Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Late last month, I had the great pleasure of attending a San Francisco Giants spring training game in warm and sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. Of course, I live in Scottsdale, so that also made it very convenient and just added to the fun. San Jose- based games publisher Games Campus has been previewing their new game, MLB Dugout Heroes, at many of these Arizona Cactus League spring training games and invited me to “step up to the plate” to try this very novel new game.

GamesCampus's David Chang and Ten Ton Hammer's Pat Connoy

For those of you who are unfamiliar with MLB Dugout Heroes, GamesCampus recently signed an agreement with MLB Advanced Media to use all of the official Major League Baseball club marks, ball park images, logos, players, etc. to be used in their online MMO-type game.

David Chang, GamesCampus’s Executive Vice President of Marketing, was kind enough to give me a quick tutorial about the basics of the game play in Dugout Heroes and then proceeded to let me embarrass myself in front of thousands of real baseball fans by striking out several times on the big screen, before accidently making solid contact with a hanging inside slider. Unfortunately, I did not really get to experience the full dynamics of actually playing an in-game opponent, as I was just trying to get a feel for the pitching, fielding and hitting mechanics in the “practice mode”. David then quickly showed me how easy it was to actually pitch the ball over the plate, hit the ball every time and have the fielders throw to the desired bases. My impression was that the learning curve would probably be quite easy with a bit of practice and yet, it was clear that a player’s individual skills could certainly make the game both fun and very competitive. David has had a lot of practice!

The players in MLB Dugout Heroes are three dimensional, cartoon-rendered graphics of all of the real MLB players. Personally, I wasn’t sure how avid baseball fans or gamers would react to the almost bobblehead look of the big league players themselves, but when asked, David assured me that the many fans who had a chance to play the game seemed to really enjoy these player characterizations.

Screenshots from MLB Dugout Heroes.

I then asked David why they considered Dugout Heroes to be an MMO game, when it appeared to me to be mostly geared to one-on-one play. David explained that Dugout heroes had many aspects of a true MMO. The game allows you to draft and select your favorite players from any MLB era and to create your best team. There is an ability to “level up” both your team and your individual players. The game allows you to pick a league where the other players and other teams have reached a similar level to your own team. Plus, you can earn special points by completing various missions that will be given out daily, or weekly.