Massive Multiplayer Games: MMORPG with a twist.

Hi everybody,

So today, I thought i'd share with you all a game that I found really interesting. First off, for those of you that do not know, MMORPG stands for "Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game". Now, the game that i'm about to share with you follows this genre but with a slight twist.

For all the gamers out there, or for the people who've played those old school arcades, do you remember this?

(http://www.virginmedia.com/microsites/games/slideshow/xboxlive/img_6.jpg)

If you were thinking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you are absoloutely correct. This is actually a screenshot of the arcade version. Now, I want you to remember this image because i'll talk about it a little later.

Usually, MMORPGs tend to follow a trend. I like to call it the "Job Class Trend". If you look at all the MMORPGs out there, you'll notice that almost all of them requires your character to level up (gain experience, usually by killing monsters) so that your character can advance to a next class.

For instance, a common progression for a character in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game would be:

Novice

to

Swordsman (or a weak version of a sword weilder)

to

Knight (a mediocre level of a sword weilder)

to

Lord Knight (a powerful version of a sword weilder)

Of course, every game would have its own unique names for the class; some might even have more job tiers. Bottom line is, your character goes through those changes by gaining experience from killing monsters.

So now that we've established the general trend of what makes a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, we'll take a look at the game I was telling you about.

The game is called Dungeon Fighter Online.

(http://cds002.dc1.cdn.themis-media.com/m9z2g8u7/cds/media/global/images/galleries/display/56/56926.jpg?dopvhost=cdn.themis-media.com)

This game also has "job classes" but it's not like a lot of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games out there where you have numerous tiers of job class. With DFO, you pretty much start off as one class, then you specialize in that class. The classes in DFO includes Gunners, Ghost Knights, Priest, Fighter, and Mage. These classes has their own uniqueness.

For instance, Gunners can branch into either a Launcher, which specializes in heavy guns like grenade launchers; Spitfire, which pretty much from what I understand, deals with elemental Artillery; Mechanic, pretty much have robots do the dirty work for them, and Ranger seems to be the all-round Gunner specialization. So from the start, you already have a lot of paths to choose from, where as other MMORPGs, they tend to go in a linear direction in terms of job classes.

Another interesting fact about this game would be the mobility system. It's not any ordinary movement system like you'd see in a lot of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. It actually simulates a feeling of playing an arcade game (at least for me). Remember the Teenage Ninja Turtle arcade game?

(http://mmohut.com/wp-content/gallery/dungeon-fighter-online-preview/dungeon-fighter-online-gunner.jpg)

Doesn't this look a little like an arcade game? Given that it has more "whistles and gadgets". The reason for that is because the graphics are set up to be side scrolling. That's when everything moves up, down, left, or right while making it seem like it's flat on its side. Now, that's not really the reason why I said the mobility system is interesting. The reason I said that was because it acts just like a fighter arcade game! In the Ninja Turtles arcade game, or any other side scrolling arcade game, you'd usually have to press some buttons to kick or shoot or whatever. This game has that. You actually need to "move away" if an enemy is about to hit you. You actually need to time your movement so you'll be able to hit your target. A lot of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game has lost that interactiveness. Most are just "target the object and wait for an action to come out of the character". One Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game that I can think of off the top of my head that still uses that interactiveness would be World of Warcraft. The fact that it's so interactive with the person playing it, makes the game more enjoyable to the gamer. I know that it's not all about the mobility system (i'm sure the graphics play a big part of World of Warcraft's popularity), but it sure does add a lot of "spunk" to the game.

Anyway, that's my two cents on Dungeon Fighter Online. You should check it out if you're a big fan of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, or simply just trying out an arcade-like game. Let me know what you think :)

-Matt

Massive Multiplayer Games: Click. That's it?

Okay, so for all you online gamers out there, i'm sure you've came across a game (this is mainly aiming towards RPGs) where you have your character/avatar walk towards something by pointing and clicking. Depending on what that something is, the character would either attack it, pick it up, talk to it, etc. Some people don't seem to mind the arduous task of constantly clicking the mouse to get around the game. All gamers know that one flaw doesn't ruin the game, if it has other intresting content to back it up.

(www.kayoshin.com/pag_cosplay/anime/ragnarok.jpg)

Take Ragnarok Online for instance. This is a greate online game with a ton of content. The game is based on a "medieval" type setting where you have your knights, hunters, wizards, etc. I've personally played this game for about 2 years until the boredom train hit me. There was so much content in it that I never even thought about the "click and wait for something to happen" system. The way RO worked was you click on an object/player/monster and your character will then walk towards them in a preset path automatically. Once your character reaches its destination, it will perform an action (whether it'd be attacking something or simply just picking up an object).

Within the first few months of playing this game, it didn't seem to bother me that I pretty much had to click on everything. Then you start getting good equipments for your character and being really familiarized with the game. When this happens, you go into "competitive mode". This means that you begin to PvP (player versus player) and see if you can pretty much kill other players. During PvP, you're obviously trying to out smart the other person so you can win. Well, it doesn't take much to point and click the mouse at something. There may be a couple of buttons to press (abilities your characters can use) but other than that, it's click and wait if your character survives. There is no skill involved. Other people may define "skill" as knowing the right button to press or when to walk away from the other player. Honestly, that's denial talking. Skill would be using the arrow keys on your keyboard to dodge your opponents attack, to be able to attack them with pin-point percision and not just "click and wait until your character dies or the other person dies".

That's pretty much what ended RO for me. The game lacked versatility in terms of movement. Other things, like the graphics, are okay. Many people would disagree because now days, everyone goes for the super duper 3D games and completely disregards a perfectly good 2D game (RO isn't really even 2D. It's more like Psuedo 3D).

Welcome Gamers! or Non-Gamers!

Welcome to the Massive Multiplayer Games blog. Here, you'll find everything relating to massively played games online. If you're a gamer, you'll be able to enjoy reading up on the pros and cons for different games, strategies, or even comment on other people's opinions. If you're not a gamer, no worries! All my blog posts will include a thorough description of the game i'm talking about. This way, you'll have a clue on what i'm discussing about and maybe even become intrested in playing the game ;)