new free to play MMORPGs like Vindictus, Kitsu Saga and Iris Online launch, older games like Shaiya, Last Chaos and MapleStory are starting to show their age. If you compare Shaiya or Last Chaos from Aeria Games to any of the newer titles out – you’ll quickly realize that Shaiya and Last Chaos aren’t aging too well – in terms of graphics that is. The fascinating thing however is that both Shaiya and Last Chaos are still around and being updated. The same goes for MapleStory. In fact, MapleStory is over 5 years old, yet it’s still growing incredibly fast. It’s still one of the most popular free MMORPGs ever – with over 100 million accounts world-wide. Even Rappelz and Fly For Fun from gPotato are still around and growing. It may sound surprising, but Fly For Fun is actually more popular than both Allods Online and Aika at the moment, and it’s over 5 years old. How can a 5+ year old game with lousy graphics be more popular than a game like Allods which cost over $10 million to develop is fascinating. It shows that older MMOs can age well. Another example of an older MMORPG that has aged well is RuneScape from Jagex and Tribal Wars from InnoGames. Browser games tend to age really well, mostly because visuals on browser games haven’t improved too drastically over the years – though Unity wants to change all of that now.

I think the reason some older MMORPGs are still a big success is that graphics aren’t the most important thing in the world. Users are clearly looking at things like gameplay and content when deciding which game to play, and older MMORPGs like Hero Online, Silkroad online and Grand Chase have more content than newer games, as they’ve been around for a longer time – meaning, they had more time to add content, instances and characters to their games. Obviously newer MMORPGs like Fists of Fu, Uncharted Waters Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online have numerous advantages too, but people are clearly more interested in gameplay and content than visuals. Having good visuals certainly helps, as I think so many people became fascinated with Vindictus because of its graphics. The game has solid gameplay mechanics too, but its beautiful graphics are what pulled in users while the gameplay kept them hooked. This theory applies to FPS games too. Just look at Cross Fire from Z8Games – it’s HUGELY popular, even though Cross Fire isn’t exactly a new game. In fact, Alliance of Valiant Arms has 10x better graphics, but it has a smaller playerbase.

Are there any older MMOs you still play? I personally still MapleStory and GunZ, even though they’re both old games with less than stellar graphics. I’m also more interested in gameplay elements than visuals. Because if I wanted “good graphics” I’d watch a movie. When I’m playing an MMO or an MMORPG, I want fun gameplay. Visuals help, but in the end gameplay is what matters.

9Dragons Relaunches on GamersFirst – Woot!

GamersFirst, the free to play MMO publisher best known for War Rock, Knight Online and Sword 2 recently relaunched 9Dragons. 9Dragons is a 3D martial arts themed MMORPG that the now defunct Acclaim Games used to publish. Playdom – the social games company behind Market Street, Kogaumu, and a handful of other facebook games actually bought playdom in early 2010. The purchase was clearly a mistake, as Playdom shut down the Acclaim website along with ALL of the games Acclaim used to publish (Including 9Dragons). Luckily, GamersFirst saw this as an oppurtunity to expand and bought the North American license to run 9Dragons from Indy21 (The independent Korean game developer who made 9Dragons). I’m actually not too surprised that 9Dragons was brought back to life as it was easily the most popular MMORPG that Acclaim had. I personally wasn’t a big fan of the game, as the graphics were a bit lacking and the interface felt a bit clumsy. For martial arts themed games I’d much rather play Twelve Sky 2 or even World of Kung Fu than 9Dragons. I’m not saying 9Dragons is bad, because it isn’t. The game has a fairly sizable playerbase, so there’s clearly something to the game.

I think 9Dragons is successful because it’s one of the most PvP heavy martial arts MMORPGs out. The game has 9 “clans” and two factions. The factions are at war with each other and the game also features open ended PvP where players can pretty much PK each other anywhere in the game world. Dragon Raja, Conquer Online and Legend of Edda are some of the only other MMORPGs with open world PvP. Plus, the faction battles in 9Dragons should keep things interesting. They aren’t as ridiculous as the 1000 vs 1000 faction battles of Aika Online, but the PvP in 9Dragons beats the PvP in more modern games like Runes of Magic and Heroes of Three Kingdoms. I do suspect that some of the newer PvP MMORPGs like King of Kings 3 may be superior, but only time will tell whether those games will be successful or not. 9Dragons has already proven itself to be a sustainable game over the last 3+ years. The game launched in North America and Europe back in early 2007 in case you guys didn’t know.

My only concern about 9Dragons is that it might not be able to “keep up” with new MMORPGs like The Lord of the Rings Online and EverQuest 2 which both recently became free to play games. Sony Online Entertainment also announced that they will be making Pirates of the Burning Sea free to play too. These are just the pay to play MMORPGs going free to play. There are a ton of triple-a free to play MMORPGs which launched this year including Vindictus from Nexon, Uncharted Waters Online from Netmarble and Forsaken World from Perfect World Entertainment may eventually put 9Dragons out of business. It’s difficult for older games to compete with newer ones with vastly superior graphics. Some people pretend that graphics aren’t important, but the fact is graphics do matter. People tend to like games with better graphics. It’s just the way it is.

So will 9Dragons be a success on GamersFirst or no? Will it be able to compete against newer MMORPGs? I personally think it can’t, but only time will tell.

Nanovor MMO Evolves Thanks to Unity

When Nanovor first launched, it wasn’t a very exciting game. Players had to download the nearly 500 mb client and battle using bug-like creatures in a mostly 2D arena. Worse still, the background was solid black. No color, no flavor, and certainly not much depth. Even at that time I was asking myself, “couldn’t this have been done on a browser?”

Well it looks like the answer was ‘yes!’ Smith and Tinker, the development studio behind Nanovor, has recently launched a brand new version of the game called Nanovor Evolution. The new version has replaced the old one, meaning there’s no going back. This has upset a small pocket of veterans, but it was a logical step in taking the game forward. Nanovor Evolution was designed using Unity, a powerful yet easy to use game development tool. Now, Nanovor only requires a tiny browser plugin rather than a huge client. Better still, the graphics and gameplay have been vastly improved. The character designs, background, and environments are now fully three dimensional. The game can now compete directly with other turn based MMORPGs and pet themed MMORPGs like Bakugan Dimensions.

Nanovor Evolution is only the latest in a series of free to play browser based MMOs and MMORPGs to utilize Unity. Cartoon Network’s FusionFall was perhaps the first major MMORPG to use Unity and it has better visuals and more high quality content than most client based MMORPGs! Games like Nanovor Evolutions have superior graphics than client based MMORPGs like Hero Online from Netgame and Dragon Oath / Zentia from ChangYou. There’s also Tiger Woods Online by Electronic Arts. That’s a major video game publisher throwing its weight behind Unity. The game has beautiful golf courses, and can be played in short bursts thanks to the auto-save feature which remembers player progression through a course. Silverlode Interactive, the studio behind the MMORTS Saga also has a Unity based browser game. It’s called Captains of DarkTide and is set at sea. Players can command a variety of ships, visit distant ports, and fire broadsides against one another.

Unity is not just a browser game tool, it can be used to create large single player games as well. But for a variety of reasons, I believe it will generally be put to use to create browser games that look and play as well as traditional client games. When more and more studios discover the versatility of the tool, they will flock to it. How long till social MMORPGs and facebook games use Unity? The developers of Nanovor Evolution already have several job listing on their site for Unity developers. Expect other companies to follow.

2D Browser Based MMORPGs

There are a ton of browser games out there from 3D titles like FusionFall and Pirate Galaxy to text based strategy MMOs like Urban Rivals and Astro Empires. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many actual 2D MMORPGs with persistent worlds. I believe zOMG! From the same guys that made Gaia Online is one of the only ones. ZOMG! Is actually a surprisingly good game. This is coming from a guy who doesn’t like social games like IMVU or Gaia Online. So aside from perhaps zOMG! There aren’t that many 2D browser based MMORPGs – ones that have persistent worlds. There’s no shortage of games like Evony, The Seventh Dragon, Caesary of Grepolis though. For some reasons companies keep churning out these garbage strategy games. I say garbage, only because most them are just clones of each other. Seriously. Tribal Wars and Travian were the first two browser based strategy MMORPGs – everything else just copied them. Shamelessly too.

How awesome would it be if say MapleStory were browser based? It’s definitely possible. Heck that game COULD run on Flash, as the graphics aren’t too advanced. I’m sure many client based 2D MMORPGs could run perfectly fine on the web browser, especially since the Unity Web Player is incredibly powerful. Unity Web Player powers great looking browser games like FusionFall and Captains of Darktide. So it could definitely power simpler 2D MMORPGs. That is, if the Unity Web Player even supports 2D development. But if all of these epic looking 3D browser games are launching, we should start seeing some good looking 2D games as well.

Neverland Online from HiThere is one example of a persistent world browser based MMORPG that works well. The game is quite fun and has a strong emphasis on pets. It actually plays a lot like Zodiac Online from EnjoyMMO and Monster Forest from AsiaSoft. Graphically, the game looks just as good as many client based 2D MMORPGs. The problem is there are so few games like Neverland Online (graphically). Most browser based games nowadays are either 3D (through the Unity Web Player) or text based with still images. 3D games aren’t bad either, but I’d definitely like to see more companies embracing 2D graphics, as I find them easier on the eyes.

Great 2D MMORPGs

What do you think the best 2D MMORPG is? I think it should be clear by now, based on all my other posts, that the best 2D free to play MMORPG is MapleStory from Nexon. Yeah, I’ve praised this game quite a bit, so I’m not going to praise it or WonderKing Online any more, as i’ve done enough of that in the past.. I’ll start talking about some other great 2D MMORPGs.

One of the most awesome 2D MMROPGs out there, that I haven’t really talked too much about in the past, is Trickster Online from Ntreev. I remember I used to play this game all the time back in the day, but ever since I upgraded my PC to Windows 7, I wasn’t able to play it anymore. I think they’re the only MMORPG that doesn’t work on Windows 7. Ntreev makes a lot of awesome anime inspired games. Their other MMORPG – Grand Chase is a lot of fun too. It’s a 2D side scrolling game, but plays nothing like MapleStory or WonderKing. Instead, it plays more like Dungeon Fighter Online. The game is linear and level based, but it’s fun and cooperative. Trickster Online is still one of my favorite games, even if I can’t play it anymore. If you’ve never given the game a chance, do yourself a favor and download it!

Another good 2D MMORPG that deserves some more attention is NosTale from Uforia. I honestly thing Uforia is one of the worst MMORPG publishers out there, but NosTale is a game that deserves some attention. If plays much like any other MMORPG, but it has a great community and a solid progression system. Leveling isn’t too slow and questing feels fun. There’s always enough quests to do, so you’re never out right grinding. If you’ve played Mercenary Wars, Camon Hero or Red War you can use the same account to access NosTale, as they’re all on the Uforia network!

