GotMMOG?

So, the CrimeCraft closed beta’s been closed down for the time being. Again, those lovely NDAs are clamping things down but given its focus on TPS (third-person shooter) PvP combat, it’s made me think about the coming glut of FPS-MMOGs that are looking to come out.

Sanister’s going to talk about one and we’ve all played Planetside at one point in our MMO lives. FPS and MMOs are coming whether we like it or not.

Now, Sanister and I are both FPS players as well. UT, Quake, CS, TF2, COD…we’ve been there. And, as any shooter fan will say, beyond skill, lag is a bitch and a half when playing a game that relies more on skill and less on die rolls.

The big question is, assuming you instance things to keep player counts low and thus ideally limit lag caused by massive numbers of people on the same shard at the same time (gotta love running into IronForge and seeing shadows all around because the game still hasn’t loaded everyone’s toon yet), will there be enough FPS players willing to cross over to a MMOG to fight it out?

Sure there are a number of people who play both game types (just mention WoW or something in chat in COD and you’ll get people talking about their level 8os on some server somewhere). But, will those players really want to grind the PvE environment to hit the end game so that the instanced matches are easier to win? How do you deal with the differences in lag (not to mention skill) from player to player?

I think the most important factor any FPS-MMOG has to address is matchmaking. In most FPS games, you do your own matchmaking. You join a server…get your ass handed to you and move on to another server. Or you stick with it and learn to compete against the best player to become one of them. Battlefield Heroes supposedly matches you up with players of “similar skill”. If that’s based on rank and kills then that’s gonna be a mistake. COD’s mini-RPG in multiplayer is easy enough to max out and reinstalling the game loses enough of your profile if you’re not careful that plenty of solid players might appear as the lowest ranked person on the server.

If these FPS-MMOGs can match based on average ping and to some extent skill level, then they might make the whole FPS/MMOG union work…shotgun optional. Otherwise, if the devs focus on more accurately modelling the trajectory of a 7.64mm bullet as it exits the barrel of an AK instead of matchmaking, you’ll end up with another niche game better suited to those players that love to be one of the few, the proud, the final supports of a once proud game.

Time will tell…

g afk