Deja Vu

I think it's official now.  MMOs are dead, long live MMOs!

 

For a good number of years now developers everywhere has been trying to top World of Warcraft as the holy grail of subscription based massively multiplayer online game.  All have failed.  The latest being Star Wars: The Old Republic, now in life support as a free to play game funded by micro transactions.  The dream wasn't supposed be like this.  It was supposed to be funded via subscriptions.  Lots of subscriptions.  It is Star Wars afterall, with Bioware pedigree.  It was not to be.  The Old Republic is not the only victim.  Not by far.  The list reads like a who's who of sci-fi fantasy: Lord of the Rings, Star Trek Online, Final Fantasy 14, Conan, Warhammer and not even Star Wars can stem the tide.

 

Those are just the more well known names.  Recently, developer Trion (maker of the MMO Rift) got hit by layoffs.  At about the same time, another MMO called The Secret World just dropped its subscription model, presumably to move onto free-to-play.  I think it's safe to say that MMOs are pretty much dead and that noone can ever topple WoW from its throne.

 

Unless they can.

 

Anyone figure out what all the 'failed' games have in common?  Yes, they are all pretty much the same, aren't they?  I'm not too sure about Secret World, but I can say that I've read up on all the others from Conan to Rift and the one thing they all have in common is fantasy.  They are all, in some way, shape, or form, the same old melee and magic based RPGs that we've been playing in the past.  What if you can change up the formula?  Create something different.  Something that doesn't depend on swords and socery (or lightsabers and lightning in the case of Star Wars).  What would you get?

 

Well you might get something like EVE Online, which is one of the few surviving subscription based game.  The focus here is starship to starship combat rather than person to person.  This might sound like Star Wars but it isn't, because the game is designed to be extremly brutal.  You can be stolen from by other players for instance.  You can't do that in Warcraft.  Last I read, most players join a corporation (an EVE term for guild or clan) just to be able to survive.

 

Or, you can get a game that's completely different.  Like Second Life.  This doesn't come up much in gaming media because it's not a game but rather… well, it's a second life.  A digital life, versus your real life.  It's a place where you can design your own avatar if you have the inclination, or pay for 'parts' from other users to design your avatar with.  After that, I think, you just try to live a life.  Meet other digital people.  Maybe buy some virtual property and design a virtual house.  It's really rather flexible, and I believe people pay for the privilage. 

 

Personally, I don't think making the next breakout MMO is impossible.  But I do think making the next third person, quest-based, might and magic, raiding and leveling fest is.  In other words, there will be no World of Warcraft except World of Warcraft.  The next successful subscription based MMO MUST be totally different from anything that's came before.  I think the recent declining trend supports my theory.

 

If a gamer wants to play in a fantasy, the option is there.  If another gamer wants to be a spaceship, there's that too.  And if another gamer wants to live another life, that's possible online.  But there's got to be more people than that.  I don't know what it is though, because the next big massively multiplayer game has yet to be invented.  What I do know is that there will be two breakout MMOs coming in the future.  One is World of Warcraft 2, and the other will be someone noone has ever seen before.

 

P.S.  Why do I get the feeling I wrote this exact same blog before?  On 1up maybe?  Or an earlier one in Blogger?  I don't know.  But it's not stopping me from writing about it again!

Wii U Impressions Over Four Days

On day 1, the new system was down right disappointing.  I understand that the new touch pad is the gimmick of the hour but must everything go through that tiny screen?  On this day I find that far too much action happens on the small screen.  Even if the TV and the touchpad is showing the exact same image, the actual input comes from the pad.  You can't even use the directional buttons to make selections.  Nope.  You have to touch the screen.  Which means eyes must be taken off the TV.  You might as well forget about the beautiful 60 inch set you have and just stare at the pad!  I was so mad.  Not that I have a beautiful 60 inch set.  Just an example, the Nintendo eStore can be viewed from your TV just fine, but if you want to go into an item, say, to browse the description, you have to use the touch pad.  Drove me nuts.  What happened to old fashioned d-pad and the A button?   Bah.

 

On day 2, I was determined to do something different.  Today, the goal is to ignore the touch pad until absolutely necessary and focus almost strictly on the TV screen.  The difference it made to the Wii U experience was like night and day.  I was using the new Wiiverse app (more on that in a minute) and you can scroll through the app with the analogue sticks and some features have button short cuts (you can go back a menu for example, by using the good old B button).  This means that I was using the TV screen most of the time to read posts.  Unfortunately, to use any of the more 'advanced' features like 'reply' or even to make a 'new' post, you have to tap and tap and tap.  Grrr.  But I'm getting used to the dual screen setup and there's less anger towards the machine.

 

Day 3 was the day I popped in a real game to try.  Nintendoland it is.  Didn't spend too much time with it, but there was some nice things to do with the touch pad so it didn't seem so stupid anymore.  Played the Legend of Zelda 'attraction' as they call it (more like mini game) and you use the pad as a 'viewfinder' of sorts where you can tilt it around to aim and shoot arrows at enemies.  It was suprisingly fun.  I also tried Octopus Dance.  It's a rhythmn action game whereby you follow the instructions of an AI NPC and try to copy it's dance moves.  Harder than it sounds!  You also have to switch from looking at the TV to the pad screen and vice versa whenever the game randomly 'flips' the perspective of the dance.  Very nice!  I'm coming around to the Wii U.  Actually liking it now.

