Everyone has a fighting chance
Like many of you I’m suffering from Kickstarter fatigue. I’m even starting to grow weary of writing about it. Even new IPs from well renowned developers fail to raise my pulse if they are seeking money from players first and plan on delivering a product second. Crowdfunding is definitely a viable financing option for developers, however, and a highly successful developer has gone back to the Kickstarter well.
The news about the new version of Nintendo’s 3DS squeaked out a bit early but that’s OK, especially given today’s news that Xenoblade Chronicles is headed to the platform as early as this April.
Harebrained Schemes started a KickStarter project to fund a tactical cyber punk cRPG called Shadowrun: Hong Kong, a stand alone project. Hong Kong will feature a brand new set of heroes and an upgraded engine alongside all the features fans of Shadowrun expect.
MapleStory 2 will be entering its first phase of its Korean closed beta testing later this month. Included in the CBT will be three forms of PvP: 1v1, Free-for-All and Shadow World. MapleStory 2’s first round of beta testing will run from January 21st to January 25th.
Heroes Charge is a dreadful game in some ways. It just is. I’d rather not waste your time and, frankly, my time, with attempting to flower this several-hundred-word column with attempts to describe the game’s systems and finer points. It’s a Sunday, my normal day for writing these articles, and the Golden Globes are on in the background. My dog is begging me for food as I type this up. I’m having a Hostess Apple Pie.
Our month long celebration of the 2014 games continues, as we open up voting on Best Indie RPG, Best Indie MMO, and Best "Almost MMO". Click through and vote for your favorites!
What defines an indie game? This is a question that has many answers depending on who you ask. To some it’s indie if it has a tiny budget and non-traditional funding source. To others a game can be considered indie if the studio that made it was put together specifically to make that game. While others will disqualify a game from being indie simply because it has a major industry veteran at the helm. What indie means is different for every person.
I’ve spent a good number of hours in Dragon Age: Inquisition since that game’s release. By now, many players have gotten enough of a taste to criticize some of the game’s flaws. By far, some of the more prevalent criticism is in how the game’s vast, open areas, and sidequest types make it feel like an MMO. Contrast that to how many MMO players feel like MMOs have now veered over and feel too much like single player games.
Sword Art Online II recently wrapped up. I haven’t actually watched the second leg of the Sword Art Online story as I’m late to the party on this topic, but I’ve seen all of Sword Art Online I and was enamored with the concept. If you’re unaware, Sword Art Online, or SAO for short, is an anime about a group of people that get trapped inside of an MMORPG. The catch is that if they die in the game, they die in real life as well.
January is the perfect time for reflection. It’s the start of a new year, a breath of fresh air after the last; a time to look back on the prior twelve months and learn the lessons that need to be learned before moving forward. I have a lesson for the games industry in case it missed it: stop trying to copy MMORPGs. Your games are worse because of it.