Pre-E3: MMO roundup [update 6]

Great post, thanks for the list.

On a slightly related note, when did the acronym for Massively Multiplayer Online Games switch from MMOG to MMO? What happened to the poor letter G? I wince when I see it abbreviated without the G, because I need closure to the words Massively Multiplayer Online ________.

I know it's pretty standard now to use MMO, I just don't understand why there was a swtich.

#1 - Maybe it could have something to do with the fact that MMORPG is an unwieldy acronym...?

I'm curious as to the Squeenix project-- especially if it's not Front Mission Online, which is long overdue.

A lot of people seem to have shifted to the MMO acronym out of personal choice - mainly because it's easier. I realise it doesn't technically include a noun, but I prefer to use it since the term encompasses virtual worlds that aren't primarily games as well as those which are multiplayer RPGs.

MMO works when you get sick of pronouncing "EM EM OH GEE." "EM EM OH" is just easier.

If "MAWG" had ever taken root, then MMOG wouldn't have been shortened to MMO.

ATTN: JOYSTIQ

Could you perhaps do a post rounding up where we might be able to get live video or audio feeds of the Keynotes, or, if those arn't available, where to get live updates of them? I know, I know, Joystiq is the best place for this, but if you know of any video feeds for the keynotes, I'm sure we would all be gratefull to get them.

Thanks!

What happened to the Hello Kitty MMO I thaught that was being released soon aswell?

That Wiki picture makes me want to play Zelda agian. I loved it when Link would dance after beating a boss.

I think games like WOW look like a lot of fun, but I have not been willing to try any of these games because of the economic model.

Under a subscription model, I will feel like I am continually obligated to play, so that I am 'getting my money's worth' this month.

Under a microtransaction model, my play experience will be continually interrupted by having to decide whether it is worth real life dollars to progress the game at certain points.

Neither of these situations sound like relaxing fun. I prefer to take a prepaid game, stick it in my machine, and play it only when I feel like it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read that NCSoft will show off the third GuildWars (You could also see it as a second expansion, but seeing as they offer the same if not bigger gameplay and are stand alone I believe that they are full games).

#6 - Thanks Deekman.

#9 - Guild Wars 3 wasn't included because it occupies a very hazy territory between expansion and sequel. Given that the Guild Wars chapters do act as expansions we decided not to cover it, as that would open up the way for many more expansions to flood in! However, we will be talking to NCsoft at E3 about it, so stay tuned.

#5 - E3TV, part of E3's 'official' coverage of the event, will show the keynotes -- apparently at high-res videos.

http://www.e3insider.com/e3tv/

Not one single Mac game! There's always WoW, but it's not fun to have only one MMORPG to play. I think if they made a Mac version of say, Guild Wars, there's going to be plenty of new customers. Don't say anything about boot camp, it only works with the new Macs :(

Thanks Jennie! You rock! :)

You forgot Exanimus. Its a zombie MMO coming out for the PC. The first of its kind

http://www.exanimusthegame.com/

Personally I cant stand these traditional MMO games (especially ones involving orcs and stuff). the only one I ever bought was Guild wars because it was free and my friends told me to get it and paly with them. Then I didnt like it (there was way to much story text, useless items, and crap you had to learn. I watch my brother play WOW and Its even more confusing. Like a million icons on his screen. Bah.

When I play an adventurish RPG game, I prefare games like Zelda and Tales of Symphonia. I enjoy picking up items that are all important, or gives me a sense of importance if I should pick them up or not, not having to make choices on which to keep because my inventory is full and I dont even know if I will need the items later in the game (Like all the crap you find scattered on the ground as soon as your start Oblivion). I also enjoy progressing my character and getting stronger stuff and maybe more spells. I dont care about mixing some hearb crap to create items, or getting a new "piece of armour" to show off. I only want the new armour to protect myself more, I dont understand why people care about such things in MMOs. I also like the simplicty of games like Zelda and TOS. I hope one day they make an MMO for the player like me who does not enjoy choosing "classes" as soon as a game starts which determines how your character develops in the game.

