The Couch Mercenaries



				MMO's and Consoles... A Match Made in Heaven
				Thursday, November 13th, 2008

				by Superspyk
















				As far as gaming is concerned, I've been around the block a few times and it’s safe to say
				I’m not one a mother approves of. However, in the last few months, I’m fast finding that
				the Xbox 360 is becoming my home, my beacon for games to get stuck into. I got my Wii
				last Christmas and already the amount of Xbox games I have is starting to outweigh my
				Wii collection—and I’m not one to trade games, either.

				My main reason to jump to the Xbox was because of RPG's. As many know, I’m an avid
				RPG fan, which is something the Wii doesn’t cater to. So far I've been impressed with the
				array of games out and announced for the Xbox 360, these including Infinite Undiscovery,
				Mass Effect, and Star Ocean 4. One thing I have also noticed is the lack of MMORPG's.
				(I'm being careful to add RPG to the end each time as there are plenty of MMO games
				on the 360, just not RPG's).

				The PC naturally has MMORPG's coming out of every which way, but why do they fail
				horribly for consoles? This could naturally be because of the computer/console divide,
				just like with RTS games. The PC is the fans’ choice for RTS/MMORPG games.			--------------------
				However with the Xbox 360 and quite possibly the PS3, I don’t know enough about			The Mercs
				that to give my two cents. It seems to be if an online role playing game revolution were			Chops-Suey
				to surge in consoles, that would be the one which would make the biggest hit. Let us			(Webmaster)
				look at the possibilities.			BigSmooth8
							(Podcast Manager)
				The Chat Pad/Controller Interaction:			Highclass 1979
				Yes the chat pad could be a little fiddly at first, but let’s face it—It could do the job			(Graphics)
				easily enough. With most MMORPG's, as those who play them will know, alot of your			GothicMike
				moves/techniques function come by pressing a number on your keyboard and while being			(Entertainment)
				slightly small, the chat pad can still do that, so there's no excuse for limiting the spells and
				techniques. With the controller's face buttons and triggers, basic moves or even custom			The Recruits
				functions could be mapped to these to give extra ease of functionality. When it comes to			Murphys Law
				talking, I’m not sure about other MMORPG's as it’s been a long time since playing them,			(TCM Ambassador)
				but I know this is true for Word of Warcraft. Typing '/' brings up a conversation panel to			B1gBadDaddy
				start talking and when the panel isn’t active, the lettered keys can be used to bring up your			(Retro Corner)
				inventory, quest log, etc.			F and A Eternal
							(Editor in Chief)
				When i used to play WoW, I once wired up an old PS2 controller to my laptop, minus			Weediman
				having to use the keyboard of my laptop to talk. It worked surprisingly well once I fiddled			(Community Manager)
				with the programming of the controller. With the 360's chat pad, there is just no excuse.			Yodathe3rd
							(Community Manager)
				Voice Communication:			PDPizzle
				Those who put enough time into an MMORPG know that endgame quests and activities			(Sports and Music)
				usually involve raiding. Depending on the game, this can be up to 10, 20, or 40 people,			Mcl0v1n
				so I know hardcore players prefer to do these types of dungeons with the aid of voice			(Writer)
				chatting. Some games have in-game software to enable you to chat to your party, which			Maximum F3ar
				is ideal as even with the NXE, group chat will only be for 8 people. Any developer			(Writer)
				making an MMORPG for the 360 should equip it with in-game voice chatting functionality.
				It's not an essential part to the game, yet given that the Xbox is packaged with a headset
				and no one will miss out on it or have to buy new hardware.

				Pricing:
				There are two clear options here: Either Microsoft makes one and lets Xbox Live
				players with a gold membership play for free, but then again, it's Microsoft we're talking
				about, or do things the way Final Fantasy XI did and let silver members play online but
				with a monthly fee.

				The Hard Drive:
				If you ask me, it should either follow Final Fantasy XI's suit and install itself to the hard
				drive, though those with 20 gigs might not be happy with that as it can be a large install, or
				run it off the disk and just save all the patches etc to the hard drive. However, with
				expansion sets, the most pheasable option would be to have the heart of the game, at
				least, installed to the hard drive.

				With the graphics capabilities of the 360, there's no reason for MMORPG's not to work.
				They could even dull-down the graphics slightly to work with the console’s capabilities
				with large areas.

				It would be a dream come true for me, at least, if the 360 were to get more MMORPG's -
				either made from the ground up for the 360 or a port of an existing PC game. The
				possibilities are quite real and judging by the internet and forums, the market is there. So
				what are they waiting for?

				Adding achievements to it can only bring more enjoyment to an already great and fastly-
				growing genre. Examples of such achievements could be: clearing dungeons within a certain
				time limit, completing certain aspects of the game, or getting full sets of specific armor, etc.

				Bring on the dawn of the console MMORPG, and make a fan boy happy. Give the gamers
				a choice of console and game. Most of all let us get wrapped up in the world you create.

				If this takes off , I will see you all online!

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