Like a lot of you.. I'm a big MMORPG fan.. and unfortunately for us.. the last few years have been.. I don't want to say bad.. but stale. While we do have established titles posting slow and steady growth year after year.. https://rocablanca.net/
The way they update through their expansions and content patches typically is in that safe.. more of the same kind of way.. which doesn't always appeal to people wanting to see new worlds and ideas. Last year the only 2 notable titles we had was the barely localized dumpster fire that was Revelation Online.. And the eventual release of Albion - a game that was delayed for so long it's release came after it was playable for over a year beforehand. Looking to 2018 I spent some time and dug through the big MMORPG and gaming websites, I read listicle after listicle, I looked through press releases and watched quite a few of those.. top 10 MMORPGs of 2018 videos.. and in almost a commentary to the state of new MMORPGs - 80% of the games on these lists have no chance of coming out this year - 2018 is going to be just as dry as last year.. with only 2 notable games coming out this year.. of which they both have red flags. Those games are Bless Online and Crowfall. I don't want to spend a ton of time on each.. but in the near future as they get closer to launch I will cover them more, in depth and better informed. Bless Online represents a formulaic theme park game. Much of it's feature list - of dungeons and raids, small and large scale PvP, dual faction, holy trinity.. fantasy setting.. its familiar. I've played the game myself and there is no real draw or thing Bless seems to do really well or better than other games.. besides just showing up this year and not looking like some weird indie throwback to the 90s - combine this with an MMORPG audience that just wants something new as the last real new themepark game released above some arbitrary threshold of quality was probably Elder Scrolls Online or Wildstar in 2014. However.. red flag.. this game has done poorly, bordering on failure.. in 3 other regions, Korea- Japan and Russia. In the process of localizing it for our region - they are performing a revamp to performance and combat as they are largely understood to be garbage in both the original release of Bless and the Bless Rebuild, Japanese revamped version. So maybe the 3rd rebuild of the game or the 4th region is the charm.. Bless is a game that success for them will be an uphill battle even if they make combat feel not terrible- that will gets a shot because there really is nothing else.. if they don't muck up monetization I could see this game being quite interesting for a few months until content hunger dictates a lot.. and then it's up to post content release cycles.. but a lot of details are in the air.. but it's soft release- which because there are no wipes and they are charging.. is basically it's release - is coming next month.. I guess we'll see soon. The second game.. is Crowfall. It's tough to do this game justice in a quick summary. Suffice to say - Crowfall plays with the idea of what an MMORPG can be.. it's a conflict driven, player vs player first game.. you join campaigns that are almost like matches.. if I had to compare it to other games.. it's like a longer, more fleshed out version of a battleground or a WvW type experience- where you are fighting other players over territory and forts and keeps- and with your group, guild and faction you - set out to win the campaign which can have drastically different rule sets and victory conditions from other campaigns. These campaigns exist as temporary things that you choose between.. that work to complement a permanent world, or permanent worlds.. as each player has their own, Eternal Kingdom, that they can build up, alter rules, prepare for campaigns in... and end up being almost like player run servers as you can invite others, make them public, the UI lets you have a favorite list... and in the process of building homes and castles and expanding and altering them through gameplay means - fueled by what you win or bring back with your from campaigns .. you create places that draw people in for different reasons. Do you create a trading hub.. or the equivalent to a lumberyard.. is it set up for player run PvP tournaments.. or do you just like decorating. Like I said.. it's hard to give it justice in a summary as there are a lot of really cool ideas related to Crowfall that I didn't even touch on.. but red flag, less than 8 months before they want to soft release.. a lot of it is still ideas.. and unless their testing phases have just been for testing the engine and interface and they are sitting on the actual things that make it a compelling game to play.. they need more time - even if it was just for the engine and interface.. they need more time. I've been in it's playable alphas and betas for a while- and countless other games.. and this is not a unique or contrarian opinion.
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AuthorBen Wilson is author of Edu Blog, where primarily we will discuss famous books and their authors. Ben studied at Stanford University. He is a teacher of History in High School. Ben also writes book review for ThePaperGuide Platform. ArchivesCategories |