Maple Story Ads

Some folks at work yesterday were talking about the new Maple Story TV ads which have been cropping up on cable. They are certainly attention-grabbing, although their effectiveness is debatable. (Hmmm, reminds me of an ad campaign for a certain all-you-can-eat games subscription service.)

Snails:


Fish:


Pig:


Despite the weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weird vibe, I have to admit that there's a certain charm to the line, "Is that pig wearing a gentleman's hat?" But: the fact that we do not see even one image from the game in these ads -- to tie it back to the live-action silliness -- is a shocking creative error in my opinion.

The ads can also be found here, on the Nexon site that launched in conjunction with the ad campaign. Wish them luck!

Flash MMORPGs

Has anyone played Dragon Fable, a free massively-single player RPG for your web browser? I just signed up for an account to give it a try. It's a little clunky and ugly...but it's free! There's another one (from the same company, it seems) called Adventure Quest, which has to be the most generic game name ever. Why didn't they just call it "Hero Fight" or something like that?

Apparently, both of these games have something to do with Arch Knight -- the "Original Web RPG" that you probably never played.

FusionFall Q&A

Gamasutra has an informative Q&A with FusionFall's exec producer, Chris Waldron.

It's A Small World, After All

Though it was previously reported that Sony was going to buy mini-MMO Club Penguin, turns out that the Mouse House got the goods. Disney may pay up to $700M! Okay, just how many original MMOs could you make with that kind of cash? We'll see if the audience was worth the sticker price.

WTS Wolf Pee

Wolf Quest is a new free game coming later this year, which allows kids to go online with a wolf and form "packs" with other players. This game showed up on a number of the game blogs today. While the video is indeed terrible, and the environments staggeringly barren and ugly, the game is an interesting concept. (I'm not sure what it's going to teach, though, other than wolves like to howl, pee and kill elk.) Hey, at least it's not dwarves and orcs for the gabillionth time. The game trailer is also here on Gametrailers.com.

More FusionFall

YouTube has the trailer up and running:


Fan reaction at Comic-Con was wildly positive! Everyone seems to be excited about the new look for the characters and the general creative direction. Kids had fun with the game, too. It really couldn't have gone better, actually.

FusionFall Trailer

I can't figure out how to embed this, but check out the FusionFall trailer here on the Warcry Network.

Black Temple

Here's a new WoW something-or-other with orcs and stuff. I guess a few people will be interested!


Thanks to Katie for the head's up.

NYT <3 LOTRO

Seth Schiesel of the New York Times loves Lord of the Rings Online. Seriously? Turbine should be creaming their jeans over this review...it's about as gushing as it gets.

I just installed my copy this evening after work and intend to take a spin through Middle-earth some time this weekend. Wish me luck!

Guild Wars Expansion and Sequel

NCSoft announces a new Guild Wars expansion for later this year, and a full-on sequel soon after. Wowzers, I had no idea a free MMO could do so well and get so much content in the pipeline. Then again, Guild Wars is really the only MMO I ever truly enjoyed. And I guess they are selling copies! Nice work.

Player Haters

So I just saw a post on GameSetWatch about the Acclaim MMO import, Dance Online. As I previously posted, these Acclaim MMO titles have clearly gone the "cheapie" route when it comes to localization and, more specifically, culturalization. See below:

Black is an EXTRA feature. It makes your person look unique, so that is an EXTRA feature. Therefore, you having to PAY for it. (Or ask a friend to pay for it).

Typos aside, this goes a long way toward proving my point: culturalization is the sleeping dragon when it comes to importing games from Asia. Culturalizing, in terms of a definition, is the process of making content changes above-and-beyond the basic relanguaging of a game for other territories. For example, some Asian countries are -- shall we say -- a little more "liberal" with reagrd to low camera angles and teenage undergarments. Therefore, a little sensitivity (and work) is required when bringing an Asian game to a more "prudish" land such as the United States.

Sure, it seems so easy! Grab some games from Korea! They make so much money! They are so awesome! Until you realize..uh-oh! There are not a lot of black people living in Korea, and therefore, black skin is considered an "extra feature" in their games. Whoops!

In all fairness, the story goes on to say that Acclaim is offering the "African-American upgrade" for next-to-nothing in the item shop. C'mon, guys. If you're gonna import these titles without understanding their content, and then try to prop them up with limited changes in order to make a quick buck, you're gonna have to deal with the raminfications of your laziness. Boo on Acclaim!

2 Moons

Open the bloodgates...Acclaim's Korean import 2Moons promises to be spilling lots of the red stuff.


I tried Bots and I thought it was a big snoozefest. Maybe 2Moons or their martial arts MMO 9Dragons will fare better. As soon as I have some free time (yeah, right) I'll try them both.

I think Acclaim has done quickie localization and virtually no culturalization, so it will be interesting to see if these products can compete in the fast-paced, dog-eat-dog world of MMOGs. Check out the Gods & Heroes trailer Kotaku posted here if you don't believe me.

Penguins FTW!

Per my earlier post about Club Penguin and Webkinz, see the latest edition of MMOG Nation on Game Set Watch for a more gamer-centric perspective on massive games for kids.

More MMO

A few choice articles in the mainstream press worth looking at:


CNN Money talks Webkinz and Club Penguin and why stuffed animals and flightless waterfowl are both stickier than YouTube. (See chart.)

BusinessWeek profiles Maple Story and mentions Sony Home while still falling upon the journalistic cliche of "Hey, they met in the game and got married in real life! And then they got married in the game!"

Nerds!

LEGO MMO

So I'm back from GDC. Still gathering my thoughts, while putting together business cards in little piles on my desk. One thing I will say: them game nerds like to hear themselves talk. A lot.

Surprise of the conference? Sony keynote beats Nintendo keynote in a photo finish!

Anyway, while we were out in San Fran, Chris sent us a note that LEGO has announced an MMO, to launch some time next year. Schwing.

POTCO A-Go-Go

Very interesting preview of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Online that is certainly worth a look. Sounds like Disney is doing a lot of things right, but it remains to be seen how the fully-featured game is really going to play. I still wonder if people (kids, especially) truly like pirates enough to want to play in a world completely dedicated to their antics...even if Voodoo is involved. And what's the deal with gambling mini-games in a kid's title?

On a side note, the article is written by a woman. And not just any woman, but a MOM. How often do you see THAT?

We're On It

Cartoon Network has posted a bunch of information about its 2007 upfront presentation here. The new shows look great, although I must admit that I'm most excited for the MMOG!

Virtual Coinage

In the words of Cyndi Lauper, "Money changes everything." If you have any interest at all in virtual economies or world design, check out this great column on GameSetWatch.

Yes, buying virtual goods is big business, but how big seems rather nebulous. From a designer perspective, it's annoying to think that people want to simply use cash to get higher level characters and loot as opposed to playing your game. From the column:

I know a lot of folks are rushing through Burning Crusade to get to 70 ... but aren't these games supposed to be about having fun? Isn't the time and hard work of these developers something to be enjoyed rather than circumvented?

Ultimately, for me it's about third parties (who had nothing to do with your game) making hay off of your hard work. Why can't game publishers set up their own RMT businesses and undercut the gold farmers? From what I've been reading, some companies might be gearing up to do just that.

Wowee

Here is a great little think piece on the positives and pitfalls of WoW. Oh, and by the way, Joystiq reports that some dude in France already reached the new level cap of 70, a mere 28 hours after the release of the Burning Crusade expansion. Wow, indeed.