by Karen Hertzberg on Dec 09, 2009
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Once upon a time, World of Warcraft and EverQuest II came along and
took MMOG gaming to the next level, setting a benchmark for 2nd
generation MMOG design with their polish and innovation. But have we
seen a game since that could truly be called a 3rd MMOG, much
less a 4th? This, plus WoW patch 3.3, Fall of the Lich King, in today's
Loading... Generation X.
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here are today's top 5 Pulse results:
WorldBiggest movers today:
StarWorld of Warcraft's patch 3.3 has been released into the wild. I'm not
a WoW player myself, but I'm sure that if I was I'd be grateful that
Ten Ton Hammer has the patch available for download so I don't have to
fight against the teeming masses to get me some. Grab your patch
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/patches">right here
and get back into the game to explore the new content sooner
rather than later.
A couple weeks ago, I promised to visit the topic of 4th generation
MMOGs. When I brought this up to a gamer friend last night he
commented, and rightly so, that first I'd have to show him a convincing
3rd generation MMOG. While many developers talked about ushering in
the fabled 3rd generation, it doesn't seem to have happened yet. I
figure which
particular generation we're entering, 3rd or 4th, is open to
interpretation, so let's just focus on next gen MMOGs in general.
TERA
is an acronym for The Exiled Realm of Arborea, and the name of an
upcoming game by Bluehole Interactive that loudly proclaims
itself The Next Generation MMO. "Created by a development
staff of over 200 people, and led by the core
members of Lineage® II team," the game's marketing materials
state, "this upcoming title will take the gaming
world by storm." A pretty bold statement, that one.
I'm skeptical; I'll believe it when I see it. While I'd love to see a
game that sets a new standard for MMOG development, I've heard this
promise
before. Vanguard was supposed to be a next generation MMOG--undoubtedly
a notch above its predecessors, games like World of Warcraft and
EverQuest II. I've always felt that EQ2 raised the bar for innovation,
and WoW raised the bar for polish back in their day; they were indeed
next generation MMOGs following on the heels of earlier titles like
EverQuest, Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot. But was Vanguard
advanced enough to call itself the next generation? I think we all know
what happened there. Not only was Vanguard less polished and (generally
speaking) less innovative than either WoW or EQ2, but it launched early
and fell flat on its face, largely due to performance issues born of
steep system requirements and poor optimization.
Off the top of my head, I can't really think of a game that has
launched around the time of, or since, Vanguard that
represents a benchmark in MMOG design, or so much innovation and polish
that we would be forced to admit that it represents the next step
forward. Some, like the distinctly different and much ballyhooed Tabula
Rasa, tried to cut themselves from the herd and failed. (In Tabula
Rasa's case, the highly-anticipated game folded about a year after
launch.) NCSoft's Korean export, Aion, certainly set a high water mark
with amazing visuals, but many (myself grudgingly included) find it
little more than a grind with wings. Polished? Mostly, although Aion's
plague of botters and in-game gold spammers leaves much to be desired.
Innovative? In some aspects, sure. Player flight is something that
hasn't been explored extensively in any MMOG to date. But while Aion
has some innovative features, in most ways it's a newer, shinier
version of the same old same.
Will TERA represent the next generation in MMOG design? Its
href="http://www.tera-online.com/about_tera/overview/overview.php">game
overview states:
I guess I'd call that a qualified maybe. The whole "visually stunning"
thing has been done. Games like Age of Conan, Aion and even Vanguard
have done wonders when it comes to beautiful in-game vistas.
If TERA can kick that up a notch, I'll certainly be impressed.
Ground-breaking gameplay? Heard it before. I'll have to see this in
action before I become a believer. Having "full control over my
attacks" sounds dangerously close to "this game is twitchy as hell" to
me, but I guess we'll have to wait and see as more information about
combat in TERA is released. Right now, very little has been revealed.
Bluehole also says that "players will dictate the flow of the economy."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that how it works in most, if not
all, MMOGs? Or will TERA take things a step further and eliminate the
common economy-shaping commodities known as vendor trash and money
sinks and leave everything in the hands of the players? Again, it's a
wait-and-see.
I don't think the MMO gaming industry has fully realized a
next-generation MMOG since the launches of EQ2 and WoW set a new
standard. I feel a bit mean spirited coming down this hard on TERA,
because while part of me is cynically writing off the game as just
another upcoming fantasy MMOG trying to make us believe it's a Really
Big Deal, the optimist in me definitely wants to see Bluehole
Interactive pull it off. As Hewie Lewis proclaimed back in the 80s, "I
want a new drug." I know many of you are with me on that sentiment.
Together, we'll all see what 2010 (and beyond) will bring.
What will it take for a MMOG to be truly next gen? Are there any MMOGs
on the horizon that strike you as being capable of raising the
bar? Talk about it in the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=48337">Loading...
forum.
7 new Ten Ton Hammer MMOG
features today! 36 in December! 2,217 in
2009!
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- Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg and the Ten Ton Hammer team