Lastly, I wanted to bring up is Wonderland Online from IGG. Now IGG actually has a lot of 2D MMORPGs, but Wonderland Online is definitely the best game IGG offers. Altis Gates and Dreamland Online might be better, but I can’t say as those games still aren’t released. WonderLand Online is a neat 2D turn based MMORPG with a ginormous playerbase. It’s easily one of their most popular MMORPGs. Tales of Fantasy might be a bit more popular, but I never played it. If you like turn based MMORPGs and 2D games it’s worth checking out.

Did I miss any other excellent 2D games? If so, let me know in the comments!

Bad MMORPG Ideas

There are good ideas and bad ones. Good ideas in the MMORPG industry led to games like Soul Master, Atlantica Online and Battle of the Immortals to get developed. Bad ideas on the other hand led to the development of some terrible games. Games that are so awful that I’m surprised were even developed in the first place. So what MMOs fall under the “bad ideas” category? Read on!

The first “bad idea” MMO that first pops into my head is Racing Star: Come on Baby from Alaplaya. Now get this. Racing Star is a Baby themed racing MMO. That’s babies racing in strollers at speeds upwards of 100 KM/H with cute anime inspired graphics. Now not only is this a bad idea, but it’s an incredibly stupid one. I’d be embarrassed if anyone saw me playing it. Needless to say, Racing Star is no Need for Speed World Online. In fact, it’s a game that I wouldn’t want anyone to have to endure. I played Avalon Heroes from Alaplaya as well, and without a doubt Racing Star is the worst game by this European publisher. Play S4 League or Florensia instead. Two good games by the same publisher. Whoever green-lighted the development of this the atrocious racing MMO racing star should be fired and black listed from any future jobs in game development.

The next bad MMORPG I had the misfortune of playing was Blitz 1941 from TwoWar – the same company who published NavyField. I can say with absolute certainty that Blitz 1941 is the worst free to play game ever. Much worse than Racing Star. The game’s translations are so bad, it’s laughable. Even worse than the notoriously poor translations in Age of Armor from Snail Games and Magic World Online from EnjoyMMO. The gameplay itself is boring too. I’d much rather play mine-sweeper or solitaire than this horrible world war 2 MMO. Save your time and play World of Tanks Online or Tank Ace instead. Both much better tank games. Whoever decided to license this game is a failure.

The last terrible game I want to mention is Crazy Tao from TQ Digital. Why is Crazy Tao bad? Well. Simple. It’s the exact same game as Eudemons and Conquer Online – except worse. It plays EXACTLY like these two other games. All the spells are the same, the controls are the same and the visuals are largely the same – except a bit more cartoony. There is absolutely no reason to play this terrible 2D MMORPG. Stick with Eudemons Online instead. Avoid Crazy Tao at all costs. It’s crazy bad.

So what does this have to do with 2D MMOs? Well some of the games I mentioned were 2D, so It’s relevant to my blog . Did I miss any terrible free to play games? Let me know!

Good and Bad MMORPG Publishers

With over 200 MMORPGs currently on the market, there are also quite a bit of MMORPG publishers. What exactly is an MMO publisher? They’re the guys who license MMORPGs / MMOs from Asia and bring them to North America and Europe. A common misconception is that publishers are responsible for a game’s development – and this is mostly not true. Publishers are responsible for localizing and distributing a game in a specific region, and that’s it. They don’t make the games they publish. Anyway. I wanted to talk about a few of the major publishers and give you my verdict on them. I won’t talk about any browser games publishers or social games publishers. I’ll focus on free to play client based game companies.

Aeria Games

Aeria Games is easily one of the biggest MMORPG publishers in North America. They publish numerous popular MMORPGs like Shaiya, Last Chaos and Grand Fantasia. They are also the company behind numerous less popular titles like the MMOFPS WolfTeam and the sci-fi MMORPG Megaten – which is based off the Shin Megami Tensei universe. Aeria Games has a very easy to navigate website and a huge selection of games, which I like. My only complaint against them is that they shut down so many good games – like Project Torque and Dragon Sky. Still, they’re one of the bigger and more diverisfied MMO publishers, so I like them.

Verdict: Good

ijji

ijji is a big North American and European publisher best known for their large variety of MMOFPS games. For some reason they REALLY love publishing these MMOFPS titles. Their most popular games include Karos Online, Rohan Online, Soul of the Ultimate Nation, Alliance of Valiant Arms and GunZ. They publish a ton of other games and are releasing other new titles like Genesis A.D. And Karma: Operation Barbarossa as well. I love ijji’s website as it’s easy to navigate. What I love most about them though is their easy to use ijji “reactor” program, which is basically Steam, but for free MMORPGs – at least the ones ijji publishers that is.

Verdict: Good

Uforia

Uforia is a fairly new free to play MMORPG publisher based in California. They’ve grown considerably in the last few years and publish Camon Hero, Mercenary Wars, Red War, NosTale and Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins. Their website is okay to use, but what I dislike most about them is their selection of games. Both ijji and Aeria Games have a lot of high quality titles, but Uforia… not so much. If you’ve ever played Mercenary Wars of Red War, you’ll agree with me that they are quite bad. Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins is equally bad, because Uforia hasn’t been able to work well with the game’s developer, so the game hasn’t been updated in ages and bugs aren’t even being fixed. Support on the game’s forums are bad too.

Verdict: Bad

WeMade Entertainment

WeMade Entertainment is a Korean MMORPG company but publishes and develops a bunch of free to play games here in the U.S. As well as world-wide. Their most successful games include Mir 2 and The Legend of Mir 3. Since those games released though, they haven’t done much else to push the genre forward. Their other games like Avalon Heroes and Digimon Battle were playable at best and nothing more. All of their games have poor graphics and a lousy interface.

