Waiting for Bethesda to come around into making a MMORPG out of its beloved Elder Scrolls series is sort of what is was like waiting for Duke Nukem Forever to be released. You think eventually it’s gonna happen, but your really not quite sure and eventually you give up waiting.

In an interview at the recent PAX expo, Joystiq got a chance to talk with Bethesda Game Director and Executive Produces Todd Howard who commented about a possible Elder Scrolls MMORPG.

I like this kind of game (RPG) better. You know, it’s what most of us are into. I’m not really an MMO guy. I respect them, I look at them, but I don’t play them. It feels more real to me when I’m the hero and it’s crafted for that. A community aspect to it, I recognize a lot of people would want that in a game like this, but it changes the flavor for me.

The audience we have for our kind of thing is big enough that we don’t have to tone it down. We can just do our thing, and it’s kind of grown with each game. So there was no pressure from anybody above me to say ‘Hey, you need to change this.’

So it seems that the guys at Bethesda are more than content with keeping Elder Scrolls a single-player RPG for the time being.  However as the MMO genre continues to grow and change, hopefully they’ll eventually come around to the idea of an Elder Scrolls MMORPG, at least I hope they do.

Playstation Home is getting a remake this fall as Sony is planning on changing the game lobby into a MMO type theme park with quests and mini-games included. The new home center will become the Hub, from which players can move into other districts based on game themes.

Currently there are a handful of districts, Action, Adventure, Sportswalk and Pier Park. For example the action district would be geared towards games like Call of Duty, Killzone and Resistance, and will look like a level you would encounter in one of those games.  The other two are basically the same, however Pier Park would act more as boardwalk where users can play carnival or arcade games, go on rides and is rated E for everyone.

Each district will have it’s own mini-games, quests and persistent story-lines for PS Home users to participate in. Users will also receive rewards for completing quests or certain tasks, such as cosmetic upgrades to their Home avatars or unlocking game content such as screenshots or videos.

I don’t know about you, but I thought PS Home was a horrible idea when it was first announced and this makeover doesn’t make me feel any different about it. It sort of reminds me of what everyone was saying the internet would become in the late 90′s. That instead of websites you visit, there would be a virtual world of stores and building where users would walk to the website as a storefront.

Steam is an outstanding example of what a social hub should be. Simple and to the point. I don’t have to play horrible mini-games or complete pointless quests to unlock content or walk to a different district to get access to certain games. I have my friends list at my finger tips and can chat with them at any time, even in-game. The list goes on, but this is about PS Home, not how awesome Steam is

I think Sony is heading in the opposite direction it should be. PS Home is considered a failure by most and instead of realizing that most people don’t like chatting in a virtual environment collecting pointless items, they’re doubling down and making Home even bigger.

Source: Kotaku

Veteran video game consultant, Mark Cerny, who has worked with Sony on such titles as Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Spyro and Ratchet & Clank, recently stated during a Sony panel discussion that he believes single-player games will be all but dead in three years.

I believe the traditional single-player game experience will be gone in three years…In a world with Facebook I just don’t think that’s going to last.

Cerney stated single-player games are becoming more and more intertwined with social networks and that sooner rather than later single-player games will die out.

He also pointed out that currently there’s no name for such type of a games, they aren’t single-player and they’re certainly not multiplayer, but somewhere in-between. Maybe Nintendo got it right with their recent trademark of the phrase “massively single player“.

When I first saw the title I thought, no chance, some people just aren’t into the whole multiplayer aspect of gaming, but now that I’ve had some time to mull it over, I completely agree. With gaming services like Steam, Xbox Live and PS Network, where players are already connected to a gaming network with their friends, why not introduce additional social connectivity for those game?

Think of it like Farmville on Facebook where you’re playing a single-player game, but can visit other people farms and interact with them. Now translate that to a game like GTA where a friend of yours decides he’s going to jump in and take the role of a random pedestrian while your continuing your single-player game, that seems pretty cool.

“A game without the presence of other players in it – you go out three or five years, I believe that is unthinkable given how connected we’re becoming,” Cerny concluded.

NCSoft and Carbine Studios revealed today at Gamescom their brand new MMO game, WildStar. In WildStars players take on the role of an Explorer, Soldier, Scientist or Settler as they go on an epic adventure to a mysterious planet on the edge of known space.

Depending on a combination of faction, race, class, and path, WildStar will present gamers with unending surprises, mini-quests and challenges, ensuring that their experiences are fun and fresh.

