Where is the "Massive" in MMORPG?

It might look somewhat small, but the EVE Online Universe contains over 5000 Solar Systems. Most of those systems possess space stations, asteroid belts, and so on. It is huge-- I once planned a trip of about 40 "jumps" (the solar systems are connected by jumpgates) which wound up taking the better part of a Saturday morning.

EVE Online is one of the first shardless MMOs-- definitely the first I am aware of. What this means is, every single player in the game plays on the same server, regardless of location, language, platform, and so on. There is one exception to this, the Chinese server, however I am fairly certain that is due to PRC policies, and not how CCP would wish it.

This is a huge leap forward. MMOs most of us know are all split into separate servers, or 'Worlds'. What this means is that everyone playing the game is in a closed off system from many many other players. If you see someone else on a general forum for the game, there's a good chance that you can't meet them in game. More importantly, though, having multiple worlds makes it nearly impossible to truly have a story in an MMO.

How can I say that? MMOs have a story! But, the thing is, they're offline stories. They're no different from the RPGs we've been playing for decades. They are not games where you role play, online, with many other players. You storm the castle, beat up the Big Boss, and rescue the princess. There is no continuing storyline, no living world. No way that your actions as a player can make a difference. Sure, you and your nation/guild could capture that bit of land, and have that part of the map covered with your color for the week, but that's not going to change anything.

This is where EVE online is different. The storyline matches the world-- it is massive, it involves everyone, and it is dynamic. In one storyline I remember, a news account was posted of a riot on some mining colony. Not too long afterwards, another news account came of one nation sending an aid convoy to help. The only problem was, the colony wasn't in their space. These ships actually showed up in the game, and were destroyed by RPers who didn't think it was right of that nation to intrude. This changed the storyline to go with that. Of course, the potential for the NPC convoy to be destroyed was almost certainly anticipated, however that does not change the fact that players were able to impact the storyline. There were numerous other incidents I can remember of some news item happening, and players that just happened to be around getting in on the action.

There's just one problem. EVE isn't really all that much fun.

So why haven't other MMOs tried this? EVE online has one huge advantage: Space. Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you might think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space. If EVE online runs out of space, they can add more. It's little hassle-- rig up a few space stations, some asteroid belts, connect it to some of the more popular areas, and there, people now have more space to spread themselves through.

That's not so easy in a fantasy world. EVE online has very little non-random level design, a land game that was generated randomly would likely end up either very boring, very hard to navigate, very glitchy, or some combination of the three. You could start by randomly generating them, and then give them a bit of human TLC, but that would still take a huge amount of work to make something this plain big function.

A randomly generated planet would make for an amazing game world. The problem would then be to populate it. Which is where I go back to EVE's storyline-- I believe I mentioned something about players being able to colonize space. In EVE, in low security regions, players are free to set up POS-- player owned stations-- around moons. These can be armed, equipped, and so forth. They can also be destroyed by rivals, although not without one hell of a fight. One must wonder if giving players even more freedom in where and what to build would cause them to spontaneously produce virtual cities-- especially if the game is started with none or extremely few at all. People would need transportation, equipment, and item goods, and the size and importance of cities could depend on that. Trade routes (run by players, of course) would depend on where cities sprung up.

There are so many possibilities and options to make a truly massively multiplayer online world. EVE and Second Life have gotten close, but how long will it take before someone pulls it off? Darkfall looks interesting, but it also looks like vaporware, and seems to have a very definite limit to the amount of people that can be on a single world (thus, ruining the illusion.) CCP is working on a new MMO, although I (and everyone else) know practically nothing about it. All I hope is that someone does, and soon.

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The next generation of portables

I've discussed how portable gaming could be changed radically by turning a major console (PS3) into something as portable as a laptop. Oh, and I mean, Ben Heck made it, but I think that was an inevitability. This is where I see Sony being able to rule in portables; not in traditional handhelds like the PSP. However, there's plenty of room for actual portables, mass produced, to do something amazing too. My ideas are out there, admittedly, but where's the fun in being normal?

Nintendo's DS is getting old enough to be replaced, or at least to release another new model (Think GBA -> SP -> Micro), or possibly both. I think a lot of people are itching to get back to a more traditional Gameboy, and there's also a lot of people who like the more laid back attitude most DS games have. I actually wouldn't be surprised to see the lines split.

The first idea would simply be Game Boy V. This is what I see as being most likely. It would basically the same as a GBA, although of course more powerful. It would probably be made as a PSP killer, destroying the few strengths it has (raw power).

That's boring though. What could be done that would be fresh?



That's right. A portable gamecube. It's not really unpossible, the gamecube is old enough. Of course, there are numerous problems with the above shot-- such as the controller parts going right into the disk, and the controller being square and uncomfortable to use. So what could be done?

Think wavebird. A wireless gamecube controller. A fairly hefty center, but still light enough that it's comfortable to use. Fits well in the hands. Could easily be made to fit in a pocket as well as any other handheld, while still containing all the computing power you need. The screen would be made to slide out the back of the controller, so it can be fairly large and not get in the way. The disk could be inserted on the bottom, a simple flip up disk cover would do. Technically speaking, it's not too amazing or interesting.

