News: The State of Sci-Fi MMOs

[News Bot]

Massively is running a story that looks into the status of the sci-fi MMO genre, and why such games have had a tendency to struggle over the years. Quoting: "Fantasy alone carries with it assumptions based in our own history, a romanticized version of the middle ages where knights were good guys and smart people with beards could cast spells. Preconceived notions in sci-fi are far less cast in our collective memory. While stories that predict the future are surely as ancient as the myths describing the past, sci-fi itself didn't really ingrain itself into our culture until the 1800s, with H.G. Wells' stories and other writers at the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. ... Compounding the lack of specificity in setting is the tendency of sci-fi games to overwhelm players with skills and rule sets they initially don't understand and eventually don't need."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[AetasSerenus]

Intriguing.

[Mega]

My current understanding of Sci-Fi MMO's:

Sony screwed up Star Wars

Star Trek one isnt out yet?

[malasuerte]

good article, but not even a foot note about Entropia Universe.

[Maduro]

Originally Posted by malasuerte

good article, but not even a foot note about Entropia Universe.

They also talk about the fantasy games like they are all successful. Warhammer and AoC were not successful. Eve is hugely successful, and AO was huge as well. If you take the number of fantasy MMO's vs. the number of sci-fi MMO's, I'll bet you find that the ratio of successful sci-fi MMO's to fantasy MMO's is higher just due to the numbers involved. There have been far far fewer large-scale sci-fi MMO's developed than there have been fantasy MMO's, so it's misleading if you just look at the number of "blockbusters". What's in development. Last I looked, we have more "blockbuster" sci-fi games in development now than we do fantasy games, but I haven't looked in awhile.

[Mikass]

I`m more attracted to a Sci-Fi Rpg rather than Fantasty. It`s not even a hard choice for me.Hmm who said our collective memory doesn`t have SF in it. Has anyone seen the documentary called Stargate?

[ACEwoK]

Originally Posted by Mega

My current understanding of Sci-Fi MMO's:

Sony screwed up Star Wars

Star Trek one isnt out yet?

There's a Star Trek one in the works? Cool, might even draw my attention from PE a bit

[MrWizard]

I haven't checked recently but I think Star Trek Online was put on hold. Some screenshots got leaked, the community freaked and the parent company put the brakes on.

I can't wait for Stargate Worlds...even if it does appear to be in some trouble. Some head people in the Stargate franchise voiced their opinions of the current status of the game and suddenly the game company opens its shell for the first time in a few months to appease the masses. Apparently there were some financial issues, but those are apparently gone now. They won't set a release date yet.

I've played Star Wars Galaxies, but couldn't get myself interested.

[ACEwoK]

i'm kinda getting fed up waiting for stargate worlds. I loved the series (got them both on dvd) and i really want to get the game but the delays are giving me the shits.

[MrWizard]

Well I guess we don't have much choice but to wait them out. I'd hate to see it fail like Alliance did. Hopefully Cheyenne's got their crap together now and they can find some good investors.