When is Altis Gates going to Release?

When is Altis Gates going to come out? IGG originally promised the game’s release nearly a year ago now. The game was supposed to be a 2D turn based MMORPG which was supposed to play a lot like Myth War 2 Online and Wonderland Online. Too bad the game never made it to release. I’m not ready to completely write the game off yet, as IGG never officially announced that the game would shut down and join the MMO Graveyard. They did announce the game would be delayed indefinitely though, so we could see Altis Gates join the huge list of delayed MMORPGs which may never get released. Come to think of it, IGG has been dropping the ball lately, as they haven’t released any unique MMORPGs or in fact any new games recently.

The only new game IGG launched lately has been Tales of Fantasy, which is a pretty bleh 3D MMORPG and Tales of Pirates 2, which is basically the same exact game as Tales of Pirates, with minor graphical tweaks. I didn’t really like Tales of Fantasy, because even though it has good graphics, the gameplay just looks and feels bland. It’s a fairly generic Chinese developed MMORPG, which brings nothing new to the table. While IGG has been releasing these substandard games, Perfect World Entertainment has been growing like crazy. They launched the mega successful Battle of the Immortals, a killer fun Diablo 2-esque action MMORPG, and Forsaken World. They also launched a major content update to their enormously popular Jade Dynasty game while announcing the “Genesis” update for Perfect World. They also announced a brand new game – Legend of Martial Arts, which will be entering closed beta testing in late November. So why is IGG dropping the ball so much lately? How come they didn’t have any major new game releases?

Well, I really don’t know. I do think IGG has several really well known and popular MMORPGs though. Games like Godswar Online, Angels Online and Voyage Century for example, are all quite popular. How long Voyage Century will remain popular though is something I can’t quite answer – as Uncharted Waters Online – the new ship based MMORPG from Netmarble is now competing with Voyage Century. Uncharted Waters Online is an incredibly popular Japanese MMORPG. And we all know how crazy some Westerners are for all things Japan. Dynasty Warriors Online from Koei has been midly successful in the West already. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Uncharted Waters Online took away some players from Voyage Century. Many of IGGs games have remained pretty stagnant too. Games like Zu Online and Aurora Blade haven’t really received any major updates in quite some time. Even their browser MMO Lords Online hasn’t gone anyway in some time. While on the topic of IGG dropping the ball, they also never released Dreamland Online, which is another game that seems to be indefinitely delayed.

Ever since I played Atlantica Online from Ndoors and Pet Forest from PlayOMG, I’ve been pretty fascinated with turn based MMORPGs. I’m looking forward to trying Altis Gates if it ever does come out.

zOMG! And 2D Browser MMROPGs

Browser MMORPGs as a whole aren’t too popular. The only really popular one is Runescape, but that’s not exactly 2D, it’s more 3D. One fun browser MMO I ran into the other day is zOMG! And it’s published by the same dudes behind Gaia Online. The game is also set in the same Gaia universe, but unlike the social MMORPG Gaia Online, zOMG! Has a stronger emphasis on actual MMORPG style gameplay – kill enemies and level up. Unfortunately, most browser based games nowadays are generic strategy MMORPGs like Empire Craft and Lords Online where you build up an empire and battle it out. Not that these games aren’t fun, but I’m just not a fan of them.

Come to think of it, aside from zOMG! There are very few 2D browser based MMORPGs. I mean there are games like MechQuest and AdventureQuest, but these are more single player games than anything else, as there’s minimal interaction between players. The only other real 2D browser MMORPG I can think of is Adventure Quest Worlds, which is actually an awesome game. I don’t count games like Tanoth and Gladiatus, as those games use still images rather than actual graphics. Those games aside, zOMG! And Adventure Quest Worlds are the only real 2D browser MMORPGs.

I suspect this will change in the coming years, as browser based games are getting big. Not just the strategy ones either. Big download sizes in client based games like Runes of Magic and Dungeons and Ether Saga Online are turning a lot of users away from those games. And who can blame them? I don’t want to wait 20 hours to download Runes of Magic. That game is like 6GB big and that’s like 5% of my entire hard drive. Browser games make more sense as they don’t usually require any downloads. 2D MMORPGs are good too, because they tend to be small installs.

Anyone else mad that there are so few 2D browser MMORPGs? I know I am :(.