Monday, July 14, 2008

Stargate Worlds hunkers down until WoW War Conflict over

A recent interview conducted by Massively has shed a little more light on the upcoming Stargate Worlds MMO. I had known very little about this game other then their art direction which seemed to be a slightly stylized. Their characters don't have the exaggerated shoulder pads and weapons made famous by World of Warcraft, but neither are they trying to create photo realistic Fabios like Age of Conan. All in all I thought the graphics look like something I might see on a console game based on Stargate SG-1. I'm going to assume this means minimum hardware requirements to run the game which is a big relief after Age of Conan.

Also forthcoming were some basic design elements then went into the game play. Looks like the game is going to be organized into small squads which look like they might only be four members. They plan on using the Stargate as the perfect mechanism to explain instancing in the game. Some "worlds" through the Stargate will only be a single zone while others are going to have multiple areas. Its seems a lot like how Tabula Rasa set itself up only with wormholes instead of teleport pads. Also interesting was that the developers were full of confidence that they could release at the end of this year if they were so inclined.

However, the developers implied they didn't want to complete directly with Warhammer or Wrath of the Lich King. I can see the intelligence in such a decision though the vague details on combat and itemization made me think they are still far from completion of the game. That more likely then the WoW War Conflict is the reason they aren't going to be pressing a 4th quarter release. While I hate to judge a game so early I definitely don't see Stargate Worlds being the MMO that opens up the sci-fi genre. I simply don't hear any impressive new ideas from the game design team. The one different idea I heard in the interview is the archaeologist class which could despawn mobs using conversation skills. Ummm, while it fits how annoying Daniel Jackson was in the tv show, I'm not sure it would be a fun feature to actually play.

Then again I typing this up without the interview opened up in front of me so maybe I'm judging it a bit harshly from memory. Still the more I hear about Stargate Worlds the more I think its just going to be an average game. I think we'll have to wait for either a Starcraft MMO or KOTOR Online to make sci-fi popular in MMOs.

7 comments:

Regis said...

"The one different idea I heard in the interview is the archaeologist class which could despawn mobs using conversation skills. Ummm, while it fits how annoying Daniel Jackson was in the tv show, I'm not sure it would be a fun feature to actually play."
Haha, I was thinking exactly the same. Despawning mobs by conversations? Must be extremely boring conversations.

While Starcraft and KotOR MMO will probably never come, don't you forget EVE Online?

Relmstein said...

EVE Online is deffinitely the best and most popular sci-fi MMO out at the moment. However, its been out since 2003 and didn't exactly get a ton of subscribers when it first released. It's also kind of hardcore with its ISK, skill points, and ship crafting dealing with numbers in the millions. A lot of people don't go in for that kind of game play.

What I think we need is something with mass appeal with great design ideas. It doesn't have to be for casual players only, but it needs to be easier for noobs to pick up. I also I wonder how many people want something besides just ship to ship combat in their games.

Oh and I wouldn't put a KOTOR MMO in the unbelievable bin just yet.

Anonymous said...

Stargate Worlds will definitely be a game for the niche market - basically only people who love the idea of playing in a Stargate game will be persistant subscribers.

As a fan myself, I will give the game a go, possibly even buying the Collectors Edition.

It may or may not be WoW, but it doesn't have to be to succeed. It just needs to appeal to the Stargate Fans.

Anonymous said...

I can't imagine WAR being planned without ever having thought about WH40K online.

I don't think Games Workshop is stupid enough to make the same mistake than last time;
namely releasing an MMO about one of their (very popular) IPs after a another company already realesed a ripoff thereof, stealing their thunder like WoW vs WAR
(agree they prolly didn't even seriously think about it before seeing the amount of money Blizz did doing so)
A lot of peeps even think WAR is ripping off WoW, which might become true for the interface but surely not looks/background.

A Warhammer 40K MMO would be (besides a fresh SWG) one of the potentially hugely successfull sci-fi MMOs.

Waiting for Blizz to bring out Starcraft Universe (or some other company releasing something simillar)before doing so would be a silly mistake.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40k

rumormill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000_Online

As for SGW it really looks like Tabula Rasa with other skins (not that I don't like TR)

Angh

Regis said...

Warhammer 40k got Dawn of War 2 coming up, so I would think that a MMO of the Warhammer universe is very possible. If they are clever, it's already in production.

Regis said...

Ouch, seems I was proved wrong, KOTOR MMO is in development ;)

http://www.massively.com/2008/07/17/kotor-mmo-confirmed-by-electronic-arts/

Relmstein said...

haha. I was just about to post the link. I knew I had heard way too many rumbles for this to stay hidden any longer.