Verdict: Bad

Well there you have it. A look into four MMORPG game publishers. I’ll probably write about other publishers in the future. What are your thoughts on these companies? Are they good or bad?

Hero:108 Online is an interesting MMORPG

Ever heard of Hero: 108? No, I’m not talking about the TV show on Cartoon Network. I’m talking about Hero:108 Online – the free to play cartoony brawler MMORPG available on the PC. The one published by BeanFun based off of the popular cartoon network TV show. It’s awesome to see bigger western companies like Cartoon Network actually start taking the free to play scene more seriously. I mean, Cartoon Network has been pretty awesome about free to play, as their last game, which originally launched as a free trial browser game – FusionFall, is now a totally free to play game. What I mean to say is, it used to have a subscription, but doesn’t any more. FusionFall is a gorgeous game too. Even though it’s a browser game it has much better graphics than client based games like Fantasy Earth Zero from GamePot USA and HolyBeast Online from CyberStep. It’s pretty incredible to see such an advanced browser based game.

I downloaded and started playing Hero:108 Online yesterday, and probably the best way to explain it is Lost Saga meets Rumble Fighter which meets CosmicBreak. Yeah, it’s confusing, I know, but the game itself is fun. Why is it fun? Because it’s pure lighthearted random action. The actual combat mechanics are a bit awkward, but once you get used to it things start to get more fun. Much like other anime MMORPGs, the game’s story doesn’t make much sense. Then again, the actual Hero:108 story itself doesn’t make much sense either. Apparently all the animals have gone crazy and are attacking everyone. Yeah. It’s silly, but the game is fun because it can be played entirely on the keyboard. It doesn’t play exactly like Soul Master (Gameplay wise), but it’s similar.

One reason I continue to play Hero:108 is to show western MMORPG developers that free to play works. If BeanFun and Cartoon Network make good money on this game, I suspect they’ll launch more and more free to play MMORPGs based off of popular Cartoon Network shows! I think it’s awesome that Turbine is making The Lord of the Rings Online free to play. Electronic Arts already launched Lord of Ultima, Battlefield Heroes, Battleforge, FIFA Online and Need for Speed World Online. EA has been ON THE BALL with free to play, which is awesome for the gaming community. The one big problem with free to play right now is that not enough people know about these free games. I mean, why pay for second rate pay to play MMORPGs like Age of Conan from Funcom when you could play something equally as good for free?

I’m getting a bit off topic here, but I think Hero:108 launching as a free to play game is good for the entire industry. If you haven’t played it, give it a chance. It’s combat system is fun.

2D Browser Based Games

Most of my posts have been dedicated to 2D MMORPGs that can be downloaded, but there are a whole bunch of awesome 2D MMOs that are on the browser. Games like AdventureQuest and AdventureQuest Worlds are two simple examples, but there are many more. I’m surprised the web browser isn’t a more popular platform for MMO gaming, as titles like Quake Live and FusionFall have proven that web browsers can be powerful enough to run 3D games. Quake Live for example is a port of the popular Quake 3: Arena FPS game to the web browser. It’s completely free to play and has great graphics. It puts flash games to shame, as it runs full 3D with fast paced gameplay. FusionFall from Cartoon Network also shows that browsers are a solid platform for MMO gaming, as FusionFall is a hugely in depth game with gorgeous graphics. Heck it has better graphics than older 3D client based games like Hero Online, Cabal Online and Azuga: Age of Chaos.

So what are some great browser based 2D MMORPGs? One of my favorites is zOMG from Gaia Interactive – the same company who made Gaia Online. I like zOMG because its one of the few actual browser based MMORPGs that competes with client based games. It plays a bit like Neverland Online, except with crisper graphics and a much more in depth game world. I say in depth, because it was developed by a great Western studio. I say great Western Studio only because Gaia Online is ridiculously popular. One cool feature in zOMG is that players can use their avatars from Gaia Online in zOMG, so there’s lots of appearance customization. MMORPG character customization tends to suck, so seeing a browser MMORPG with good customization is always neat. There are a few good action games like Dark Orbit, Deepolis and SeaFight from BigPoint, but these aren’t exactly MMORPGs, so I’m going to skip over them for now.

Fallen Sword is another decent 2D browser based MMORPG as is Pet Forest. Pet Forest from PlayOMG is actually one of the few incredibly in depth browser based MMORPGs. Most games on the browser right now are strategy games like Evony or social games like Woozworld or OurWorld, but Pet Forect is different because, like zOMG, it plays like an actual client based game, except with one difference. It runs on a browser. PetPet Park and ShadowTale are also neat games, but both lack a large playerbase. That’s it for this list though. Check out some of these awesome non-download MMOs!

Another Delay for Camon Hero – When is it Coming Out?

This post will be a little different than usual, because I’m going to talk about an upcoming MMORPG from Uforia called Camon Hero. The game isn’t exactly 2D, but it has great anime MMORPG style graphics. I actually really like the game’s artstyle, but what I look most about it is its original gameplay, as the game mixes standard fantasy MMORPG action with trading card game elements. Most people think “Oh crap. Card based gameplay? It must be slow paced like Wizard101 and Urban Rivals”, but that isn’t the case. In fact, Camon Hero plays more like GhostX and Dragonica Online than anything else. So let me say this just once. Camon Hero isn’t slow paced.