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me NCSoft is targeting a much younger demographic with this one. The cartoonish look, its humor and lack of classes, with only four, seems like they are definitely aiming for a younger audience.

Below you can check out the WildStar trailer that was shown at Gamescom.

Continued…

There’s a lot going on at this years Gamescom, especially for the MMO genre, so we thought we’d make it easy for you guys and list out everything that has been announced so far. This will be our official Gamescom list and we’ll keep it updated as announcements are made.

If we missed anything, please let us know.

Gamescom MMO Rundown List

• Star Wars: The Old Republic will allow, for the first time, players to demo PvP Warzones
• NHN will be debut ASTA, its AAA MMORPG, to the western markets.
• ArenaNet will present a brand new Guild Wars 2 demo showing off, for the first time, PvP combat
• NCSoft will announce their “Next big MMO”
• Valve will unveil there latest MOBA game DOTA 2 and kick it off with a $1 million tournament
• Hi-Res Studios will be showing off its upcoming MOBA title SMITE.
• Ubisoft will demo both Tom Clancy’s Ghose Recon Online and Settlers Online
• WarGaming will be showing off World of Warplanes for the first time
• Red 5 Studios will present a new demo for Firefall showcasing its co-op gameplay
• Trion Worlds will demo new content for both RIFT and End of Nations
• GalaNet will show off their new martial arts MMORPG, Age of Wulin, and a 10th unannounced title
• NetDragon will showcase Conquer Online which will soon become the first MMORPG to become available on 4 platforms

SEE Virtual Worlds and SEE Games today announced that they picked up a few new intellectual properties, including Men in Black 3, Total Recall (2012 remake), Asterix, War of the Worlds and Waterworld.

“SEE will bring some of the most well-known entertainment properties to the gaming space through these major licensing agreements,” said Martin Biallas, CEO of SEE. “These properties are tied to memorable moments and incredible characters that players are going to interact with in future SEE-created digital and online interactive video games.“

Now obviously they aren’t planning on making all of these into MMO games, but looking at the list, I honestly only see one that they really could, Waterworld. But lets have some fun and break down the list anyway.

Men in Black - This would be the equivalent of the Matrix MMO where you end up having thousands of players being “the one”, but in this case it would be top secret government alien hunters. Horrible MMO idea.

Total Recall – Even worse then MIB. I don’t see what you could possibly do with this without completely rewriting the story and adding a ton of new elements to make it work as a MMO. This only thing I could see making it is the bar with the weirdos and three breasted women. Sorta of like the Star Wars cantina, but on Mars.

Asterix – Never heard of it, but it seems to be a popular European comic book about a comical pair of Viking friends. Maybe you could turn that into some sort of kids MMO game.

War of the Worlds - I think someone could come up with something with this.  Maybe an alien vs human war type of MMO game, although in the movies we get our asses handed to us pretty fast and furious, so maybe some sort of survival MMO game.

Waterworld - This is the only one out of the bunch that I think could be turned into a decent MMORPG. I could see a pirate MMO game coming out of this where you have to find scarce resources, build you own person floating home/island and ship, then sail around battling it out with other players or factions. As long as people forgot how horrible the movie was, this could work.

It seems North Korea’s economy and leader, Kim Jong-il, are getting desperate to raise some seriously needed cash and are now targeting MMO games as a source of funding. The New York Times recently reported that North Korea is training an army of hackers to create and use software that can basically “allows round-the-clock play by “factories” of dozens of unmanned computers“. Some of the titles targeted were Lineage and Dungeon and Fighter, which is Dungeon Fighter Online in the west.

The items and in-game currency was then exchanged for cash via third-party MMO black market sites that deal with real-money-transactions. The software itself is also sold to other hackers as another revenue source.

One such group made over $6 million in a two year time span and was able to keep 55% of it, which is quite surprising that the government let them keep that much.

So next time you see some bot gold farming, it could be a North Korean hacker agent working for the government, so make sure to report them. This is war people!

Since Black Prophecy launched in North America about 2 weeks ago, I’ve been slowly leveling up my pilot, currently level 11, but realized a few days ago that I totally f*@ked him up. I ended up putting five skill points into two separate skills I’ve now realized my build doesn’t need.

As with any builds, you never want to waste points, otherwise you char will never reach it’s full potential.  So it’s clear to me now that something needs to be done and I have three options.

