by John Hoskin on Jul 02, 2007
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Daily Column New MMOG Articles at TenTonHammer Today Hot Content Real World News - You Can't Make This UpAs an MMO game player I am used to settling into my comfortable chair, plunking a frosty cold beverage down on the desk, logging into my game of choice, currently World of Warcraft, and checking the auction house, my mail, checking if my friends are online, etc. It's a habit that I enjoy, probably much like Paris Hilton enjoys attention. I can't get enough of it. I login to see if I won the auctions that I bid on. I login to see if my auctions have sold. I login early and often, many time for only a few seconds just to check out some inconsequential piece of information. Other TTH staff have been known to spend hours at the broker in EverQuest 2. I am not alone.
This is the way that it has always been done. The norm. The formula. The model. The guideline. You fire up the game and login to view anything pertaining to your specific character. The game world has always been an insular place, isolated by digital customs officials demanding virtual passports. Your characters, like Johnny Depp have thus lived hermitic lives, secluded and apart from your daily life appearing at times to entertain you, before returning to hiding.
Imagine if you will a world where you could see who was online via your cell phone. A few taps on your blackberry would bring up guildchat. A mere wave of your finger would allow you to partake in some crafting on your iPhone. Mobile phones and other portable devices have yet to be given a chance to act as the conduit between the games that we love and the lives that we live.
Chat and auction listings are tertiary aspects of a game that seem to be marked choices for a mobile platform. Gameplay is another story. Could crafting for instance, be something that could be ported to a cell phone. Would it adversely affect the game if players were crafting via their Motorola Razr rather than via the game client? I don't personally see how it being a detriment. In truth, we are simply creatures sitting in a basement telling a virtual creature in a virtual basement to create something. Crafting is a necessarily isolating task. I don't know of a game that requires multiple crafters to work within one window to create an item, but perhaps it is out there. Cooperative crafting is unquestionably a interesting idea and even with that wrench of complexity thrown in cell phones would still be a viable medium.
What about gameplay? There are already developers including id Software genius John Carmack, who are developing MMOs that can be enjoyed on a cell phone.
"To get "Orcs and Elves" made, he had to retreat to a hotel with no Internet connection, where he worked on nothing but the game for two days."I just sat down and programmed for the fun of it," he said. "I thought I'd get like a smoker's tick and feel the need to check e-mail, but I was pleased to find I didn't."
It seems to have paid off. "Orcs and Elves", published by Electronic Arts (Research), got a positive reception at E3, which has led to talk of a sequel. Carmack, though, has his eyes on a bigger cell phone prize.
"We're probably going to have a sequel to 'Orcs and Elves' but I'm really into the idea of a massively multiplayer cell phone title," he said. "I have absolutely no interest in going and competing with Blizzard in the high end of that market, but a cell phone version might be interesting." -- John Carmack in a May 2006 CNNMoney Interview"
Ragnarok Online, one of the largest MMOGs that you have never heard of has had a mobile client that allows you earn money by playing on your cell phone and then transfer it to your in game characters since 2004.
"Ragnarok Mobile Mage is two different games to two different people. If you don't play the PC game, then this is a mobile action-RPG full of traditional level-grinding, which is good for a few hours of entertainment before the fun begins to taper off. If you are a major Ragnarok player, then this game serves an entirely different purpose: It's a zeny printing press you can work while away from the PC. And that's cool, too." -- IGN Reviews Ragnarok Mobile Mage
The obvious technical barriers to porting a high-end MMOG played on personal computers to a mobile device are daunting, but I'm not certain that the gameplay has to be exactly the same. What developers should be striving for, and what players want is a means to interact with the world that they enjoy when they are not able to use their computer.
XFire, a buddy / messenger system is a kludge answer to the problem of finding your friends and chatting with them, across not only a game world, but across different games. You could be playing Guild Wars while chatting to your World of Warcraft guildmates. It's a nifty system that I rarely use because it isn't Mac friendly, but the company claims over 7.5 million registered users.
Yet another channel that is already open to developers, but seldom explored is the area of scoreboarding. XBox 360's GamerTags let players compare themselves to other gamers. MMOG players are cut from the same cloth and would undoubtedly love to compare their accomplishments, gear and level to that of their friends. While competing against anonymous players in a ranking system of any sort is fun, players most pronounced enjoyment comes from comparing themselves to their friends.
World of Warcraft's Armory, though not mobile friendly is a good start. This social aspect seems to fit well with the current state of mobile platforms. Old school EverQuest players will likely remember a site called Magelo where players could post their characters and the gear that they were wearing. Magelo character profiles were fun and better yet, useful. Blizzard's Armory takes out the work and just shows what gear you have direct from their wildly spinning database servers. Sharing live data.
You put your right Boot of Supreme Vigor in.
You take your right Boot of Supreme Vigor out.
You put your right Boot of Supreme Vigor in and you shake it all about.
You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about. Sharing live data is something that hasn't been done especially well so far in the industry. I have no doubt that the day is nearly upon us when we will be besieged by more data than we care to see, but the locusts of MMOG statistics are not here yet.
Imagine being able to talk to your friends on Ventrilo or to your friends using the in-game voice systems of EVE Online or Lord of the Rings Online via your cell phone.
Top 10 MMOG Features I Want On My Cell Phone
10 - PvP Status - Depending on the game, which zones areas of conflict does my team control and how does that affect me?
9 - Quest Log - I'd love to have a list of my quests that I could use to more effectively enjoy my playtime.
8 - Who's Online? - Tell me what guildmates and friends are currently playing. Maybe I'd like to join them.
7 - Population Metrics - How many players are there on my server? What classes and races do they play? What level are they? How many are on right now?
6 - Inventory / Bank Access - I'd love to monkey around with my bank and inventory while waiting for my son while he gets his hair cut or visits the dentist. Heck, fake a phone call and avoid the in-laws for a while as you swap gear in and out to check stats.
5 - Crafting - I don't like crafting, mostly because I enjoy leveling and fighting more. I might partake in it when I couldn't play though. You know those times when I don't have my computer, but I do have my cell phone.
4 - Event Notifications - Let my friends, guildmates and even the game masters send me notifications about in-game events. A contested mob just popped? I'm there!
3 - Scoreboarding - How do I rank versus my friends and other players?
2 - Auction House Access - When I'm at a computer let me play. When I'm in an important board meeting staring at my phone let me broker my goods.
1 - Chat - Let me chat with my friends and guildmates. No really, let me chat with my friends and guildmates. Text and/or voice please.
Mobile game access is possibly the prettiest girl at the MMO dance. The question is which developer is going to try and take her home?
Comment in the blog or email me directly.
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Blog: Robots in DisguiseThanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com
John "Boomjack" Hoskin