... Commerce model:
Dungeons and Dragons Online will adopt the Asian commerce model and drop subscriptions in favor of free-to-play microtransactions this summer! It was only a matter of time before this started happening with North American MMOs. I bet DDO's popularity will increase now. I know that I just loved the dungeons in this game.
... Technology:
Heroes of Telara is an upcoming MMO that uses a whole new technology for server-side content. Server-side in-game content will be broken up by function, not by in-game locations like in most other games. Having server space allocated by in-game location is what tends to cause horrible lag when a bunch of players all try to gather in the same place. Instead, because location information is kept separate, not only will lag not be an issue, but also the studio can change in-game locations on the fly.
So... if you don't protect that town from a horde of goblins... they will tear the town apart and the villagers will have to slowly rebuild it. Very cool!
This technology also greatly reduces the size and need for patches.
... Game Type:
Atari has been hit hard... yet again. Reporting huge losses and losing their front-man, Atari is cutting projects and taking their flagship titles to where the money is. Yes, everything is going MMO!
Neverwinter Nights being the first big title to make the conversion. Cryptic Studios (City of Heroes, Star Trek Online) will develop this for Atari. Apparently it doesn't bother anyone that there is already a Dungeons and Dragons online game. (Different fantasy worlds though.)
Dungeons and Dragons Online will adopt the Asian commerce model and drop subscriptions in favor of free-to-play microtransactions this summer! It was only a matter of time before this started happening with North American MMOs. I bet DDO's popularity will increase now. I know that I just loved the dungeons in this game.
... Technology:
Heroes of Telara is an upcoming MMO that uses a whole new technology for server-side content. Server-side in-game content will be broken up by function, not by in-game locations like in most other games. Having server space allocated by in-game location is what tends to cause horrible lag when a bunch of players all try to gather in the same place. Instead, because location information is kept separate, not only will lag not be an issue, but also the studio can change in-game locations on the fly.
So... if you don't protect that town from a horde of goblins... they will tear the town apart and the villagers will have to slowly rebuild it. Very cool!
This technology also greatly reduces the size and need for patches.
... Game Type:
Atari has been hit hard... yet again. Reporting huge losses and losing their front-man, Atari is cutting projects and taking their flagship titles to where the money is. Yes, everything is going MMO!
Neverwinter Nights being the first big title to make the conversion. Cryptic Studios (City of Heroes, Star Trek Online) will develop this for Atari. Apparently it doesn't bother anyone that there is already a Dungeons and Dragons online game. (Different fantasy worlds though.)