I’ve actually been itching to play Camon Hero for quite a while now. Since the game was first announced actually. But I won’t get a chance to sink my teeth into it for a while, as the game was scheduled to launch its open beta on June 8, 2010 but the game’s publisher – Uforia delayed the open beta indefinitely. It’s now July 9, 2010 as I write this and still no Open beta, not even an announcement of when open beta will begin. This isn’t too surprising though, as I’ve been let down by Uforia on more than one occasion. Red War looked like a promising game, as it was supposed to be inspired by Diablo 2, but it was terrible. I thought Mercenary Wars would be fun, because I generally love MMOFPS games, but I couldn’t stand playing it for more than an hour. NosTale is an alright game, but it’s published globally as well as in the U.S. (through Uforia), and I’d rather play the global version.

I absolutely hate it when MMOs get delayed indefinitely because it makes me think that they’re never going to come out. I guess I think this way because games like Parabellum from GamersFirst and Huxley: The Dystopia from ijji have been delayed numerous times and show no sign of ever reaching commercial release. Nowadays, if an MMORPG an make it to the open beta phase, it pretty much means it’s going to release. So seeing a game in perpetual closed beta is a bad sign.

Hopefully Uforia will get their act together and do a better job of informing their community on the status of Camon Hero. It sucks that they’re so hush-hush about things. If there’s a problem with the developer or the license, they should at least tell their players. Uforia really can’t do much though, as they’re only publishing the game, not developing it. I sort of like Perfect World Entertainment as a company because they self publish all of their games. They can actually listen to play feedback and implement it in their games. I know they added WSAD controls to Battle of the Immortals because players asked for it. Anyway. Time to keep waiting!

Fists of Fu vs Dragonica Online

After playing the new Fist of Fu MMORPG from Outspark for while, I realized that the game is a complete clone of Dragonica Online. The game’s developers just loaded up Dragonica Online and copied EVERYTHING and simply changed the graphics a bit (for the worse). I was sorta looking forward to Fists of Fu, but after learning that it’s a shameless Dragonica Online clone I was disappointed. It wouldn’t be so bad if the game wasn’t a COMPLETE clone, but I can safely say its just as much as a Dragonica Clone and Runes of Magic and Allods Online are Wow clones. I know. That’s a bold statement, but if you play both games you’ll agree with me for sure.

The thing about Fists of Fu is that the game has absolutely no appearance customization. In a way, it’s like Lunia from ijji because you start by selecting a character and that’s it. No customization. The game has 3 classes and 2 characters for each class (male and female). So right from the start, the game disappoints with only 3 character classes. There are two job advancements available later on, but that’s it. Graphically, Dragonica is 3D, but Fists of Fu is 2D with 3D backgrounds. You can’t even move in 3 dimensions, you can only move left and right. Ugh. Luckily, the combat is Fists of Fu is fun and reminds me of GhostX from GameKiss and Wind Slayer from Outspark. I say GhostX because the MMORPG has instances outside of town. No persistent world where you can see other players. Just instances. I say Wind Slayer because like Wind Slayer, the PvP in Fists of Fu equalizes, making things fair.

Fists of Fu is currently in closed beta and it’s not a terrible game. I do think Dragonica Online is better though. Needless to say, Side Scrolling MMORPGs are making a comeback. There are new side scrolling games launching every month now it seems. WonderKing from Ndoors is pretty popular too. As a big fan of MapleStory, I’m liking all of these Side Scrolling games. I sort of Wish Fists of Fu was better though. The individual dungeons themselves are fun, because they each have cool bosses at the end and can be played cooperatively.

Are Facebook Games Free MMOs?

As Facebook gets bigger and bigger (it’s currently the second biggest website on the internet) more and more games will launch on it. Some of the most popular Facebook games these days are Farmville, Mafia Wars and Petville. For the most part these games aren’t MMOs, but they do have cooperative elements, so it wouldn’t be unfair to classify them as free to play MMOs. After all, they are all free and they are online. I actually started playing these “social games” on Facebook pretty recently, and I’m not quite sure what to think of them. It’s not exactly fair to compare them to full blown MMORPGs like Heroes of Might and Magic Online from TQ Digital and Digimon Battle from WeMade, but there are fair comparisons out there.

YoVille for example is a social Facebook that plays a lot like Gaia Online or even OurWorld. Both Gaia Online and OurWorld would be considered traditional free to play browser MMOs, so there is room for comparison amongst these games. As is, Facebook games are absurdly popular. Farmville for example has some 30 million active users on Facebook. That’s on par with mega popular MMORPGs like LaTale from OGPlanet and MapleStory from Nexon. Though it doesn’t quite surpass RuneScape from Jagex yet. Still, 30 million active users. Wow. That’s quite a number. The thing about Facebook Games is that they only started popping up a year or so ago, so within a years time they exploded in popularity and became mainstream!

As I said earlier, I really don’t know what to think of these games. I tried playing both Treasure Isle and YoVille yesterday and neither kept my attention for long. Treasure Isle did keep me entertained a bit longer, but meh. To be fair, I did like Farmville, but that’s only because I’m a fan of the Harvest Moon games. I remember playing the N64 Harvest Moon game for at least 50 hours! The game boy advanced one – Friends of Mineral Town was also a good one. Aside from Treasure Isle and Yoville though, I also gave Social City a try, which was basically a Sim City style city building game. It was a bit too basic for my liking, but the concept behind it was pretty neat. I did get bored of it in an hour though.

I guess Facebook MMOs just aren’t my thing, at least the ones available today. Maybe they’ll get better in the future. Who knows. For now though, I think I’ll stick with my client based MMORPGs. On that note, I just finished re-downloading Lunia from ijji. Since I first played the game a year or so ago, the game has went through a bunch of major updates, so it should rock now. Anyway guys! Later!

Outspark's Fists of Fu MMORPG Coming Soon!

Fists of Fu from Outspark is coming soon! According to the latest news from Outspark, Fists of Fu is going into closed beta sometime during the last week of June. I actually look forward to giving the game a try, as I’m a fan of both Fiesta Online and Secret of the Solstice – two other Outspark games. In case you haven’t heard of Fists of Fu, the game has anime inspired graphics, but unlike Grand Fantasia from Aeria Games, the visuals in Fists of Fu look a bit more Western than other anime MMORPGs.

Gameplay wise, Fists of Fu is supposed to play like Dragonica Online. I actually really liked Dragonica Online, as the action oriented gameplay was a breath of fresh air to the genre. Obviously Dragonica wasn’t the first action MMORPG, but it was a top notch one. I actually think that Outspark is taking a good direction with the game. Fists of Fu is going to be their first action MMORPG, with Divine Souls being their second one. I think its safe to say that a lot of upcoming MMORPGs will be action oriented. After all, some of the most anticipated games, think Vindictus and Dragon Nest from Nexon, are action MMORPGs. Vindictus is for some odd reason especially hyped up. I mean the 3D graphics look great, but no one really knows anything about the game, and yet most people talk about the game on forums and comments as if its the best thing since sliced bread. I can safely say its one of the most hyped up free MMORPGs ever. Will it live up to that hype? Time will tell.

Outspark on the other hand seems to still be focusing on cartoony / anime inspired games. Their most popular game today is still Fiesta Online, and with good reason. It’s a 3D anime inspired game with cool cel-shading graphics. They have a 2D side scrolling MMORPG called Wind Slayer out right now as well, but it’s not that popular. They also have Project Powder, a racing MMO, which isn’t too popular either. I really hope Fists of Fu lives up to my expectations. I don’t think it’s going to be that amazing, but it looks interesting. I like the fact that its lighthearted and a bid comedic. After all, games shouldn’t try to be too serious anyway. Especially cartoony ones.

Anyone else looking forward to playing Fists of Fu? If not Fists of Fu, what games does everyone else want to play? Any cool upcoming games that I should know about? Anyone know any good social games? Let me know!

Dungeon Fighter Online is Finally Here

Dungeon Fighter Online from Nexon is finally released. The game has been in open beta for well over 5 months now and only recently released fully. If you haven’t heard of Dungeon Fighter Online, it’s a 2D side scrolling action MMORPG that plays like Golden Axe. The game’s graphics are 2D and quite poor, but they’re meant to look “retro”. The game has changed significantly since the early Open Beta. The most notable changes include additional content, as the game world has been expanded quite a bit since open beta started. One thing I really like about Nexon is how dedicated they are to their games. I’ve been a long time player of both MapleStory and Mabinogi and Nexon has been doing a phenomenal job keeping all of these games up to date. I think MapleStory was one of the first free MMORPGs ever and one of the most popular. Even though it’s old, it’s been constantly updated, which is why people are sticking with it. Mabinogi too had enjoyed plenty of content updates. I actually quit Mabinogi about 4 months ago, but it’s still a good game. It’s an anime MMORPG, but the gameplay itself is unique.

Anyway, I’ve been playing Dungeon Fighter Online quite a bit over the last few weeks and I love it. I’ve always been a fan of old school arcade action games like Gauntlet Legends and Golden Axe, do Dungeon Fighter Online is a natural fit for me. Even though the game’s graphics are quite bad, they’re original, at least in the F2P MMO genre. The game wasn’t designed to have good graphics. The gameplay is what makes Dungeon Fighter Online fun. The game is a bit linear, sort of like Lunia from ijji, but that shouldn’t be surprising as the game is meant to play like classic arcade side-scrollers. Once you clear all the dungeons in the game though, it could get a bit boring, but there’s enough content in the game right now to keep players busy for many months. Unfortunately though, the fact that the game has a limited amount of content like this is a bit of a turn off for some players. Sure you could keep playing the game, but since each dungeon is basically a “level”, it’s a bit silly to run the same dungeon over and over again. Quests will usually keep you going back to the same dungeon multiple times, but it doesn’t feel too repetitive. Like Runes of Magic and Dungeons from Frogster and Dungeons and Dragons Online from Turbine, Dungeon Fighter Online has a ton of quests to keep players busy.

If you haven’t played the game yet, you’re really missing out. Like all of Nexon’s other titles, Dungeon Fighter Online is free to play, so there’s no reason not to give it a chance. It even has a neat PvP system, so those who like PvP MMORPGs will find something to like in it.

Zero Online is a Fun MMORPG

Zero Online is a fun 2D Sci Fi MMORPG. I think a lot of other MMORPGs would benefit by looking at Zero Online and copying some pages from its playbook. The first good thing about Zero Online is that it can run on almost any computer. The game has very plain, yet appealing 2D gaphics which can run smoothly on a Pentium 3 computer, making the game very “accessible” worldwide. A lot of fancy new MMORPGs like Dungeons and Dragons Online from Turbine and Age of Conan from Funcom have absurdly high system requirements that a lot of people can’t meet. Game developers need to realize, not everyone has a super gaming computer. The most popular free MMORPGs are usually the most “accessible” ones. Games like MapleStory and RuneScape for example. Another good aspect of Zero Online is that it has fast leveling. This one is a bit controversial probably, but I really like games that have a fast experience rate. I think most people will agree with me on this one. No one likes to grind for hours on end just to level up once. In Zero Online you can reach level 50 in under 4 hours. In most MMORPGs reaching level 50 takes 4 weeks.