Im hoping Huxley for my 360 and Exanimus will cater more towards me. Hopefully Exanimus will only have you choose from humans and undead, and not throw in like 12 classes which limit what your character learns ability wise later in the game.

With regard to the payment model, I'm somewhat surprised that there aren't more games with two tiers, ?a RuneScape.

That is, completely free (ad-supported) to register and play - one need never pay any money at all - but with much more content and faster customer support for those who do choose to pay.

I'll concede that supporting free players with ads isn't ideal, and would possibly be more difficult to integrate into a non-browser-based game, but it still makes the game more accessible, particularly for a younger audience.

A couple things:

1) The link you give for the Fallen Earth beta explicitly says that it is NOT a sign-up for beta. Instead it's for a newsletter which will give information about the beta when it's available.

2) Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Computer Games Magazine just recently teamed up to put closed beta entrance codes into the June addition of CGM.

Can you update this so that it can be noted if the game will also be for the MAC (for my stupid mom's computer)

Since when did SE shun the 360 for its next project? They where on record at FFXI FanFest that the next project would be comming out for Vista AND the 360.

I am looking forward to Stargate Worlds, LOTRs, FFXI-2? and of course Huxley! All the others won't gain any interest in me.

@Miharu: Despite the article's listing of it as a PC game, Dofus Arena is cross-platform.

Might not be what you're looking for -- I don't know to what extent it will be a persistent world -- but you gotta take your Mac gamer love wherever you can get it. And if not, there's still the original Dofus.

You forgot Bang Howdy, the cowboy MMORG put out by the makers of puzzle pirates.

http://www.banghowdy.com/

How about A Tale In The Desert III, starting in a little over three weeks? The second beta starts on Friday. That's cross-platform, too.

#14 - Thanks, Exanimus is on the list now. I knew some would slip through. #20, #21, Bang Howdy and ATITD III will be added soon.

As for Mac games, Dofus Arena (as a Flash title) is the only game that explicitly says Mac, though I will keep searching to see if any of the others hint about the platform. As a Linux user, I feel your pain ;)

My previous post should say "edition" instead of "addition"... It's too early for me.

how about Seed (http://www.seedthegame.com) ??

Hero's Journey baby!

www.herosjourney.net

#15, There is another game called 'Fly For Fun' that's free to play and I plan to play without paying a dime, if I can help it. Seems to have better UI than RuneScape.

#25 - Seed wasn't included since it has launched. :)

I miss Earth and Beyond.

You didn't list the game I'm most looking forward to – Hero's Journey! It's the first graphic MMORPG from Simutronics, the long time leader in text-based RPGs.

http://www.play.net/hj/

Despite all the commented additions, no one has mentioned one of the most anticipated MMO's at MMORPG.COM, Hero's Journey. This is one I am really looking forward to. It is from veteran MUD producer Simutronics, who are known for games such as Gemstone IV, Dragonrealms, and Cyberstrike. This game will be their first venture into 3D MMORPG space. With a large emphasis on fun, Hero's Journey is likley to change the whole genre. Simutronics will be showing it off in Kentia Hall at E3 like last year probably. Drop by and check them out joystiq.

http://www.play.net/hj/

What about Simutronic's Heroes Journey? http://www.play.net/hj/

There's a MMOG that I've been following for years that isn't on this list. I know the list is bound to be incomplete, but sometimes you have to be an advocate.

It's being made by first-time developers Shadowpool Studios. It shoots for a pretty early-90s, hardcore, RP-heavy idea of MMO gaming. It features permanent death after 100 lives, 12 races (including dragons), a skill-based classless character progression system, the ability to discover unique innovations to skills that only you have access to and can teach to other players, player settlements and politics, a strong religion system, a closed scarcity-based economy with each settlement minting its own currency, a complex crafting system, and full worldwide PvP. Characters can die from hunger, thirst, poison, disease, and exposure to the elements. Communication is heavily limited: each race has a separate language and you can only speak to people within shouting range (no OOC chat or /tells.) While you can travel via ships and wagons, there is no teleportation, and the world is supposed to be so huge that it might take RL hours to get between settlements. It's basically the Nethack MMOG.

