7 days around the MMO world (July 5) |
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| BY Emmanuel Petti Jul. 5th, 2009 | More on: |
American holidays always seem to muck things up in the way of good old beefy news updates, and unfortunately it seems MMOs are being effected by this as well. Don’t be disappointed quite yet though as we, of course, still have things to talk about. The lime light hog Blizzard is back in the MMO news this week with a sudden change to World of Warcraft and a interesting trademark, plus a new content patch for City of Heroes went live bringing back an enemy from days of yore.
This past week on the Blizzard forums something was announced that no player ever imagined would ever happen in a million years. Something that has been shot down constantly by Blizzard developers and community managers alike for years. Suddenly it seems that Blizzard has had a change of heart and has decided to let players change factions, for a fee of course. Details about the service have not be released but it is in our opinion that the price for the change will range between $10-25 dollars. If we had to speculate how the system would work, it would be either a one time change or a change that can only be done once within a certain time period, per-character of course. What implications this will have on server balances and imbalances is yet to be seen. If Blizzard was smart they would offer free one way switches to address server balance issues instead of free server moves.
Also this week it was discovered that Blizzard trademarked the name Cataclysm for a project we will undoubtedly hear more about in late August during BlizzCon. Speculation is flying but it seems that all signs point to it being some kind of MMO project. The details of the trademark are very revealing as part of the trademark is for “online entertainment services”. Some speculations suggest that it’s the next World of Warcraft expansion which would make sense as Blizzard has full intention to keep supporting WoW and Wrath of the Lich King is already beginning to get long in the tooth. We’ll have to wait until BlizzCon to find out but in the meantime we’ll have fun speculating what Blizzard is up to.
This past week City of Heroes had their 15th content update go live bringing back one of my personal favorite baddies in the game as the 5th Column make a return in the Anniversary update. Players are now able to participate in new missions for the level ranges 45-50 on both the villain and hero side that involve the 5th Column.
Players also get new customization options with costumes adding in 20 new faces and several new costume change emotes. The popular Architect system has also been updated complete with a dedicated chat channel for everyone to advertise spam each other to play each others missions. They also improved searching and testing tools for the Architect system.
Remember that OnLive thing everyone was talking about? Well, this isn’t that but something very similar. This is a project called Giakai which is a cloud computing service directed at PC gaming and browsers. Instead of using a piece of hardware in your living room, you just boot up your favorite browsers, log on and jump to it. If you watch the demo, you’ll see both World of Warcraft and EVE Online being played in what appears to be real-time.
The significance of this versus OnLive is that this video is an actual demo of the product in action. It’s also not based on hardware and all that required is a browser. It’s also significant to mention that David Perry who is a veteran game developer is leading the project. You might remember him from games like Earthworm Jim, MDK and that unfortunately buggy game Enter the Matrix. Knowing that a veteran game dev is behind the project throws some legitimacy behind a concept that is being met with a lot of skepticism. Of course we’ll all continue to play the wait and see game, but we’ll have to admit, this looks pretty damn cool.
In other MMO news:
- Big brained Ray Kurzweil is to give a keynote at the Second Life Community Convention.
- City of Heroes starts a 14-day free trial service.
- Twitter added in to Champions Online for seemingly frivolously purposes.
- Blizzard pulls back some of their Arena 2v2 changes and dumps new ideas on the table.
July 6th, 2009
at 10:15 am
Re: Onlive/Gaikia
“The significance of this versus Onlive is that this video is an actual demo of the product in action. ”
Onlive has demoed their tech in action. You are here inferring they have not.
“Knowing that a veteran game Dev is behind the project throws some legitimacy behind a concept that is being met with a lot of skepticism.”
The main person responsible for the development of Onlive is the guy who invented Quicktime and NetTV. Both of these seem more relevant to streaming games online than Earthworm Jim…
I’ve seen these type of thoughts and opinions floating around about Onlive and Gaikia. Here’s the truth: The only reason people are more receptive to Gaikia is because it wasn’t the first one out the gate telling everyone, who has spent $700 to $5000 on consoles and amped up comps, they have wasted a large amount of money on something that will be obsolete much sooner then advertised. People don’t like Onlive because it threatens to make the vast majority of the gaming community look a little foolish. That’s it, that’s all, there’s is nothing else to it.
Both claims are outlandish as far as tech is concerned. In-fact, Gaikia is even more so since they claim to accomplish this all with software. Also, both claims have the same negative impact on owner rights. So, the only reason I see for the “skepticism” (in comparison to Gaikia) Onlive is, and has been, meet with is simply that they pissed people off. Plus, Onlives’ general atmosphere is a bit corporate and therefore duesh-bagy…
The funny, if not a little sad, thing about all this is the angry smoke the gaming community is blowing about Onlive “i wont buy it”, “this will fail even it works”, etc. As if they wont instantly want the new shiny toy on the block. *LOL* The gaming community is almost solely populated by people who can’t resist the impulse to buy shinny objects and Onlive might very well be the definitive shiny object.
July 6th, 2009
at 2:20 pm
“The main person responsible for the development of Onlive is the guy who invented Quicktime and NetTV. Both of these seem more relevant to streaming games online than Earthworm Jim…”
Call me crazy, but I’d rather have a game developer with gamer concerns working on a project like this than the guy who made Quicktime which is arguably, not that great. Flash video has blown anything Quicktime had done, out of the water. A video guy might not necessarily understand that control latency is important for games, especially anything involving any kind of multiplayer. A video codec guy vs a game developer working on a game related project (even though it involves streaming video) I’m going to pick the game developer.
