Episodic Mmorpgs

There is an intersting article over at gameindustry.biz discussing the merits of episodic content and the challenges, perceptions such a marketing model poses.

From a developer’s viewpoint, there’s less risk, less monetary commitment. I don’t think there’s less actual commitment – some people think that they can get the first episode to pay for subsequent episodes and that’s not a good idea.

Now being a curious sort (yes it has got me in trouble before) I was wondering wether or not a mmorpg could be designed and released on a episodic model as opposed to the subscription model.

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Stangelands – Mmorpgs, bottom of the class

Whilst the topics here simmer along here with some great discussion. I thought I would  give you an update of where we seem to be at with regards to the ongoing discussions:

• So far it would appear that a multi genre Mmorpg is something that could be feesible.
• The character the player is playing needs to be the focal point to keep the player grounded as the environments change.
• The story needs to be very strong to establish and connect the player to the games background.

Some very interesting points have been brought up and I think today I would like to highlight one made byRyan. A topic that deserves its only little spot in the lime light

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normal services will resume

Due to work … hateful thing … normal blogging services will resume in the next few days …

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Strangelands – who am I and why am I here

Cuppy got me thinking this weekend with her comments on the multiple genre is it possible.

“While I play the game, I’m constantly immersing myself in the world and really create a connection between my game character and the environment I’m playing in. I feel that on a roleplaying level, it would be extremely difficult for me to take my high fantasy characters and plop them in the middle of World War II. My little fairy druid would really be out of place in a steam punk environment”.

So maybe as opposed to, is it possible to create a mmorpg that covers more than one genre with out being defined under one specific genre itself. The question maybe, does the character you play define the genre of the game itself ? is it static or can a character be dynamic enough to move between genres without being stuck in this one environment ….?

So sitting there this weekend at a family reunion, I sort of came to the conclusions that we are almost talking about a chicken and egg thing. You play and elf therefore you are playing in a fantasy realm, you play in a fantasy environment you expect to be able to play an elf. You play an elf you don’t expect to be playing in Victorian England bouncing around in a carriage on the way to 10 Bakers street … would you ?

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Stranglelands … per chance to dream. The bloggers mmorpg.

I posed a question earlier this week, is it possible to design a mmorpg that is not restricted by genre. Or are genres there for a specific reason – branding, e.g. Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft = fantasy and well known IP’s. Therefore success.

Now I think it is possible to design a mmorpg that covers multiple genres, scifi, modern horror, fantasy etc. and be unique enough to be a success based on the fact that there is no mmorpg to date that can cover all genres. Hence the birth of the theoretical mmorpg blog Strangelands.

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Cool holy shit moment …

So whilst jotting somethings down for strangelands concept (coming soon) I was thinking of cool things that I would like to see, and it reminded me of a few nights ago when I had an ‘oh shit and holy hell ‘cool moment in lotro.

I was on my guardian (lvl 27) piddling around the lone lands wrapping up some light blue quests when I get a tell from a discerning minstrel inquiring if i had ‘retaken weathertop’ yet.

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