It's an incredibly ambitious design, but it's built on principles I believe in: namely, that there should be true risk to your character in the gameworld. The developers have refused to give a release date, but things are looking like it might be out in 2009 - that is, if the devs actually have their act together. While it has a strong community, most of us are skeptical that the game will actually be released. If it doesn't come out, somebody else will take up the flag.

Anyway, enough rambling. The game is called Trials of Ascension and is located here:

http://www.shadowpool.com

There's a fansite that has archives of every single piece of lore and game information released over the last 4 years here: http://trialsofascension.net

And another good fansite here: http://www.luciaslibrary.com

Anyway, just had to chime in on behalf of my dream game.

Two more "niche" MMOGs that I've been following:

Adellion:
http://www.adellion.com

Atriarch:
http://www.atriarch.com

Over and out- Ethan

Ethan,

This story is about MMORPG's that are going to be showing stuff at E3. I didn't see Shadowpool listed on the exhibitor list, so I'm guessing that they won't be included in the round-up.

Two more for the road... Aion:

http://www.plaync.com/us/games/aion/index.html

and Soccer Fury:

http://www.soccerfury.com/

See you at E3 :)

While most of these MMOGs will be shown at E3, by no means will all of them be shown. In fact, a good portion of the games made by independent developers won't be at E3. Among others this inclides Bang! Howdy, Crusade, Exanimus, Darkfall Online, Roma Victor, and even Fallen Earth - none of whose studios show up on the exhibitor list.

While the thread title is indeed "pre-E3 roundup", Jennie goes on to say that she's trying to write a "comprehensive overview of every MMO we currently know to be in development." I believe this includes longshot niche products like the ones I linked to.

I haven't read the comments so someone might already have said this, but you forgot Planeshift. http://www.planeshift.it
Currently in working (pre?)alpha. Free software (not freeware, but truly free softare).

What, no Heros Journey?!?! They better show up at E3

http://www.play.net/hj/

Looks like the square enix game is going to be Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion.

http://www.playonline.com/fe/index.shtml

Hero's Journey from Simutronics is going to be at E3 as well.

http://www.play.net/hj/

Hero's Journey will be on display at the Simutronics booth in Kentia 6553. This will be the first public showing of the company's first graphical MMO, set in the same game world as the company's classic GemStone and DragonRealms games. Due in 2007, this game focuses on making your character unique in every way possible (appearance, advancement, and story line) and aims to put the RP back in MMO RPG games.

Thanks for the additional suggestions guys -- they'll go in with the next update. Lots to do!

Ethan is quite right. I wanted to cover all the MMOs that there is anticipation for at E3, but in doing so I found some less well known games, so I decided to make the piece cover every MMO we had heard about. Obviously there are going to be some that slipped through which is why this is a living feature :))

I had been following Fantasy Earth (SE) over the past year or two watching the japanese site update content.

But I highly doubt (or rather are hoping) that this is not the upcoming MMO. If its for PC AND PS3... Then those are some shit graphics. I play xi and the graphics are outdated, but FE's graphics are even more hideous.

While not a new MMO, EVE Online's developer CCP will be at E3, presumably demonstrating (some of) the DX10 engine upgrades, and probably some of the Kali features too (galactic warfare anyone?). There'll probably be some more information about the new Chinese server too. Should be interesting to see what they will do differently when starting a new server.

hey !

What about Ragnarok Online 2 ???

EdZ, we'll be talking to CCP at E3 :)

I couldn't find any confirmation that Ragnarok Online II would be coming to the US or Europe, so I haven't listed it.

There?s also a MMO called Fury that Auran is unveiling. The teaser site is up at http://www.unleashthefury.com.

Man this sux, all these games comming out , well about 90 percent of them is orcs, gnomes, etc. I want more sci fi ones, I cant wait for sgw and sto :}

I'm not impressed with whats being shown here with the exception of Darkfall. So tired of the same ole beat a bug in the head with a stick routine and the ebay-fukall trend of gaming, point and click crap, no skill or content. Thats the nicest way of putting it. NCSoft blows btw and all those other 3rd world country grindathon games...