 

Day 4.  Mario time!  Popped in New Super Mario Bro. U and played it.  It was…. blah.  It's Mario.  You jump, you eat mushrooms, you jump some more.  *snore*  Wooops!  Sorry about that.  To be honest, I was excited about starting Mario.  After I did, however, it grew old and fast.  Sorry, Mario lovers, I grew past this guy around the time when games went 3D.  BUT, the Wii U grew on me nonetheless.  That's because I found the joys of Wiiverse!  What is it?  It's basically Nintendo Twitter.  You can't carry an app around your phone like real Twitter, but on the Wii U, it's the primary method of communicating.  Your Friends can be access from here but you can also access a great many other things.  The app works almost exactly like Twitter, right down to the 120 charaters or so space limit.  You can broadcast your posts or you can view other posts, give them 'thumbs up's and follow other users.  Because of the nature of the touch pad, you can even use the stylus to draw your post rather than type them!  There are some talented artists in the community.  Each game has it's own 'community', or forum, and you can post into any one of them regardless if you've ever played the game.  But what sold me was the integration of the app into actual gaming.  You can take screen shots and post them to the game's forum.  You can post from within the game and the post will even include which level of the game you're currently in at the moment.  I still haven't figure out everything yet, but already the excitement is difficult to contain.

 

It's Nintendo, so I don't think they'll ever grow out of their old habitats, but if Wiiverse can be integrated into Facebook or the real Twitter where if you post there you post everywhere, then I think it'll be the best thing since 3D polygons.  Even as it is, I can't wait to be able to use it for other games besides Mario.  Right now, I'm playing Farcry 3 on the 360.  It's a very beautiful game, and sometimes, I'd be high up on a cliff somewhere and there would be a breathtaking view for miles around.  Those are the times when I wish I could take a picture and post it for all to see.  Alas, there is no Miiverse on the 360!  But give it time, maybe, and I can do that, some day, on the Wii U, with another beautiful game.

My Wii U Story

I didn't know it, but deep inside, I really wanted a Wii U.

Last Friday, I went grocery shopping with my mom.  We parted ways when it was done and I found myself at a local game retailer.  There were five or six people already lined up in front of the counter.  I got a hunch, and asked what it is they were waiting for.

The store clerk said to me: 'Don't go telling everyone, but we just got a new shipment of Wii Us in today.'

'The deluxe version?' I asked.

'Yes.'

'Enough for all these people here?' I said, gesturing to the waiting line.

'Yes,' she replied, 'and if you get in line now, there's enough for you, too.'

What can I do?  I got in line.  Then a voice spoke up in my mind.  It's like from the back of my head.  My inner voice said: 'shouldn't you be at work now?  You should be working now, and if you line up here you'd be late.'

I really didn't care.  'This is the Wii U chance I've been waiting for.  So I'll get to work late, I'll make up the time later.  No big deal.'

Then I woke up.  And not only was I NOT lined up for a Wii U, I STILL had to go to work.  *sigh*  The signs are all there, right?  A line up?  For the Wii U?  Two weeks after launch?  Yeah right!  What is this?  A PS3?  Just joking, Nintendo fans, don't kill me.

My girlfriend has slowly been conditioning my beliefs to the idea of using dreams as a kind of premonition.  So I was curious to see if it meant something.  Maybe if I did go to a Gamestop today, there would be a Wii U deluxe bundle there.  Unfortunately, during my lunch break, I totally forgot about the dream.  It wasn't until late Friday night while I was over to a friend's house that I remembered again.

My friend worked for an independent game retailer, so I told him about the dream.  He then tells me that the place he worked for has the deluxe set, but the store owner was reluctant to sell them for just anything.  My friend tells me that maybe the owner would part with one if I promised to also buy a couple of games from the retailer.  This sounded fair to me.  Unlike some folks, I buy systems to play them, so adding in a couple of games was what I planned on anyway. 

My friend promised to talk to his boss the next day and see what kind of deal we can strike up.  The next morning, a Saturday, I woke up and anxiously waited for some news.  It was 1:30 when I finally decided to follow up on the deal.  Turns out he forgot to ask his boss about the Wii U!  When he did, however, his boss wasn't keen on the idea.  His boss said something like 'the Wii U is everywhere.  Just tell him to buy the system from some where else and buy the games from us.'

It's a little unreasonable but well within his rights.  But if he says that the new Wiis are everywhere, then maybe that's true?  So I hit a nearby Gamestop.  And here is the unbelievable part...  The clerk at this Gamestop told me they sold out of the deluxe versions...  THAT VERY MORNING!  Which means two things.  1)  The Wii Us ARE everwhere and 2) if I had bugged my friend earlier I might have decided to come to Gamestop earlier and might have gotten the machine!  Never mind earlier.  If I had followed up on my dreams Friday I might have gotten one then!

But in another way, the premonition was true.  The Wii U was just a dream afterall.

But giving up this easily just doesn't make sense.  The Gamestop clerk was nice enough to take down my number and promised to give me a call when they get the next shipment in.  He says that one was planned for the following Monday.  The waiting list was abolished, so he couldn't reserve me the next machine, but a phone call was possible.

So Monday it is.  And hope was alive.

Monday rolled around and I've waited all morning but still no phone call.  During lunch, I visited yet another Gamestop to ask if they had any Wii Us instead.  The clerk there pretty much confirmed what the other had told me: that they had expected a shipment earlier on Monday.  However, that shipment had yet to arrive.  Now I understand why there was no phone call.

But it was so close, right?  Just one more day, maybe?

And so we come to Tuesday.  Today.  I waited all morning and early afternoon and there was still no call from the first store.  So on lunch, I went back to the second Gamestop, the one who told me about the late shipment and tried my luck.

And they had them!

I think the story can safely end here.  There's no punchline or anything other than a happy ending.  I'm fairly certain you, the reader, can figure out what happened here, at the end. ;)