World of Tanks

Adjusting massively multiplayer online games

to casual players has had a draining effect on the genre, according to best Studios World of Tanks is one of the best.

Historically

the term “gamer” usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames. Since video games became popular, the term has changed to include players of video games. While the term nominally includes those who do not necessarily consider themselves to be gamers (i.e., casual gamers), it is commonly used to identify those who spend at least some of their leisure time playing or learning about games.

In a guest blog on MMORPG.com, working to make World of Tanks user interface, quests and leveling easily understanding to new players.

“And it worked,” Kern wrote. “Players came in droves, millions of them. But at what cost? Sometimes I look at WoW and think ‘what have we done?’ I think I know. I think we killed a genre.”

According to Kern, lowering the difficulty curve affects the sense of achievement players will feel. Kern says that dropping the bar ultimately loses the journey in between that should make the experience fun and rewarding. In turn, this lowers the quality of work developers pump into their games as well.

Despite the genre’s focus on multiplayer gaming

AI-controlled characters are still common. NPCs and mobs who give out quests or serve as opponents are typical in MMORPGs. AI-controlled characters are not as common in action-based MMOGs.

The popularity of MMOGs was mostly restricted to the computer game market until the sixth-generation consoles, with the launch of Phantasy Star Online on Dreamcast and the emergence and growth of online service Xbox Live. There have been a number of console MMOGs, including EverQuest Online Adventures (PlayStation 2), and the multiconsole Final Fantasy XI. On PCs, the MMOG market has always been dominated by successful fantasy MMORPGs.

MMOGs have only recently begun to break into the mobile phone market. The first, Samurai Romanesque set in feudal Japan, was released in 2001 on NTT DoCoMo’s iMode network in Japan.^[1] More recent developments are CipSoft’s TibiaME and Biting Bit’s MicroMonster which features online and bluetooth multiplayer gaming. SmartCell Technology is in development of Shadow of Legend, which will allow gamers to continue their game on their mobile device when away from their PC.

Science fiction has also been a popular theme, featuring games such as Mankind, Anarchy Online, Eve Online, Star Wars Galaxies and The Matrix Online.

MMOGs emerged from the hard-core gamer community to the mainstream strongly in December 2003 with an analysis in the Financial Times measuring the value of the virtual property in the then-largest MMOG, Everquest, to result in a per-capita GDP of 2,266 dollars which would have placed the virtual world of Everquest as the 77th wealthiest nation, on par with Croatia, Ecuador, Tunisia or Vietnam.

“Since these quests are so easily and quickly accomplished,” Kern wrote, “the developer is not motivated to spend any time creating rich quests or events for players, since they will only be done once and discarded in the blink of an eye. Developers have no choice but to rely on kill 10 rats, FedEx or escort for nearly every quest, and to do so with the least amount of work possible, lacking in depth or story. It’s simply not worth it to do anything more.”