The games of 2006

On request by a reader, I had a look at the upcoming games for 2006. I'll list them here in alphabetical order, giving some comments on announced features. As a general remark, World of Warcraft is still the 800-pound gorilla of MMORPGs, with 5 million subscribers, and the Burning Crusade expansion coming out in late 2006. So most of the new games are trying to be different, and either offer a different genre, new features, or get by with the support of a strong license. All of the games listed here are currently announced for 2006, but release dates are notoriously untrustworthy, so don't blame me if you have to wait until 2007 for one or the other of them.

Auto Assault by NCSoft is a post-apocalyptic MMORPG in which every player drives an armed car. So combat consists of driving and shooting at the same time. This is supposed to be semi-twitchy, with you having an arc of fire, and as long as you keep your target in that arc, your stats determine hit rate and damage. Could be interesting.

Dark and Light is a more classic fantasy MMORPG, with a focus on PvP and politics. Players can band together and build a city, with one player elected ruler of a region. There will only be a single huge server, with a zoneless world. New technology allows an unlimited view distance, so you can see a mountain miles away and actually travel there. Unfortunately the news from the beta isn't encouraging, there seem to be massive technical problems. I'm not really fond of the huge world concept, it usually means pretty, but empty and boring landscape. And with the focus on PvP with solo PvE not supported, this isn't the game for me.

Dungeons and Dragons Online by Turbine is also classic fantasy, transforming the Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 rules into a MMORPG. This game is all about group PvE in instanced dungeons. Another semi-twitchy combat system, where a mouse-click swings your sword, but a dice roll determines hit rate and damage. I really do like group PvE, but the limited possibilities for solo play might scare off some people. What is interesting in DDO is that killing monsters does not give any experience points, only finishing quests does. I'll definitely check this one out.

Gods and Heroes : Rome Rising is a MMORPG in a historic setting, in Rome around 300 B.C. . You play a hero, child of a god, leading a squad of NPC soldiers into battle. You do quests, based on instances, and build up a camp which houses your army. Several players can group their squads together and form larger armies, but it seems that solo play is well supported. I'll definitely have a look at this.

Lord of the Rings Online is the other Turbine game with a strong brand. The game play will be classic MMORPG, solo or group play, mostly public areas with some instanced dungeons. The Tolkien license is both the strong point and the possible weak spot of the game. On the one hand you will be able to play a hobbit and travel from the Shire to Rivendell, and all over the area of the first book in the LOTR trilogy. On the other hand the world of Middle Earth is very well known, which puts up limits to what players will be able to do. For example the use of magic will be very limited, there are only 5 known wizards on Middle Earth, and no, you can't play Gandalf or Saruman. This is another game I will definitely have to try, I'm a big fan of the world of Middle Earth.

Pirates of the Burning Sea, as the name suggests, is a pirate MMORPG. Think of it as "Sid Meier's Pirates! Online", just without Sid Meier, and you get a pretty good idea of the game play. Every player commands a ship, either of one of three nations, or a pirate. There are lots of ports, in which you can trade, and which can change hands by PvP battles. I'm a bit sceptical of the PvP part, but I do like pirate games and ship combat, so I'm undecided on this one.

Tabula Rasa by NCSoft is a Sci-Fi MMORPG designed by Richard Garriott. This game will be very twitchy, a cross between a first-person shooter and a MMORPG. One interesting idea is that the monsters aren't patiently waiting for the players to come and farm them, but the aliens are actively attacking and the players will need to fight them back. As I don't like first-person shooters, and am not a big fan of Sci-Fi, I think I'll give this one a miss.

Tactica Online is a strange beast. It is described as turn-based strategy MMORPG, but you might well think that it isn't a MMORPG any more. There are no AI monsters, all combat is PvP battles between players, squad based. You don't level up, but you have a score just like a chess ELO score, which is used to pair you against opponents of equal strength. The business model is just like Guild War's, there is no monthly fee, with expansion sets being supposed to bring in the money. I'll probably give it a try, although I consider it more an online strategy game than a MMORPG.

Vanguard : Saga of Heroes by Sigil, published by Microsoft, is the most old style of the new games. Sigil is a company founded by EverQuest veterans Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler, and Vanguard is basically trying to be the new Everquest. They claim to have learned from the previous generations of MMORPGs, and now being able to make a game without grind. But their design concepts are still very much in the hardcore PvE corner of EQ, with a strong focus on group play. Unfortunately all I read about Vanguard is extremely vague, promising fun for all types of players and all play styles, without explaining how they plan to pull that off. Could be a great game, could be a horrible treadmill, I simply don't know yet.

That concludes my list, but this is only the games I'm aware off. Please use the comment area to list any games of 2006 that I forgot to mention. In any case, there are significantly more MMORPGs being published in 2006 than in 2005, so it promises to be an interesting year.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:17 AM Permanent Link