1. I can re-roll and just start over
2. I can just continue playing and accept the fact my character won’t be as good as it should be
3. Or I can buy the stat reset item in the item store

For me and any game with a stat reset item, the choice is pretty simple, pay the few bucks, reset your stats and save yourself hours of replay time.  However as with many non-F2P MMOs, there is no stat reset option.  Some games, I think Tabula Rasa, had a one time stat reset gift for players, but for most there is no reset possibility.

So what would you do, re-roll or continue?

I think the answer comes down to the type of player you are.  I’m not one for having alt characters and have never created more than one for any MMO I’ve ever played because I don’t like replaying the game more than once. Obviously some games have different quest and starting locations based on what race you choose, but it’s still basically the same.

The only time I re-rolled a new character was with Warhammer Online when I switched from a healer to tank, but only because my healer was on a non-RvR server and I was only at lev 11. I don’t remember why I would ever select a non-PvP server, but I did and since transfers weren’t available yet, I had to re-roll.

With Black Prophecy, the game’s timer has me at about 16 hrs, so there’s no way I would re-roll and start over. If anything I would probably just quit if I felt my character was completely messed up, but good thing I don’t have to. Thank god for stat reset items.

As much as I would love to say Blizzard is creating a Starcraft MMO, Starcraft Universe is actually a Starcraft 2 MMO mod and not a full blown MMORPG title.  The mod’s project leader, Ryan Winzen, released the first alpha trailer showing off the progress and some of the mods features.

Earlier this year, in January, Ryan ran into some legal issues with Blizzard over the name, originally called “World of Starcraft” and the manipulation of Starcraft 2 code. However Ryan was only using the official SC2 modkit and renamed the mod to “Starcraft Universe” and was able to process without issue.

Ryan, who dropped out of college to continue work on his mod and lead the team had this to say.

“At this point I’m learning way more creating SCU than I ever would at school…Most of my friends trying to get into a creative industry find themselves having to grind out a massive portfolio to find any work even after four years of college.”

While there obviously won’t be any persistant world or the ability to save your character when you exit out, it’s still a pretty cool mod and might give Blizzard a kick in the ass to start working on a real MMO version of Starcraft.

Good thing I still have SC2 installed on my PC.

Source: Kotaku

The latest BioWare dev blog post talked about the importance of maps in MMO games and as I read through it, I began to think if maps really were as vital as BioWare was making it out to be.  I myself am in the camp of less detailed maps and absolutely no quest markings.

There’s no argument that maps are an intricate part to MMO games, they tell us where towns are, where important locations are, trainers, shops, banks and many tell us our quest locations. Over the years there has been some debate as to what maps should really tell us and in my opinion it really depends on the game.

Sci-fi MMOs like Star Wars: The Old Republic with their high-tech gadgets should have detailed maps.  If you can fly across the galaxy or have a sword made out of light, then having a map of everything is pretty basic.  The Star Wars universe is way head of us in terms of technology and if we already have GPS and Google Street View telling us where everything is, why shouldn’t sci-fi games.  However I do think there should be areas that aren’t completely mapped out.  Maybe remote worlds that have never been explored or maps that just aren’t as detailed to allow players who enjoy exploring the chance to do so.

However even the sci-fi genre should have some restriction on quest navigation.  Pointing you to the exact location of your quest would be impossible even with high tech gadgets and gizmos.  Though I can’t argue against nav markers pointing out locations near the quest, but giving away the exact location is boring and cheapens the game.

There’s something that’s added to a game when you actually have to explore it for yourself instead of just following a nav point and not really looking where you’re going.

When considering fantasy or medieval MMOs, I think the argument against highly detailed maps becomes stronger.  Games like World of Warcraft that put everything in maps might be convenient, but it’s not realistic for it’s genre.  Lord of the Rings Online did a much better job with their maps, making the player actually have to search and explore to find quest locations. Even when you entered a new zone, you first had to explore the region before it showed up on your map and while the major towns can cities were visible, not every area of interest was shown.

Taking it one step further is Mortal Online that has absolutely no in-game map, which I think takes it too far in the other direction.  I don’t mind that you don’t start off with a world map, but players need some sort of map, even if it only shows the locations of major towns and cities.  MO could add vendors to towns that sell local maps, even partial maps or allow the players themselves to create their own in-game maps.  People obviously knew how to create maps in the medieval ages, so why disallow maps in a medieval game?

Going back to the LotRO map model, I think they hit it on the head with what a map should and should not provide to players.  However these days you can easily go to a fan same and find extremely details maps for just about any game today.  Maps to show individual NPCs, resources, quest items and much more. So even if a developer chooses not to add it to the game, it will on the internet.

What do you guys think?  More or less map info?