Both solutions are a bit lofty, yes, and even Gaikai themselves recognize that. They even stated themselves that current testing happens on ideal conditions with servers like than 100 miles away and product results really pivot on how broadband develops.
The biggest difference is this, OnLive claims to be “the future of video games” and GaiKai does not. If you look at the titles GaiKai uses in its demo, it’s all very low requirement games like WoW and Spore, nothing too crazy like Crysis. It’s a much more realistic approach to the new concept. Both claim to be revolutionary, and they are. These are really radical ideas that in reality we should embrace. I think the back lash against OnLive stems from the position of “the future of Video Games” even if it might be true at some point. Realistically, this type of system won’t be 100% viable until high quality broadband is available to a majority of people. Which, it’s not. GaiKai as the more realistic approach and it appears to be aiming it’s sites a little bit lower and not running around claiming it’s the future.
July 10th, 2009
at 7:49 pm
“Call me crazy, but I’d rather have a game developer with gamer concerns working on a project like this than the guy who made Quicktime which is arguably, not that great.”
You are crazy (you asked for it). Game developers, have game developer concerns. Gamers, have gamer concerns. Game developers are concerned with making money off of gamers. Granted, game developers most likely have more experience with addressing gamer’s issues (to make money). In this case at least, the guy who made Quicktime has the same level of “gamer concerns” as the game developer, both being directly proportionate to profit margins.
“ Flash video has blown anything Quicktime had done, out of the water.”
Yes… and? Here’s another one “The light bulb is better than the candle.” In short “progress”, that doesn’t mean that the device that came first wasn’t impressive at the time. Nor, does it mean that the inventor of the candle doesn’t have experience in making things that light up rooms. However, a guy with lots of experience writing books doesn’t, necessarily, have experience lighting rooms, even if you do need a light bulb (or candle) to read at night…
“A video guy might not necessarily understand that control latency is important for games, especially anything involving any kind of multiplayer. A video codec guy vs a game developer working on a game related project (even though it involves streaming video) I’m going to pick the game developer.”
Well, I’m going to pick the guy with applicable technical expertise relevant to the key problem with the system. Being a “video codec guy” or a “game developer”, I think, has very little bearing on the appreciation of lag as an issue. If someone who spent the time and money to develop something like these products doesn’t understand that lag is going to be a huge issue/concern. Then, we are more down to if they are mentally handicapped or not and not so much their background.
“Both solutions are a bit lofty, yes, and even Gaikai themselves recognize that. They even stated themselves that current testing happens on ideal conditions with servers like than 100 miles away and product results really pivot on how broadband develops.”
Actually they state that the info travels round trip 800 miles. That would put the server 400 miles away…
“The biggest difference is this, Onlive claims to be “the future of video games” and Gaikai does not.”
Really? Just because it isn’t on their website doesn’t mean they aren’t aiming for it. Most of the interviews I’ve read with Gaikai seem to be focused on how cloud computing will effect the “future of video games.” I will agree that Gaikai is a great deal more humble in their attitude and overall visage and Onlive is a bit abrasive (deutsche baggy). But, Onlive being tools doesn’t have any bearing on the validity of their tech (which is all that matters).
“If you look at the titles Gaikai uses in its demo, it’s all very low requirement games like WoW and Spore, nothing too crazy like Crysis. It’s a much more realistic approach to the new concept.”
Why is it “a much more realistic approach to the new concept?” Because you have less of a hard time believing Mario Kart can run over the net instead of Crysis? The unbelievable part of this whole thing is the idea of streaming ANYTHING at the speed, and with the consistency, required for game play. It’s not hard to believe there is a computer somewhere in the world that can run Cryisis.
“Both claim to be revolutionary, and they are. These are really radical ideas that in reality we should embrace.”
Yes, but only if they work. That’s my whole issue.
“I think the back lash against Onlive stems from the position of “the future of Video Games”
even if it might be true at some point. Realistically, this type of system won’t be 100% viable until high quality broadband is available to a majority of people. Which, it’s not. Gaikai as the more realistic approach and it appears to be aiming its sites a little bit lower and not running around claiming it’s the future.”
Broadband and Bandwidth has something to do with it, yes. But, the real issue is more the response time of a local and national network, relative to the response time necessary to play a game. Really, it’s about every thing from the speed of light to ISP’s and their networks.
I will agree that it would have been a better idea for Onlive to play it a little closer the vest until they were ready to ship and that their overall image has been a little suck-tastic. But the notion that this affects the reality of their tech is a bit… silly.
In the end it will all come down to how well each product works, what elements of the market they are aiming at, and what content they can deliver. Right now, Onlive seems to winning the tech end of this as their demos and stated figures are a bit more impressive (yes, also hard to believe). The market that each is setting its sights on seem different; Onlive is more focused on blowing previous gen consoles out of the water. Gaikai seems more about making gaming ubiquitous. Content is still up in the air but Onlive has quite a lot of game company’s logos on their website…
Here’s the thing though, all of this is fairly inconsequential to the real issue. That issue being, is that if either of these products work it’s not only going to redefine the video game industry (which it will) it’s going to redefine the internet and remote information systems in-general. The game industries entrance bar will have been massively lowered. This would end up being similar to what happened with WoW. WoW made mmos fantastically more approachable and now they have something in the neighborhood of 12 million people all paying 15 bucks a month. What’s that yearly? Like 1.8 or 2 billion (with a “B”) dollars? Now apply that to the whole gaming market. Now imagine that this market would grow exponentially (which it would) amongst people who haven’t gamed before (like wow brought new people to mmos). What’s going on right now has the potential to have huge financial and social ramification.