For any of us reading this article, we have surely played a generally large amount of Massively Multiplayer Online games; the good, the bad, and the clones. We read the news articles and hear from both friends and websites, learning of the newest games to hit the market. The industry is one that is growing, both economically and socially. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting fellow gamers who could appreciate my background in the industry, people who were actually envious of my experience in the industry, my nerd-style love for these games. It seems that the nerd persona that has floated around gamers for years is slowly drifting away. In fact, I met some people who completely destroyed my stereotypical concepts of what, or rather who, a gamer is. Now, some of the honor in destroying these beliefs can be contributed to games such as Skate, Call of Duty, and other big-hit games that guys were not ashamed to brag about loving. However, as a whole, nothing has

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Hey everyone, this is my first article in awhile as I took some time off for other obligations. I assume I'm still part of the Writer's Club, and I will hopefully be publishing more articles in the upcoming weeks.

 

This article is a look ahead towards the end of this year and into the beginning of next year at the top titles to be released.

 

Aion.

Of course, how could I not list Aion. I've heard many opinions on the game and I've played throughout the betas as well. Despite the common excitement over the game, I don't think the game will be that big of a deal. Besides the great graphics, the game doesn't seem to do what many people have asked for in a game over the past couple years. There's nothing that new or innovative, and the combat system isn't anything special (Although the combo bar is cool). I think the game will be popular at the start like Warhammer Online was, but I believe it will follow the same fate and die off. I think it will sustain enough active players to be a top-runner in the industry, but it's certainly not going to steal away many WoW players, perhaps it will take some from Age of Conan and Lord of the Rings Online though.

In addition, here'

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Is Warhammer Dead Already?

 

     I already miss the days when Warhammer online was filled with people and servers had plenty of people to group with. Believe it or not, I miss the days when I had to wait forty minutes to get into my server, because that's what Warhammer is all about. It's not about playing alone and fighting monsters by yourself to gain levels, it's about playing with other people and working together. The good days were when the pre-order members were playing, and public quests had thirty people working together in a giant warband to complete the task as fast as possible. When you could join a queue and instantly find a scenario to play in. When it was easy to find a guild where you could go on at three in the morning and find enough people for a keep siege. But has Warhammer died already? Sure, there is still a large population on the game, but with the chain effect of the game's quality decreasing when the players leave, is it destined to fail in the next couple months?

     If you think I'm crazy, go on the majority of the servers and try finding a scenario or public quest party from

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     Warriors and mages, knights and priests, quests and monsters. All of these should sound familiar to someone who often plays games of the MMOG genre, or even of the RPG genre. With all of the E3 news lately, there has been one things that has been extremely obvious, and that is that the big title devlopers are all adapting to player's desires. This is evident because of how every big game I have seen has included one new feature that is huge and has been huge in the past, choices! From Prince of Persia to Fable 2, all the way to Fallout 3 and Spore, all of these games give the player a lot of choices and decisions that will alter their gameplay to their own unique style. My question is, why can't the bigger MMOG publishers adapt like console-game developers?

    Let's take a look at how MMOGs can adapt by using a console game as an example. Team Fortress 2 is one of the most popular multiplayer shooters on the computer, and for good reason. Even though you have to buy the game to play it, player's are still in love with the game, but why? The game features the classic RPG feature known as class selection, this gives player's the chance to ...

I apologize for the lateness, it's been a long day. The next few days will be posted a lot earlier, but some conferences might be missing due to my schedule.

Alright, for those of you who didn't watch the video stream earlier today because you were either working or just didn't have the time to watch it, I will do a short, non-biased recap of the day.



Today was all about Microsoft. At 10:00 a.m. PT, the pre-show began, with general coverage and rumors of what Microsoft was going to be unveiling during the press conference, which began at 10:30 a.m. PT.

Microsoft unveiled news, trailers, and demos of some of the most highly anticipated games of 08/09. They showed off the gameplay of Fallout 3 which looks amazing. You can either play in real time or use a strategic aiming system in order to pin-point your target. They showed off a sniper rifle weapon, a machine-disabling grenade, and a mini nuclear-bomb launcher. The game showed a lot of interesting features such as the ability to really decide what you want to do. There are tons of groups you can join, the one they touched on in the teaser was a group that had taken over the Pentagon. They also confirmed downloadable content for ...