However, there is plenty of possibility. It could be done in new colors, to fit better with the Wii. It could be made Bluetooth; and Nintendo could update Wii firmware; to allow it to be used to play Gamecube games on the Wii. And that's really where I see the biggest potential on this, it would bridge the gap between handheld and TV playing in the biggest way since Super Game Boy. (yes, I know there was the Game Boy Player for the Gamecube, but it wasn't the same)

Imagine-- you're going home, have nothing to do, and pull out your gamecube portable. You play a game you didn't think to get the first time around, and are enjoying it. You walk in the door, save your game, pop out the disk, and slide it into your Wii. The controller syncs with the Wii, and the Wii turns the PGC into a Wavebird. It reads from a bit of flash memory on the card, and recognizes it as a memory card (alternatively, they could just add a memory card port on the end of the controller, it's small enough). You've just gone, relatively seamlessly, from playing on a a portable console, to a home console experience. It could also be made to transfer sound and video to a receiver you'd plug in to the TV, which would also be useful for the next thing--

You go to a friend's house. They have some multiplayer game. You decide to play together. Your PGCs sync. His transmits video and sound to yours, yours transmits button presses back. Or, with an added wifi component made to function as a Gamecube network adapter, you pop in separate copies of PSO and play people over the internets. The possibilities for a Portable Gamecube go on and on.



Of course, there's more to portable entertainment than 'mainstream' video games (your Zeldas and Marios). There's also the edutainment and light games categories-- the Brain Age and MyCoachGames, for one, and also the games that are more like stories, like Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban, Phoenix Wright, whatever you want to call it).

The first thing the DS2 needs is to be cheap. Honestly, a DS Lite falling in price as it gets older is pretty much perfect. Heck, for as much power as these games use, they could even make it less powerful than the original DS, as odd as that may seem.

Secondly, a DS focused at casual gamers, instead of trying to make everyone happy, should use the book format. The vertical screens configuration works well for games that use the buttons, but can be uncomfortable to hold when you're using the stylus. The horizontal style is more natural for most people, and resembles a book rather than a laptop. And let's face it, for most 'traditional' games (such as Sonic), split screens can be annoying or confusing (Does the bottom of one screen go directly to the next, and make it hard to look at? Or does it compensate for the white space on the DS, and add a blind spot?)

Third, no buttons. The D-Pad will put a lot of people off, who just think for whatever reason they can't play games. Make all of the controls touch based. Also, take advantage of this to make the screens larger and easier to read, without sacrificing the small size of the DS Lite (heck, you could even make it smaller than the DS lite, PDA or smartphone sized, and it would still have larger screens than it does now). Make games (again, not traditional games; ebooks, visual novels, and quick little Brain Age/Tetris type games) automatically save, and simply have opening and closing the DS be the power. The only hardware control they should need to be is a volume wheel, and even that could be put on the software.



So those are both a little out there. The PGC would be a little bit much, and a DS that pretty much ignores the gamer market (except for the parts that overlap with other users)? But no. That's tame. Let me introduce the proof that I am insane: Virtual Boy 2. Yes. I know.

First of all, the possibilities for 3D LCD goggles have greatly improved in the past decade. They can be made TV quality, and to look huge, be far more comfortable to look at, and so on. The above example isn't representative of how cheap and compact I have seen these, however cost is pretty much irrelevant, as this would be too hideously expensive to ever be popular no matter what you do. Imagine a PS2 quality game. Now imagine that in *real 3D*.

The goggles would be two seperate things (think swimming goggles, but comfy), connected by a bit of the headband that connects the entire console. On the sides would be two large headphone cups; with directional speakers, to make the 3D experience truly immersing. On the back of the band would be the 'brain' of the console, the processor and where you put the game disk and so on. The goggles would be stored inside the headphone cups to protect the screens, and the brain would snap on to the back, so the entire thing could be stored in about the space of a softball.



But no. That's not out there enough. I mean, so you can create very realistic environments, that's nice, but it's only really good for new types of movies, without a way to control it. Now, it would be easy enough to just attach a gamepad to it, be it wired or wireless. But that ruins the ability to fold it up, and seems cheap. You could put buttons on the headphone cups, but then you have people holding their arms up to their ears the entire time they play a game, which would get uncomfortable quickly.

So what do you do? Easy! It's already sitting all around your head. Just control it with brainwaves. Controllers for PC that replace keyboards have already started to hit the market. Just apply it to this. Sure, brain controls might still be very new, but the same could be said of motion controls, and look at how expertly Wii Sports pulls them off.

This would easily be the most incredible virtual reality system created so far-- and it's all things that are already on the market. Hell, I could totally see a university student or someone with too much time on their hands making a system like this with off the shelf parts; although obviously not portable. 3D LCD goggles, 3D headphones, and brain controllers are all on the market; the biggest challenge would be finding someone with a head large enough to keep all that stuff on (I volunteer. I like VR, and my head is epic.). Then you just hook it all up to a computer, set it up, and maybe do a bit of programming to make a game's 3D effects better, and you basically have a demo for what it would be like. I mean, hell, I'd pay $5 to try VR Quake for ten minutes.

That's about the ultimate in portable gaming, and gaming in general, the way I see it. All that can really be done to improve on it would be to make it more powerful, and brain controls more accurate-- at least, until we start talking about beaming sensory experiences right into the brain. And that's just silly.

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