MMO E3 2005 Roundup

Looking ahead at MMO’s, here’s an overview of some of the upcoming titles E3 had to offer.

by Matt Eberle

In the last year gamers have had to watch several games get canceled. Existing games like Earth and Beyond have been shut down. Upcoming titles were canceled before they could be released, like Mythica and Wish. It has been a difficult time to be a fan of the MMO genre. While some of the recent crop of MMO games, like City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, and EverQuest II, have been very good and very fun, hardcore MMO’ers enjoy looking at the next game as much as anyone else. E3 offered the chance to check out many of the upcoming games, expansion packs, and future releases for the MMO genre. While I didn’t get a chance to see all of them I took every chance I could get to take a peek at MMO’s. Here’s what I saw:

Existing games are in good shape. City of Heroes and World of Warcraft are both looking at sizeable expansions and additions. A flurry of new games are on its way. Many of these show a great deal of promise. For the sci-fi fans there are games like Imperator, by Mythic games, Hellgate: London, and the new expansion pack for Anarchy Online: Lost Eden. For the classic “swords and sorcery” fans there are games like Dark and Light, Irth, and Gods and Heroes.

All the upcoming games I got a chance to see looked interesting, which I believe is high praise. I’ve seen and played most of the major (and several of the minor) MMO’s in the last few years. More than once I found myself wondering if it would be possible to find a way into the betas for these games. It looks like the industry is beginning to learn what gamers really want. Instead of working from the tried-and-true methods, which many gamers feel is a bit boring after a while, the upcoming releases and expansion packs are making waves with their innovations.

PVP content has been a big theme this year at E3. City of Heroes is spawning another game that you can play alongside their existing title called City of Villains. Players will get the chance to be bad, taking on the role of villains. The expansion is going to bring PVP combat into the game. World of Warcraft is also expanding itself by adding in PVP-specific territories, called “battlegrounds” where players can meet in head-to-head combat.

Territorial combat and conquest are key features of Dark and Light, Irth, City of Heroes, and Gods and Heroes. Irth and its competitor, Dark and Light, are both incorporating kingdom vs. kingdom combat in the tradition of Dark Age of Camelot. Players won’t be fighting directly for artifacts of power, but for power and territory. City of Heroes is introducing base construction, as villainous groups can construct their own lairs. If they manage to steal an object of power they’ll have to watch out.. other players can organize times to invade their hideouts to try and recover it, if they are heroes, or steal it for themselves for the villains.

Large-scale, seamless worlds are another field that made a big showing at E3. Dark and Light, Irth, and Gods and Heroes all sported extremely large, detailed worlds. In the case of Dark and Light this is taken to new heights- literally. Players will be able to fly on their own or hire mounts for faster travel. The developers at Irth were happy to talk about how their world is completely seamless. Players won’t have to deal with the infamous “invisible walls” that occasionally crop up in online worlds. As long as a player could realistically traverse the terrain you can do that in Irth. Of course, if you want to climb a cliff that could be a bit difficult…

Players can look forward to new levels of customer attention in upcoming releases. Every developer I talked to spent some time talking about how they were listening to their fan base, asking what the players wanted. It was amazing to hear one of the developers talking about some of the features players have waited to see added to existing games, like mounts, housing, or NPC vendors referred to as the “checkbox list” that developers had to include.

The MMO industry is also being blessed with new levels of innovation. As I already mentioned Dark and Light is including aerial travel as a quick and easy way for players to get around. Players aren’t limited to flight paths or mystical gates for their mounts and hang-gliders. They can literally go anywhere in the extremely large world. This will open the world up to players in ways that older titles have never allowed.

Gods and Heroes is also breaking new ground by including squad based combat. Players have spent years talking about how hard it is for online RPG’s to be balanced with the so-called “pet classes” involved. Gods and Heroes is neatly side-stepping that problem and introducing new possibilities for players to explore by allowing gamers to recruit their own squad of followers. The developers are using the same system to create the “group” encounters in their world. Instead of fighting a single, extremely powerful monster you can find yourself engaging teams of three or more enemies.

Anarchy Online’s Lost Eden expansion is bringing mechs into the world as player-controlled weapons. They are also adding new features for their factional combat. Players will be able to take advantage of aerial bombardment and bomber strikes to decimate their foes. A separate feature is the inclusion of faction-based “research” trees. Players can work together to earn permanent upgrades to their faction’s mechs.

Graphics were also a big selling point at E3. Lots of games, and not just MMO’s, are working to bring extremely high quality visuals to their players. The upcoming MMO titles I got a chance to look at had some truly breathtaking graphics. The expansion packs and updates for existing games didn’t have much of a graphical jump from their base game, but you can tell there are areas where the developers are learning things about their game world and improving on what has gone before.

The MMO industry has seen a lot in the last year. As a fan I was a little worried by the number of titles that were going under. Most of the time players don’t ever hear what causes the titles they are watching to be pulled before they reach the shelf. For now the horizons are brighter. Developers are listening to what their fans want. Instead of the cookie-cutter repeats of past games that I have seen, each of the upcoming releases and expansions has had something that makes it look interesting. It looks like the next year will be a great time to be an MMO gamer.

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