Lately the world has been struck with Online Crazy. What does that means? Well more games are taking the approach to play on Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). The leader of this new revolution is Everquest. This game might be the first successful MMORPG to hit the people. Ever since, many want to join the fray. Squaresoft announced that Final Fantasy XI would be a MMORPG. Ultima had plans to be online. Dark Age of Camelot is a recent addition to the series and appearing to be successful. The only MMORPG not to be on a PC is Phantasy Star Online v 1.0 and  v  2.0.  They hit it very well on the Dreamcast, and many players seemed to enjoy it.

Everquest started a couple years ago and built it reputation. Now there are several expansion packs to fill the need of people. The nice thing about this type of genre is that you get to interact with millions of people and you will have a never ending quest. Well that is good I suppose in some way but I would like to have a sense of direction and a quest to finish so that you would have a goal to work on. Well that is just me. Many people tend to detract from this genre is mostly the fees required to play. Everquest requires that you pay ten dollars a month for eight characters (I think). That might sound cheap but look at it in the long run. 120 dollars for a year of online play, I think that is too much. Not only that but several online games you might play at the same time. I understand the reason for the price because of the need to maintain a server, to pay the people to patrol the games to prevent cheating, and different stuff. That is not exactly a crowd pleaser. Phantasy Star Online v 1.0 is free, but v 2.0 is not. Final Fantasy XI will have a fee.

My biggest fear with this revolution that it will be the standard of the RPGs. Squaresoft bought into this bunk, and I hope it fails to set an example for all companies. I don’t want to see the company go down as it lost millions of money on the movie it made (they are pissed off at America for not contributing our part). I want a single player experience. I want to enjoy it myself. I wouldn’t mind the online part if it wasn’t required and only if it was a side quest. Phantasy Star Online allows you to go alone only that it would be very hard to do so, therefore detracting from the experience of doing something alone

Don’t get me wrong. I like online games when they are free like Counterstrike and sometimes Starcraft. Some things are best not changed. That goes for RPGs.

Hobbes Lionheart

Grab Bag
 

Hate Mail on the agenda during this time as we take a look into the emails we have received.