Zero Online is also win because the game had “job advancements” very frequently. One thing I really disliked about MapleStory, even though it was such a great game, was that job advancements felt way too far away from each other. I think everyone could make it to the level 30 advancement in MapleStory, but very few people made it to the level 70 one. In WonderKing from Ndoors, it’s even worse. The first advancement is at like level 120 or something ridiculous. Job advancements should be easy to reach, as people like upgrading their characters. In Zero Online, players could advance their characters every 15 levels or so, which made the game progess a lot faster. For some reason I really like Zero Online, but I don’t love Conquer Online or Crazy Tao, both of which are from the same publisher – TQ Digital. TQ Digital did a great job with Zero Online in my opinion, but their other games are only so-so. I think Conquer Online is their most popular game though. Their upcoming MMORPG Heroes of Might and Magic Online looks awesome though. But time will tell if its actually good or not. As is, the game has no North American release date, so it could be a while before it releases.

Obviously not every aspect of Zero Online is good either. The game only has two playable classes, which is terrible. Modern MMORPGs should have at least 5 classes and ideally more. I love it when games have lots of classes. I guess it’s a reason why I like MapleStory a lot. MapleStory has like 12+ starting classes, which is awesome. I’d like to see TQ Digial add more characters to Zero Online, as is the game only has two and it really sucks. What’s worse is that the artillery class is absurdly over powered compared to the game’s melee class. So yeah, Zero Online isn’t perfect either, but it’s a good game.

So Many Old 2D MMORPGs.

Just look at all the free to play 2D MMORPGs out there. Most of them are really old games. There really hasn’t been any new 2D MMORPGs released since Ndoors put out WonderKing 6 months ago or so. Sadly, the most popular 2D MMOs are really old games like Mir 2 and the Legend of Mir 3. Plus, other old games like Magic World Online from EnjoyMMO and The Warlords from TQ Digital are still popular. There’s nothing particularly wrong with these old MMORPGs, it’s just that I’m upset that there hasn’t been any NEW 2D MMORPGs. It seems like game developers these days are focusing their efforts on 3D games. I really don’t know why they’re doing this either, as some of the most successful free to play MMORPGs are 2D games. Most notably, MapleStory from Nexon which is wildly profitable. Nexon also has Dungeon Fighter Online which I’m sure makes them a lot of money.

MapleStory actually has over 100 million registered users world wide, making it one of the most popular free MMORPGs ever. Obviously not all of these people are active users, but still. 100 million is a dang big number. Aside from MapleStory, the only other REALLY mega popular free to play MMORPG is probably RuneScape. Even though RuneScape isn’t 2D, the game has very low end graphics, which makes me question why so many MMO developers are focusing their efforts on good looking 3D Games. I mean, 3D MMORPGs like Vindictus and Loong: The Power of the Dragon look great, but MapleStory and RuneScape prove that you don’t need good graphics to be successful. Heck, having pretty graphics only hurts a game, as not everyone has high end PCs to even be able to play some 3D MMORPGs. Plus, 3D MMORPGs tend to be much larger in filesize as well, so downloading a good looking 3D game can take a very long time on a slow connection.

What’s the point of this rant? Simple. I’m tired of super old 2D MMOs like Navyfield and Shadow of Legend. I want game developers to put out some NEW 2D MMORPGs. I imagine newer 2D games will have sleeker and more awesome graphics.

Back to MapleStory

Just the other day I started playing MapleStory again. Yeah, it’s the immensely popular side scrolling MMORPG from Nexon. It’s a game that I’ve been playing on and off for years. I always break away from the game to try something different, but I always end up coming right back to MapleStory. I remember I was really into WonderKing from Ndoors for a while, as it looked and played a lot like MS. I also tried playing LaTale from OG Planet, but alas these games couldn’t hold my attention long. I mean, I liked the PvP in LaTale, but MapleStory just had more content. Plus, I really wanted to try the new Dragon Tamer Evan class in MapleStory, which was added to the game pretty recently.

I’ve only been playing for a day or so and my character is already level 17. I’m surprised how fast I’m leveling because Dragon Tamers are supposed to level “slowly” according to the character creation screen, just like Arans. My last character was a Thunderbreaker and I got to level 38 with him in a week or so. People often complain about the slow “grind” in MapleStory, but over the last 2 years Nexon really sped things up. There’s really no more “grinding” either, as players advance by completing quests. Questing is actually significantly faster than just plain ol grinding.

Before I went back to MapleStory, I actually tried a few high profile 3D MMORPGs including Kingdom Heroes, Grand Fantasia, Dungeons and Dragons Online and Fiesta Online. Unfortunately none of them could hold my attention the way MapleStory can. I think I’m addicted. How is it that Nexon can make such an awesome game but other MMORPG developers can’t? I Guess it’s the simplicity of MapleStory that keeps me coming back. Plus the huge playerbase is nice as well. Anyway guys, I’m going back to Mapling

Browser Games Need to Step it Up

There are a lot of browser MMORPGs out there. Most of them are 2D, as having 3D graphics on a browser isn’t exactly the standard yet – though games like Quake Live, RuneScape and Pirate Galaxy are really raising the bar for graphics on a web browser. With thousands of browser based games out there, I hate to generalize, but I have to say it. Most of them suck. There are a few that stand out from the crowd, but most of them are just incredibly boring. I had the chance to play a few of these browser games, and I’ll just go ahead and describe the games I played.

