There are two upcoming MMOs that have only recently started to make waves, with websites and forums going live within the past week. They could not be more different from one another in approach: one will be a boxed product with a subscription fee attached, set in a post-apocalyptic world with heavily skill-based character development, and is being developed by a small indie group. The other is being developed by a prominent Asian free-to-play distributor, in a familiar theme-park format with classes, magic, dungeons and pets.
What both of these games have in common is that they appear to be promising the moon among their respective features; if they manage to deliver on their promises, both may just succeed in making a big splash within their genres of choice.
Xsyon (forecasted release date: April 2010)
Among Xsyon’s touted features are in-game seasons, character aging, the ability to create or destroy all items in the game, migratory animals and creatures with no respawn, body part targeting in combat, player tribes, player housing, and the list goes on and on. I don’t even like sandbox games or post-apocalyptic settings, and I am still salivating to see how this game pans out. Currently the only way to get a peek of the game in action will be to pre-order the box, something a lot of gamers are predictably leery of. I hope enough people give it a shot to see what’s out there; even though Xsyon might sound too good to be true, I am an optimist and I always cross my fingers for small indie developers to buck the trend and make their dream come true – even the outlandish ones that everyone tells them aren’t possible. I am definitely keeping my eye on this one and have recommended it to my Fallout 3-loving better half should it hit the stores as planned in April.
Forsaken World (forecasted release date: 2010)
Forsaken World comes to us from Perfect World Entertainment, who also produced Perfect World, Jade Dynasty, and Ether Saga, and who are distributing Torchlight. They certainly seem determined to bring high production values and something different to this game, based on the feature list which contains such goodies as greatly enhanced monster AI, sub-professions that complement and enhance gameplay from increased XP to better bargains with the merchants, non-combat dungeons, persistent world effects caused by bosses, moving guild capture points, astrology, and many other items, all of which sound too good to be true (I will believe in smart monster AI when I see it). PWE has been working on this for around two years and have made it an international project. I’ve heard this “game will appeal to both Eastern and Western audiences” speech before (hello Aion), but again, I like to see companies try new things, and perhaps PWE can even take the lessons learned from Aion and make something really cool happen with Forsaken World.
Perhaps these games are little more than pipe dreams, but I just don’t have it in me to be too cynical about gaming. Games make me happy, and I like being happy, so I will always look on the bright side and give these developers the benefit of the doubt.
I’m holding my breath, Notorious Games and Perfect World Entertainment!
Casual Is As Casual Does 
Ooh Forsaken World looks beautiful
But then it’s PWE.
I’m very, very, very wary of PWE now. Because (imo) it’s way, way too good at what it’s unabashedly geared to do.
Earn money.
I played JD for about 2 months or so – got to level 110+ unascended, then I quit.
I quit not because the game was not polished, and lovely, and the cash shop amazingly well done. It is all of that.
I quit because the cash shop was TOO well done. I got tired of having to constantly spend ‘willpower’ so that I wouldn’t spend money.
There are JD players who’ve spent thousands of dollars (USD) evolving just ONE pet.. and still haven’t gotten it to the max rank of evolution.
JD made me realise, through its amazing, rapacious, slick, cunning marketing and pocket-draining abilities, that I *don’t* want all games to become like this.
JD… polishes everything *just enough* to make you tempted to pay more. And in may cases, more than tempted. You do pay… a lot. I was lucky, with a lot of willpower, I managed to spend only US$30 over 2 months – same as a generic subs. But really, I got less from it than I did from a generic sub game. Way less.
Free 2 Play is really Free to Download – or as they say – Free2Play, Pay2Win.
But the main thing that turned me off PWE (and by extension the F2P model), is that I’m very afraid of their direction.
The difference between something like WoW (let me be clear, I think WoW is a good game, but despite having played it for 3 years, and having quit over a year ago, I DO NOT LIKE WOW)…
But the difference between something WoW, and PWE’s JD is this. When playing WoW (and GW, definitely! ❤ GW), there's a feeling that the studio made this thing because they wanted to make a thing of beauty. THEN they handed it to execs to make it make money for them, hoping that their beautiful thing would get loved for what it is.
In PWE's JD, the sense is that everyone, from top to bottom, dev team *and* execs, were out to make something that made maximum money with minimum quality. This is not to say that PWE doesn't deliver on quality. It does. But it delivers on it in a different way. It delivers *just enough* to incite people to pay insane amounts of money. Unless, of course, you don't think thousands of USD on a SINGLE virtual pet is not insane. In which case, can I has sum plz? XD
TL;DR version:
Forsaken World looks beautiful, but PWE's game-design philosophy fills me with fear for the future.
I think that’s totally a fair point, as people who play Allods Online have recently found out – so many would be willing to pay a sub for it but the cash shop prices just appalled them. I realize the prices have recently been adjusted, but a lot of damage has been done and a lot of good will lost.
I will keep an eye out for FW to see how PWE decides to handle things. I know I will never be a “top” anything in a game like that, and if my experiences with PWI indicate anything, I will probably get tired of levelling about 30 levels in, quit, and look back fondly on the free time I had :). Here’s hoping, eh?