Interviews.
News Article about the latest games.
The best contests around.
Friendly and helpful staff.
Active forums with great discussions.
The best reviews.
Reliable and fast downloads.
Answers from gamers like you.
Helpful game information.
The best community!

What more could you ask for from a gaming site? Nothing jumps to mind for me, and that's precisely why I have stuck around MMOsite for over two years now. What other site would I use if it wasn't for MMOsite? No other site provides as good article, reviews, interviews, and contests as MMOsite, not to mention the incredible community MMOsite has. I've been insulted a couple times here, but it's part of the territory in an online community, and this is one of the more friendly communities I have been a part of. MMOsite is nearing it's third anniversary now, and it seems so soon. I originally joined to find information on new games since Maplestory and Runescape were getting boring, and since then I have played almost every game on the gamelist. I have been a reviewer for MMOsite, a temporary moderator, and lately a member of the Writer's Club. I can't say I have any complaints about my stay at MMOsite, and I just hope it ...

Kwari

          Kwari was released not too long ago, and it was a game that caught my eye. I have been a fan of shooter games for a long time, and competitive gameplay has always been a plus in any shooter. From games such as Unreal Tournament to Team Fortress, I have been a fan of them all. This is why when I heard of Kwari, I was intrigued. A game that pays players if they're good, and is basically pay to play if you're bad. But I had my doubts about the game, especially after doing an interview with the community manager before it went into beta. After finding out the pricings of ammunition and such, I was skeptical to even try the beginner part of the game. Some people think it was a totally new type of business model for online games, but to

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     Creativity is one of the features that has been lacking in the online-gaming industry for quite a duration now, some would even stretch so far as to say that before Age of Conan, the World of Warcraft was the last innovative MMOG. I probably wouldn't go so far as to say that, but I do feel that game developers are focusing more on the marketing aspects, which in turn leads to lack of an audience to market to. We've seen games come, and games go of all different styles. Some games are a huge success, while others, sometimes extremely similar, go down a path to failure. But why do some games remain hits long after release, while others dissipate shortly afterwards? In this article I will look at several factors that can lead a MMOG to success or failure depending upon how the developer and publisher approach them, and backup my reasoning with examples.

The Features.

          I chose this first because in my eyes it's not only one of most important parts of a game, it's one of the most common parts to change.
When I find out about a new game from another source, one of the first things I look at on the website is

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    First off, yes, another article about the same issue. Sorry for the similar articles, but you'll understand why later on. Think of it this way, it's another example of cloning since we all have the same topic. ;)

Clones.

    To start things off, what exactly do I mean when I speak of a clone in the sense of online gaming? I am talking about a game which is so eerily similar to another, you begin to think that the game was a concept stolen from the other online game. Such examples in the online gaming genre would be a very popular one; Maplestory, Ghost Online & Windslayer. People have the sense that Ghost Online and Windslayer, which will be mentioned as GO and WS from here on, are a stolen concept of Maplestory. To me, which one came first is not a concern. Why? I encourage the cloning of online games, because it gives one developer the opportunity to take an already successful concept, and correct the places where the previous game went wrong. Let's begin with MS and GO.
 
                   

                            What Maplestory Did Right:                                                     What Ghost Online Took:
     - A new visual style as well as online game sty...

In my several years in the industry a lot of things have changed, from the companies to the games their market and develop, to the consumers to which they aim their products. The audience of online gaming is expanding in both directions, as now older audiences are being targeted with games such as 3Feel, but at the same time younger audiences are being aimed for with titles such as Hello Kitty Online. One thing that has not changed is the eternal hate for that oh-so dreaded 'grind' that people always complain about in online games. The one thing that can demolish a nearly perfect game, one with amazing graphics and fun controls all backed up by a great storyline and friendly community. But why do people dread the grind so much, and why do some people feel other games are 'more grindy' than others? Today, we'll take a look at what exactly a grind is and how it's portrayed in several different games.

Grinding - The repetition of an action in order to achieve a goal.

    What exactly does this definition for the grind in online games mean? It means constantly repeating something in order to reach your goal, of which the most common instance is repetitively pressing a button or cli...