The first game I played was Shakes & Fidget. It basically explains exactly like Tanoth and Gladiatus, in that players must wait upwards of 20 minutes at a time to finish quests and slay enemies. All you do is click a button that says ‘adventure in the dungeon!’ or ‘Complete a quest’ and you get moved to a screen with a count down on it. Wait 15 minutes or so and the enemy is killed or the quest is complete. That’s it. How anyone can even classify that as a game is beyond me.

I also played War of Legends from Jagex and was mildly disappointed. The game wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t any better than other strategy MMORPGs. Heck, if anything I would say its almost exactly like The Seventh Dragon, Travian and Tribal Wars. It’s no different. If you’ve played any one of these 2D strategy games, you might as well have played the rest. It’s also a bit like Heroes of Gaia, because players can control their units in battle. I expected more from Jagex, as they’re the guys behind the super popular RuneScape game. I don’t think Jagex actually developed the game though, they’re just licensing it.

Another browser game I played was Dark Orbit. The game is by BigPoint, who also makes Seafight and Deepolis, and it was actually a decent game. I say decent because it has so many little problems. Most notably, paying members have a huge advantage of non paying ones. Since the game is largely a PvP MMORPG as well, it sort of sucks that paying members can easily pwn non paying ones. In fact, there’s no way a non paying member even has a chance. I think if BigPoint did more to balance the game, it could actually be fun.

There are a few good browser games out there though. One new game, Pirate Galaxy, really impressed me. The game has gorgeous graphics and is set in a sci fi universe. I also really liked Grepolis from Innogames, but that’s more so because I’m fascinated with greek mythology than the actual gameplay it self. Browser MMOs really need to step it up, because as is they’re pretty lame. I guess I’ll stick with 2D client based MMORPGs for now.

Only 2D MMORPGs

There’s one free to play MMORPG publisher that ONLY makes 2D MMORPGs. This company is TQ Digital and they don’t have one 3D MMORPG. I think TQ Digital is the only major MMORPG publisher that only has 2D games. IGG has a bunch of good 2D turn based MMORPGs, but they have 3D games like Tales of Fantasy and Zu Online. TQ Digital currently publishes 5+ games, but out of all their games my favorite is Zero Online.

Zero Online is a sci-fi MMORPG with fast paced gameplay. I like it because the game has an incredibly high level cap (120+) as well as a really high XP rate. I played the game for a couple of hours and really liked it. The combat itself isn’t anything special, but it’s so fast paced that it’s hard to stop playing. Unfortunately the game only has two playable classes and a handful of maps, so the game doesn’t have a lot of variety. I found that the Artillery class in the game is absurdly over powered compared to the melee character. Another reason I like Zero Online is that the game is one of the only 2D sci-fi MMORPG out there.

Aside from Zero Online, TQ Digital also publishes The Warlords, Eudemons Online, Conquer Online and Crazy Tao. The only game from TQ Digital that I strongly dislike is Crazy Tao, and that’s because it’s so similar to Eudemons. The game has no originality. The only difference between the two games is that Crazy Tao is a cute MMORPG, while Eudemons has more realistic 2D graphics. On the positive side though, I think cute graphics look nicer on a 2D platform, but no one really plays Crazy Tao anyway. Eudemons Online is just better in every measurable way.

So if you guys haven’t heard of TQ Digital or haven’t played Zero Online, I strongly recommend you guys give the game a download. It’s only 500 or so MB, so it won’t even take up a lot of space on your hard disk. What do you guys think of TQ Digital?

LaTale vs MapleStory vs WonderKing

There are three major free to play 2D side scrolling MMORPGs currently out there. MapleStory from Nexon is by far the largest as it’s old and established. The game has been available since 2003. Then we have LaTale which is by OGPlanet, which was released to compete with MapleStory. The graphics and art style are a bit different, but the core gameplay is for the most part identical. The one real difference is that LaTale has PvP while MapleStory does not. Then we have WonderKing from Ndoors. WonderKing sort of combines the fun aspects of both MapleStory and LaTale and adds a bit of its own touch. The game has sleeker 2D graphics, PvP, plenty of quests and more.

Out of the three my favorite is still MapleStory, as it’s been around forever. Since it’s been around so long the game has much more content than its competitors. In fact, the game now has over 12 different playable classes and each of those classes have 3 job advancements, for a total of 36+ playable classes. Plus, Nexon has been updating the game often with more and more new areas and classes, so that’s really awesome. Nexon also has the following games – Mabinogi, Vindictus, Combat Arms and Dungeon Fighter Online.

WonderKing is a far second. The game is certainly fun and well worth the download, but if you’ve played MapleStory before, the two games are just way too similar. You’ll just feel like you’ve ‘been there’ before if you play WonderKing. The PvP in the game is pretty interesting though, but you really have to invest a lot of time into the game to get to the fun parts of the PvP arenas. One issue with WonderKing is that it’s not nearly as popular as MapleStory, so finding people to party with and people to sell your items to may take a bit longer. Luckily though, the game has an awesome auction house system, which is something MapleStory has been missing for years.

LaTale is by OG Planet and comes in third place in my opinion. The game’s artstyle is distinctly different than both MapleStory and WonderKing and come off as weird to me. It’s published by OGPlanet, so you can always use your login for Lost Saga, Hockey Dash and Rumble Fighter for the game and it’ll work fine. In terms of PvP though, LaTale takes the #1 spot. It has the most variety in PvP and it’s also the most balanced, as there’s one option to equalize everyone in terms of level and gear for the duration of the PvP battle. This makes it so PvP actually takes skill and teamwork.

All three Free MMORPGs are good though, so make sure to try them all. I still think MapleStory is the best though, but if you guys disagree, let me know in the comments!