Runescape is a game that gamers love to hate. “Real” MMO gamers (WoW fanboys) loudly deride its lower quality graphics and weird business model (not the gospel $15/month), and “those other MMO gamers” (Puzzle Pirates, W101, etc.) look at it as a grindy mess like all of those “big soulless” MMOs (WoW).
So, it’s understandable that the buzz for the company’s next project, MechScape, isn’t as big as, say, the hoopla around BioWare’s Star Wars The Old Republic. Still, they look to be doing some interesting things in the MMO design space, and for that, I applaud them.
This really has me scratching my head, though:
4X gameplay in MMO format as a goal for MechScape
Now, I love ‘mechs as much as any other Battletech geek, and I really like 4X strategy gaming (mmm, Master of Orion/Orion 2/Magic, Civilization), but I’m having a hard time seeing how this could work in an MMO setting. I love Exploration, too, and the notion that an MMO could be built more around the 4X model than the DIKU model makes me very happy. So, I’ll be happy if they pull this off and make lots of money doing it, maybe even reshaping the MMO genre. It’s just… you wouldn’t make Mario and Bowser the stars of a JRPG, would you?
Oh, wait… (yes, that’s an important distinction: the characters made the transition, but they changed the game design pretty significantly to shoehorn Mario into FF-Lite)
OK, so maybe this is a better example of design pulling in different directions, and the business model causing further problems:
You just can’t make every game type into an MMO. I’m all for innovation, and I wish Jagex well on MechScape, but sometimes, the best intentions can still go awry. Here, I’m voicing concern over both the “will it blend” approach to game design, and the annoying trend of making every game an online monstrosity (as if slapping on the “MMO” label makes roadkill sausage into top sirloin).
I guess time will tell what settles out of the mix, but for now, I’m cautiously optimistic, hoping that they will find a great niche for massively multiplayer 4X gaming. There’s certainly potential there for would-be galactic emperors. It’s never going to hit the same sweet spot of marketability that WoW did, but if they can manage to concoct a solid game, it’ll be one that I definitely look into for a while.
You only hear now and then about MechScape, but I am all for a Mech MMO.
The DIKUMud stuff would not work for a Mech game IMO, so let’s see if they will do better with their take on 4x game core principles. It would truly be a blessing if someone breaks the moldy DIKU crust.
I don’t know exactly how a 4x game would transfer into any kind of an MMO. Time played = power would seem to me to be a huge problem. Although… if they made it with some kind of global 24 hour turn system where you could either automate actions or manually produce better results then I could see it working. Otherwise I can’t let the sound of this get too deep into my brain because it seems too susceptible to common MMO problems that aren’t necessarily DIKU-based.
But have you tried out Sword of the Stars Tesh? It’s the first 4x game I’ve really been able to love since MOO1/2.
Sword of Stars, eh? It sounds vaguely familiar… maybe that was the one I saw on sale in a local office supply store. I guess I should have picked it up. I’ll check it out, thanks!
Yeah, I’m all for some good Mech MMOing. Project of Planets didn’t do it for me, and there’s still no Battletech MMO. The biggest trouble I have with this MechScape thing using 4X design is that whenever I played my beloved MOO, I was the great mover and shaker of the galaxy, and ultimately, the one and only supreme ruler. That scratches my “long term strategy” itch. I can’t see that working the same way in a multiplayer persistent environment.
First, there can’t be a single ultimate ruler (or if there is, it’s just for that “game session” like a multiplayer MOO2 game). Second, 4X games *end* with the player triumphant over all. I’m actually fine with an MMO ending (or having sessions and resets), but that’s not what most players expect, and it may run too much against the grain. You lose persistence that way, though, and at that point, you may as well be playing MOO multiplayer online, which has no justification for being a subscription game or even a microtransaction game.
I’m not sure it will work but I’m thrilled to try it! There are a lot of little kingdom games out there though that are MMOs.
Sadly the “time” factor cannot be overcome and generally the “oldest” players cannot be defeated unless they’re attacked by other old players.
Of course if it isn’t PvP focused then we’re in business!
I can easily see this type of game. Look at the browser game Wild Guns!, but with fog where you haven’t explored. In fact, I think a space setting would work better since you don’t have to worry about limited real estate as much.
Another online game did 4X gameplay pretty well: Imperial Wars. Unfortunately, the Java client was terrible and it really slowed the game down significantly, especially when you had a lot of the map revealed. But, the gameplay was really interesting since the scoring depended on what your “class” was. Made for great dynamics between human players. The twist here was that the game had a limited lifespan and started over once someone had won.
The hardest part is probably the last X, “Extermination”. That tends to imply there’s an endgame where one person/group is allowed to “win” the game. One problem with Wild Guns was that a particular group could end up dominating a server pretty easily, same as with a lot of PvP games. It was Shadowbane all over again, really. So, how do you prevent that without limiting gameplay? That’s the true design hurdle, I think.
Yea agree with the above people….this format is not as new as you think it is. Look at things like tribal wars …cant remember the space one I once played… and the likes and there are a TON of these 4x MMO client games out there.
The only difference would be this possibly having a bigger budget and maybe a few more bells and whistles. All of them have the same issues….very narrowed strategy, one guild rules a system others end up going somewhere else or…you get 2 or three big guilds and everyone is forced into them.
They would have to really do an overhaul on what has been done 5 billion times on the free web game market to really make anyone turn their head.
Ahem. Mario RPG was a great game for its generation, and arguably as fun or more to play than its contemporaries (FFXI, Chrono Trigger, etc). Personally, I think it’s a classic example of taking an existing formula and changing it up with compelling gameplay. Sometimes thinking outside the box can yield unexpected rewards.
Yup, Super Mario RPG was a great game. I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise, just that they had to make significant changes to the Mario “run and jump” gaming and the RPG standards to make the mixup work. It did work, though (timed hits were particularly awesome), and I hold out hope that Mechscape can make 4X gaming work in their medium. There are significant design hurdles, as Psychochild notes, but it’s certainly not impossible.
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