As such, I tend to play quite a few online browser games, since most tend to be targeting casual gamers. These types of games tend to be fairly simple, not system dependent since they don't require top end video cards often just require something like java or flash, or even nothing more than a browser like Firefox, and they usually don't require a huge time investment to advance in them. One such game that I play is the text-based game called ArenaScape, which can be found at http://arenascape.net/login.php.
A player distributing experience points in the skills of his choice, so he may level up his character.
ArenaScape is the ideal example of a casual game. The game is text based, which is something unusual in this day and age, and extremely simple to play. It's also free, and does not have any sort of paid feature, which is pretty much unlike any other game out there. It was actually made by an European college graduate back in 2001 if I recall correctly, and at it's peak, had a fan base of a few hundred players. It was originally created as a fan base game for RuneScape, but branched out and evolved into something much more. It's quite fun, and really doesn't eat up your time like many other games. I could literally play 20 to 30 minutes each week and still make significant progress. It's also surprisingly fun; there are many classes of characters that you can create (such as Templars, Titans, Marksmen, Warlocks, etc.) and for the most part, they are actually pretty balanced, even for PvP. The game does have a competitive side to it with a high-scores board, clans, and dueling, but even so, it's rather limited with players only having a maximum number of fights that they can get into which accumulates over time.
Sadly ArenaScape is a dying game. The game itself is nearly 10 years old, and it hasn't been updated in years. Although ArenaScape has an incredibly loyal following, the numbers of players have really diminished over the 4 or so years due to lack of updates. The game is just oozing with potential, since many of the features that were promised were sadly never implemented, and there are many possible twists and turns that the game could take. It's a real shame in my opinion that this game with this much potential and such a loyal fan following would slowly and painfully die from time and neglect. However, I also see the other side of the coin. The creator of ArenaScape didn't updated the game because it just wasn't worth his time anymore to do so. He wasn't making any money off the game, it didn't provide him any revenue whatsoever, and it simply started out as a fun after college project which developed a cult following. As such, he really doesn't have much of an incentive to update the game... but what can that be? I'll leave that to you, readers, to comment about what you think here.
In my next article, I will continue this discussion with what I think about the matter... so stay tuned.
I hate it when that happens! The problem with the MMO market nowadays is it's heavily over-saturated with so many games that it's almost impossible for an expensively produced, high budget MMO title to retain its influence and popularity after just the initial trial period. WoW's unfortunate influence over the market has skewed people's perspectives on what an MMO should be, and therefore have ruined any chances for more "sandbox" style experiences (I.E. Ultima Online) to foster with any reasonable form of success.
ReplyDeleteIf you really love playing the game, maybe you could contact the original developer and ask for the code. You could improve it yourself and add all those cool features you wish the game had. Just an idea!
ReplyDeleteI wonder why the creators of the game would keep the game running if they dont commit any time into updating the games. It seems to happen all too often, where things are promised and never followed up.
ReplyDeleteFor MMOs after launch if they cannot get enough subscribers to keep a content cycle going they just lose out over established MMOs. Without new content coming out keep enough subscribers will not stay and without subscribers the game becomes unprofitable. Everquest started the trend with investors thinking MMO = infinite money but the same could be said for any gerne. I doubt a game like Counter Strike which started as a free mod of Half-Life could be a hit because the amount of programmers needed to code a game is well passed what a few people doing in their freetime can accomplish. It could be said for something like small buisness or independent films, once the video game industry became subsidized by multibillion dollar publishers, small operations were pushed down to indie games or web based casuals. As each video game launched is an investment of millions of dollars people are willing to take less risks and want to emulate proven winners like World of Warcraft or Gears of War, leading to clone saturation.
ReplyDelete