Web Based MMOing

Talk about a niche market. The web based MMO is home to more games than you swing a cat at. I have sampled the fare on three occasions (Tribal Wars, OGame and Slavehack) and been left wanting. There is an itch that is just waiting for a big player to come in and scratch it. The issue lies with the lack of cooperate play. People play MMO's to play with their friends. Plain and simple, get that right and you could have a huge success on your hands.

Slavehack was my first dip in the pool and also the game that had the most potential. However my friends and I got in on the ground floor and essentially beat the game before we could appreciate the rest of the building going up around us. It has been developed and refined into what is probably the best game in the genre to date now, but I am hesitant to go back.

OGame and Tribe Wars (I'm currently playing TW) are very similar in game play, but differ in theme. OGame = Space and Tribe Wars = Medieval. They are both RTS games that are just stretched and placed in a persistent world. Players start with a base village and build up towns and armies. I say stretched because were upgrading your barracks in a traditional RTS might take a matter of seconds, it can take hours in a web based MMO. The goal is to become the most powerful entity in the land. The start is very micro, building up resources and farming the weaker players in your immediate vicinity. The end game becomes macro in a big way, you join a guild and start to wage war against other large guilds.

Conceptually that sounds like a lot of fun, the issue is with the lack of cooperative play with friends though. Joining the same server does not mean you will ever get to play with each other. If you join late you could be placed on the opposite side of the map (it is random). Even if you built up fast and caught or even eclipsed your friend you are still too far away to play with each other.

Site Watch
The COD4 mod tools came out on Friday, which means custom maps and mods coming soon. If you want to take a dip in that pool Infinity Ward has a great wiki up to help you get started. Good list of tutorials at MODSonline too.

Format Wars Follow Up