Google has announced the demise of Lively, their experiment with 3D chat rooms, as of the end of this year. Haven’t heard of Lively? That’s not surprising and is likely one reason it failed.
The project didn’t have the exciting appeal of a free MMORPG, although they planned to add gaming elements in the future. It didn’t have the depth of virtual worlds like Second Life. It was an interesting take on the 3D chat concept but it didn’t really offer much that services like IMVU already do.
Some people will never be tempted by something like Lively when they can play free MMORPGs, where you can chat and kill stuff. Others prefer the open ended creation available in virtual worlds. Hey, if I just want to chat I’ll open an IM window.
Still, it was an interesting effort and Google is nothing if not interesting. They were smart enough to walk away when it was clear Lively wasn’t very, um, lively.
Designing a free MMORPG for children is a tough balancing act. Anything designed for kids is going to attract people who have, shall we say, an unusual interest in meeting children. Not to mention the jerks who are just there to make trouble and swear a lot. Yet if developers restrict communication too much it suffocates socialization.
In a recent blog post about Wizard101, an avid player reviewed several months of play. In the closing paragraph she mentions the child protection features have gone too far and that this free MMORPG has “bought into the hysteria that every adult is a real or potential child abuser”.
You probably lock your door at night. Does that mean you feel every adult is a potential burglar?
Other players feel that the system is fine, although the inability to use numbers or any word not in the game’s dictionary in chat can be annoying. However no matter what the game’s developers do, people will complain.
While most of the attention regarding Sony Online Entertainment’s upcoming projects has focused on DC Universe Online, there is quite a buzz around Free Realms. This free MMORPG will offer entertainment designed to appeal to teens while having content acceptable to their parents.
In preparation for the large-scale beta test, SOE has relaunched the game’s website with videos, screenshots and other information on the game. They have started accepting applications for beta testing. Sony has stated they plan an extensive beta testing phase so that the title launches in a more finished condition than most MMORPGs.
Free Realms can be played as a free MMORPG but will also have micro-transactions that allow players to buy additional equipment for their characters with real money. Rather than locking all players into the same fee per month most MMOs do, players can spend as much or as little as they want and customize their game experience accordingly.
Both subscription and free MMORPGs have been plagued throughout their history by the farmer. Players learned that people would pay real money for virtual gold and items and soon there was a booming online trade. It is particularly popular in many poor countries where citizens can make a better living farming virtual gold than they can farming real crops.
Developers have made half-hearted attempts to rein in the practice but realistically it’s impossible to control. And let’s be honest - developers don’t really care that much. As long as the farmers pay their $13/month, the company makes money.
Live Gamer has created a comprehensive player to player trading system that allows the use of real money. It is designed so that developers of subscription and free MMORPGs can incorporate it into their games, making these trades part of the game world.
They are currently operating an exchange for Everquest II and say they will be supporting other publishers including Funcom and Acclaim.
MMORPGs are such massive time drains that the industry assumes that people play only one at a time. So, for example, analysts assume that Warhammer Online steals subscribers from WoW or that Star Wars: The Old Republic will ravage Star Wars Galaxies.
Recently GamerDNA decided to test that theory by examining the habits of players using Xfire and they found some surprising results. They found only 76% of players played one title so one in four players subscribe to multiple MMOs. 5% actively play three or more. These are not free MMORPGs so these players are paying multiple subscription fees.
As for which games people are playing, the multi-game players tended to include older games on their roster. So single-game players were playing WoW and Warhammer but the multi-gamers were also playing titles like the first Everquest.
It would be interesting to see this analysis applied to free MMORPGs. With no subscriptions players are limited only by their leisure time so multi-play is probably more common.
The military knows that the weakest part of a weapon system is the soft, squishy human operating it. The smarter the weapon, the fewer soldiers that have to be risked deploying it. So what does that have to do with free MMORPGs?
The US Army is developing computer programs that fight in virtual worlds in the hopes that someday they will be the intelligence behind military androids that can fight our battles for us. And they want to see if these AIs act like humans by injecting them into online games. They have mentioned only World of Warcraft and EVE Online but they may look at free MMORPGs as well.
Player reaction has ranged from “Cool!” to “Dude, haven’t these people seen Terminator?” While an Army invasion of MMOs may not happen tomorrow, there are already many macro-run bots populating game servers. Government bots may not be as far off as you think.
Even in free MMORPGs, some players will buy other players accounts. They feel that the money they spend saves them hours of play to get a high level character. Or they may just be buying an account to loot the character for their main. Either way it’s not an uncommon practice.
However before buying an account, read the terms of service very carefully. Some free MMORPGs forbid the transfer of accounts. Developers feel that these sales destroy the game as people become professional MMORPG players, powerleveling high level characters just to sell them on eBay.
This leads to the scam. The original holder sells you the account, then goes to the admins and claims you hacked him. As long as he can prove he is the original account holder, which could be as simple as showing he has the email address the account was created under, he gets his account back and you are out some money.
A World of Warcraft player named Prepared has set up a complex web of computer equipment that allows him to simultaneously control 36 characters on 11 different computers. He spends over $5700 per year in subscription costs not to mention probably a staggering electric bill. Now that’s a carefree MMORPG fanatic!
Prepared says his ultimate goal is to get them all to top level, only 9 are there now, and raid Stormwind and Ironforge single handedly. Plus there has got to be a certain amount of “because it’s there” to it as well.
Doing something like this in a free MMORPG would be even easier because of the lack of subscription costs. For games with bonuses for paying players, someone could have just a few subscriptions and use them to get better equipment for the rest of the gang.
Not that we are saying anyone should do that of course.
Just when we were ready to move on from the posts about scams in free MMORPGs, the real virtual world intrudes.
A new scam threatens the accounts of thousands of Second Life subscribers. The characteristics are classic to the cons people use to steal passwords.
Players are offered some great deal, through email or through in-game communication. They can get free items, experience, land, or anything else. They just have to go to the website and enter their account information.
Players go to the website which looks very much like the real Second Life website and foolishly enter their information. Within hours their accounts are raided and everything they have built is gone.
Don’t believe these contests. Even if you want to check them out, the website for Second Life is secondlife.com, not secondlife.com.bigscammers.ru or any variation on it. Use some common sense before giving account information. Free MMORPGs may not have cost you money but you could still lose hundreds of hours of your time.
Posted: 23-10-2008 | 09:
